The Tree's Heart

XXIX

Clover was pretty sure that she had made it out of the forest safely, but she wanted to be sure, so she kept going with the blindfold on until she felt the hot flame licking at her fingers. The candle had burned down completely. Clover got a fright when she felt the heat from the candle on her hands and dropped it. But it didn't matter. The candle had burned down, and the voices had stopped a while ago and she knew that she had made it to safety. It was okay. She was going to be fine if she took the blindfold off now.

Clover gingerly reached behind her head, feeling for the knot that Willow tied. She couldn't really undo it, so she just pushed the blindfold over her head and slowly opened her eyes again. It was still dark, but it looked like it was early in the morning and the sun was just coming up. Clover found that she was still in the forest, but she could see where it was clearing, and she could see the path she had taken into the forest months ago. She had made it. She was back in the real world. She could go home.

Clover slowly started walking towards the edge of the forest, not quite believing that she had actually made it. There was police tape between some of the trees – so people had been looking for her, after all. Clover was too tired to feel anything right now. She just wanted to go home, go to bed, and sleep. Everything else she could figure out later. She ducked under the police tape and walked out of the forest.

She felt like she was in a sort of daze, like everything was surreal. She hadn't seen streets or cars or houses in ages. It was too early for anyone to be out on the streets either way, so at least she'd be able to get back home without raising any suspicion. She had her keys, and she could just crawl into bed and deal with everything after she had been sleeping for a while. She needed to rest badly. She felt like shit, and she was sure that she looked like shit, too. Her legs were covered in mud and scratches.

Plus, she was still feeling nauseous from the potion she had drunk. Clover was sure that she was going to throw up any second, but maybe she'd make it back home in time. She preferred throwing up in her own bathroom, instead of out on the streets. (Of course, she preferred not throwing up at all, but that didn't seem to be an option right now, unfortunately.) Clover had to cough as she took a deep breath.

She had never realised how bad the air out here was, compared to the clear air in the forest. She wondered how she would deal with that when she was back in university – she'd be in a much bigger city then. She just hoped that her family wouldn't fuss over her too much, and that they'd let her get on with her life.

The streets and houses around Clover seemed drearier than before. Even the bit of the forest she had left behind seemed dreary and less vibrant than anything she had seen the last few months. Clover really hoped that this was just an effect of the potion and that it would go away over time, because anything else would be genuinely depressing. She wondered how everyone back home would react when she just strolled down for breakfast in the morning. Would they cry? Would they be happy?

Her sister would probably just roll her eyes. She was at that age where she didn't want to be associated with anyone from her family. Clover had gone through that phase herself when she was in high school and now that her little sister was a junior in high school, she could see how much of an asshole she had been back then. Maybe her sister would be the only one that would leave her alone now.

Clover turned into the side street that her house was in. She barely recognised the place, but it also seemed very familiar. Maybe it was because it was so early in the morning – maybe that made all this feel so weird and surreal. She remembered having been obsessed with liminal spaces for a while, a few years back. Maybe she was just feeling off, because she was in a liminal space right now – the neighbourhood she had grown up in, but fully devoid of any of the people that were usually around here.