Terrorforming || Yandere!Harem X F!Reader

Mushroom Madness

After breakfast came activities. You were curious. Despite the religious overture, this was still a camp... Would they have you make Alka Seltzer rockets or baking soda volcanos? You hoped you would be able to play one game of water balloon dodgeball before the end of the summer.

It didn't seem likely, however. Nurse Thorne wanted you to pursue more feminine hobbies, like-

"Gardening?" You asked skeptically, eying the overgrown patch of land surrounding the chapel. Calling it a garden was being very generous. The only thing that differentiated it from the rest of the grassy area was the tiny, white picket fence bordering it and the abundance of weeds.

It was obvious that no one did any landscaping here in the fall, winter, or spring. It was just a passion project for the girls during the summer. At least they'd splurged on nursery plants, so you would immediately see the fruits of your labor rather than have to wait for the seeds to sprout.

You weren't too overzealous to get in there, dressed in all white and armed with the daintiest pruning shears they could have given you. The other girls attacked the weeds with the kind of manic enthusiasm you always associated with thinking there was a Heaven to lose out on. All girls except...

"Dinah!" You called out to her, but she was hurrying away with an armful of mason jars.

"I'll be keeping a close eye on her..." Bullshit! Elizabeth was nowhere in sight. But Dinah was your buddy, and you should at least make an effort to corral her back into gardening with the rest of the girls. So you gave chase.

"Dinah, I think it would be better if we stayed with the group!" You called out again to no avail. You hoped someone would hear you and come help, but it was as if you were in a complete other world the second you stepped away from the herd.

You paused at the tree line, watched as she waltzed headlong into the woods where there were wolves and bears and probably fucking mountain lions for all you knew.

You could still go back. You did your best but she wouldn't listen to reason. No one would blame you for turning back. That would make you a coward, though. Your mom raised you to be a lot of things, but a bitch wasn't one of them.

Instead, you delved into the woods behind Fortitude, jogged until you were right behind Dinah.

You quickly noticed that it smelled different here than it did back at camp. Somehow cleaner and fresher. Whereas the campgrounds smelled like new bleach and fresh paint, the forest smelled of rich earth and fresh air.

The forest canopy also meant it was darker in the woods than it was in the grassy area. Most of the sunlight was blocked out by the treetops, casting everything in shadow. Even though it was still morning, it was getting harder to see the further you went.

As a result, you would occasionally trip over a rock or a stick or your own two feet. You only fell once, accidentally scraping your knee quite badly and breathing in a lung full of dirt in the process.

Dinah didn't wait for you to pick yourself up, just kept barreling forward on a path privy to her eyes only. Still, she would sometimes click her tongue and pause to pick a few ferns, grab a handful of sparkly black soil, or select the odd pebble out.

This was obviously her journey. You were just along for the ride. Where were you going, though?

Ballet flats did not make good hiking shoes. But, right when your feet started to really hurt, your buddy came to a sudden halt. You very nearly ran into her.

"Why are we stop-" You asked before looking over her shoulder. Your mouth fell open in shock. "Holy shit!"

Before you was a veritable oasis for mushrooms. There had to be at least a hundred. And such variety in such a small area, too! All colors, shapes, and sizes. Some grew on the ground while others prospered on a nearby rotten log.

You were going to comment on them to Dinah, maybe ask if or how she knew they were here... That's when you realized she was saying something, over and over again like a mantra or a prayer, as she dropped to her hands and knees and started picking the fungi, assigning each type its own mason jar.

You thought about asking her to speak up but immediately dismissed the idea. She might stop talking altogether. Instead, you held your breath and listened closely.

"You cannot kill me in a way that matters..." She whispered to the damp, dark earth and ring of toadstools surrounding the two of you. "Can you feel your heart burning? Can you feel the struggle within? The fear within me is beyond anything your soul can make. You cannot kill me in a way that matters."

You released a frightened little laugh, took a big step back. "Hey, Dinah? What the fuck does that mean?" You didn't care anymore if addressing her made her stop talking. In fact, you wanted her to stop.

At first, she just clicked her tongue at you. Then there was a hitch in her frantic mushroom collecting, where she raised herself to a kneeling position, turned to look at you, and said, "Decay exists as an extant form of life."

She couldn't look you in the eye, but it was still enough to raise the hair on the back of your neck. You had the sudden, overwhelming feeling you were going to die in these woods. You needed to get out, get out, get out-

You inhaled quickly before preparing to turn on your heels and run away. You didn't get more than two feet before you ran into something... Someone... Elizabeth.

"Y/N!" She grabbed you by your shoulders, stopped you in your tracks. You clutched at her like she was an anchor, breathing hard and heavy into her chest. "Y/N? What's wrong?"

You shook your head, unable to put a name to your feeling. You told yourself to calm down, that you were above your fight-or-flight instinct, but you really weren't.

Elizabeth looked over your head at what Dinah was doing. Eventually, she said, "I see Dinah has shown you her mushroom farm. She's never been one for conventional gardening."

"Is that what she was doing?" You asked, in a high, shrill voice. "I thought she lured me out here to kill me!"

You expected her to say something along the lines of, "She's not dangerous." Despite their depiction in the media, neurodivergent people were more often the ones in danger than the causes of danger themselves.

Instead, she laughed, "No, our girl won't kill when she can maim. And she really seems to like you... For some reason."

That last sentence came out as a mutter. You probably wouldn't have heard her if you weren't right up in her face. You couldn't help feeling offended. That was good. That taken offense was starting to trump your fear.

"I'm a very likeable person," you whined.

She snorted. "No. You're really not." Before you could ask her to elaborate on that, she changed the subject. "Good work sticking with your buddy! We'll wait for Dinah to finish up, then we'll head back to camp. If we leave soon, we'll make it back just in time for lunch."

You stood there, dumbfounded, until Dinah stood up, handed her jars to Elizabeth, took you by the hand, and started walking back the way you came.