Tales From Midnight Forest

These Little Secrets ~ 1st Disappearance

They're always watching.

They know everything.

And I was oblvious to it all.

I should've listened.

~

The small village of Greenaye, on the edge of a sea of trees, was overflowing with people for the annual festival of the Spirits, where we celebrated the founders, who had come before us.

In school, we were taught that these founders had vanquished monsters that were inhabiting the land hundreds of years ago, while cutting down thousands of trees. People call what is left of these trees "Midnight Forest," often including words like "cursed" and "devil's land" but I didn't believe them, I didn't have any reason to believe them.

Through the years I grew up next to the forest, nothing had ever happened to make me believe that there was anything out there.

Returning my focus to the festival, I watched as some of my friends grouped near the base of a dying tree, which had originally been a part of the sea of trees, guessed to have started dying from being cut off from the other trees, as though it was a baby that depended on the mother to sustain and nourish it.

The girls talked in hush whispers as I approached, seeming to get even quieter as I came closer. Secrets? My mouth watered at the thought of juicy gossip, despite my moral beliefs to avoid such things. I wanted to know everything about anything or anybody.

My family, the Maarifa, have been taking care of the village's library for years, we were considered to be the most knowledgable, especially since we all had the thirst for information, fact or not. 

One of the girls glanced at me and quickly looked away as another girl opened her mouth to speak, still hushed, but I could hear it now, "That crazy old Velma that lives along the edge of Midnight Forest is claiming that she saw unusual creatures among the trees. Said that one took an apple from her kitchen. I bet she really saw a squirrel."

"She sees all sorts of weird stuff, they're going to have to take her away any day now!" Another girl, I recognized to be Lisanna Stumblefoot, declared.

One of the girls turned her eyes to me, "Rita, you know lots about this land, what do you believe?" 

"It's all a bunch of hogwash." I waved my hand dismissively, "Velma's gone crazy with grief after her husband passed away two years ago." 

"I knew it!" and several other remarks were made by the girls in the group, but one girl didn't seem to rejoice in the fact that Velma is crazy.

"I believe Velma's sane," Karoline Frieche spoke up, her dark eyes peering through her long, black bangs. Of course it had to be her, the Frieche family lived on the land next to Velma Woodluck's property, so they tended to stick up for Velma's mental stability. It also didn't help that Karoline was Velma's apprentice in Herbology before the death of her husband. 

Lisanna scoffed, "That's because you're crazy as well." Some girls nodded in agreement and began to tease Karoline, calling her all sorts of crazy nicknames that caused my stomach to twist.

Before I knew it, I pushed myself towards the middle, in front of Karoline. "I will go into Midnight Forest for the night. In the morning, I will tell you guys if there's anything in the forset or not, but just leave Karoline alone."

"You're nuts!" Adrianna screeched.

"What's wrong, I thought you guys didn't believe anything was out there. Rita will be fine." Tira Nauka piped up from under the dying tree, her nose buried into a book, causing some of the girls to jump. Tira often had a habit of sneaking her way into conversations, maintaining both her interest in the book while eavesdropping on conversations. She isn't a bad person, but it's a mysterious skill she has. I often see her around the library my family owns, I wouldn't be surprised if she's already read all of the books a thousand times.