Elle's POV
The plants attacked all night. By first light we were waning in numbers, sleep deprived and grieving. As the day approached, the vines seemed to lessen as if they were retreating. I had one in my grip, struggling to hold it as it became increasingly determined to escape as day drew nearer. As the day broke, the vine thrashed itself, leaving one of its tendrils wriggling in my hand like a lizards tail. I threw it into the sunlight streaming through the front windows and it transformed from a snake like a vine to a short-stemmed flower. The red flower from my dream. 'I've seen it somewhere else too.' I thought. But I could not recall and I would not stick around to find out where.
'We needed to get the hell out of here.' I thought leading the way out of the hotel lobby. As we walked on the grave path outside we saw the school bus on its side with broken windows and tires punctured by thorns. Flowers grew around and in it as if it had been stationary for decades. Cautiously we explored the courtyard and noticed something odd.
"Mae which way did we come from? Wasn't there an opening there?" I said pointing to in the general direction of where I thought we had entered. I then looked for the path where the shady guy who had rented the hotel to us exited. His tire prints were still there, but instead of leading to a narrow path through the forest the track ended at a solid wall of trees. Both paths had been so perfectly filled in, without the tracks I wouldn't be able to tell there had been anything but trees here.
We went back inside not daring to enter the forest because it was filled with of the plants from previous night. As we did, I was reminded that our driver Mr Hammond was still injured. Tired and confused by all that had been happening. I sat down and played with the shard from the broken vase. I looked down at it in my hand and saw the flower. I turned in the direction of the table where the rest of the vase had fallen. Kneeling down, I picked up the pieces, I saw the circular base and took it too. On the bottom in faded letters was written:
"For the one for whom my love will never wane, a rose that never fades." There was a picture of the harmless flowers in the day and the serpentine vines in the night, complete with drawings of the Sun and Moon and Stars.
YOU ARE READING
Forest of Hearts
RomanceWhen Elle's Home Economics class goes on a field trip to a deserted hotel in the middle of nowhere, everything seems to be going fine... Until there's a scream at midnight.
