The Truth Will Set You Free

That's Not Undergrowth

~Poppy~

 

We were forbidden to go back that far into the woods. But when we asked our parents, the other people in the village why, they answered with three simple words. “I don’t know,” they said. They were honest, back in our hometown. Far more honest then they are here. But that honesty was the reason Peter and I went out in our big black boots into the unknown on that cold winter’s day.

We walked alongside each other, not talking much. The woods seemed to be endless, same old boring tree after same old boring mossy rock. But there was still a bit of tension in the air, a bit of excitement. We were, after all, probably the first people ever to be going on this adventure.

            I ducked under a branch and squinted before gasping. I did a little jump in the air before containing my excitement. A cave! It was about as tall as me, with cold, grey stone filled with white and silver flecks stretching like a ramp to the ground on three sides. In front of us was a gaping hole, letting light shine on the bushy undergrowth under it.

“Shall we go in it?” I asked, staring at the slab of rock.

“Well, it’s the most interesting thing we’ve seen so far….” Peter sighed and we hopped over a little stream to closely inspect the cave. I leaned in, and slowly ducked under the slab. The undergrowth sank beneath my feet and I squinted in the evening light. Then I thought to look down. “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?”

I hit my head on the top of the cave and ran out, my head becoming light. The brown and red tones of the forest slowly started to blur as I dashed across the leaves as fast as I could. I finally found a suitable-looking tree, and with an acidy taste in my throat, well-I barfed.

I heaved my measly breakfast onto the frozen leaves. I almost puked again at the sight of it, but managed to weakly prop myself up against a tree and hold my head, it still aching from the blow. Peter, who was still in the cave, looked over and laughed. “What was that all about, Poppy?”

I could barely make out two words, my entire body trembling. The cold autumn air was finally getting to me.

“Look. Down.”

 

-Peter-

            I bent down and stared at the ground closer, until I saw what Poppy was freaking out about.  Below us were two people, a boy and a girl, a couple years older than Poppy and I, lying on the ground, staring at each other. The main difference between them and us was-well-we were alive, and they were dead.

            They couldn’t have been dead for more than a week, as their flesh was still mostly intact. They were both wearing the same thing-white, torn shirts and muddied cargo pants, which were almost decomposing into the soil. There was a large circle-shaped wound in each of them-the one in the girl was around her shoulder and the one in the boy was just to the left of the heart. The skin around the wound was charred, and the wounds themselves were revolting heaps of blood and flesh. I almost turned away and threw up myself before calling Poppy over again. She slowly stumbled over, holding her head as she ducked into the cave. “It’s kinda sad, isn’t it?” I breathed, staring at the corpses. “Two lovers, as close as they can be to each other-yet perpetually stranded from the other in death.”

She gave me a blank stare. “Well, all I see is two dead people who are quickly becoming ant food. This is the grossest thing I’ve seen in a long time.”

“Oh, come on, you must see more than that-“

“Stop acting like an English teacher, everything doesn’t have to be so flipping metaphorical-“