Hearts of Tar

Into the Woods

"Catch me if you can!"

"Eve, come back here!" Faltering to a stop, Miri Summerland gave an exasperated smile as a small figure dressed in blue streaked away from her. With a sigh, she placed a hand on her aching side. Her little sister could run fast, but she was even quicker. A tiny stitch wouldn't stop her.

She gave chase again, and the distance they covered melted away under their feet. Eve's giggles drifted back to her. Exhilaration welled within Miri, and a merry laugh bubbled up her throat. This was the way to spend a glorious, sunny morning free from their father's scholarly lessons. The red of Eve's hair was easy to see as her sister bobbed and weaved over the hilly terrain.

Miri suddenly grimaced. Maybe she needed to stop giving Eve such a head start. Thank heavens, summer was fading away, taking the worst of the heat with it. Growling in annoyance, she swiped at a loose brown lock that kept tumbling into her eyes. Her cursed hair was forever tumbling loose of any confines she imposed on it.

The stitch in her side returned with a vengeance and urged her to slow. As she opened her mouth to call a halt to their race, the words turned to ash on her tongue. A dark forest loomed far ahead, a black blob marring the bright day. The Dark Woods. God, had they come so far without her knowing it? Fear, deep and gaping, arose before her and consumed her whole. Creatures, strange and ferocious, were said to live in there. Neither she nor her sister had a weapon. Not that it would matter if they did, because they didn't know how to wield one.

"Eve, stop! Don't go in there!"

Her sister kept hurtling toward the forest, apparently deaf to her voice or purposefully ignoring it.

Miri cursed and sped up until her legs were going faster than they ever had. "Eve, for heaven's gates, stop!"

Brambles and low-hanging branches bit into her clothes and skin the closer she came to the black-trunked trees. The pain was easy to dismiss, though. All her attention was frantically centered on Eve, who had yet to slow. In fact, her sister seemed hell-bent on getting to that dastardly woods as quickly as she could. That, in itself, was telling. Eve had always had a healthy fear of that forbidden area, as did every sane person from their village and the surrounding countryside. In fact, probably everyone in the nation of Enpel had one.

Miri screamed at her sister yet again, panic weaving a tight net around her. Damn it all, why was Eve not listening?

The seven-year-old didn't look back at her once. Soon, the branches of the forest cast their long shadow over Eve. A scream of anger and fright welled from Miri's throat. If her sister went in, she'd never come out. That she knew with a surety that horrified her to the core.

But on Eve flew, and she could only stare on helplessly as the dark woods swallowed her. Miri's feet were still eating up the distance, but there was no longer a hint of Eve to be seen. Still, she couldn't stop. How could she leave her sister to suffer whatever lurked in that forest? She'd never forgive herself if she did, and she doubted her father would, either. Though he loved them both, Eve would always be his favorite.

Miri sprinted onward until she came to the edge of the woods. Without thought, she skidded to a halt, sheer terror freezing her in place for a moment. The black-as-tar tree trunks leaned drunkenly, as if they could fall any moment. With a shaky breath, she marshaled her runaway feelings into submission and crept across the invisible line that seemed to delineate safe land from that of the dangerous.

Immediately, the temperature plummeted, and cold wrapped around her like a shroud. Dark. It was so dark, and she didn't know which way to go. Eve still wasn't in sight—nor was anyone else. She wasn't sure if that was a stroke of good luck or not. Those cursed trees blocked out most of the light, their leaves covering the sky as if with tar.