My legs begin to sting with a slight pain, for I have not truly ran in a long time. I have been in prison for two months, and now I’m out. At least I think I am out, but I can still hear the police chasing after me.
I think that they put the prison surrounded by forest so that prisoners, like me, who attempt to escape lose their sense of direction! I am only going deeper into the forest, and I know it. My family and I are fine. After all, that is all that matters in life. I’ll get out no problem.
❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋
I see the dark clouds of nighttime slowly surrounding the forest that encircles the prison. I really need to find somewhere to spend the night, I need to hide! The police will find me unless I hide!
I slow down and listen. Listening is underrated, it seems like a backup plan for when your eyes don’t work; it can always tell you what you can’t see. I don’t hear the police behind me, but I do hear a soft trickle of water. Maybe there is a cave or a shack or something that can help me. Anything will help! I don’t have anything right now.
The sound of the water gets crisper and louder as I run in its direction. Then I hear that sound of falling water all around me. As if on cue, it begins to rain. That can help. At least now I have water.
The forest seems to be controlling me. I do feel lost. Maybe I should have just stayed in jail. Maybe I will die in here, and never see my family again. I feel an instinct to go to the left. Don’t ask me why, I am just feeling a strange urge to explore that area of the forest, like the forest is telling me that something is there. I do not get a good feeling, so I resist the urge and wander forward where the sound of the water was before.
Flash! Boom! A bolt of lightning strikes the ground to my right, and it is not far away. I sprint to my left, barely avoiding some trees. I hear the forest growl one more time as another bolt of lightning hits the ground behind me.
The shadows of the night increase the darkness of the area greatly. I look up, and discover that this time it wasn’t the darkness creeping through, beginning to block my vision.
There was a monsterous cliff towering over the rest of the forest. It had a grand waterfall flowing heavily down the side of the cliff, due to all of the recent rain. It then continued into a small pool on a plateau, and continued down the rest of the cliff. I nearly gasp when I see that next to the small pool, there is a large, dark mansion with a light, grey aura slowly swirling around it. I’ve never seen mist quite like that. I can spend the night in there. I need shelter, there is no need to hide from the police anymore.
I advance closer, and as I do, I see a thin, steep staircasing going up directly to the mansion. I can barely see anything now. With the slight bit of sun still remaining in the sky hidden behind the cliff, there is very little light to help with vision.
I climb up the stairs and as I do the mansion seems to bend over me, as if it is going to fall on me. Flash! Bam! More lightning. I need to get away from it. Luckily I see a doorway into the basement.
❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋
As I enter the basement, I see that the lights are barely on. There is only a soft glow coming from the bulb in the center of the underground room. The room is empty. All I could see were concrete walls, wooden support beams, and two doors, other than the one behind me.
Why would the lights be on? Is there somebody here? were they left on? How have they not burned out? My curiosity drags me to the door to my left.
As I open the door, I am instantly pinned to the ground with a gun to my head.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” The person pinning me down asks me.
“I’ll tell you if you get that gun off my head,” I respond forcefully.
“It doesn’t even work. I just have it in case I need to scare somebody. Power is necessary to survive in this forest,” He answers. “Are you going to tell me who you are?”
“All that matters to you is that I found my way in here while escaping from jail. But don’t worry, I only got into jail for repetitive theft, and I won’t steal anything from you,” I announce, “Tell me about yourself. How long have you been in this forest? Why are you here?”
“All I know about how long I’ve been here is that I’ve been here for longer than you. Once you are here for some time, you will realize that there is no way to keep track of it. This forest can control you. I think it was a mistake that the forest brought you here, because I think that we should try to escape.” He tosses the gun to the ground and lets me stand up. “Let me show you around! It’s a pretty nice place I guess, if you compare it to prison, that is. My name is Landon, by the way.”
❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋
A shiver runs up my spine as we walk up the creaking stairs to the first floor. When we arrive, there is soft, damp smell of moss growing up the walls of the open room.
There are numerous doors branching off from the main room. Even inside the building, there was a thick fog blocking our view of the other wall, opposite to the one behind us.
“Obviously, this is the main room,” Landon affirmed, ”the main entrance is at the other end of this room. Out of the main entrance, to the right, there is a small pool filled from the waterfall and escaping into a second waterfall. That is where my water comes from. I guess you can call it our water now. I have been getting food from a few scrappy berry bushes next to that pool. That reminds me, are you hungry?”
“Of course I’m hungry! I just got out of prison!” I blurted out.
We arrive at the berry bushes, and they are like no berry bushes I have seen before.
“You said that these were scrappy! These are extravagant!” I state.
Landon shrugs. “Guess I don’t know what to compare them to.”
“Wow, you’ve really been in this forest for too long,” I respond as I begin picking some blueberries off of the tall bush. There seem to be hundreds of these perfectly shaped bushes with numerous, glorious berries filling them.
❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋
We spend what at least feels like a few moments snacking on the berries, but you never know with this forest.
“Honestly, I don’t care about the rest of the house. I think that we should be far away from it by noon tomorrow. We need to get moving if we want to escape,” I bring up.
“Trust me, we will keep running in circles if we try to escape. We really need to think this through. Let’s plan at the house more when we are done with the berries,” Landon tells me.
Flash! Boom! Landon and I are surprised as a lightning bolt slices the house in half, causing it to catch on fire. As if on cue, it begins to rain, just enough to put the fire out, then stops. The forest truly is in control, I think to myself.
“So, I guess we should get going,” I conclude. I look over at Landon, and he is still staring at the burned house with his mouth open.
“Why would it do that?” Landon whisperers, “this is the root of the forest! There is no where else to go!”
“So let’s get out of here! If we just go in one direction and take turns sleeping at night, we can escape just fine. Nothing could go wrong,” I tell him firmly.
“Fine,” he mumbles as he walks by me. I follow closely behind.
He leads me down the steps and through the wood, not making a turn since he stepped of the final step.
I am startled when I see a skull, a very old skull, rested next to a tree. I decide not to worry about it. We should be out of here sooner than later.
We keep going, and I check behind my shoulder and can’t see the cliff. It feels like only minutes went by, how have we made it so far? I begin to feel drowsy.
“Can we stop so I can get a little sleep?” I ask.
“Sure. Let’s just mark the dirt in the direction we need to continue,” Landon responds.
I grab a stick and put a line in the ground pointing in the direction we have been traveling. I then lean against a tree and begin to doze off.
It is nice to sleep again. I just realized that I haven’t gotten sleep since the night before I escaped from jail.
❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋
I wake up when I hear a sharp gasp. The bright light from the rising sun stings my eyes as I see a small tree on Landon’s leg. Behind me I hear a howling wind, slowly dying down.
“Help!” Landon yells at me. I quickly run over and lift the tree off of his leg. I take one look at his leg.
“Definitely broken,” I state, “You should get some rest, I’ve slept enough.”
“Alright, thanks,” Landon responds.
When Landon closes his eyes, I sit on the low, damp log that broke my friend’s leg. Friend? Friend!? What am I thinking? Why am I putting so much faith into a stranger. All I need is my family and safety. Should I leave him now? Leave him to die? I can just run right out and be free, only worry about myself…
I sit for a few moments, unable to leave Landon. A chilled shiver runs down my spine as I hear Landon begin to snore.
❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋
Nothing happens for what seems to be about two hours, when I see Landon jerk his left leg, the broken one. He wakes up and stands fully.
“That felt good,” he declared drowsily.
“Your leg! I thought it was broken!” I answer loudly.
Landon shakes his leg. “Feels fine now,” he tells me, “it definitely was broken though.”
We both pause to think of how this could have happened.
“Could it have been the forest?” I ask, “could the forest have healed your leg on purpose?”
“That’s all that could have happened I guess. But it doesn’t matter at the moment, we should get going,” Landon tells me.
We make a lot of progress away from the burnt house, what we think was the heart of this forest.
I feel like we have been going for days, but when I look at the sun every now and then, it hasn’t seemed to move, and I don’t feel very tired.
❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋
We start getting into some thin mist, when I remember that I entered this forest in the mist. “We are probably almost there,” I mutter between breaths.
“Yeah,” Landon responds, “I might need a break here. I am super tired.”
“Alright, you can get some rest,” I tell him.
Soon after, Landon lies down and almost instantly starts snoring. I take a moment to close my eyes too, but I am careful not to fall asleep. I then smell that the air smells a little smokey. Then, I hear a soft crackle behind me.
I swing my head around a see a gigantic fire raging across the forest.
“Landon! LANDON! LANDON WAKE UP!” I shout.
“Huh?” he responds sleepily.
“There is a forest fire behind us! We need to run!” I yell again. Landon swings his head, gasps, and starts running out of the forest. I follow closely behind.
We weave through trees and inhale heavily. The trees become thinner, and so does the smoke and mist. Despite the gray fog going away, my vision just gets blurrier. I take one more step and fall, everything turns black, and I land hard on the ground.
❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋
“Finally, you’re awake!” I hear someone announce quietly.
“L-Landon?’ I ask, where are we?”
“I don’t really know, but there are lots of doctors here. They say we were found unconscious on the edge of a forest, or should I say, the forest,” Landon tells me.
“They’re both up,” I hear a doctor announce. A sheriff slowly enters the room.
“Stand up. You guys are coming with me,” the sheriff tells us.
We follow him all the way to his car, a police car of course, and sit in the back. “I don’t like where this is going,” I whisper to Landon, “he might take us back to jail.”
“We’re here!” The sheriff announces a few moments later. When I look out the window, I don’t see a prison, but a great wooden mansion. The sheriff gets out of the car as Landon and I stare at the building.
“You guys coming?” He asks us. We quickly get out of the car and catch up to him.
He leads us down a set of stairs and to a door. A quite underwhelming door compared to the other grand doors within the rest of this mansion.
“After you,” the sheriff tells Landon and I. I lead us into the room.
The room has a large circular table with two chairs at the end, large windows behind the table, and a glass chandelier hanging low and over the table. The room is very white, unlike the rest of this mansion. Suddenly, the central table flashes a bright blue twice, then remains off. It seemed to display fallen trees and a cliff, which appears to have seen many rockslides.
“Grab a seat,” a man suddenly insists while slyly entering the room and gesturing behind us. The sheriff was gone, but there were some chairs to the right of where he used to be. Landon and I each grab a chair.
“My name is Michael Putenza,” The man tells us. He is tall, white-haired, and muscular. He looks like kind of guy you don’t want to be around. I am in charge of this room. Do either of you know what the purpose of this table may be?” He asks us.
“Th-The forest,” Landon states hesitantly.
“Correct,” Michael responds, “The true question is, do either of you know why the forest is there?”
“No,” Landon and I respond simultaneously.
“Well then you are just like everyone else! Very few people know the secret behind the forest. A lot of people don’t even know that it is there!” He tells us, “but I will tell you the secret. Since you two are the only ones to escape it. The forest is the true jail, the prison next to it is just a distraction. When someone tries to break out of one prison, they are just led to the next, the next one being larger and impossible to escape. That is what happened to you,” he gestures towards me, “you tried to break out and you were led to the forest. What is your name again?”
“I never tell my name to strangers. You are no exception,” I snarl at him. He stares hard back at me.
“Other people are sent to the forest too,” Michael continues, “If someone commits a very bad crime, they might wake up in that forest the next day. It is my job to control the forest and make sure that they die a painful and terrifying death.”
That explains why I saw the skull, I think.
“Anyone who goes in is not supposed to come out alive. Even you,” he gestures at Landon, “You just stumbled upon the forest one day. You weren’t supposed to come out alive. No outsiders are allowed to get any information about the forest. The forest is a secret, few go in, none come out. I led you to the center,” he points at Landon, “and thinking that he was dead, I led you to the house,” he points at me, “and ever since you two got together, the forest slowly started breaking from the inside. Lightning struck the house, your leg was healed,” (points at Landon), “this table that displays and controls the forest stopped working, and you two somehow found your way out. The forest that has been responsible for ending so many lives has been destroyed. Thanks to you two,” Michael finishes.
“You have an awful job,” Landon tells him respectfully, “what kind of people do you send to this forest? Who truly deserves to go in there?”
“Well, like I said before, anyone who stumbles upon the forest isn’t coming out, anyone who tries to escape the jail goes in, Anyone who commits a terrible crime is sent there, and pretty much anyone who tries to mess with me. But it isn’t limited to that. That forest has killed over 150 people.”
“Why have you sent so many people to that terrible place!” I yell at him.
“It isn’t all me. Sometimes a judge, policeman, even the president sends people to the forest,” he tells us, “you guys are starting to know too much,” he pauses, “well, congratulations on escaping the forest. Out of respect, I will let you go back home. Out the main entrance and to the left. Town is just around the corner.
I give him a hard stare as he stands up and gestures us out of the room. I look over at Landon and begin to start standing up. I get to go home and see my family once again, I think to myself as Landon and I walk out of the room side-by-side.