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THE TREES ARE ALIVE!

By: Robert Archer

By Robert ArcherPublished 2 years ago 12 min read
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Disclaimer: Everything within this story is strictly fictional any name, place, or current event is strictly coincidence and this story is for entertainment purposes only.

Our story starts in the woods, woods kinda like these woods, but a Forrest with a story to tell. The story of how the forrest came alive. The story goes like this; There were four men Jerry, Carrey, Joe, and Shmo, each one has a story of their own, for Jerry his starts out happy, tinder and sweet, he was working on his farm with his son, oh how they loved working in the fields together! They would harvest the crops, they would mow the lawn, feed the cows and chickens, and do some yard work around the house, but every time they would finish Jerry would see his son staring at the woods beside his farm with a blank stare, as if the woods were calling to him. Jerry told his son not to venture into the woods for there is a curse on it and to head inside for dinner. Jerry, too, was entranced by the forrest as the trees blew in the wind, something unsettling chilled up his spine, but he decided to shrug it off. Each day as time passed while Jerry and his son continued to complete their chores, the urge would get stronger and stronger until one day, they both decided that it wouldn’t hurt to take a look. As they approach the entrance an old man screamed in a frightened voice, “DON’T ENTER THESE HERE WOODS! THEMS’ IS CURSED THEY IS!” Jerry, confused, asked the man, “ Why? What curse is there to befall these woods?” The man calmed and had a grim look on his face, “ Whoever enters them there woods never return. Some says, that those who do make it out are never the same as before they went in.” Jerry looks at his son and brushes off the warning and enters. They walk for what seemed like miles, after a while it started to seem like they have been walking in circles, then before they knew it the sun started to set. They both came to a realization that they were lost. In a panic the son started to scream and complain, Jerry tried the best he could to calm him until out of nowhere a voice started to echo as if the trees were talking to them. “ How cute, a father and his son lost together” the trees whispered, “ I wonder how long it will take them before they slowly starve to death.” The son held his father tight, “ Papa, I’m scared!” He exclaims. “I know son, there has got to be a way out, there’s always a way out” but he was wrong. Weeks had passed it seemed and both were desperate for some type of nutrition. The father looks at his son as he sees him all skin and bones, Jerry realizes that if his son doesn’t eat soon he will die, “ Son? Do you remember which way the sun rises and sets?” The son weakly nods and Jerry continues, “ the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, our house should be on the west side of these woods, follow the sun back” the son asked confused “ where will you go?” Then Jerry had a tear in his eye as he knew what needed to be done, “ I don’t think I’m going to make it son, see that spider in her web with her eggs?” The son nodded again, “ when those eggs hatch the mother dies and those hatchlings eat the mother, I know you won’t like it but I need you to be like those hatchlings when I go.” The son bursts into tears, “ papa, no! I can’t “ Jerry grabs his son’s shirt and insists “ you must son, it’s the only way you can survive! I’m an old man, I lived my life, but you got to live on!” With those stern words to his son Jerry took his last breath. The son couldn’t bare the thought of cannibalism and continued to find his way back starved and lost. Without any source of hydration or nutrition he too succumbed to hunger.

Carrey was an upbeat man who loved the water, he loved to fish and swim and take nice boat rides across the lake. One day, while he was fishing he was captivated by a tree line as if it were calling to him. “ That might be a good fishing spot” he thought to himself. He was curious if anyone else had been there so he was asking around at the market to see if anyone had been there yet. A man with one blind eye answered with a warning, “ that wood line ain’t a place you want to go son, those waters there are cursed the woods around them too, last month a father and his son went missing in them woods and haven’t returned since. Some say they starved to death, who knows? What I do know is them trees have got to be alive! Like they call you from the afterlife or something!” Carrey was confused, “ afterlife? Like, ghosts? Nah! There’s no such thing as cursed or ghosts, I’ll head into those waters, cast my line and I’ll show you and I’lol bring back the biggest fish I’ve ever caught while I’m at it” Carrey bought some bait and a new pole and net and ventured off back into the water, as he threw a line in a little ways from the tree line he could hear the trees as if whispering in his ear, “ I wonder if he will catch anything over there, he won’t be able to catch anything over there, the fish love to hide near trees and banks. Come over here Carrey. Plenty of fish to catch over here.” After a few moments Carrey looked over at the wood line and near the bank he saw the biggest fish he has ever seen jump and splash, taken back by the sheer sight of a trophy fish Carrey couldn’t bring himself to pass up this one in a million chance, he rowed his boat toward the trees and set up near the spot he saw the fish, he threw his line in and waited. As he was waiting he saw a glimpse of his old friend who went missing, it was Jerry, staring at him and then headed into the woods. “ Jerry!” Carrey shouted “ where have been I missed you!” Jerry had already disappeared into the woods and at the same time Carrey’s pole began to bend as if it was about to be yanked out of its hold. Carrey leaped for his pole and began to reel quickly, this monster fish was heavy, as he was trying to reel in his boat began to move rapidly going further and deeper into the woods. The fish kept swimming and Carrey kept reeling until suddenly both the fish and the boat stopped, launching Carrey onto dry land breaking one of his legs, wincing in pain and in a state of dazed confusion he saw where the water ended, he also saw that his line was inside the ground as if his fish he was trying to catch went through the Earth as if it disappeared without a trace. Carrey got up and limped around to find a good spot to reset and splint his leg, he found a hollowed out tree and laid there, he grabbed a sturdy stick and put it in his mouth, grabbed his leg and, CRACK! Set his bone back into place with a powerful scream of pain, he took the rope from his boat and two sticks and splinted his legs. After a few minutes he passed out from the pain. He woke up to Jerry staring at him with a dead stare, not saying a word and points to his boat as if he’s trying to warn him about something. Carrey looks over to his boat and notices, “ where did the lake go? I was just there! There was a lake !” Where there once was a lake has now turned into the shaded ground of trees and leaves, it didn’t look like there was even a drop of water on the ground. “ How long was I out?” Jerry was standing right there in front of him as if he popped up out of nowhere. Carrey let out a frightened scream, “ You should have never came into these woods Carrey they are cursed!” Carrey couldn’t undersstand, “ Where have you been Jerry?” Jerry looked at Carrey saddened and frightened, “ These woods tell you everything you want to hear Carrey, they lure you in and entice you with things you want to see, but they aren’t real and the woods won’t let you go! The trees, Carrey, they are alive don’t listen to them Carrey don’t listen! You got to find a way out soon or you too will end up like me and my son!” Carrey couldn’t understand, “ end up like you? What do you——“ before he could finish Jerry’s son appeared out of nowhere and grabbed his father’s hand, “ papa, I don’t want to be here any more why can’t we leave?” Jerry looks at Carrey and says again, “ you shouldn’t have came here!” The father and son walk off further into the woods and disappear into thin air. Carrey can’t believe what he saw, was it a ghost? “ Ghosts aren’t real!” He thought. Carrey shook off the haziness and rubbed his eyes to make sure he was just seeing things. “ Hallucinating, yeah, that’s it, a hallucination is all it was I don’t know how long I was out, I must be hungry and dehydrated, I got to find food and water fast. “ he began to try to scavenge but he couldn’t find anything of use. The trees began to talk amongst themselves again, “ It’s a shame he can’t find food or water, should we help this man?” They say “ Nooo, after all his kind has done to us why should we provide ever again?” Another tree replies “ SHUT UUUUP!!! YOUR JUST IN MY HEAD!!! YOU’RE NOT REAL!!!!” Carrey angrily exclaims. “ oh, but we are, we are all around you and you don’t even know it” the trees began to blow in the wind. “ you want food? Water? Your daily needs that you take so much for granted? “ as the tree speaks there was an opening in the trees that showed berries and a running creek. Carrey stumbled to head towards the nourishment and when he got to the berry bush he could not help himself, but to gourge himself on the berries and drink the water, however, when Carrey ate the berries his throat burned and his mouth swelled and the water he drank turned to mud and dirt. “ What‘s happening?” Carrey forced the question. The trees laughed amongst themselves, “ look at him he’s swelling like a mushroom, to bad he’s about to be a part of us” Carrey grabbed his throat gasping for air then collapsed on the forest floor, his decomposing body became a beautiful fungal garden of mushrooms.

The next we have Joe, Joe was adventurous and strong, he was a boat maker who took pride in the boats he made and was very particular about the wood he uses. Joe is also very respectful towards the trees, he gives thanks to the trees and takes a seedling from each tree he needs and plants them in the same spot. While he was searching for the lumber to use for his boats and speaking to the trees to give his respects he stumbled across a new set of trees he has never seen before with wood not like any other plant he’s seen and bark so bizarre as if the were gushing a red ooze. Baffled Joe decided to investigate more, curious he decided to put one of the trees in a pot to take it home to study how it grows, he then decided to take a sample of the bark to bring back to analyze, but when he took the bark the ooze began to gush and the earth began to quake as if the forest itself was writhing in pain. As Joe was about to walk out of the exit with the pot plant and bark sample he tripped on a vine, the pot flew out of the forrest entrance and the vine slowly went back into the ground as if it were alive. “ Do not take what does not belong to you” a voice whispered through the wind. Joe got up and brushed himself off “ who are you? A witch?” The blows again, “ something of the sort, I am the forrest itself and I have seen you respect my kind around you, however, you are still a disease in the grounds of my roots and we mustn’t have that” a vine whips out in between the trees and wraps itself around joes legs and pulls him halfway under the ground at knee height. “ I shall make you one with the trees and you will no longer be a plague to my kind” Joe begins to solidify as bark begins to become his skin, “ Wait, NOOO!!!” Joe screams as his body becomes to be more tree like the transformation and his screams continued until his bark skin covered his mouth and he slowly suffocates.

Now, Shmoe, was the the smartest out of the three, he knew that the forrest was cursed for his family was the one that cursed it in the first place. He did not wish for people to disappear, after all he was not the one who cursed it. Every time the forrest tried to lure him he always resisted. Each day that goes by he searches for ways to lift the curse, but he is unsure how to do so. After noticing the other three of his friends go into the cursed area and never return he decided to leave it alone and never return the forrest that has been torturing him for years.

To this day you can still hear the voice of the forrest and see the 4 people who has entered these woods as they try desperately to warn anyone else who dares enter of their impending doom to only realize they do it in vein.

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supernatural
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About the Creator

Robert Archer

My name is Robert Archer, I always had a hobby In writing I just never published any work yet. I feel like vocal has given me a good way to express my stories I write so now everyone can see them when I write them.

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