The Unfinished Woods

Trigger warning: animal mutilation, implications of suicide, mental health issues, drug abuse, and child abuse.

Ashley Davis was a typical high school girl with brown hair who lived in one of Wheatland’s neighborhoods called River Woods. She loved writing and was coaxed by her English teacher to take over the editor spot for the school newspaper called the Wheatland High Gazette. Ashley was unusually fascinated by a forest area deep in her backyard that she had to share with her neighbors since they had no fences. This area looked like it was either under construction that was indefinitely delayed or ruined by a huge explosion caused by a meteor that had hit the area about five years prior to when she and her family had moved there. Since that happened, it always looked like the ruins of housing from years long past that no one had bothered to demolish and renovate.

There was uncertainty about what lurked in the forested ruins with the crater in the middle of it all that was known only as Unfinished Woods. Government officials removed the space rock from that area, but have since left it alone after all that time had passed. No one has worked up the courage to resume the neighborhood construction there in case there were... aliens or mutants that managed to escape the inspection from the officials. Not when there were mangled animals that were strewn about the Woods to be found by some unlucky cyclists or joggers. The many decaying carcasses caused the park to be closed off and fenced even by the backyards of the houses situated by it like Ashley's was.

It didn't stop kids from Ashley's school going into the Woods and coming back out so frightened they had to be hospitalized for fear self-harm. This caused groups of peers being dared to go into the Unfinished Woods and see who would last the longest. This usually ended with people running out screaming, cops being called to arrest the people who didn't go in for trespassing in an area that was closed-off, and ambulances being brought over for the people who did go in. Ashley had seen cops come by her house for a group of bullies that snuck into the Woods through her family's yard.

Rumors circulated on what could be in that area. One person said it was the battle site of an invisible war between demons and gods where some saw an incomprehensible battle. Ashley knew better than to think it was anything like that, especially when the media had said it was a meteor that devastated the area, and her family moved there because it was the cheapest section of town. Aliens or mutants seemed more plausible to her than something that had a battle where the destruction was never heard nor seen. One thing was for certain, with Ashley’s reporter instincts, she knew something was going on in that area and she was determined to find out what it was.

That all changed when her friend, Peyton Jack, one day went to the Unfinished Woods to escape one of their dad's drunken temper tantrums. They went missing on that day, with the whereabouts unknown. Search parties had commenced from there, with no luck on finding them or their body. More rumors circulated on what could've happened to them in terms of what led up to going to the Woods and what could've taken them. They knew that Peyton's home life was rough to say the least with their dad hitting the bottle all the time and having issues with making money from his business. It didn't help that their dad seemed like he couldn't get with the program of Peyton being nonbinary.

Thus, Ashley had decided that if she was going to solve what was in the Unfinished Woods and get her friend out of whatever was holding them hostage, the time would have to be now. One day, Ashley wrote a paper about boys throwing fake blood all over the bathroom to pull a prank. She spent this time to search for articles on the Unfinished Woods on the school computers, but was disappointed to only find a few disappearances that were described by previous reporters. The rest were rendered inaccessible by the computer system blocking entry to places that would distract the students from doing any work like games or give access to videos that would be inappropriate.

That's when Ashley called on her other friend, Derek, who was very savvy with computers, to look into finding more articles on the dark web. He was able to find out that way more people had disappeared in the Woods than she had previously thought, namely reporters from their school who disappeared every now and then. It told these two that whatever was lurking in these Woods was doing more than just causing insanity or animal mutilation in its wake. The one who did this a year prior to Ashley's start on the school newspaper was a girl named Stalene Hayden, who disappeared when looking into the Woods after her grandma had dropped dead from seeing a mangled dog pop out of the Woods.

So, Ashley packed up some survival gear she took from her brother's room and headed into the Woods, carefully navigating through the fence and the police patrols, and ensuring she didn't trespass into the neighbor's side of the backyard. She didn't want to be on the receiving end of them calling the police or, worse, be part of their rumored ability to cause reporters who got too close to their shady operations along with their families to move away. Not when her friend was in trouble and when the force in the Woods had taken so much from the people of Wheatland.

Once she got into the Woods, Ashley noticed there was a big, worn out barn that was near an abandoned house that was so almost fully constructed when the meteor hit. She noticed there were multiple footprints around it that had some green chemical residue embedded within them. After putting on heavy chemical resistant gloves, Ashley used a syringe to extract some of the green liquid from the footprints and carefully squeezed the sample into a glass test tube to analyze later. She followed some of these footprints into the barn, and found tire treads from when the government came in to analyze the meteor, but more than that, there was a massive hole in the back of the barn like a fire ball had shot through it. She wasn't sure if the government testing did this or if it was something from the meteor.

Ashley heard scampering around her, which made her tense up and look around with her phone flashlight lighting all around the barn. She knew there had to be an animal in the barn with how humans were barred from the place. She saw a bunny scamper away when looking by some old boxes, but then watched as the bunny was snatched up by some tentacles from above them all. Ashley shone her light at what had just ingested the rabbit. The creature then dropped down when noticing the light shining on it and chased Ashley around. It had a mouth on its stomach filled with tentacles and sharp teeth with a rabbit's foot dangling out. It also had a forked tail, slimy green clawed feet, and mantis like arms with two talons each. The head was the most unsettling part with bug eyes, bat ears, and tentacles right by where the mouth would be.

Ashely had to find a place to hide but she couldn't risk fleeing the Woods when she had gotten so far. She noticed that some of the houses had their doors and windows boarded shut as if the owners were either protecting themselves inside or keeping something out. These were the people that had finished homes that didn't flee when the meteor hit. Ashley noticed more of these footprints similar to the monster, and went into one of those damaged houses to hide in what was thought to be a closet.

Ashley then heard the snarling monster poking around, having caught up with its quarry, but before it could get to the closet, heavy stomping was heard, causing the creature to back away. Ashley peeked out and saw there was a hulking beast with a glass mask covering its head that had tusks poking out of it and a spiky reptilian tail. A fight broke out between the tentacled bug and the brute, with the tentacles of the former wrapping around one of the latter's arms. This gave Ashley time to flee towards the basement by jumping down in a hole hoping neither of the monsters would go down there once their quarrel finished.

Ashley tried to go further into the basement to hide but found her ankle was sprained. She had to lay low and go into a bigger closet until eventually, she heard bones and tentacles get smashed and fall through into the living area of the basement, the brute being the victor against his now deceased enemy. The beast grabbed the body and made off with it, further away from Ashley. She then got out but noticed a dead body of a kid that looked like he was in the middle of turning into something with bug eyes and bat ears like the monster that was pursuing her just now.

Ashley continued searching the house and found a few more dead people that seemed like they were mutated by something but were never given the chance to complete their transformations from being eaten by the creature above. While making sure she wasn't in view of the brute, she exited out the way she came, but went further into the Woods instead of by any houses in case those were deemed territory by the monsters within. She didn't think there was any radiation around the Woods or the whole town would've been considered unlivable if the meteor caused some sort of fallout. Despite the mangled animals being nutrition for the beast, it didn't explain what caused the insanity in people nor the disappearances to those foolish enough to enter like she was currently.

Ashley got close to the epicenter of the crater itself, but noticed there was a big tree in the middle of the crater and that some of the missing people were turned into statues with wooden vines and lichen wrapped around their bodies like sleeping bags with some varying in how much of their bodies were covered, all of them surrounding the big, pulsating tree. She noticed several of these people were those that were around her age or should've been older than her but didn’t age.

Ashley got closer to the tree in the middle of it all, but she smelled a strange odor and accidentally breathed it in. She noticed one gas mask was dropped by the one of the encased people and put it on, but wasn't sure how effective it would be now that she breathed some of the fumes the tree gave off. Ashley went underneath the tree and noticed that there was an egg underneath the hollow glowing an eerie mix of green and pink. Within this womb lied a malformed caterpillar with a lizard body and legs.

She stared into the eyes of the being and was frightened by the visions it showed. There were precognitions of it awakening and then spreading its influence further beyond the forest to make people into monstrous slaves. Then it showed images of the womb’s forces targeting the school to go after a rich boy that went there specifically.

Ashley threw the green syringe at the egg, causing it to burn and scream in agony before she ran out of there, following a different set of footsteps. She had to avoid the tree lashing out to seize her, grabbing the statues instead, before it unleashed pterodactyl-like monsters with human faces on their beaks to fly after her. If her brother, Gavin, were here, he would've shot these monsters down and given Ashley a big lecture about going into the Unfinished Woods when the town closed it off and had repeatedly caught teens that were spotted sneaking around it. Ashley was unnerved by the human faces that yelled out for help or instructed her to kill the monsters they were merged with. She felt like she was in some awful science fiction horror movie.

Ashley grabbed a stick and then smacked one of the monster birds with it, but the strength of the swing needed was way more than she was capable of, and yet gave her enough time to hide and evade the birds that spread out to search better from there. She then noticed her mask was useless against the fumes for her hands were clawed and had eyes coming out of the palms. At that point, Ashley knew she had to leave but also still needed to get the evidence from inside the Unfinished Woods. It was all so crazy that she wasn’t even sure if she was going to be hospitalized and cured, imprisoned for trespassing, or locked up as a freak of nature. She was beginning to feel the mutagenic effects of what she was exposed to.

Ashley followed the new set of footprints that led to the tree egg and tried to make contact with the people who got that far in the Woods. It couldn't be any of the teens with how some of them who didn’t flee in terror fast enough were turned into food for the tree egg or the monsters roaming around the land undetected by people passing by the Woods. The mutation had healed her sprain, and yet as she kept going, the transformation slowly crept in with her hair turned long and blonde, her feet grew big and became clawed, and she grew a tail that was chameleon-like. She passed by some mutants carefully before seeing a shed in the yard of her rich neighbors, the Fletchers.

Ashley made her way to the shed and opened it up to find a staircase that led to an underground room. She closed the doors behind her to minimize any additional attention. As she descended the stairs, Ashley’s emotions became more rampant. The mutation was creeping in with her ears becoming bat-like, a metallic shell with spines coming out of her more hunched back. Ashley realized that she was close to becoming less human with the mutagenic effects of the tree egg.

Before she knew it, Ashley reached a room akin to a storm cellar with rations and other provisions needed for survival during and following a storm or an apocalypse like what had taken place outside. She then noticed a door which she opened that led to a room that was full of robes and a fire pit with tapestry that had pictures that looked like the tree egg and the womb within it, with the walls holding some of the remains that were recovered. At the center was a boy who looked like the rich boy from the vision, but he was shirtless with a devil tail, alligator skin on most of his body, and blonde hair. He was breathing weakly, having been beaten by whoever came down there.

"You have tainted the awoken," a voice said from within the dark hall.

Just then, 3 people in black robes came out of the darkness, and pulled the hood down to reveal Louis Fletcher, the patriarch of the family. The other members were the mother, Rosalinda, and their other son, Devlin.

"That Jack kid would've been reborn as the replacement for the master's vessel that was ripped out before he could bring this land prosperity," Louis said, "We were going to have our disloyal boy Bailey be the sacrifice for that replacement, but now we have to replace the master's vessel yet again. You will have to do since you prevented his rebirth just now."

Ashley had to get out of there to reveal the dark secret within the neighborhood while she was still human enough to remember her mission, but before she could run out or try to attack the family to avenge the many people sacrificed to the tree egg, she was attacked by a brute with tusks akin to the one from the house she hid inside of, knocking her out cold.

The brute picked her up and brought her to the Fletcher family. Louis commanded, "Take her to the Tree of Lantengeras. His ravens will take care of the rest."