The Forest

“Thats not how this works!” I say angrily, could he really be this stupid? Why is he even here?!

“Well excuse me, Mrs. ecophile!” He retorts, offended “I don’t know the proper procedure for when you get lost in a stupid, seemingly magic forest!”

“Don’t call it stupid!” I take a pause and try to reason with him; “It’s a gift from the ancestors.”

“Your ancestors.” He corrects me.

“What? That makes it less valid?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“It was implied.”

“You know what else is implied?” He steps forward angrily, closing the space between us. “That I don’t want to be here right now!”

I stare back at him, unwavering. And something must click in that head of his because his bright blue eyes, falter... and then land on the ground.

“I don’t want you in here either.” Only realizing after I say it, that I’m kicking a man who’s down. He falls to his knees dramatically, turning away from me and letting his face fall into clumsy hands – I award him with an eye roll.

“Will you stop being so infuriating?!” He spins around on his ankles “I’m totally and completely lost.”

“I don’t pity you for that, people who don’t know of the forests ways are not to enter” I state it matter-of-factly, like a sleeper agent hearing an activation code-or like he might care about my educated and correct opinion.

“Oh, shut up, you’ve never gotten lost? You’ve never wondered somewhere you shouldn't?”

“Not this exceptionally horribly, I mean, you just asked me for directions out of this forest, like I could tell you two rights and a left or something.” I chuckle to myself.

“I don’t know what hippy-art-thing-metaphor you have going on here, but that is what you do, when you are lost!” I might’ve screwed up here, he is getting very angry. “Look, I’ve seen you around! I know you’re a tree hugger! I know you’re in cahoots with that cult on the edge of town!”

There’s something deeper in his eyes when he speaks now, like he’s been waiting a long time to tell me what a freak I am.

“You probably grew up here didn’t you! In the forest, no showers-”

“I have a home!” In my mind, I curse myself for how defensively I said it. Am I really letting this guy get in my head? I don’t even know his name; I’ve just seen him around town before. He’s friends with the mayor’s son, explains why he’s so full of himself. Probably grew up wealthy, raised to look down on people like me.

“I’m done with this.” I wave my hands in front of my face. “Just follow me, I’ll get you out of here.”

“Really?!”

I take a pause to look him up and down, before giving him an unamused. “Yeah.”

He follows me quickly as I stride through the woods. Trying to hide that he’s getting out of breath. What in the world was he doing last night? I thought he was a quarterback on the high school team, but then again, athletes like him are rarely built for endurance. As much pleasure as I’m talking from this proof of my own athletic superiority, I can hear my dad’s voice in my head, “Do no harm.”

“Are you okay?” I spit out, stopping abruptly to give him a break.

“Yeah!” He says too confidently.

“Why are you panting then? And why are you jogging to keep up with me?”

“I’m not!”

“Are you serious right now?”

“Yeah...?”

“Sit down, good lord.” I carefully make an open space on the forest floor by moving a few of the ubiquitous sticks and tree leaves. I drop onto the ground with ease, and he gives me a quick flicker of a face before composing himself and sitting on a tree stump opposite to me.

I take out my phone for a quick second and start typing out a message.

“Woah!” He mocks “Tree girl has a phone? And it’s not a Nokia?”

Before I send my message, I decide to break the silence.

“Why are you here? Like in the first place.”

I seem to have surprised him with that question...

“Just... out on a stroll.”

“You’re just out on a stroll?” I question, not believing a word he says.

“Yeah! No need to be condescending or anything, I was just on a walk.”

“Why?”

His next answer is quick, too quick. Like he said the very first thing that popped into his head.

“Fun!”

“You seem to be very frustrated to be on a pleasure walk.”

Fortunately, he’s stopped getting annoyed with me by now, realizing that non-complacency is just a part of my personality.

“My mood turned sour when I got lost.”

“Sure.” I agree with a chuckle... then I look at him, like, really look at him. And honestly? He’s just some guy.

“You sure you weren't with some girl?”

I press send and put my phone back in my pocket. Turning my attention back to him. I mean, he’s probably got a lot of pull around town, but really, he’s only a human. He notices me staring and clearly interprets it the wrong way; because he smirks at me and fixes his hair.

“Let’s not do that.”

Now he seems to think we have banter going... ewe.

“Do what?”

I scrunch up my nose in disgust.

“Are you making your voice deeper?”

There’s a great bit of silence before he answers, “...no?”

Sigh “You just go straight from here, you should see the sunlight peeking through the thinning of the trees in just a minute.” I get up off the solid ground, leaving an imprint in the sticks and leaves and brush the dirt off my jeans. “Have a good one.”

“What?”

“I said bye,” I continue my path in the opposite direction.

“Oh,” he says as if just realizing that I am truly leaving him here – and that I don’t want to continue with his conversation. “Uh... bye!”

I don’t look back, but I can feel him staring.

He’s probably thinking about how stupid I am. Should I have even helped him? Maybe I should’ve messaged the police sooner, before I spent so much time with him?

No, my priority was keeping the forest safe, she doesn't want a serial killer within her walls.

Especially one who got lost looking for a place to bury bodies.