The Call of the Forest

I walk the same way every morning. It's so ingrained in my body that I don't even have to pay attention to where I am going anymore. I pop in my headphones, and off I go! I space out and drift into my own little world as I make my way to work. 

Today went quite a bit differently. As I plodded along in my zombie state, a flowery scent touched my nose ever so slightly. Its vague subtlety awakened my senses enough to force me back into life. I stopped and looked around. Everything looked normal. Well, I think it does. I don't remember anymore.

The scent drifted into my nostrils but with more potency. It had a rose-like sweetness mixed with the calming scent of lavender. I looked up to the sky to remember where I had smelled that before. I tried to hold onto the deliciousness of the smell. It drifted away along with a hint of memory I began to recall. 

Perhaps it was my day-to-day life that made it so hard to focus on my memories. I took a long breath through my nostrils, trying to capture a hint of the scent, but I couldn't quite make it out. Sighing, I began to walk towards my original destination, except now I had to rush.

A dark building rose on the horizon. My daily destination gripped my soul with existential dread. The feeling of oppression gripped me each day I went to work. It wasn't my first choice in life, but I felt like there was no other way to make money.

Almost there! Oh, I am so late!

Then it hit me like a brick wall. No longer faint, the scent became an all-encompassing entity. My brain, forced to pay attention to its sweet aroma, agreed to every emotion it invoked in me.

The smell took me back to the time I went camping in the wilderness. The trip was such a long time ago, but I remembered it so clearly.

My friends and I went on a camping trip together. This trip was the first time we had tasted freedom from our oppressive parents. They thought we were at each other's houses, but since they never bothered to check with each other, we proceeded with our plans. 

We could only bring our backpacks, but Tiffany packed her car with all the camping essentials. She had been doing it for weeks to make sure that she didn't get caught by her dad. His parenting philosophy was "the stricter, the better." She often came to school with welts on her back and could not sit in the hard chairs without wincing.

The four of us journeyed to our planned campsite right after school. The promise of nature giving us a little respite from our depressing lives excited us as we waited out the school day. A trip was what we needed—a break from the modern world by returning to nature.

After making our obligatory phone calls to our parents, we headed off to the mountains. I remember how excited we felt. We couldn't stop making dumb jokes and laughing our heads off the whole ride to the campsite. Listening to loud music and just enjoying life.

The drive took a few hours, but it was still pretty light out when we finally arrived at the site. Tiffany brought a tent and enough sleeping bags for us. I remember feeling glad that she thought of all this. I never camped before in my life at that time.

We set up the campsite relatively fast, considering that we had never camped in our lives. Well, Tiffany camped a lot to get away from her father. The rest of us loved the great indoors more than anything. 

That's when I first caught a small whiff of the scent itself. I never smelled anything like it. No one else seemed to have whiffed the scent except for Tiffany. She became instantly obsessed with the ethereal scent. 

After gathering the firewood we needed for the night, we watched Tiffany as she walked around the site to sniff every plant she came across. I felt so nervous by her insistence on finding the odor, but finally, we all convinced her to sit with us at the campsite. The darkness set in around us, and I was relieved that we got her back to the camp where she belonged. 

After we snuggled in our tent, a chill ran up and down my spine. I felt something watching us. I forced the thought out of my head and finally fell asleep. I woke up in the middle of the night to that smell. It stung my nose, and I felt queasy. I had to get out of the tent. 

The cold air touched my face, and I felt better instantly. I groggily walked toward the fire and threw on a log. I heard a slight noise to my right, and I whipped my head around. Eyes wide, I saw a spindly outline in the forest. That smell hit me again, and I froze. I couldn't move. All I could do was watch the creature as it called out to someone. I don't remember the noise it made. It was more of a telepathic coo. My ears never seemed to hear it, but my brain did.

I saw Tiffany leave the tent. She stopped just outside to yawn and stretched a little. My gaze still focused on the creature in the forest before us. She had yet to see it. I recall that she had looked at me and waved a little. She began to come toward me to sit by the fire, but I saw she caught the scent. It put her in a trance. She stopped just within the range of the firelight. I could see her eyes widen at the exact moment she caught a whiff of the delicious sweetness. 

I knew then what would happen. I couldn't scream or move. Tiffany turned toward the creature and walked. Every part of my body wanted to scream to call the others. They might be able to help her. I couldn't make one sound. Tears began to drop down my face as she drew closer to the monster. It reached out with spindly arms and grasped ahold of her. A light shined so brightly behind them. It became overwhelmingly blinding, so I shut my eyes to escape its fury.

I woke up with a jolt in my sleeping bag. The sun had risen, and I sighed in relief. It must have been a nightmare. I felt very assured that what I thought I had experienced was not real. Then we all realized that Tiffany was missing. We had never been so scared in our lives. We tried everything not to have to call our parents. Finally, we had no other choice. They were livid, to put it nicely.

While the authorities searched the forest, my parents put me in a boarding school for wayward teens. I never saw those girls again. I didn't even know what became of Tiffany. Did they find her? I never knew. I forgot about the whole thing until I smelled that scent again. 

As I stood before my work building, I decided to go camping this weekend in that very spot. Perhaps the forest would take me with it too.