The Woman In The Forest

A child. One of the most innocent things in this world. Pure, and almost completely immune to the worlds evils. But, they are naive. One of the many reasons why they are easy targets, for anyone really. Even amateurs. The town folk are stupid as well. They believe the children just wander and get lost in the forest. Only the teenagers speak of me. Disgusting things they are. They say rather… inappropriate things about me sometimes. I hate that about them. But the only reason I haven’t killed every last one of them, is because they make the little ones scared of me. They tell them stories of what I do to little children. They tell them I kill them, but that is only half of the truth. Still, I love to watch them force them to sit down and listen to these horrible stories. Some of them true, but mostly fake. I don’t care. As long as my presence is known, and I am feared I am happy. Oh. I haven’t properly introduced myself have I? How rude of me. I go by many names, considering that I have lived thousands of years and all the people I connected with are long gone, but the one that always stuck to me was Taker. The full title is ‘The Taker’ but Taker is just shorter. Probably one of the main reasons children fear me is because if my eyes, they are fully black. But sometimes they are more curious then scared. That makes me happy as well. Sometimes, they like to tug on my dress, and braid my hair. But that’s all before I do my work….
A frightened child runs into the forest, tears streaming down its dirty face. It runs into the forest, its little mind racing. Instinct tells it to go back to mommy and daddy, but it’s heart tells it to go forward. It follows it’s fragile heart. It runs into the forest, sniffling as they stop at a fallen tree, sitting on it and starting to sob. I don’t know what happened, and I certainly don’t care. The girl walks up to the small thing, placing a pale hand on its shoulder, speaking in that fake motherly voice. “What is wrong, dear? Don’t cry, please.” The child jumps back, panicked. That is expected. They crawl backwards until it’s back hits a tree, and they stare at each other for half an hour. Soon, it speaks softly but the soon-to-be attacker’s ears hear the voice clearly. “I….I uhm…I got into a fight…with my m-mommy..” The woman nods, holding her hand out as she walks towards the child. “Come…..I will help you..” The child hesitates. “…I want my mommy.” The woman stares blankly at it. She has patience. “I will take you to your mommy after I show you something.” The child takes her hand, and they walk. The woman holds the child’s hand softly, looking out into the dark forest. They soon come upon a very big glass dome. The child looks up at the top of it, gasping. The first stage of stealing its free will. She leads the child inside the glass dome, walking through it. Inside, plants of all sorts grow. Vines grow along the walls of the glass, and pink roses cling to bushes. A giant oak tree stands in the middle, gray cement blocks surrounding it in a small circle, with a circle of water behind the rocks. A stream from a very tiny waterfall is the source of the water. Everything is lively. The child lets go of the woman’s hand, walking around the small park. Other children, mostly girls, play tag and run past him, never trampling any of the flowers, and paying no attention to the child. They search the whole area, brushing past a soft bush. It’s thoughts are cleared. The second stage of stealing its thoughts. Soon, they come up to the oak. They stare at it for a long time. To Taker, it looks like a normal oak tree, but she knows that isn’t enough to keep a child entertained until sunset. She knows there is something hidden on the tree she cannot see. Soon, the sun sets. It becomes dark. The children stop playing and slowly start to surround the newcomer. The original child stands, turning around. The children seem to look like they are made of wood, with no eyes. Just black sockets. Soon, the plants start to die, turning ugly browns and shades of black and grey. Blood spatters appear on the tree and the children fall to the ground. Taker walks up to the child, holding a large black scythe. There is no hope for this child. She touches the top of the child’s head with the scythe. “You can’t survive without me.” She looks into the child’s eyes as it repeats what she says. “You will obey me. I own you.” The child repeats it.
It is over.