When I was a kid, my mom told me not to go into the woods. I never asked why.797Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB1c6Q0TfsS
As I grew up, my mom told me to never step into the woods. I never asked why.
I wish I did, you know. I wish I had asked her. So that I would know what happens when you do enter, so that I knew what to expect out there. But I never asked her, and she never told me.797Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9uSxu5pPFA
I wish she had.
Because once you step into the twisted alluring woods, there's no way out.797Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfKrHBX722d
"Don't you want to go home?" Freya asks. I nod in response. There isn't anything to be said. "Do you think we can leave?"797Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlikmr6wt1U
I hate having to explain to her every single time that we couldn't. We can't. The moment you step out of the woods, you'll just bounce right back. If you're lucky you'll hit the ground, and if you're not, then poison ivy. People have died trying to escape. And some have found their escape in death.797Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQbqNiAH8sy
"We can't, you know that," I tell her. She sighs.797Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzOCAu449rv
She had walked into the woods, knowing fully well what the woods were rumored for. She knew it, she had it coming- she just didn't see it.797Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgtJFSKTRtO
When I walked into the woods, I didn't know anything about the stories, the mystical properties, the barriers, the legends- I had heard nothing of it.797Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE89ilTd5no
"It gives me hope in a way to ask," she says. "Makes me feel like there's a way home."
It's my turn to sigh. She's one of the newcomers. I've been here for several months now. She doesn't get the woods like the rest of us. In here, in these woods, to hope is to die. Cause when you hope, you start to think that there is a way out. And there is no way out.797Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpT0oaBeypA
Every corner, every clearing, every exit there possibly could be was checked. There's no way out. Some have lost their minds and live in the edges, they run towards the civilization they had accidentally left, only for the invisible barrier to push them back.797Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡalPsYypJOT
"You shouldn't hope, Freya," I advice her. "It'll only get you killed."797Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHDb091Wc21
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