When I was a kid, my mom told me not to go into the woods. I never asked why.572Please respect copyright.PENANA9AvR57sytU
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.572Please respect copyright.PENANAybCnLoBjzQ
I wish she had.
Because once you step into the twisted alluring woods, there's no way out.572Please respect copyright.PENANAlx1kT709LY
"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?"572Please respect copyright.PENANADoL3eYRkqO
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.572Please respect copyright.PENANAPZHwCkCdxJ
"We can't, you know that," I tell her. She sighs.572Please respect copyright.PENANAtyDFnt3yVu
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.572Please respect copyright.PENANAfRTvb7P5YR
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.572Please respect copyright.PENANA2tBpZtDSnl
"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.572Please respect copyright.PENANADTK8EzlnCb
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.572Please respect copyright.PENANAMDwrkycowk
"You shouldn't hope, Freya," I advice her. "It'll only get you killed."572Please respect copyright.PENANAT6xpM0ZeaT
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