The forest was once living. The trees were daubed with chartreuse leaves in the summer and ember and rouge foliage during the autumn. The grounds were once full of grass and flora until it became nothing but dirt and dust. The trees still towered above the ground, though these days, the trees looked grave, and there was nothing left of them but their brown jasper trunks and dune grey branches. That’s how the trees swayed through all the seasons, with no fruit to bear. The entrance to the ancient forest was now boarded with chains of metal, the signs outside read ‘Danger’ and ‘No Trespassing’, urging the people to stay away.
There were stories told about the degrading old forest. They all warned that if you entered the forest, you would never return through the iron gates. The part of the mystery of the story was that no one could tell you why. All of those who seemingly had the answers were missing, their faces were only seen again in photos that stayed with friends or family, or in the newspapers that urged people to come forward with information that might locate them. Some of those families and friends did not know when they had left or where to. Others had given the name of the forest as their final known destination; ‘Forest Amata’.
The forest once belonged to the Yupik who were a tribe of Native Americans but after thousands of years, the Russians colonized the lands as their own. The Russians had pillaged the tribe, who were not willing to give their home up easily and annexed the forestland. On the day the Yupik lost their battle, their chief who was also a shaman, cursed the Russians and Forest Amata. Chief Uqvik swore that no man who ever walked the forest would see it live again.
***
Agnes lived in a quiet cul-de-sac street located in Alaska. It was the summer of 1983, and a new batch of milk cartons had been delivered to her doorstep that morning. It was no news to her when she saw the face of a friend printed on the cardboard carton, her teacher and the police had already come to visit her high school the week before to ask the children if they had any information on the location of Janie. Janie usually sat next to Agnes in mathematics class, Agnes knew that Janie liked stickers and stationery, but she did not know where Janie had gone.
Agnes heaved the cartons of milk to the kitchen where her father was sitting. His fingers clasped onto that Sunday’s newspaper. When she sat at the table in a heavy wooden chair she caught sight of Janie’s face on the front paper, the headline titled ‘Another Child Gone Missing’. Her father quickly closed the paper and placed it on the chair beside him, away from Agnes’ view.
“How are you, Agnes?” He asked slowly, with a concerned tone as he watched her curiously through his spectacles. His hair was dark, with silver streaks and his skin was pale. He looked tired.
Agnes shrugged her shoulders and pursed her lips before speaking, “I’m okay dad, I just hope Janie gets back home soon”, she answered. She tried to force a smile as she sat uncomfortably at the table. Her eyes were edging towards the chair beside her fathers, she wanted to know if there were any new updates on the case.
“I hope so too Ladybug,” her dad continued, “I can only imagine what her parents must be going through right now. I was thinking of driving by and dropping off a tray of food before I join the search team with them tonight. They must be busy,” Agnes’ father told her.
Agnes nodded her head at her dad, her mouth curved upwards at one corner. She knew her father was a good man and an even better cook. He wasn’t always great in the kitchen, he had told her, it was her mother who usually cooked for them all until she left when Agnes was five.
“Can I come help look for Janie too?” Agnes asked.
Her father sighed, scratched his forehead lightly, and covered his mouth with his hand. “No Agnes, I’m sorry but these kinds of things aren’t for kids.” He told her.
Agnes huffed disappointedly and crossed her arms. Her chest was growing tighter, and her eyes were becoming misty. “I’m fifteen Dad,” she tried to plead calmly. “I can help,” she appealed.
“I’d feel much safer if you were at home, Ladybug, I need to focus on where I’m looking and I don’t want you to end up like Janie, as much as I hate to say it,” her dad ordered.
“Do you think Janie’s dead?” Agnes asked, a tear dropped from the corner of her eye.
Her father wheezed and quickly looked down at the table, before looking at Agnes again. “I wouldn’t ever imagine saying it, Agnes. She’s got to come home,” he told her. Agnes couldn’t control it any longer, she began sobbing in her chair and her father moved to wrap his arms around her. “There, there Ladybug, whatever happens we’ll all get through this together,” he consoled her. Agnes moved in her chair to hug her father, as he rubbed her upper back, there was a knocking on the front door.
“I’ll just go get that, Agnes, stay here,” her father told her. Agnes watched as her father left the kitchen, she heard the front door creaking open, then the muffled sound of a voice. Her father spoke back, though she couldn’t understand a word he was saying. He returned to the entrance of the kitchen a few moments later.
“That’s Timmy and Tiffany at the door,” her father said, he looked to the side and scrunched up his face a few times in thought. “They said their mom sent them here to see if you wanted to go out and play,” he told her. He tightened his lips again and took in a deep breath of air. “What do you think, Ladybug? Do you want to go outside and play?” He asked her.
Agnes thought for a moment. “Won’t you be worried?” She probed. Her father shook his head.
“Don’t be worried about me, Agnes, it’s my job to worry about you. It can’t be easy sitting around the house all day with everything going on. If you want to play, then go, but make sure you’re back before it gets dark out,” he told her.
Agnes nodded her head. “Okay then, I’ll go out and play with Timmy and Tiffany,” she agreed. She raised from her seat and began walking towards the kitchen door.
“Make sure you take a coat in case it gets cold,” her father called out as she walked past him.
“It’s the blazing summer dad, I doubt I need a jacket,” she told him, though she took her yellow coat from the peg by the front door and held it under the crease of her forearm. Her dad followed her to the front door and smiled warmly at her.
“Be safe, and make sure you stay with Timmy and Tiffany, I love you lots, Ladybug.” Her father bid her goodbye.
“I love you too dad, I’ll be home soon,” she replied. She opened the front door and closed it lightly behind her.
Timmy and Tiffany were waiting at the bottom step of her front door. They smiled sadly at her as they greeted her.
“Hey, Agnes, how’s it going?” Tiffany asked Agnes. The three of them began walking slowly down her lawn and onto the street pavement.
“I’ve been doing okay,” Agnes answered.
“It’s a bit scary, right?” Timmy added.
Agnes nodded her head in agreement. “Very,” she answered.
“I couldn’t sleep last night, neither did Tiffany, our mom says that the fresh air could do us some good,” Timmy continued. He looked at Agnes and tried to smile hopefully as they walked down the street leading out of the cul-de-sac.
“I hope we didn’t bother you,” Tiffany spoke sadly.
“Not at all,” Agnes replied, “It’s nice to get out too.”
They paced in silence as a million different thoughts about Janie ran through their minds. As they turned to another road, Agnes finally broke the silence.
“Where are we going?” She asked.
“Our mom said we should go to the park, it’s close by to our house and she can check on us there,” Tiffany answered.
Agnes liked the park. It had swings, a brass horse that rocked on springs, and a roundabout. The only thing that was meddling and stuck out like a scraped knee was, Forest Amata, it gloomily stood across the street from the park. The forest was directly in view from the playground and the place looked neglected and derelict. On windy days the dust from the ground would roll out from the large iron entrance of the forest and get in the eyes of people and force them to cough. The three kids had heard stories from the other kids at school. The tales were growing more popular those days, Agnes had heard many different stories from different teens. Some said there were monsters in the woods, others said that they could hear the trees crying at night, most of them said that that was where the missing people had gone.
As they reached the park, Agnes looked over her shoulder at Forest Amata and shoved her hand deep into her jeans pocket. It was a sunny day, but dark clouds loomed above it. She felt herself shiver as the place chilled her bones.
“Did you two hear anything more about that forest?” Agnes asked them quietly, as they sat down on the swing set. She folded her coat and placed it neatly down onto the floor.
“Huh? Oh, that forest,” Timmy replied. “Don’t tell me you believe those rumours,” he told her.
Timmy moved his feet backwards with force, then held his feet above the ground as he began to swing. Tiffany did the same, but Agnes stayed firmly in place, staring at the old woods.
“You’ve got to admit somethings up with that place. Look at those clouds, it’s almost seventy degrees and those clouds aren’t anywhere else,” she said.
“Sorry Agnes! I can’t really hear you with all this wind in my ears,” Timmy called out playfully, the sound of the breeze could be heard through his throat.
Agnes rolled her eyes and kicked her feet backwards; she began to swing slowly, as she built up momentum to swing faster. The three swung in silence apart for some cheers, until the sound of Timmy’s feet booting onto the ground became audible. Agnes turned her head to the side where Timmy had been swinging but it was hard to look as she moved through the air.
“Wait, you two! Would you listen to me for a second?” Timmy yelled out.
Agnes dropped her feet to the floor and tried with her strength to get the swing to settle. Tiffany had regained her balance first.
“What is it?” Tiffany asked loudly as Agnes continued to find her grip to the ground.
“What if Janie’s gotten lost in the forest?” Timmy asked. Agnes finally anchored herself to the ground, she swayed in her seat to look towards Timmy and Tiffany.
“Oh, I was finally having fun, Timmy, why’d you have to bring that up now?” Tiffany moaned.
Timmy held on tighter to the chains of the swing and shrugged his shoulders. “I was just thinking, nobody ever looks in that forest for the missing people,” Timmy answered.
“That’s true, why are the adults scared of the forest too?” Agnes asked.
“Maybe it’s not that they’re scared, maybe it’s that they haven’t thought of it yet,” Timmy replied.
“Not true,” Agnes answered defiantly, “they’ve had people telling the cops that the forest was the last place some of those missing people were seen,” she stated.
“So, there is something wrong with the forest,” Tiffany responded nervously.
Agnes moved in the swing seat to look at Tiffany’s face, she nodded her head at her. “Obviously there is,” she replied curiously.
“Well, why aren’t the cops looking?” Timmy butted in with an annoyed tone. Both the girls shrugged their shoulders unknowingly, Agnes shook her head and Tiffany looked at the ground. “Well, that’s just garbage! That’s got to be illegal to not even look! Janie could be in there!” Timmy continued ranting.
Agnes sighed and tilted her head. “You’re right Timmy, but what can we do? We’re only kids. Maybe I can mention it to my dad to ask the police at the search party tonight,” she suggested.
Timmy let go of the swings chains and folded his arms against his chest. “We’re here now, why don’t we just take a look?” Timmy proposed.
“You’re crazy Timmy, the police have weapons and even they don’t look, what can we do?” Tiffany declined boldly.
“Let’s just look through the gates if you’re chickens, maybe we might see something,” Timmy countered, he got up from the swing with his arms still crossed and looked at the two girls.
“Aren’t you chicken?” Tiffany responded. Timmy smiled at her.
“We’re not going to go in,” Timmy answered.
“Fine, then let’s go and look,” Tiffany agreed. She got up from the swing set and Timmy and Tiffany started walking towards the direction of Forest Amata.
“Guys, I’m still sitting here,” Agnes replied, “I’m not going with you both, that’s crazy,” Agnes protested.
“Well come on Agnes, get up! You wait a few feet away from the forest if you’re scared but I miss my friend!” Tiffany called back towards Agnes.
Agnes held her hands together in her lap tightly as she thought. She knew she wanted to stay away from the forest, but she also missed her friend and wanted her to come home too. She finally got up from the swings, picked her coat up from the floor, and cantered towards Timmy and Tiffany. Tiffany smiled weakly at Agnes when she caught up with them.
They moved across the street and carefully towards the gates of the forest. The ground of the pavement was different, it was covered in grains of mud and the concrete had cracks. It looked as though no one had paid it any attention in centuries. The three felt their chest tightening as they moved closer and closer, their breathing had become panicked. Tiffany stood still in her tracks.
“Wait guys, are you sure we should be doing this?” She asked them.
“We’re only taking a look,” Timmy answered but he sounded as scared as she did. “You wait behind then,” he continued considerately, “and you too Agnes, I’ll take a look.” Agnes moved closer to Timmy so that their shoulders rubbed.
“I’m coming with you,” Agnes replied.
“Then I’ll come too,” Tiffany decided.
They continued to move. Once they reached the iron gates nothing phenomenal happened. There were no scary monsters racing to cling onto the gate from the alert of the teenagers presence. There were no strikes of thunder, nor rain falling from the clouds. There were no people, no birds, no animals. Nothing unusual beside the place looking extremely unloved. The stories they had heard lingered in their minds as they peered through the gaps of the gate. Agnes and Tiffany looked at each other, more interested than they were before. Timmy continued examining the forest through the gaps in the gates, before turning towards Agnes and Tiffany.
“Nothing seems weird about the place at all,” Timmy began speaking, “It just looks really gross in there,” he finished stating.
“Right, I expected more to be honest,” Agnes agreed.
“So why don’t they look here? There’s nothing scary at all, it’s just a forest that needs to be gardened,” Tiffany added.
The group grew thoughtful for a moment, then Timmy spoke again, “Should we just go in?” He suggested nervously.
“I’m not sure, how would we even get in? Its closed properly with all these bolts and chains,” Agnes answered, she tugged lightly on one of the chains, the entrance was closed stiff.
“It’s not that high, we could definitely climb over,” Timmy replied.
“We could but, I don’t know, I think I should just tell my dad when I go home. Isn’t your mom going to check up on us soon? She would be worried if she came out and we weren’t at the park,” Agnes responded.
“We could be quick, how big is this forest anyway?” Timmy continued.
Tiffany placed her hand onto her opposite forearm and breathed in deeply. “It must be big,” she spoke quietly.
“So, we’ll just look around,” Timmy ushered. “Look, I’ll go in if you’re both scared and check the place out and you guys just wait right here for me,” Timmy resolved.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea Timmy,” Tiffany disagreed. “I’ll come with you and Agnes can wait here, just in case we don’t make it out,” she tried to say light-heartedly.
“Don’t make jokes like that Tiffany,” Agnes scolded as she choked on her miserable feeling. “We can’t go in there guys, what if Janie and those missing people really are-”
“Look, I’m just going to go, I’m a boy anyway I can handle myself,” Timmy determinedly cut into Agnes’ sentence.
He began to place his feet onto a part of the bottom of the iron gate to lift himself higher towards the top of the gate. He reached his hands above his head and pulled himself up to the top, then he used the strength of his arms and knees to balance on the top of the gate. Without saying a word, he used his hands to hold onto the top of the gate, before dropping down with his hands still attached to the metal. Then he carefully loosened his hands and fell to the bottom of the other side of the gate with a loud thud as he landed on the ground.
“Are you crazy Timmy?” Tiffany yelled out with annoyance. “You can’t go in there alone, how am I supposed to get over there?”
Timmy looked uneasily through the gates. He looked weak, shadowed in the darkness from the other side, where the clouds stole the daylight.
“Look Tiffany, I don’t really want you to come over here. Would you two girls please just wait here for me to get back?” He asked them confidently, but before they could answer he turned around and ran from their views.
“That crazy brother of mine!” Tiffany cried rabidly. She was shaking from the shock and fear. “I don’t know what to do Agnes, I can’t leave my brother alone in there,” she continued lamenting. “I’ve got to go in there!”
“Maybe we should tell your mom, you live on this street, right?” Agnes tried to reason with Tiffany.
“Then my brother will get into trouble!” Tiffany retorted back. She had already started to climb the gate the same way her brother had.
“Wait, Tiffany, then wait for me, let me come with you,” Agnes exclaimed, her voice breaking in alarm.
Agnes moved her foot onto the bottom of the iron entrance, the tears had already started to stream down from her eyes. She put the other foot up then she gripped onto the top of the gate and lugged her body upwards. Her face was turning red from her efforts and distress. Through her panic she lost her balance at the top of the iron gate, and she crashed down onto the ground of the other side, losing her vision for a short moment.
“Are you okay?”
Tiffany stood above Agnes, as Agnes laid on her back on the floor. Agnes held a hand onto her head, Tiffany bent down towards her and raised her hand out. “Look, take my hand Agnes, are you hurt?” Tiffany continued speaking.
Agnes rolled her shoulders and stretched her back, “I don’t think so, maybe a graze,” Agnes answered, she took Tiffany’s hand and Tiffany pulled Agnes back to her feet. When Agnes was sturdy, Tiffany drew Agnes into a tight hug.
“I didn’t mean to make you come over here Agnes, I just need to find my brother,” Tiffany sobbed.
“Then we’d better go look,” Agnes tried to say optimistically, “he can’t have gone far.” They tugged away from each other and began walking through Forest Amata.
On the other side of the gates the forest looked even more dejected. There was no grass, only moulding brown grounds and the weeping willow trees sagged glumly towards the ground with no leaves to be seen, even though it were the peak of the summer months. There were no leaves on the floor either, just the cracked dirt and fallen twigs from the branches. The atmosphere was colder too, the temperature seemed to have dropped to around four degrees.
“Timmy!” Tiffany called out as they moved through the path of the forest. The trees began to sway to the sound of her voice.
“Timmy!” Agnes called out too. The trees swayed again; it sounded as though the trees were whispering back to them. It was a humanlike groaning sound that became muffled by the sound of crackling. Tiffany turned to look at Agnes with a frown on her face.
“Do you hear that?” She asked Agnes. Agnes looked at Tiffany with a similar expression.
“I hear it, are those the trees?” Agnes answered.
“Oh, I don’t like this Agnes, I hope these silly stories aren’t true,” Tiffany croaked.
“TIMMY!” Tiffany yelled out again, at the top of her lungs that time. The trees rocked even faster, the noises they made grew louder. This time they gave out a high-pitched whirring sound, it sounded as though Tiffany’s voice was in the echoes. “What is this place?” Tiffany asked angrily. She turned around in a circle as she looked around. They hadn’t moved that far into the forest, yet somehow, she couldn’t see the gates anymore.
“Where has the gate gone?” Tiffany wailed in panic.
Through a sizzling sound, the trees livened again. Their words became understandable this time, the trees had said “Where has the gate gone?” Except there were many different voices, then once they had spoken Tiffany’s voice could be heard in the reverberation. Tiffanys shoulders tightened, the colour had washed from her face, and she looked at Agnes with a stone-grey complexion Agnes could not speak from the fear.
“Where has the gate gone?” Tiffany repeated in a whisper, her eyes narrowed accusingly through her tears. The trees began moving again, they teased Tiffany by replaying her words quietly.
“Lets… just… find your brother… and leave please,” Agnes stammered. She felt bumps raising on her forearms from the cold breeze. She held on tighter to her coat.
There was a loud crunching sound, then the trees answered simultaneously “Let’s… just… find your brother… and leave please,” they groaned.
Tiffany sobbed even harder; she moved madly through the forest as she searched for her brother. Agnes followed close behind her, examining the trees as they moved. It wasn’t long before they reached the furthest side of the forest, and it didn’t seem to them that they had done much walking. Except there was nothing on the other side of the gates of the forest, there were no places to go, just the large boulders of a mountain.
“We can’t get out from here,” Tiffany panicked, “where has my brother gone?” She whimpered. The trees began to crackle and speak again.
“I don’t know, Tiffany” Agnes yelled as she tried to drown out the noise of the willow trees. “Let’s just go back the way we came, maybe he’s already left!” She shouted.
The trees were blaring as they imitated Agnes’ voice. They moved aggressively, making the ground underneath the two girls feet crack.
“It’s not safe here,” Agnes continued, “let’s just leave and don’t touch those trees!” She ordered. She turned around on her feet and paced the route where they had just come. They rushed around for twenty minutes, before they agreed that they had spent longer trying to find their way out than they had spent making their way to the back of the forest.
“This can’t be happening! Where is my brother?” Tiffany shrieked. She fell onto her knees on the muddied ground and held her head in her hands. She began tugging at the sides of her hair. Agnes got down beside Tiffany and placed an arm around Tiffany’s shoulder.
“We must stay calm Tiffany; we’re just going to tire ourselves out. I can’t even tell if its daytime or night anymore, these clouds above us are so dark,” she tried to console Tiffany. She looked up towards the sky, she couldn’t see where the sky became blue from the summer outside.
The trees began hissing again, they were bubbling and rustling. That time they played back a different dialogue.
“Are you looking for the way out?” A tree had spoke. Both girls eyes widened with shock as they looked at the trees around them. They couldn’t tell which singular tree had spoken.
“Who was that?” Agnes asked unsurely. Tiffany poked Agnes’ side and stared her down with a sour expression.
“Have you lost your mind?” Tiffany murmured back to Agnes.
“Shhh…” the trees all urged Tiffany as their branches moved. There was the sound of a twig breaking coming from behind the girls.
“It was I,” the singular tree spoke again. The girls heads moved to the sound, but there were still too many trees to tell.
“No, it was me,” another tree spoke from the opposite direction.
“It was all of us,” all the trees spoke at once.
“No, no, NO!” Tiffany screeched. “I can’t handle this, Agnes; I really need to get out of here!” She continued; saliva was spraying from her mouth. She looked around at the floor around her and picked up a thick bough from the ground. She stomped towards the closest tree and started to bash the bough against the tree aggressively. “You tell me how I get out now!” She demanded as she thumped it.
The bough moved out of her hands as though something had pulled it from her. It hurled away from her and clashed into something metal. When Agnes and Tiffany looked towards the sound of the clambering, they saw the iron gates of the entrance to Forest Amata.
“Oh my God!” Tiffany rejoiced. “I can’t believe it,” she said through cries of happiness.
Agnes was crying from joy too, she jumped to her feet and the two girls began racing towards the entrance. As they ran, the trees all giggled and hooted. Agnes and Tiffany ignored them, their eyes were set forwards on the gate. Though when they reached it, they learned they were a mile backwards. That gate was not the entrance, but the back side of the forest.
“I know I saw the sun shining on the other side of that gate, where has it gone? What is happening here?” Agnes wailed.
The trees left no time for Tiffany to reply to her friend, they had perked up again. “It was all of us!” The trees whined, “we couldn’t find our way out,” they hissed bitterly.
“This is insanity!” Tiffany shrieked.
“Let’s just turn around and run straight the way behind us,” Agnes told her angrily.
They began to run. They ran until they felt they could no more and still ran when they felt exhaustion. The trees were all around them and their fear told them they could stand still no longer.
“You can’t leave us!” The trees wailed. “We miss our families too,” they groaned greedily.
The girls still ran. Agnes was further ahead than Tiffany was. After what felt to them to be ten minutes of running, Tiffany abruptly burst out into screams. Agnes turned behind her to find out what had caused her friend to scream, and when she had turned around, she saw Tiffany’s feet suspended in the air. She raised her head upwards in tremor, to inspect what had happened to Tiffany. A tree had wrapped its branches around Tiffany’s shoulders and had dragged her into the air. All too quickly, the tree towed Tiffany towards it and swallowed her into its roots.
“Tiffany?” Agnes called out quietly, the shock had captured her voice.
There was silence. The trees did not move, and they did not make a sound. Agnes gulped.
“Tiffany!” She yelled out that time. She heard something moving behind her, though when she turned, she did not see anything. She moved her head back around and began to run in the direction they had headed. Though, when she lifted her foot up, something had wrapped around her ankle and pulled her down to the ground. She turned her face into the side of the mud and raised her leg. The tree had bounded its branch around her. It began dragging her towards its roots as Agnes tried to hold onto the ground with her nails and hands. She tried banging her feet on the floor to loosen its grip though she were defenceless to the strength of the tree. It had sucked her underground into its roots.
Agnes and Tiffany were still alive under the ground. There they laid under the thick mud, waiting to decompose and become the seeds of the new resident weeping willows of Forest Amata.
