The new kid hadn’t heard the stories the...

Audio by Paper2Audio

The new kid hadn't heard the stories the rest of them had grown up on, so of course when Jerry bragged about touching a tree in Dowager's Grove she thought she could do better. With bubbling anticipation the group made their way to the edge of the estate and stopped a safe distance from the treeline. Only Robin continued on, bravely ignoring the timid warnings of Estelle who was immediately shushed by the other excited children. The only time she had heard about the grove was when someone had pointed out an old man walking in town. His clothes were worn and hung heavily on his thin frame.

Someone, Robin couldn't remember who, had told her to stay away from him and to stay away from the Grove. As she reached the first tree she looked back at her new friends and saw them huddled together, staring at her nervously. She waved and confidently put her hand on the trunk closest to her. When she did Estelle screamed and the rest of the group likewise started shouting at her in a panic. “Robin, come back! Look out!” She jumped back and looked around her, but there were only more trees and the only sound she heard was her friends yelling. “They're pranking you.

They want you to run back screaming so they can laugh at you.” She thought as she noticed none of them moving closer to help her from the apparent danger she was in. She turned away from them and walked deeper into the grove.

Her plan was to hide in the treeline long enough for them to get actually worried enough to check on her. Then she would jump out to give them a taste of their own medicine. She leaned back against a tree and listened for footsteps. She heard them coming from the opposite direction.

A boy her own age, but not one of her friends, was running backward toward her so fast she thought he would trip. He stopped at the next closest tree and whispered “What are you doing here?”. The voice, though whispered, was high pitched and hard for Robin to understand, like a chittering animal. “What are you doing?

I'm with my friends.” She answered, backing away from the stranger. “Go! You have to go!” A different voice whined from somewhere above. Robin looked up and saw the legs of a girl sitting on a tree branch, her face obscured by leaves. Without a word Robin turned and ran, but after a few steps her foot hit a root and she tumbled to the ground. Within a moment hands were upon her,and she screamed as she looked at the faces of the two children helping her up. They were disfigured, their features stretched and fur covering every inch of skin. Human nostrils sat at the end of snout-like projections of bone and flesh, and an extended fringe of sharp teeth smiled at her from the one covered in amber fur. “Shhh. She'll hear you.” The grey one said, its two black orb eyes scanning the surroundings.

Robin didn't stop screaming and so human hands covered her mouth as more mutilated faces came near them, drawn by the sound. Some had similar jutting snouts, while a few others she saw were flat and scaly with too wide jaws. “What are you doing!” An elderly voice croaked, causing the child like things to drop her. It was the man she had been warned about, a warning she now wished with all her heart she would have followed.

“Child you need to run out of the woods as fast as you can. Carrie make sure she knows the way, the rest of you go make as much noise as you can.” The old man rasped as the creatures scattered. Robin ran, and the girl with the whining voice and amber fur ran with her, pointing to the edge of the grove where Robin touched that first tree. “Mama?” The girl whined as a branch whipped down and plucked her into the air.

Robin saw roots begin to slither on the ground ahead and the air filled with leaves shook from squirming branches. She saw the clearing beyond the treeline, where her group of friends used to be. “Help!” She pleaded to no one as the roots ensnared her ankles and dragged her to the ground. “Someone please help!” Her voice, despite her terror, came out singsongy and musical. The roots pulled her to the trunk of a large tree, whose bark peeled open to embrace her. “I will help you child.” She heard as the pulp of the tree began filling her ears.

She felt her teeth grind together and push out of her mouth, and she felt painful pinpricks all over the skin of her face. “I love you.”