In the middle of the forest, far away from the rest of the world, lived a mother and father with their darling daughter. The father was a stout, round man who boasted a thinning head of blackish-gray hair, a glorious mustache, and a constant bright red glow on his cheeks, nose and ears. The mother was the near opposite, with a tall, defined figure, thick blonde hair, but a constantly pale and sunken appearance to her face. While they both possessed deep brown eyes, their daughter inherited a paralyzing green color as well as the rosy face of her father and the mother’s lovely blonde hair.

In this forest the family stayed in a cozy wooden cottage, marked by a warm, bright fire constantly burning out front atop a stone pillar. Believe it or not, this was no normal cottage, but rather a mystical house which was able to grant them anything they could possibly need. It would cook their meals, it would give them water, it would even make their beds. In every sense of the word it should be a paradise, but the young daughter was still not happy. She wanted freedom, excitement, and the lonely, homely home didn’t appeal to her. She would always leave the house to go play outside, but every day her mother would always warn her, “Whatever you do darling, don’t lose sight of the guiding flame or I will lose you as well.” 

The young girl made sure to always keep it visible, but as the days went on she only grew ever more daring. At first, she would be scared to even run and sit under the trees just barely out of arm’s reach of the house, but the inevitable allure of the forest eventually called to her strongly enough. Here she was happy once again, but of course, the better sticks were out further into the wood. What harm could it do to run and play a little further? The endless view of trees and sticks slowly would slowly lose their appeal as well, but not too much further out was a lovely stream perfect for splashing around in. With each few passing days the fire in the distance grew smaller and smaller in the distance. 

One day, while the girl was far out from the house climbing the largest tree in the forest she could possibly see, she heard laughter in the distance, away from the house. Not the chatter of animals, not a strange wind whistling through the trees, but the unmistakable sound of human laughter. Frightened, the girl ran all the way back to her house and cried to her parents who scolded her rather than providing their sympathy.

“I told you not to run so far into our woods,” said the mother.

“Are you trying to get lost?” added the father.

After this, the girl was made to stay inside and was forbidden from leaving the house alone ever again, but boredom took over her mind and willed her to open the door and run off to the excitement of the outdoors, but she did not want to disobey her parents. On the other hand, she knew she heard the laughter, human laughter, so there must be people out there who can live just fine. All of this weighed on her mind, and one day, late at night, she heard a knock on her bedroom window. 

“Come out and play with us,” sounded a young boy’s voice. “Come out and play, c’mon! The moon is still bright in the sky!”

The girl ran to her window to look outside but saw nobody there. Of course, her parents were asleep, and if she were to leave as quick as could be just to take a peek and come back then nobody would ever know. This thought excited her. A chance, if only a small one, to once again feel the smooth outside air and climb the tall trees. These thoughts puppeted her body all the way to the front door where she dashed through and looked around, expecting to see somebody, but she did not.

“Hello?” the girl whispered out into the world, but nothing happened.

“Hello? Is anybody there?” the girl said louder this time. The silence echoed through her head and her thoughts ran rampant. You were too loud! Too loud! They’ll know! They’ll know! Maybe they realized they don’t like you. Not like you. The girl slowly inched backwards towards the door, looking back and forth, back and forth around her, trying desperately to keep her footsteps as quietly as physically possible.

Suddenly, just as she was about to walk back into the house, she saw a young boy, seemingly around the same age as her, peeking out behind the guiding flame. He had long black hair that ran down to his waist and a pair of wide brow eyes filled with fear. He motioned with his hand for her to come over to him.

“Come, quickly,” he whispered. “We haven’t much time.” The girl turned around and took a look at her house. The smooth wood walls, the luscious carpet she would play around on with her various toys while she was little, the familiar paintings on the walls, both her mothers as well as her own stick figure families on display. She gave a deep sight, and turned it all away to walk towards the boy. A smile stretched across her face, one she hadn’t felt since her parents had locked her ways inside.

“Hi, what’s your name?” she said to the boy.

“Sherry, I need you to run,” the boy replied. “Run far, far away.”

“Very funny, but you’re avoiding the question. And how do you know my name already, silly?”

“RUN!” he yelled before turning around and dashing away as fast as he could into the forest.

“Wait up!” she yelled back as she lifted her nightgown and started after him. As they ran, the distance between the two only grew, and they went further and further away from everything she knew. She recognized landmarks here and there, but eventually they had run far enough so that nothing remained familiar to her. She would shout to the boy over and over, but he would never respond, only leading them even deeper into the unknown. Suddenly, she tripped over the root of a tree blocking her path and tumbled over into the dirt. She was unhurt, but, as she stood up and brushed herself off, she realized the boy was nowhere to be seen, but that was not the only thing that had been lost from her sight. As she turned around, she saw the guiding flame had disappeared as well. She was alone.

“Hello?” she once again called out to the emptiness. “Where did you go? Please?” She stood there for a bit longer before the tears began to run down her face. “I just want to go home,” she choked out as she fell to her knees.

After a few minutes of crying, she wiped the tears from her face and stood herself up. These woods were her life, surely she could find her way out, so she turned around and tried to retrace her steps. Past a bush there, surely around that tree over there, over that vine, down the hill. Or was it that tree she was supposed to go around? And on second thought, were there ever any hills on the way? Despite her uncertainty, she decided to keep walking on. After all, the trees couldn’t go on forever, and surely she would find something eventually. She was so focused on her navigation that she barely even noticed the forest warping around her. The trees writhed and shifted, almost reaching out to grab her. The leaves turned gray and fell off as a mush, leaving a squelching sound following her every step. 

She continued on like this for a while, just intent on finding her way out of her predicament. This continued on for three days, with her only barely stopping to sleep and having no food or water. With her weakness from the malnutrition worsened by the constant walking, she continued to drag herself onwards until she could no more, collapsing into the gray mush at her feet. There she sat for a few seconds, catching her breath. Her throat felt like the desert, a hot, sand-like scratchiness cutting at the back of her throat every time she went to swallow. Her stomach was crying out for food, threatening to consume everything around itself like a black hole until the girl was no more. 

Finally, she looked up, finally able to pay attention to the world around her, and her eyes opened wide. The trees, each splayed out to form a circle around her, bore a painfully contorted face ingrained in their fibers. The agony still left visible on their faces; wide open eye sockets, teeth bared in a grimace, and a black, tar-like substance running out of each of the trees. The girl tried to get up and run, but she was still far too weak for her own ability and tripped over her own feet. She tried to push herself up with her arms, but a sudden, sharp pain in her back had her collapse to the ground once again.

“It seems my advice has fallen on deaf ears,”the unmistakable voice behind her called out. “I gave you everything you would ever need. I gave you shelter, I gave you food, I gave you water, I gave you my love, and yet you still needed more. 

“Mother,” the girl cried. “I’m so sorry, I’ll never leave again. Please.”

“I believe you, sweetheart, I really do. But I cannot take you back. The forest hungers, and once it has felt the flesh of an outsider, it must have its preeminence. After all, you are your father’s child. For your disobedience, you must now face your mother’s wrath.”

“Please mom, I’ll do-” the girl was cut short as the breath left her lungs from another impact behind her. The gray mush wrapped around her arms and legs, hardening until she could move no more.

“Maybe in a hundred years you’ll have learned your manners,” the mother cried, no longer calm and condescending but shrill and intense. 

The girl tried to scream but her throat turned hard. She tried to writhe and kick and scratch at her shackles, but she slowly lost more and more mobility in her limbs as they began to melt into the ground around her. Flesh sloughed off, revealing bone and sinew, fading away as the gray mass consumed her more and more. Soon enough, all that was left in her place was a small sapling. 

“Remember this, child,” said the witch. “Mother knows best.”