Page 77 of The Woods

Stumbling, trying to catch her breath, Polly watches him slip inside. She’s too afraid to follow. Because of last time. She only sticks her head in the opening and calls out, “Gray?”

“In here,” he calls back

“Can you come out?” Several seconds pass and there’s no answer. She stands up and looks out at the trees around her. She expects one of those shadow figures to materialize out of the bark at any moment. Does she go into the cave, and face whatever Gray is, whatever he is calling her into, or does she go home and live with the whispers?

As if he hears her thoughts, Gray calls out, “Polly. Please come inside so I can explain.”

A small fire is going in the cave, but Gray is nowhere in sight. “Gray, if you don’t come out, I’m leaving!” she yells. Truly fed up with this game of hide-and-seek.

“In here.” His voice comes from a far corner of the cave, where a tall, thin crack marks the rock face. She hadn’t noticed it before, but there’s another passage there.

Don’t, her sister whispers.

Polly knew it was coming. And knows what she needs to do. “I love you so much, but I don’t think it’s really you. I think it’s me, wishing I heard your voice. I think it’s grief.” Polly takes a deep breath. She can’t live like this anymore; she needs to know what Gray is. What her dad and nana have become.

The opening is tight. She has to turn sideways to get through it, and she worries she may get stuck, but after about five feet the passage opens up and she stumbles out into an open space. This one is bigger and has two fires burning. Polly turns in a circle, taking it in. There are strange markings on the walls in what looks like rust-colored paint. Not words but symbols. The ceiling of the cave is so high up, the light doesn’t reach it.

“Gray?” she says again, this time with a quiver of fear.

“I’m right here, Polly.” He steps from shadows into the light.

The sight of him relieves something in her. She’s no longer alone in here. She walks toward him, and something crunches underfoot. Glancing down, she finds the ground littered with bones of all sizes, some as small as chicken bones, some much bigger.

“Oh my God! What the fuck is this place?” She slowly moves back to the crack she’s just emerged from.

Run.

Before she can turn and obey, a hand comes down hard on her shoulder. Even through her coat, she can feel the long, thin fingers digging into her flesh, and she can smell it—wet earth and sulfur.

She tries to pull free, but her body is frozen in place. She can’t move any part of it. She tries to open her mouth to scream, but her lips are immovable, and no sound comes from her throat. Her body struggles, but it’s all in her mind; she’s not moving a muscle. Except her tear ducts. They’re working. Tears spring to her eyes and slide down her cheeks.

That iron grasp turns her so that she’s looking at Gray.

Gray crosses the cave to stand in front of her. He cups her face with both hands and wipes her tears away with his thumbs, which only makes them fall faster. “Please don’t cry, Polly. You’re not in any danger, I promise. In fact,” he says, with a smile, “everything is going to be better now.”

Taking in the sharp angles of his face, the depth of his deep, round, green eyes, the perfect bow of his lips, she is moved again by his beauty. He is as flesh-and-blood as any boy she’s been with, and she perfectly remembers the lightness of his touch and the chill of his fingers and lips on her skin.

“I’m sorry the plan didn’t work,” he carries on, still wiping at her tears with his thumbs, as though his touch were consensual, as though they’re having a normal conversation and she’s not been bewitched by something malevolent behind her.

“You weren’t supposed to find out who I was. At least not while you were pregnant. Not until after the baby was born.” His words make her want to squeeze her eyes shut against him, but she can’t. There is no misunderstanding, no imagining on her part. He is exactly who she was afraid he was, and he intended to get her pregnant. “That séance was a bad idea. I don’t understand people who play around with things like that. They’re just asking for trouble.

“And you do know what it would have meant if you had given birth?” He pauses for her answer, as though she were able to provide one. “No? It would have meant that the woods could reproduce. Create life beyond its own ecosystem.” He leans in close to her. “The woods have been a place of rebirth for many, but what we created, together, it could have been completely new. A product of the soil and trees and air and wildlife of this magical place. Wouldn’t that have been wonderful?”

Polly’s on the verge of fainting. She’s lightheaded, and bile is burning up the back of her throat. Will whatever spell she’s under keep the vomit from rising, or will she choke on it?

Gray must sense what is happening inside her, because he moves close to her again and strokes her hair as though that will soothe her. “I don’t blame you, though. You didn’t know what you were doing and, in the end, maybe it was for the best. Now the woods will fix everything. They always do.”

The walls of the cave behind him darken and blur and shift. Three tall figures, cloaked in shadow, materialize out of the cave walls. They are like those who stood above her and Gray when they were having sex, like the one who attacked her on Halloween night.

“You know the woods saved me, right?” Gray gestures to the figures behind him. “When my mother poisoned me, they saved me from her.” He frowns and shakes his head, a look of pain crossing his face. “I forgive my mother though. She didn’t know what she was doing. She didn’t realize that me and my dad and my brother, we were all better when we came back from the woods. Better.

“I was in so much pain, and I was afraid she would find me and finish the job. And that’s how they found me.” The shadowy figures behind Gray are so still, they appear rooted.

“They brought me to this cave. They let my physical body die and they resurrected my spirit, and I became a true creature of these woods.” His whole face lights up and he moves closer to Polly with excitement in his eyes. “They freed me from the material world, released me from its pain and greed. Now they are my mothers. I’m bound to them and this place, but at the same time I am free.” He nods at her. “You’ll see soon enough.”

The figures drift forward. She is screaming and fighting inside, but her body is like stone. Each of the three figures reaches up and pulls back their dark hood. Polly’s desperate to close her eyes against the sight of them, but she can’t.

The sight she will never unsee.