Evie watched as the orange horizon sank lower into the forest. The trees looked like silhouettes against the setting sky, gently swaying in the evening breeze. Snapping out of her daze, Evie realised how dark it was getting, and decided it was time to start heading back home.

Turning around on the dusty trail, she turned back, sighing gently wishing she could stay and watch the stars slowly appear in the darkness. When she was a child, Evie and her mother used to go for hikes up through the forest behind her house, bringing picknicks and lemonade.

They used to sit on the cliff at the end of the forest all day, and into the evening, watching the stars rise and the sun set. Ever since her mother mysteriously disappeared last year, she came up her almost every afternoon by herself, and watch the stars rise alone, wishing that one day her mother would return, smiling at me with her bright smile, and laughing cheerfully like she did at my not funny jokes.

Evie came to a sudden stand still, realising the trees around her had become denser, the leaves had become damper, and the stars in the sky above her had disappeared. In fact, Evie couldn’t even see the night sky through the thick arrange of branches. Looking around in confusion, Evie realised she didn’t recognize her surroundings. The forest didn’t look magical, and inviting like she was used to. Instead, it looked, dark and creepy, like a monster was lurking just behind the shadows. Her heart racing, Evie looked at her feet and realised that the path had disappeared.

She was lost.

In a fluster, she turned sharply around faced behind her. She tried re-tracing her steps. She remembered she took a right at some point, so she turned. Or was it a left. Practically walking in circles, Evie stopped. Tears threatening to show themselves, Evie took three deep breaths, and remembered what her mother had told her. Find higher ground try to find where you are.

But that was the problem.

Night had fallen, and darkness flooded the atmosphere. It was almost impossible to see, apart from the occasional ray of light caused by stars in a small clearing in the umbrella of trees.

Walking around searching for some familiarity in the forest, Evie felt her foot hit something soft.

Slowly bending down, and feeling the muddy ground, Evie felt her fingers brush something. Something that felt suspiciously like skin. Freaking out, she felt the body in the dirt in front of her.

Feeling for their face, she felt their jaw, before poking their eye. Looking for any sign of life, Evie bent her ear low towards the bodies mouth and listened for breathing. With no luck, she pressed her thumb into their wrist, feeling for a pulse.

Nothing.

Out the corner of her eye, she saw a glint of something that looked strangely like metal. Turning back towards the bodies face, she saw found a necklace laying on the vine curling around the bodies throat. That wasn’t there before.

The vine had appeared out of nowhere… and it was moving. The vine slithered over the body and grabbed it’s legs and arms, beginning to pull it up into the trees. Quickly grabbing the necklace, Evie turned around and ran. S

he ran as fast as her tired legs could take her, whilst inspecting the necklace. It was in the shape of a heart, attached to a long golden chain. Evie smoothed her fingers over the engraving, realising it said her name. Evie. Her mother had an identical heart chain with her name on it. But her mother disappeared… but so must have the body on the forest floor. The body was her mother.

The forest had stolen her mother. A tear finally escaping from her eye, Evie felt the vines grab her ankle, tripping her and causing the necklace to fly out of her hand. “No!”

Trying to crawl after the chain, Evie felt the vine slithering up her back, and the tip of it slowly wrapping itself around her throat. “No…” She said, choking on her words through tears and fright. Evie knew she was going to die.

But she wanted the necklace. She wanted to hold it close to her heart as she died. But the branches had other ideas, pulling her back, squeezing her neck tighter.

Breathing became forced and painful, and Evie felt her scream erupt into the night. Then everything went black. She was falling, falling, falling into abyss.