The Blackthorn Woods

1.

Never. Ever. Go into the woods.

He grew up hearing those words over and over, and being the good boy that he was, the boy always obeyed his father’s few demands. Not that he would want to anyway. The Blackthorn Woods were dark and scary, not a place for little boys to wander off to.

How strange though, that same phrase would come to him again as his father’s dying words.

Never. Ever. Go into the woods.

He had completely forgotten about the great woods near his childhood home. He was a man now, with a wife and two kids of his own, an 18 month old daughter, and a 6 month old son. So why shouldn’t he go into the woods?

Growing up without a mother was difficult. His father was not a cruel man, but he was stern and expected the boy to do as he was told. Being an only child with a widower father meant that plenty of chores fell upon the boy. Playing outside always had to wait.

The smaller tasks were easy enough. Keeping the floor swept, hauling in water from the well, feeding the horse, gathering eggs, and keeping the fire going in their quaint cottage during the colder months. It was the bigger chores he hated: Splitting wood, thatching the roof, repairing the wagon, removing snow. He never had to do the bigger jobs alone, but he didn’t get out of helping either. One day you’ll be a man, his father would say, and you’ll have to do this on your own then. So enjoy having the help now.

The old man wasn’t wrong though. Even though those days were long gone, 10 years or so now, the words rang true. After marrying and moving away from his father, those chores fell to him. There was even more work to do now, with four mouths to feed instead of just the two when it was just his father and him. The man, no longer a boy, understood though and did not curse the work, for it meant that he had a family of his own, and his children would grow up with both a father and a mother.

The man wished he had a chance to meet his mother though. She died before he ever had memories of her, and his father would never go into detail. You could see pain flickering in his father’s eyes and his mouth would twist in despair, It’s too hard to think about is all he would ever say. Now he wished he had more time with father, but that too was futile. At least he made it in time to say goodbye. Now he had another hard chore, burying his father.

2.

After burying his father at the nearby town’s cemetery, it was time to decide what to do about the cottage. His wife and he were already settled in their own home and having a second did not make sense to the man. So it was at that point he decided not to keep it, but he needed to clean it out first of his father’s belongings. In doing so, he came upon a dusty notebook, quietly hidden away, one he never knew about. After brushing off the dust, he saw his father’s name scrawled on the cover. A journal belonging to his father!

He quickly skimmed the pages but eventually settled on the last entries.

My son is finally old enough to be weaned off of my wife’s milk, much faster than my first. I’m going to take a walk tomorrow. Maybe go explore those woods nearby. No one ever goes there. I’m sure there’s a lot of wildlife that hides there. It could be a good place to hunt for food for my family.

What did he mean by the first? Was he not his father’s only child? This must have been before he married the man’s mother for there was never any talk of any siblings. These were questions that could no longer be answered now that his father was gone, and so the man continued to the next passage.

I went to the woods today and you would not believe what I found! Real life fairies! I barely had a chance to see them flutter about and disappear deeper into the woods before it began to get dark and I had to head home. Tomorrow I want to seek them out and later bring my wife to see. She would absolutely love them. I wonder what delights they hold!

That was the last entry. Nothing after that, no further explanation of what he saw or if he ever found those creatures again. Besides, what did he mean by real fairies? Fairies didn’t exist in this world, and if they did, people would be flocking to the Blackthorn Woods. Not to mention that his father always warned him to never go in the woods. It simply didn’t make sense.

Tomorrow then. Tomorrow he would set out for the woods he was never allowed to go to. Tomorrow he would finally understand why his father didn’t want him going into those woods.

3.

At first light the man began his trip to the woods. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t afraid, years of indoctrination were not easy to shake off. The man was determined though. At worst, he would find out that his father simply mistook birds for fairies, at best well, he tried not to think too much about that. Fairies weren’t real, right?

After a few hours inside the Blackthorn Woods, nothing seemed different. Just another expanse of trees, the same as all the others. Then out of the corner of his eye, he saw something. A colorful bird it must be, he told himself, but the idea that it could in fact be fairy would not leave his brain. So he began to head in the same direction it went. After a few minutes he saw it again, and this time there was no mistaking it, a real life fairy!

Hello? He called out nervously. The fairy quickly looked his way, saw the man, and grinned. Without saying a word, the fairy left and went deeper into the woods. Without hesitation, the man followed.

After a few more minutes of following the fairy he caught up to it, but this time there were two! Again upon seeing the man they grinned and then went deeper into the forest. Again the man followed.

Once the man caught up again, he could not believe his eyes! A gathering of fairies was taking place here in a clearing in the forest. This glade lacked the ancient oaks and birches of the woods, instead encircled by mushrooms and faintly lit by the glow of fairies, giving it the feel of an enchanted realm. Fairies fluttered about here on their tiny wings or sat on squat little mushrooms, but all of them were intrigued by the man as he entered.

As the man entered the center of the mushroom circle, a fairy, slightly larger than the others, approached the man with a toothy grin. Hello human to our sacred place, the fairy said, may all your wishes come true here. What is it that you wish?

Without a second thought, the man uttered the first thing that came to mind. Wow. I wish my mother and father were here to see this.

The fairy again grinned its toothy grin and clapped its hands, and then all the fairies seemingly disappeared.

4.

The ground where the man stood began to shake and split. The whole of the woods seemed to tremor and blur, raining down loose leaves and twigs. Two distinct cracks in the earth formed directly in front of the man. As the shaking began to calm, a single discolored and bloated arm came up out of the right most crack and began to raise the rest of the body from underneath. To his utter astonishment, the next thing he saw rise out of the fissure was the face of his recently deceased father!

Son… the grotesque figure moaned, elongating the word through his decaying throat. Help me, please…

As his father continued to rise out of the earth, a skeletal hand emerged from the other split in the earth. Again, another figure emerged but this time it was nothing more than a skeleton brought back to life. If the green and purple, maggot encrusted figure was his father, then that meant this was his mother!

The man was in shock. He backed away a few steps before stumbling and falling to the ground. I wish my mother and father were here to see this. That’s what he said and the fairies delivered, just not in the way he had imagined. The fairies had brought his mother and father back to life, but in their current decomposed state and not as they were in life!

The man’s mother opened her jaw as if to speak, but with no lungs and no vocal chords, no sound came of it. The man’s father continued out of the dirt with bruised skin loose and hanging from his arms. What is happening?... the dead man gasped, but the words were more akin to a haunting groan.

No, not like this. The man was horrified. He had brought them out of the afterlife and into a living hell. The man quickly got to his feet and began to run away from the decaying remains of his parents. While he ran he screamed for the fairies to return.

As if on demand, he ran into another clearing in the woods, again encircled with mushrooms and fairies. If this glade was different from the previous one, he could not tell. It didn’t matter though, he had to reverse whatever had been done.

Please, send my parents back to the afterlife. They don’t deserve to live like this! The man screamed.

The larger fairy approached the man, grinning with exposed sharp teeth. The fairy chuckled before speaking to the man.

You may revoke your wish and send these two back to their eternal rest, but the deal has already been made and the price must be paid. Two family lives for two family lives. It was the same price your father paid many years ago. The lives of your mother and sister.

No, this could not be! This wasn’t what he imagined, not like this. More importantly, did the fairy say two family lives? His family? No, he had to get back to his wife and children now, he had to see if they were safe. Also, sister?

Please, let them rest. They do not deserve to exist in this state! The man begged.

The fairy grinned once more, wider than seemed possible. Of course. Many forget to be careful what they wish for. We are merciful in this regard and will send your parents back. The fairy cackled through its giant grin and the fairies disappeared for the last time.

5.

It took two days of travel, with constant fear and aching in his heart, for the man to get back home. When he arrived, he came back to the worst reality imaginable. While he was gone, his wife and eldest child, his daughter, had both died suddenly. By chance, the townspeople had seen them collapse and took care of his small son while he was away. There was nothing that could be done for the other two though. Once more, he had arrived to bury his kin.

After the funerals, the man sunk into a deep depression. Two family lives for two family lives. That means he had killed his wife and daughter. Not directly, but he was responsible none the less.

While the man sulked in his depression, he had an epiphany; the lives of your mother and sister. That means the daughter his father spoke of in the journal was indeed the man’s older sister, a sister he had never known about. This also meant that his father had made a similar wish to the fairies, it was the same price your father paid many years ago. This is why he was an only child. This is why he grew up without a mother. Those damned fairies!

Now his home seemed too large and too empty for just his son and him. Staying would be too hard; everything would remind him of the wife and daughter he lost to those nefarious fairies. Staying also meant that there would be little chance he would be able to provide a good life for his remaining child. It pained the man to leave this home he was creating with his wife, but without her, he didn’t know how he could go on living there. So he made the decision to move back to his childhood cottage away from this town. There was nothing left for him here.

The next morning, he packed what mattered, said goodbye to the people he cared to bid farewell to, and moved his son and himself back to that little cottage. The cottage that he nearly got rid of, the cottage that provided the journal that would change his life. Damn you fairies, damn you.

The journey was only two days long, but in the man’s mind it was long and arduous. Tears fell easily from the man, and mixed with the crying from the young boy, they were a sad sight to behold. How could he be fooled so easily by those magical creatures? All he knew was that he could not let his son fall into the same trap he and his own father had.

6.

The man easily fell into the same roles his father once held, providing a simple but good life for his son. The simple life also lifted the man out of his depression. His family was torn from him, but he still had his son, and he would do his best to give him fond memories. He decided it would be best not to mention the sister his son would’ve had, had the man not gone into the woods. Let the boy grow as if he were an only child, the man rationalized.

The boy quickly grew from a toddler to a young boy, helping his father out with the chores. The man enjoyed watching his young son grow. The man even began to give his young son small chores to complete, simple ones like collecting eggs from the chickens. The man chuckled one day as he saw the little boy trying to help collect eggs by chasing the chickens around, hoping to scare eggs out of them. The thoughts of those terrible fairies slowly faded to the back of his mind, but never did they completely leave him.

Eventually the boy grew more curious. The boy began asking questions about his mother, but the man didn’t really want to talk about his son’s mother much. Whenever the young boy did ask, pain flickered in the man’s eyes and his mouth would twist in despair, It’s too hard to think about is all the man would ever say.

The boy began to go trapping with his father and noticed that they never went towards the Blackthorn Woods. Surely they were just as plentiful as the rest of the area, plus he was beginning to get bored of their favored trapping spots. Eventually the boy asked his father, can we go into the woods instead tomorrow?

The man, upon hearing the question, stopped dead in his tracks. His demeanor soured and he turned towards the boy and squatted down. Level with the boy’s eyes, he looked at his son, and formed the words with the same conviction his own father once had.

Never. Ever. Go into the woods.