Chapter Text
Chapter 3: Enter the Woods ~ Derek
“Hey Annie, hey Stevie. Sorry we couldn’t come visit you two on your birthday today.” I apologized with a laugh. “Mom’s health hasn’t gotten any better recently, and dad’s barely left her side all month to take care of her. Jessica’s doing fine though! I think she’s going over to a friend's house for a weekend sleepover soon…”
I gazed at the old photos of my older siblings settled in one of their former rooms in our parent’s house. Every photo of them from when they had been little to the very last photo of them just a week before the hunting massacre almost 10 years ago now were hanging from the walls in their memory. An old newspaper article that I had long memorized since I was 9 years old hung in the middle, tying this collage of memories together into their final moments. It’s still so weird to think that I’m the same age that they were when that tragedy happened. It’s even weirder, and kinda more sad that we as a family had to miss out on our bi-yearly visits to their graves today.
“Oh, Stevie! I don’t know if Maddie’s come to visit you recently or not but she recently started dating again! She even came to mom and dad for approval for it and everything last week.” I laughed, Maddie had always been like an older sister to me when she and Stevie dated back then… hell she’s still like an older sister to me now. “I’m just glad she’s starting to really be looking for her own happiness now. Not to say she wasn’t happy with you bro! But like… she’s been sad for so long, I’m just happy she’s finally gotten better enough to start moving on.”
“You’re being creepy again…” Jessica’s voice called to me from the doorway of the former bedroom. The same curly brown hair that everyone in the Monteru family had was braided and styled into a ring shape, while her similarly freckled face was pinched. She always was uncomfortable in either of the twin’s former rooms and in the graveyard… then again she was barely 4 years old when the incident happened. “They’re dead Derek… stop talking to pictures like they can hear you.”
“I know, but sometimes it’s nice to think that maybe they’re still able to hear us.” I couldn’t help but laugh. “Annie especially. I remember that she used to be big on gossip, especially with Maddie. They-”
“I know already!” Jessica shouted and took a step back away from the doorway.
Oh… she’s shaking. I can’t help but think and right away I head out of Annie’s old room to comfort my only remaining sibling… heh… man that’s still a sad thing to think about. Then again the birthday and anniversary days always hit really hard.
Reaching out I patted my little sister’s head, even ruffling her hair a bit and getting a loud rant about how long it took her to style her hair the way she wanted. She wasn’t shaking anymore and though her face was all scrunched up annoyed, at least she wasn’t scared anymore.
“So! Have you eaten yet?” I decided to bring up, pulling a smile up on my face and pushing the big sad thoughts back into their little “No Touching” corner’s for a bit. I can unpack those later, cuz right now food and taking care of my little sister is a lot more important!
“... Not yet…” She responded, one of her hands going up to attempt to straighten up her looped braid, and probably checking if any hair was out of place. Now being a bit closer I could see she’s been experimenting with her eyeshadow and liner again, and the soft gradient of blues matched her nails but did seem to be a little smudged around the side of her right eye. She’s gotten a lot better.
“Well then!” Clapping my hands together to get my train of thought back to what is important. “As thy caretaker till your friends come to pick you up, I shall do my duty and craft for us the finest lunch in the whole town!”
“Only if you stop playing “Duke Derekin of land Derekin” like seriously. I’m not a little kid anymore.” Lil’ Jess gave me a good push away from her with a scoff. Ah but I can see the smile she’s trying to hide!
“Oh how you wound me little sister!”
Aside from the sad date, we had a pretty normal afternoon. I get to be the dramatic older brother who messes with his little sister and she got to be her angsty tween self while I made us a couple of sandwiches and she made sure our dads long retired hunting dog Buck got fed. Jessica’s friend’s parents had actually arrived just as I figured I definitely needed another sandwich to help me through the afternoon. So I had stopped making my second homemade turkey sandwich to help Jessica and her friend, Rita I think her name is, get her stuff for the sleepover into the car and then waved them off.
Hope they have fun. I thought to myself as I went back to the kitchen to finish up the food prep. I hope she remembers to text when they get to Rita’s place. Maybe I should send her a reminder? Nah, she’s a big girl now. She knows that’s number one on mom and dad’s rule list.
Food now all put together I brought it out to the living room and watched the resident old man himself snoozing away in his dog bed. The old retriever mix had lost almost all the color in his face and muzzle over his 15 long years… he also hasn’t been as active either, and his poor old eyes have fogged over almost completely. Dad’s been saying it might be Buck’s time but… I don’t think dad’s ready to lose anyone else again.
Man… it really is just one of those downer days huh… With a loud sigh as I plopped down onto the couch I leaned my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes. Memories of when Dad brought Buck home for the first time played out behind my eyelids. Back when dad still went out hunting and was willing to teach us kids his hobby instead of looking towards the woods with clouded eyes and a firm reminder that the woods are no place for humans. Back when mom would smile and make some delicious home made hot dishes with some of the game dad and the twins would bring back from their outings. Back when Stevie would make little games that in hindsight probably would have caused one of us to get really hurt if Annie didn’t drag the both of us back home and chew us out for doing something stupid… like tracking a bear or attempting to see who could climb the highest in a tree in five minutes.
I wish Jess got to know them more before the incident…
The sound of a text notification on my phone snapped me out of my, frankly depressing thoughts, and opened my eyes so I could check the text.
Dad: I’m going to be coming home soon. I’ll tell you what the doctors have said about your mom tonight.
Dad: Also did you remember to mow the lawn this morning?
I felt my heart practically stop. Oh crap. Oh shit. I FORGOT TO MOW THE LAWN!
Jumping up from my spot on the couch I saw my still uneaten sandwich on the side table. An idea came to me right then that hey, I don’t need both hands on the lawnmower right? Yeah! I can eat my sandwich while mowing the lawn! It’s a perfect idea!
Grabbing what’s left of my lunch I took a couple quick bites, while shoving my worn old sneakers on, and threw the front door open. Brushing aside the sound of a strange woman’s voice saying something about “Meal time” or whatever, cuz dad’s gonna kill me if I don’t do the one chore he told me to get done for the day! I don’t need to get distracted by one of the neighbors calling their kids in for lunch!
When I stepped outside the front door it kinda hit me that something’s not quite right. Like I’m pretty sure it was around 1:00 or something so the sun should still be out… but now it looks like it’s night with how dark everything is. The small wooded area that usually surrounded the backs of the neighbors across the street were replaced with distant, leafless glowing trees while the houses and roads were replaced with garden walls that also glowed, bathing everything in a hint of color and lighting enough of the space up to show rows, upon rows of different flowers all organizes and growing out of small plant boxes.
“Huh?”
I quickly turned back around to see my house was no longer there.
“Huh?!”
I blink and glance down to the partially eaten sandwich in my hands and take a quick bite. Yup, still tastes like a turkey sandwich. At least that’s normal…
“Did I fall asleep?”
Looking around again at all the flowers and the hedge like walls around me I honestly feel like I’m in a dream with the soft glow and unnatural looks of the trees around me.
Oh yeah… no this is totally a dream. Plants don’t glow. I thought to myself with a nod as I took another bite of my pretty okay sandwich. This isn’t the first pretty self aware dream I’ve had, though this is the first time I’m at least aware of how something tastes. Maybe cuz I had the same sandwich before falling asleep?
Eh, it’s whatever. I’ll just wake up eventually. I shrugged and began looking closer at some of the planted flowers. I recognized a couple of the flowers from some gardening books Jessica showed me when she was 8, though the ones that really caught my attention were the Lady’s Slippers in the furthest corner of the opening. I mean, I’ve never really seen anyone grow them before, especially because it’s illegal to uproot them or pick them. The only time I’ve seen them was when I would visit my grandparents cabin up north and even then they were wild grown around the woodlands there.
“Ooo wait, I think I get it! These are all Orchids!” I couldn’t help but laugh as I got a closer look at the other flowers around the Lady’s Slippers. Brassia Orchids, Catasetum Orchids and Cymbidium Orchids were among the few I could recognize and remember the names of… mostly because Jess practically drilled those names into my head back in her gardening phase and I honestly found those Orchids to be my favorites. Though for the life of me I swear I always pronounce them wrong…
The sound of shouting and screaming brought me out of my thoughts as I saw three people practically dive through an opening in the hedge walls… that seemed to seal itself over like it was never open in the first place. Weird but okay. They all look tired as well…
Oh! I think this place is a maze! Maybe this is like a competition type thing going on. I thought as I took another bite of my sandwich and hummed as I decided to play into the competition dream idea. What’s the harm in playing along?
“Woo! 10 point landing!” I called out with a smile on my face and maybe only two bites left of my kinda bland dream lunch.
“Are… you fucking… joking right now?” One of the people spoke up… sounding really mad for some reason. “We just nearly died and you’re making jokes?”
“Huh?” Died? Did I miss read what kind of dream this is? Looking over the three people they all didn’t seem to fit together. The one shouting at me was a pretty cute looking bleach blonde haired girl, but there do seem to be bandages on her face and her voice sounded more masculine, but hey I’m not gonna judge. If someone says they are a girl, then I’ll respect their pronouns. The other girl was also pretty cute to be honest, natural strawberry blonde hair and a kinda more sporty look to her with glasses… honestly I think she’s more my type if she could throw a punch as well. The man… I dunno why but his face looks kinda familiar to me for some reason… oh maybe it’s the disappointed dad look he’s got going on towards me.
“What’s wrong? I mean this is all just a weird dream after all.”
“A dream?!” Oh… oh the girl in pink looks really mad at me now, especially as she marched right up to me and practically drove her finger into my chest with a harsh poke. “If this shit is what you consider a dream then you’ve gotta be really fu-”
“Kai! Stop it!” the more sporty girl shouted and pulled the angrier one away from me with an apologetic look. “Sorry… it’s been a really… really bad day. For all of us…”
“Oh… Oooooh!” God I’m an asshole. I couldn’t help but think to myself as I saw the tired and fearful look on the sporty girl’s face. “I am so sorry! I like, just got here a few minutes ago, so I definitely misread what’s going on around here.”
The girl in pink… Kai I think her name was, yeah no she’s still clearly glaring at me. How am I gonna get her to at least forgive me for a mistake?
“… you know the fact you just got here makes sense with how ignorant you clearly are of the situation here.” The man finally spoke up and… yeah no something about his disappointed glare is really familiar now… did I have him as a teacher once? Eh, I’m sure it’ll come to me eventually. I mean his voice doesn’t ring any bells so it’s definitely gonna bug me for a while.
The man who introduced himself as Satoru Miyamoto, which doesn’t ring any bells either, broke down the fact we’re in some kind of demented woods and the specific place we’re currently in right now is the “Blood Garden”… Wait a second, hold up .
“Like the urban legend?” I had to interrupt Satoru’s explanation with wide eyes because holy shit.
“What urban legend?” Kai asked and while they, as I learned in their introduction and feel so bad about misgendering them, still looked pretty annoyed… their one visible eyebrow was raised so I guess they are interested? Glancing over to the girl, Amber, and Satoru they both also looked surprised and confused.
“Oh uh… so around where my grandparents live down in rural Minnesota, there’s an urban legend about the Bloody Garden. Like it started up I think in the 90’s but uh… basically if you spot a tall woman staggering on along the backroads who looks like she needs help and you get out to… well you know, try and help her you’re gonna find yourself in a garden of every flower under the sun. But like they’re all grown by using the bodies of her past victims. Anyways uh… I don’t remember the full story, it’s been years since I heard it.” I rambled for a while, remembering how Annie used to tell urban legends and scary stories like the Bloody Garden. She used to be obsessed with scary things and would tease Stevie and I whenever we would get scared of spiders… god I miss her and Stevie. Though… thinking about her now I remember one important thing to this story she used to tell.
“The only way out is to go deep into the center of the Garden. Legend has it that you can only leave by picking one of the flowers that only grow there.”
“… I do know though that we need to get to the center of the garden if we wanna get out of it.”
“… Huh… looks like you actually know more than most who come here.” I heard Satoru mutter and, oh he’s looking pretty impressed actually! Yes! No longer a disappointment! “Though we’ve yet to determine if what you know would help with the others , here in the woods.”
Oh… oh that’s… not very good. Amber looks pretty shaken and Kai… they look uncomfortable at the thought of more of these entities.
“Regardless though, we do need to keep moving. The Gardener herself is more likely to find us just standing around.”
“Why hasn’t she found us yet though?” Kai brought up, looking like they were looking around towards the… well the only visible exit to our Orchid area. A soft almost violet glow coming from the flowers that lined the walls, while pretty it didn’t really give any comfort.
“... My guess, it’s one of the rules of her territory.” Satoru stated in a surprisingly calm tone, though he didn’t seem comforted by the violet glow either.
“There are rules now?” I heard Kai mutter… wow. Okay either they’re having like a really bad day to be this pessimistic, or they’re just… like that. I guess?
“You… never mentioned rules earlier when you told us about entities.” Amber brought up while clutching the strap of her bag tightly… okay so maybe Kai is just having a really bad day. Damn I’m really missing a lot of context… or maybe this is still a dream?
“I was going to get to the rules but then the maze started to change.” Satoru shrugged. Dude seems pretty unbothered by Kai’s hostile glare or Amber shaking like a leaf… though he still seems to be sending me an expectant look… wait.
“Dude I only know like, the basic story and the “how to exit” thing. I dunno anything about rules man.” I explained while rubbing the back of my neck and feeling a bit of the smooth fabric of my basketball jersey.
“… I suppose I put too much stock in how much you might have known.” The man sighed and now was looking at me with disappointment… again.
“Okay, ouch…” as I muttered that I felt a hand patting my shoulder in a “there there” type comfort. Glancing over I saw it was Amber and couldn’t help but smile.
“Every entity’s territory has a set of rules to it.” Satoru started, forcing my attention on him again and saw how he was narrowing his eyes at the violet glow.
“Territories have rules based on the entity they’re connected to… so they all won’t work the exact same way as a previous one. Some rules are obvious and easy to pick up, others… well depends on if the entity is generous or not enough to tell them to you. In the case of the Bloody Garden… well the rules are ones you usually have to pick up.” It was then the older man seemed to… I dunno, kinda dramatically turn towards Kai and point at them. “Judging by your wounded hand I would hazard to guess you might have an idea for one of those rules.”
Looking at Kai… they seemed to go from surprise, to some kind of suspicious glare and finally seeming to actually go into thought for a bit. I mean to be fair, I wasn’t expecting Mister Satoru to act dramatically either. He struck me more as a stick in the mud, no nonsense kinda guy… I really need to stop assuming things about people at this point.
“I guess… the easiest way to put it would probably be “Respect the Garden” or “No cutting through the walls” or something along those lines.” Kai’s voice snapped me out of my mini thought spiral, and I couldn’t help but notice how they were gently rubbing at their injured hand.
“Well, you are definitely not wrong on either one.” The man shrugged before turning back to face the violet entry way. “Another obvious rule involves the flowers on the hedge walls themselves. The warmer the colors are the closer to the center you are… but well… clearly that can change anytime.”
“Then… then why haven’t we tried leaving yet?” Amber spoke up from beside me, she still seemed kinda shaken and seemed to be eyeing the hedge walls around us. “Wouldn’t that woman… the Gardner… wouldn’t she change it to her advantage and… and have us closer to where she is?”
A laugh. Satoru was laughing at Amber’s question, and he seemed… to be smiling about it as he turned his head, the scar on his neck seeming to go more taunt as he did.
“That’s a really good question Amber. “Why wouldn’t she just bring us closer to her?” Now… a better question is, why would she have a maze set up in the first place?”
“Because it matches her aesthetic?” I couldn’t help but ask out loud. Oh… he’s giving me another disappointed look. What did I do this time?!
“... Fear.” Kai’s voice surprised me and it seemed to surprise Satoru and Amber as well with how we all turned towards our non-binary pal. “The maze is probably set up to trap multiple people… and scare them into making mistakes that would allow her to hunt them down. Why else would she have the remains of her victims poking out in her flower beds? It just… makes sense to me. Especially with how she acted…”
Glancing over towards the older man I noticed how there was a satisfied smirk on his face… the way it pulled at half of his face and made a small dimple felt really familiar… I swear I’ve seen him before somewhere.
“Congratulations Kai, you just learned the most important fact about entities.”
At the praise I couldn’t help but notice Kai… actually giving a small smile. Huh… it’s actually kinda cute. Like one of those shy little ones where the corners turn up just a little bit. Though from how the cuts went right across their cheek it might have also forced it to be smaller to avoid pain.
You know if they weren’t crabby all the time, I think I’d wanna try dating them. I mean… definitely not now, but like maybe when all the spooky murder ghost stuff is over.
“Uh Derek…” Amber’s soft voice snapped me out of my thoughts and turned my full attention towards her cute rounded face. “Did… you pay any attention to what Satoru just said?”
“That uh… Kai figured out an entity fact?”
From the nervous look on Amber’s face… I just missed something important didn’t I?
Turning my focus to both Kai and Satoru… Kai is looking at me like they are in an annoyed disbelief and Satoru… is mumbling something to himself and looking really annoyed…
“Uh… guess I missed-“
“If you weren’t paying attention, then I’m not repeating myself.” Satoru cut me off and his tone told me that he was not going to change his decision. Especially since he was now refusing to look at me and seemed to look to the entrance and… oh hey it’s not violet anymore it’s a really soft looking blue glow now.
Before I could even ask about the color change Satoru began marching forward with Kai right behind him. Amber gently tapped on my shoulder and motioned for us to follow and so we did… and I couldn’t help but finally notice the death grip she had on an older looking shovel. The wooden part looked kinda worn and like it wouldn’t hold up long as a weapon. Like… maybe a couple hits before it starts cracking between the spade and the handle.
Is that all we have to protect ourselves? I couldn’t help but let my thoughts wander again as we walked. I mean… if entities can phase through attacks they can see coming then… we should all probably arm ourselves. Like just because they’re ghosts doesn’t mean they can see all of us attacking them right? Yeah! Okay! So if I see something to use I’m gonna grab it and prepare myself!
A plan firmly placed in my head I couldn’t help but finally notice that we had definitely been walking a while. The soft blues from before had seemed to shift into a more yellowish tone along the walls, and I feel like we took a couple turns here and there… There even seemed to be a small strange looking tree that was put into a small pocket along the walls. Almost as if the maze itself shifted around it to keep the glowing thing from blocking the pathways.
Kinda messed with the flow of the whole maze thing… Also, why isn’t it glowing yellow like the rest of the flowers? I thought as I noticed how Satoru didn’t seem to pay the tree any attention, while Kai looked… unsettled and Amber seemed just as confused as I was about it.
“Oh!” An idea hit me and I couldn’t help but feel excitement.
“What now?” Satoru sounded annoyed, and he also was giving me a very clearly annoyed glare… oh he’s probably still mad about me ignoring him earlier. Well he won’t be for long!
“Okay so we only have the one shovel on us to defend ourselves right?” I pointed out.
“Obviously… what’s your point?” Kai spoke up… huh they and Satoru have very similar glares. I dunno what I did to piss them off but I’ll be sure to apologize later!
“Well! If we’re gonna be keeping ourselves safe from an entity we might need to arm ourselves with more than just one weapon.” I began getting closer to the weird glowing blue tree to get a better look at it. The branches were rather low, and really bare… and even though it was pretty thick closer to the trunk of the tree, the limbs themselves seemed brittle enough that I could break one off if I put enough force on it.
“While that is a surprisingly smart idea from someone like you. I don’t see any possible…” Satoru’s voice started then trailed off as I was looking over the two branches for the best one. “You’re… not seriously planning on using one of those branches are you?”
Huh… wonder why he sounds so concerned? I mean he did just say it was a pretty good idea. I thought.
“A tree branch would be a good weapon.” Amber agreed, a soft hum to her voice as she seemed to have thought it over.
“...Are… you sure you want to use one of those tree’s?” Kai asked, and looking at them they seemed… uncomfortable about something.
“I mean… Do you see anything else we could use?” I asked and after a pretty solid “No” from the bleach blonde, I immediately went about breaking the branch off. I think there was someone shouting “Wait” the moment the branch broke off, but the snapping of the wood was pretty loud in my ears. On the bright side I now had a surprisingly thick, glowing branch in my hands now… though the red sap dripping from both the tree and the branch is a little weird.
“Uh… is this kind of tree’s sap supposed to look like blood?” Amber asked, having stepped closer to get a better look .
“I remember reading somewhere about a tree nicknamed the “Bloodwood Tree” because of its sap… but this doesn’t really look like the picture’s I saw in that book…” I muttered, twirling the tree limb in my hands to look at the broken wooden end. The sap wasn’t as thick as other sap I’ve seen, a bit more runny and a little more liquidy. Rubbing it between my fingers it felt a little sticky, though not like normal tree sap. The red stained my fingers and there was a scent of iron to it… Though the most surprising part was how warm it felt.
“Hey Satoru… you’ve been here a while so uh… do you know what kind of tree this is?”
Turning to look at the older man I was more surprised by how… pale the man seemed to have gone. A hand was raised to his mouth and it almost looked like he was trying not to throw up.
“Satoru? Hey man you okay?” I couldn’t help but ask out of concern.
“Mr. Miyamoto?” Amber stepped forward towards the older man, probably to see if he needed any physical reassurance, but he seemed to keep eyeing both the tree and its broken branch.
“... Satoru… What is wrong with that tree?” Kai asked, looking really disturbed for some reason as their expression seemed to also pull at one of the barely healed cuts on their face.
“... I almost think it’s probably better that you don’t know…” Satoru admitted in a low tone, turning his face away from everyone and seemed to make it a point to try and pay attention to the flowers adorning the hedge walls.
“Satoru, what the hell is that tree?” Kai pressed, their voice sounding a little more panicked and stressed. Which is really making me feel more stressed out now, and from the looks of things even Amber is looking like she’s stressing about what’s actually up with the tree now.
The older man’s face seemed to pinch slightly, looking uncomfortable but upon looking at all of our concerned faces he sighed and seemed to give in.
“... You remember how I mentioned that there’s only so much damage or fear people can take here before they suffer fates worse than death?”
“No, not really.” I immediately answered only to get two sets of very annoyed, and very disappointed looks as well as one very concerned look from Amber.
“Everyone with more than a single functioning brain cell I mean.”
I couldn’t help the offended gasp that left my mouth, even though both Amber and Kai nodded along.
“I stop paying attention one time…”
“Well that’s the result of people completely giving up any and all hope of getting out of these woods.” The man gestured one of his bandage wrapped arms towards the tree and immediately I felt like someone dumped an entire bucket of ice over me. “Those specific trees are all people, and to my understanding they’re all still alive while like that.”
The trees are people…
My eyes looked down to the branch in my hands, the red sap still dripping down from the broken part.
The trees ARE people…
The red sap… no the blood staining my hands as some of it trickled down the length of the limb and pooling up against my hands.
The trees are people and I just ripped someone’s limb off while their still alive.
The horror of what I just did to someone bubbled over and I couldn’t even stop the screams that came even if I wanted to.