Rory Martin was wondering why ever since she started her path into Crescent Pine Woods. She was shivering in her black cloak looking up into the night sky, the stars misguiding her on her way to the little cabin that sat near the edge of the forest. As many times as she had visited her grandmother, following the same path, she was now completely lost.
Two years ago when Rory was eighteen she got a letter from a town ten miles from the forest, it had the nearest post stop after all. Rory's grandmother had passed away from old age peacefully in her sleep. A few townies started to worry when ole Ruth didn't come by to deliver her incredible homemade pies for a couple of weeks. She was an elderly woman who'd walk to the bus stop every Friday to share her excess of baked goods.
Ruth was kind and charitable, but never lonely despite being alone. She loved to give and she had her entire life, so it wasn't a surprise to Rory when a lawyer contacted her about her grandmother's will. Rory was her only grandchild, her daughter (Rory's mother) passed after giving birth to her and her son-in-law went around the time Rory turned twelve, from an unknown illness.
After her father's passing Rory was raised by her aunt (her dad's sister) who turned out to be awful, she only pretended to like Rory during her brother's life, but she actually despised her and her mother. Ruth fought in court to become the permanent guardian after hearing from Rory of her mistreatment during her visits.
Eventually the evil aunt won and with her win she gained a check. She would spend a quarter of it on Rory to make it seem as if she cared, especially around others. It wasn't a horrible experience overall, she wasn't beaten or ever yelled at. Rory basically did everything for herself, cooking, cleaning her room which her aunt was thankful for (because she definitely wasn't going to it).
She ate adequate meals, wore decent clothes, had a great education, and all the freedom that a girl could ask for. But inside Rory harbored a small speck of hate for her aunt for being so lax, not encouraging her or trying to teach any morals, leaving her alone for weeks on end so she could party with her friends in Vegas.
When the will came everything changed including Rory's aunt. Rory was given all of her grandmother's monetary assets and the only piece of land that she had left, her cabin in Crescent Pine. It brought back warm memories of running out into the sun and playing hide and seek behind the cabin, watching the wind blow the pine in the air coating it in the needles' scent, watching the sunset from inside as Ruth baked snickerdoodles and shared stories about creatures coming from the woods at night.
Of course the stories weren't actually all fiction, this was something Rory personally looked into when she went home once after visiting her grandmother. She was nine and went to the library and internet for information on the supernatural. Sometimes Rory felt a chill at night even with all the windows closed, other times she'd hear whooshing noises that couldn't possibly be any of the woodland critters that roamed Crescent Pine.
One night around midnight Rory can remember waking up, because she had a nightmare. When she got up she was about to head to her grandmother's room, only to discover her at the front door. She hid in the hallway and poked her head out to see her grandmother opening the door and waving her hand violently shouting "Stay away, stay, tomorrow." Rory remembered Ruth saying tomorrow in a quick pace and recognized the worry in her voice.
For a minute Ruth stood there, during that time Rory peeked again to get a better view, but only caught the glimpse of large yellow eyes that vanished as soon as she saw them. When she saw her grandmother closing the door she crept down the hall back into her room wondering what she had seen.
Rory had never seen any supernatural creatures in that forest, but she believed that they were there and for some reason her grandmother had a connection to them. There was a small note at the end of the will for Rory to go to the cabin whenever she felt ready and there she'd receive her final gift.
And Rory was curious, but instead of jumping toward the cabin she mulled over what she wanted to do now that she had money to take care of her, college, what she wanted her future to be. It took her two years to figure out that everything(: jobs, friends, guys, money, and school) would have to wait until she opened this gift.
Rory packed for the trip and bought any other essentials for the stay such as groceries from the nearby town. She arrived around the time the sun was setting. The people there greeted her warmly and told her that she'd have to wait until morning before setting off into the woods, recently there had been people disappearing, two to three times a week. They were trying to get the state police involved, but they were being jerked around.
Weighing her options Rory chose to go warning or not, because when curiosity tugged at her heart strings, she would often let herself be pulled by it. Yes, it was scary thinking that someone or something could be kidnapping people or worse: killing them. But for some reason Rory felt something pushing her to the cabin towards whatever Ruth left her.
She carried two bags in her hand, one was black felt holding the groceries, the other was everything she needed to stay from two weeks to a month. Now all she had to do was remember where the path was, it was a short cut to the cabin and took only twenty minutes to walk to.
But the path she took led her astray and now she was looking up at the stars, watching them glare her with uncertainty as she tried to think on which way to go. It was very dark, but the moon's light shone on parts of the forest illuminating certain spots.
Rory leaned against the tree and felt the bark, there were markings on one of the trees somewhere. The tree with the markings would lead her straight to her destination and that gave her a little relief. She pulled the hood of the cloak down further, whatever lived there could be dangerous, and she wanted to stay in the background of it all.
So she began to walk again stopping at a few trees that she could see, feeling the hide. Then the feeling came again, the coolness that she felt when she was a child, it pricked her skin as the wind started to howl against the tree tops.
Then the sound of whistling came and Rory's breath was slowly fading, she felt as if she were suffocating, her skin crawled with angst as the whistling became louder and closer. On instinct Rory dropped her bags and ran right behind a large pine tree to catch her breath feeling her heart pounding, it was the only sound that was louder than whistling.
Rory exhaled deeply before waiting for the sound the pass, it came closer and closer, creeping upon her and then it ceased altogether. But Rory did not feel relief, she'd seen horror movies, scary movies, and she knew she had been caught. With nowhere to run she froze for a few minutes and slowly emerged from her hiding spot. The forest clearing was vacant and chill gone in an instant.
At least that was until she felt her shoulder ice over, she turned to see a pale face, paler than hers. "Boo."
The man was tall, with hair that blended into the night sky, and crimson eyes that would not leave her. His body was tall and lean in a jet black outfit that Rory had no intention in making out.
Rory cleared her throat, trying to excuse her fear "Um, would you happen to know which way the little wood cabin is?"
The man's mouth spread into a thin smile "Yes, I can show you where." He held out his hand and in the light she could see it was closed in an ivory glove.
Rory shook her head and backed away one step "That's alright."
"I insist, a girl shouldn't be wandering the woods at this time of night. Wouldn't you rather take my hand and follow me?"
His eyes stayed planted on hers, and for a second Rory felt herself slipping into his grasp, she slowly started to reach out. Was he controlling her with his eyes? How? And how could she escape? Why did she want to? Why didn't she take his hand and leave the forest? She wouldn't be lost afterwards.
Rory felt her heart steady, the nerves were all gone and the mystery man seemed so nice and welcoming, maybe he wasn't dangerous...But that was a stupid thought. Rory's own mind thought that, she wasn't in the forest to meet a tall, pale, handsome stranger. No, the gift. The gift was why she had entered, the gift...
All her fear came rushing back on her own whim, she shouldn't be getting close or comfortable with this man, she should be running, lying, tricking him to escape his grasp, a million red flags should be popping into mind. Her heart should be ready to burst, her breath should be nearly gone, her hands should be shaking.
This is what she willed. And what Rory willed surfaced, for a second she could see the reflection of a skull in those scarlet eyes, death. That was the chill, death, the cold clammy feeling that lingered in the air. But she wasn't ready to die or to play games, so right after the spell was broken Rory took off towards the path nearest to the right of the woods hoping that this man was not what she thought he was and that it was possible to get away.
No such luck, the man reappeared in front of her without moving an inch and grabbed her roughly by the shoulders. His eyes darkened as he leered viciously at her "How did you break my compulsion?"
