Work Text:
No matter how high the fire burns, a person by themselves is still frozen while the forest is still burned to ash
That's what the trees say anyways.
- -
People enter the woods people leave. some meet the girl, stay awhile, teach her things. But In the end they always leave. Teach pain. That's all the girl felt nowadays, pain. Pure, rich, loving, awful, bloody, horrific.. pain.
Every time someone entered the woods she loved them.. and every time the story ended the same, they left with a part of her heart that she had been tricked into showing them. Lied to about how they wouldn't take a piece. She didnt trust them, they made her trust them, then like the other ripped her apart.
Only the trees would be there to put her back together
The thorns and vines would wrap thicker around her heart each time and each time she let them get torn like her heart. But the forest never minded, they simply make the vines thicker than the last.
The trees were the only ones who stayed, who protected her heart instead of tearing it..
Until.. a new girl appeared..
She didn't go for her heart, she had no desire to see it, to tear it. That's why the girl from the woods showed it to her. The new girl awed, in return for the sight she gave the girl from the woods apart of her, by ear, a story.
The story was nasty, unruly, horrible, just like the world the two girls lived in. But the horror and the pain from the story was also sweet, like a nightmare waking you up with a kiss.
The two girls flourished, the girl from the forest introduced the girl with sick story's to the trees. She told the trees her story's and in return the wrapped their vines around her. Promising the two girls would be safe here if they were together
And for a long time they were, they were together, one always at the other's side. They lived happily together like this. The visitors that came in they would make fun of or cause them to trip, letting them nowhere near their hearts.
That is until one day the girl who told those stories that where so awful they were beautiful talked to one of the visitors without the girl who was raised and made by wood.
The visitor told the girl of stories of their own stories and the girl was in awe, while the girl from the woods was always there for here she had no story other then the trees and the air they breathed out for her and the story teller. The visitor was beautiful and new to the girl and her story's so she opened up her heart.
The visitor did not rip it, they held it in their hands and told the girl with stories that they had to leave soon and if she'd go with them. The girl with sick, beautiful story's hesitated, she thought of the girl of the forest.. the girl who had listened to her story's the girl who has marveled at them.. the girl who was the first to call them beautiful, the one who had given her this home.. she thought of the trees words
As long as you are together you will be safe here
She told the visitor this and they scowled, only for a second though, then they returned to their sickly sweet smile. The truth of themselves revealed for only a split second. They reassured the girl with story's that the girl form the forest had grown up here alone, it's not like she'll die here
- The girl with stories told them she would, the trees told them so. -
but she hadn't said that.. instead..
The girl with story thought about this, she listened.. and she left with the visitor.
The girl from the forest felt her heart ache as it left the forest with the girl her stories. She curled up with the trees, her tears watering the grass and moss while the trees tried to replace her heart with their vines.. and they did. But no longer did the girl form the forest live. No. She died the day the girl whose story's said she'd stay by her side despite the monsters of the world.. then she left with one of the said monsters. She left with the monsters she had promised to protect her from.
Now all that was left was vines where a heart should be, and the girl of the forest remained. She no longer live in it, she was it.
And when the girl with her sick stories, now riddled with lies and loss returned after realizing the visitor had tricked her she came back to see her one true friend.. lover.. home.. in the state she was she cried. Though the forest in the husk of a girl did not know why of her tears or story's.
The girl told her all her stories all over again, she offer back her heart.. she offer her own heart, but the image of the girl, no longer who she once was didn't not understand. But one thing stayed the same.
She had told the girl with her sick and horrible story's were beautiful.
Though something new was the forest girl had asked her to write her a story about the forest. So she wrote this in apology and a hopes for the girl to reclaim her heart so they could once more go back to being the girl who lived in the woods and the girl with with story's like awakening a nightmare with a kiss from fear itself.
But they didn't. With one without memory the girls remained separate. And they froze despite the visitors who had burned down the forest. Their forest.
- -
And that's it, they froze alone in the fire. One with no memory of ever not being alone and one with the memories of knowing she's the reason she's alone.
In the end we'll all die alone. HWe get betrayed by the people we thought we loved, and sometimes it's not their fault. Just life pulling the rug out from under us for no given reason.
Moral of the story? Life is cruel.