Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

On your first visit to Rosswood, you hadn’t planned on leaving. Everyone knew the rumors. People who went deep enough into the forest never came out again. That was fine with you. The way your life was going, maybe that was for the best. Halfway along the trail, you fainted. At least that’s what you assumed since you didn’t remember anything after. When you woke up, your head was pounding, and at least an hour had passed. But you were alive.

The next day, you dragged yourself to your dead-end job like usual. You tried to forget what happened in the woods, but something had followed you out. Someone? It almost looked like a person. Out of the corner of your eye, through windows, in the distance among trees. Whatever it was, it was always watching you.

You returned to the park. Retraced your steps. Lost consciousness again. This time, you retained some memory of what happened in between. It was fuzzy, like a dream. A nightmare. Darkness, pain, a struggle for breath. And that thing was there. Though it was in the shape of one, it was definitely not a person. It was unrecognizable to you, and probably anyone else on Earth. The realization should have horrified you. It thrilled you.

So you kept coming back. The things you experienced were unexplainable, sometimes indescribable. Each time you remembered more. You suffered. Most would have given up after the first splitting headache, the violent coughing fits. You could take it. Your life was already full of discomfort. Somehow, you would make sense of it all, and it would either fix you, or it wouldn’t. You just needed to see it again..

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This time will be different.

The forest is peaceful in the evening. No sound but the wind in the leaves, and the voices of cicadas. Joggers, families, and dog walkers have all returned to the safety of their homes. That left just you and the wild animals. But not for long.

You yawn. Rub your eyes. Scratch at a mosquito bite.

Once, as a child, a mosquito landed on your knee. Before you could swat it, you found yourself transfixed by its abdomen, swelling red with your blood. You watched until it drank its fill and flew away with part of you inside it.

Had there always been something wrong with you?

A soft ringing grows in your ears. Pressure builds behind your eyes. Its here. You force yourself to take deep, slow breaths, to fight the tickle in your throat. Stay calm. Don’t look. If you keep your mind clear, your body can adjust.

The ringing in your ears grows to a scream. Lights dance behind your eyelids as you squeeze them shut. Instinct begs and pleads with you rational mind: Danger! Run! You dig your fingers into the leaf litter, and refuse. Suddenly, a wave of calm washes over you. Everything is fine.

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Your body spasms, jolts you awake. Where are you? It’s so dark you can barely make out the ground in front of you, the branches high above, the dark...this darkness is familiar. You’ve been here before. Still dizzy, you sit up, try to get a better look. In the distance, your gaze is drawn to something round and pale against the blackness. As you eyes adjust, you realize the white thing is part of something else, almost indistinguishable from the trees. Something tall. Tall. Black. White. Dark.

It’s him. Of course. You’re here to see him.

You extend your hand. The creature tilts its head, remains in place. Then, slowly, it comes to you. It moves effortlessly, like smoke, passing through the trees instead of around them. When it stands in front of you, it mimics your gesture. A too long arm stretches over, not quite a hand reaches out. You know what comes next.

It starts as a sharp stab in your temple, burrows its way deeper. Breathe, you remind yourself. This is the hardest part. Gradually, the pain diminishes, is replaced by pins and needles that spread from your head, down your spine. Your skull feels heavy, numb. The creature has you. Even if you wanted to run, you couldn't.

The dark pillar of its body looms over you. Spidery limbs are bent unnaturally to cage in your body. Its face, smooth as freshly fallen snow, hangs over your head. He’s so close. You can’t resist.

With great effort, you reach upward. Your fingers hover over where the thing’s jawbone would be. You watch them make contact, but feel nothing. And then everything. Cloth, skin, stone. Your nerves can’t decide what to relay to your brain. Your hand is deep in a fast moving stream, brushing through dry grass, pressing into the softness of a rotting tree. The outline of the creature shimmers as it pulls away from your touch.

It stoops to directly face you. If it had eyes, you’re sure they would be locked onto yours. It cocks it’s head to the left, to the right. In your peripheral vision, you register its arm retracting from somewhere behind you. The limb returns to its side, hangs motionless, before stirring again and extending towards you. Towards your face. The indistinct, pale mass of its hand reforms, stretches outward into skeletal fingers. They curve, claw-like, as they approach your cheek…

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Tomorrow, you will call in sick to work. Every muscle will ache, and you will spit blood into the sink. You will suffer. But you will live.

Most people who go missing around here are eventually found. Not all of them. You think you know why. One day your luck will run out. You will not return from the dark. But it will not be your decision to make. Until then, you will persevere. You will see it again. It knows where to find you.

Chapter Text

When you stir in the middle of the night, you are not always in your room.

It has made a place for you in the dark.

A shallow depression in the earth, lined with smooth roots and moss. It cradles your body, roughly the same size as your bed.

Sometimes, it joins you. You feel it not as the weight of a body beside you, but as an enveloping pressure. Not merely beside you, but all around you. Within you? Its' presence wells in the back of your mind, fills your skull. It sinks into every crease and furrow of your brain.

As it flows through, it dredges up fragments of old memories. The shoes you wore on your first day of school. The smell of flowers at your grandmother's funeral. The cover of your favorite book.

Interspersed are unfamiliar images. Moonlight filtering through the tree canopy. The reflective glimmer of animal eyes at night. A beetle clambering across the grass.

There is no fear, no pain. Not once do you consider moving, or opening your eyes.

Eventually your thoughts melt back into stillness. Nothing but the blackness of night, and a gentle static hum. You lie suspended between sleep and awareness until exhaustion wins and you slip back into unconsciousness.

When you wake again fully, you are in your room. You check your phone. It's the weekend. No work today. Instead of the usual relief, you're struck by a sense of emptiness. You pull your blanket tight, as tight as it will go around you. It brings little comfort.

What you need is not here. It's still early, you will take time to rest and eat. After that, a visit to Rosswood is in order.