The rule was simple. Engraved on a plaque at the entrance of the town, whispered to every child before bedtime, and etched into every contract, oath, and law of Delmere:
“Never enter the woods after dark.”
No one ever questioned it. Not really. Those who did… weren’t around long enough to form a second thought.
But rules, no matter how sacred, grow curious edges when you are seventeen, angry, and heartbroken.
Lena Hartley had always been the golden girl—top of her class, daughter of the Mayor, destined for the Capitol. She’d obeyed every rule, attended every town festival, smiled for every photo. But tonight, her world split clean down the middle.
She caught her boyfriend, Micah, kissing another girl behind the old mill.
She stood frozen, watching long enough to confirm it wasn’t a mistake or misinterpretation. Her body felt cold, not with heartbreak, but something more primal. Like the shock of falling into ice water. Her anger had no outlet. She could scream, she could cry, but none of it would change anything.
Instead, she turned toward the tree line.
The woods stood there like a wall of black teeth, swallowing the horizon. Moonlight barely touched its edge, as if even light feared venturing too deep.
Lena’s fists clenched.
“Screw the rule.”
She stepped over the iron boundary, past the runes etched into the stones, and into the night.
The air changed immediately. What was warm and spring-scented outside turned damp and ancient. The trees stood impossibly tall. Their roots coiled like sleeping serpents. And silence reigned—not even the chirp of a cricket dared sound here.
Lena walked further, half in defiance, half in confusion. Nothing was happening.
So why did she feel watched?
It started small. Her phone lost signal. Her flashlight flickered.
Then came the whispers.
Not words—tones. Like voices underwater. Echoes of her own thoughts… or someone else's.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“Turn back.”
“Too late.”
She spun around, breath hitching. No one.
When she looked up again, the path was gone.
She was lost.She walked for what felt like hours. Or was it minutes? Time bent strangely here. Trees rearranged themselves when she wasn’t looking. She could swear a willow had whispered her name.
Then she saw him.
A boy about her age, sitting calmly on a moss-covered stone, as if he’d been waiting.
He smiled, too warmly.
“You broke the rule.”
Lena hesitated. “You live here?”
“I exist here,” he said, standing. “Which is different. What's your name?”
“…Lena.”
The boy’s smile widened slightly. “That used to mean ‘light,’ didn’t it?”
She backed away. “Who are you?”
He didn’t answer. He simply turned and began walking deeper into the woods.
Against all sense, Lena followed.
They reached a clearing dominated by a single tree—black as ink, its bark rippling like liquid. It pulsed slightly, like it was breathing.
The boy—if he was a boy—spoke without turning.
“This is the Mirror Tree. It shows the truth. Not the kind you like. The kind you avoid.”
And before Lena could ask what that meant, the bark peeled open, revealing a mirror-like surface.
She saw herself.
But not her now. Her then.
A younger Lena, crying into her pillow after her mother’s funeral. Watching her father drink himself into oblivion. Repeating affirmations in the mirror so she wouldn’t fall apart. Hiding, always hiding.
Then she saw herself today—always perfect, always composed. Built like a fortress.
The reflection cracked.
“Everyone in Delmere obeys the rule,” the boy said softly. “But not for the reason you think. It’s not to keep them safe from the woods.”
He turned to her.
“It’s to keep the woods safe from them.”
Lena’s chest tightened.
“What… what are you saying?”
“You broke the rule. That means the seal is broken. The truth is awake now.”
The mirror shattered.
When Lena opened her eyes, she was outside the woods again. It was morning. Birds chirped. The town bustled ahead.
Had it been a dream?
But the plaque at the entrance no longer said the same thing.
The words had changed.
“Never speak of the woods after dark.”
Confused, she rushed into town.
But people didn’t recognize her. They called her “Miss,” asked if she was new to Delmere.
Her house was gone.
Micah didn’t exist.
Even her own name wasn’t on record.
She’d been erased.
The boy from the forest stood in the town square, now dressed in clean clothes, talking to townsfolk like he’d lived there his whole life.
He caught her eye.
Smiled.
Tilted his head.
And walked away, leaving behind a single word etched in ash on a nearby wall.
“Next.”
Every town has a rule that must never be broken.
Lena knows now—it’s not to keep you out.
It’s to keep something in.
And once you've touched the truth, there's no returning.
So if you ever find yourself in Delmere…
Don’t ask about the woods.
Don’t stay too late.
And whatever you do—don’t break the rule.
You might not like what comes next.
Or who you become.
And so, Lena wandered the edges of a world that no longer knew her name, a ghost in the town she once called home. But at night, when the trees whispered and the wind trembled, others heard it too. The woods were no longer sleeping.
And the rule was already broken.
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