| abstract | - She began to follow me when I found the Tree. I named it 'The Tree' because of its strange appearance. It was a tall tree, but nothing was near it. There was a large circle of nothing, just dirt, all the way around the tree. After that circle, the forest flourished, but nothing lived inside the circle besides that single tree. The tree was black like it had been struck by lightning. It also had a long, deep crack down the middle of it. Its branches stretched out as if it was begging and pleading for help. I walked inside the circle, and suddenly a fog appeared around me. It appeared out of nowhere. I frowned, my discomfort evident at the sudden appearance. But I shook my head and continued forward towards the tree. I bent down slowly and looked at the base. Chains dangled from the top of it, but where a body should be, there wasn’t. I turned around and in the distance was a girl. I couldn’t place her age, she just didn’t appear to have an age. She had moonlight silver hair and bright red eyes. As soon as she made eye contact, she disappeared. I don’t mean I blinked and she disappeared, or she walked into the fog and disappeared, she was just… gone. It was as if she’d never existed. I denounced it as being my imagination and turned around to leave. I returned home, but right when I stepped outside the circle, a female’s voice whispered in my ear. I couldn’t figure out what the voice was saying but he could still hear it whispering something. When I got home, I put a meal in the oven to cook and I turned to wait in my dining room. When I entered, her eyes turned towards me, her head tilted. A grin formed on her lips, one that can only be described as that of a mastermind. Then she stood up and disappeared in fog and lightning. I moved to where she’d sat and saw three parallel lines etched into the table. “Your time starts now…” the female’s voice whispered in my ear, the first words I’d understood. I turned away, shaking slightly. The oven beeped, alerting me that my dinner was ready for me. I slowly headed towards the kitchen, taking my time to get my food out of the oven. It seemed like the whole world was going out of focus, and I was in someone else’s body but it knew what to do. After a minute, something seemed to disappear from my mind, like a presence, and I snapped back into my body. “W-what on earth?” I cried, trembling. Suddenly, I felt myself begin to dissolve, not into anything, just my body dissolving into nothingness. I saw my legs disappear, and that was it, I blacked out. When I woke up, I was by the tree again. The same black tree, with the chains. I was tied to a tree, much in the same position as the body would be on the tree in the circle. I was just outside the circle surrounding the tree. I saw fog bellow up from the ground and the whispering of her voice filled my ears and I let out a scream. I fought to get out of the chains, yelling for help, and then I noticed her. She sat on the ground near the base of the old, creepy tree. Her legs were crossed, her hair not moving an inch even though it was very windy. She was facing me, her head tilted to my right, and she grinned at me. The fog swirled up around her hands, and two knives sat in her hands. She set them down, letting me see the dragon handles, before picking them up. She stood up and spoke in that same whispering voice. “Your time has begun. Time is running up.” Then she threw the knife at my face, and I screamed, but a few centimeters before it hit me it turned into fog. “Three.” She said, before I felt myself black out. When I woke up the next morning, I was in my bed in my room. I bolted up and gasped, breathing heavily. “Must have just been a dream.” I mutter, getting ready for work. I’d forgotten about my work for the past few days. I drove towards the work place before I sat down at my desk. The phone rang, and I picked it up slowly, before speaking. “Hello? Is this Detective Lansey?” The voice asked on the other side of the phone. Suddenly, fog filled the room, and lightning struck. The girl appeared, grinning. She held the two dragon handled knives in her hands. But something was off. Then, I realized what it was. The ends of the knife dripped with blood, slowly forming a pool on the ground. More knives were strapped on the inside of her black jacket, but these were just simple knives. On one side was a layer of 3 smaller knives on the left side of her jacket. On the right side was three larger knives. She grinned at me before closing her jacket again. The blood continued to drip from the knives. “Two.” She said, and gave a small wave before disappearing in a flash of lightning, and the fog disappeared with her. “Hello?” the voice asked, concerned. “Y-yes it is, sorry.” I reply, staring at the spot where she had been. “I regret to inform you, but your older brother has gone missing.” The lady responded to me, sadness in her voice. “He was said to enter that forest near your town. He’s been missing ever since.” “Oh. Thank you for telling me,” I said before hanging up. I sat back in the chair, frowning. My older brother wouldn’t ever go into the forest by himself. My thoughts drifted towards the girl that kept appearing. She’d said two. Before she’d said three. Hmm. Whose blood was on her knives? My blood turned cold as I had a terrible realization. What if she’d… I bolted out of the office, saying something about a family emergency, and leapt into my car. I turned on the engine and drove as quickly as I could to get to the forest. Then I parked my car, and threw off the seat belt in a flurry of motions. I quickly jumped out of the car, and raced into the forest. I headed straight back to where I thought the tree was, but to my disappointment, it wasn’t there. There was no trace of it. I began to walk around aimlessly, no longer caring where my feet went. Soon, I saw a circle of dirt and rushed forward. There, in the circle of dirt, was the tree. I stood, opened mouth. I could have sworn the first time I found it was when I went straight, but that doesn’t matter now. I turn around, looking desperately for my brother. I suddenly had the feeling to turn around. So, I decided to trust my gut feelings, and turned around. Tears dripped from my eyes as I collapsed onto the rough, dry dirt. My brother hung impaled to the tree. A small knife was stuck in his throat, holding up his head. A larger knife was plunged deep into his stomach, holding the rest of his body up. Chains were tied around his wrists and around and up the tree. Three parallel lines like the ones left in my table were cut into his stomach, throat, and down his arms. Blood dripped from the cuts, onto the tree and I threw up at the sight of it. I sobbed once more, before whipping my tears away. Fog began to reach out from the ground, and I backed away in fear. I did not want to see that girl again. But she never appeared, only the fog and lightning that accompanies her. Suddenly, all the anger I’d felt began to boil up inside of me, like water on a hot stove. “How you could do this?!” I screamed at nothing, “You are nothing! You are just a ghost, you are fake! You can’t do anything!” I yelled in anger at it, not realizing my mistake. Suddenly the girl appeared from the fog, angry. Her eyes had darkened into a crimson color, and her perfect looking teeth had turned all sharp and pointed. The knives were in her hand, and I let out a whimper of fear. She’d said two, but two what? Was I about to die? She stepped towards me, each step radiating with power. I swallowed a lump in my throat. Maybe, maybe if I kept insulting her or made an impressive insult she’d spare me? I’d seen in movies and games a villain spare someone because of their evilness. Or maybe I could escape? “You are made of fog and fear, you are a fake, a pathetic excuse for a criminal!” I snapped and then realized those weren’t my words, and these weren’t my thoughts either. She was in my head.. Or inspiring it somehow. Her clothes shifted from the black combat boots, blue jeans, black jacket, and red tank top to something different. Her top became long sleeved, with jagged edges on the sleeves and bottom of the shirt. Instead of jeans, she now wore black pants. A cape fell from her shoulders, the underside crimson red. She had a belt of some sort that had knives attached. She had three slashes on the sides of her neck. On the shirt there were three red lines going down her arms, and the capre had shining black spikes on the top part. Her boots were the same, except with spikes on the straps. The knives she carried, the dragon handled ones, were drenched in blood. I swallowed slowly, and looked up slowly to her face. Her eyes had turned completely crimson, instead of just the pupil, it was her whole eye. Black mist was seeping out of the corners of her eyes, and trailing behind her as she walked. I whimpered as she approached and turned away, closing my eyes. “Look at me,” she whispered to me. “Look at me!” I slowly turned to look towards her. Fear wiggled in my stomach, as I stared at her. But, she wasn’t making a move to physically hurt me. Yet, which confused me. “I am very much real. I am physical and nonphysical. I can and will inflict terrible pain on you.” She said simply, staring at me. “I will escape to my world,” I said, choking back a sob, referring to the world I created when I was little. I’d forgotten everything about it, but it suddenly had resurfaced. A wicked, twisted smile spread across her blood red lips, and I squeaked. I began to sink into my imaginary world, until suddenly something shoved itself inside my head. I let out a scream as I felt like it was tearing apart my essence. My world went dark, and I shrieked, and thrashed around. After a moment, the presence left, and my limbs fell to the ground weakly. I felt tears begin to water my eyes, and I tried to force them away. Eventually when a few tears fell, I looked around, but the girl was gone. I blinked, and turned to see my brother’s body was gone. Nothing was left, not even the blood that had stained the tree trunk. No knives or knife marks were in the tree trunk at all, as I checked where the knives had been. I looked around everywhere, but it was all gone, every single mark. I searched around the tree, but there was no sign. I stood up and headed towards my car, feeling sick. I eventually got out and got to the car, and sat inside. I pressed my forehead against the steering wheel, holding my breath for a moment. Then I picked up the phone and dialed the police department. “Hello? Officer? This is Detective Lansey. I’m reporting that my brother, Phillip Tohawken, is dead. I found his body in the forest in the most grotesque fashion. He’s been dead for about 2 hours I’d say. The cause of death is slicing, stabbing, and impalement.” I said into the phone before hanging up. I drove home instead of going back, not feeling very good. When I reached the front door, I swung the door open, and afterwards closed the door behind me. I quickly headed to the back of the house where my bedroom was. I didn’t even bother changing into pajama’s I simply collapsed. But when I looked up, she was sitting there in the chair across from my bed. However, now she was as she’d normally been. “Who are you!?!” I shrieked at her, clawing my way backwards. She studied me for a second, before answering. “Well, ‘tis only the least I can do for you. My name was, is, Brittney.” I stared at her. The whispering had been continuing on, and I just remembered it. “More like a whispering Brittney,” I muttered under my breath. “I’ve gotten that too,” she said to me. “Why are you being so nice?!” I said. She smirked at me. “No reason. I take my time.” I gave her a confused glance, and she grinned at me, a small, twisted grin. Then she disappeared once more. I turned and sobbed, screaming in anguish. I couldn’t take too much more of this. That I knew. After a while, the warm embrace of sleep began to wrap its fingers around me. I thankfully closed my eyes, and slipped into darkness. When I woke up, I felt much better. I turned, and shook my head, forgetting about my dead brother, and this… thing called Brittney. Well, actually I think I’ll call her Whispering Brittney. I turned my phone on, and looked at the screen. On it, it said it was Saturday. I shrugged and then froze. Wait, Saturday?! I slept for two days?! I turned and glanced around, and realized I wasn’t in my house. But I quickly realized it was my best friend Lucy’s house. I probably had come over and asked to stay, making up some excuse. I turned, and saw a long 1 drawn into the mirror by a knife I would guess. 1? Huh? And then I realized that before, Whispering Brittney had said two. I swallowed, feeling hot tears flood my eyes. Lucy… Lucy was probably dead now, all because of me. But it was all her fault too, not just mine. I slowly headed down the stairs. “L-Lucy?” I called out, reaching the end of the hallway. I heard a weak moan, and then a scream and then it was over. I rushed into the kitchen, and just stared in horror. Lucy had the same thing done to her that had happened to my brother. However, there was blood pooling around the floor, a large pool. She was impaled to the kitchen door. On the wall, in red ink was the words, your time approaches. But as the red ink began to drip, I realized it wasn’t red ink. It was her blood, Lucy’s blood. I swallowed. That meant that there was one more person before… Before what? What would Brittney do? I shuddered and turned away. I flung open the door, and rushed outside. I ran and ran and ran until I no longer could run, and collapsed. I panted, and began freaking out, words spilling out of my mouth that I couldn’t understand. Then, everything went black, and I was out. When I woke up, I was in the hospital. I frowned and was confused, but pretended not to be so I could get out. I stood up and rushed around to see if I could get out. They said I could go when I pleased, and I quickly left. In my sleep, I’d realized that all of her attacks were three days apart. So, that meant her last attack, or whatever she planned, would be tonight. And then… whatever she had in store. But I’m pretty sure I know what’s going to happen. I sat in my car, wondering what to do. But the whispering continued to pound my head, making my head hurt. But, after a while it turned into soft, whispery laughter. I couldn’t figure that out. Laughter? Was that good or bad? So, the simple solution was to head to the forest to check it out. Then I’d know for sure. I started up my car and drove to the forest, all the while having her laughter filling my ears. I immediately tried to get myself lost by wandering around randomly once I entered the forest. Quickly I reached my destination, and would have thrown up if I had anything to throw up. Tons of bodies were impaled to the tree trunks. I hadn’t been able to see them before, but now I could. I could tell they were all from different times because some were falling apart or were rotten, while the others were fresh. But the freshest was my younger brother’s corpse. She’d made sure that it stood out. And not in a good way. She’d left his eyes wide open, fixed on where I stood, and twisted his face so it looked like he was blaming me. And, essentially it was my fault. Mist formed, and she stood back, blood coated knives and all, watching. “Zero,” she smirked, her face twisted with an evil smile. I screamed and ran away, begging her to spare me. “Please! Please don’t hurt me!” I repeated while running away. What happened next is of no importance to my fate. For the last few days, I’ve been seeing her everywhere. Almost everywhere I look, she’s there in the distance, or next to me. I was greatly unsettled, because she wasn’t in any way threatening looking, appearing as she had when I first saw her. She never made a move to hurt me in any way. But, I now know that I was doomed the first time I saw that tree. I know today, in my short time before she comes, (as it is night, and the day is nearly up,) that she will kill me too. Please I have to get this up! I can see the fog rising from the ground, maybe she will post this for m- Oh, the foolish human. She really thought she could get away from me. She thought she’d be a savior, warning people. But by time you’ve seen my tree, your doom is upon you. I ripped this story out of her head moments before she died. This has no effect on me, so what do I care if you horrible humans read it? Besides, as I said before, if you’ve seen my tree, you are doomed already. And even if you don't go to a forest, you may still see my tree. Farewell, perhaps I’ll be seeing YOU soon. ~Whispering Brittney
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