by Otaro Maijo
The heat of the sun on my back suddenly vanished, and the warm summer air turned chilly. Though my eyes were still closed, I knew I had entered the forest. And it wasn’t just the warmth that was gone—the voices of all the old people, which had been so distinct a moment before, had fallen silent now. The sounds of the outside world could not reach me here. Even the sounds of my own breath and footsteps were muffled and faint. I opened my eyes, needing to be certain I was still running, still breathing.
And indeed I was. When I turned to look back, I could see that I had barely come any distance at all from the first rank of trees. The old people were nowhere to be seen.
Then I came to an abrupt halt. Looking back, I had spotted several figures in a patch of sunlight just beyond the shadows of the trees—Nulla and Inte, if I wasn’t mistaken, and Hejdanatt, Adju, and Nej too. All of them running after me.
Though I had wanted their help when I had set out, now that I saw them here I knew it was wrong to let them come with me, wrong to lead them into the clutches of a terrible monster. I would never want any harm to come to them.
I held up my palms to stop them. “Don’t come in here!” I called as loudly as I could. But my voice seemed to die as it left my mouth, and what should have been a loud shout came out as barely more than a whisper. In the end, I wasn’t sure whether any sound had emerged at all.
I tried shouting again, but again I couldn’t even hear my own voice. It was just as I’d imagined—this strange forest was actually sucking up all the sound. The fir trees all around were enormous, and their limbs seemed to reach out for me. Their needles were dark green, shading to pitch black in the shadows below. Anything at all might have been hiding in this gloom—sinister things that would have felt right at home in such an awful spot. The thick roots of the trees made a pattern of deep furrows in the murky forest floor. It was a net cast over the ground, and it reminded me somehow of the net of golden scales I had seen just hours before, glinting on the belly of the river trout. But this one seemed evil, with none of the beauty of the fish.
I knew for sure now that this was no place for my friends!
I turned around to face them, crossed my arms in front of me to signal that they should stop. But they kept coming straight toward me—though apparently unable to see me as they ran. But of course!—until I made my way in here, I hadn’t been able to see anything inside either. How could they see me in these deep shadows?
I started back the way I came, but the roots seemed to trip me up and I fell flat on my face. How could this be? Coming in, I’d had no trouble running with my eyes closed, but now that I was trying to go back, the roots heaved up and prevented me from leaving. I had hit my knee in the fall and it hurt a great deal, but just as I was forcing myself to my feet again, Nulla and the others reached the edge of the forest and came rushing in.
“Kerstin!” Hejdanatt called when she caught sight of me. As I’d thought, from outside I must have been invisible, even though I’d stopped just a few steps into the forest. She ran straight to me and gave me a hug. “I’m sorry I didn’t want to come with you,” she said, almost in tears.
I embraced her for a moment before taking a step back. “No, Hejdanatt,” I said. “You shouldn’t be here, and neither should the others. This is a terrible place. I want you to go back—all of you. I’ll go on alone.”
Inte looked at me for a moment, and then when he spoke up he said the oddest thing. “It may be terrible,” he said, “but we’ve already come all this way.”
“Don’t be silly, Inte. We’re barely past the entrance,” I said. But when I looked toward the edge of the trees and the patch of sunlight that should have been right beyond, I saw nothing but thick trunks and shadows. Worse still, there was no sign now of the narrow path I had followed into the forest. In its place I saw a thick carpet of dried fir boughs and the undulating web of roots.
A shudder ran through me, and my eyes drifted upward.
But like everything else that had disappeared, the blue summer sky that should have been above our heads was nowhere to be seen. Thick, dark branches crowded in from every direction, lacing together, and though the treetops were obscured somewhere overhead, I knew I had never seen such tall trees before.
As it finally began to dawn on me that we were now deep in the heart of the forest, my body started to tremble. The other girls were shivering too. Nulla and Inte were putting up a brave front, but Inte looked terribly pale even in the dim light. Nej and Adju held hands and looked around timidly.
“Why did you ever come so far into this horrible place all by yourself?” Hejdanatt said. I told them I had gone no farther than the entrance, but clearly they didn’t believe me.
“The entrance?” Nulla said. “We ran a long, long way from the entrance before we caught sight of you here, far off the path.”
How very odd, I thought. What had happened? How had I come to be here? I had no idea. But one thing was certain: there was something uncanny about this forest, something evil lurking around us.
“We can’t worry about that now,” I said. “Let’s get back to the path.”
Everyone agreed immediately, and Nulla led the way. I took Hejdanatt’s hand and followed him, and the rest came right behind. But no matter how far Nulla walked, we saw nothing resembling a path.
“It ought to be right around here,” Nulla said, his puzzled face swiveling back and forth. But there was no sign of it anywhere.
I knew then what had happened: the forest had hidden the path from us to make certain we stayed lost forever. And I knew, too, that there was a monster here, and that the forest was its ally. As for me, my only allies were these five children.
At this point Nej and Adju began to cry. There were tears in Inte’s eyes too, and even Nulla and Hejdanatt seemed to be struggling to keep calm.
I had to be strong, I told myself. I had led my friends in here, and I would find a way to get them out. But if I was going to succeed in this undertaking, I couldn’t let myself be beaten by these terrible trees.
“Why don’t we sing?” I said, and I started into a song myself.
Die! Die! Die! Die! Every last one of you’ll die!
Every last one of you’ll die! Die! Time is a-wasting! So die!
You’ll never get out of the woods, oh no!
Not one of you’ll get home alive!
My friends screamed as the words faded into the shadows, but somehow I wasn’t sure what I had just sung.
“What was that?” I murmured. It certainly wasn’t the song I had intended to sing, which would have been something bright, something to cheer us up. Then where had this song come from?
Inte burst into tears, and I knew Hejdanatt would be next. In fact, she was tapping me on the shoulder, and when I turned to look, great drops were collecting in her bloodshot eyes. “Why would you want to sing something so horrible?” she said.
“Never mind,” said Nulla. “I’ll sing.”
Now the fun begins, my dears!
One of you shortly will die!
It’s up to you to choose just who,
But one of you shortly must die!
So pick the one who’s not much fun!
Since one of you shortly must die!
Another scream met Nulla’s song, but this time I was screaming too.
“Stop!” I yelled, but one look at his pale face told me that he’d had no more control over the lyrics than I’d had. Those were not the words he’d wanted to sing.
Just then Adju called Nej’s name and reached out to hold her, but Nej’s body floated lightly away, up in the air.
As she was lofted up, Nej screamed, and the rest of us answered with a piercing cry. We watched, stunned, as she floated up among the branches, paused for a moment, then spun around and flew off into the depths of the forest.
“Nej!” Nulla called, beginning to run after her as
she disappeared into the trees. The rest of us followed.
But she was flying too fast and we couldn’t keep up. Her screams faded into the distance as we lost sight of her.
“Neeeeej!” Nulla called again, but she was gone.
So who’ll be next? Who’s next to die?
Whoever it is won’t simply fly.
This time’ll be slower, with lots more pain!
You’ll suffer and suffer, then you’ll perish in vain!
It was Adju’s turn to offer a tune, though she clearly had no more idea what she was singing than we’d had. Tears were running down her face, and perhaps she had simply opened her mouth to weep aloud and this hideous song came out.
Inte begged her to stop, but as the song came to an end she floated up into the air just as Nej had a moment ago. She let out a horrible scream and then, right before our eyes, the little bare legs dangling below Adju’s skirt were snapped off at the knees. Blood spurted out, drenching us as we stood looking up at her, and we scattered, our mouths gaping open in horror.
Adju’s body drifted up. We heard a few whimpering sounds and then it, too, soared off into the forest. This time, though, no one made a move to follow.
A plopping sound echoed behind us, and we turned to see Adju’s severed legs settling to earth; but strangely, horribly, they landed on their feet and stood planted together as though Adju were still with them. Then they began to run toward us.
We scattered again, terrified, but the legs seemed to have no interest in us, running straight past and into the forest in the same direction her body had gone. Clip, clop, clip, clop, clip, clop…until they vanished from sight.
We stood there stunned, unable to take in what was happening. I knew only that I deeply regretted having come into this forest. I was all but certain I would never see Olle again, and now Nej and Adju were gone too. And I had no idea how the rest of us would ever get out.
Hejdanatt stood next to me, clutching my hand and trembling. All at once her mouth opened as though she were about to say something. No! I thought. But it was too late.
The next one to go will suffer still more!
The next will suffer a lot!
You’ll pray to die faster, but faster’s a bore,
Get ready to suffer, to suffer still more!
I looked at Nulla and Inte, and they looked back at me. Inte’s mouth opened as though to beg for help, but nothing came out. Then he spat out a single word: “Me!”
Yet nothing happened to him.
“You have to say a name,” Nulla said.
“Quiet, Nulla!” Inte said, but before our minds could even register what he’d done, Nulla floated into the air. We heard him yell “No!” as he sailed high up among the fir branches. Then, as he paused a moment directly above us, both arms and both legs were torn from his body; and before he could even scream, what was left of him shot away through the trees. The arms and legs fell to earth and went chasing after.
We stood staring, unable even to breathe.
Hejdanatt’s eyes were closed and her body had gone rigid. Inte’s expression was blank and he was shaking uncontrollably, but he struggled to his feet, sobbed aloud for a moment, and then very quietly said his own name. “Inte.”
Instantly he rose up in the air and his arms and legs came away from his body. His torso gave a violent twist and ripped apart at the waist, spilling out his blood and the full length of his intestines onto the earth below. Plop, plop, plop! When they were emptied out, his head and torso sailed off into the forest, and his arms and legs followed after on the ground.
That left just Hejdanatt and me. She was weeping loudly, but I got her attention and put my finger to my lips to signal that we should keep quiet. Our voices were clearly not our own here in the forest, so the only thing we could do was stop using them.
Soon she fell silent. I nodded to her and then started to walk in the opposite direction from the point where our friends had disappeared. Hejdanatt, clutching my hand, followed close behind.
The forest floor was rough and made for hard going. The roots and branches and fallen twigs seemed to grasp at our feet and do everything they could to prevent us from making progress.
Then, before we had gone very far at all, Hejdanatt stepped on a dried branch, and the cracking sound seemed to become a voice, saying:
Well then…
Startled, we stopped short. I was on the point of crying out, and I could only imagine that Hejdanatt was too. She put her hand up to cover her mouth, and carefully lifted her foot from the branch. Instead of another crunch, we heard:
Who’s next?
Whatever it was—the monster or this horrible forest itself—it seemed to have control of every possible sound.
Hejdanatt shook her head back and forth and then started to run, her hand still clasped to her mouth. Each twig she stepped on, each pebble she dislodged, each branch she pushed out of the way made a slight sound, and I soon understood that together they had become a new song.
Well then, who’s next?
Well then, who’s next?
Well then, who’ll be the next one to die?
Who would be best?
And what should you do?
Yes, what should you do?
Since the last one to go
Will be suffering for two!
It was the most horrible song yet. But if we held our tongues, if we did not say any more names, we should be safe. I put my hand over my mouth and ran off after Hejdanatt—but the sounds my feet made began singing too, a whole medley of gruesome songs.
The last will be worst, that’s all that I’ll say.
The last will feel pain that won’t go away.
So sooner is better, if only a bit.
The last one will suffer until I see fit.
So die, die, die, die, each one of you die!
Now, now, now, now, each one of you now!
So run, run, run, run, as fast as you can.
You won’t get away, that’s all that I’ll say.
Your doom is all part of my plan!
Where are you going, my sweet little girls?
Where do you think you can flee?
Why are you running and where will you go?
You’ll never, no never, flee me!
The faster you run, the more it will hurt!
The pain will run faster than you!
The pain, oh the pain, oh the pain, pain, pain, pain!
Only your pain will seem true!
We ran in a straight line, our jaws clenched tight, but there was no sign of the entrance or even the path we had followed in. At last, however, when we had run a long way in utter silence, we caught sight of a glimmer of light beyond the trees: the end of the forest!
We’d done it!
We ran on, steering toward the light. At the thought that we were seeing the sun again after all this time, the tears I had been holding back came pouring out. Gradually the light began to grow. The entrance was near now! But then Hejdanatt, who had run a bit ahead, fell to the ground, and the sound of her fall turned into a single line of song.
Away, away, away, away, you must stop running away!
She looked even more terrified than before, but she pulled herself to her feet and followed me as I dashed on ahead. It was all we could do to avoid the roots and dead branches on the ground, and the branches striking us in the face, but we ran on.
The entrance was near now, and we could see the countryside beyond. We suddenly realized that we had found the path again, and that a little way ahead it was lit by the sun, lined with green grass!
Just a little farther now!
But at that moment I remembered the odd thing that had happened when I was here before, how I’d thought I was barely inside when in fact, by the time my friends had found me, I was somehow deep in
the forest. It wasn’t just sound that was beyond our control among these strange trees—space itself seemed to be manipulated by someone or something else. So, I suddenly found myself wondering, was that really the entrance, really the sun shining brightly just a little way ahead?
I stopped and reached out to take hold of Hejdanatt as she raced by me. But I missed her hand and she ran past, dashing for the light. As she ran, each footstep was singing.
Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!
Perhaps because this song was ringing in her ears, she didn’t seem to notice that I was no longer running. I took one more step to follow her, but that too became a song.
How clever of you to see!
So I’d been right! As I watched, Hejdanatt reached the edge of the forest. I tried calling to her, but her name died in my throat. Hejdanatt! But the cry never left my lips. Hejdanatt!
She took a single step out into the sun, her skin glowing in the brilliant light. She ran a few steps farther over the bright green grass. Then she turned to look back, her face radiant with joy. It certainly seemed as though she had managed to escape the forest.
But then that momentary look of delight faded, and I knew my worst fears were justified. The sunlight flooding down on her was extinguished in an instant, and the field of green vanished. The shadows closed in around her, and what should have been the bright world beyond became the dark depths of the forest itself. In reality, she had never left at all—this horrible forest had simply allowed her to think she had, for the briefest of moments. Her head spun this way and that as she fought to understand what was happening, and then she looked back at me.
The look of horror on that face made my hair stand on end. Her hand, which had been clutched to her mouth, fell limp at her side, and her eyes rolled back in her head. Her lips parted and I caught a glimpse of her tongue lolled at the back of her throat. Blood dripping from her nostrils traced lines down her cheeks. Her eyes got terribly wide and her hands reached up to close around her throat. And then she began to repeat her own name over and over. “Hejdanatt, Hejdanatt, Hejdanatt, Hejdanatt.”