“Damn, these woods are big.” My sister glanced left and right for any sign of human. None. “Where are you, Clarissa?” She shouted through the forest, and her shout ended up in an echo. It echoed through the forest like a million dozen people were saying the same thing at the same time. But what she didn’t know was, that I was just right behind one of the oak trees her echo had passed by. I sniggered behind the tree, keeping my head low from sight.

‘You’ll never find me..’ I thought. Then, I saw a gigantic majestic tree that covered and shaded over six to seven trees. This tree was kinda unusual — it had branches that would go anywhere and everywhere it could go, in the ground, in the sky, and even in the leaves of its own tree, all at once, and I felt like it was growing bigger every second, towering almost ten trees now. As the sunlight faded into thick darkness at about 1/3 of the forest, I knew that it was my cue to grab my sister and leave this place, before the tree grew any bigger and hurt us with its branches.

“Found you!” My sister whispered into my ear, that made me jump in fear, and I stumbled to the ground. “Ok, now it’s your-“

“No time, Sissy.” I stood up, grabbed her hand, and dragged her with me while we ran. “Run.”

“W-why? What’s going on?” She said frantically, while following my lead.

I looked at her in shock, “Don’t you see? The sunlight is gone!” Then I kept running, but she still didn’t get it. She hit me on the elbow while we ran, and I almost fell on my back, but luckily for me, I managed to stay on my feet and continued to run. “There’s a tree. A tree growing bigger every second, towering over trees as it does, shading almost half of the forest with absolutely no sunlight in place.”

“If there’s no sunlight…oh my lord…” My sister gasped, I don’t know if she was gasping for air or she was shocked. “I know what that tree is called.” I looked at her in horror, this kind of tree exists? “I know what you’re thinking, ‘this tree exists??’ No it doesn’t. I read about it before in a book. I thought it was fake, but now, I see it. It’s not fake at all! The myth was true! And I know where to go now. Just follow my lead!”

‘Home..?’ I thought to myself, but I didn’t question her. We ran and ran, catching our breath as we went. Sweat was trickling down from my forehead and onto my sleeves. ‘It had to be home.’ I thought. I looked up, and saw that the tree had already towered almost the entire forest. I could see it clearly from my view. This. Was. Bad. We were still running in thick blackness. Suddenly, I saw sunlight. As we stepped into the daylight, I felt a rush of relief and exhaustion rush over me. I stopped running, with my heart beating as fast as ever. I gaped for air, but there was so little humidity up here, it felt like the problem for more air was the most important thing, let alone the tree.

“It’s normal. This tree takes up humidity unlike other normal trees. What u have to do right now is keep running and never stop. You stop, you lose. You run, you feel like dying. But that’s just a feeling, your heart is just beating. You can jog, that’ll work, and you can train yourself to sprint on the way.” My sister stopped to say, and I looked at her in shock.

“I didn’t know my sister was THIS smart. I thought she hangs out with her friends almost EVERYDAY!”

“Well, you’ll need to grow up and experience hang outs with your friends enough to know what I actually do. I have play, but I also have study sessions.” She chuckled. I thought I saw a flicker of stars in her eyes. “Now, come on! We don’t have much time! Let’s go!”

I started to sprint, running along side her. After a couple of seconds of running, we reached a cliff. I grabbed onto my sister’s hand and looked down the cliff. My legs were trembling, and I found myself walking backwards towards the forest slowly. “You’re not thinking o-of j-jumping d-down…are you?” I looked at her, terrified. The cliff was so high, I couldn’t see the bottom. All I could see was fog.

“Hahaha! Of course I’m not!” She laughed out loud, and I tried to laugh with her too, but I couldn’t get my voice out. “Nah, just kidding. We’re jumping.” And she grabbed my hand and dragged me to the cliff edge, and nodded to herself.

“Wha-WHAT, I’M NOT REA-“ She pulled me down with her before I could even say anything. I was screaming and screeching with every second we fell, but it sounded like the wind was screaming as well, I couldn’t hear my own screaming.

“CALM DOWN, YOU NEED TO STOP SCREAMING!” She shouted through the loud screams of the wind. I tried to calm down and grab hold of my sister’s hand as tightly as I can, trying not to look down, I shut my eyes and felt the breeze of the wind brushing against my skin. It was cold, but with every second we fell, I felt the breeze grow warmer and warmer, till it hit room temperature. This wind was different. Then, with every second in the way, the environment silenced at the brim of my ear. The wind had stopped screaming, and I had a weird feeling. We had stopped falling. I opened my eyes into the glistening sunlight shining brightly on our faces. WE WERE FLOATING ON AIR! “The wind will take us back to wherever we want to go.”

“Woah…there’s something wrong with my sister.” I said, amazed. She chuckled softly. Suddenly, there was a sound, a noise that broke the silence. The low hum and rumble from the ground made the cliff shake fiercely, and I heard the rustling and whispering of leaves and branches moving in the wind. CREAK! We turned around to see a tree branch, growing out of the cliff! “It’s growing!”

“There’s not much time left. Think about our house. Our home.” She said in a rush, “May one live, while the other dies…”

“WHAT.”

“Oh, nothing. Just do it! Quick!”

“Oh urm ok.” And without hesitation, I shut my eyes once more and thought about our house at the other far end of the forest. CLICK! I opened my eyes, and here I was, in the living room. But the thing is, my sister wasn’t back yet.

And hours past. Still not here…

I tried to call for help, but they couldn’t find her. She was never found again. It was as if she had vanished into thin air…