That impress the SOCKS off me!
“Where the Pines Whisper”
By Tatum Hay
May 2025
The last place anyone saw her was near the edge of the woods, just before sunset. The wind had picked up, sweeping away the sound of her laughter like it was never there. Now, the forest stands silent, as if holding its breath.
Fourteen-year-old Elara stands at the tree line, the world behind her fading into shadows. In one hand, she grips a flickering flashlight. In the other, she clutches her sister’s favorite stuffed bunny—its ears floppy, one eye missing. A frayed pink ribbon is tied around her wrist, the one she found tangled on a low branch. Mira’s.
Elara swallows hard and steps forward.
The trees creak softly in the wind, like they’re speaking to each other in a language made of leaves and bark. Their tall, dark shapes close in the farther she goes. The light from her flashlight barely cuts through the gloom. She calls her sister’s name once—“Mira?”—but the sound seems to vanish between the trees.
Still, she walks.
Every step feels heavier. Every shadow seems to move when she’s not looking. The bunny swings from her hand like a heartbeat. Something ancient watches from deeper in the woods. She can feel it. But Elara doesn’t slow down.
She thinks of Mira’s gap-toothed smile. The way she danced through puddles and made up songs about clouds. The way she ran off chasing a firefly, giggling, just before she disappeared.
No one else believed Elara’s story about the wind sounding wrong, or the trees shifting. No one else was willing to go into the forest after dark.
But Elara isn’t turning back.
She doesn’t care what’s waiting in the dark.
She came to bring her sister home.
NUMBER 2. This was one was to have stems in it.
The Secret of Sanctum Hill
Mira was just helping clean her aunt’s old cottage when she found something strange. Behind a loose board in the wall, she felt something tangible. It was a dusty old journal that looked super old, like it had been there forever. When she opened it, the pages seemed to glow, like they were trying to illuminate some kind of secret.
There were drawings of bones—like something from an osteology book—and notes about a hidden crystal under Sanctum Hill. It said the crystal had the power to liberate people from fear. Mira didn’t really know what that meant, but reading the journal made her feel inspired, like she needed to find it.
The next day, she followed a map from the journal to a spot where two paths met at an old junction. As soon as she stepped onto the stones, the ground erupted, and a staircase opened up. It was dark and creepy, but lights turned on by themselves as she walked.
Mira kept hearing weird clamors in the distance, like whispers or voices. It was scary, but also exciting. When she finally reached the end of the tunnel, she saw a glowing crystal floating in the air. The walls shimmered around it. She felt totally animated, like this was something she was meant to do.
She didn’t know exactly what the crystal would do, but she knew this was just the beginning.
