The Forest of Lies

She'd been walking for over an hour in the forest. Her legs had just started showing signs of fatigue, but she kept going. The morning stroll had turned into a brisk walk, with the hope that the increased intensity would stimulate some kind of Eureka moment. Something that would give her the answers to all the questions that occupied most of her thoughts lately.

She had a lot to contemplate on. She turned 30 years old last month. Besides her mother, only a handful of her old friends remembered her birthday. She had a job she absolutely hated. And a boyfriend, she recently cheated on. And although she didn't regret it, her subconscious guilt was itching her thoughts more and more recently.

"You shouldn't have done it. You hurt him. You hurt so many people." the whisper inside her head kept telling her.

She had reached a dense part of the forest now. The trees appeared different there. They had darker green colours on their leaves and their trunks looked more chopped by time, less solid, like they were older than the rest of the forest. "That's odd." she thought. She couldn't remember walking in these trails before. Perhaps she took the wrong turn at some point and didn't realise it. She hoped she wasn't totally lost. Even though the forest itself wasn't far from civilisation, getting out of it in a timely manner could prove a challenge. Especially in these unfamiliar parts.

She reached an opening and she could now see the cloudy sky clearly again. In front of her, the path split into two smaller trails. One was wide and the other one was narrow. "Shall I go left or right?" she thought. She wasn't sure. Perhaps she could just turn back and try to retrace her steps.

"Go left..." a faint voice was telling her inside her head.

For a moment, this voice appeared to be someone's else voice that was behind her or close enough to be heard. She looked around to check if she was alone. Maybe it was her own thoughts, or instincts that chose the next course of action for her. She decided to listen to these thoughts. The path going left was the wide one, so it didn't seem such a bad idea after all. More space to walk and move around.

After a while, she was got lost in her thoughts again.

"I feel so lonely. Me and my old friends keep distancing ourselves from one another. We all grew up eventually. Some of us became more mature. Others stayed the same. Our hobbies were not the same anymore. A few got married already and I want desperately to get out of my current relationship."

Suddenly the wind picked up and shook the nearby branches and leaves. "You'll be forever alone. Nobody likes you". Again her own mind whispered to her. She started walking faster. Perhaps the change of pace would help shaking out these negative thoughts. She was already in bad mental state. She didn't need her own mind working against her too.

She reached a small river with barely any water flowing in it. That summer was exceptionally hot and dry, so the sight of the dry river did not come out of the blue. What was strange though was the fact that she had never seen this river in her forest walks. Or any river. Was that the same forest as the one she had walked in so many times? The air had become distinctively more humid and she also noticed that were barely any sounds at all. Only the sound of the wind hitting against the trees and making their branches dancing in a mystical way around her. A faint fog started developing. "What should I do?" she wondered. There was no doubt now that she had no idea where she was or how to find the way back home.

"You're just a child. You're even scared of your own shadow". Again the damn whisper in her head. "You should have stayed home, you scaredy cat." This time, the thoughts felt more alive, more vivid, like they were enforced to her.

"Stop it!" she shouted at herself and shook her head, as if that would help to stop the whispers in her head.

"Is it talking to you, miss?"

The voice made her jump and a loud shout of fear escaped her open mouth. That voice wasn't inside her head. It wasn't a thought. It wasn't caused by the wind. It was a real voice by a real person. She immediately turned her head and saw a person wearing a white cloak. The person's face features were not visible, as the shadow created by the hood made it look pitch black. The person was sitting by a tree not far from her, yet she heard nothing before the person spoke to her.

"I...I didn't see you there." she said, still trying to recover from the shock.

"Apologies, miss. It was not my intention to startle you. Only to warn you." the person said with a very low voice. "What are you doing in these parts? It should be hidden and impossible for outsiders to reach so deep in the forest. Unless..."

"Unless...what?" she asked.

"Have you been hearing things in your head on your way here?" The person said without making a single move or an effort to look at her. "Perhaps, whispers or thoughts, suggesting you how to feel, how to think and how to act."

"I'm not sure." she replied, while unable to stop staring at the person.

"Beware, miss. This forest has a soul of its own. It will tell you things you keep deep inside. It will try to manipulate you and steer you in whatever path it desires. It will lie to you." the person's voice suddenly became a bit louder in the last phrase.

"And what about you? Who, or...what are you?" she said, completely frozen in fear now.

"Me?" the person said. "I'm just another lie."