Whispers of the woods
717 Words
The night was colder than it should’ve been.
Ivy walked alone beneath the skeletal trees of the forest, her boots crunching over brittle leaves. Every branch overhead seemed to claw at the sky, every gust of wind carried the weight of everything she hadn’t said.
She didn’t know where she was going. She just had to move. Had to breathe.
Her mind was a hurricane. Elysia’s voice echoed in her skull like a curse: “If they become a risk, you end them.”
The words were sharp. Final. They didn’t belong in Ivy’s head, and yet they’d rooted themselves there like thorns.
How did it come to this?
She’d thought she was doing something noble. Embracing her power. Becoming stronger. Learning magic the way it was meant to be learned.
But now… she wasn’t sure anymore.
Elysia didn’t teach magic.
She commanded it.
And me.
A branch snapped behind her.
Ivy spun around, heart leaping—but it was only a figure in the moonlight. A familiar one.
“Lily?”
The girl looked surprised, almost caught. “Ivy? You scared me.”
“I scared you?” Ivy stepped closer, narrowing her eyes. “What are you doing out here this late?”
Lily hesitated. Her smile was too quick. “Just… clearing my head. Could ask you the same.”
There was something off in her voice. Ivy didn’t know what. Just a feeling, like the ground shifting under her feet.
“I couldn’t sleep,” Ivy admitted, crossing her arms. “Things with Elysia are… complicated.”
Lily tilted her head, concern flickering across her features. “What happened?”
Ivy looked at her for a long moment. She didn’t know why she was about to spill her guts to a human girl she barely knew. Maybe because Lily was kind. Maybe because she reminded Ivy of someone she used to be.
Maybe because she just needed someone to listen.
“She wants me to train other witches. Help them awaken their powers,” Ivy began.
Lily nodded. “Okay. That sounds good… right?”
Ivy’s expression darkened. “That’s not all. If they become a threat… if they don’t follow the rules... she wants me to kill them.”
Lily blinked, her smile fading. “Wait, what?”
“Yeah.” Ivy laughed bitterly. “Just like that. No hesitation. No mercy.”
Lily’s voice was soft. “And are you going to?”
“I don’t know,” Ivy admitted. “I hate it. The thought of doing it makes me sick. But at the same time... I can’t stop thinking about how right she might be. What if letting one person live endangers everyone else?”
She clenched her fists. “I hate that she’s making sense.”
Lily stepped closer. “That doesn’t mean you’re like her.”
“But what if I’m becoming her?” Ivy whispered. “She doesn’t blink when she talks about death. I used to cry over killing a spider. Now I’m considering if a person is worth saving.”
Lily didn’t speak.
That silence said a lot.
Too much.
Ivy glanced at her sideways. “You’re quiet.”
Lily shrugged. “I just… I didn’t expect it to be this serious. You looked like someone who had it all together.”
Ivy scoffed. “Then I’ve fooled you. I don’t have anything together. I’m standing on the edge of something I can’t see. And I think if I fall, I won’t come back.”
"But I thought she gave you a choice?" Lily asked
"Yes she did ..... Follow me or die, some choice" Ivy scoffed
Lily reached out, touching her arm gently. “Then don’t fall.”
It was kind. Too kind.
And Ivy didn’t buy it.
Not entirely.
She looked at Lily, really looked. Her presence in the woods. The way she’d brushed off the question earlier. The faint air of knowing more than she should.
She’s hiding something.
But Ivy didn’t confront her. Not yet.
Instead, she said, “Thanks for listening.”
Lily smiled, but something behind it didn’t reach her eyes.
Ivy turned to leave, her back tense.
You’re lying to me, she thought, and I don’t know why.
But she’d find out. One lie at a time
- Writer
