“Anyone!” she calls again, “I do not know where I am or how I got here! Please! Please!”

I move carefully around the tree until I face her.

“What is your name?” I ask.

She doesn’t look at me. She can’t see me either! A sob catches in my throat. Am I to be a faceless ghost for the rest of my days?

“Child,” another voice hisses, this one old and dry. An older woman.

The girl and I whip our heads, and through the thick fog, a dark silhouette appears.

“Why do you cry so loud? Do those who slumber not concern you? Have you no pity for those who seek to rest?”

The girl wipes her eyes and examines the dark figure. “I am lost. I have no idea where I am! Please, can you help me?”

The withered voice cackles, and the form disappears. “Lost, you say?” This time the voice is much louder. A figure in a dark cloak appears a few trees away from me.

The young woman backs away with outstretched arms. “Do you truly have no recollection of how you got here?” The elder woman croaks.

The girl, now visibly shaking, doesn’t answer.

“Spit it out, girl!”

“It is true! I have no memory of this place. The last I remember, I was at home, speaking with a friend about finding… about finding…” The young woman falters.

“Finding what, child?”

“I cannot remember what. I only recall that I spoke to him about finding something. Somewhere. The very next moment, I was here, in the woods.”

The cloaked woman emits a shrieking laugh and loudly clicks her tongue. She vanishes and then reappears next to the girl.

We both scream. Fearfully, I cover my mouth though I’m sure neither can hear me.

“Let me have a look at your hand,” the woman urges, and tentatively, the girl offers her one. “Ah, yes. Yes, indeed. I see now.”

“What is it?” The delicate female pulls back her hand and presses it against her chest.

The cloaked figure removes her hood, revealing an old woman with a face as gnarled and ancient as the trees. I recognize it, somehow.

The girl gasps.

“There is a darkness in you, deep and unsettling. Though, you are in luck. I do not scare as easily as the Herrah.”

“The what?” The girl asks.

The old woman laughs. “Come with me, and I will show you all the things you sought from them.”

The girl lunges back, shaking her head.

The old woman shrugs. “Then die out here alone. The choice is yours,” she says and walks back through the mist towards the trees. The forest has almost swallowed the woman’s silhouette when a howl sounds in the distance.