TREE

The village of Clackerty Wold was a quiet village, not many people lived there, and not many people visited, either. The people over Clackerty Wold more often than not kept themselves to themselves, they did not shun outsiders, but anyone passing through wasn't exactly welcome, either. There was one main road that went through Clackerty Wold, which was the only way in and out, and surrounding the village was a dense forest, a vast labyrinth of gnarled, dead trees that swayed slowly, and solemnly in the autumn breeze.

A family were driving through the sleepy village of Clackerty Wold, as they drove by, the noticed that a large number of the houses were boarded up, some were simply abandoned, the black windows against the whitewash gave the houses the appearance of skulls, looking down at the family as they drove down the main road. As the family were approaching the exit to Clackerty Wold their car broke down. The father got out of the car and lifted up the bonnet, unable to find out what was wrong with the car, he had no choice but to knock on the door of a nearby house and ask if he could use the telephone, the wizened old man told the father that he did not have a telephone, and that he would have to go to the post office down the road. At the post office, while waiting for someone to serve him. The father noticed that pinned to a notice board were numerous missing persons posters, the father examined each and every poster, he noticed that the majority of missing persons were little girls, all between the age of seven to ten, each of them were last seen playing, some were playing in the street, others were playing in their back gardens, but it was apparent that each child had been playing outside when they went missing, one girl in particular caught the fathers attention, a little girl named Suzy Daniels, she looked to be a pretty girl, her hair was in cute pigtails and she wore a pretty little necklace. The father had finally made the phone call he needed to make, the man on the other end told him that a repair vehicle would be with them in a short amount of time, and the father decided he would treat his children to some chocolate, and they would wait in the car until they were able to continue on their journey. Back at the car the father noticed that his wife and son were fast asleep, and that his daughter was nowhere to be found, he woke up his wife and asked where their little girl had gone, the wife said that a girl had asked if their daughter wanted to play, so she got out of the car and went to play with her new friend.

Worried, the father began knocking on doors in the village asking if anyone had seen his daughter, those who did answer shook their heads before shutting the door on the father. An hour had passed, and with no luck the father walked back to the car, he saw out of the corner of his eye his daughter skipping down a side street with a girl about her height who had cute pigtails in her hair, a girl who looked remarkably like little Suzy Daniels. The father chased after them and leapt over a fence, catching his foot on a loose plank, he saw his daughter and the little girl running into the dense forest, laughing playfully as they disappeared from sight. The father picked himself up and nursed his bruised knee, he looked up when he heard the sound of creaking wood in the distance, he went into the forest following the sound until he stumbled across the torn shreds of his daughters red polka dot dress, caught on the twisting branches of a tree, and intertwined into an exposed root were her pretty red shoes.