by Adam Millard
Onwards I crawled as Aokigahara goaded me, lied to me, told me things which threatened to send me hurtling into the abyss of insanity, and yet I wasn’t going to stop, not after all this, not for any reason…
But then I saw her. Lying just beyond the trail on a dune of dirt.
Kelly.
“No, no, no, no…” I dragged myself toward her, sobbing and drooling, the fluttering in my stomach worsening, and the desiccation in my throat almost choking me. “Kelly, no, no, no!”
I pulled myself up the slight embankment to where she lay, and I saw the swatch of filthy yellow rag in her left hand and the empty plastic pill-bottle in her left. I hoped that someone, somewhere, heard me scream as I fell beside her, my head against hers, but I had a feeling that no one did, that the forest kept all screams for itself.
Above me, a dirty noose swayed gently back and forth in the breeze, creaking upon the branch around which it was tied. And the forest spoke to me one last time…
You know what you must do…
