Chapter Five — The Forest Remembers

It rained the next day.

Not the gentle kind, but a heavy, stubborn downpour that made the town blur behind curtains of mist. The mountains disappeared behind a grey veil, and the pine trees stood tall like statues mourning something ancient.

Noah didn’t mind the rain. It made things quiet in a way he could understand.

He sat on his bed, sketching.

Not well. Not with any real idea. But ever since the shared dream, something inside him itched when he didn’t create. He kept drawing the same thing — two shadows in the trees, standing too close. Always just one breath apart.

One always looked like Eli.

The other…

Sometimes looked like Noah.

Sometimes didn’t.

🌧️ That Evening

Noah found himself at Eli’s cabin again.

Neither of them said hello anymore. They didn’t need to.

Eli was inside this time, his fingers smudged with charcoal, his face slightly flushed — like he’d just woken from a dream that hadn’t finished telling its story.

“There’s something in the woods,” he said without looking up.

Noah froze. “What do you mean?”

Eli's hand twitched across the paper. “Something old. It’s… starting to move.”

“Did the forest tell you that?”

Eli looked up. “No. It’s showing me things.”

He turned the sketchbook around.

Noah’s stomach dropped.

It was a drawing of him.

But not how he looked now — pale, eyes wide, hoodie wrinkled.

No.

This version of him was older. Hollow. Standing in the forest with a crooked smile and black eyes, trees growing through his ribs like roots.

🌲 Later That Night

The forest was loud that night.

Noah couldn’t sleep — again. The whispers were stronger now. Not just in the trees, but in him. Like his thoughts didn’t always belong to him anymore.

At 1:13 a.m., he gave up and went back to Eli’s.

The door was unlocked.

Inside, the room glowed faintly with candlelight. Canvases leaned against every wall, each one stranger than the last. Some had no faces. Some had too many. One was entirely black — thick, layered paint that felt like it might suck you in if you stared too long.

Eli was sitting on the floor, legs crossed, hands covered in ink.

“You feel it too, don’t you?” he said without looking up.

Noah sat beside him.

“I don’t know what it is. But yeah.”

A beat.

“I think it wants something.”

Eli finally looked at him. His eyes didn’t look like fog today. They looked like a storm just waiting to crash.

“I think it wants you.”

Noah’s breath caught.

And for the first time, his voice shook. “Why me?”

Eli leaned in, just a little. Enough for Noah to feel his warmth. “Because you don’t run. Even when you should.”

There was silence.

But not the empty kind. The kind where hearts say things mouths won’t.

Noah’s fingers brushed Eli’s, unsure if he meant to — or just needed to.

And Eli didn’t pull away.

🖤 The Almost

The candlelight flickered. Something shifted in the air.

Noah’s hand slid over Eli’s knuckles, slow, unsure. His breath was unsteady.

“You said the forest is choosing.”

“I think it already chose,” Eli whispered.

Their faces were close now.

Too close.

Noah's heart thundered. Every part of him screamed to lean in, just a little. To find out what Eli’s lips tasted like in the dark. To fall — just fall.

But then—

A branch snapped outside.

A low groan echoed through the trees.

Both boys flinched. Eli stood instantly, like the spell had shattered.

“It’s watching again,” he said sharply. “It doesn’t like this.”

Noah stared at him. “It doesn’t like what?”

Eli turned to him slowly, voice thin.

“Us.”

🌑 End of Chapter Five

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