"She was surrounded by wolves." Derrick exclaimed hard to be heard over the pitter patter of rain smacking against their tent. Normally, scary stories were best told in cliche fashion, with everyone gathered around a campfire, instead of sitting around a lantern. With the crackling flame dancing in the middle and casting eerie shadows on everyone's faces.

Unfortunately, no one seemed to check the weather forecast for the weekend. So, that left the four of them sitting bundled up in their tent together instead, while the rain beat away at the polyester around them. Thankfully, it was a large enough tent to house them, with a nice option of clear door flaps and window flaps that could be covered for privacy. They opted to have the clear flaps in place to add to the creepy factor during story time. Considering it was so dark that they couldn't see anything outside of the tent unless lightning decided to make it so. It gave that feeling of being watched.

"And they ate her?" Hanna cut to the chase anticlimactically.

"Hey." Derrick snapped at her, "I didn't interrupt your story."

"But they ate her." Hanna rolled her eyes. "Scary. Next." Hanna looked over to Aaron, her boyfriend. "Got anything better, love?"

"Hold on!" Derrick protested, "You can't just brush me off like that. That is scary! Do you have any idea how much it would hurt to get ripped apart by wolves? That's no joke! That's real! It happens! And it is terrifying!"

"I thought it was scary." Tamira comforted her pouting boyfriend. She gave Derrick's arm a gentle pat, "It was super creepy, babe."

"Thanks." He gave Tamira a nod, "You get it."

"I got it too." Hanna scoffed, "It was just predictable. We are supposed to be telling scary stories. Not doing National Geographic. What next, a bear attack?"

"Those are even worse!" Derrick insisted. "They eat people while they are still very much alive! You feel everything!"

Hanna rolled her eyes again. While she may have been rather unimpressed with Derrick's story, she was likely going to give him a hard time no matter what he had shared. Sibling rivalry and that. She took any opportunity to jab at him. Not in any malicious way. This was simply how they had been since childhood, and the behavior had followed them into adulthood. Seeing as they hadn't been able to visit with each other in months, they had to really poke at each other on this weekend trip in order to make up for lost time. This trolling and cruelty was their love language.

"Bears and wolves are both scary," Tamira agreed with him. "Being in nature is scary. It just wasn't meant for us, you know? We've outgrown it. We stick to our buildings, our electricity, our plumbing. We aren't meant to be out in the wild anymore. The animals know it."

"What?" Hanna took her turn on her brother's girlfriend now, "Nature is where we come from. Of course, it's natural for us to be out in it."

"I don't know about that." Arron voiced his opinion at the risk of contradicting his own girlfriend. "I kind of agree with Tamira. We used to fit in out here, but it's grown beyond us now. We've lost our instincts. People can navigate the internet better than they can navigate the woods."

"So?" She shrugged. "There are still plenty of people that know how to hunt, fish, cook, build, and survive. There are still people who know those basic skills."

"That's not what I meant, hun." He shook his head. "Sure, you have survivalists. They can take on any terrain. But I was referring to the "street smarts" of the woods. Things people have forgotten over the years. Things that have been reduced down to legends or myths. The reasons why humans strived so hard to build civilizations. The reasons they fled the woods. The reasons they feared them."

"What are you even talking about?" Hanna asked him, looking confused.

"Hundreds." Aaron told her. "Hundreds of people go missing from national parks. They simply disappear. No matter how long or how large the search parties are, these people seem to have just vanished." He shrugged to indicate just how clueless the situations were. "I mean, sometimes they find a trace here or there. A pair of shoes. A backpack. A coat. Maybe some other clothing. But the people themselves? Almost like they were never there."

"Surely, they found a body at some point." Tamira suggested, leaning onto Derrick.

"Bodies are found all the time." Aaron agreed. "Getting lost, stranded, starving, or even being eaten definitely does happen. But I am referring only to the complete disappearances. The ones that no one can explain or figure out."

"So, what are you insinuating is happening to them?" Derrick asked, looking amused.

"Oh, who knows?" Aaron shook his head. "There are tons of theories. Alien abductions, they slipped into a dimensional portal to another realm, a serial killer that is really good at hiding bodies, and maybe even something else. Maybe the myths and legends got them."

"Oh, lord." Hanna laughed. "Like bigfoot got them? Or maybe a wendigo?"

Aaron pressed his lips into a frown and gave them a firm nod. "Yes. Something like that. Something that we laugh at now, but it used to bring real fear to people back in the day."

"Please." Derrick challenged the idea, "People used to think vampires were real, too. They would dig up graves just to stake suspected vampires in the heart."

Aaron perked up at the thought, "Isn't that fascinating? How were people so sure and so deeply convinced by these things that they were considered textbook reality? Then, the further we got from the woods, the more mythical all the creatures became. And yet, when humans enter the woods in unfamiliar places, animals still seem to recognize, fear, and avoid us."

"What are you trying to say?" Hanna asked.

Aaron took a sip of his beer before answering slowly. "I am saying, we have forgotten the woods and what lies in them. But the woods haven't forgotten us. It has been said that playing an audio recording of humans talking in a wooded area will clear that area of animals. They have learned to fear what sounds like human speech."

"Yeah, right." Derrick cast that off, "You can't be serious."

"I am." Aaron assured him. "Now, if humans have separated from the wild for centuries, why do you think they still fear us?"

"Guns." Tamira offered, "Hunters."

"Maybe." Aaron raised his eyebrows, "Or maybe there is something out there that has gotten very good at mimicking us."

A cold chill seemed to fill the air within the tent as only the sound of the rain was heard. No one spoke for a moment. That line didn't seem to sit too well with the group. It was like a collective unease had filled the air. They were a mile away from the car alone. Then, miles upon miles away from the nearest civilization. Being so far out there alone and at night made them feel so small and vulnerable.

"Like skinwalkers." Hanna said so softly. She could barely be heard over the rain. "It is said they can mimic humans. And other animals even."

"Like that." Arron pointed at her briefly. "People have told all kinds of stories about how they would hear cries of help from their loved ones deep in the forest. All while that loved one was standing right there next to them."

"You actually believe in that kind of stuff?" Derrick played with his own beer can awkwardly.

"I wouldn't say either way." Aaron told him, "I can't prove the supernatural, nor can I disprove it. All I have are the accounts of people coming forward. Especially accounts from when these events were seen more as natural. Walls were starting to be built around towns that had no enemies. Not to keep out bears and wolves but to keep other things out. Things that were described as almost human, but not quite. Have you ever heard of uncanny valley or automatonophobia?"

After a brief pause of no one saying anything, Aaron continued, "It is a fear people have of things that look almost human. That unsettling feeling you get when you see a doll, a humanoid robot, or a human wax figure. When something has all the features of a human, and yet something is still off enough that you can tell it isn't one of us."

He was met by silence again, so he went on, "As I said before. Humans have forgotten many things. But they haven't forgotten the sheer terror of seeing such an imposter. It is like when you see a snake or spider. Instincts kick in, and you retreat in an instant because you sense the danger. Even children who have never been exposed to snakes will jump away or cry when they see them for the first time. The reaction is instinctual. Uncanny Valley works the same way for us. We still fear those who take our forms and use our voices. Things that wish they were human but can never be."

At this point, the tent was still quiet. No one seemed to have anything to say. The wind dragged along the side of the tent, shaking it ever so. Now, the clear windows and door didn't seem like such a good idea. The nylon between them and the outside world felt far too thin. They felt entirely exposed and under observation. It was also then that they all became more aware of the outside noises. The leaves rustling. The twigs being jostled around. Was that all rain? Or were their footsteps in the mix?

After a conscious pause, Aaron spoke again. "Have you ever heard of a Lastruza?" It was very evident that no one had when there was still silence around him. "It is said to be a very ancient and very powerful humanoid creature that protects the forest. After humans came to settle the land, they began to cut down trees by the dozens, then the hundreds, then the thousands. The woodland dwindled. The towns covered the land. Animals lost their homes. It was a great victory for mankind. But the Lastruzas wanted their home back. Anytime you see an old dilapidated town or human-made structure covered in overgrowth, it is said to be the work of a Lastruza reclaiming their space. Iron and steel are not so easy to reclaim, no."

He shook his head sadly, "So how were they to regrow their forest?" He looked at each of them, waiting for their answer. None spoke. All were sunk deeply into his words with wide eyes. it was as if they held their breaths to wait on him.

He carried on, "Metals can't be turned into life. Dead wood can't be brought back. But there was one valuable resource. Humans. With more being made each day. All it takes is one bite from a Lastruza. It spreads within you like a virus. Flesh ripped and torn into bark. Limbs growing ever longer, organs petrifying. " He took a glance out into the pitch black on the other side of the flap. "There are whole ghost towns out there. Towns where it seems the whole place has vanished in the middle of lunch. No struggles. Nothing gone amiss. Just the families. Parents to infants alike. Lost towns, surrounded by woodland. Taken back by the forest."

"People... turned into trees?" Tamira winced.

"The curse of a Lastruza." Aaron confirmed, "Some ancient cultures saw the transformation as a gift. A sort of immortality to live out centuries as a tree in nature. But some people never went willingly. It is said that when the wind blows, you can still hear their voices screaming and howling in the breeze. They were called the trees that scream in my family. And I have heard them."

Derrick tried to play off with a scoff, but he was clearly shaken up by the tale, "You have heard it? You almost got me with all that. But now I don't buy it."

"I heard it back when I was a child." Aaron still looked very serious. "Back when I used to visit these woods more. These were their lands. Are their lands. Some say that the screams are that of a fox or mountain lion. But they sound all too human. So, either a human is out there crying for relief from suffering, or it is... something else."

The rain picked up. The harder it came down, the harder the wind rattled their tent. It would hold, but it was definitely worth keeping an eye on. All the while, the breeze brought with it a hollow howling. A moan. A scream. A cry. It was all too mixed to really make out what they were hearing. The tension grew within their tent. All the sounds were ever amplified around them. It was evident that no one was really getting much sleep tonight. It didn't matter what kind of story Tamira would have told. Everyone had had their fill for the night. They sealed the window flaps for some semblance of privacy and tried to go to bed. No one protested when Hanna asked to keep the light on for the night.

When the morning came, a thick fog hung over them. They could barely see twenty feet in front of them. Still, no one was really in a mood to chit-chat. The fun adventure had been turned into an eerie outing that all of them wanted to end already, but no one wanted to be the first to say anything about it. The car was still a long trek away. They had many trees to pass during that time. But first, to act like everything was normal, they decided to have breakfast. Hanna let her eyes wander their surroundings as she ate her breakfast bar. As if some humanoid creature would come charging at them from the woods.

She couldn't help but feel on edge. Her eyes scanned the trees now. Each one with crooked, twisted limbs. She imagined a person bursting forth to become a tree. How painful that must have been. She wondered if there was any truth at all to the tale and if any of these trees could be a former human. That's when her eyes came to rest on the tree right behind their tent. She stared hard. She blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't just seeing things. Staring back at her, she could have sworn this tree, in particular, had a face.