I may have gone in a weird direction with this one after watching two sentence horror stories for hours. If you're unsettled, then good.
Clair doesn't know what goes on in that forest or who lived in it. And so did nobody else.
Her town was admittedly small, with nothing being particularly notable about it. It did have its perks, with it being a good place to live and having surprisingly little crime. It was close enough to a city, avoiding the usual problems most small towns would have. Her family was well off enough because of low property values.
But the one thing everyone brushed over was the forest not that far away. The one nobody visited, even if everyone was assured that it was safe to be at. That they knew people populated, though no one ever said by what.
Whenever it was brought up, people would always say how weird it was, but nothing else. Like nobody could ever think about it for more than a few seconds without forgetting about it.
It drove Clair nuts, though she could never tell why.
Chad made fun of her fascination of it, but she knew that he had questions too. He agreed that there was something weird about the forest, that nobody talked about it enough, but he always forgot about what they talked about seconds later. She was guilty of that too, but it still made her feel weird inside afterward.
The only reason anyone knew people lived there was because you could practically feel how off they truly are. How something just wasn't fully right.
It was the teenagers that stood out the most.
Whenever a few of them attended her town's one and only mall, Clair could instantly tell if they were from the woods in one of two ways. The first one was a creeping feeling that would go into her bones, the feeling that something wasn't fully there. That every action they took was hiding something deeper, possibly more carnal about them that they clearly didn't want people in town to notice.
The other way she would notice them is just how bizarrely perfect they are. Some of them would have this presence about them that made them attractive, mystical, borderline otherworldly in how they moved. It was even in how they talked if you could get close enough to eavesdrop on them. Something about their dialect made them feel like they were above you and that you weren't supposed to be in the same room as them.
Clair tried bringing this up with Chad before but could never summon up the words. It was like she forgot about them as soon as they left, just like the forest they reside in.
They come up and stop by every year when school starts, though. It's the only time she's ever seen those teenagers consistently, enough to know they're real. Proof that there is something involving that forest.
But after that, she never say a majority of them ever again. Not until next year.
These guys were new, though. They didn't exactly give off the same vibe as them, but she could clearly hear them talking about the schools that supposedly live there. The ones she can't ever remember.
Clair doesn't really know why she gets up after two of them leave to get some food. The guy in the trench coat didn't seem that threatening or out of this world, but the fact he still talked about those schools sent a shiver up her spine that wouldn't leave.
"People disappear in those woods, you know." It was the first words she said to that guy. She isn't sure why, a cloud descending onto her mind.
"Huh?" The boy blinks at her, confused. She doesn't realize how big the guy is and wonders if it was a mistake to talk to him before he smiles at her in a friendly way. "I didn't get that. Sorry."
"I know people live in those woods." Clair's words were coming out uncharacteristically quick, like she was forcing them out before her mind forced them down her throat. "Nobody knows where they are, though. People can't find them in there."
The boy, patient as he could be, had brown eyes. They still looked confused. "Really? Have they looked hard enough?"
"No. I've tried going in there, but I don't remember seeing anything in there before." She does remember not seeing anything. She and Chad had tried driving through there several times and never found a road that didn't lead immediately through the woods. "I've never seen people who live there enter there or leave. It's like people can't find them at all."
The boy opens his mouth, no doubt to question her some more. However, he closed it, thinking something over. Her words obviously tumbling over in his mind, trying to find the meaning of them.
"Nobody would find me if I lived there. Or my friends too." He said it carefully, looking into her own eyes. Probing, searching for answers. "Is that what you're telling me?"
Clair only nods, tongue tied. She doesn't know why. She isn't sure what they're talking about anymore, she realizes. It was the woods, right? The people in the woods?
He doesn't say anything for a moment, slumping in his seat. After a moment of silence, he only smiles, something akin to relief washing over him.
"Good." He says finally.
Clair doesn't know if she likes hearing that at all.
"Ed, hurry up! We got the food!"
The voice one of the boy's friends knocks them both out of their reverie, the boy getting up. Clair feels like she should stop him, but she can't. She watches him go without saying goodbye.
She sees those three boys later, jumping into a van and driving off towards the forest. She doesn't try to stop them.
Clair doesn't know what's going on in that forest or who lived in it.
She didn't know if she wanted to find out.