The Punished Forest

A forest knows everything. But, what is a forest?

There was a silence in the forest. A very eerie silence. Nothing was heard of any sort out of the way. As the morning came upon the forest, visitors to the forest would come and run in between the bushes, climd the trees, and eat the berries. But, the only visitors the lonely forest had now were two friends.

The forest could always tell the intentions of the humans that came to visit it and it's animal children. Whether it be to propose, kill, kiss, hurt, play, feed, jump, or breed, the forest knew what the predictable humans were going to be before they showed it to the other humans.

They were two, one male and one female. The male was covered in some type of face paint the forest had seen often, but did not know what it meant. White covered the whole face, serving as a base, there was usually sometype be it red or black covering their lips and always covering their eyes. They had intricate patterns, too.

The humans called them clowns when they came with one in tow with a horde of humans. But, others, called them...Juggalo's. There was nothing in his attention to hurt this girl. The forest knew well enough of that.

He loved this girl. He didn't want to harm her, but it looked as if she retched at the sight of him, now. It was weird to the forest. Weeks before, the two had visited the forest-the male without face paint-and the girl had been playful and happy.

They talked for a while, the female leering at the male, being uncomfortable, and the male just confused. The female spat the name "Chris" at the male and he always lovingly sighed her name "Harper". The chat ended with 'Harper' excusing herself, leaving 'Chris' all alone and confused.

Weeks passed by and they visited again. For the weeks they had not, happy, playful children, and excited, lusty teens had filled their place. But, the eve of something terrible, they fought. Chris had confessed to be in love with her, but Harper was not listening. She did not like this new Chris, but he certainly seemed to love her...

The next evening, Harper was writing in her book. She had once told one of her friends on that exact spot that she wanted to be an author. To publish her stories and poems would be her dream. Harper was too into her story to know there was a male sneaking up on her. It was a bout a noble-turned-peasant who proclaimed his love for this beautiful princess. The princess told the boy she wanted a knight in shining armor and not a wheat farmer, and the peasant gave up his dream to become a noble again.

This was not how her story was going to play out, sadly, the forest realised. Chris and Harper were two people in love. Chris, a juggalo, and Harper, a 'normal' human. In Hapers view, they could not be together, but this did not sit well with Chris.

As the forest watched Chris sneak up onto Harper, it thought the gesture was out of love, but was frightened once it saw a ten-pound axe come out of his backpack.

That night, the forest watched the death of Harper Kingsley. It was a horrible thing to watch. He buried her under her favorite tree. The Sakura Tree.

For two years, the forest watched and watched as people searched for Harper, and tried to find her remains, but could never do so.

After the search was called off, Chris, who she noticed never visited anymore, came back regularly. Throughout the years she watched milestones pass in his life. Girfriends, Gradutaions, Parties, Marriages, Children, and they all happened under the Sakura tree. About ten years after he killed Harper, he came back to the forest one last time. He was the last visitor the forest ever saw.

That day, He took the notebook he had pried from Harpers fingers ten years ago. He wrote a simple 'I love you. Please forgive me.' and started throwing bottle of this strange liquid around the Sakura tree. Within one second, everything burst into flames. Help arrived, but could not subdue the fire. The Sakura tree was the last to burn of me, and as I burned I adopted the name Harper. Everything came undone in that second.

Chris died admitting he killed her. In his last seconds, for someone who didn;t believe, he yelled for god to save his soul.

I closed my eyes welcoming the darkness for I knew of what was to come. I opened my eyes into a bedroom and I was there. I looked into the vanity placed across from the bed. I was a female, That notebook was mine, and my name was Harper.

I may have adopted the name Harper, but I will forever be Chris. I killed my best friend at age 20 and commited suicide at age 30. Forever I carry that on my shoulders.

In the few seconds after my death, I saw Harper. She laughed and told me that I should have taken off the makeup years ago. She kissed me on the cheek saying even dead married men shouldn't cheat.

I was forgiven by her, but now I have to spend the rest of eternity watching why I shouldn't have been.