"The forest breathes," Dara repeated what the man in town had jabbered at her while looking up at the cloudless sky, as she did now. Hanging on to the last of the light, the deep blue spoke loneliness.

Senseless anxiety peaked in her as she watched the trees sway in the cool fresh breeze carrying notes of that most pleasant of decay, dirt and leaves and little things.

She was bored. What had she thought coming on this trip all alone? She had set up six tents, hauled all these supplies. Had she expected to meet someone out here in the middle of nowhere? The unsettling answer was she didn't recall. She remembered being excited to come and laughing alone all the winding way. She had expected something, something very good to happen. What was it?

Dara cracked open a beer. Maybe she should trust herself. Maybe this wasn't so bad. A wet growl came from the shadowed far distance. Were there bears out here? She didn't remember asking.

She pulled down the sleeves of her flannel and sat in one of the many chairs she prepared for herself around the fire. As she rose the drink to her lips, the gleam of the ring on her finger caught her eye. A diamond, a beautiful thing just like what she had hoped to wear one day. Had she found it out here? Surely, she would remember that.

She swatted at a mosquito just above her knee and noticed something strange. A message was written in sharpie along her thigh. She pulled up her shorts to get a better look.

-there are five of us-

-the forest breathes-

She tried to rub it out but only smeared the ink around. The message was still clear. She went to her tent. Weird she thought of one of them as hers when clearly all of them were, but she was just sleeping in this one.

She had a bottle of alcohol somewhere. She had many bottles of alcohol actually but only one of the rubbing variety. She had borrowed it from…someone. No, that didn't make sense. The beer tasted terrible. Why had she brought so much? She doubted she would finish this one.

She unzipped the tent and looked inside. She screamed and backed away, tripping over a risen root. As she watched puzzled, the zipper slowly closed itself. It was noticably darker.

Why had she screamed? The tent was empty. Just more nerves, she guessed. She grabbed a bottle of water instead, smearing half dried brown red on the top of the white cooler. She cleaned her hands and then set to work on her thigh.

She stared a long time, not understanding what she was looking at. The message before had been scratched through and below it a new one was written. When? Had she missed it before?

-not bears not bears not bears!-

She scrubbed, irritating her skin but managing to get the message mostly off. Four lines were written on the back of her left hand in the same marker, below that three lines. She scrubbed there too, taking off the ring to work under it.

It was heavy. She didn't know carats but she knew enough to know she couldn't afford something like this.

The wet growl came again, closer. She heard the forest breathe as she looked inside the band of the ring and the engraving inside.

-Dara, take my whole life too-

Someone's engagement ring. They must have lost it. Not hers of course, a wild coincidence.

Just as slow and smooth, the zipper to the tent opened. Nothing came out and she staggered back, falling on her tailbone. She was holding the sharpie, cap off and pressed against her hand again. What had she been about to write?

She felt that senseless anxiety again as she watched the first stars of the night shine above her. It was hard to get air in her lungs, nothing sitting on her chest, weighing her down.

Pinprick scratches dug into her cheeks. The forest breathed, hot and metallic on her face. She forgot herself as the wet growls resumed.

/r/surinical