Chills & Thrills Anthology

The Verdant Case | Love is a Nowhere Land

Love is a Nowhere Land by mhairijane1601

Ellie:

I threw my keys onto the counter, a scowl gracing my mouth. The sickly green hue covered the cracked skin of my hands. The doctor had frowned and searched my symptoms on Google. I mean, seriously?! His response had been equally as useless as the internet search: contact dermatitis.

"Dermatitis?" I muttered to myself, my gaze drawn to the billowing clouds lingering near the tip of Pine Mountain. "I've had skin problems for years and no skin condition turns skin green!"

My back garden was connected to the forest of Arda. Towering pines were flushed green with spring and the organised bed of roses planted by the last owner bled into rioting wildflowers that clustered on the forest floor. The postman once asked me whether I was afraid that someone would sneak into my garden and break in. But who would bother a woman fast approaching forty with nothing of value in her home?

Arda was a mysterious place, known for UFO sightings and odd lights flickering above the jagged mountain peak. Private properties dominated the area with rich owners hiding behind high fences to enjoy their homes in the countryside. I liked Arda because it was quiet, and I didn't have to think about my failed relationship with Ryan or how I was wasting my life working online for a gas company. You're just not what I need. Ryan's words still lingered in my mind, poisoning me. Maybe they were the reason I was turning green. I was supposed to move to Arda with him. Instead, I went myself a month ago. No one would miss me.

"Love is a nowhere land..." I sang the song lyrics in a lilting voice, taking pleasure in the smooth cadence. One of the few things I was proud of. Just as I was about to pull yellow marigold gloves over my green hands, a loud crack sounded from my garden.

I went still, a glove slipping from my fingers and landing on the floor.

I whirled around, staring into the garden. The roses stood proudly, pink leaves peeking out. Nothing was out of place except...the forest line looked darker than before. And was that...a flash of glowing green behind a distant pine?

With shaking hands, I opened the back door and slowly made my way over the grass. My trainers squelched, the growing ground sucking them downwards. The wind teased the strands of hair around my eyes, blocking the trees for a moment. When I looked again, nothing was glowing green. And yet...

"Is someone there?" I asked softly, my voice cutting through the silence like a knife through butter. Only the low hum of the wind answered.

I took a few steps towards the trees, convinced that something was in there. My hands ached, leafy green scabs covering my palms. I walked as if in a dream to the line of pine trees. And even though I had stayed out of the forest ever since I moved here, even when my curiosity was piqued by distant lights on the mountain, I decided to enter now.

The temperature dropped the moment I walked into the forest. Instead of the soft warmth of spring, there was the sharp iciness of dampness and winter. Pine needles littered the ground, and the weight of my feet made a strange crunching sound. It was like bones. The great branches of the pines were dark shadows that blocked out sunlight. A searing pain shot through my hands, and I gritted my teeth, the world blurring for a moment.

"Ah," I groaned, leaning against a tree. I should get out of here and go home...but as I turned, there were only trees in every direction.

"What?" I asked in shock, my heart suddenly hammering in my chest. Where was my house? The many trees rustled in the wind and the sound was like creaking laughter, maliciously taunting me. My arms ached, alongside the pain in my hands, and as I pulled up my sleeve in fear, I noticed the green spreading.

The hue of freshly grown leaves, the green was crawling up my forearms. I watched it creep past a mole on my left arm and I let out a scream. My knees gave out and I crashed to the forest floor, the pine needles piercing my ruined skin. What was happening?! It was growing...

I scrambled to my feet and bolted in panic, my breathing loud in my ears, searching for my house. I had to go to the hospital...But only trees surrounded me until I glimpsed a metal fence in the distance. A gate connected to the fence lay open as if someone were expected. Through the gate, there were only more pines clustering together.

"Help!" I shouted, willing anyone to hear. I wished I hadn't moved to Arda. I wished I was young again, when my family was alive, and people cared about me. The green was still growing, and it had reached my elbows now. Oh god, oh god...

Abandoned buildings peeked from between the trees. They were a dull grey, the stone cracked and doors hanging limply on hinges. Rubbish and debris were littered all around them. It was like the set of a zombie movie. My arms and hands felt like they were on fire now and I was doubled over, trying to reach the buildings. A strange circular symbol was painted on a door; inside the circle was a small black dot and three lines branching out from it. A trefoil.

The trees were laughing now, and the world was blurring again...they were muttering around me and the buildings were disappearing...I was falling to the ground and I could hear Ryan when we first met...

"No family?" He asked, his dark eyes fixed on me. "That's a shame. What happened?"

"They died in a car crash..."

So simple, so agonising. I was left all alone in the world and no one else had ever cared. Until he came along. I screamed in horror as I glimpsed the blurry outline of my arms. They were...blooming. The hairs on my arms were becoming small pine needles and the pain was excruciating. They were piercing my skin and instead of blood only water flowed out. The pain was reaching my shoulders and then my chest, closing in on my heart...

"I'm turning into a tree...help me..."

The pines were giggling away, laughing at me. Whispering that Ryan had never loved me, that my parents were never coming back, that I was a better tree than a woman...

I could feel the soil gripping onto me, rooting me to the spot, as I became one with Arda. I could hear Ryan talking behind my ear as everything began to go into the dark earth of the forest.

***

Epilogue:

The two men stood and observed the woman on the ground, her mouth foaming as she shook in a fit. The lightest dusting of rain floated down from the clouds and Ryan brushed it from his brow.

"I always like coming up here, you know?" He said, smiling at the doctor. "The weather's perfect, even if the water is a bit green if you get my meaning?"

Ryan chuckled, but the doctor eyed the jerking woman on the ground in concern.

"What I can't understand is why they always think they're turning into a tree. It must be a side effect of the drug. Green skin and hallucinations. Perhaps administering it through the water system was a mistake," the doctor said, nibbling on his lower lip. "I'm not sorry she won't survive, though. She was very rude to me at our consultation earlier."

"Ellie was a bit rude," Ryan said, shrugging. "The ones brought up in the care homes always are. I was hoping she would have a better reaction to the drug, though. I really need that promotion."

"The government is cutting corners at the moment," the doctor replied. "Even on secret projects like this. We'll change the way we give them the drug next time and we could get different results. Just do your job and lure them to Arda."

"I always make them sign the lease, doc, so they can't get out of it," Ryan said with a wink. On the forest floor, the woman jerked one last time and went still. "Goodbye, Ellie. Sorry about this."

As they turned and made their way back towards the government base nestled in the heart of Arda, the eerie howling of the wind made Ryan pause. His eyes narrowed and a frown tugged at his lips. Because as the wind shuddered through the pines, it sang in a lilting lonely voice. He was sure he heard words in the wind's song.

Love is a nowhere land.

But he shook his head and walked away, his thoughts on turning another woman green.