Lying next to a stack of old photographs.
Photographs I had never seen before.
One showed my property—but decades ago, judging by the clothes. Another was of a woman with long black hair, a soft gaze, and a velvet ribbon around her neck. The last was of two deer.
The same two.
Except… this photo was worn at the edges, like it had been touched too many times. Scribbled on the back were five words:
“Follow the ribbons. Trust the small.”
I don’t know what came over me. I felt pulled, like the air had weight. Like something was waiting.
At dawn, I packed the photos and the key into my coat and walked to the edge of the property. There’s a gnarled old oak near the fence line—nothing special, or so I’d always thought.
But there, tied around the lowest branch, was another red ribbon.
Beyond it, the brush had parted. A path—not one I remembered—cut just wide enough for a person to pass through. And tied to branches along the way were more ribbons, fluttering in the still morning air.
I followed.
The forest grew darker the deeper I walked, but not in a threatening way. It felt watchful. Like I was being allowed in—not welcomed, but permitted. The deeper I went, the more ribbons I found, each tied with the same knot. Each pulsing with the same quiet mystery.
Then I saw them again.
The two deer, standing still in a mossy clearing.
The little one had something tied to its neck again—a small leather pouch. When I entered the clearing, the little deer stepped forward and dropped it gently at my feet, then backed away.
Inside the pouch was another key, identical in shape but warmer in my hand. And a folded piece of parchment that read:
“Unlock the memory. The answers sleep beneath the roots.”
I looked around.
In the middle of the clearing was a circle of stones, half-sunken and covered in moss. Symbols—carved deep—marked their faces, strange and ancient. The largest stone had a hollow beneath it, barely visible, and wedged under the root of a tree next to it… something wooden.
I brushed back the dirt.
A trapdoor.
Heavy. Old. But real.
My heart thundered. Every rational part of my mind screamed to stop. But the silence in the woods wasn’t menacing. It was expectant.
I pulled the key from my coat pocket, slid it into the rusted lock—and it turned with a soft click.
And in that moment, I remembered something I didn’t know I had forgotten:
A dream I used to have as a child—of a woman with a red ribbon, whispering to the deer. Of a circle of stones. Of a voice saying: “One day, you’ll come back.”
And now, here I was.
The door creaked open.
And the forest held its breath.
Would you open it too? 🌲🗝️🦌
