Okay, so as I was saying we are all going to die. Let me rephrase that. WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!! And if you are not in a panic you should be. Now that I have your attention, listen to this recording as closely as you can. When you get an antidote to the illness, go to a group of trees in the forest. If you are wondering what forest I am talking about, you will know when the time has come. 

In the beginning, we did not know what was causing the illness and then we realized something important. We saw that the illness only happened when these strange people came. They would come and cut down trees, our tree, the trees that were connected to us. And when they cut the trees down our people would fall. You see we are.. well we are, we are wood nymphs. If you do not know what they are. They are just the spirit of trees, in human-ish form. Some of them look normal enough to be an actual human. Acacia, Ash, Palm(my mom), and I also all of us in the village except for Magnolia all look human-ish. Any way the illness which we have come to call the virus popped up one calm and wonderful day. At the time I was playing with my friend Acacia. We were playing tag in the woods, Acacia maybe 2 years older than me but boy can she play tag. Then we started to play hide and go seek tag because Ash and Oak wanted to play. Acacia caught up to Ash in no time and he was it. When he was counting we heard a loud and dramatic chopping sound, he suddenly stopped counting.

 “Ash?” Acacia yelled.

 We got out of our hiding spots, Ash had turned towards us and we saw that his eyes were black. It looked really weird because his eyes are usually a very light shade of green, he would always get complimented on his eyes. And as soon as he saw us he gave us a cold smile and started to chase us. It was not a fun type of chasing it was like he wanted to kill us. He caught up to me and I started to scream. Acacia turned and tried to pry his hands off of me. His grip was strong, like a jailers, if not even stronger.

“Help!” I yelled.

 I was stuck in some sort of cage. It stank so so so bad, like rotten fish and farts. Although I am not sure if feet can rot, if they can then it smells like that. It was damp and dark, I have to admit I was scared. I had been out with a few others from the village who were still alive, and who were willing to try and find a cure. And as we were walking about and looking for it, some bloke comes by and decides to kidnap me. And nobody else comes over to find me. 

“Well”, I said to myself “I guess I will just be here and sulk all by myself.”

 All the guy has made me do is cooking and cleaning. I guess that was not as bad as I thought it would be. The only thing is that sad is that I do not see Piggy every day. Piggy is like a little sister to me. I have always been the youngest child, but now I am an older child, kind of. I hope that if I am stuck here at least that we will find a cure to the virus. I hope that I will see Ash and Magnolia again. Because if I do not then Magnolia, assuming that she does not have the virus will be alone if Ash dies. We are all siblings and our mother already died a couple of years ago during a different virus. 

Being in the hospital was like being in jail for the sick. You were not allowed to walk around, I thought that the rule was kind of weird. I quickly started to lose the ability to walk. But I doubted that it was from the walking thing. I also noticed that people were afraid to be around me. All the nurses would avert their eyes. Another thing was that they would walk by me very fast. One day I asked for a mirror and a comb, I thought that maybe they did that because I looked very crazy. I soon saw that nothing was wrong with me except that my eyes were not green anymore. Suddenly I felt a sharp tug and I started to get up. One of the nurses tried to put me back in my bed but I just pushed past her. I suddenly wanted to get out of here and I had the energy to do so. Then my vision started to go blurry and I ran and broke open the door. I heard screams of other patients, confusion, and chaos left in my wake. I neared a spot that I had recently found before I was in the hospital. I had built a house underground. I went to my secret door and stepped inside. Little did I know what was going to meet me there.

“Shirley, have you seen my orange shirt? I have not seen it at all today, and you know what today is.”I yelled to Shirley.

 Because she was upstairs in the attic. Shirley and I have been selling wood since we were little. We would cut down unwanted trees and sell them to customers. But a couple of days ago we got the biggest offer that we had gotten in forever. We were meeting some people who wanted to cut down some trees to make a clearing for them so that they could make a house. The weirdest part was that the trees were not all the same. Like I know that in most tree places there are different trees but I mean that there were palm trees and oak trees and magnolia trees. It was the weirdest thing that I have ever seen. Shirley and I are brother and sister we look enough alike that people can see that we are related. Shirley and I are mostly opposites, I am tall Shirley is short, I am kind of stupid (I did not pay attention in school and I did not go to college) Shirley, on the other hand, did go to college. I have straight hair and Shirley's is curly. Other than that we are mostly the same.

Isaac and I headed out to the clearing. After Isaac found his shirt of course. And we decided that we would cut down a palm tree, the big one. The people wanted the little one as a decoration. As soon as we had decided, we had to mark it with orange cones and caution tape. So that people would be able to come and look but not to close. Then we started to cut.

The first shouts had told me that someone was sick. I ran along with the crowd because I did not want to get sick. As I ran I scanned the crowd for my 

mother I did not see her. Everyone eventually stopped running. I started to ask people if they had seen my mother. When I asked the baker this, she said bless your soul. I asked her what she meant and then she started to cry. She answered in between sobs, that my mother was the one that was sick. I started to cry and told her that she was mistaken. And she shook her head. I started to cry even more that were two people who were sick that were very close to me. The baker consumed me in a big hug. 

“It will be okay,” she told me in a comforting voice repeatedly.

The poor child was my first thought. She has been through so much. First Ash, then Acacia disappeared, and now her mom. I had offered for her to stay with me. She had declined to say that she was old enough to be alone herself. Poor child. I wondered what would happen if her mother died. 

When I walked into my house I was not prepared to see this random guy and my sister tied up there. I was very angry because no one messes with my sister. Anyone other than me of course. I stared at the guy and his head exploded. It was gross. Magnolia stared at me, her stare was filled with awe, sadness, happiness, and with disbelief. She looked very scared

. “Magnolia,” I say in my calmest most comforting voice. 

“It’s me, Ash.”

 After I say this she gets up and runs. 

As soon as Ash said that it was ok, I just kind of freaked out. I mean I had been here because I was trying to help him. But he was still sick and I saw what he did to Piggy. I bet she still has the bruise that he gave her. I ran and got back to the village. And that was when I saw Piggy crying and as soon as I saw that the woman comforting her was the baker. I knew that her mom was sick. I ran over to her and started to hug her. Her mother was kind of like my mother away. So her mother being in the hospital effects both of us. I suddenly want to find Magnolia. I ask piggy if she has seen her. The baker whose name is Lelee said that she started to work in the hospital. I then went to the hospital wondering how Magnolia was doing. 

The moment Acacia burst through the door I was so happy. She started to hug me and then when she saw who I was by and was talking to her smile froze. She said that she did not want to believe the rumors. I said that we should do something about the virus. The way her eyes lit up made them look like stars in the sky. She said that some nymphs from the village should go and try to find the Wise Old Tree-man.

I had the sense that someone wanted to see me and so I started to make my house clean so that when they do find me they will not be disgusted by the mess that I have made. I could feel that Sequoia was looking for me and that I was needed for something.  

Acacia and I rounded up people in no time. We set out, one of the people who went with us has a connection with The Wise Old Tree-man. I think that he made her out of some mud and then made her a tree. Anyway, she can feel when he is close and when he is not. We traveled for some time and then we came upon a little house and we knocked on the door. And when it opened we saw that there was an old and wrinkled man there. “Hello,” he said and then ushered us inside. 

This is more fun than I thought plaguing these wood nymphs, with my virus. And them working for me and obeying my commands. Because they have always been happy and I do not like people or nymphs to be happy. I was like a bug of negativity. And now that I had a couple of people possessed I was on a roll.  

I would have never guessed that there would be a war when I was living, or even when I was young. All of the nymphs would get along fine and we were all peaceful. But now as I am saying this we are in the middle of the war. I guess it was about medicine but I am not sure. It started when some people who were sick came out of the hospital and then started to attack. It reached were I lived the next day. When it came closer I had prepared myself by building armor and weapons. I did not want to kill anyone but I would use my weapons if necessary. Mostly during self-defense. When it did reach me, I was not as prepared as I thought. When the war started I had thought that they would come and start to battle on the battlefield. Boy was I wrong. Instead of one-on-one combat, they would come and then they would cut down your tree. I learned this as soon as it happened to me. I felt a sickening chop and then I fell to my knees in pain. Oh no I thought, they finally did it. After all of the stories that I had been told they cut my tree. With all the strength I had left was used as I walked myself to the hospital. But before I even got myself all the way there, I fell flat on my face. 

Being in heaven was more fun than I would have thought it would be. That sounded weird. Let me rephrase that, it was enjoyable. I was placed in the best place you could go to heaven. And when I was there I saw all of my friends, Acacia, Ash, Magnolia, Lilee, and my mom. It was sad that I was dead but at least we had a way to talk to each other. Hello, I said as I acknowledged everyone. We all shared pained smiles. 

“Well, I said, “I will see you later.” 

Acacia was choking back tears as she replied,” See you later, whenever later will be.” 

“ Acacia, I love you so much. Do not forget that.” Acacia’s mom told her as she cupped her face.

Ash and I started to fade away.

“Goodbye dear, I love you so much also.” My mother told me.