#cyclamens

Purple - Fia / @stitchesfromtheneedle Green - Rosemary/Cyclamens / @99rosesandabellflower

Against the warnings on Rosemary’s blog, Fia walked through the woods. It was getting dark, and here she was, wandering through these woods. It was probably dangerous. She probably shouldn’t be here. But if her gut feeling is right, then there’s something deeply wrong, and she needs to find out exactly what.

Rosemary had never specified in her posts where in the woods she went, but it stood to reason that her nature walks took her far. Into dense thickets, and isolated parts of the wood even the average hiker might not know about. Especially since that mechanical tree she’d found would have alarmed anyone, and been the center of media attention if anyone else had stumbled onto it.

It had been several hours of walking since Fia stepped foot into the woods. Above, the moon shone brightly, illuminating her path sparsely through the thick leaves of trees.

“Man…” she glanced down at her phone, checking the time. It's almost 11PM. Surely Kalei and Kat would be getting worried by now, even if Fia texted them already to tell them she's safe. But she has to keep going, she’s in this far now. Where even is she? Fia doesn’t know.

Out the corner of her eye, she spotted something. Something glimmered in the distance, silver and shiny.

Somewhat off an already small path and hidden in tangles and thicket, was a small tree. Or maybe, not a tree at all. It looked like a tree, but its silvery color, reminiscent of the moonlight filtering through the dense branches, made its abnormality abundantly clear.

And if that wasn’t enough, its trunk was open, with a hollow space inside it. Or what would be a hollow space, if not for the person suspended within it, feet already stuck in the tree trunk and hands held above her, limply reaching upwards. Looking asleep, almost peacefully so, with branches crowning her head.

Cautiously, slowly, Fia made her way over to the tree. She looked up and down it, puzzled at its strangeness. Trees aren’t usually silver, are they? And… wait, is that a person?!

“Um… hello?” she called out to the woman in the tree. “Are you… awake?” Fia was a little worried, honestly. Trees don’t grow like this, and they certainly don’t have people suspended in them. If they found out, they would surely uproot this thing to study it…

It may be a bad idea, but Fia was willing to try anything at this point to prove the woman’s alive. Hesitantly, she reached out and tried to grasp the woman’s hand.

Her eyes clenched shut even tighter, and her eyebrows furrowed, maybe in pain. But even so, the branches holding her retreated a little, as if sensing the presence of another person. Her pulse beat steadily under her wrist.

In response to the movement of the tree, the flowers blooming around the base of the tree— pink and purple cyclamens flowers— rustled and moved, almost prying at the trunk around the woman’s feet, and the bark, like the branches, began to peel away. Maybe they had been waiting for someone to come.

Fia pursed her lips and let go of the hand, setting her sewing box down on the floor of the forest. Upon looking down, she gasped as the cyclamens bloomed around her.

“Whoa…” she spun around, watching as the flowers blossomed and pried at the tree. “Huh… I see…”

That woman was alive, and quite possibly in pain. Fia felt the pulse herself. If the tree was flaking and peeling away, then that means she could still rescue this person.

“Here, let me help.” Fia said to no one as she bent down and began helping the flowers pry at the trunk and bark of the silver tree. “You’ve been waiting a while, haven’t you? Well, I’m here now. Don’t worry.” As she worked, occasionally she looked up to check on the status of the woman trapped inside.

As the tree fell away, the woman was lowered into the bed of flowers. Her eyes were still closed, and she was still unconscious, possibly comatose, but her chest visibly rose and fell with each breath. A few branches clung stubbornly to her, but the flowers helped brush them away.

From the pocket of her skirt, a wallet, presumably hers, peeks out. In the clear pocket of its front, the name [REDACTED] could be read from her driver’s license. In the other pocket, her phone rested. While it doesn’t turn on, the phone case itself is clear, and one of the many small slips of paper stuffed in it reads “Dear Rosemary”.

Fia stared at the woman on the ground, watching the flowers pull branches and bark away from her. How odd. Taking a seat on the grassy floor, criss-crossing her legs, she took a breath to steady herself after pulling the metallic tree? Material away from the woman. She spotted the wallet and phone, pulling the phone out to check for contact information. Sadly, it appears to be dead. Seems like she’s been here for a long time, huh? Turning the phone over, she looked at the clear phone case with the paper stuffed in it.

“So you’re Rosemary… I was right, then,” Fia mumbled. “You’ve got an impersonator.” She sighed and turned the phone back over, startled to find that it had turned on suddenly. “Ah! Huh? Was it on 1% this whole time? Guess it just shut down a while back…” but Fia didn’t know the password, and she had no intention of snooping through a stranger’s phone. So she put it back down and pulled the wallet out from Rosemary’s pocket, flipping through the  cards and looking for other contact information. Maybe Rosemary had some friends or family that could help her out.

“Should get you to a hospital since you look like you won’t wake up soon…” she looked back worriedly at Rosemary.

Her wallet is very standard. Driver’s license in the front, a credit card, some change, and various business cards and ticket stubs she may have forgotten to throw out. But, no friends or family listed, no emergency contact to call. 

The flowers swayed slightly, despite there being no wind. They brushed against Fia.

Fia flipped through the wallet, slightly frustrated that there was nothing useful to their current situation in it. Sighing, she put it down on the ground and stared at Rosemary.

“How can I help…?” she wondered out loud. The cyclamens rustled and swayed. Fia frowned. Odd, she could feel no breeze.

“...Is someone else out here? Cyclamens?” she asked, not expecting an answer but looking around her anyway, as if someone might appear at any moment. The Cyclamens person that Rosemary was looking for out here in these very woods, perhaps? Unlikely… but who knows?

The flowers swayed more, as if in acknowledgement of Fia’s words. They seemed to glow under the moon, as if dusted with light. And distantly, a quiet voice asks, “Are you here to help her?”

Startled, Fia flinched at the voice, head snapping up and frantically looking around her. She couldn’t see anyone though.

“Ah! Uh… well, I’m here, aren’t I?” she chuckled nervously. “Yeah, I’m here to help. You’re… Cyclamens, right?” Fia had to make sure. It could very well be an impersonator, but how would she know? Still…

“How did she even get in this situation…?”

“Yes,” the voice whispered, “I am the one she called Cyclamens.” The flowers around Rosemary bent towards her, trying to get closer to her. “And she… well, she tried to find me. And The Keeper was not happy about it, so it decided to take care of both of us. It put Rosemary where she could not interfere with it, and threatened me with her safety. I’m… very aware she’s only still alive because it let her be.”

Despite the movement of the flowers, Rosemary doesn’t stir. “I only acted because I sensed you approaching her,” Cyclamens continued. “The Keeper is weak right now, and thus cannot interrupt us.” The clouds overhead shift, and from a beam of moonlight, a translucent figure emerges. 

“I can help you take her to the edge of the woods, but this form cannot go any further than that,” Cyclamens said, voice much louder now that a version of them stood near Fia. “From there, I believe you should take her to the… ah, what was it called? The hospital, I believe?”

Fia breathed a sigh of relief at Cyclamens’ appearance and offer to help. Though she was still confused on what exactly was going on (maybe she should’ve backread Rosemary’s blog a bit more), but this was good enough context. The Keeper… how mysterious indeed.

“Yeah, the hospital.” she nodded and got up from her spot on the ground. “Er… this Keeper person, they won’t um… come after me or something after I get Rosemary to the hospital, right?” Fia asked worriedly. Realising how it sounded like she was going to back out of helping, she quickly added, “I-I’m still gonna help! It’s just… I don’t want to put the people I love in danger, that’s all. I just wanna ask.”

Fia picked up her sewing box, slid it onto her arm, then shuffled over to Rosemary and picked her up by the armpits. “Could you uh, grab her legs? We’ll carry her out like that, and then I’ll take her to the hospital myself.” she looked down at Rosemary, peacefully sleeping and very likely in some kind of coma. “And… I’m kind of scared to ask, but um… how long has she been like this? I mean… I think the hospital will want to know too, so they can take care of her better.”

“The Keeper is preoccupied by me right now,” Cyclamens replied. “It will be for a while. The headaches it spoke of are me pulling it back to its domain, away from your world.” They move to help lift Rosemary. “It won’t be able to return for a while, as it’ll be too focused on making sure I don’t act up again. And even if it does, there’s no need to worry. For the most part, it doesn’t truly harm people, it just rattles them. It only acted this way towards Rosemary because she has a history of interfering with it.” Cyclamens reached down, tenderly brushing some of Rosemary’s hair away from her face.

“And as for how long she’s been here… goodness. It’s been multiple weeks now. Maybe almost a month?” Cyclamens sighed. “The tree kept her alive, acting like an IV that supplied her with food and water, but she certainly isn’t healthy. I suppose the easiest lie to get away with to the doctors is that she had been kept in an unlawful medically induced coma in another town.”

As she lifted Rosemary’s legs, they whispered quietly, “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you sooner.”

Fia sucked in a sharp breath at the amount of time Rosemary’s been out here. A whole month?? That’s really bad. Poor Rosemary, stuck out here in a tree like this…

“Oh dear… then we should hurry.” she still wondered about Cyclamens’ words. The Keeper’s domain? Another world? Did that mean Cyclamens wasn’t human? So many questions, so few answers. If Fia asked, she wondered if she would get a straight answer. Probably not, entities didn’t usually like to give proper answers from what she’s seen. Still, as they approached the edge of the woods, Fia had a question.

“So… if the Keeper is pretending to be Rosemary, and if I met it when I went to the cafe… then, was the note from the Keeper? Or… something else?” she asked slowly, keeping an eye on the path ahead of them and occasionally looking back to Cyclamens.

“It likely was The Keeper who left you that note,” Cyclamens replied. “Of the beings who are familiar with Rosemary, only it and I have human-like intelligence and speech. But again, it rarely ever tries to truly harm people. It probably only sought to rattle you, or keep you out of its business.”

They paused for a few seconds, thinking to themself, before continuing. “Or, if it were in one of its… moods, it could have been trying to tempt you. It does claim to be an impartial watcher, but if it senses something that will amuse it rather than interfere with it, then it may pounce on the opportunity.”

Hmm. Well then. That’s uh, interesting information to know. What did the Keeper know that she didn’t then? Or was it just trying to rattle her like Cyclamens said?

“... I see…” she slowly replied. “Alright then…” Fia didn’t say anything else until they were nearly to the edge of the trees. It was very late, and there was no one out and about.

“Um… will Rosemary be able to visit you in the future, then? She… seemed to really miss you.” Fia knew it wasn't her place to ask, but she thought that it would be good information for Rosemary to know once she woke up.

Cyclamens didn’t answer for some time, her gaze focused on Rosemary. “I’m not sure,” they finally answered. “I wish I could, but in order to prevent an incident like before, I cannot leave the boundaries of these woods, and even with me holding The Keeper in place, Rosemary could be in danger if she comes back here.”

“I know it’s not going to be easy for her, but please tell her it’s for the best if she stays away from the woods for now. And you as well— The Keeper may be mad at you for some time for aiding her.” Cyclamens reached into the space in front of them and pulled, before opening her fist to reveal two acorns, both faintly glowing with iridescent light. 

“Here,” she said, handing the acorns to Fia. “Keep one, and give one to Rosemary when she wakes up. If you ever suspect The Keeper is hunting you, crush it. I will be alerted, and come to aid you.”

Fia took the acorns and inspected them for a while before putting them in her pocket gently. How odd, but definitely not the strangest thing she’s seen.

“Thank you.” Fia swallowed nervously. Gosh, why did she have to keep getting herself in these situations? At least this Keeper doesn’t seem too intent on hurting her or the people she cares about, so that’s good. “I’ll be sure to tell her that. Will the Keeper um, leave soon then? You know, after Rosemary wakes up.” she looked behind her and saw they were quickly approaching the streets, so Fia stopped walking.

“You can stop here. I can take her from here.” Fia said as she moved to sling Rosemary’s arm over her neck. Fia probably had to half drag Rosemary to the hospital at this rate, but it’s not like she had a car or knew how to drive for that matter. Fia really didn’t want to get any more people involved than necessary, but she should probably call an Uber because frankly? Fia was not fit enough to drag Rosemary all the way to the hospital. “And um… yeah. Alright then. Goodbye, Cyclamens.” Fia looked back one last time at the mysterious Cyclamens as she half carried, half dragged Rosemary along out onto the street beyond the treeline.

Crossing the road and making sure that she was far away from Cyclamens, Fia set Rosemary down on the pavement and shakily took out her phone to call an Uber. After a while, a car pulled up by the curb. Fia picked Rosemary up and haphazardly put her in the back seat, pausing as she was about to enter herself to wave at the treeline. She wasn’t sure if Cyclamens was even there anymore, but that’s alright. Fia climbed into the car and it drove off in the night toward the hospital. (Thankfully, the driver didn’t ask any questions. They didn’t seem very happy about the late night call though, but it’s understandable).

Cyclamens paused, waiting for Fia to adjust her hold on Rosemary. “The Keeper will be fully gone before dawn,” they replied. “I’m sorry that I can’t help any more, but I am also not truly here, so…” She trailed off, before shaking their head. “Nevermind. Thank you, for helping her. I hope that if we meet again, it will be under more pleasant circumstances. Farewell, Fia.” And they bowed as Fia left the woods, lingering to watch the car drive away, before fading from sight. 

In the car, Rosemary shifted and stirred, but still didn’t wake up. Under the city lights, she looked pale and thin, thinner than could be considered healthy. Still, her breathing held steady, and her face remained relaxed. Hopefully, that meant she wasn’t in pain.

…white cyclamens in the night…

Blossomforth has found cyclamens.