Where the Trees Watch – Chapter 26
The Lanterns Reaching the Tower
Claire’s scream shattered the stillness inside Tower Four.
Ryan spun toward the staircase immediately while the copy remained calm beside the lantern-lit window, almost unsurprised by the sound echoing upward from below.
Then came another scream.
Shorter this time.
Cut off suddenly.
Ryan Mercer rushed toward the tower door, but the copy stepped into his path before he could reach it.
“You shouldn’t go down there.”
Ryan shoved past it instantly. “Move.”
The copy didn’t resist. It simply watched him with something close to pity in its expression.
“They don’t fully remember you anymore,” it said quietly.
Ryan ignored the words and descended the staircase as fast as possible. The tower groaned beneath his boots while cold fog wrapped tightly around the structure outside. Halfway down, he finally saw the lantern lights below the cliff.
Hundreds of them.
The pale glowing lights had reached the forest surrounding Tower Four and now drifted silently between the black pines beneath the staircase.
And among them—
figures stood watching the tower.
Human shapes carrying lanterns beneath heavy fog.
None moved.
None spoke.
They simply stared upward toward Ryan silently from the trees.
His stomach tightened painfully.
Some wore hiking clothes.
Others ranger uniforms.
Some looked decades old.
But every face carried the same calm empty expression.
Like sleepwalkers waiting for instructions.
Ryan reached the bottom platform and immediately spotted Mason near the cliff edge gripping the flashlight tripod like a weapon.
Alone.
Claire was gone.
“Mason!”
The guide turned sharply, relief flooding across his face for one brief second before fear returned immediately.
“She walked into the trees.”
Ryan froze. “What?”
“She heard someone calling her.” Mason’s breathing shook badly now. “Then she just… followed the lights.”
Cold panic surged through Ryan instantly.
The lantern figures below the ridge slowly shifted closer through the fog.
Not aggressively.
Patiently.
Ryan looked toward the forest. “Where did she go?”
Mason pointed weakly toward a narrow trail descending deeper into Blackwood behind the tower.
“She said somebody remembered her.”
The sentence hit Ryan like ice water.
The copy upstairs had been right.
Blackwood isolated people by erasing them from memory.
Claire had already started forgetting him.
Now the forest was offering her something worse:
To be remembered again.
Ryan immediately moved toward the descending trail, but Mason grabbed his arm hard.
“You can’t follow her alone.”
Ryan stared at the lantern figures gathering silently beneath the trees around the ridge.
“We don’t have a choice.”
A whistle echoed softly through the fog below.
Then another answered farther away.
The lantern carriers slowly began climbing the slope toward the tower.
Ryan finally understood what they were.
Not replacements.
People almost fully erased.
Still wandering Blackwood searching for memories of themselves before disappearing completely.
The realization made the forest infinitely more horrifying.
Mason looked close to breaking now. “What happens when nobody remembers us?”
Ryan thought of the smiling copy sitting calmly inside Tower Four.
Then he looked toward the trail Claire disappeared into.
“We become part of Blackwood.”
The whistles below the ridge grew louder.
Closer.
Lantern light drifted between the trees surrounding the tower from every direction now.
Ryan tightened his grip around the flashlight and stepped toward the descending trail.
Then Walter’s voice echoed suddenly through the forest behind them.
“Don’t let her reach the river.”
Ryan turned sharply.
Walter stood near the trees beyond the tower clearing holding a lantern beneath the fog.
Except—
Ryan no longer knew if it was really Walter.