The Mysterious Fairy Foresters

The Mysterious Fairy Foresters.jpg

Photo by Andrew Neel / CC0

The mysterious fair foresters was a name that was whispered among the kids in my elementary school

It regarded a group of kids who’d grown close after a specific summer camp eight years ago.

I grew up in a small town, nestled between a giant, sprawling forests.

In many a class during elementary school, we’d set out on brief excursions into the forest to learn about the various trees, forest animals and the local folklore.

The culmination of these excursions was an event that came to be known as the fairy forest.

Some teachers at our school had gotten together and set up an event during summer break.

At the edge of the forest they’d set up a little camping ground, all centered on local folklore.

I still remember the sign propped up in a tree, designating the area below as the fairy forest.

Tents had been propped up, decorations were sprouting from all the trees and various games, treasure hunts and raffles and been prepared to the delight of us kids.

The moment my parents dropped me off, I was head over heels for the place.

What I loved the most about the place was the mystery surrounding it. While I recognized Mrs. Müller, our homeroom teacher who’d dressed up as a witch, the rest of the adults had gone all out. They were wearing ominous, even scaring looking costumes and masks, trying their best to hide their faces and voices so we wouldn’t recognize them.

It was at this camp, the fairy forest, that the mysterious fairy foresters were born.

While bonds between kids form fast, I still remember the strange little group that crowded together from day two onwards.

They were together during breakfast and lunch, all joined in the same activities and seemed inseparable. This strange bond, however, continued to last long after the fairy forest was over.

For months, this strange group persisted, giving off the air of a secret society.

Before long someone crowned them the mysterious fairy foresters, and soon tales and rumors about the group spread.

Some kids said they talked in their own weird language, so no one could overhear their conversations. Others said they met up in the forest at night, practicing dark magic and strange rituals. Most of us, however, were sure that something must’ve happened between them during the fairy forest.

These rumors were supported by their change in behavior. Each member of the mysterious fairy foresters was behaving slightly different. Kids who’d been loud and energetic had become quiet, even distant.

“Maybe they found something weird in the forest, some sort of artifact or secret treasure,” one of my friends, Erik blurted out one day.

“You’re just saying this because of that stupid movie you watched the other day!” another one, Johannes chimed in.

“Nuh-uh! I saw them out there, they were all glowing and stuff and there was this thing in front of them and-“

“Liar! You’re making it all up!”

As the two of them argued back and force, I saw my best friend Tom. He was shuffling around, opening his mouth to say something before he closed it again.

“What’s the matter with you?” I asked, poking him between the ribs.

“Ouch!” he cursed before he mumbled a ‘nothing.’

That’s when I knew it was definitely not nothing. I pestered him about it the entire day and on our way home he finally relented.

“I saw something that day,” he said in a conspiratorial voice.

“Saw what?”

“That first day of the fairy forest. Do you remember that teacher in the rabbit costume?”

“Oh yeah, no, wait, I don’t. Mrs. Müller was a witch that big bear had to have been the principal, Mr. Richter was the wolf and Mrs. Lehmann was that bird thing. No, I don’t remember a rabbit.”

He nodded, but was quiet.

“Are you sure about it?”

He nodded vehemently.

“Yeah, I really saw it! I was at the archery range, shooting arrows and pretending to be Indians with some other kids, when I heard someone call out to us from nearby.”

“When I looked over, I saw this guy in a rabbit costume, telling us we were going on a treasure hunt to find forest secrets. But I’d been on that stupid treasure hunt with Mr. Richter at noon, remember?”

“Yeah, it fucking sucked,” I blurted out, covering my mouth instantly, looking around if anyone had heard me curse like that.

“So I stayed, but some others joined in and then a few more kids went with him as well. I thought nothing about it and everyone was back at dinner time.”

“But?”

“It was them, Daniel!”

“Them?”

“The mysterious fairy foresters! Jan, Melanie, Robbie, all of them! They went with this teacher in the rabbit costume, and ever since then they’ve all been hanging out together!”

“I knew it, they must’ve found something really cool, and that’s why they are all friends now!”

“But, what about that teacher? He was so weird and no one else has seen anyone dressed up as a rabbit,” he mumbled in a low voice.

“It was probably Mr. Richter or Mrs. Lehmann, don’t you remember they changed costumes on the last day, too?”

Tom gave me a little nod, but I could tell that he wasn’t convinced.

Over the course of the next months the mysterious fairy foresters persisted, but eventually their little group drifted apart. Whatever magic or secret had held them together for so long seemed to have dissipated.

Before long, nothing but stories and old rumors remained of the little group.

As the years passed and we moved on from elementary school to middle school, the named had become nothing but a little inside joke between me and my Tom.

I was sure the name as well as our memories of the fairy forest would vanish all together.

At least, that’s what I thought.

It was during our town fair that I should learn just how much more there was to the incident Tom had witnessed so many years ago.

Our yearly town fair is the biggest event in town. Everyone, no matter if they are kids, teenagers, adults or old people, gets together to dance, drink and have fun.

As a kid, I loved the many different stalls and rides. My favorite were the lottery stall and the shooting gallery where I’d often spend my entire allowance in an hour or two.

As a teenager, however, I learned of a different part of the town fair. The evening and the night.

It was all about dancing, getting drunk and if you were lucky, making out.

I was sitting together with some of my friends in the beer tent having a blast when a girl walked up to us.

“Daniel?” she asked, poking me. Instantly, all of my friends turned to me. I could see the girl blush before she took a deep breath.

“You know Isabel from class 8B, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah, why?”

“She’s waiting outside by the shooting gallery.”

With that, the girl turned and hurried away. I sat there, staring after her. Why the hell was she telling me that and why right now?

I turned back to my friends and took a deep sip from my beer. They were all staring at me.

“What?” I asked after I’d put my glass back down.

“Why the hell are you sitting here, you idiot?” Tom asked me.

“What do you mean?”

“Oh my god dude, she’s interested in you! Go talk to her! Now!”

When I didn’t get up right away, he started to push me off the bench.

“Just go!”

And so I went. Needless to say, I was more than nervous. I knew Isabel. We weren’t friends or anything, but we’d talked occasionally, and I had to admit, I liked her a little.

Or more than a little, I thought, when I saw her by the shooting gallery.

When she noticed me, she smiled a little. It made my heart race a little. I tried to walk in a relaxed, cool manner, but I still almost stumbled over my feet.

“H-hey, Isabel,” I greeted her in a quiet voice.

“Hey Daniel,” she said, giving me the same shy smile.

I felt the blood rush to my face instantly.

“So, what’s up?” I started. “You want to go back and sit with us or,” I asked, my voice trailing off.

“Nah, I’d rather just sit with you.”

Soon after, the two of us walked to the edge of the fairgrounds, away from the late evening bustle, and sat down between a group of trees.

We just sat there, next to each other, talking about school and other mundane nonsense, holding hands.

Before long, I noticed something.

Someone was stumbling down the street near us. I stared and laughed a little when I saw it was Jan. He was always quiet and distant, the last person you’d expect to party, but he was clearly drunk.

At least that’s what I thought at first. As I watched him, I noticed he wasn’t so much stumbling, but walking strangely. His gait seemed wrong, his steps too wide and jerky. Then he came to an abrupt stop and just stood there.

At first I didn’t know what he was doing, but another person soon joined him and then another. Before long, half a dozen teenagers had gathered around him.

Now, this wasn’t too strange. During the town fair, many young people took to camping on the meadows around town to make the most out of it. Yet, as I watched them, none of them seemed to move, interact or even talk.

The strangest feeling washed over me and for a second I pressed down on Isabel’s hand a bit too hard.

“Ouch, what are you doing?”

“Oh shit, sorry,” I apologized, turning to her.

“Am I boring you?” she asked. She must’ve noticed me staring at the strange group.

“No, of course not. It’s just, over there, that group. They are acting strange.”

As she leaned forward to look at them, I recognized more members of the group in the bright moon light. There was Melanie, and over there were Jens and Robbie. And, as more and more teenagers joined the group, I knew who they were.

“The mysterious fairy foresters,” I brought out in a low voice.

“The mysterious... what?” Isabel asked with an amused look on her face.

Her family and only moved to our town in the last years, so I quickly explained the origin of the name.

“That’s actually kinda cute, you know,” she said, giggling a little.

Yet, I didn’t join in, I couldn’t Instead I kept watching the ever-growing group of quiet teenagers.

Slowly but steadily they all arrived. Once they had all gathered, they started on their way down the street, away from the fair grounds and out into the night.

As I watched them, that strange feeling was back. Something was wrong about them. At first I didn’t know what it was, but then realized they were all moving in the same distorted way Jan had. Some of them walked in a strange jerky way, others took steps far too wide, making their bodies seem elongated.

My eyes grew wide as they followed this strange procession. Before I knew what I was doing, I’d let go of Isabel’s hand and had gotten up.

“Hey, where are you going?” she piped up.

I pointed after the strange group who was making their way down the road.

“Why are you-?”

“Look at them!” I said in a voice far too eager for my liking.

“They are probably just camping nearby, you know, down by the lake.”

“No, look, how they are walking! There’s something wrong about them, all of them. They didn’t talk or-“

“Why does it matter?”

“I, I don’t know,” I started but by now the story Tom had told me so long ago came back to my mind and with it all those rumors and tales we’d shared about the mysterious fairy foresters.

“They are going back,” I pressed out.

“What?”

“They are going back to the fairy forest.”

“What are you even talking about?” she asked, annoyed by now.

“Just wait here for a bit, all right?”

And with that, I hurried after the strange group.

They were walking slowly, not in any hurry, allowing me to close the distance between them.

Once I got closer, though, I couldn’t help but hide behind a tree by the road.

At first I thought it was my imagination, that it was because of the cloud, but when the moon light flooded over the group again, I couldn’t deny any more how wrong this all was.

I followed the strange group, half hidden behind the bushes at the side of the road. They didn’t notice me, or if they did, they didn’t seem to care.

Soon we’d reached the first trees of the forest, and the place where the fairy forest had been held so long ago. By now, I’d inched closer towards the group, using the trees as cover.

My eyes grew wide when I scanned the group. They had all changed and their bodies had become twisted. Some had grown in size, had become thin, elongated versions of the human body. Others seemed to have regressed in size, as if their bodies had folded into itself. And yet others were moving on all fours and had warped into ghastly caricatures of animals.

Even though it was a warm night, I felt terribly cold, and goosebumps sprouted all over my arms.

As they closed in on the forest, I noticed a figure standing between the trees. It was still a few dozen meters away, but when I strained my eyes, I saw him, standing there in the moonlight.

The rabbit man Tom had mentioned all those years ago.

I told myself it was a person in a rabbit costume. I tried to tell myself this entire procession was nothing but some weird act. But the longer I watched, the longer I stared at him, and the closer I got, the clearer the truth became.

The face, the ears, those wide, glowing, red eyes, they were real. Whatever I was seeing here and whatever that thing was, it was real, entirely real.

As I stood there, hunched behind a tree, I watched as the procession of once-humans continued on past him and vanished in the forest.

After the last member of the mysterious fairy foresters had vanished between the trees, the rabbit man turned into my direction.

I pushed myself against the tree I was behind, but his deep red eyes still met mine. Fear washed over me and my entire body started shaking as this creature, this... thing stared at me. Its face contorted, the corners of its mouth wandered higher and higher, twisting his mouth into a horrible caricature of a grin.

I caught my breath, held, no, clawed onto the tree I stood behind, paralyzed by fear. I expected the creature to dash forward, to rush toward me and drag me away into the forest to where all the others had gone.

Yet, all it did was to give me a brief wave, bidding me to come forward. When I didn’t move, it turned and vanished between the trees.

I was left alone, shaken, scared and utterly confused about what I’d just seen.

For long minutes, I didn’t move, scanned the forest, afraid that someone or... something would burst from it.

At last, when I could move my legs again, I hurried back, away from the forest and to the fairgrounds.

I stumbled around, searching for Isabel or Tom, but by now all the merriment had ended.

For a moment, the shadows of the few people that remained seemed to dance and twist in front of me. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and when I opened them again, the illusion had vanished.

All that remained were the final strugglers, stumbling around with a last drink in their hands.

Before long, not sure what else to do, I went on my way home.

I didn’t sleep that night. Instead, I lay in bed, wide awake, my head filled with a plethora of thoughts and scenarios. I desperately tried to make sense of what I’d seen, but everything I came up with was ridiculous.

The next day, the things turned from weird to outright scary.

When I made my way to the fairgrounds, the police locked the entire place down. People crowded around the area, trying to figure out what was going on.

I found Tom nearby, standing between a group of other people.

“Hey, what’s going on?” I asked, but somehow, I already knew what this was about.

“I don’t know, I think something happened last night. Someone went missing.”

“Not someone, the mysterious fairy foresters,” I mumbled to myself.

Tom looked up, staring at me.

“If any of you,” a police officer addressed the crowd, “have information on the whereabouts of Jan Henning, Robbie Freitag, Melanie Schuster, and Jens Seibert, please come forward.”

As I stood there, I saw the worried faces of Jan’s parents, saw Robbie’s mother crying by herself, and I subconsciously moved forward.

I made my way past the crowd and went up to a police man nearby.

He escorted me to the fair’s small office and asked me what I knew.

As coherently as I could, I told him what I’d witnessed last night. The officer listened, but I could see his face growing darker the longer I went on.

It was clear he didn’t believe a word of my story.

He confronted me about beer and drugs, if I thought this was a joke, but I swore what I’d seen was the truth.

Eventually he sighed and gave me a nod, sending me off.

In the end though, as the number of missing teenagers grew and no other clues available, the police began a search of the forest.

When the police made no progress, many of the townspeople volunteered to help.

Our town became quiet and somber during those days. The local newspaper was filled with articles about the disappearances and no conversation was had that didn’t center on the fate of the mysterious fairy forests.

After three days, I finally told the entire story to Tom. At first he called me out on it being bullshit, then he got mad at me for pulling a joke like this. When I insisted it was true, though, he became scared and confused.

We joined the volunteers the very next day. I don’t know why we did it. I guess it was a mixture of morbid curiosity, fear and a strange feeling of responsibility.

For days we stumbled through the forest. It felt like half the town was out here with us, calling names, scanning trees, checking crevices and searching for any and all hints.

It was by sheer accident that Tom and I stumbled upon something. In the center of a small clearing, he stumbled over a small hump and fell to the ground.

He tried to get up, but his food was stuck in something. When he got it free, he pulled something from the ground. It was a small, half-rotten strap of a backpack.

We both stared at it with wide eyes before we called out to the people nearby.

Tools were brought and under the watchful eye of the police people started unearthing the small clearing.

When the first bones were found, it was clear that we’d stumbled upon a mass grave.

What was thought to be the final, heart-wrenching answer to this case, should only pose more questions, questions no one could answer.

The skeletal remains of about two dozen elementary school children were found in the clearing. From the rotten remains of clothes, backpacks and other items found on the bodies, there was no doubt who they were.

They were the bodies of all the kids who Tom had seen follow the strange rabbit man into the forest so many years ago.

And that’s when I knew why the mysterious fairy foresters had always seemed so weird. Because those kids who’d returned that same evening, who’d lived amongst us for so many years, had been something entirely different.


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