In her bedroom, she looked out the window at their pathetic farm. Kosuke used to tell her and Shin that the livelihood of Arcadia depended on what they did here. That felt like so long ago now.

  She could see the glowing Neon of the Chiba farm across from her own. They had not yet harvested. She counted the trees. It looked like there were about twenty. If there were five per tree like on their own farm, that would be enough.

  Carefully, without making a sound, Sonoko lifted her window up. She grabbed onto the gutter and slid down on the muddy ground. A light drizzle sprayed her face. Hypnotized by the ghostly glow of the Neon, Sonoko marched across her own fields towards Kiku’s. In the distance beyond both houses, the forest loomed. It basked in the blooming light.

  The lights were off in the Chiba house. They were asleep. Sonoko would be in and out, no one would notice until morning. Until Mr. Sato counted. She felt for the shears in her back pocket. She traced the outline of the sharp blades through the fabric.

  Eyeing the house, Sonoko scampered across the field to where the Luminaeon were planted. The flowers illuminated the unfamiliar path. A twig snapped near her. Sonoko spun around like a top, expecting to see Kiku’s father holding a gun to her head. He would not be out of line. But it was only the livestock in their pen. They didn't even see her.

  She lifted the shears to the first flower on the first tree. Just a couple stems from each tree and the horrible images of the future that haunted her thoughts would fade away. The shears began to close. But they stopped. She stood frozen once again not able to finish the job. Fury rose in her chest. Just do it, she told herself. They’ll be fine since they diversified their crops, she thought bitterly. Only the shears didn’t move. Up close, she could see the veins of the flower sprawling through the petals. The Neon traveled down these tunnels and gave the flower its signature light. Those patterns of glowing substance pleaded with her.

  Sonoko threw the shears on the dirt in frustration. An alternate future began to play out. One that was markedly worse than the first. She saw Mr. Sato at Chiba farms discovering that Kiku and her family were short of the quota. Kiku would know. She would know what Sonoko had done. There was no way out. Sonoko fell to her knees in her neighbor's farm. She couldn’t go through with it. She grabbed the shears (evidence) from the dirt. If she was making the right choice, why did she feel so weak?

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Before she got caught by the cattle, Sonoko wandered out to the hill that had always been there for her. Only except walking up the incline, she turned the other way and stood looking at the untamed forest. That last wild bit of Arcadia left. The same spot where her nightmare always began. She didn’t know why she felt drawn to this spot. It was a place she tried to avoid at all costs after the nightmare started coming to her every night. There was too much pain here. For her and the earth. For the first time since Shin disappeared, she felt a twinge of comfort in the wild trees. She thought of how she felt when she stared at the adult Luminaeon in her dream. For eight years the trees had taunted her but it felt like they were finally on the same side again. The trees empathized with her.

  She looked down at the shears in her hands. It felt guilty to hold them in front of the woods. After all, she and her family had made their living killing its brothers. Its offspring. Perhaps waiting in that forest was the wild Luminaeon of the past. Waiting to take control of the earth again.

  Right as she turned around to return to her bed, something caught her eye. Something moving in the trees. It was not wind blowing the branches. It was a silvery color, slinking behind the wood. For a brief moment, Kiku's father re-entered her brain. Maybe she had been seen. But seeing another glimpse of it proved that it wasn't Kiku, her father, or anyone. It wasn't even human. Though Sonoko felt a primal response of fear for survival, she didn’t feel threatened. The thing peaked its head from behind a tree and Sonoko could see what it was. She recognized it as a fox. She knew this creature from the picture books and stories her mother used to read.

  Its fur was impossibly smooth and almost translucent under the light of the waning moon. Its dark eyes stared through her. Ancient eyes. This was a spirit. Before its eyes could reveal any more secrets, it vanished back into the woods.

  Sonoko stood by herself for another moment. Her breath was caught in her throat. She felt like a little girl again, standing outside of the woods, conjuring images to her head. What other mysteries hid in the trees of her youth? Why did they reveal themselves to her now? There was a strange comfort in these questions.

  The wind and rain hugged her like an old friend. The woods were still, but not empty. It would be okay.