closed starter for @xleafyheartx
Carter kept a brisk pace as she walked into the forest behind the compound, her shoulders drawn tight as she kept her hands shoved into the pockets of her leather jacket. her skin prickled uncomfortably, her chest tight as she forced herself to try and breathe, and she just hoped no one would come looking for her.
Frankly, she wasn't even sure what set off her anxiety, but she just... couldn't be inside the compound any longer. Couldn't bear being near any of the others. But she was trying to let herself let her guard down - trying to tell herself that they wouldn't hurt her like Obadiah had claimed. That they were her friends, but she couldn't--
She froze. Did she just hear...?
Slowly, she turned towards the voice, and froze again - blinking once, then twice. There, a few feet away from her, was... well, what looked to be a twelve-inch tree. That spoke. To her. And... was waving at her. As far as she could tell, it was... a moving, talking tree.
She’d seen plenty of weird things in the past few years, but... nothing like this, and her mind went blank. She had no idea what she should do - if she needed to run and get the others, or if she should actually talk to it. Was she hallucinating? Anything seemed possible at that point.
“Uh--” Carter cleared her throat roughly, shaking her head as she tried to pull herself back together. What the fuck? “Hi- hi, there?”









