The Forest in Appalachia Remembered Her Face and Followed Her Home

Strange Scratches

Harper woke with a sting under her collarbone. She thought it was a bug bite until she looked in the mirror. Four thin, red lines, perfectly parallel, ran across her skin. They didn’t bleed. They didn’t swell. But when she pressed them, they throbbed. She tried to bandage them. An hour later, the bandages were gone with no trace, but the lines remained.

She wore scarves, sweaters, anything to hide them. But each night, as she lay in bed, she felt something dragging gently across her shoulder. There was no breeze, and the sheets never moved. Just four invisible claws, slowly retracing their mark.

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