My grandmother’s village has this patch of woods where the

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Full transcript of My grandmother’s village has this patch of woods where the

My grandmother’s village has this patch of woods where the goats won’t go. There’s a girl there named Eleni. Or, at least, there used to be. Eleni went missing into those woods when she was twelve. The whole village searched for three days, shouting her name until their throats were raw. On the fourth morning, her mother found her sitting on the back porch, staring at the tree line. She wasn't crying. She wasn't dirty. She just looked... blank. The relief didn't last long. The villagers started noticing things. Eleni didn't blink anymore. Not once. When she spoke, her voice didn't come from her throat; it sounded like it was being thrown from somewhere behind you. And her dogs, who used to sleep at the foot of her bed, wouldn't go near her. They just stood at the doorway, growling at her until their gums bled. One night, her father woke up to a strange scraping sound. He walked into Eleni’s room. She was standing in the corner, facing the wall. She was peeling the skin back from her own fingernails, one by one, completely silent, smiling at the wood. When her father gasped, she didn't turn her head. Her neck just twisted all the way around to look at him, her neck bones popping like dry twigs. She whispered, "The thing in the woods was hungry. It liked my face, so we traded."