Said He'd Find Her
The sun was setting in the west, bleeding orange across the horizon like an old wound. He stood at the edge of the woods, a man of few words and fewer promises. But there was one promise he made that would haunt him, thread through his bones until it was fulfilled: he said he’d find her.
She had gone into the woods alone, as she often did. She had a love for the silence and the secrets the trees held. There was something wild about her, something that lived in the distance between the stars and the earth, and the spaces between breaths. It wasn’t the kind of wild that could be tamed or understood. No, it was the kind that could only be found, only be pursued.
He had warned her.
But she had gone anyway.
They had been together for years. He knew her like the jagged line of a mountain, rough and demanding, and yet beautiful. When they met, she was living in the small cabin by the creek — the one that everyone said was haunted, but he had never believed in ghosts. The land, though, that land had a way of swallowing people whole. It consumed them, made them lose their sense of time, their sense of self. She had known it, had fallen in love with it, just as she had fallen in love with him.
At first, she told him the forest wasn’t something to fear, but something to listen to. She had a way with the land, a way with the world around her that he could never grasp. He could only love her for it.
And then, one afternoon, just before the storm rolled in, she disappeared.
The men in town talked about the woods like they were a place to be avoided. The old ones said the woods weren’t like they used to be. They spoke in murmurs, and they pointed to the hills and the dark corners of the trees as if something lived in the shadows — something older, something that had learned to wait.
But he had never feared the woods. The woods, to him, were just a part of the world. They had no magic, no curse. They were just trees and dirt and water, tangled together in an eternal dance. He never thought she’d vanish into them, never thought she'd just leave without a word.
But she had. And he would find her. He wouldn’t let her slip away, not like that.
The air smelled damp as he stepped into the trees. The scent of pine and wet earth clung to his clothes, seeping into his skin. He didn't have much to carry — a rifle for protection, a flask of whiskey to keep the cold away, and a map he knew by heart. He had walked these paths a thousand times before, but now, the woods seemed different. They stretched out in front of him like an endless dark sea, and he was a man drowning, reaching for a lifeline that might not be there.
He called her name softly at first, as if she might just appear out of the shadows, laughing. But there was no answer. Only here the wind answered, its voice muted by the thick trees. He walked deeper into the woods, his boots crunching on the leaves beneath him. The day here was fading fast, and the shadows began to lengthen.
There were no signs of her. No footprints, no broken twigs, no indication that she had passed through here at all. He had thought she would leave some trace — some sign that she was still close. But all he found was silence.
As night fell, the woods began to change. The world grew colder, the air thicker. The wind seemed to whistle through the branches in a language he didn’t understand, a language only the trees could speak. It was then that the doubt began to creep in. What if he couldn’t find her? What if she had gone deeper than he could follow?
He thought of the woman he loved. He thought of the way she’d looked at him, with those eyes like wildfire. She was stubborn. She always had been. It was why he loved her, and it was why she had to go. She wasn’t made to stay in one place. She had told him that once, in the heat of a summer night, with her arms stretched wide and the stars above them.
But still, he said he’d find her. And he would.
By the time he reached the heart of the forest, the moon was hanging heavy in the sky, its light piercing the canopy above. He felt the weight of it pressing down on him, the silence around him like a thick fog. Every step seemed to echo back at him, as if the forest was holding its breath. He knew he was close. She had to be close.
And then, there she was.
She wasn’t far from the clearing, sitting on a rock by the creek, just where they had spent so many afternoons together. Her back was to him, her head bowed. She hadn’t heard him approach.
He stood there for a long while, just watching her. He could see her hair blowing in the wind, the same wild hair that he had always loved to run his fingers through. She was still wearing the same old leather jacket, the one she’d worn when they first met.
It was as if she had never left, as if she had been waiting for him all along.
He cleared his throat, his voice rough with emotion. “I told you I’d find you.”
She didn’t turn around at first. She just sat there, the sound of the water flowing over the rocks mingling with the stillness of the night. And then, finally, she turned her head. Her eyes met his, those eyes that Outlaw love had once burned with so much life.
“I know,” she said, her voice soft but steady. “But I didn’t want to be found.”
He stepped forward, closer to her, but didn’t touch her. He didn’t need to. She was there, and that was enough. He had found her.
She looked at him again, and there was a sadness in her eyes, a weariness that hadn’t been there before. “Sometimes,” she said, “you have to go into the woods to lose yourself before you can find your way back.”
He nodded, understanding more than he wanted to. “I’m here now.”
She smiled, a faint, bittersweet thing, and then she stood up, brushing the dirt from her knees. “You found me,” she said, her voice like a whisper in the wind. “But I’m not sure I can be who I was anymore.”
He didn’t argue. He didn’t try website to change her. She had always been a force of nature, and now, she was as wild as the woods themselves.
“Come home,” he said, but his words were not a plea. They were just a statement, as true as the world around them.
She didn’t answer right away. She just looked at him, her gaze steady and searching. Finally, she nodded, but she didn’t move.
He waited.
And when she finally stepped towards him, he knew.
Sometimes, love isn’t about finding someone. It’s about knowing when to wait. And sometimes, when you find them, you have to let them decide when they’re ready to come back.
The woods had taken her, but they had also given her back.
And in that moment, they website both understood that the journey wasn’t over. It had just begun.