Blogtober 2025, Day 31: Treasure

 

Lucy's Path: Epilogue


Morning broke soft and golden, spilling over the rooftops of Pleasant Hollow as if the night had never happened. The woods behind the school stood calm, dew clinging to every leaf. The oak was just a tree again—scarred, hollowed, but harmless. Children would play there someday, unaware of what once stirred beneath its roots.

Sarah returned alone a week later. The others had left town—Mark to his parents’ farm, Emily to a hospital somewhere quieter. The air smelled of new rain and chalk dust. She stepped through the fence and knelt at the base of the oak.

Something glinted in the soil. She brushed it free: a marble, blue and faintly luminous, warm to the touch. Inside, she swore she saw the swirl of a ribbon—white, endless, turning slowly like a current in water.

She smiled, sad but certain. “You always keep a little piece, don’t you?” she murmured.

From her pocket, she pulled a folded scrap of paper: the final page of Mrs. Price’s ledger, the names of all who’d been taken. She buried it beside the marble, pressing the dirt flat with her palm.

“A fair exchange,” she whispered. “A treasure for a promise.”

Then she stood, brushing off her knees. The woods were quiet again, the hush of ordinary peace.

Behind her, unseen, a single new ribbon fluttered from a branch—bright, clean, and untied.


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