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Ranya was just walking along a trail in the woods when she heard a voice. She tried to pinpoint the location of said voice when it began to echo all around her. It took her a moment to realize it wasn't actually an echo. It was more like several people all chanting the same phrase. Only that wasn't right either. It was several voices all saying several different things.
Caught off guard and a bit nervous, Ranya looked around. She grew more uneasy when she didn't see anyone. It was just her, the trees, and the winding path in front of her. Ranya's unease only grew when she started to pick out individual voices. Most of the voices seemed to be talking about some variation of murder. The rest were talking about their hatred of humans. Even worse, several mentioned Ranya. Not by name, which led her to believe they didn't know it, but by appearance.
The voices accurately guessed her appearance, from her messy black braids to her scuffed up sneakers and faded green t-shirt. Ranya swallowed nervously and sped up. The voices cursed at her and yelled in pain every time she took a step. She wasn't sure why, because the only things she stepped on were dirt and clumps of grass. Unless one of those had become sentient, nothing should be in pain.
Ranya began to cry, not just from fear but also what the voices were saying about her. Some were mock9ng her appearance while others called her dumb names. Others said things so bad Ranya was sure anyone who said those things at her school would get suspended in an instant. She began to run, but the voices didn't stop. If anything, they were becoming louder and more insistent. Several of the unknown people even seemed to be planning her death in gruesome detail. Still, Ranya could not see anyone.
She tripped over a tree root and a voice cursed at her for injuring it's root. It was only then that Ranya realized the strange voices came from the trees and other plants in the area. The murder plans and hatred of humans came from centuries of people cutting them down, burning them, and tearing up the land. Ranya was filled with absolute certainty that if trees could move, she would be dead. Not just her, but her friends, parents, little brother, and the rest of the human race.
Ranya stumbled to her feet and sprinted down the trail, no longer caring what the plants had to say. She only thought of getting out of the forest and back to her house. Maybe then she would be safe. Maybe then things would go back to normal. However, Ranya knew it was a false hope. After all, she wasn't imagining the tree that jad slowly but surely climbed out of the ground. All she could do was run and try to prolong her inevitable death.