All the envelopes were brown from age and some of the writing was faded with time. The tin rusting shut did a service to the paper keeping it intact, but still, the paper was rather fragile.

She wants to be able to look through the tin without her mother finding it first. She reaches under her bed for the tub of Barbie dolls. It’s pretty packed already making it a tight fit, but Elyse manages to get the tin in there, keeping it in the bag so it doesn’t get rust on her dolls.

It was then Elyse noticed the change in temperature since walking into this place. It’s the height of summer, in the daytime and yet there is a chill to the air and the sunshine she can see in the distance, but she is standing in a very shaded area. Eerie.

Elyse looks back to the path, her eyes follow it down as far as she can before it disappears into the reeds. She begins to make her way down the tree towards the root ball, to see if she can get an idea how far into the distance this trail leads. Sometimes they lead to a den, and sometimes they disappear.