The forest was the town's spine, a wild, unpredictable stretch of land that seemed to breathe along with the town itself. The pines were ancient, their bark scarred with the marks of time, and the deeper you ventured, the more the quiet pressed in around you. There were stories, of course, whispers of things that lurked beyond the tree line. Creatures that weren't quite human. Eyes in the dark. The locals didn't talk about it outright, but everyone knew better than to wander too deep into the woods after dark