The girl tripped, but soon picked herself up, gasping for breath even as she kept running. She was about twenty, and her clothes, a pair of jeans and a blue t-shirt, had small rips, tears, and the general debris of running without care through the trees.
"Oh god... I need... Need to get help... That woman, she..." The girl babbled, panicking.
She kept running, near stumbling, as she saw salvation near. The edge of the small forest, and the way back to the rest of the park. She could see other people in the distance. People to warn, people who might be able to get help and save her friends...
And then she hit nothing. She slammed against air, yelping in pain as she fell backwards.
"What?! What did I hit?!" She protested, standing up and feeling the air.
There was a barrier. An invisible wall.
Her fear increased tenfold as it hit her. She was trapped. The barrier blocked her escape and that woman would be right behind her... And her strange creatures too.
"This isn't fair! Let me go!" She screeched, beating her hands against the invisible wall, before slumping and sobbing in defeat.
"Now now, dry those eyes, my dear... You're going to be young and beautiful forever. You and your two friends..." The woman cackled. The girl stared up, and a second later, she screamed. She stood, backing up against the barrier, still screaming as the creatures descended.
Outside the barrier, no one heard a thing. No one even saw a thing...
Three creatures carried the standing, terrified statue of the girl. She was now frozen in stone, a look of horror forever on her face. They were purple humanoid snake-like creatures, with flowing hair like writhing snakes. The woman guiding them wore green, wore glasses, and had brown hair. The creatures were Reptilianne Gorgons, and the woman, was Evergreen.
Evergreen surveyed her three latest acquisitions. The two others, the girl about eighteen in the short summer dress, and the girl about twenty in the shorts and crop top both seemed to lack something...
"Ah, perfect! That's it!" Evergreen smiled as the third statue was put back with her friends.
"Time to send them to storage... I think they'll sell well... but maybe my collection could be a good place to keep them together?" She pondered, as with a wave of her hand, the statues vanished.
One statue remained in the clearing. It was another girl, in a strange hat and dress. Once, the grey clothing had been blue and purple, and her frozen hair had been blonde. But now, Dark Magician Girl was nothing but a statue to any who looked at her... and nothing but bait for Evergreen.
"Ah, I wish I could hear your thoughts on the matter, girl. How does it feel to be helping lure... What is it now, seventeen hapless pretty young girls into immortality?" She taunted, running a hand along Dark Magician Girl's frozen face.
Evergreen could not hear her thoughts, but the "bait" was as displeased as she had been since being petrified a few hours before, and then enchanted to be like a flame to a certain kind of moth. The barrier would trick any woman with a male present to head the wrong way, but if her boyfriend was not close by, she would wander in... and never leave. Puzzled brothers, boyfriends, and husbands would not search the small forest for the wayward women.
Younger women were made to feel uneasy, for Evergreen was not seeking younger statues... today. Anyone below about eighteen would turn and walk away from the forest, but the enchantment wasn't perfect. A mature mind could walk in, and a hapless girl who turned out to be sixteen had become a statue. Evergreen had simply sent her to storage. A statue was a statue.
'You're a monster....'
Heedless of the critique, Evergreen perked up.
"Ah! More visitors in the barrier! Wait right here, my pretty... These ones seem to be magical..."
Evergreen looked at the sky, turning orange as the sun began to set.
"I think we'll wrap up for the day after this... "
Dark Magician Girl however, had a different thought on the matter.
'I hope they're stronger than you and turn you into the toad you are!'
The three newcomers however missed Evergreen, lured straight to the thing which had drawn them in - Dark Magician Girl. They were aware of the barrier, but unaware they were drawn to a certain spot... until now.
"This is what the barrier is around? Weird..." One girl said.
The two other girls examined it.
"Well, Mika, there's something odd about this statue..." A second girl said.
"Anri, it's just a statue..." The last girl said.
Mika shook her head.
"No, Lizlet, this isn't just a statue. Look at how detailed it is..."
Lizlet gasped.
"You mean..."
"Yes! This is either the work of some pervert or someone who was highly paid by a pervert!" Mika proclaimed.
"...Uh,no. I think... Well, I think this is someone turned to stone." Anri said.
"...What gives you that idea?" Mika said, then looked properly.
"You know... It is a little too detailed..." Lizlet noted.
"Very good! You figured it out! Now, join her!" A new voice shouted, and all three turned in time to see a single Reptilianne Gorgon heading for them,
"Cover your eyes!" Anri warned as she and Mika prepared to attack it.
The hapless creature, even against blind opponents, stood no chance as it was soundly thrashed by well aimed magic. However, there was a problem when the pair opened their eyes.
"...Where did Lizlet go?!"
"I don't want to be a statue!" She screeched as she bolted away.
Lizlet had ran with speed that would make most sprinters envious, and somehow avoiding most of the trees had nearly fled the small forest until she slammed into the barrier.
"...Eh!? The barrier blocks us from getting out?! I thought it was too easy to walk in..." She muttered as she held her now sore nose.
Then there was a hiss.
She glanced around and saw another Reptilianne Gorgon.
She screamed and ran back towards the middle, making only one mistake.
She looked over her shoulder right as the Reptilianne Gorgon's eyes glowed.
In an instant, she froze in mid run, with a slightly startled expression. A crackling noise around her accompanied by a seeming loss in her colour heralded her petrification as every single scrap of skin, hair, and clothing turned into the same hard, unyielding stone as the statue in the middle of the forest...
It was a few moments later when Evergreen and her remaining pet arrived.
"Hm. A nice work. Let's put her back in the middle while we track the others, shall we? I'm sure you two want revenge for what they did..."
"Lizlet! Come back here, it's safe! We beat the gorgon thing!" Mika shouted.
"Where did she go..." Anri sighed.
They had searched the forest high and low now, but had yet to return to the middle. They too had encountered the barrier, figuring that they needed to destroy the source of it to leave it, and for that, they needed to know where Lizlet was so they could leave together.
"Sheesh... She can't have escaped, and we need to find her so she doesn't get lost or something when we destroy that statue..."
Anri shook her head.
"Mika, I'm not sure the statue is the source of the barrier. I think... I think something else is behind it. We might be smashing up some poor victim if we do."
Mika shrugged.
"Better her than us I say. Let's go check the middle though..."
The pair made their way, and saw two figures in the distance, the dimming light of the setting sun making it hard to see them as much more than shadows.
"Ah, she did go back here..." Mika said.
"...You never thought she did, you just said 'lets go back to the middle and smash that statue'."
"That is not what I said!"
"It's what you meant... Vandal..." Anri said in jest, then paused.
"...Mika... Lizlet isn't moving..."
The two ran over now, and gasped as the truth became apparent. Both the figures were statues.
"There's another one of those Gorgons!" Mika realised, readying to fight.
"Of course there is. You didn't think they could talk, did you?" The voice from before said.
"Who's there?!" Both girls shouted, their eyes now closed.
"My name is Evergreen, my dears.... And I've been making art all day. You and your friend will be my last, and my gift to the park... maybe. I'm not sure yet..." She said.
"Well, gift this!" Anri shouted, reaching for her wand, then yelped as she was grabbed and held fast.
"Anri!" Mika screamed, and then make a mistake.
She opened her eyes, and the Gorgon in front of her was the last thing she saw before petrifying. She tried in vain to shield herself but merely wound up frozen with one arm raised.
"Oh, that was silly, wasn't it. Of all the things to do your friend opened her eyes..."
"Change them back! Now!" Anri demanded as she struggled with the Gorgon that held her.
Evergreen laughed.
"Why? They're clearly no use as people. They couldn't fight my pets, and they're far more valuable as immortal statues. Besides, I've taken a lot of patrons from this park today... I think I need to give something back in exchange..."
Suddenly, Anri felt herself let go, and reached for her wand quickly... but not quick enough. She was grabbed again and held in place once more.
"Damn it! Let me go you crazy..."
"Oh, now, no need to be rude... You have it easy. Unlike your friends or my bait... You can give up. You can be petrified not screaming..."
Anri realised Evergreen was close by.
"So. Will you give up? Just let yourself be stone peacefully?"
Anri's reply spit in Evergreen's face. Literally.
"I'll never give in!" Anri said defiantly, as a disgusted Evergreen wiped her face.
"I see... Well, they don't need your eyes open to petrify you... But I'd open them or be staring at blackness for eternity.
Anri yelped as she felt where the Gorgon held her turn to stone. She quickly opened her eyes, making the choice before she found herself frozen entirely. The stone wave spread, and in seconds, she joined the other three.
"Well... These four will do fine to stay here. Come, pets. Let's go home..."
And with a wave, Evergreen herself vanished, the barrier fell... And the attraction of the forest ended.
It was nearly a day later when two Park Wardens found them.
"...When did these statues get installed?" One pondered.
"No idea. They're pretty detailed though... Pretty cute too..." The other replied.
"I dunno... Those expressions look more scared..."
"That's what's so cute!"
The two eventually checked with their boss, who had no idea where they had came from. However, he told them there was a bigger problem - a number of missing persons had been last seen in the park, and so the police were soon searching the area with the wardens, meaning that the statues were largely forgotten in the fuss. Park visitors slowly found them, and, assuming they were a deliberate installation, began to praise them for their detail, though others were somewhat disturbed by their fearful expressions.
Time passed, and though the park authorities had no idea who had made them or why they were left there, the forest had slowly became known as "Statue Woods" and had become somewhat popular - for patrons, vandals, and thieves. Repeated attempts to steal the statues resulted in arrests and damage.
Some of the vandalism, and less than careful prodding revealed the strangeness that the statues clothes were wafer-thin, and there was minor outcry when it became rumoured the intent of the original artist was that the thin clothing would break off and reveal nudes below, a rumour debunked by the park (who had no idea if it was or was not true) but as a precaution, had the statues fenced off and cameras installed to keep watch over them, especially after a number of protesters tried to destroy the statues when the rumours began, claiming that they would be a corrupting influence.
This increased security had an added bonus of dispelling an urban legend. People had apparently went missing near the statues at night - all women, or girls. It was true that a few people who went missing did get recorded with their last movements in the park, but after the cameras were installed, it seemed that not only did they deter vandals and thieves, but those who planned to go missing, or even those who made others go missing depending on how one looked at the matter, for no one else vanished after being seen on CCTV. Others claimed to have went near the statues before vanishing were never seen on camera, and thus, must not have gone near them.
However, the damage to them hit upon a problem over time - Since the park did not know who installed them, repairs were impossible. An attempt to hire an artist to fix them was met with a lawsuit when other artists objected. Those artists claimed that the artworks were designed to alter over time - This was the intent of the sculptor, no matter what the park claimed. Others felt the artists were jealous of the prestige the repair work would bring to whoever won the contracts. The park however, did not have the funds to fight the court cases, and it soon became private citizens against private citizens, some for restoration, others against.
Over twenty five years passed, and with nearly ten of them spent with court battles. The final verdict however had come in. The statues could not be restored, but they were to be taken and preserved in a less exposed area.
There were quite a few people present today, but some of the people by the statues were there less for appreciation of the art, as to set a background. A reporter, her photographer, and a businessman stood beside them, inside the fence, under the watchful eyes of a Park Warden.
"So, Mister Richards... You plan to have the statues removed from this area and placed in a newly built museum in the west of the park?" The reporter asked. She was a woman in her early -twenties, but the man she interviewed was in his early thirties.
"Yes, indeed. I already have agreement from most of those opposed to restoration that it is an acceptable compromise, given that regardless of the intent of the sculptor these statues are decaying and weathering left in the open like this, and even with security are vulnerable to those who try to damage them in protest at their so-called corrupting nature. The main hurdle though is planning permission for the building itself. The Forest Statues will not be the sole exhibit, of course, but though I own a good seventy percent of the land to be used, the park owns the remainder, and we are attempting to reach agreement with both the city council and the park authorities on both construction rights, access rights to the eventual building, and pricing."
"On the matter of price, some of your critics claim you wish to charge a fee to see statues that have been here for a quarter century for free. How do you answer those claims?"
"Well, they only have to read my proposals on my website. Currently, myself and the park authorities agree the Forest Statues exhibit must be free and on park land, but it is my hope that portions of the exhibit owned by myself will be fee-charging. I intend to split any profits fifty-fifty, but there are some members of the city council exploring the prospects of the enterprise being solely for-profit. I would ask my critics to consider the fact that I do not seek to profit from these four statues, and that at the very least, they will be free to access."
"That seems to be about all, Mister Richards. Perhaps we can take the photographs now?"
The man nodded, and stood beside the statues, smiling. The photographer adjusted her glasses, taking a few shots, before the reporter thanked the man, and left with her colleague.
"You know... I know you're from out of town and all, but you seem to like those statues..." The reporter said.
The photographer shrugged.
"They're quite pretty. It's a nice thing that man is doing if you ask me."
The reporter nodded.
"Yeah. They've been there since before I was born. I'd hate it if they were allowed to fall to bits because the original artist never came back to fix them."
The photographer smiled in agreement, hiding her true thoughts.
'Oh, but I did... And they need no repairs. I could cure their conditions and turn them straight back to feel another twenty five years in much better condition... But with them now removed maybe I can have some more new statues from that forest. It was a lot of fun twenty five years ago, and I do so like returning to old haunts...'
The reporter babbled on, and Evergreen nodded, pretending to listen.
'I wonder if I can maybe lure her into the forest when I do it... It would be poetic to leave her as a statue since they were there before she was born...' She pondered, leaving her victims of the past behind, plotting yet more for her collection... And wondering how people would react to four new strange statues appearing when the others were removed.