[ WP ] The Aokigahara Suicide Forest

My car rolled to a stop as I pulled up to the parking lot. Parking next to the sign, I exited my car and read it. I chuckled darkly, I recall. The sign read, roughly, `` Your life is a priceless gift from your parents. Think about them and about your family,'' before listing a suicide hotline and directing me to a phone. Luckily for me, I was n't there for that. I was there to see why so many had chosen this place, this stretch of forest, to end their lives. 
 
 Slinging the backpack I had retrieved from the trunk of my car roughly onto my back, I carefully began following the trail into the forest. I was n't exactly looking for bodies. More, why they picked the forest itself. The mystery was fascinating. What could make this particular forest the second most popular place to commit suicide in the world? You could say I was called there. 
 
 I walked along the little trail, never looking in one direction for too long. It was n't long before I found the first sign of a suicide. It was n't much. Some mostly rotted rope, stress marks on the branch. The authorities had found this one, by the looks of it. Not surprising, he had done it on the road. 
 
 Eventually, I decided I'd wander off the beaten path a bit. I tied a bit of string I brought with me to a tree on the path, tied the other end to myself, and began walking through the woods. After another ten minutes of walking, I found a body that had n't been found yet. I knew what I had to do, even before I had pulled out my phone. I discovered, unfortunately, there was no signal. Thinking quickly, I untied myself from my chord and began following it back to the trail, while leaving it on the ground. 
 
 However, I soon realized that untying myself was a mistake. While it left a direct chord to the victim, it left me helpless if I got lost. Which I did. Lost from the chord, heading in a direction probably not that of the road, I wandered. Still I had no signal. Simply put, I was screwed. 
 
 I stumbled into a clearing. It was n't a large one, by any means, but it was a clearing. Around me, there hung rotted ropes. Underneath them, fractured bone, bleached by age. I had been lost for about a day, by this point, I think. Finally, I was done. I pulled my pack down to assess my supplies. I had enough food for another day, no water, a tent and the assorted trappings that go with that, and, surprisingly enough, some rope. I looked at this rope, curious. Why had I brought this? I had n't intended to die, had I? 
 
 Looking around at this clearing, with the rope in my hands, I realized it was possible I had. For the first time in a while, I felt at home. Slowly I made the noose, slowly I climbed the tree, and cautiously, almost reverently, I tied the noose around the tree limb. My pack sitting below me, I slipped the noose around my neck. It was my time. This was the place I was meant to die. Suddenly I understood why people chose this forest. It was n't that we chose the forest. It was that the forest chose us. It was almost, I thought as I fell and the rope tightened, that we were called here. 
 
 ( Authors note: This turned out a lot longer than I thought it would. I feel like it turned out weaker than it started, but I'm posting it anyway cause I put an hour into it. Hope you all like it )
