The Forgetting Tree

Rowan returns to her family’s abandoned orchard, seeking only the quiet comfort of routine. At its far edge stands the old willow—a tree that can take away memories if you know the ritual. She has used it before. She knows its rules. Or she thinks she does.
When a letter arrives hinting at the reappearance of her missing sister, Rowan’s resolve begins to fracture. Whispers seem to drift from the tree’s branches, fragments of voices she cannot place. Objects she doesn’t remember owning surface at its roots—each one carrying the weight of a half-formed memory that feels both foreign and familiar.
As Rowan digs deeper, the orchard becomes a mirror of her mind: shifting, unreliable, layered with truths she may have buried herself. The closer she comes to uncovering what happened to Mara, the more her own history begins to warp. The faces in photographs change. Reflections move out of step. And the tree—patient, knowing—seems to be waiting for her to remember something she never lived.
A haunting blend of magical realism and psychological suspense, The Forgetting Tree is a slow-burn descent into memory, identity, and the dangerous bargains we make to escape our past.
When the roots reach you, will you still be yourself? Or will you be what’s left behind?