The Sleepless Wood

Around the turn of the nineteenth century, a teenager accused of witchcraft is murdered and buried deep in the woods, though he was actually a gifted person of medicine. His corpse merges with a sentient hive mind beneath the forest, giving him new life and the power to assimilate trespassers into himself. Over the centuries, the entity quietly changes with each era, hiding its true nature while expanding through anyone who enters its domain.