#i am forced to now hypothesize that amber. either did not make it or is in such bad shape shes no longer recognizable. either way | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

the-headbop-wraith · 3 years

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2 _ 29 The Biljka Pact

Waiting for nothing.

That’s all it was. Bundled up in a blanket and just waiting for them to return, but when would that be? Arthur hadn’t been too elaborate about the whole thing when he burst in.

“We found Vi, she’s okay.” Arthur was frantic and spoke in short bursts of words. Dimitri had no easy time putting the sentences together, hadn’t been too sure if the little half choked grunts Arthur spat were meant to be vocalization. The scrawny blonde dove into the back of the van and fumbled around. “Something’s come up,” Arthur burbled. He took the keys, a spare bag, food, and left Mystery in charge. Mystery didn’t seem overly exuberant about the last command, but he was a dog after all.

This cryptic news barely relieved Dimitri from the stiff worry he held, since learning of Vivi’s disappearance and the probable cause. They were all correct in their hypothesizes, somehow something altered the way people thought, robbed them of empathy, and now the Mystery Skulls were out there, most likely searching for his brother. Probably. Dimitri remained apprehensive, he wasn’t there to make sure they wouldn’t fall back into the manipulation, and he wasn’t there to make sure they did find his brother. He wanted to be there, but… he was truly afraid, though he shouldn’t be. He hadn’t put up a fight when Arthur zoomed out of the van – Dimitri had been stunned, everything happened so fast, a word edgewise would not have made a difference.

With the engine was cut off the heat that had thwarted the biting chill faded in mere of moments. That did stir Dimitri to reach for the driver side door. If he hurried he could catch up before they got lost in the woods, make sure the group kept safe and focused. The police force and volunteers spent weeks searching the woods, miles and miles of land covered in the span of a few weeks. Not one prson ever reported anything unusual… or they kept it quiet.

As he scooted towards the door, Mystery rolled off his lap and maneuvered between Dimitri and the door. Dark paws pressed into Dimitri’s coat and Mystery refused to budge, his red eyes caught the moonlight and reflected a crimson light. At first, Dimitri was speechless, until he realized how close he was to Mystery’s snout.

“Calm down, Mystery. I just want some fresh air.” But the mutt only straightens his legs out and placed his paws over Dimitri’s shoulders and held onto him, in a kind of hug. “Would you move!” Dimitri struggled to get the dog off him, and get out of the blankets they were tangled up in, but Mystery was stubborn and maintained his rigid posture with ease. “Okay, fine,” Dimitri grumbled, and sank back into the seat.

Satisfied with the surrender, Mystery curled down on the blankets with Dimitri and rested his head on his paws. But always the dog kept one eye open, wary of his charge and any slight movement.

The Mystery Skulls faded into the swirling curtain of the forests edge. Dimitri watched the lawn for a span longer, wondering what it was they had found. Arthur had told him nothing, only that Vivi was located and they….

He looked at Mystery again, and the red eye gleamed amidst the blue fur. “It’s cold up here,” Dimitri said. “You wanna sit in the back where its warmer?”

Mystery only watched him unblinking. After a time of staring, the dog raised himself from the cushion and allowed Dimitri to free his legs. He wasn’t far behind Dimitri’s gradual movement, until the two had settled behind the bench seat, the blanket was dragged down after Dimitri as he wound it around his shoulders. A sudden sneeze ignited from Mystery, and his collar rattled in the dark as he gave himself a hard shake. That felt good.

“Hang on. Do any of these lights work?” Dimitri was going through the cuvees looking for the one that he usually saw Arthur pull a battery out of. He had imagined the little makeshift slots in the vans wall to be interdimensional pockets, and whatever you could need would be provided if only you sought it. It took a minute of blind searching, but Dimitri found what felt like a flashlight, and a few lost batteries that had fallen from the package. He unscrewed and screwed on the cap of the flashlight in the dark gloom, and before finally he put the batteries in the correct order.

“There. That’s better.” Dimitri shined the light around and Mystery winced, as he raised a paw to his spectacles. “Sorry.” He propped the torch beside one of the larger overnight bags the group carried, and sat down. It looked like Vivi’s, her blue color. An amber bag was not far from it, by the wall. They carried a lot of personal gear, color coordinated – blue and yellow.

Dimitri freed a hand from the blanket and tugged at the chain around his neck and pulled the glossy, carved rock out from his shirt. His eyes moved past it and to the back doors of the van, and for a short time he studied the doors as his other hand fumbled with an item he’d plucked out of a cuvee. He wondered how far they’d managed by now.

Mystery ‘oofed’ at him. And what are you doing there?

The twine was tied around its spool, but Dimitri managed to work off the tied end and pull out some slack. When Mystery ‘urfed’ at him again, Dimitri only smirked in the thin veil of yellow light and shifted to face Mystery with his back. “It’s a game,” he offered. “Cats-cradle.” He could do the bridge, a tower, and cats whiskers, but those were all easy. “It’s mostly you doing stuff with the string, until it gets into a knot. The goal is not to make a knot, but it’s tricky.”

This explanation didn’t seem too suspicious, and Dimitri was only a child after all. Curious, Mystery shuffled closer to Dimitri’s shoulder and watched as the boy pulled the string through the tied loop of the twines end. Dimitri moved a little more away from Mystery’s stare, but Mystery set a paw on his shoulder to politely deny Dimitri from further movement, and Mystery brought his attention back to where Dimitri’s hands spun and twisted. Dimitri’s hand gestures didn’t strike Mystery as complex or coordinated, but he had not managed a knot in the thread yet so it was presumably a success.

“Actually, this part is kind of hard,” Dimitri murmured. “Can you help me?” He held up his palms and shows Mystery the twine zigzagged between his hands. “You just need to take this thread right here,” he twisted his hand over to point out the specific length, “and pull it. Or… would that be hard for you? You’re a dog after all.”

Mystery drew his head back and frowned. I am not just a dog. But this was NOW highly suspicious. On the other hand (paw), if he was careful Dimitri couldn’t do much but be disappointed. As long as he wasn’t focused on running off, this little diversion could work well for Mystery. Two could play this little game.

Dimitri smiled as Mystery moved around, face to face with him, and sat. The dog raised one paw, his bandaged paw, and took the side of the indicated thread in his claw. He pried it back, and Dimitri carefully worked so as not to slip the selected thread free as Mystery tugged.

“I always have trouble with this part,” Dimitri went on. He sighed, his breath fading on the frigid air. Mystery drew his paw back as the boy spun one hand over, and gripped several loops of thread between his fingers. “Oh geez, look at that.” Somehow, Dimitri managed to coil a loop of twine around many of his fingers. “This is why they don’t let kids at my school play this game anymore. Here, can you hold this?”

Mystery reached a paw up to paw at the threads with his claws. While Dimitri spoke, he looped a coil of thread through the mess he made around his fingers and snagged it around Mystery’s raised paw. Wait a minute—

As this registers to Mystery, the dog recoils onto his back legs and Dimitri looped a lasso of thread around his other paw, then yanked the bundle taunt from the string still attached to the spool he held. Alarmed barks and yelps leap from Mystery as he twists away, but the more he tugged on his paws the tighter and closer they snagged together.

Dimitri lunged, tackling Mystery to the side and pressed the thrashing dog down with his body. Mystery’s alarmed cries became muffled as the blanket slipped over his head. “I’m sorry, Mystery! Really! I would never do this to you! You’re a good dog, I really like you!” Dimitri straddled Mystery’s shoulder blades, and pulled more of the twine from the spool. The little bundle of thread tumbled around the two as Dimitri worked. Mystery’s paws had been pinned to his side, and Dimitri hastened to get them secured together before Mystery had a chance to recover and buck him off. “Just try not to struggle, or you’ll hurt yourself.”

I’m not worried about myself! Mystery capacities were limited in Dimitri’s presence, he could only lay there annoyed and dumbfounded he’d let his guard down. Still, he fretted over what Vivi would say if she found him like this. He vowed he’d never let that happen again, and yet here he was. This was beyond embarrassing.

After Mystery front paws were secured, but not too tightly, Dimitri stood up off Mystery and took the blanket that had fallen over the dogs face. He rolled Mystery up in it like a burrito, and tightened the corner around the dogs shoulders in a thick knot. Dimitri snatched up the flashlight, then knelt low beside Mystery to smooth back his ruffled mane.

“I’m sorry. You’re such a good dog,” he repeated. “I know they’re trying to help, but I can’t sit here and wait. Not if they’re looking for my brother.” He leaned down and gave Mystery a kiss on his eyebrow. “I’ll see ya later.”

The back door snapped shut, cutting out the chill and the light and the air spun still. Mystery inhaled a deep breath and sighed. That could have gone better. Vivi! Vivi was not going to like this. He wriggled around and pushed forward his back legs, setting a paw to either side of his snout and braced his claws onto the floor. After some pushing and disgruntled snorts, he managed to dislodge himself from the dog burrito. With the cords on his paws exposed, Mystery begins gnawing at them quickly. One after the other each loop snips, he does so with a great deal of patience but no lesser amount of urgency.

The forest was thinning, the large trees aged and weary succeeding the decades their kinship had fallen due to plague, disease and age that favored natural selection. The overall terrain took noticeable change that was discernable, maybe accented upon, with the pale hue of moonbeams slipping through the thin canopy. The undercover was made up of thin silver reflections cast by ice tinged branches and soil, as with the dark contrast of the thickening creeper vines.

Never in the search did the Mystery Skulls once catch sight of the lost child; the only indication of her presence remained the disturbed patches of thin frost. They were down another slope, then around a rocky cropping of stone and weeds. Thick vines wound around across and through the undergrowth, no origin of where this originate but always present through the canopy and path. The forest scape had a quality of life unlike the town. It was ancient and mysterious, sentient in a way that it had been present within the slow spiral of history in the making. Towns grew, streets laid, hospitals built and condemned; but the forest had not changed in centuries. It remained, growing and expanding despite civilizations ambition to tame its unrelenting spread.

When the trail moved away from the sharp rise of rocks Vivi noted that Lewis had fallen back, had nearly stopped altogether. The frost cover had been thickest and bright white over the pale dark soil, and it was easy to discern the path the girl had taken without extensive study. Arthur hadn’t noticed and walked on ahead, while Vivi gave pause and waited. “What’s wrong?” She could hear Arthur shift and presumably turn, his torch flashed in the corner of her peripheral.

Lewis stood on the soil just staring off, as if he hadn’t heard. Vivi called again.

“We’re losing time,” Arthur muttered. Vivi shook him off when he took her arm, and moved back to where Lewis had alit on a patch of roots.

“Lew?” she whispered.

“I—” He began, but paused and seemed to focus. “There’s something out here.” He held up his hands, as if testing the frail breeze. “Something repelling, unwanting… I can feel it. An emotion.”

“A spook?” Arthur asked.

Lewis shook his head, the embers behind his sunglasses brightening. “I don’t know. I can feel it, but I can’t draw you a picture. I never… I’ve never experienced this. Before.”

“Can you move….” Vivi caught herself, the word she was about to use, and adjusted the question. “Are you able to come with us?”

“Yeah,” Lewis said, and he gave her a thin smile. “I just… walked into that. Like a wall.” A low kind of shudder escaped him. He was getting good practice sounding ‘normal.’ “Let’s go. No time to spare, y’know?” He hiked after Vivi on foot when she spun away, but he kept glancing over his shoulder, up into the tree branches and tangles of vines above. The night was vacant of breeze, but the branches almost recoiled from his regard. Withdrew. Bark creaked and the branches rattled, but there was nothing visible, only the sensation of… impression. The notion of it nagged at him, apprehension, evasion, a kind of lull but with more pulling. It pressed into his incorporeal sense, searching into him for something yet blundered about with no direction. If it were conscious he would have worried, but as it was the presence was more… awkward. Indirect.

At length Arthur fell back behind Vivi and slowed his steps. That deep concentration took his face, and Lewis could detect his concern. “Do you guys… hear that?” asked Arthur.

Vivi kept walking, but shook her head. “Do you hear a voice? Voices?” she whispered.

Arthur covered his mouth with the edge of his vest collar and coughed. “No… not voices.” He kept walking, but stays close to Vivi. They were headed downhill amongst tall trees that seemed to curl inward over their heads with thick bundles of creepers sagging low obscuring outward sight, a kind of natural corridor with small saplings and brittle timber. The forest was absolutely silent, no breeze tickled through, no life save for the two members of the Mystery Skulls. The air hung heavy, thick and hazed like water.

“I don’t know,” Arthur went on, fidgeting with the straps of his backpack. Never did he glance to the tall figure shadowing Vivi; only into the vine cover, and the thick grove extending into an endless maze of timber. “Maybe it’s just Lewis. Wait, I didn’t say that. Did I say that aloud?” Vivi nodded, but didn’t express outward concern for the creak of alarm in Arthur’s voice. “Crud. Um… that’s not what I hear.” He staggers, trying to catch his flashlight when it slipped from his metal hand.

“Calm down,” Lewis rattled. “Don’t get excited. I can’t think when you get excited like—” He silenced himself when Vivi shoved herself backwards, free hand pressed to his chest. Lewis halts in his tracks, and looked past her to an opening in the grove ahead. A few yards out from the thick tree trunks they stood behind, and from the distance he couldn’t be certain what he saw. A tense moment of waiting expires, but a small blur does dart around through the vines. There and gone, it keeps moving out of the grove and flitters out of range. “Ah!” Lewis would have swooped forward, if Vivi hadn’t reinforced her grip on his coat collar and held him there by her will alone.

“Arthur hears something,” Vivi whispered, her breath thick and white in contrast to the black hovering shade they stood within. Once she is certain Lewis wouldn’t just go charging off she moved forward, but refused to release his jacket collar. Lewis half glides and steps after her, eyes fixed on where the shape had darted out to. Vivi used her thumb to click off her flashlight – they really didn’t need them – she would have stashed it in her backpack, but she feared Lewis would bolt the instant her grip loosened. “I can see something. There’s a clearing.”

“Guys, guys,” Arthur stammered. He turns off his light and sticks the torch in his back pocket. Arthur mirrored Vivi’s movement, a little jerky and delayed but quiet, the only sound from the scrawny figure came from shrubs snatching at his backpack. He crept in closer to Vivi’s side, and fiddled with the straps of the backpack digging into his shoulder. It was too cold for him, and his unease was making it worse. “S’like… you don’t hear that? I’m sure it’s not Lew’s.”

“Calm down Art.” Lewis tries to grab him by the vest, but Arthur ducked away and disappeared into a bush. “Art?”

Vivi hissed, hushing them. “Look. Look,” her voice became strained, low but with force. She hauls Lewis with her, behind a large rock and tree combination and peers out. “There.”

Not far from them something crashed suddenly out of the twigs, and Lewis picked out Arthur’s shape on the other side of some brush, panting and huddled low. With Arthur accounted for, Lewis focused out and inspected what lay ahead. As Vivi had proclaimed there was a sort of clearing, filled with the remains of fallen bleached trees like bones; petrified woods. Several yards across this toothy plain, a tall wall of jagged stone rose up from the forest floor. Gnarled bent trees had grown high under its seclusion, but were dwarfed by the imposing height of the rocky peak detailed by loose brush and blue ice.

Lewis could see the girl wandering across the cavity infused basin of rocks and ice, barefoot but with no care of the inhospitable weather, no concern of the jagged edges of rocks at her feet. Void of mind. She strolls up beneath the low hanging reach of the ancient trees bent arms, staring… up?

Back through the twisted tree trucks, some distance above the base of the rock face smoldered a sort of fire brightening against the rock. It might be better described as a kind of Saint Elmo’s flame puffing yellow and blue from the rock. Willow Wisps? It zigzagged beneath the canopy of gnarled tree limbs, gliding down and down towards the child, as her steps slowed.

Lewis felt Vivi tug on his coat. He hadn’t been aware he was inching forward.

“Wait,” she said. “We need to think about this.” Vivi’s focus was forward. She had relinquished hold of her torch to raise a hand to her face, and pressed her bright glasses close to her eyes. “This… there’s something about the reports I’m trying to remember. The flawed reports. Art?”

Arthur was tugging at his goatee with his good arm. His metal arm was near the leaf cluttered ground shaking as he sputtered with a sound. “Uh… what happened when Lewis went dormant?”

Vivi glanced Lewis’ way, then turned back to the scene before them, the child and the wispy flame dipping lower and lower. Lewis waited as she took a breath and held it, her mind sifting through data she had absorbed when she had been in an unreliable state. “We got close.”

“Lewis went down,” Arthur repeated.

“We got close,” Vivi resumed. “Because Lewis, you found something. You gave us something.” She was getting excited now, and turned to Lewis wide eyed. “Do you remember what you found?”

Lewis reached a hand up for his tie, the jacket was in the way so he patted at the frayed collar. “The pattern. Harvest moon,” he muttered. “Children go missing… big forest. Searches.” He turned to Vivi, realization dawning. “The search parties.”

Vivi nodded. “This place was found,” she whispered. “And it turns people away. They didn’t stop worrying. Adults were the ones that would be looking, but it sent them away when they got close. But you’re protecting us, it… ghosts don’t know ghosts.”

“That’s no ghost,” Lewis crackled. He watched a moment, twitching internally. He wanted to go out there. Why was Vivi waiting, if she was right she would sa—

Arthur shivered and wrapped his arms around his shoulders. “That sound….” He leaned forward on his knees and stared forward, breath coming in fluffy small puffs. “You don’t hear it? You have to.” Vivi was about to answer, when it came to her. Yes, there was a sound. A humming trill. She knew that resonance anywhere. She glanced Lewis’ way, but it was not him. But Arthur recognized it too.

The flame wisp descended to the leafy floor, a transparent outline filling around the space of the flame, a heart of fire burning, swelling; crystalline turquoise distortions of blue intermixed with the smooth, glossy shape. Its manifestation could be liquid, it shimmered like molten class as it bowed towards the child poised below it. It wasn’t like a ghost, in that it resembled nothing human, yet it did resemble a person, a forgotten name. But it was something akin to energy, an 3-dimensional illumination sculpted from moon beams.

And it was singing.

“Thy hollow tis the sanctuary to the weary soul. Eternal wandering, misguided childer drifting. They are drifting through thee woods, wayward souls. Seek eternity, thy world is thine. Let me share a wish with thou, weary soul. Come to thee, hear thy song and come hitherto.” It walked, drifted, around the child, as the child watched the figure move and glide, gold wisps following in delicate lacey vapors. “Thy contentment is thine, nay shall sweep thou away. Adoration thou doth give, and the warmth of thy cradle from which thou shall never fall.” Flurries of cyan glide from the ‘sleeves’ of the sprite, drifting into the underside of the reaching canopy. The large trees lurch, their limbs bow low with tangles of the vines, bundles and wraps of creepers, unfurl and descend from the gnarled fingers of the looming trees. “Be with thee for the pact will be fulfilled. Amend what was wrong wayward soul, and thy indenture for thou will never falter.”

In the large bundles of vine coils hung faces. Gaunt, dirty, little faces, eyes closed and lost in a deep sleep.

Only a few times at night had Dimitri gone out to the woods, usually in the summer when it was warm and cool. If he and his friends could sneak out they’d play tag, or other games that were made exciting in the dark, with the potential dangers were made possible after night had fallen and the woods were transported into another realm, a new plain of existence that could not be compared to its daylight counterpart. If you got scared and went home, you were a wuss for a whole week. At least until someone else caved early and went home, but it wasn’t often they could get together and play after nightfall. It was safe in the dark, and it amazed him how easy it was for them to hide from each other.

That’s where he learned to track, more or less. In the summer the forest floor was coated in mulch from the leaf fall, and it took practice to identify where the leaves were scattered on a calm day. Dimitri was the best out of his friends and he had gotten so good he could track at night. Following the fresh onslaught of tracks trampled through the layer of frost was no new challenge. He was out of practice, out of his element, but once he got going he picked up the technique like an lost friend. The Mystery Skulls were far ahead.

Only his ragged pants kept him company and his laborious footfalls as he bulldozed through the undergrowth, shredding brush and tearing through creeper plants. He’d never come to this side of the woods before, it was creepy and old and far-far too far out from the town. There were rumors that people came through, criminals and the like to take refuge in the endless forest when they wanted to disappear- supposing like the children, may have been responsible for the children that had gone missing. That’s why, when his parents had been so adamant about it, he had never thought to question or disobey the order. Besides, he had his own section of territory he liked to hang out in, where he and his friends had a sort of clubhouse set up with old discarded construction lumber.

That was before the disappearances.

It haunted his mind as he ran. In the distance he swore he heard something scuttle, a twig snap, and a growl accompanied by the flash of hostile eyes. He ran faster, harder, sometimes stumbling over the roots and vines hidden beneath mulch.

“Why are they out here,,” his mind screamed. “Why all the way out here?” But he felt he knew. He knew why but he was fighting to avoid the answers he had thought he wanted. He tried to force away the tears, the hot betrayal that would mark up his face. He wanted to know, but the answers terrified him. What would he find? What awaited within the heart of the woods?

He had believed finding his brother would be the answer to his sorrow. But the truth, it had finally caught up to him and he could not bear it.

Dimitri barely paused, out of breath and mist swirling in front of his eyes. He checked his direction, examined the moon, then he was shooting off again. He raced away from the haunting stones, legs weak from cold and exhaustion but he pushed himself. A thought in his mind warmed him, or was that fury stoking his furnace? In the end, it wouldn’t matter what he found. He needed to know, or he could never stop running.

The frost thinned and the direction was difficult to confirm. They must have middle around, got lost too. Most times he could only identify two sets of tracks, they might’ve splint up. Dimitri skipped to a stop on a bundle of broken vines and turned his flashlight, examining the path he now stood. Which direction? What way? As he jerked around wildly, something glint a few feet from where he stood. It spooked him back several steps, but he realized in his movement that it was nothing but some polished stone, glinting white within a tangle of vines.

Something was wrong with the stone. The frost didn’t stick to it, and it lay upon a mound of something in the root bed. He shuffled forward, fearful of sounds and twitters in the heavy air, but he was alone, so very alone. He knelt and poked at the lump with his flashlight, some of the ice coating the side chipped away revealing bright colors, cloth, an arm.

Dimitri dropped to his knees in the leaves and ice, his grip on the torch tightened until his fingers and had gone numb. The sad little sack stared up at Dimitri – lifeless, stiff and cold. Its glassy eyes glimmer with light from the moon. He reached out and touched the small arm, rotted from many days pummeled by fall showers. No… no. He knew it would be awful, he knew it would hurt, but seeing it here in the state he was, he couldn’t bear it.

It was supposed to protect him, his mother made it to protect him. “Why?” he whispered. “Why didn’t you take care of him? You were made to PROTECT HIM! WHY!” He dropped over the filthy sock monster and cried onto its foul smelling cloth. His anguish was the only sound in the despondent woods. Far from his home, lost from his world. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I left you.” His mumbling died down enough that he could hear, the faint warble of… a voice.

Dimitri pulled himself back and searched through the dark with his flashlight. The light seemed to make distinguishing the shadows difficult, and he switched it off. It was there calling? No, singing. It sounded like the songs his mother used to sing when Luther was an infant. Dimitri loved to listen to her voice through the door when it was left a crack. The memory was so distant and fog laced, but that voice brought it back with such a harsh sculpted focus. Someone was in the woods. A person.

But he wouldn’t leave Dimitri. He stuffed his flashlight into his coat pocket, and then worked to untangle the little toy from the roots that had pierced into its underside. Soil and leaf bits sprinkled the blue ice crust beneath the sock monster as he raised it. He almost wanted to leave the rotted toy, it was rotten, falling apart, plant infused, but… he wanted it back. He needed it.

The voice hummed. He couldn’t make out words, but it was melodious and sweet, such as a bell, or the chime after a combat games finishing move. He brushed aside the gnarled vines that draped in his way and moved carefully through the brush. When he had moved further out from the tree grove, he stopped and clutched Dimitri to his chest.

Trees. Light. But what he saw first were the quivering vines, slithering and binding. The shape was alight, burning brighter as vines bundled over the small figure of a child no older than him. Impossible. What was it. An alien? A monster? Something inhuman doing terrible things.

And in the midst of the highest bundles of old vines was a familiar face. A face he hardly remembered.

“What do we do?” Lewis snapped. Vivi fists were remained latched to his jacket collar, but he was about ready to burst forward and do something drastic, maybe regretful. But he knew better. If Vivi was restraining him, it was for the good of those kids, and his. He wouldn’t be able to exist as his sane self if he did something… anything, that might harm them, even indirectly. He had to wait, but they were running out of time.

“They’re asleep,” Vivi reasoned. “Sprites or things, they’re not normally dangerous to the living.” She bit her lip as she watched, barely containing herself. Her fingers kneaded into Lewis jacket collar. “It… might let them go. It might not. I don’t know, I didn’t think to do extensive research into the area.” She sighed, and Lewis placed a hand on her shoulder. Vivi shook her head. “I don’t think we have the training for this. We could… try and help them, but if they’re in some sort of spiritually induced comma, interfering may do more harm than good. Their souls can be removed, lost.”

“Okay,” Arthur hissed. He was inching back under a space in the shrubs, leaning on his good arm as he pushed himself back. “Then let me iterate, WHAT do we do? Hanging out here isn’t helping.” He winced back under the brush when Lewis glanced his way.

“You were right, Art. This….” Vivi clung to Lewis jacket as she slumped to her knees. Lewis put an arm around her and kept her upright when her shoulders began to shake, her aura knotted with an inner turmoil. Vivi heaved a shaky breath. “Bad case. A Failed case. We have to call someone, get somebody out here that knows this sort of thing.” She let her head hang. God, this was hard. More than that, it felt… wrong. They didn’t fail the case, they failed the kids. They failed Dimitri. “If we risk— ”

A strangled sound came from the brush not far from where the group huddled. Lewis thought at first it was Arthur, but no, Arthur was giving his own half cry as he tumbled over and out of sight into the thicker shrubs.

Then Lewis knew. “Oh fuck,” he snarled, untangling out of Vivi’s hold. It wasn’t difficult, she must have understood from the pitch of the wail what was happening and threw herself aside, as Lewis lunged, nearly gliding out of the grove to snare the dark figure tearing from the vine cover. “Ethan! NO!” Leaves and frost scattered as he caught the back of Dimitri’s coat and held on, keeping the struggling child from falling onto the frost coated earth.

“No?” Dimitri screamed, voice cracking beneath the swirling fog in his eyes. “NO?” He twisted his coat out of Lewis’ hold and stumbled, propelling mere inches beyond the long reach. “My brother! And you say NO!”

A burst of commotion thrashed about in the thicket, muffled whining and Vivi shouting with the backdrop of an eerie hissing; hissing like water on hot stones. Lewis thought he could pick out the sporadic bursts of Arthur dodging around, but he had to concentrate on his hands. He had to get Dimitri and get away.

“All’s not lost!” Lewis shrieked, voice popping. Dimitri was too upset to notice how Lewis’ grip kept slipping through his flailing wrist, but he managed to hold enough together to keep Dimitri from racing full off. “You’re brother—” Lewis began. He would lie. He would do it. They had to get away, he had to get them all away to safety. “He’s in no danger! Are you listening? Ethan, listen! Trust me!” That word, that hurt worst of all.

The clearing brightened, snags of vines and tree branches curled backwards up beneath the stooping canopy. A flash of turquoise glinted, spun to where the disturbance had taken root among the broken memories of once tress. The hiss became louder, something more akin to slithering brush and leaves racing among root clusters of the forest floor. Vines detached from their ancient resting place between the old trees, snapping up over the glimmering light of the Saint Elmo’s flame. Earth splint and pulled back beneath the flickering orb, latching out and coiling up among the constricting layers reaching upward, higher, long shoots of vines seeking the origins of the moonbeams.

Leaves scatter and sigh as the twisting shape convulsed around the light of its core. It bent forward and arched a mass of vines, tangling thicker, locking into something like a back, but never formulating into such a structure; knowing no structure or its function. “Intruders,” the leaves wheezed. “Not welcome. Leave. Leave.” It chanted, as saplings rose up to its vaporous base. “Leave. Leave.” A mass of vines lowered from the tree branches, snapping free and drag around the burning light of its hot core. “Leave, or suffer thy retribution.”

“Do you hear me?” Lewis cries, desperation reverts his voice into a grating screech. “Trust me, Ethan! We will not abandon you! But we cannot help lik—”

“SHUT UP!” Dimitri snarled. Lewis caught his wrist and hauled him back, but Dimitri refused to relent and shoved himself back on his heels. “You’re lying! LIAR! LIAR! LIAR!” He swept an arm out, the deranged and broken sock monster sliced through the steadily brightening gloom and connected with Lewis’ head.

In that instant the panic and screaming ceased. Lewis raised his head, somewhat dazed by an obstruction flying directly through his line of sight; and Dimitri broke from his fight to gawk up at Lewis, his small shoulders quiver in his coat. He struggles to tug his arm out of the restraining hand, but Dimitri’s efforts were subdued, he just kept staring at—

“Oh. Oh no.” Lewis raised his other hand slightly and Dimitri recoiled, his small arm was about ready to pop out of its socket. “Don’t…. Don’t be afraid.” Lewis paused, despite the noises and hissing and approaching chanting. He couldn’t, he just couldn’t. “Please. Don’t— ”

“Y-you’re not human,” Dimitri whimpered. Hollowed out eye sockets gazed back, in their pits burned an unnatural light. It looked awful, painful somehow. Those… dumb sunglasses he always wore. Always. Dimitri gulped on the icy air, when he let out his breath it lingered in a thin cloud. Lewis’ breath never showed – he never slept, never ate; all these pieces he hadn’t noticed, details that were too obscure, unimportant. Until now. It all added up in one horrible congested realization.

“You’re… you’re some kind of monster.” He was prying his feet into bleached stone, as Lewis’ hold came loose. Dimitri fell onto his butt and sat there, fist digging through the frail material of the toy he clutched to his chest, like a protective totem. “That’s why? That’s why Arthur was scared?”

There was nothing Lewis could say, not safely. He didn’t get that chance either, when Vivi tore from the brush and grabbed Dimitri around his shoulders. Vivi’s gaze was not on the shaking child staring right through her, it was beyond Dimitri and on the grating shimmer of light shedding off its once brilliance. Lewis can’t see it, he doesn’t want to move. All that he can sense is Dimitri’s appalled stare, betrayed. For a moment Lewis wants to disappear, cease to be. It would be less painful than this.

“Lewis!” Vivi screams. “We have to go! Dimitri! On your feet! Wake up!” She grips Dimitri’s shoulders and shakes him. But her eyes raise to the sprite as it begins to sway, and hum.

“Sleep sleep sleep,” it sang. Roots and tangles of branches dig into the hard earth like the many legs of a centipede, swaying to a fro at its base and up to its thicker head portion. It creeps closer to the girl in blue on its crumbling segments in a flowing wave of timber, the tail end curling out and around to bar in its intended victims. “Sleep child, dream of thine eternity. Leave behind thine worries, let thou—” A ring of flames erupts between the sprite and its writhing nest of plant segment base, leaves ash and roots wilt back.

The entire length of the wood sprite coils back, vines looping around the throat base and narrow chest space, where the core of its flame was nestled, protected. It expanded the surface of its structure with vines and roots leeching from the soil, and heaved its upper half high upward. “Disrespectful soul.” It twitched and coiled back around itself as it tracked Lewis’ movement. “Thine nay human!”

“No,” Lewis said. He moved himself between his ring of fire and Vivi holding Dimitri, and stood before the woods sprite watching him with its glimmering orbs fluttering through its long ‘neck’. The fire diminished by degrees, the soft fuchsia fading from the frosted surfaces of petrified rock and tangles of foliage. “Do you have a story you wish to share?” Lewis held a hand behind his back and gestured to Vivi, trying to shoo her off. She wasn’t watching him though, she was staring at the apparition as its shape shifted and molded; conducted by the forest wound about its soul.

“Protect the forest from wandering souls, tis thy tireless contract; lost shades buoyant amidst realms of null and presence, dimension and space. Lost, lingering, erroneous.” it began to sway and hum, its tightly bound vines creaking; and Lewis began to realize the voice was feminine. Patronizing and feminine. “Life then death doth make the cycle repeat, eternal and unequivocal. Then you! Your kindred violate my sanctum!”

“Isn’t that a shame.” Lewis was trying to be discrete, but Vivi was entranced. Was it the spirit, or her drive for the discovery and the supernatural, or a little of both? He backed up as the spirit swung forward, roots knotted into the base of the frigid soil, carrying its body in its malevolent advance. Staring up at it as he backed away, Lewis half expected it to lose its balance and topple over them, but the roots anchored it as it glides lower, graceful.

“Man kin comes and doth take what tis nay thou. Thieves of life, and thieves of greed. Take even what tis already thine. Wound thee deep with thine spiteful craft, but remain thou have and stay thou shalt.” It continued, curling the length of its body down to glare with the shimmering globs in its neck. It raised appendages of long branches around its head, and its midsection sunk in as it swept down in a smooth, fluid motion.

Lewis brought his hands forward, slowly, readying his internal flame. Keep it focused on him, it didn’t like his presence. Give Vivi more time to collect herself, come out of the spell. “Please Vivi. Snap out of it.” He curled the hand behind his back into a loose fist, but he couldn’t risk a mere ember. The forest sprite edged him, was on the teeter of lunging on the slightest movement.

“The land of man kin hitherto honors the pact thou brought unto,” its bark groaned, lowly. “That thou taketh the childer to mend thy fractures. Release them back thy shalt to them. Life is not mine to take, but unto you my ire will sate.”

“Hey! HEY! Excuse me? Over here!” The spirit wrenched its head aside and up high, turning its upper half over to stare with its glimmering ‘eyes’ onto the distant side of the forest graveyard. It said nothing, only the soft rustle of leaves swayed on its back as it stared at the small figure hopping about and waving its arms, a torch beam flashed high above its shock of bright hair. “You look like you’re from around here!”

Lewis tilts his head. “Arthur?” Oh wait, this was a distraction. He gently backpedaled and leaned down near Vivi.

“I’m a little lost!” Arthur went on. He was grinning, cackling, god he was insane. “I’m looking for the nearest Pizza place? Do you know how I can get outta these woods?” He waved his good arm and signaled with the flashlight, waved the beam over towards the big whatever the fuck it was. The thing was coated in branches, and creeper vines bound its limbs together, reminiscent of veins and sinew within a body. Arthur read plenty of medical, and he’d seen… enough. It remained anchored into the frozen soil by segments, while its body curled over itself in a wave like motion alternating what sections were held down at a time; like a giant centipede or mantis.

He hated mantis men.

Timber smoldered and cinder still wavered timidly on the icy ground around Vivi, not enough to keep her trapped. Anything short of a box with no door could not hope to keep Vivi contained. On her lap lay Dimitri, fainted or put into a sleep; Lewis was frightened to dwell of what caused his swoon. Lewis edged closer to the crouched figure, though his attention does slip back to the forest sprite drifting away in its creaking, flawless momentum. “I can keep it busy. But you—”

Vivi grabbed his jacket collar and yanked him down, nearer. “Do NOT tell me to leave you! I know you can’t protect us! I know you’re gonna be the only one standing in its way! But no! No, I don’t want to hear you say those words!”

Lewis would’ve blinked. He gave an uneasy smirk instead. “Well, should I be the martyr here, and force you to run so you wouldn’t have the burden of—” He shut up when Vivi jerked him down and pressed her lips to his. Lewis raised an arm to push away, but it was Vivi. Her fevered aura singed the edges of his ethereal sense, tightening on his vague suggestion of placement. It jarred Lewis for a moment, and he let himself slump to his knees beside her.

He wanted this to last forever. He didn’t want to leave her again. His soul couldn’t bear it. He reached a slack arm up to touch her shoulder, to feel the solidity. But Vivi pushed him away.

“Arthur. Don’t let it take Arthur,” she said. Vivi gathered Dimitri in her arms and rose to her feet. She opened her mouth, but paused from saying whatever had come to mind – last advice, words of encouragement, a selfish plea. She couldn’t bring forth the words spinning in her mind. She only gave a strained, “Please.”

Lewis slowly levitates himself. He glanced aside, tightening his fists beside him. Arthur was still screaming, giggling and off kilter; he wouldn’t last much longer. “Right,” Lewis muttered. He caught Vivi by the shoulder before she managed to dart away. Lewis unzipped his jacket and draped the coat over Dimitri, sagging in her arms. The locket at his breast coat flares softly tinted blue, holding its steady pulse, its gentle tempo in time with hers. Lewis tries not to look into Vivi’s agonized eyes, instead he kicks off backwards and shoots away with a flash of flames.

“Remember,” she called, stepping away, watching the small sputter of embers at Lewis’ heels. “We’re trying… we have to get away! Don’t forget. Don’t… lose yourself.” It was meaningless talk, though Lewis might need the reminder; he was going to be very upset. The sound of it in her voice gave her hope.

Vivi adjusts the limp bundle in her arms and pivots, diving off into the ticket. She wanted to go back, more than anything she wanted to stay. The last thought she wanted on her conscience was abandoning Lewis again.

On the furthest side of the open forest, Arthur was still rambling to the thing of the forest as it uprooted itself and moved. “It’s an acquired taste,” he went on, backing away towards the shrinking clear space on his right. It was lowering its body segments across the forest graveyard, the tail section unfurling towards the rock face; herding him until his movement would be restricted, strangled. And he didn’t want to be near the tall monoliths of timber, driving their jagged knuckles into the sky. If he saw them, the suggestion of a face in the shade of a nook, he would lose all functionality. The thought brought violent quakes to his body, Arthur could hardly stay upright.

The spirit maneuvers its shape and rolls, always segments of its body latched through roots in the earth, snapping and grinding through the ice. It began to pick up pace as Arthur lost ground, the frightened man kin was becoming anxious and edging to run before it cut him off completely. There was still room, to scrape by and dive off into the grove and hide. “And my, what big trunks you have!” He bolted, legs blurring over splintered petrified wood. Too soon too late, he hadn’t thought it through; he had only one objective to dedicate his survival to. Get away, escape. Flee.

He chanced one glance up at the woods sprite, when it gave a horrendous shriek, a cry eerily like an angry woman, lost amid the snapping of timber falling, crashing. It sounded human, once it was human, and it kept that trait through the many years it had existed. The front segments of its body spun over, snaring soil in high rolling waves. This wild motion brought it before Arthur in two of its strides; but perhaps Arthur had staggered sideways when it had lunged. The wood sprite twisted its front over in front of Arthur, roots dragging the base downward as it heaves long tangles of vines outward, toward its quarry.

Arthur stalls and skids over his heels, he drops to his back and lashes out at the soil behind him frantically to crab crawl away. Eyes remain locked on the shrieking entity as his fingers scrap over icy, sharp rocks for a handhold, metal fingertips clacking. Roots snagged at his ankles and dragged him forward, while vines slithered around his shoulders, tightening fast to his neck—

A bright ball of sizzling fire smashed into the side of the forest sprites neck. The fire ignited and the spirit squealed, coiling down into the ice and spinning into roots and rock beside the cliff face it called dwelled within. The multiple limbs tore free from its captive, and slung the long tangles of vines around the cinder chewing at the glimmering globs in its neck.

“Shit! Shit!” Arthur chanted as he cartwheeled over and over, fighting for stability. Roots were flying, leaves crammed into his face and dirt clouded his eyes; he was a mess of limbs, unable to pick out where the cold space of his left side and his damaged shoulder hit, but he felt the pain sear through his torso. Through the chaos a voice was screaming at him, over the murderous shrill of the spirit.

“Arthur!” The muddled figure felt his vest snagged, and the ground fell out from under him. He couldn’t see through the swirling grit but suddenly Arthur was airborne. “Out of the way!”

Lewis spun out of the toss unconcerned with where Arthur might come down, as long as he was far out of range. The woods spirit spun over as coals cracked and fell from what Lewis decided was a neck. Its whole construction was not living, it had no organs that could be wounded critically. What consisted of its body was a shell knotted over its luminous core, enabling it to rise fifteen or more feet high, as it did now.

“Desecrate thy sanctuary,” the spirit howls. Already vines wind over the damaged kindling, reinforcing the weakened structure. “There is only one penalty for thine ilk.” But it doesn’t descend onto Lewis, not yet. It dithers back and turns the side of its head away scanning through the edge of the grove, presumably seeking the other members of his group. Fire ignites over Lewis’ fists as he launches at its base, delivering a sizzling wave of flames across its roots. The air fills with thick gray smoke, and the spirit of the woods wails as it is brought back to the forefront of his presence. Leaves rustle along its back in frenzy as it tilts, several of its pliant arms lash out when Lewis retreats around its side; fuchsia and red flames flash across Lewis face, until the bleached skull is cleansed and revealed. Momentarily, the forest sprite is static, the lengths of its vines curling back into the flint littered soil beneath it.

The woods sprite was not the only one distracted. As Lewis skied back across the field, adjacent to the path the others would have taken, he turned his flickering skull to check the cocoon of vines within the dark canopy high above. He could count one, two, at least seven children… plus one more. All asleep, each unaware, spirited away from their warm homes, their families.

A sudden mass of roots snag his ankle, burrowing into his sub-solidity of his leg before he has a chance to fade through. The forest sprite drags itself towards Lewis, while at the same time the roots beneath it twist around at the soil level and fling Lewis against the base of the ancient trees. The roots remain fixed within his leg, while more cluster and spread up over his thighs and chest, twisting through Lewis’ ribcage.

The dapper ghost manages to keep his translucent arms free and bring them close to his chest, shielding his glimmering locket from the invasive plant coils. It didn’t hurt per se, but the sensation of matter burrowing through his incorporeal suggestion was unsettling (that was an understatement). And Lewis feared there was a method of harm that it could implement that he was not yet aware of. He could do without the lesson.

The locket on his chest escalated its tempo, blues and gold pulsing, mingled over the silver glitter encrusted roots tightening on and through his form. The cool colors soon blaze with a vibrant gold and red, magenta spills from Lewis’ suit collar, his ribs are swept with a flash of fire, black soot scatters outward in a thick wave. The plant fibers are engulfed with thick smog and wither, scorched by the ravenous lashing flames. Clumps of ash ignites from Lewis suit as he thrusts his arms outward, snapping the thicker coils that remained latched into him. The displaced cinder takes flight and scatters, some catching to the brittle kindling of the old trees lowest hanging branches.

The wood sprite gives a shriek. Not from the damage inflected to its segments, but twists its neck to view the flames spreading to its craft above. “Vandal!”

“It’s not like I want to be HERE!” With a sharp kick to the ground Lewis raises himself several feet, one hand plastered over the dully flutter of his gilded locket. The sprite lashes its upper segment high intending to intercept Lewis’ movement, but it reconsiders its pursuit at a sudden flash of crackling fire swept out from Lewis’ coat sleeve; a formidable barrier cast midair. With that arm extended to the forest sprite, Lewis raises the other hand and swept fresh wisps of flame onto his lost fire. Once the spark wisps settle over the spirit fire, he grips his fist and draws his arm back. The flames along the vines and tree canopy extinguish, and Lewis lets himself drift downward as his shield scatters into a puff of colorful mist.

One flame in his skull goes out.

“Scandalous!” The wood sprite shrieks. With the barrier gone it moves on Lewis, as Lewis skits away across soil backwards, sparks glittering at his heels, steam coughing up from melting frost. The wood sprite descends after Lewis, the base of its structure digging and snapping roots through the soil, its body moving in a wave across the clearing. “Fiend! Wraith!” A nest of vines from the thickets edge lunge out the moment Lewis is within reach, snagging his suit and legs. A quick burst of flames ignites down Lewis’ back, freeing him from the hold. Light flashes within Lewis eye sockets as he propels himself at the wood sprite, directly on level with the thick armor of its lowered torso. Flames surge from his knuckles, Lewis slams his palms to its layers of vines twisted around its core. “Destroyer!” The forest spirit howls as it recoils and twists down, coils of roots from the icy soil tear forth to loop over the spreading fire. Lewis adjusts his midair posture and forces flames from his sleeve cuffs; his eye sockets flash out, turn black. From the grove more vines shoot, snaring Lewis by his torso and haul him off of the master. “Slay my children!”

Fire gushes from Lewis’ collar, obliterating the coils digging through his suit edges. “They’re not YOURS!” They’re far enough from the canopy that he can risk throwing himself at its head region, and Lewis digs his claws into a set of the bright globes in its throat. The thing stalls and shakes, leaves and soot coughs up as it rolls over and down into the icy crust of the soil. The roots that build up along the wood sprites arms snap out, binding through Lewis and wretch the flaming ghost off. “Let them go!”

“Not by thou command, wayward soul.” The wood sprite jerks away from Lewis, smothering its long shape down into the soil as fires and black smoke bellow forth on the cold air. Lewis is a wild blaze as he scorches at the knots of roots tangling through him, fighting to reach the momentarily stunned sprite of the forest as it knots its body into the toothy soil, the lights in its neck glowering. A mass of vines tear from the high canopy and snare Lewis back, drag him high and whips the dapper ghost skyward at its end.

It’s too high, and Lewis lets loose a piercing shriek as he ignites an inferno of fire across his suit and skull, shredding out a large spherical circumference around himself; a trail of black flakes follows his rapid descent. When Lewis comes down within the shelter of the canopy, he alights on a sturdy branch and crouches for a moment; not balanced precisely on the branch, but hovering and using its permanence to keep his form stable. Lewis raises a hand and inspects the gray wisps of his glove, drifting off in a scarce breeze. Most of the knuckle is exposed in his hand, but that isn’t his concern.

The forest sprite throws itself into the thicket, moving along the branches and vines dangling, pulling its large shape towards Lewis as he waits. At the moment it reaches him, Lewis ducks aside and presses a palm blazing with sizzling flames onto its head. He holds onto the sprite by digging one hand through its vines, his fire infused palm punches through its blackened skull. A cloud of soot rises, but not all of it is from the shrieking mass twisting about in the canopy.

There’s no advantage to the scheme, the sprite’s body snaps the branches and vines tangled into its mass as it spasms; it and Lewis go crashing to the forest floor. Ice flurries upset from their branches drift down with clumps of mud, along with smoldering leaves from the sprites body. As Lewis wrestles to get his shape insubstantial or rip himself from the constricting thing, he presses fire and more untamed heat into what should be the sprites shattered skull; his other hand is pressed across his chest defending his locket from the feral battering of the sprite as it struggles away from the fire.

What neither spirit has yet to notice is that they are the only ones in the thicket. All other members had fled, and Lewis was alone.

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