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At the end of the street, there’s a path that continues into the woods. It’s always been like that, but no one has ever walked in, or out, of those woods. Not in all the years Michaels family has been living on that street. The neighborhood kids dare each other to go as close to the woods edge as they can, before they eventually turn tail and run back. Shrieking in childish joy, terror barely hidden by wide smiles and laughter. They only play this game when they sun is out. Christine stays as far away from it as she can, at all times.
‘’The woods are deep and dark, a treacherous place, and those who go in are sure to loose their way.’’
That’s what all the grown ups say. Those exact words, like a mantra, passed down from generation to generation.
No one goes into the woods. Those dark and unnaturally quiet woods.
‘’I just don’t like it, it feels…cold. Like there’s something waiting in the shadows.’’ Christine whispers from the safety of her blanket. She’s six and it’s the safest place she knows after her mothers bed. The clock creeps ever closer to midnight, heralding the end of October 30th and the beginning of October 31st. She’s wearing her mothers witch hat, pointed and bright autumn orange, made of thick felt, sigils stitched with maroon threads into the brim. It hums with the warmth of a fireplace.
‘’I’ve never felt anything more than a shiver when I get too close to the barrier.’’ Chloe says, nose a little turned up and her own borrowed hat, a lovely pastel purple with precious gems fastened to the hat band, slides further off her small head. The star shaped crystal tied to the end gives a ding as it swings.
‘’Yeah, but Christines mom is a forest witch, it makes sense if Christine senses more from the forest than you do.’’ Jenna points out, not unkindly, but wanting to end the building discussion of wether the old fashioned witches are stronger than the new age ones are. Chloe huffs, but lets it go. Her quarrel isn’t with Christine anyways. Christine doesn’t rub it in peoples faces that her connection to Magic is stronger than others, she’s quite humble about it. And not even humble in a way that pisses Chloe off. Not like Madeline.
‘’I feel it too, like there’s…something behind the barrier.’’ Brooke adds, twirling a strand of her long blonde hair around her finger. Her hat is pure white, even if she’d wanted to borrow the pink one, but the white one is nice too. It doesn’t have a pointy end, instead it curls in on itself in a spiral, long thin silver chains tinkling like bells every time she turns her head.
‘’I’m so glad I’m not a witch, getting the creepy crawlies every time I passed by something magic would freak me out.’’ Rich says. He’s wearing a cape, not because he has to, not for the tradition of it, but because he likes the way it flares out when he runs.
‘’I think you’d be used to it.’’ Michael reasons. He’s wearing his mothers hat as well, though no magic flows trough his veins, but it’s nice to be a part of the tradition anyway. It’s a lovely dark midnight blue, made of sheer fabric and bewitched to twinkle like the night sky. He looks over at Christine and she opens her mouth to say something, but is interrupted by Jake barging into the living room where they’ve piled all the mattresses and blankets and pillows in the house.
‘’It’s starting!’’ he yells, rushing over to the veranda doors, pressing his face against the glass. Like Michael, Jakes mother is a witch, but he has no magic of his own. Sure the two of them are connected to the Magic that runs trough the world, but they have no influence over it. Jakes hat is as black as the cat that follows him around. The other kids gather at the glass door to watch as midnight strikes and the night sky lights up.
‘’There’s something in the woods.’’ Christine says, eleven years old but no less childish. Most of the time. Usually such a comment wouldn’t be too out of place, she’ll usually mention that she feels like they’re being watched, or feels the presence of something, but this time. This time it’s something else. This time it’s…more certain. The way she says it, with a blank face, an unblinking stare, and a monotonous voice. So unlike who she is, fundamentally, has the rest of the kids on edge immediately. She’s staring down the road, down towards the dark path into the forest. The path looks well trodden, open, even though they’ve never seen anyone walk there. Even though the path is shrouded in darkness no matter what time of day it is. A scream pierces trough the air.
‘’What was that?’’ Rich asks in a panic, clutching the basketball he’s holding to his chest. They all turn to the forest.
‘’Did someone go in there?’’ Jenna wonders out loud. There’s another scream, a kid, and suddenly the trees are rustling. There are sounds of running from within the forest, a branch snaps.
‘’Come on!’’ Jake shouts, and takes off towards the path. The others follow, Rich without hesitation, Chloe and Brooke with a bit more hesitation, but as they go to follow so does Jenna. Michael watches them go for a second, glances at Christine. She looks frozen in place. Another scream. She jolts, as if shocked, and she grabs his hand. He pulls her along towards the edge of the woods. Jake has stooped at the very edge, where asphalt gives way to soft dirt and grass. The barrier.
‘’Stick together.’’ he says, and sets his foot down on that undisturbed earth. Richs’ hand shoots out to grab onto Jakes shirt as he follows after him. Brooke situates herself in between Chloe and Jenna, and then they step over the line as well. It doesn’t take long for them to almost disappear in the dark. Michael still has a hold of Christine, and he moves towards the woods too.
‘’I can’t.’’ Christine says. Michael looks back at her. She’s pale, a sickly pale, the usual glow of her skin dulled, her bright eyes no longer shining. He lets go of her hand.
‘’Wait for us here, get your mom if we don’t come back soon.’’ he tells her, and heads into the forest alone. Only a few meters in, he turns back, but he can no longer see the road.
‘’Christine?’’ he says out loud, raising his voice to what he believes would be a volume she’d hear. He gets no response. He stops breathing, tries to listen to the sounds of the others, of anything, and instead finds a deafening silence. So heavy it feels suffocating.
‘’Jake!?’’ he shouts in the other direction, or he thinks that’s the direction deeper into the forest. He just can’t tell anymore.
‘’Rich!’’ he tries next, a desperate edge creeping into his tone.
‘’BROOKE! CHLOE! JENNA!’’ he shouts at the top of his lungs, but it’s like the trees swallow his cries. As if the silence blanketing this forest is a physical thing, eating up any and all sound. Michael swallows down the raising panic and keeps going. Stepping over roots and ducking under branches, he tries to be as quiet as possible, feeling out of place and clumsy in such a still environment. He keeps glancing back over his shoulder, not being able to shake the feeling that he’s being watched. As he turns back around he comes face to face with a pair of glowing green eyes.
‘’ARGH!’’ he shouts, taking a quick step backwards and tripping on a protruding root. He scrambles backwards a little further, heart pounding and blood rushing, breathing heavy. The eyes are gone. Michael can feel the roots digging into his back.
‘’What are you doing here?’’ a voice asks from his left. He whips his head around, but sees nothing besides the endless expanse of forest floor and tree trunks that seem to go on forever.
‘’I-uh-I he-heard a scream? I mean, my friends, and I did.’’ he manages to choke out. His moms did teach him to be civil after all. Even when facing the unknown, it would seem. He’s pretty sure they’d be pissed knowing what he’s doing. Talking. Instead of running. Genius move, Mell. He hears the crack of a branch to his right, and a small figure steps out. It’s a boy, about Michaels age he’d guess. He’s dressed in something green and shaggy, his eyes are still glowing, and there are two horns protruding from his mess of brown curls.
‘’You should leave.’’ he says, but Michael is pretty sure he didn’t see his mouth move. Also the voice is still definitely coming from his left. He might be going a bit crazy.
‘’Were you the one screaming?’’ he asks instead, because Michael Mell has a death wish apparently. As soon as he’s said it out loud he wants to hit himself over the head. The boy before him only tilts his head to the side, as if Michael is something curious, something he’s never seen before. The rustling of leaves brings the boys attention back to his surroundings.
‘’You need to leave.’’ he tells Michael again, more urgent. This time his mouth moves, and Michael’s pretty sure he saw fangs so like yeah. There’s that.
‘’I need to find my friends.’’ he says instead of agreeing like he should be. The boy looks at him again, and it might just be a trick of the (lack of) light, but Michael could swear he saw him smile. He reaches out a hand. A clawed hand. Michael stares at it for a second, the forest rustles ominously, and he takes it without further hesitation. The boy leads him five steps back the way he came from, and there’s Jake and Rich.
‘’Michael?’’ Jake asks, but he doesn’t have time to say anything else as the strange kid interrupts him,
‘’Grab his hand.’’ he instructs Michael, and Michael doesn’t hesitate this time. His hand grabs onto Jake like a vice, and then they start walking again.
‘’What’s g-‘’ Rich tries to ask, but is cut off as the next few steps are taken, as the trees seem to blur together, shift. Michael can see Chloe, Brooke, and Jenna.
‘’Grab them.’’ the boy says, and as they pass by the girls, Rich takes Jennas hand.
‘’Don’t let go.’’ he tells her, and she squeezes his hand. The chain of kids make their way trough the forest. Michael was sure he hadn’t walked this far in, then again…magical forest.
‘’The way out is up ahead, I’ll hold it open.’’ the boy says, gesturing towards another seemingly endless expanse of woods.
‘’Are you for real?’’ Rich asks, and the boy simply raises an eyebrow at him. The forest gives another rustle, and the boys head snaps back and forth.
‘’Leave. Now.’’ he says, voice again coming from nowhere near where it should be coming from. Eyes glowing a dull and unnatural green.
‘’Okay yup leaving.’’ Michael says, letting go of his hand and tugging Jake and the rest of the chain in the direction the boy had indicated. The trees blend together as they race trough the forest, branches seemingly bending out of their way to let them pass. The trail ahead of them is still endlessly dark, but then they burst trough, and they’re standing on the asphalt again. At the end of the road where their street gives way to the forest. Christine is still standing there, as pale as Michael had left her.
‘’What’s wrong? Why’d you come back so soon?’’ she asks them, and Michael has the odd urge to laugh like a maniac.
‘’We were in there for like an hour!’’ Rich yells, gripping his hair as Jake nods frantically.
‘’I thought it was closer to half an hour?’’ Brooke asks, looking to Chloe and Jenna for confirmation. They both nod in agreement. Michael feels like he’s going crazy. Again.
‘’I was in there for like five minutes tops.’’ he says, staring at his friends. They collectively turn to stare at the forest, and the gaping entrance seems more threatening than ever.
‘’Let’s…go.’’ Christine says. No one argues.
They don’t tell anyone. Because they were doing something they weren't supposed to be doing. They don’t talk about it, because talking about it means thinking about it, and that’s just plain scary. Michael thinks about the boy, though. Because he’s the only one of them who really saw him, who remembers what he looked like. And he goes looking for clues.
Michael is fourteen and brimming with the kind of bravery only young foolish kids have. Over the past years the strange meeting has faded from their minds. All the research Michael had done relocated to a shoebox under his bed. The forest isn’t as dangerous as it was back then. Their memories are dulled, and they chalk the scary nature of the forest up to their over imaginative young minds. The end of the road has once again transformed into the playground it once was. But they don’t stray over the barrier.
‘’He shoots!’’ Jake yells, kicking the ball towards the two rocks they’ve placed on one side of the road, acting as a goal. Christine tries to stop it, but it sails past her.
‘’He scores!’’ Jake shouts as the ball passes between the two rocks. Brooke cheers from where she’s standing in the other goal. Rich throws his hands up in the air, exasperated.
‘’Damnit!’’ he yells, Chloe shoots him a look.
‘’Language.’’ she says, in an eerily spot on impression of her mother. The soccer ball bounces against the curb, and starts rolling.
‘’You sound like your mom.’’ Rich tells her, sticking his tongue out. Chloe's frown deepens.
‘’I do not!’’ she shoots back, indignantly.
‘’Do too!’’ Rich replies.
‘’Do not!’’ Chloe says, getting up from where she had been sitting at the curb with Jenna. Michael glances up from his DS, rolling his eyes. He catches sight of the ball.
‘’Uh…guys?’’ he says. No one notices.
‘’Do too!’’ Rich yells.
‘’Do not!’’ Chloe yells back.
‘’GUYS!’’ Michael yells, drowning out the both of them. He points to the end of the road, where the ball has just disappeared across the barrier.
‘’Aw man.’’ Jake sighs,
‘’That was my good one, too.’’ he laments.
‘’I’ll go get mine.’’ Rich says, only to be cut off by the sound of the ball bouncing on the asphalt. It comes to a halt at his feet. They look to the forest and see…nothing. Nothing but darkness and trees and…a green glow? Something in Michaels head clicks, and he gets up.
‘H-hey! You’re that kid!’’ he says. The green glow starts fading.
‘’Wait wait, don’t go! You helped us out when we got lost in the forest, we’re not gonna do anything.’’ he says, taking a couple of steps towards the forest. The glow brightens just a little.
‘’We never knew what happened to you, are you alright?’’ Michael asks, moving as if to take yet another step, but he stops when he feels a hand on his shoulder. He glances back, and sees Christine holding onto him. She’s pale, but her face is determined. She’s got his back. He nods. When he turns his eyes back to the forest, the green glow is gone, but then a shadow falls away as if someone closed an invisible umbrella. And there’s the boy. Michael notes that even though he now has about half a head of height on the mysterious kid, he’s no less intimidated. There’s a scar on his arm. It looks old. Healed.
‘’I’m…fine.’’ the kid says. His mouth moves, Michael is glad to note.
‘’What’s your name?’’ Michael asks next, because he’s wanted to know for so long. The boy pauses, green eyes flicking away and back again, a tail swishing behind him in contemplation. The movement of the appendage catches Michaels eye, as he hadn’t noticed it the last time.
‘’…Jeremy.’’ the boy says eventually.
‘’Hi Jeremy. I’m Michael.’’ he introduces himself. Then he steps a little to the side so Christine comes more into view.
‘’This is Christine.’’ he says. She raises a hand hesitantly, gives a little wave. When Jeremy mimics the movement, a small smile blossoms on her face.
‘’That’s Jake and Rich.’’ Michael says next, pointing to the two boys in turn. Jeremy waves again, and the two wave back.
‘’And that’s Chloe, Brooke, aaaand Jenna.’’ he says as he points them out to him. Jeremy waves to them too, a little more sure in the movement now. Brooke smiles brightly at him.
‘’Yeah hi.’’ Chloe says, as Rich elbows her a little.
‘’Wanna play with us? We’re never enough for even teams.’’ Rich says, holding the ball out in front of him. Jeremy glances around, as if to make sure the coast is clear, before stepping properly out not the light. Michael had not remembered him right. Not only has time faded the emory of the strange kid that helped them, time has also changed him. His hair is longer, curlier, his horns larger. Twisting around themselves into sharp points that face straight upwards. They’re a dark brown, almost black. His clothes looks like a tunic made of dark green moss, a eater belt tied around his waist. His legs are furry, cloven, and a long tail follows him as he steps out of the foliage. His eyes are no longer glowing, or it might just be they don’t show up in daylight. But they’re still very green. Michael is at a loss for words for a moment, before Christine breaks the silence.
‘’Do you know how to play?’’ she asks Jeremy. He shakes his head no. Christine steps forward and grabs on of his clawed hands.
‘’We’ll teach you then!’’ she says, brightly. All hesitance gone. She looks more at ease than Michael has ever seen her this close tot he forest.
They’re all closing in on sixteen when Jeremy finally tells them about the first time they met. It’s evening, the sun setting over the forest, painting the sky a violent red, and casting the trees in muted shades of grey.
‘’There were hunters in my forest, that day.’’ he tells them, arms wound tight around himself. Legs drawn in close as he sits on the grass next to the asphalt. They’re all gathered close around him on that patch of grass. Unafraid now of the other side of the barrier, as long as he is with them.
‘’My dad brought me here when I was young, he told me we were chased out of our old home, out territory, our forest. My mom died when we fled. Then we settled here, drawn in by the Magic people close by. It seemed quiet, safe. Then someone got wind of the rumors, and came to see for themselves. And they found us.’’ His eyes are closed, his face turned down, his mouth non moving. It sounds like he’s whispering, even though they can all hear him loud and clear.
‘’I was running away, trying to hide when I found you. And you all looked tiny and frail, so I couldn’t leave you alone.’’ he tells them, a small smile twisting one side of his lips up into a sad smile.
‘’They killed my dad, but didn’t know i was there. So they left. And I was alone.’’ he finishes. They’re all quiet for a moment, taking it in.
‘’Is that why you approached us?’’ Jenna asks, breaking the fragile silence. Jeremy snaps his gaze to her, his face bathed in the familiar green glow. He raise an eyebrow.
‘’Did you feel lonely?’’ she asks him, trying to clarify. He turns his head away form them all, but nods anyway.
‘’It had always been me and my dad. The forest didn’t seem so large back then, because dad was always larger. But then he was gone, and home was so empty. And then I saw you one day. And then I kept coming back. And then one day you saw me too.’’ he turns back to them, smiles. Michael reaches over to lay his arm across Jeremys shoulders.
‘’And now we’re not going anywhere.’’ he reassures him. Jeremy grins, showing off rows of pointy teeth.
Michael is a measly month away from turning eighteen, and he’s brimming with the sort of confidence only stupid teenagers have. He’s standing in front of the edge of the forest. The beginning of the trail. The barrier. Their usual meeting place. Jeremy had once told them he heard everything that was said into the forest, even if they only whispered.
‘’Jeremy.’’ Michael says. Calls. It’s a familiar name, one that rolls easily off of his tongue. There’s a silent wind that rustles trough the branches, and once the shadow lifts he can see Jeremy standing there. Still half a head shorter than him, still curly brown hair. Still glowing green eyes. It’s a familiar sight Michael takes great comfort in. He summons all his courage, feels his heart quiver in his chest. Listens to the beating of it in his ears, like the rapid wings of a nervous bird. Michael holds one fist out, grip tight around the object inside and obscuring it from view. Jeremy can already tell what it is though.
‘’This belonged to my mom, but she gave it to me. So it’s mine. She said I could do whatever I wanted with it, and I’m giving it to you. I know who you are, and I want to be your friend. Here.’’ he thrusts his fist out, it’s shaking slightly. His shoulders are tense and he’s having a hard time meeting Jeremys eyes.
‘’Come with us.’’ Michael pleads. Jeremy reaches out his own hand, out from the edge of the forest, out into the sunlight, into Michaels world. His claws fall away, and a pale smooth hand touches Michaels still closed tight fist. Michael startles a little, his eyes snapping to Jeremy. Jeremy takes a breath, and then steps out onto the asphalt. His green eyes melt away into baby blue, his horns are there one moment and gone the next. When he smiles his teeth are straight, human looking. There’s no tail swaying behind him in bemusement, like his quirked eyebrow says there should be. It’s so normal that it’s weird. Michaels hand goes slack, and he drops the golden chain into Jeremys waiting hand. He feels it then, the rush of the bond, the solidifying pact. Jeremy undoes the clasp and brings it up to put it on. It’s a simple gold chain, with a small golden cross hanging from it. Nothing fancy, nothing too valuable. But it belonged to Michael, and now it belongs to Jeremy, and that’s what makes it powerful. When Jeremy drops his hands back to his sides Michael takes the last step to bring them face to face. He hovers in front of Jeremy, lips almost touching his.
‘’Say you’ll come with us.’’ Michael pleads again.
‘’I will.’’ Jeremy replies, closing his eyes as he leans in, kissing Michael like he has done many times before.