Chapter Text
The forest to the north of Crale was an impenetrable force of nature.
Dense canopy with sprawling oaks and conifers lined the decent slopes that marked the beginning of the Patronica Mountains.
Its grandiosity was well known to all those who inhabited within a several mile radius, and everyone also knew it was a gamble to enter it.
The stories themselves were bone-chilling enough, but then there was the mist.
Never-ending combination of slightly-above freezing earth and freezing rain created the perfect niche for it.
Its tendrils weave and cling to any and all surface it could touch.
Even manmade structures were not immune, evidenced by the thick puff that billows into the train station lobby the moment the door creaks open.
Leather boots stomp onto the tile, scraping ruggedly across the provided mat. A sniffle echoes in the empty space, a pair of heterochromatic eyes darting to the large sign hung above the out facing windows.
12:45.
That was the best bet.
After that, who knows?
She wasn’t particularly enthralled with this development. Minor setbacks, sure.
But only one train?
Surely there had to be more than that.
‘ Of course there isn’t. Think about where you’re going.’
She sighs, trudging over to the nearest bench and hoping to see an attendant appear at some point.
Her duffle drags behind her, packed so tightly that the zipper might pop at any moment.
She had tried to pack light, she really did. But….was there such a thing as light when you can fit your whole life into a single bag?
A patter of rain starts to rattle the tin roof above. With a glance outside, the lone traveler witnesses the downpour in real time.
Streaks of ice cold water fall relentlessly, staining every dry surface and running races down the window panes.
She remembers as a child how she’d place bets on which drop would make it to the bottom first….
A sliding door shifts open, and the girl glances back to the ticket booth to spy a withered man inch his way onto the creaking desk chair.
She stands up immediately, slinging her bag on her shoulder and making the short walk over to the counter.
Watery, pale eyes lift to study her.
Goodness, this man looks as if keeling over would do him a favor.
But nonetheless, his voice is sweet and steady.
“What can I do for you, Miss?”
“One ticket for the 12:45.”
The traveler fiddles with the small pocketbook in her grasp.
“Ah, I’m sorry, Miss. That journey has been cancelled. Too much rain floods the valley.”
“Cancelled?” Her face falls.
“How am I supposed to get there then? I am expected.”
“Expected, you say? Very unusual, especially for that village.” The attendant says with a scraggly finger to his chin. His wrinkles scrunch together as his eyes narrow, studying the girl even harder.
Her shoulders instinctively shrink back.
“You’re not one of those skinwalkers, are ya?”
The traveler swallows, not liking the tone this man has adopted.
A heavy pause, then his wrinkles twist again into an amused grin.
“I’m just yanking your chain, dearie! My, you lot from the city are all so serious!” He laughs, shaking his head before ducking behind the counter to acquire what looks to be a pamphlet.
He then places it neatly between them so she can have a look.
“Now, what you gotta do is wait for a taxi to take you up there. The route goes around the valley, but you’ll still get there in plenty of time.”
His knobby index taps the top left corner.
“This is the phone number to call them, and if you have any further questions you let me know. Alright?”
“Alright. Thank you.” She concedes.
“All part of the job.” The elder attendant regards warmly, tilting his head up as he speaks again.
“I’m Earl, by the way. Nice to see another person around these parts. What’s your name?”
The traveler fidgets, mulling over whether she should give her real name or not.
In the end, she decides it’s safe enough.
“Pomni, sir.”
“Pomni. Now ain’t that a mystical name! You’ll fit right in up there!” Earl brightens, showing off his dentures.
“Uh, thanks?” Pomni mutters, utter confusion riddling her face.
“Don’t mention it.”
She offers Earl a tight smile, pinching the pamphlet between her fingers and making another short walk over to the payphones nearby.
She’d use her actual phone, but it’s running low on juice and she’d rather save it for emergencies.
The buttons on the keypad click with each pointed pressure of her finger, the dial tone heavy in her ear before it starts ringing.
On the fourth ring, there is a crackle of someone lifting a phone from a receiver.
Another payphone it seems.
“Rig Rentals, what’s your name and location?” A heavy Australian accent rattles off like clockwork.
“H-Hi there, my name’s Polly Ashton and I’m currently at HillCrest Station. I was wondering if you could give me a ride somewhere? The train is cancelled.”
‘Good going, Pomni. Like he’d be giving you anything OTHER than a taxi ride.’
“Sure thing, Miss Ashton. Where to?”
Here, the young woman can’t help but let her throat tighten a little.
“Th-The village up north.”
“You’re gonna have to be more specific, Miss. There’s at least a half dozen of ‘em past the valley.” The cabby says, trying not to deadpan too much.
Pomni bites her lip.
She’s no stranger to superstition.
She just hopes she isn’t crossing too bad of a line.
Her lips move against the phone.
“Come again?” The cabby urges, impatience edging on his tone.
“Briarfell.” She blurts clearly.
A short pause, and she swears she feels her heart leap into her throat.
Finally, the other end speaks again.
“……..Oh. That far north, huh?”
“If it’s too much trouble, I can—“
“No need to further arrange your plans, Miss Ashton. I’ll take you. Just….what’s your luggage looking like?”
She glances to the floor as if she didn’t already know.
“A duffle and small tote.”
“Good. Best not have too much with you for this drive, especially when I’ll need to drift.”
“Wait, what—“
“1300 sharp. Not a minute later. Wait for me on the south dock. I’ll be in the lime green company car.”
The line goes dead, and Pomni huffs an angry sigh as she slams the phone back onto the receiver.
“Perfect.” She spouts sarcastically.
Earl says something, but she doesn’t bother acknowledging it as she drags herself outside.
It’s still drizzling, so she keeps to under the metal awning that wraps around the entire building.
She needs some fresh air.
The combination of rain and fog create a perfectly drowsy scene that tugs at Pomni’s bones the more she looks at it.
It’s all so surreal, as if she could just float into those woods and never return.
She swallows again.
Bi-colored eyes tilt to the left, right into the dip of earth in the distance known as the valley.
Briarfell.
Her destination at the very least, though what awaits her there is beyond her.
Since she was barely walking, her mother had told her stories of the mysterious village.
Sometimes mystical, sometimes downright horrifying.
A place of mystery, she put it.
A place where all the odds and ends of creation end up, and rarely ever make it out again.
Swirls of speculation flash across her mind. A family of cannibals, a cult, a secret government base.
She had heard every possibility imaginable, but one thing remained as undeniable fact.
No one that has ever entered Briarfell has ever been seen again.
So when she glazed across an ad for a librarian opening in the elusive village, she hesitated. But it offered room and board along with it, as well as promise of friendly reception and good pay.
And truth be told, she just needed a way to leave for good.
Crale had been her home since her seventh birthday, but it was an unforgiving landscape. If vast expanses of concrete and steel beams could count as a landscape.
She’d be happy if she never saw gray and white for the rest of her life. It’s all she sees when she reflects on the last eighteen years.
Her college courses had taken place in the more prestigious university on the east end of the city, but it was awash in the same dreadful hues as the rest of it.
The only spots of color she can recall is before Crale, in that tiny rickety trailer on the edge of a lake.
Fresh strawberries shaken in sugar, fresh out of the jar on a wooden spoon as bullfrogs sang nearby….
The rumble of gravel snaps her out of her reminiscent state, not realizing how long she had been mentally wandering until the unmistakable lime green car pulls up next to her.
Out hops a rather strapped looking fellow, clad in a yellow and green button-up and dark green slacks. A mud brown slouch hat crests his head, his fingers pinching the brim as he greets her.
“G’day. Miss Ashton?” He seeks to clarify, and Pomni gives a sheepish nod of her head.
He smiles.
“I’m Gunny. Nice to meet ya.”
He immediately reaches for the duffle on her shoulder.
“Here, let me get this in the trunk for ya.”
“Thanks.”
They climb into the idling vehicle, gear shift creaking as the driver yanks it into drive and begins the journey.
Only the hum of tires against the pavement fills the silence between the two as they get well on their way down the road.
Pomni’s eyes are glued to the window, hands clasped tightly in her lap. Her tote bag sits against her calf on the floor of the passenger side.
The cabby’s voice is low and gravelly as he finally glances back to her in the rearview mirror.
“So…Briarfell huh?”
Pomni immediately opens her mouth to interject, but he holds up a hand.
“Nah nah, don’t worry. I don’t believe the superstitions, and you shouldn’t either.”
She frowns, settling back into her seat and watching Gunny carefully.
He really is a toned fellow, fit as a fiddle.
Not that she cared that much….
“They’re all a bunch of hullabaloo. Scary stories to keep folks out.” He further presses.
This leads the woman to ask a conjunctive question.
“Have….have you been there?”
“Sure I have. Been to the local diner and everything. Just wait ‘til you see their main street, it’s lovely.” He replies without missing a beat.
“What about the people?”
“Hm?”
“The people. Are there a lot of them?”
Another nonchalant shrug.
“Oh sure. A good gaggle. Not enough to be considered flourishing, but enough to have a tight knit community if that’s what you’re after.”
Pomni crosses her arms, legs tucking up into the back seat a little bit as she responds.
“I don’t know. I’m just going to work at the library.”
“A librarian, huh? You like hitting the books?” Gunny pipes up.
“Very much so.”
“Good on ya. Everyone should be well read.” He confers, hat bobbing as he nods.
Pomni fixates on it for a long second, and he notices. Quickly snatching it from his head and holding it out.
“Like my hat?” He hums. “Got it down under from my trip home a few years ago. Authentic deer pelt too, hard to come by these days.”
She touches the brim, delighted to find how velvety it is.
“It is nice.” She mutters. “Though admittedly, I’m more of a kerchief gal myself.”
She flicks a hand against the mentioned fabric wrapped around her head.
A low chuckle rumbles in Gunny’s chest.
“Suits you well.” He compliments. “I think more folks should wear hats. Gives ya a bit of personality, don’t ya think?”
“Yes, it—….” Her jaw opens in a jaw-cracking yawn. “….does.”
Her eyelids are slowly becoming unbearably heavy.
At first, she fights it.
Forcing herself to watch the driver continue down this desolate road.
Pines whiz by on either side, the gray sky casting a dreary light.
With a final slouch of her spine, Pomni allows her eyes to shut.
~*~*
Gray overcast gives way to blinding yellow sunlight, piercing between blades of grass that reached far past her face.
She slowly blinks, noticing how her weight rests squarely on her back.
She’s lying down.
Birds chirp nearby, and her eyes focus on what rests beside her.
Long, fluffy ears twitch as a rabbit wriggles his nose at her.
It’s curled in a perfect ball, seemingly resting. Its big eyes shine like perfect marbles.
“Pomni! Come inside! It’s lunchtime!”
She goes to turn, but finds she isn’t able.
She tries again, jerking harder.
She can’t move.
Not even an inch.
Her mouth tries to open, but she’s unable to do that either.
Her scream bubbles in her throat.
The rabbit keeps on staring.
~*~*
~*~*
The squeal of tires jerks her awake.
It has darkened significantly, the blur of trees now more like puddles in the down-pouring rain.
Gunny spies her sitting up in the mirror.
“Apologies for waking you, Miss Ashton. But this pavement is particularly gnarly today!”
His hands jerk the steering wheel every which way, trying his very best to keep a steady course.
Pomni’s nails dig into the tan upholstery, body tensing as she realizes what the driver had meant by drifting.
If it wasn’t for the very obvious treeline outside of her window, she’d assume they were just floating along.
Like a poorly adjusted airplane trapped in a storm.
A crack of thunder rattles the metal frame, Pomni’s eyes darting out to try and get her bearings.
Nothing.
Nothing but trees for miles.
Trees until they fell off the face of the earth.
She had never seen so many in her life.
“How long is this going to go on?!” She yells, having to speak over the roaring downpour outside the cab.
“Usually only about ten minutes, but I—HOLY MOTHER OF—“
Pomni barely has time to register what is happening before the entire car slams into an unforeseen mass.
The recoil sends her rolling onto the back floor of the cab, making her yelp as her right elbow takes the brunt of the impact.
Her head spins, and she claws the back of Gunny’s seat to try and sit up.
“No…. NO! Not now!”
She jerks her head around, witnessing the sweet cabby begin to convulse in his seat.
He’s clawing at his own arms, thrashing about as if something has a hold of him.
“Gunny, what’s wrong?!” She cries, heart racing.
What is happening??
He hunches over, a single eye peering at her over his shoulder.
“DON’T LOOK AT ME! PLEASE—!” He begs, but now she freezes.
The next sequence of events feels like a distant vision.
Gunny, shrieking and shaking, opens his mouth in a bared growl. Nose and mouth merge and elongate into an impressive set of sharp teeth. His skin ripples in a new texture, glittering in the half-broken domelight above them.
Scales.
They start bubbling, sending Gunny into what can only be described as a wail.
“ AUUUUUGGGGHHHHH!”
He blows up more and more, inflating in size until—
*POP!*
Shreds of color attack Pomni’s face, her jaw slacked open as she stares at the spot previously occupied.
There is nothing there now, only the tiny bits of paper.
Confetti?
Her heart is pounding, her small frame trembling.
What the hell is going on?
What did he even hit?
With a trembling hand, she finally opens her door and climbs out.
Trying to make sense of anything in this moment. Anything at all.
However, what she finds does the exact opposite.
Lying lifeless in the now drizzle was some kind of….thing. Jet black fur, gigantic claws. A small pool of ink black blood spills from its side.
A bear?
She steps a little closer, morbid curiosity getting the better of her.
Then there is a rattle, so low and threatening that she glances around for a moment before realizing the sound is coming from the creature.
It isn’t dead.
Before she can fully realize this, the creature rises to its feet.
Its head whips around to snarl at her, rows of glistening gray teeth flashing in the low light.
Pomni’s face twists in horror, scrambling back for the safety of the car. Her hands are flailing, trying to desperately grab the handle.
The creature resumes its full height, so wide that it blocks a good portion of her view on the clouds.
It lunges.
She shrieks again, hunching down and bracing for contact.
Contact that never comes.
A strong gust of wind blasts past her.