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f you were born into society, you've heard about the phrase 'safety in numbers'.
It's an action meant to keep yourself, and others, safe, but mostly yourself. The idea is that wherever you're planning to go, you take someone with you to watch your back, and to give yourself more of a fighting chance if something attacks you; Whether that means using whoever came with you as bait, or a distraction, or a meat shield, or teaming up together to drive off whatever had the balls to come after you in the first place.
Now, normally, the phrase 'safety in numbers' is only used when stepping outside of the boundaries of society. Out of the lines drawn in the sand, where the law and government officials tell you where you can and cannot go before their ability to protect you becomes moot.
If you're one of those people who's been bitten before, within the boundaries of what is supposed to be a safe zone, you will use this term to mean, at its core, whenever you step out of the house, or whatever is outside of your immediate safe zone.
If you're one of those people who's twice shy, you will use this term to mean virtually any interaction with a person.
Societal cues, hidden meanings, things and traps you have to find by reading between the lines, or squinting and tilting your head, really thinking about one thing a person said, and trying to find out if they're being clever, or using wordplay, or if there's some riddle or unspoken rule that you just happened to miss because you were thinking about what it would be like if you and your best friend in elementary school were two blades of grass in the same yard.
Or maybe even a different yard, and you two just so happened to be right where the fence splits you apart.
Maudelaide Stebrano, Audie, as she prefers, is one of these twice shy people, yet she has no idea. She's completely forgotten it. It's only at the back of her mind, and in mass social situations, that this phrase comes up to her, disguised as a feeling she can't even acknowledge.
She doesn't like to admit it, and hides it behind a mask only people who know her really well can see, so that no problems are caused, and she doesn't have to think about it when there's already so much other stuff to take care of. That 'twice shy' nonsense can wait later, when there's a calmer time, a more appropriate time, to dive deeper into her psyche.
Well, it's not nonsense, she would think, but…you know.
'Safety in numbers' being used in mass situations is the norm for her, but she's come to discover that that feeling, the one she can only acknowledge by describing it as some primitive instinct, that gut feeling that something's wrong, can come up in minor situations as well.
Specifically, when she's around people she has met before, and was once close with, but hasn't seen in a while.
Numi Crab Kiss is one of those people. She wasn't from Rockneck, but she moved here once, a long time ago, and she and Audie hit it off really well when they were little. She was here for a good few years, from Kindergarten to the 2nd grade, and then, just like that, she was gone, without so much as a word. Then, it was just her and Sal again.
Oh, right, Sally Buck. She had been part of their little friend group, too, but she and Audie had known each other for much longer. Born in the same town, gone to the same school, had the same classes, yet never gave each other so much as a second glance until Numi had come around.
Then, it was like they had known each other their whole lives, getting along like a house on fire. Then, once Numi had left, it had gone back to that same routine of just…barely acknowledging that the other existed.
Nothing bitter had happened between them. On the contrary, it was rather that nothing had happened between them at all. They'd tried to keep in touch and stay close friends, they really did. But, for whatever reason, some things just fell through, and they couldn't find that inner connection they used to have.
Their friendship had hit a stagnation, staying the same until slowly, quietly, that friendship had faded by the time they hit junior year, and then they were acquaintances again.
That wasn't to say Numi wasn't ever seen again. At first she had just moved out of the state, but then it was apparently out of the country. She and Audie and Sal would stay in touch, though, through letters.
Audie and Sal would meet up every now and then, and read the letters from their longaway friend.
Sometimes the letter would be sent to Audie, sometimes to Sal. It was always a fun guessing game when they were younger, and was probably the only reason that friendship was staying alive as long as it did.
But now, that junior year, where Audie and Sal were just acquaintances, Audie found that friendship slowly kindling back to life as they and Numi got up early that morning to romp around in the woods their parents always told them they couldn't go to.
She thought about the night before, a few days after Numi had gotten off of her flight from Tanzebria, where they all spent the night at Sal's house, because Audie and her mom weren't seeing eye to eye at the moment, and she didn't want to make things awkward.
That was where they got the idea to get up real early, way before it was time for school, and to just…walk around. See what the town was like in that time between everyone going to bed and everyone getting up.
The walk there, during that time frame, was kind of magical.
And it was during that process of kindling, of three 17 year olds exploring that which was unexplored, that the question comes forth, from the thought of knowing how you'd interact with one friend when the other was not around, and vice versa, and when all three members are present in one place:
What is the dynamic between the members of a friend group when they are in an unfamiliar place? And especially, what is the dynamic when one has been absent for so long that the other two have all but forgotten about each other?
What is the interaction, the synergy, of a friend group in public versus private?
KRRSTCH-STCH-STCH-STCH!
It's that familiar sound of the nozzle of a spraypaint can being pressed down and used that brings Audie out of her thoughts, making her immediately forget the entire private conversation in her head and its details.
Sal was drawing on the bark of one of the trees, right before they'd even gone in, and Audie couldn't enjoy the moment of idletry with the notion of this act.
"Sal, that's not really…environmentally conscious."
"What?" Sally Buck stuck her head out from around the other side of the tree, the moment of marking momentarily forgotten. "What are you talking about?"
"Spray paint," Audie took one hand out of her cardigan pocket to point in her friend's general direction. "It's bad for the trees and the environment. Air quality, you know?" "Oh, well, I know," Sal said, going back to what she was doing. "But it's just to help us in case we get lost! See, there's these different signs for how to use these to navigate through the forest. They're like, used for trails and stuff." She had moved back to show her art off, and give her example.
"...oh, wait, I should be doing it on the other side of this," she realized, promptly moving to where her friends were and redoing her work from scratch on the opposite side of the tree.
"Oh, yeah," Numi said. "I think we did have that kind of thing back in girl scouts."
"Yeah, see? Numi gets it!" Sally turned back, teeth shining in a wide grin.
"Look, this sign right here, this is used to mark the start of a trail, and since we're at the start of the forest, it's...you know. We'd use this! And then for the end of the trail, we'd invert it, so the top square moves to the bottom, see? Which is easy to remember because the two squares are meant to signify, like, a party, you know? Like two people. And the top square is like, the start. The entrance, I guess you could call it."
"Is there a sign that tells you how to get to the Reading Rainbow, too? " Numi grinned, hands in her pockets. Sal's face fell from her excited grin to a straight-laced glare. "...fuck you, man."
"Come on," Audie clapped Sal on the shoulder. "Let's get on-a movin' so we can 'explore' the terrain."
The banter ensued between Sal and Numi as the three of them headed deeper into the forest. Audie would occasionally look back at the branches above them, but found nobody else in the forest but herself and her friends.
And yet, she couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched.
"Sal? What's up?"
Audie turned her attention to Numi, who had stopped walking when their pioneer had too. Sal was examining the tree, standing in place with her hands on her hips like she was trying to figure something out. "Ya'll notice something odd with this tree?"
"What do you mean?" Audie came up behind her golden friend, wrapping her arms around her biceps like a curious child.
"Look at it. It's, like…it almost looks like a person, don't it?"
Audie looked, squinting her eyes, but all she could see was the trunk of a tree.
"...you're trippin', man," Numi echoed her thoughts after a moment. "Nononononono, I'm serious," Sal put out her paws. "Like, look, bro, you see this branch, that's pokin' out right here? It looks kind of like an arm, doesn't it? And right here, where the, there's a dip in the trunk, is where the legs would be. Like, they're split apart."
Following her guidelines, Audie saw the shape forming in her mind, and found that Sal was correct. The shape of the tree trunk and the bark looked uncannily like a cat in a square stance, right in the middle of throwing a punch.
"I see what you mean," Audie nodded softly. "I mean, trees can look all sorts of ways, though. Even like this."
"Like I said," Numi put her hands on her hips. "She trippin'." "I'm not trippin', bro!" Sal took a defensive stance, squaring her hands beside her hips and out in the open air. "Listen, either way, I don't recognize it."
"Recognize it?" Audie raised an eyebrow. "How? You've never been in here before, and your parents never let you in, either."
Sal raised both her eyebrows and lowered her chin. "My parents?"
"...listen-"
"You mean the dead ones?" Sal raised her eyebrows, a teasing smile on her face. "I'm sorry, man, I forgot!" Audie yelled, a bit exaggeratedly. "Wooow. Wooooooooow," Sal continued, seeming to enjoy this. Audie didn't reply, just squeezed her eyes shut and let herself rightfully be made fun of. "First you think I'm some pussy-bitch, like I've never cut class before, now you forget about my dead parents."
"They weren't always dead!" Audie defended. "You didn't come out of the womb of a dead woman, did you?!" "I did, actually," Sal grinned. "Died at my conception and I've been parroting her ever since."
"Gross," Audie scoffed.
"I been in here before, though," Sal continued. "Not a whole lot, but enough to know that this tree was not here. Swear." All three of them turned to the trunk to stare at it in silence. The more Audie looked, the more…detailed she noticed it appeared. The more real it felt. Like it was actually…or could have actually been…
"...did the adults ever tell us why we couldn't come in here?" she asked. "No," Numi's voice came from her right. "We ain't ever think to ask 'em."
The soft sound of buzzing caught Audie's ears, and when she turned in Sal's general direction, see saw another tree that looked to be in the shape of a person.
Except this one had flies crawling in and out of the open knotholes.
"...okay," Sal crept towards her friends. "I think it's time for us to go." "Same," said Audie. "Yeah," murmured Numi. Sal moved around them confidently, "Should be fine if we just turn back the way we-" "...?" Why'd she stop moving?
"What," Numi asked flatly.
"...uh...this isn't the path we took in."
"...that's not funny, Sal," Audie pinned her ears back. "Straight up," Sal said without turning around. "I'm not fucking with you." Numi looked around. "...the trees do seem more packed together than when we first came in."
"...okay, so…I might have only been in here once or twice. And I might not have exactly memorized every path in here in those one or two times I came in."
Audie's eyes went wide. "Are you serious?"
" It's okay!" Sal whipped around. "That's okay! That's why we're in here! To know that which is unknown! To map out the territory, you know? " "Yeah? And did you, pray tell, bring any paper or mapping tools or supplies to actually make the map?" Audie asked.
"...nnnnnooooooo, but-"
"Oh, my God!" Numi threw her hands on her head. "So we're fucking lost, then! With no way in or out or any whereabouts as to where we fucking are!"
"It's fine! We'll be fine! We can fix this! Plus, the sun's not gonna be up for...uh…" "Three hours!" Numi yelled. "No!" Sal hissed. "It was 5 when we left, and it took us 15 minutes to get here!" "So, it's 5:15," Audie crossed her arms. "Yeah!" Sal looked at her. "So the sun should be up soon! "
"How long have we actually been in here for, though?" Numi held a palm up. "It was 5:15 when we got here, but it's not 5:15 no more. So what time is it now?"
"I'onno, I don't have a watch," Sal shrugged. "...could really do with that new smartphone they got coming up," Audie scuffed at the dirt with the tip of her shoe.
"What new smartphone?" Numi raised her head.
"The one that was announced back in January," Audie said. "Don't tell me you actually keep up with that crap," Sal scoffed. As Audie looked at the scenery surrounding her and her friends, the bushes sprouting from the grass, the trees reaching up into the sky, she found a sense of…familiarity seep into her brain.
"Oh, actually, you know what? I have seen this path before," Audie piped up.
Both Numi and Sal turned to look at her. "You have? " "You have?"
"Yeah, dude. I went on one of those walks with you, remember? We went in together the first time."
"...oh, yeah," Sal thought. "Are you fucking serious," Numi stared. "So, you know the way out then?" Sal's ears lifted. "Well, we have actually seen this path before, but it's supposed to be in a different location entirely," Audie explained. "All the way on the other side of the forest. Like...near where we started." "What? No, that can't be right. Locations can't just move," Sal said.
"Ay…" Numi pat the nearest cat on the chest with the back of her paw, just hard enough to get her attention. Her gaze was pinpointed on a nearby tree that sprouted the same marking that Sally painted on before they came inside.
"...that could have been done by anyone," Sal eyed the marking from where she stood. Audie dared to approach, moved her thumb across it, and felt the paint come off easily on her paw pad. She turned to show her friends. "It's still wet."
Wooooosh…
"..."
"Fuck no," Sal bristled.
"Yup," Audie nodded. "Fuck no," Numi echoed. "Time to go. Time to go," Sal secured the spraycans on her belt, and immediately started back the way she came with her friends right behind her. "...what the hell is that? Do you guys smell that?" Audie crinkled her nose, the scent of something unholy wafting in the atmosphere.
"I can't think straight with all these fucking flies buzzing around! Where the hell did they all come from?" Sal swatted at the air around her. "I don't SEE anything dead around here. Or that's died recently. The only place I can see them coming from are these...trees…" Numi trailed off.
Through the dim light, they all started to see figures trapped into the trees, gnarling roots and knots taking the forms of screaming faces and outreached paws, like victims frozen in their final moments.
"...that...that's not possible," Audie shook her head. "That...the only way that would be…" She came up empty. There was no reasonable explanation for this.
Then, almost suddenly, from on the breeze, a soft howl came their way, and it almost sounded like a voice.
"...you guys heard that, right," Numi asked. "Uh-huh," Sal nodded. Now I know why no one ever comes in– Audie's thoughts broke off into an audible, startled shriek when she turned around. "What?!" Numi jumped, tail bushed out and lashing. "What-what-what?! What is it?!"
"The treeline!" Audie stammered, limbs shackled stiff in frozen fear. "Th-There's-!"
Right where Audie was pointing, where the forest seemed to grow even thicker, stood a man, still, with dead eyes and blood and drool dribbling down his chin.
"OH SHIT!" "HOLY FUCK!" Sal, leaping back with an arm covering her mouth, and Numi exclaimed.
"How long has this motherfucker been standing here...?! " Audie's limbs were shaking so hard that it felt like they weren't moving at all. "Shut up! He can probably hear us! " Sal harshly whispered. "Sir?" Numi cleared her throat, clearly trying to sound calm. "Sir? Are you alright?"
The man did not respond.
Audie leaned closer to Sal, and whispered through gritted teeth, "...he's not saying anything."
"Should we call the cops? " Sal whispered back. "What the hell are the cops gonna do? " Numi glanced at them. "Probably bring some medical attention?" Sal suggested. "This guy doesn't…really look good." A little curious, Audie wandered over to Numi's side, and called out, "S-Sir-Sir? Are you alright? Can you hear us??"
". . . g o . . ."
The man vanished.
"WHAT," Audie's heart leapt into her throat. "OH!" Sal marched up and grabbed her friends by their arms. "Okay we have to go. Like right now" "Yup. Seconded," Numi nodded. "Let's fucking book it."
"BOOK IT WHERE? WE'RE FUCKING LOST IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED! " Audie screeched. "Don't fucking yell at me!" Numi's ears pinned against her head. "I'm just, oh, you know, throwing ideas out there! Just suggestions!" "Can we fucking go now, please?!" Sal tugged at them again. "WHERE, YOU STUPID BASTARD?!" Audie turned on her. "WHERE THE HELL ARE WE GONNA-"
Before she could finish her sentence, something long and thin leaned down and trilled up her spine, and she swore she could hear something coming from the tree behind her.
"h e l p u s . . ."
They all start screaming and before anyone can stop her, Audie shoves her way past her friends and disappears into the trees.
"FUCK!" she cursed. "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK? SHIT!" She ran through the bushes, and ran through the grass, and ran, and ran, and ran, and kept running, even as she was out of breath. She realizes at some point that she's alone, and neither Numi nor Sal are with her. "Wait- FUCK? GUYS?!" Fuck! Did we all split off in different directions?! Fucking son of a bitch, I can't believe we lost track-
Her tirade is interrupted as she slams into something, solid and soft, and stumbles into a nearby tree. She can hear someone calling her name. She looks up, lightheaded, and sees the familiar face of Sal, who puts a hand to her chest. "You scared the shit out of me!"
"Sorry," Audie pants. "I-I'm sorry, I just-"
"No, it's fine." Sal pushes herself off of the ground and brushes at the back pockets of her pants. "Let's go find Numi and get out of here."
"Hold on, I-" Audie swallows, leaning against the tree she ran into. "I need a moment." She's so dizzy. Her brain is bobbing in and out of consciousness, but she knows she can't fall asleep here. She needs to get out.
Audie looked up, only to realize Sal was gone, and that she was by herself again. "...balls," she croaked to no one in particular.
Sal had run off without even thinking about it. All of the shit she saw in this forest was so fucking bizarre that she didn't even look twice before bolting. Bizarre was a mild way to put it. Shit was creepy. This whole forest was creepy.
She hadn't even realized Audie wasn't ready to move on until she had looked back. "Oh," she murmured to herself. She bolted again, this time back to where she had gone her merry little way without thinking, like a good friend, but despite having only gone a few steps forward, Audie was nowhere to be seen. Which was weird. She should have been right at the tree where Sal left her.
…oh…which tree was that again?
"WAIT WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!"
Sal's ears flick up at the sound of Numi's voice. She sounds close, but at the same time, so far away, like she was up a steep hill. "Numi come on, this way!" "WHERE ARE YOU GOING?! GUYS?!"
What on Earth…? Who was she talking to? A sense of suspicion creeped up Sal's back, and she found herself debating on heading towards the voice, or running away and not looking back. The fact that she's all alone, by herself, does nothing to ease her nerves, and does nothing to move her closer to making a clear-headed answer.
That voice could have been a trick. It was just them in that forest, but maybe that creepy motherfucker they'd seen earlier had an accomplice that none of them knew about. If that was true, then that would have been really bad news for all of them.
Might as well kill two birds with one stone while she was here. "Audie!" While it would be more productive to look for one over the other, if she was wandering out here, she might find the last one she was looking for before the first. "Dude, we left Numi in here! We have to go back for her!" No response. Not even a bird chirp, which she probably should have been hearing by now.
Did she scare them away?
"Audie!" she called again. She swears she can hear her voice, You'd better hurry up, because I'm not slowing down!, but it's so faint that she can't tell if it's real, or if she's imagining it. "Come on," Sal reasons with herself. "Audie's not that kind of person. She's just not."
Numi's a grown adult, Sal! If she can find her way in, she can find her way out!
"She's not."
She stopped moving, and looked around. Maybe she didn't hear me…
It's then that Sal realizes she has a sense of smell, and tries to consciously tap into it. However, it's no use. She can smell Audie and Numi, but their scent trails are all over the place, breaking off at some points, then continuing in places that don't make any sense relative to the time that's passed.
Is this what they're smelling, too? Is this why we haven't found each other? The scent trails are so strong, it's clear they're here, but the paths are no good. They twist and turn and combine in places and get so muddled up I lose track.
What is the deal with this forest?
Okay, Numi. Think. You've been in basic before. The most productive thing to do right now is just like they talk about: sit here, and wait for someone to come find you. And so she does.
Numi sits at the base of a tree, and patiently tucks her tail over her feet. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't getting the eeriest feeling about being in this place. They had forests in Afrogca, yeah, but none of them gave her such an intense feeling like this one did.
None of them ever felt so…alive.
"Numi! "
Huh. Results. "Sal, I'm over here! "
Sal appears out of the bushes with her hands on her knees. "I'm sorry...I tried to find Audie, but I think she's cleared out for good." "Great," Numi rolled her eyes. "Nice to know we can count on her when we need it."
"Come on, let's get out of here. I spray painted some of the trees while we were coming in, remember?"
"What? How do you know you marked the right trees?"
"I've been in here before, remember? I went off of memory and gut instinct."
"...that's not really comforting. Also, not an answer. You say you've been in here before, but the way you said it kind of implied that you don't really know your way around that well. So how do you know you marked the right trees?"
"Well, hey, I'm here now, aren't I? If I didn't know my way around here at least a little bit, I would have been dragged back out by some firefighters or something, right? So I know some of this place."
"...I dunno...I mean, how can a little bitty bit of paint tell someone how to leave some place?"
"It's not the paint that tells you, it's who leaves it there. Come on, we just gotta-..." Numi is gone when she turns around. "WHAT THE FUCK?! NUMI?! WHERE'D YOU GO?!" Sal peeks her head through the brush instead of going all the way through, but still sees no sign of her friend. Some of her scent is left behind, but it, too, is incredibly muddled and hard to single out. "...FINE! I'LL JUST! GO THEN!"
She storms off, enraged, luck finding her as she spots one of the markers she put down earlier, and follows it, hopefully, out of the forest.
"Ughhhh, oh my, God," Audie groaned. "I should have eaten before we left...now I'm starving…" A familiar scent, enough to entice her, catches her nose, and she sniffs the air more deeply to get a better understanding of what it is. "...s'at? Chocolate?" She follows the scent and nearly runs into Numi, both of them yelping in surprise. "Shit!" Numi exclaims.
Audie puts a hand to her chest. "Holy shit."
"You scared the shit out of me!"
"Me?! Why the fuck do you smell like chocolate, you bastard?! "
"Oh, that's probably the shampoo I used," Numi stretched herself upright. "...you bought...shampoo that smells like chocolate?" Audie raised an eyebrow. "It's a nice smell, sue me," Numi rolled her eyes, somewhat embarrassed.
"...whatever. Let's just get out of here."
"Easier said than done. I feel like I've been walking around for ages just looking for a way out." It's then, in the somewhat distance, Numi can make out a trail marker painted on the bark of a tree. It's also then that she realizes she doesn't really know what those markers mean, or the differences between them. But she can figure it out. "...maybe we should follow what Sal's put down after all."
"No, we can find our own way out."
"What? Why wouldn't we follow the-"
"Because not every forest is gonna have trailblazers, Numi! We can't rely on those alone if we want to get out of here!" "What, do you plan on getting lost in more forests? Come on, dumbass, let's just go!" Numi rolled her eyes. "Nope! I'm gonna follow my instincts, the way Tac intended!" Audie spun around.
"...you're not religious." "My point is I'm finding my own way out. Plus, Sal said she's only been in here once or twice, we can't say for sure if it's right." "...why are you so hellbent on not following these…instructions?"
Audie paused, mouth open, and for once, the buzzing of house flies didn't seem to be crawling through her ears. "...because they're not reliable." "I don't think that's just it," Numi crossed her arms.
"How would you know? YYou haven't been here for 12 years."
"...I didn't have a choice. You know that."
Audie wiped the snot threatening to fall from her nose, making a mental note to throw her cardigan in the washing machine when she got home. "Fuck, man. Why did you have to go?" As Numi took a step forward, a sudden series of screams ripped out of her throat as the ground beneath her gave way and yawned into a deep, dark ditch.
Audie whips around, "Numi?" but by the time she looks, the terrain has changed once again. The trees were in different places, reaching in different angles, the ground dipped in ways it didn't just a few seconds ago, and the ditch that had swallowed Numi whole had just as suddenly disappeared.
"Numi?!"
Audie tries to find where she'd just been, but only ends up getting more lost. She bats back bushes and tree branches on her quest, desperation and agitation getting the better of her sensibility. "Numi?! Numi! NuMI-!" She doesn't look where she's going, and takes the more unfortunate end of the mistake as her foot shoots down into open air. She ends up taking a fall, her body thumping against the ground more than once, and a bone-deep pain splits her leg in two. "AAAAOOOOOWWWW SHIT! FUCKING SHIT!"
She clutches her leg and rolls over on her side. How the fuck-?! Where the fuck does a ledge even come from?! We live in flat country for fucking miles! Ugh…
...well...I guess not, since town has a big waterfall...and it's at the base of the mountains…and some cliffs…
...fuck.
Audie rolls over onto her side, her breathing labored as she tries to bargain with her nervous system and calm herself down. She doesn't know how long she was there for, but she feels someone's eyes on her, and when she looks, she swears she can see the man from earlier staring down at her from the branches. Startled, she leaps back, and her jaw parts in a hiss when her leg throbs painfully.
Flies start buzzing around her ears again, but this time, she can feel their legs crawling around the opening of her canal. She swats at them and tries pinning her ears against her head, but everytime she does, she can feel one of the bugs panic and wriggle around inside.
As if those weren't bad enough, some of them try to get into her nose, which distracts and agitates her more as she snorts air out of her nostrils to try and force them to leave her alone.
And while she's screaming and trying to swat them away, this cat is still just calmly staring at her, as more flies come, more try to find their way into her body. She gets freaked out enough to scramble out of the ditch, grabbing hold of a particularly strong tree root and getting some pretty gnarly splinters the higher up she climbs.
". . . g o . . ."
She turns to look, and the cat is still in the branches, chartreuse eyes wide open, but not looking.
" . . ."
Audie whimpers in fear. She's getting tired now. The fight is draining from her muscles, even as she hauls herself up next to the tree. Those damn flies keep buzzing in her ears and her nose, and she's not even sure they're real, because one moment they're all around her, but the next they're gone.
But, the whole time, she can hear and feel them. All over.
And she knows that man is following her, too.
She tries to use any nearby tree to get her footing back, but she almost immediately falls over. Trying to stand up is like doing so with weighted anklets. It's not even the fact that it hurts. She's so out of her mind that she feels like she might pass out, but she can't stop and lie down here. She needs to keep going.
Enduring this cycle of frustration and agitation wears down on her, pushing her further into a dissociative state, and only the string of primal fear that she could really die here is what's keeping her tethered to reality.
Helpless, alone, and afraid, she has no idea if she's even standing anymore, and begins wailing, just to hear the sound of her own voice. Just to know if she's even still alive.
Then, she hears a voice.
" . . ."
She's never heard this voice before…but she swears she knows it. Hope sparks in her chest, like she's seeing an old friend again for the first time. Or an estranged family member.
". . ."
A word slips out of her mouth, but even she has no idea what it is. All she knows is it's packed with desperation and pleading, begging this voice to take her away and out of this damn place.
" . . ."
My…inner husk? Audie has no clue what this voice is talking about, yet she perfectly understands at the same time. The person inside of herself. She's able to find it, and look inside to reach her heart. It's still beating. Still pumping. She's still alive.
" . . ."
Balance…?
" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ."
…okay. Stay calm. She can do that. She remembers that someone else is still with her, and spots the man no longer standing in the branches, but at the base of the tree. But he is still away from her. Okay. She lays her head down in the exposed roots, closing her eyes. I've got time.
" . . . . . . . . . . . ."
…okay. I have to calm down. Then stay calm. Then I can find my way out. She forces her muscles to unclench, to release any tension and to ignore the instinct in her that's telling her to get her ass up and run before that guy catches up to her.
I get it now. I can't freak out. If I freak out, I lose my sense of direction. I panic. But, why? She forces herself, again, to focus on staying calm.
Her heart is hammering in her chest, and when Audie looks again, the man has inched closer, still staring with those hollow chartreuse eyes, still drooling with foam and blood, still has that thin, ginger hair that doesn't react to the soft breeze pooling over the two of them.
Okay…this will have to do. Audie is still scared shitless, she does not, by any means, feel calm…but she does have a sense of peace. A direction to head to. A purpose. Tish's face flashes in her mind.
…yeah. She finds the strength to haul herself up, and remembers just in time to mind her leg. Her back is sore, but she does not let that scare her. She can get medical attention when she gets back home. But she has to get home.
And she can't do that if she doesn't move forward.
Move forward, she wills herself. Keep moving. Keep moving forward.
She wonders if the man is still following her. She doesn't check. She just keeps moving forward. Something catches her eye, a splash of color that doesn't belong in the forest, and just barely makes out blue spraypaint in the shape of a symbol on some nearby bark.
Sal.
She looks at the symbol in front of her, and tries to remember what she was told, what little she remembers.
Continue straight.
She's not sure if it's someone else's voice in her head, or her own, but she listens to it, marching straight past the symbol, and finding the next one in whatever amount of time it takes her.
Right turn.
Left turn.
Her hackles are standing on end. It's her body's way of telling her something is horrifically wrong, and that it's something she can't see. But she doesn't look. If she were to look, she would immediately lose her cool, and then Tac knows what will become of her.
Continue straight.
Continue straight. God, she's got to think of something to distract herself. The horrific feeling hasn't left her, but it has dulled. All the same, it's driving her crazy, making her heart beat like she's about to go into hypertension.
Then, she sees it.
Start of the trail.
She's done it. The same symbol Sal drew earlier that morning is what greets Audie along with broad daylight filtering in through the trees. As she takes one final step out of the deeper part of the forest, she swears she feels something cold and sharp, like a claw, grip onto her cardigan, but when she turns, she sees nothing.
Just a field of empty, normal looking trees.
She takes her cardigan off, and checks it.
A single string has been pulled out of place.
"Audie!" Someone calling her name gets her attention, and she turn-hobbles to see Sal and Numi coming from her left. "Dude, where the-HOLY SHIT!" Numi starts off accusatory, then stops, stiff, when she sees Audie's broken leg. "What the fuck happened to you?!"
Audie looks down at her own leg, then back at her friends. "Leg broke."
"Yeah, we see that," Sal crouched down on her knees. "Holy shit, dude. Does it hurt?"
"I can't tell."
"O-kay, we need to get you back to town to get that treated. Your mom's gonna kill you," Numi circled around to Audie's right, and placed her arm around the back of her neck. "Sal, come and help me." "Yep," Sal took place on Audie's left, and together, the three of them begin to gather themselves out of the forest.
"...how did you find me…?" Audie gurgled.
"I mean…it was more like you found us," Numi explained. "We had made it out of the…deeper part of the forest first, and were waiting for you to come along. I had to convince Sal to not just up and leave because she thought you ditched us."
"Now I'm glad I listened to you," Sal glanced over. "I'm sorry, Audie. I didn't know."
"S'fine…got two on me anyway," Audie looked down at the ground. "Used your spray paint marks to find my way out."
"Ha!" Sal barked. "Who's not environmentally conscious now?! I saved your ass!"
"Still you…" Numi said. "Never mind her, though. Did you walk all that way on a broken leg?" "Yeah," Audie kept her eyes down to avoid them getting burned by the bright open sky. "Had to. Guy was right there."
"Guy? What guy?" Sal shared a look with Numi. "Wait, you mean the half-dead guy from earlier? Chartreuse eyes, ginger hair, kind of old-timey lookin'?"
"Uh-huh."
"He was following you?!" Numi's eyes widened. "Did he touch you?! Is he why your leg's broken?!" She had whipped around to glare back at the forest, then- "Woah, woah, woah, woah, stop. Stop, ya'll."
"What?" Sal looked at her. "What is it?" "We haven't been walking that long," Numi pointed behind them. "So why…" When Audie and Sal looked, the forest was no longer those few dozen feet away, but now had to be what looked like a hundred miles. Just within that range where it could have been sitting on the horizon.
"...fuck it," Sal shook her head. "Fuck that forest, man. We're out of it now. It don't matter. What does matter is getting this…this idiot home," she sighed.
"An' getting her treated," Numi nodded. "I know, but…" she looked forward again. "Where the hell are we?"
Audie swung her head lazily back around, only to find a wide, open ocean of green greeting them. Stalks of grass waved gently in the wind, in this field that Audie was sure wasn't here before.
"Oh, fuck," Sal's shoulders sagged. "Please tell me we ain't lost again."
"Nno, no," Audie spoke up. "Think…we're on the right track. I…member the way here. Jus' keep heading forward." Numi and Sal exchanged another look, before Numi hiked her arm higher and continued forward.
"If you say so."
Audie used her one good leg to propel herself forward along with her friends, and kept her bad leg off of the ground in a limp. It was still numb, but she knew the shock was probably going to wear off soon, even though she was really trying not to think about it.
Creepy…this whole area was creepy. First that fucking forest, now this stupid ass field they somehow stumbled into, far from home. Shit…did we come out on the wrong side of the forest? Am I remembering incorrectly?
But, soon enough, Audie spots train tracks. The same ones that are a signifier that home is far, but not as far as they first thought.
She's too tired to say anything, but luckily, as she looks around, Sal and Numi see them too, and their pace moves a little quicker, a little more confident, homeward bound with the sun high over their heads.
The three mollies work their way over the tracks, counting and working together to forge through iron and gravel, and back home to get their much needed rest.
This memory will be one that's pushed to the back of their minds, forgotten about until specific circumstances bring them up, or call back to it. The only part of it that will be a recurring thought will be in Audie's head, about how that voice who spoke to her was the voice of someone she's never met before, but could swear sounded a little like herself, a little like her brother, too.
But, that was really only if you believed in ghosts.
And Audie knew better than to believe.