We walk in silence for a few minutes and it’s nice even if I’m terrified by the wide open space of it all. Every time there’s a rustle in the trees or a twig snapping, I nearly scream bloody murder. I don’t know how Outsiders do this. I’m a nervous wreck after fifteen minutes out in the world. There’s a rustle and a snap to the left of us and my heart rate goes up to 5,000.
“What was that?” I whisper and move behind Charlie because I’m a modern woman and that means I’m not above using a man as a shield in the woods at night. After everything I’ve been through, it’s my right to have a man meet his untimely end at the hands of a mini-demon while I stand idly by. I earned that much, didn’t I?
Charlie looks off in the direction of the rustle. “I don’t know. A rat?”
I throw myself up onto Charlie’s back and scream. “There’s rats in the woods?!”
He gags and staggers forward but keeps his feet while I try to climb higher. “I don’t know, I’m not a scientist!”
“I want to go home!” I wail.
“Meadow, this really isn’t BWIT energy.”
“To hell with BWIT energy.” I squeeze Charlie’s neck tighter and he chokes. “I don’t care. You said we were going to kick mini-demon ass, not be hunted by wood rats. What if it bites me?”
“Look, it was probably just a deer or a raccoon. It’s getting colder out here. Definitely not the season for rats,” Charlie assures me and after another strangled choking sound from him I loosen my grip. “Or it could be a bear…” Charlie says, looking around once I’m back on my feet. I pick up a stick and hit him with it.
“That’s not any better.” I smack him again.“Stick with the demons. I’d rather it be the mini-demons than a bear.”
“Okay, I’m sure we’re currently being stalked by a hundred mini-demons and that’s what you heard. There. Does that make you feel better?”
“Infinitely better,” I tell him and I’m not lying. I’d face off against a demon any day before a pack of rats. Charlie mutters something about rats and demons and size to danger ratio but I don’t listen because up ahead in the moonlight I see something.
“What’s that?” I ask, pointing at the reddish orange light flickering through the trees. Of course Charlie isn’t looking where I’m pointing. He’s turned a whole 180 degrees away from where I’m pointing, staring at the dark trees.
Charlie rubs at his brow and makes a show of looking into the trees. “I’d say a rat but-”
I sigh and turn Charlie around to face what I’m looking at. “Does that look like a rat to you?” I ask. There’s red light spilling out of the clearing. It flickers and moves like it’s alive.
“Not unless they learned how to rave.” He blinks, eyes going wide at the sight of the red light. “Big no. What the fuck is that?”
“Exactly. Come on,” I tell him and march off into the trees.
“Meadow, slow down,” he whisper-screams at me when I start jogging down the path the demons have cleared towards the light. “Wait for me.”
I slow my pace but just barely. “Hurry up,” I whisper-scream back. There’s a pull that’s dug into my ribs and is jerking me forward step by step towards the light. Whatever is there, I know. I’ve seen it before. I don’t know how, but I do.
The demon path ends in a clearing, the red light that pulled me here shines bright from a fissure in a rock. There’s a twenty foot boulder sitting smack dab in the middle of the clearing and at the center of it there’s an opening no bigger than a foot across that stretches the length of it. Red light pours out of it and paints the ground in crimson.
I’ve seen this before.
“Okay, what’s with the demonic night light?”
I shake my head. “I dunno but I know this place.” I look around and spin in a circle, trying to get my bearings. I’ve never set foot outside of the accepted boundaries of town. There’s no way I’ve been here before but still…the trees look familiar but they’re different now. They’re in color even if it’s not much color. The red light flickers and I think it’s fire making the light but how can a fire be inside of a rock? It can’t be a fire, right? But if it’s not a fire then…
I suck in a sharp breath. “It’s likethelight.”
The ground feels like it’s not there, like it’s liquid and it falls away from my feet. Light-headedness rushes towards me like a train and the puzzle pieces snap into place. I’ve been here before, but never awake. The trees, the light, the way the full moon shines so bright overhead, turning everything sharp. Déjà vu hits me and I grab onto Charlie’s arm because this is a place I know well. When I ended up bathed in the red light, it was always here that I found myself. I just couldn’t remember until now. No matter what I did, I couldn’t remember the place. My breathstills. Does that mean I’ve seen the person speaking to me but just couldn’t remember? I move and a twig snaps under my foot, the sound of it acts like a starter pistol and smashes reality and my dream world together until I understand.
“I dreamed this. For years.” I take in the clearing and it’s empty. I turn again expecting to see glowing eyes from the dark, but it’s nothing but Charlie, me and the moonlight. There’s no comforting voice speaking to me now. No shadow that I’ve followed or silver eyes on me, at least not where I can see. I can feel someone staring, though.
“Someone else is here.” I hold out a shaking hand. “Give me the mini bat. Now.”
Charlie hands it over without a word. I hold the mini bat tight and take a shaking step towards the rock fissure. In my dream, that light was the thing that shifted everything. It made me feel safe but now that I’m here, I don’t feel that way. My knees shake but still I walk forward.
Now that I’m here, the pull is gone. Vanished just like magic. There’s movement in the rock, I see it, a shadow shifting on the other side of the jagged opening. The red light blinks in and out as it moves. Whatever it is, it's big enough to block out the light.
“Something is in there,” I whisper to Charlie who nods and shakes out his hands. He pulls out the knife as he comes to stand beside me.
