In the Forest of Light and Dark

by Kasniak, Mark

  As soon as the flames were extinguished, I called out for Terra because I was not able to see her through the clouds of white smoke and billowing steam that ascended from the scorched earth all around me. I then moved forward, making my way through what was left of the surrounding brush and singed trees which were still hot and glowing with orange coals that were crackling and sizzling from the quickly evaporating moisture.

  The rain eased up as quickly as it let loose, and I then saw Terra pick up her head from having had it tucked in between her knees like she was a child of the fifties hiding under her school desk during an air raid drill.

  I ran over to her, and she threw her arms around me instantly pulling me close in a motherly embrace.

  “Cera, you have to get out of here. You're not supposed to be here.” she said as she wiped rain water from my face.

  “What's going on?” I asked. “Are you okay? Is she okay?” I then inquired as I pointed to the witch who had been lit ablaze and who was now being attended to by the others.

  “Yes, she’ll be fine. The others will see to that.” Terra told me.

  “What is going on... Why are you guys here?” I then asked Terra again having been still mystified, and then followed that up with, “Where's Katelyn?”

  “I don't know where Katelyn is.” Terra answered sounding worried. “I was hoping she was still with you at the dance. She was just supposed to meet us here with your phone. We’d planned on using that photo you’d taken as a muse to help us witches focus our energy into one consciousness that would be strong enough to allow us to be able to finally locate Abellona’s grave. We’d planned on destroying the seal on her gravestone which would send her to Hell once and for all.”

  “What? Why now... Why would you do this at night, in darkness, and not during the day? Why would you not allow me to help? Why couldn’t we have tried this when I’d gotten stronger?” I asked demanding answers, the full truth this time. I was tired of having felt like I’d been left in the dark.

  “Because, Cera, she's weakened tonight.” Terra said, and as she spoke she looked up into the night’s sky that was filled with a myriad of stars. The dark, cumbersome rain clouds having just begun to recede back behind Mount Harrison which had then caused a hole to become punched in the overcast allowing the universe above to become exposed once more.

  “You don’t know this, but today is the anniversary of Abellona's death, and it also happens to be a full moon. Her powers tonight are not as strong as they should. No witches’ powers are as strong as they normally would be when there’s a full moon. And, only on the anniversary date of a witch gaining her powers is there a window of opportunity for her to relinquish them becoming mortal again.” Terra told me all this, now looking pensively into my eyes.

  Weakened powers! I thought to myself. They sure could’ve fooled the fuck out of me.

  “But even if that were true. Why would she ever relinquish her powers?” I asked, trying to make sense of it all.

  “She wouldn't.” Terra replied, confusing me even further. “But, you see... When a witch’s anniversary comes up, with her powers being diminished and then that loss being compounded by a full moon. Another being with even stronger powers might be able to remove her remaining black magic completely from her, essentially stripping her of her ability to stay here. That’s what we were trying to do here tonight. We thought that maybe collectively, we might have been strong enough to undermine her capabilities.”

  “But why didn't you just tell me that?” I asked her in a tone that was sharper than I would have liked. “Why did you and Katelyn keep what you were planning a secret from me?”

  “We couldn't include you because your presence along with your mothers is the only thing that might keep this village alive if we failed. You and your mother are the last of the Barretts, and if you’re gone there will be no stopping Abellona from finally wiping out the rest of this village, and taking every last soul hostage. Witches like me and my sisters here, and even Katelyn, will never be powerful enough to destroy her. Don't you see, Cera... It’s only you and your mother, witches who’d been granted their gifts by a higher power, by Mother Hecate, who can put an end to all of this and free this village of Abellona and her curse? And, we just thought that...”

  I watch as Terra pauses collecting her thoughts.

  “We just thought that if we could find the seal, the source of Abellona’s power, allowing her to stay here in this realm and destroyed it. At the very least, it would weaken her to the point of making her mortal. Allowing you and your mother the time needed to build up your powers to where you could fight and kill her.”

  Even though her plan seemed idiotic, perhaps suicidal, I couldn't be upset with Terra. After all, at the heart of it, her true intentions were just looking out for me and my family. Still, that didn't change the fact that we were in the middle of the forest after dark, half way up Mount Harrison, and had one wicked bitch out to get us now that she knew where we were and what we were up too. Oh, yeah, and to add to things, Katelyn was still missing with my phone.

  But, that's when it had hit me, when I thought about Katelyn with my phone. What Terra had said was the entire reason for any of us being there in the forest tonight. That picture on it of Abellona's gravestone with that weird symbol etched into it. I had been the one who’d found it. I touched it. I didn't need that picture to find it again. I knew where Abellona's grave was. It was up on the far side of the mountain where the grass-covered hills leveled out and a mix of maples and oaks gave way to birches. It was where I first met Savannah—where I first met Abellona.

  I didn't wait. I just took off running, Midnight giving chase.

  “Cera, where are you going?” Terra had called out as I left her and the other witches behind.

  “I know where she is!” I shouted back.

  “Katelyn!?!”

  “No, Abellona!”

  Don't ever Mess with a Southern Girl’s Friends

  As I made my way east through the trees—Midnight and moonlight, leading the way—I knew I had to find my way over to where the hillside covered in field grasses and mapped with birch trees overlooked the valley that the Genesee River snaked through.

  Having a plan, a course of action, had filled me with resolve and this time as I ran through the forest in the dark I didn't feel as scared as I did before. I felt determined.

  As I made my way through the forest of shadows I couldn't hear anything but my heavy breathing, which kept perfect rhythm with my pounding heart and complimented my limited vision.

  The closer I got, the more the forest seemed to swallow me though. There was no longer any sound of crickets that I could hear, or the hoots of owls, not even the unrelenting creaking of the forest’s swaying branches. All of it being snuffed out by my beating heart’s resonance echoing throughout my ear drums. I could feel something though. I could feel that the temperature was dropping yet again, which gave me a sense that I was getting close.

  A while later, I had thought it was beginning to take me longer than I had anticipated it should have to make my way over to the east side of the mountain. I thought for a moment that I may have gotten myself lost—a predicament I really didn't want to think about. But then I noticed just a look-see up ahead of me in the moonlight was the first of the birch trees.

  One by one they came into view, illuminated only by the moon shining, which made them look ominous like ghosts standing in the forest.

  I slowed down to a walk and took in my surroundings. With my breath belabored and my senses on guard, I began searching for the obsidian stone. I didn't know how much time I had to find it, but I definitely knew whatever I had wasn’t much. And, finding a black stone in an even blacker forest, aided only by the moonlight and the clouds willingness to play along by not getting in the way, caused me to think that finding this thing was going to be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

  As I searched the area I could see the birches just fine, they glowed with an almost
bluish tint in the limited light. But then when I had looked down at the forest floor to search for the stone I couldn't so much as see my surely torn-up dance shoes in front of my face.

  Shit, it's gone! I’m never going to find it. I thought. Or, maybe I was just in the wrong place all together.

  A noise like twigs breaking suddenly echoed up from behind me and I whirled around startled. To my surprise though I found nothing there, allowing me to breathe a sigh of relief.

  Midnight then let out a meow that cut through my already distressed nerves so badly that I had to pucker-up and clench my cheeks together or risk soiling my dress worse than it already had been that evening.

  I quickly looked for her in the darkness, wanting to scream at her to shut up, but it took me a long moment to locate her, finally spotting her when her black fur had shimmered in the moonlight.

  “Quiet.” I harshly whispered at her as if keeping quiet was going to keep Abellona from knowing where we were. But she only mewed again, and then a third time even louder.

  “Shh!” I berated her. “You're gonna get us—”

  But then I stopped myself mid-sentence, because Midnight no longer had my attention. But, what she was standing on did.

  It was the stone, black, glossy, and shimmering like a chunk of broken glass in its reflection of the moonlight. There it was, just nestled away in among a few of the birches with that strange marker etched deep within it.

  “You found it, girl.” I said to Midnight in a low but appreciative tone and then set off quickly to find something to destroy it with, but what?

  The first thing that popped into my mind was to use a tree branch, but then I quickly dismissed that idea, knowing that just wasn't going to work, so I pressed on.

  It was only a moment later though when I had found what it was I needed when I had slammed my exposed big toe into it—letting out a cry of agony while wincing in pain. It was another rock and a good-sized one too.

  I finished rubbing my battered foot and then bent down, picking up the boulder. It was heavier than imagined it would be, but I had managed to lift it to my waist after struggling to break it free from the earth. As I heaved it ever higher, I couldn’t see it, but I could feel it, and I knew that the mud that clung to the bottom of the rock had smeared itself deep within the fabric of my dress as I battled to bring it up to my chest. The thought of what my once beautiful dress must have looked like now depressed me for a moment, but then I quickly dismissed the thought thinking, Let’s just get this over with, so I can get the hell out of here.

  I took a deep breath and lugged the rock further up my chest, all the way to my shoulders, and with another strident breath I extended the rock skyward up over my head, locking my elbows straight as boards. I then turned to face Abellona’s grave. Staggering, I took a few unsure steps forward, concentrating hard on keeping the rock from crashing back down on me.

  I had made it to the front of the grave and stared down at the symbol shimmering in the moonlight. I then whispered fuck you to Abellona’s corpse that lay underneath my feet, and I was all set to send the rock hammering down on the gravestone when a voice from behind me called out, “I wouldn't do that if I were you.”

  My heart shot up into my throat, and my legs buckled awkwardly but I managed to maintain the rock’s heavy load above my head. I then slowly turned my head to see who had said it even though I already knew who it was.

  There she was, just standing there about twenty feet behind me. Her skin seemed to glow that ominous blue, lighting up the whole area while turning her flesh ghostly white. She just stared back at me as I continued to hold the rock high above my head, steam now coming from my breath in the rapidly plummeting frigid air.

  Abellona’s ink-black eyes were intensely focused on mine causing me to feel terrified once more and frozen in place. But I knew I had to bring down the rock, destroying the seal. It was my only hope for all of our survival that I could see.

  The way I’d figured it, I was going to have to fight her either way, whether I destroyed the symbol or not. It wasn't as if she was just going to let me walk out of the forest if I didn’t destroy her gravestone. At least by obliterating the symbol, it might weaken her enough to where I actually had a fighting chance.

  Having committed myself to the fight, I said to her smugly, “Try to stop me.” But before I could bring down the rock, someone else had forcefully grabbed hold of me by my right wrist. Before I could even turn my head to see who it was, they pulled my arm back vehemently causing me to drop the stone. I had barely managed to get my head out-of-the-way before it came crashing down on me, clipping me on the shoulder.

  Instantly, I felt the pain move through me in waves as I screeched out in anguish, my facing having knotted up in agony, my eyes slamming shut. When I had reopened them I looked up to see who it was having grabbed a hold of me so abruptly, and I couldn't believe what I saw.

  It was Katelyn. Only it wasn't Katelyn. She was soaking wet, and still in her dress. Her makeup had run all down her face, giving her the appearance like she’d been crying. Other than that she looked exactly the same, but yet completely different. Because Katelyn wasn’t Katelyn anymore, Katelyn was dead.

  She grabbed me around my throat with her other hand and it felt like a vise pinching off my airway.

  I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I wanted to kill that fucking bitch Abellona for what she had done to my friend, but right now I had to figure out what I was going to do about getting Katelyn off of me.

  As I struggled and fought with my friend I heard Abellona’s evil cachinnation behind me. “She actually thought she was going to be able to kill me.” She quipped with a giggle. “That I wouldn’t know what it was she was up to on my mountain.” She then said out loud as she struggled even more with laughter. “She didn’t even make it to the base of the forest before I caught her trying to cross the river on some old downed tree. So… He-he,” the bitch chuckled again. “So, I confronted her right there on that fallen tree as she tried to cross. And as I had her frozen there, scared shitless, I sent a flash flood down the river sweeping her right off of her feet and pulling her down to the bottom of the river like a stone, or should I say… To the bottom of the river like a witch in a dunking chair.”

  You fucking bitch! I thought wanting to scream it, but I couldn’t breathe well enough to vocalize anything out of my mouth other than a series of garbled moans and grunts—Katelyn still having had a firm grip around my windpipe, and tightening.

  I pushed and pulled trying to free an arm so I could fend her off, but it was proving more difficult than I could have imagined, her zombie strength unrelenting.

  As we wrestled with one another I stared into Katelyn’s cold, dead, vacant eyes and prayed that somewhere in there was still a small part of my friend.

  After a tussle and being slammed up against a tree I managed to free my right arm where I then draped it over both of Katelyn’s arms that still clutched my throat. Forcing myself down with a bow, I then used my body weight to snap Katelyn’s grip on me.

  My throat now liberated, I quickly sucked in a desperately needed chest full of the cold night’s air.

  Katelyn rapidly came back at me grabbing me by my hair and part of my dress up around my shoulder.

  “Get the fuck off me!” I yelled as I shot the palm of my hand forward, striking her in the chest, and out of me came that same sudden burst of energy that I’d used to knock Keri Mahan across the gymnasium. Katelyn went flying away from me, tumbling into the brush and overgrown grass, but she didn’t stay down long, not like Keri did anyhow.

  As I prepared myself for another attack from her, I was able to glance over at Abellona who was just staring at us wearing that wicked smile of hers, completely jubilant in watching her dog in the fight tear me apart.

  Katelyn lunged for me striking me in my midsection with her shoulder and driving me backwards into one of the birch trees. Pinned up against the tree I once again struggled to free myself of her. But t
he pressure she was putting on my chest was making it difficult to breathe while the sharp end of what I had assumed was a broken branch dug into my back like a corkscrew.

  “Katelyn, stop!” I cried out, but she just kept attacking me with the ferocity of a rabid animal.

  She hit me suddenly in the nose with a right hook and I felt my world momentarily blackout. It then took a second or two for my brain to register what had happened, but when it did I was able to still go on.

  Having been straddled after the punch, I found myself on the ground being wailed on by Katelyn as the blood from my nose dripped down my cheeks and the sides of my face. She had a hold of a handful of my hair and was pulling me upwards towards her while she pummeled me with her free fist.

  I took another shot to the temple and another to my lower lip before I even had a chance to fight back. Then, when she swung at me for a third time I was able to get a hand up to protect myself, but her punch never made it to whatever part of me had been its intended target. Because before her fist came in contact with my forearm it’d been pushed away, deflected by a wall of energy, the same energy field that I was able to produce when blocking softballs and rocks that been thrown at me.

  Katelyn screamed a garbled cry of anguish and rage at the force that was keeping her from ripping me apart. But as I continued to block her wild blows at me, I thought about how-the-hell was I supposed to get her off of me? She was unrelenting, indefatigable. How-the-hell was I going to kill somebody who was already dead?

  She still had my hair in one hand and a fist full of rage in the other, and I knew I couldn’t keep up this game of blocking her onslaught with my energy forever. With my free hand, I began searching the area of the forest floor around me for something I could use as a weapon. I continually raked the ground back and forth wildly and felt leaves, twigs, and dirt slip through my fingers.