Forest of the Forbidden

by W. J. May

  Sophie knew the way to Tristan’s room through the dark hallway. She led him there, hand in hand, and stopped outside his doorway.

  Sophie knew that if she kissed him again, now, she wouldn’t be able to resist taking it a little further. She planted a kiss on his cheek.

  Tristan responded by kissing her on the forehead. “Sweet dreams, Soph.”

  “’Night.” She watched him disappear into the room. Once the door shut, she backtracked to her room. She changed into a pair of cotton shorts and a tank and grabbed her phone. She had to text Lilli and let her know what happened.

  Was it the same when Jackson and Lilli kissed? Did they have the kind of connection that Sophie and Tristan did? Would Aidan and Morgan?

  The shadows outside her window twisted around the glass. A pressure on the back of her mind overwhelmed the weakening connection with Tristan. Sophie guessed that the effects waned when they were apart. She let the phone slip out of her hand and land on the floor.

  There was no way she was going to let the darkness bother her tonight. She’d shared a brilliant first kiss with a hot guy who had a gift like her, and she wasn’t going to ruin it by focusing on shadows and evil beings.

  With a huff, she pulled the covers up and turned her back to the window. She listened to the crickets chirping and the frogs croaking. In her mind, she imagined waves crashing on the beach, the water smoothing out the sand before being pulled back into the ocean.

  Her breath evened out and soon she was asleep.

  The shadows slid in under the windowsill, twisting and distorting, until they reached Sophie’s bedside. She whimpered, but didn’t waken.

  The room darkened. The shadows slinked up the bed and around her arms and legs. Bloody images flitted in and out of her mind. She squirmed in her sleep against the incorporeal restraints. Flashes of a ritual danced across her thoughts and she automatically blocked them out.

  You won’t be able to save him. A voice whispered. It had no gender, its only substance was fear.

  The shadows tightened around her. She struggled harder to wake up.

  Suddenly, it was over.

  The shadows loosened their hold and dissipated. The room lightened.

  Sophie shot up in bed. Her breath burned in her lungs. Dry tears stained her face.

  A horrifying scream echoed over and over. Her stomach churned when she listened closely to the tone.

  With a gasp, she lunged from the bed and threw open her door. All the while her heart and mind raced. Repeated the same thing.

  It couldn’t be him...

  “Mom!” Sophie took the stairs two at a time. “Mom!” Her voice cracked when she hit the bottom floor.

  The door bell rang. It reverberated through the silence.

  Sophie jumped and choked back a scream. She saw Tristan running down the stairs.

  “What’s wrong?” He grabbed her arm. The sleepiness faded from his eyes when he caught a glimpse of her face.

  She kept blinking away tears and trying to talk, but every time she opened her mouth, she’d close it again.

  He touched the side of her face tenderly. The wildness in her eyes didn’t go away but she took a few deep breaths.

  Her mother came down the stairs in her robe, hair disheveled from sleep. Her father followed in his boxers and a white t-shirt.

  “Is that boy messing with you?” Lyle stopped in front of Tristan. His eyes narrowed.

  Tristan immediately dropped his hand from Sophie and took a step back.

  The door bell rang again, cutting off anything Sophie had to say. On the other side of the door was the messenger, bringing the news of murder.

  Lyle, noticing Sophie’s reaction, hesitated to open the door. When the doorbell rang again, in rapid succession, Lyle swung the door open, revealing Sheriff Calhoun on the porch. White knuckles held his hat against wrinkled clothes.

  The occupants of the house came to a standstill.

  Sophie thought she saw a spot of red on the cuff of his sleeve. Dread spread through her veins.

  Calhoun cleared his throat. “May I come in, Mr. Lawrence?”

  Sophie felt her knees go weak.

  Tristan caught her and pulled her against him. The heat from his bare chest seared her chilled skin. She shivered uncontrollably.

  Calhoun followed the family into the main living room. He trudged to the fireplace.

  The air in the room thickened with despair. Everyone knew something was wrong, they just didn’t know what.

  Tara and Lyle lowered themselves onto the couch. When Tristan tried to steer Sophie into a chair, she shook her head firmly. Despite the ache in her chest, she tried to convince herself this was all a bad dream. Akeldama was just taunting her. There was no way her brother...

  “I can’t think of any other way to say this.” Calhoun rubbed his head with a wrinkled hand. Weary lines etched deep into his face and the gray at his temples stood out starkly against them.

  “Todd?” Tara choked out.

  Sophie flinched. The bloody visions surfaced again. Tristan gripped her elbow.

  “Has there been an accident? Should we leave for the hospital?” Lyle placed a hand on Tara’s shoulder. She quivered with the sobs she held back.

  Calhoun swallowed audibly. Sophie felt his anguish sharply as he shook his head. “No, there hasn’t been an accident.”

  The room went silent. Sophie couldn’t hear anyone breathing. Even the crickets outside ceased their chirping.

  The sheriff’s hidden meaning sank in.

  Tara wailed and fisted her hands in her hair.

  Lyle’s eyes brimmed with tears. He clutched his wife to his chest.

  Sophie flinched when her mother sobbed and then gasped for air. Her own lungs felt constricted.

  Her brother had been murdered. That thought unmercifully battered her mind. She wanted to scream. She wanted to kick something. Instead, she clasped her hands together and focused on one thing.

  Akeldama was the one who did it. To warn her and the others away.

  Sheriff Calhoun looked uncomfortable and his mouth opened. He closed it, ran a hand through his graying hair. “We need someone to identify the body.”

  “I’ll go.” Sophie said. She had to make sure that her theory was correct. Those dreams had been bloody and had Akeldama written all over it.

  “No. I know you and your brother were close, Sophie. You don’t need to see this.”

  A fresh wave of grief rolled over her but she raised her chin. “I have to do this.”

  Calhoun shook his head. Before he could speak again, Lyle cut in. “Let her go.” He cradled Tara closer. “I’m going to take care of her mother.”

  “Fine. Get dressed and meet me at the truck.” Calhoun scowled. His face softened when he watched Lyle walk Tara’s hunched and shaking form from the room. “I’m very sorry for your loss.”

  Lyle nodded grimly as they exited.

  Sophie heard her dad ask Lyle how it had happened but she ignored it to rush upstairs and throw on a pair of destroyed jeans and a hoodie over her tank top. The urge to scream, and keep screaming so long her throat bled, was overpowering. Todd couldn’t be gone. Not her brother, not him.

  It felt like a nightmare had pressed itself on her life and twisted inside of it. Nothing seemed the same. There was giant hole in her life where Todd had been and nothing was going to change it. Nothing was going to take his place.

  She stood for a few minutes, not moving, not thinking, just focused on a spot on the wall. The pain was so great, she knew it was going to swallow her. It came sharper and sharper until someone knocked on the door. She jerked out of her trance and turned her head toward the sound.

  No matter how badly she wanted it to be Todd, she knew it wasn’t.

  She opened the door and saw Tristan dressed in jeans, a long sleeve t-shirt, and a fleece jacket.

  I’m sorry, Soph.

  Sophie jumped and looked up at him. That voice had come from inside her mind. She shook her head. “What
?”

  Tristan frowned, worry darkening his eyes. He touched the side of her arm. “I didn’t say anything.”

  “I know. You didn’t say it out loud.” Sophie shoved the bangs out of her eyes. “I heard it inside my head.”

  “Soph, that’s not possible.”

  She shot him a glare. Could they really have telepathy, too? Was this another effect of them all being together? Tristan.

  Tristan blinked. “I heard that. Holy...did I just hear that?” Did I just hear your voice in my mind?

  It seems we have more gifts we didn’t know about. Sophie’s melancholy voice drifted through his head.

  He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Are you sure this is what you want to do? Seeing your brother like this might be too much.”

  “I think Akeldama had something to do with this.” Sophie started down the stairs, leaving him to follow. “My dreams were full of blood and Todd screaming.” She forced the words out. “She was torturing him.”

  Tristan grabbed her hand as they walked to the truck. “I’ll be here for you. Every step of the way. Let me know if it’s too much and I’ll get you out of there.”

  Sophie nodded. She already knew it was going to take a toll but Todd was gone. She had to find out for sure if Akeldama had used him as a warning.

  * * *

  Chapter Nineteen

  The morgue was located in the basement of her town’s one and only hospital. Even as a child, Sophie had stayed as far away from the hospital as she could. For an empath, the emotions and pain of the patients and family members could be overwhelming. It could override sanity and take over a person’s mind.

  Sophie knew she was crazy for coming here but she couldn’t let Akeldama win. If her brother had been tortured for real, the least she could do was find out the truth.

  The most she could do was avenge him.

  The elevator stopped when it came to the ground floor. Sheriff Calhoun used his body to block the way off.

  Tristan tensed.

  “Are you absolutely sure this is what you want, Sophie? It’s bad. Real bad.” Calhoun frowned again.

  The smell of formaldehyde reached Sophie’s nose. The raw chemical made her stomach churn.

  The eerily lit hallways were colored a pale yellow. Or maybe it had once been white, but stained over the many years of the hospital’s existence. At the end of the hall stood a pair of army green swinging doors. Behind those doors was the truth.

  She ducked underneath Calhoun’s arm and marched toward them. The closer she got to the doors, the sicker she felt. Chills ran up and down her spine. Her head swam.

  Tristan walked closely beside her. She concentrated on their connection. He was the only way she was going to make it through this.

  Calhoun pushed the doors open. They swung wide, revealing the morgue behind. He walked in first, forcing Sophie and Tristan to follow him in.

  Sophie noticed first the wide sink on the opposite side of the room. Then, the large metal rows on the wall that looked like filing cabinets.

  The medical examiner, who looked like he should have retired ten years ago, was snoring with his feet propped up on his desk.

  Calhoun crossed to him.

  Tristan and Sophie stood there, looking around. Two bodies laid out on the steel tables. One uncovered, the other under a pristine white sheet.

  Sophie’s eyes landed on the uncovered one. Her heart skipped a beat when she noticed it wasn’t Todd. Which meant he was under the sheet.

  She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the whiteness.

  The visions threatened to surface again. She swallowed against the sob lodged in her throat.

  She could do this.

  She had to do this.

  Calhoun slammed his palm down on the rickety desk.

  The M.E. jumped. His newspaper slipped out of his fingers and fluttered to the ground.

  Sophie watched, transfixed, while they danced through the air and landed on the ground.

  The old man placed a hand over his racing heart and coughed a few times. “Sorry, Sheriff.” He patted down his wild hair. He stood and ran a hand over his stained blue scrubs.

  He walked over to the covered body and Sophie watched him with a surreal sense. Her heart cried that it couldn’t be real, that it was all just a dream; but her mind knew that she was about to have a sudden shot of reality.

  “You’re here to see the boy?”

  Calhoun looked at Sophie, giving her one last chance to change her mind.

  She lifted her chin and walked over to the steel table.

  Tristan moved next to her. His fingers intertwined with hers and she was thankful for the contact. She let his essence flow into hers and strengthen her. Gratefulness that he was here and anguish over Todd warred for supremacy in her soul. If she wasn’t careful, she was going to lose her mind.

  The M.E. pulled the sheet and the white whispered over her brother’s body.

  “Oh!” Sophie covered her mouth with her other hand.

  Out of respect for her, Dr. Tolben kept the lower half of his body under the sheet.

  She paled. It was worse than her nightmares had suggested. Cuts covered his upper torso. Burns scarred into strange symbols tugged at her mind. His fingers and arms were broken in several places, leaving them askew at odd angles.

  Sophie’s hands shook. They had tortured him. Her eyes roamed over his face, tainted blue with death. His aura had dissipated completely, leaving his body an empty shell. That emptiness made grief claw at her insides. Tears formed and leaked from her eyes as she reached a hand to touch his cheek.

  “Miss Sophie, I don’t think you should be touching him.” Tolben spoke up.

  Tristan turned his head and glared at the M.E. and the sheriff. The full force of the animals inside him into the look. “Maybe you should just give her a minute.”

  Calhoun bristled at the command in the boy’s tone but relinquished his anger at the tears on Sophie’s cheeks. “Let’s give them a moment to say goodbye.”

  Sophie didn’t move until they left the room. The shock of Todd’s icy skin jolted her when she stroked his forehead. A coldness lingered inside of him that caused her to fear. Death had yet to completely leave his body. It reached out to her.

  Her eyes abruptly darkened and her pupils expanded.

  Sophie rose, blinking at the shift. The cold steel and white sheets vanished. She stood in a forest lit by moonlight. It took her a moment to realize it was the one that grew behind the high school.

  Through the darkness she could see flickering lights and hear a group of men chanting. For a second she listened to the words. Once she realized she couldn’t understand what they were saying, she pushed through the forest toward the sound.

  The closer she came to it, the colder she became. It was like an invisible ice hurricane was centered around the flickering lights. The eye, a clearing that was normally not here, was encircled with seven foot torches. In the middle sat a stone slab surrounded by men in black hooded cloaks.

  She paused at the edge of the clearing. The frigid temperature reached past her skin and into her soul. She recognized it now as Death. Nothing would warm her while she was here.

  She concentrated again on the cloaked figures as they moved in a counter-clockwise motion around the slab. Pain and hatred tainted their auras.

  Todd’s wrists and ankles were chained to the slab.

  Her vision shifted until she looked up at the hooded men swaying over her. She could feel Todd’s fear and confusion.

  The men stopped chanting and the silence that followed reverberated around them. Todd’s fear intoxicated Sophie and it heightened when the men parted.

  Akeldama came into her view. Her demonic form destroyed all pretense of beauty.

  Sophie’s heart twisted when she was hit by Todd’s horror at the sight of the one who killed him. It overtook his senses and he cried out in panic.

  “Todd, darling, do you know why I’ve brought you here?” She traced a talon down
the side of his cheek. A red line followed.

  Todd frantically shook his head. “Please, let me go.”

  “I’m after your baby sister.” She leaned over his naked body, now strewn with cuts and bruises.

  Sophie wasn’t aware of when or how they’d gotten there.

  “I bet you didn’t know who she really is, did you?” The seductive voice taunted.

  “Leave my sister alone! She is nothing to you!” Todd screamed through his fear. “You better not hurt her!” He fought against the chains on his body.

  Akeldama laughed low in her throat. “Oh, I’m going to hurt her. Her and her little Guardian friends. They won’t be able to stop me from what I’m truly here to do. And you are going to be my warning to them.” Akeldama leaned closer, her breasts brushing his arm.

  Sophie’s spirit cringed away from her.

  “Your little sister is delicate, isn’t she? Nothing like she used to be as the Oracle. Back then she was strong and resilient. Now she is weak. Your death will destroy her and then her little band of Guardians will be useless.”

  Todd spit in Akeldama’s face.

  Akeldama’s smile froze and her gaze hardened. “That wasn’t very polite.” She gripped his arm and turned it, waiting for the satisfying snap of his bones. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

  Sophie snapped back to reality on a gasp. She sucked in a lungful of air and choked on a sob.

  Tristan gathered her close to him, letting his heat and strength permeate through her shaking. “Shh. It’s okay. Your back with me now. It’s okay.” He rubbed circles on her back in a soothing motion.

  Sophie squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated on the sound of his heartbeat. Her equilibrium slowly returned. “It was her, Tristan. She did this. To warn us away from her. She tortured him and he was alone and its all my fault.”

  “No.” Tristan tilted her chin up so that he looked into her eyes. Eyes that glimmered with tears. “It is not your fault. Akeldama is a demon, one born from the worst betrayal. She killed your brother.”

  “I should have stopped it!” Sophie whispered, narrowing her eyes. “I am supposed to be a Guardian. To save people. Look at how badly I failed! I couldn’t even save my own brother!”