As Alice wept harder and harder, he imagined a storm of her tears; a torrent. His heart raced. He felt swept away, as though flowing on a river of Alice's sadness. He knew he should leave her.
But someone rescued him once.
Josh hurried on.
Chapter 3
Finally they came to the slightest of openings in the trees. Ansel and Alice passed through it. When Josh reached it, he hovered there, hidden behind a massive oak.
The opening led to a negligible clearing; so small it could barely be called a clearing at all. The only thing in it was one tree, in the center, washed in a shimmering pool of sunlight. It was a willow tree. This one was different from the many other willows Josh had passed. Unlike the rich, lustrous green of the healthy swamp foliage and moss, this willow's leaves seemed faded, like an old technicolor photograph. It seemed almost silver like a memory or a dream. The other leaves and limbs in the forest danced tipsily in the pleasant breeze. Yet this willow's plethora of tendrils remained deathly still and perfectly quiet. Nary a hint of life came from it.
Ansel reached forward, thrusting his hands into the willow's weeping fronds. Josh was surprised when it did not turn to ashy dust and disintegrate. Instead, Ansel created an opening into the shadows within the willow's eerie umbrella of limbs.
He and Alice disappeared inside it.
Josh's heart hammered by then. He considered simply charging in behind them. After all, the little man was clearly no match for a fit fellow such as himself.
But, he again recalled Alice's emphatic claims that she wanted him to leave her alone. What would he do, drag her back clumsily through the woods? Certainly that wasn't the right thing to do either. Josh hoped an answer would become clear to him as he remained transfixed in his spot.
"Please, Ansel. Just go back without me!"
Josh's spine went ridged as Alice's sad voice lilted over the clearing.
"Alice," Ansel replied, his tone indicating complete frustration. "Don't be ridiculous, you know that isn't possible!"
Josh could hear her crying again. His heart broke for her.
"P… Puh… Pleeeeeaaaaasssseee Anssseeeeellll!"
From Ansel's hidden post among the willow's leaves, Josh could hear him groan. "Enough, Alice. You act like a petulant child."
She answered with another pitiful wail.
Ansel's tone softened then. "Alice," he said softly. "You know she would only come and find you. She always does obviously! And she'd be so angry…"
"Oh we mustn't anger the queen," Alice growled snidely.
Ansel sighed. "Just eat it, Alice."
"No."
"Alice, this is the exact reason why you aren't allowed out alone! Now eat it!"
"No!"
"EAT IT!" Ansel's voice thundered. Josh flinched at the surprising ferocity. After a pause, Ansel spoke again. "Good, now drink."
Seconds later, a gust of air blasted so harshly through the clearing that it knocked Josh flat on his back in the mud.
***
After another massive whoosh of wind quickly followed the first, Josh scrambled to his feet. He peered heavenward, through leaf and limb, to check the sky for the approach of a sudden storm. But it remained a blue, cloudless, perfect day.
He glanced down at himself with disgust. His boots were caked with mud. The fall had also resulted in his favorite jeans and his black t-shirt to become splattered with forest goop. He sighed with frustration then returned his attention to the peculiar tree in the clearing.
An eerie stillness had settled over the forest following the bizarre wind from nowhere. Woodland creatures fell quiet and not a bud or blossom moved anywhere. Josh stood stalk still listening for any hint of Ansel or Alice. They had not emerged from beneath the blanket of the willow's tree limbs.
After the profound silence became so intense that it pounded in Josh's head like thunder, he became overwhelmed with anxiety. He'd waited too long to decide what to do. Something was very, very wrong.
Josh burst through the small clearing crashing through the shroud of the weeping willow's limbs. Once inside the cool shadows, he stopped short, frantically looking around.
It was as though he stood in a small dark room. The floor was that of the forest and the walls were created by the drape of the willow tree. Random dusty moats of light that managed to sneak inside provided just enough light to see.
And what he saw was that Ansel and Alice had vanished without a trace.
Josh's heart pounded and his head spun dizzily. There was no way they could've come out from beneath the tree without Josh seeing or hearing them. He angrily massaged his own temples, mentally chastising himself for not charging in sooner, as he'd originally considered.
He squeezed his eyes shut, a sudden headache mounting rapidly. It was when he opened them again that a bright glint caught his attention.
His eyes were drawn to the trunk of the tree and a small brass knob. His head tilted to one side and he frowned, creeping closer.
Upon climbing directly in front of the trunk, he found it had a small door which explained the knob. He studied it for a long time, hesitant to touch it because of course, it was preposterous to find a door in a tree. On the other hand, it was also nonsense to think of anybody disappearing into thin air.
And in this case, the two ridiculous things were likely related.
So, Josh reached out with trembling hand, and opened the little door.
What he found inside only caused him more consternation. In fact, it was rather anticlimactic. He'd feared any number of horrors jumping out at him, possibly gnawing off his face. Instead, he found a small plate stacked with what appeared to be candies. A slip of paper propped on the plate said, "eat me."
Next to the plate was an assortment of small, colored glass bottles. In front of them, a slip of paper instructed, "drink me."
In no way did Josh want to eat or drink anything found in a creepy tree in the middle of a swampy forest. It seemed like a fundamentally terrible idea. Particularly since Alice had obviously ate and then drank something before apparently disintegrating.
Yet, something told Josh, if he didn't do it, he would never find her. Even if he couldn't save her, he had to at least know what became of her.
He snatched a candy and a bottle. He pulled the cork from the bottle with his teeth then spat the thing out. He took one deep, shuddering breath, then popped the candy into his mouth and washed it down with a shot of the sour juice from the bottle.
***
It was the most fearsome sensation Josh had ever known.
And considering the level of fearsome things he'd known in his life that was saying a lot. First, he felt the uncanny feeling of shrinking. As though every fiber of his being imploded in an instant. But he couldn't gage if this was true by looking at objects around him because the world as he knew it had disappeared. Everything was black. Josh was blind.
He opened his mouth to scream, but if anything came out he did not hear or feel it. But then, he felt a new terrible sensation. This time it was a feeling of growing. He felt as though his body was being savagely stretched and pulled in every direction. In a matter of mere seconds, Josh went from feeling tiny, to feeling giant.
His sight returned but all remnants of the tree and the clearing were gone. Instead there were nothing but swirling and flashing colors, and he felt as though he was spinning. Doing a succession of fast cartwheels enough to turn his stomach and confuse his mind.
The sense of shrinking returned once more; not as extreme yet terrifying none the less. All went dark once more and Josh wanted to cry. Yet it seemed he no longer had eyes a mouth or a voice with which to weep in the inky blackness.
Then, there was a splash, and a wash of cool refreshment. To his utter amazement, Josh found himself floating in a slow moving river, under a cloudy black moonlit sky.
Chapter 4
He flailed for a moment of confusion, splashing the refreshing water over himself. Kicking his feet to stay afloat, Jos
h felt his own face and investigated all of his body that he could immediately see. He no longer felt the assault of bizarre sensations nor did he appear to be either gigantic or miniscule. He appeared to have returned to normal…
Ish.
His heart rate began to slow somewhat and he allowed himself to drift onto his back in the water. He stretched out spread eagle, turning his face to the sky.
It was unlike any sky he'd ever seen in a waking moment. It contained dozens of shades and patterns of grey, black, and purple. Each section of sky was pieced together by big uneven stitches, as though sewn by a child. Wispy clouds moved slowly across a huge full moon.
And that moon peered down with dark leering eyes and a toothy black grin from where it hung in the center of the sky.
The scene he stared up at was like a dream or fanciful painting come to life.
Josh shifted again in the water and began to swim. A lush green riverbed was only a few strokes away and he hauled himself out onto the bank.
He stood and stared down at himself. Josh took a sharp shocked intake of breath and startled when he found himself instantly clean and dry. His boots and clothing were restored to crisp, clear freshness as though he'd never trampled through the swampy wood or swam in the river that flowed right behind him.
He snuck another glance up at the grinning moon, thinking nothing more could surprise him.
Josh looked up and down the river bank. It seemed to wind on forever in either direction. About thirty feet of neatly trimmed grass in front of him, a tall brick wall topped by black wrought iron spikes rose and also seemed to sprawl endlessly. Beyond the wall, Josh could just barely make out distant roof tops but mostly he could just see trees.
After another silent moment of pondering, Josh began to walk up the bank toward a gate he could see just ahead and to the right. He took slow hesitant steps at first, picking up speed as he got closer. He came upon a tall black gate with an ornate, strangely lettered iron side spanning the opening far overhead.
"Wondernever," Josh murmured, reading the sign.
The gate stood slightly ajar. Just inside, a winding footpath began, made of black and white checkers and lined on either side by thick colorful bushels of flowers. Beyond the flowers were dozens of varieties of trees rising into the strange night sky. Mist snaked out of the forest and rolled across the path.
Josh squinted and strained to see far ahead. His heart sped once again as he caught sight of Ansel and Alice hurrying down the footpath beneath the eerie moonlight, displacing puffs of mist as they glided along.
With no hesitation this time, Josh slid through the slight opening where the gate had been left open. He stepped off the path, through the flowers, and into the trees. There he raced among the gnarled roots to catch up to Alice while remaining hidden from view.
***
They came upon a crossroads at a place which, from what Josh could see from his hiding spot, appeared to lead into village. It was comprised of small colorful buildings and cottages, connected by checkered foot paths, huge flowers, and situated at the bottom of a hill. The path and the forest wandered up the hill, and Josh couldn't make out much more.
Ansel and Alice exchanged words Josh couldn't hear and then parted ways. Ansel hurried away in one direction while Alice dejectedly took the opposite. Josh took inventory of the other people traveling the strange winding sidewalks. Everyone was oddly dressed in old fashioned garments that were far more colorful than anything he recalled from history books.
But then, he supposed this place wasn't anyplace that could be found in any books.
They also all wore strange wild hairdos, many of which were ghastly unnatural colors. Some seemed in a frantic rush but with no particular destination in mind. Others ambled slowly and seemed confused. None of them looked like anyone Josh couldn't handle. He decided he'd confront Alice on the foot path before he lost sight of her. He placed his foot outside the cover of the forest.
"You there!"
Josh nearly leapt out of his skin at the sound of a musical sounding male voice. He looked in the direction of the voice squinting into the darkness. He thought he could make out a figure deeper into the woods, but he wasn't certain. He shrugged and turned back to proceed onto the path.
"You!" the voice yelled again. "Yes, I'm talking to you in the blue jeans."
Josh groaned in frustration as he watched Alice walk further away. He glanced again into the woods but again ignored the voice and moved to step forward.
There came a laugh that sounded like eight notes moving up a clef. "I wouldn't. If I were you. If I were you, I wouldn't."
Josh turned and began stomping toward the voice, deeper into the forest, temporarily abandoning his plan to chase Alice. As he approached, he was annoyed to find a young man, sitting on top of a huge neon multi colored toad stool, and smoking. And it wasn't a cigarette either. In fact, it was a tube which fastened to a colorful glass pipe which contained bubbling water in the bottom. Fragrant smoke seeped out the top, where the guy had just had his lips.
Josh had seen a hookah before. The other carnival performers sometimes shared them and he'd even known people to use them in Faraway. But drugs didn't appeal to Josh in the slightest. And he certainly had no interest in chatting with some drugged out loser in the middle of the night in the strangest forest on Earth.
"Who. Are you?" said the boy. Speaking the word "who" sent a puff of smoke into Josh's face. He grimaced disgustedly.
"Who are you?" Josh spat, mindful of his crummy attitude and not caring.
The boy narrowed his eyes. "YOU are not Emerson Heart. I am Emerson Heart."
Josh arched one eyebrow and glared at the boy. He gave an annoyed shake of the head. "Sooo, your name is Emerson Heart?"
"That's what I said isn't it?"
Josh groaned again and began to spin on his heel to walk away, but Emerson spoke again.
"What are you doing here?"
Josh paused and stared into Emerson's glassy darting eyes.
"I really have no idea," Josh said honestly. "I have no idea even where here is or how I got here. I followed my friend."
Emerson shook his head with a tsk tsk tsk. "Oh I can assure you, you have no friends here." He punctuated his last phrase with a childish giggle.
"Well, can you tell me where I am?" Josh asked nervously, this time checking his tone. Anxiety began to creep in again.
"I can tell you to keep your temper," Emerson explained as though it made perfect sense.
"Huh?"
"And of course, if you want to shrink and grown, just cast yourself in like a stone!"
"What are you TALKING about?" Josh demanded. That only provoked another titter from Emerson Heart. Josh waved him off and turned to stomp away, angry he'd allowed himself to be distracted from Alice.
"Don't say I didn't warn you!" Emerson called before taking another long gurgling drag on the hookah.
Josh cast one more angry glance over his shoulder. "Alright I won't!" he said smartly. "Because you didn’t," he added under his breath.
Josh dashed into the mist and trees.
Chapter 5
Josh attracted attention from a spattering of folks as he crawled through the trees and flowers and onto the footpath leading into Wondernever. A woman with glossy blue curls, piled messily beneath a pill box hat paused her quick, short steps to give him an alarmed look. A man in a lime green tuxedo with bright purple hair carefully styled with pomade looked at him with annoyance. The emotion on each face that noticed him ranged from confusion to outright anger. Josh found Wondernever a frustrating and unfriendly place, despite its bright clean colors and gorgeous flowers and forestry. It didn’t escape his attention that he hadn't seen a single smile.
For that reason he decided not to ask passersby about Alice. Instead, he walked along the main path looking here there and everywhere for any trace of her. It was when he passed beneath the window of a bright orange cottage with purple shutters, and a flower box in every window that
he heard her voice.
Josh stopped short and stepped back to the window. The house stood on a tall foundation of pristine white bricks so he had to crane on his toes to catch a glimpse inside. He parted a gathering of tulips and found himself looking inside a small room. Alice stood speaking with a tall, stately woman.
"I… I've so much to do today already, Cadence!" Alice said weakly. It was hard to hear her though, over the racket. The woman clutched a squirming bundle to her bosom. And that bundle omitted the worst baby cry he'd ever heard. It was a shrill squeal that pained the ears and sounded like an angry pig.
On top of the infant's awful squalling, a man in a puffy white chef's hat stood before a huge pot which was suspended in a massive fireplace. The fire blazed beneath it and the man used a giant spoon to stir vigorously while dumping alarming quantities of black powder into the pot. The powder caused the man violent fits of uproarious sneezing. Josh rolled his eye and strained to focus on Alice.
"Duchess!" exclaimed the woman who paced the small room erratically rocking the baby in her arms. Her movement was fast and jerky; he couldn't imagine her to be comforting at all. She seemed wound awfully tight. "How many times must I remind you to call me DUCHESS!"
Alice groaned. "Um, that's not your name, and you are not a duchess sooo… It's the twenty first century, is there eve such a thing as duchess anymore?"
"ALICE!" the woman shrieked. She shoved the baby toward Alice. "Take the baby!"
"No!"
Cadence shoved again. "Yes! Take it, it's your day!" she demanded captiously.
Alice giggled. "No! It's not my day! It's never my day!"
The woman shoved the baby toward Alice again, this time withdrawing her arms quickly. Alice gasped and Josh's heart nearly stopped as he watched the squirming blanket clad thing begin to fall.
But soon it fussed in Alice's arms as she snatched it out of the air. Josh breathed a sigh of relief.
The small sound drew Alice's eyes out the window where she spotted him. Her jaw dropped, but she quickly recovered her composure. To the room's other bizarre occupants he remained unnoticed what with the roaring sneezes and Cadence's obnoxious cackling.
Wonder Never (The Fairytale Diaries #2) Page 2