by MJ Caan
“That’s what I thought,” he said, answering his own question.
Neither of us said anything else until I pulled into the gravel parking area that opened onto a maze of trails heading into dense, pristine woods. There were only a handful of cars in the lot. Word of the dead body had probably spread like wildfire, and was keeping the peepers away. Only the most dedicated of hikers or the hardcore curiosity freaks were venturing up to the falls today. I glanced over at Gar as we shut the car doors.
“I’m still not sure this is a good idea,” I said. “You being here, I mean.”
“Well, I’m certainly not staying in the car,” he answered.
We headed toward the main pass that would take us up to the falls. They were about an hour and a half hike away, and I was worried about the daylight.
“Not that one,” Gar said, referencing the path. “The west passage opens up where they found the body.” He pointed to a break in the shrubbery opposite from where I was headed.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Because that’s where all the action was happening when I came by yesterday. It’s also where your new friend the cop was, along with some of the paramedics.”
I ignored his grin and refused to give him the satisfaction of a reply.
“Plus, it’s a quicker route to the falls. Unless, of course, you want to be up there when it starts getting dark…” His tone became a lot more serious, and as much as I wanted to, I knew arguing his point was useless. I shrugged, and we headed for the west passage together.
We passed the sign marking the beginning of the trail that stated the west passage was the most difficult route, and was for experienced hikers only. We had both made the hike countless times, so we weren’t deterred by the warning.
Once we were on the path, we were immediately greeted with the changing light diffused through the forest canopy intertwined high above our heads, reducing visibility. Five minutes into the hike, and the only sounds we heard came from the frogs, a few chirping birds, and the restless creaking of tree branches shifting around us. The western-facing path took a very steep, vertical ascent up the mountainside. Whereas the other passes offered a more circular and scenic route, this one was the straight line from Point A, the lot, to Point B, the falls.
We made our way up the trail, careful of the footing and using the outgrowth of tangled vines and tree roots that sprouted from the sides of the mountain for handholds. I looked back at Gar to make sure he was doing all right. Not that I should have worried; he was in excellent physical shape. He was one of the co-captains of the cross country track team, and this was probably little more than a light practice day for him. I wished it were that easy for me. A half hour into the march and I was starting to huff. Serves me right for never doing anything strenuous, I thought. The climb was steeper than I remembered, but the good news was that it would also shave about a half hour off the time it would take to reach the base of the falls. I stopped to catch my breath at a small break on the trail, and waited for Gar to lumber up beside me.
“I’m sorry,” I said between gulps of air.
“For…?” He seemed genuinely perplexed.
“For saying that I would tell our aunts about your internet searches.”
He immediately glanced away, a small blush creeping across his features. He mumbled something I didn’t catch, as he struggled to find something, anything else, to talk about.
“I would never say something out of place,” I added, grabbing him by the elbow to make him face me. “It’s no one’s business but your own.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, running a nervous hand through his damp hair. “I mean, yeah, I might have looked up some things as a joke…but that’s it.”
I could tell he was becoming too uncomfortable and decided to drop the matter. I changed the subject as we continued our hike.
“Okay,” I said, “so ask me.”
“Ask you what?”
“Whatever you want. We’ve always had each other to rely on. That shouldn’t change now just because everything around us is getting weird. Our aunts might keep us in the dark, but we sure as shit shouldn’t do the same to each other.”
He didn’t hesitate. “Are you practicing magic spells that you learned online?”
“Sort of. I’ve met some people in chat rooms that seem to know a thing or two about magic. Real magic. They’re helping me and guiding me toward some resources.”
“So you and our aunts aren’t the kind of witches I see on reality shows? The type that talk about spirituality and nature and all that BS, right?”
“No. We are the real thing. At least as far as I can tell.”
“Can you ride a broom?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Gar,” I said pausing to catch my breath.
“Well I don’t know. I have no idea what a ‘real’ witch is or what one can do.”
We climbed a bit farther before he spoke again. “So...what can you do?”
“Little things come easy to me. Kind of in an innate way. Like, I can levitate small objects and move things around with my mind.”
“TK? That’s cool.”
“TK?”
“Yeah, telekinesis. But not sure that would be considered magic.”
“Okay, how about this?” I stopped walking and held out my hand, palm up. Concentrating, I breathed out a quick incantation and then added a single word: “Light!” A glowing sphere of blue light, about the size of a basketball, materialized in the air, hovering above my hand.
“Now, that’s cool,” said Gar, reaching out to touch the orb. Before I could stop him, the silence around us was broken by the sudden sound of snapping branches to my left. It was so loud that we both looked towards it, and the orb I created fizzled and dissolved with the lapse in my concentration.
“What was that?” asked Gar. He looked around, then back at me, his eyes wide. “And why is it that it suddenly seems too quiet?”
I realized he was right. Every ambient sound of the forest had gone silent. No chirping, no frogs; even the wind seemed to have died.
“It’s the woods,” I said. “Life just kind of settles down every now and then.” I started moving again, and this time Gar hurried to match me step for step.
“Oh really? I mean, don’t you think it’s weird that everything is all fine and good until you called up your little glowing ball thingy, and then, poof, everything goes quiet. What was that anyway? What does it do? Oh, and what was in the woods? Do you think whatever you just did attracted it?”
I didn’t answer as I picked up the pace. Even though I know he didn’t mean to scare me, his words gave me a cold chill that ran down my back and drenched me in sweat.
“We need to hurry up,” I said. “I want to get there and back before it gets dark.” Now I was giving myself a chill. “How much farther until we reach the falls?”
“We should be coming to a clearing, and then the falls are on the other side of that. Everyone was saying that the body was found against the rocks at the very base, where the swimming hole meets the cliff.”
In the silence, I realized that we could indeed hear the hum of the falls. We were close. Good; the quicker I did this, the better. We broke into the clearing, and I was more than a little grateful for the sunlight that was suddenly streaming down on us. Even though the sun was beginning to dip in the sky, it did a world of good for my courage. We crossed the small field quickly, and headed for the wooded section ahead of us —this would open up to a natural swimming hole created by the falls cascading down the rocks.
No matter how many times I saw the falls, the sheer beauty of the formation always overwhelmed me. Out of the pool, the rocks rose in a staccato formation roughly one hundred feet into the sky. The water that flowed from the top crashed downward, hitting the jutting rocks at various angles while refracting the setting sun, splitting the light into a million phantom rainbows. The hum from the falls vibrated like someone running a wet finger lightly around the rim of a
fine crystal glass. It was hypnotic and deadly at the same time. Many young, vacationing lovebirds had fallen to their doom trying to climb the slick rocks to the apex.
We started to make our way around the pool to the base of the falls. The rocks there were slippery, and the cool spray of mist soaked my hair and clothes. I looked back at Gar to make sure he was still behind me.
“It has to be in this area,” I said, pointing to a flattened stretch of rocks that ran beneath and behind the falls. It was a great spot for selfies, and I had to admit I’d taken more than my fair share of them there over the years.
We reached an area of rock that had circles of various diameters spray-painted in white along its surface. That had to be where the body was found. Unlike on television shows, I knew they didn’t do chalk outlines of bodies in their death poses. I briefly wondered if they had ever really done that, then shook the morbid picture from my mind.
“What are you going to do?” asked Gar.
I took a deep breath and turned to face him.
“You know that thing that attacked me in the shop?”
“You mean the zombie?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “How do you know that?”
“I heard you discussing it with our aunts. So was it a zombie?”
“I think so. Anyway, earlier I tried a spell that would locate the source of the magic that created the zombie. It was working, but I was interrupted before I could complete it. I’m going to try something similar here: a revelation spell. Hopefully it will show me what really happened.”
I tried to manage a reassuring smile, but I’m pretty sure it came out as the facial equivalent of a shoulder shrug and a glance toward the heavens for strength. I could feel that he really wanted to ask me if I knew what I was doing, and since I didn’t want to lie to him, I said nothing. Instead, I set my resolve and turned my back, letting him know that now was not the time for any discussions.
Okay, Allie, what exactly are you planning here? I thought.
The tracking spell was based on an incantation meant to unearth that which was hidden. By all rights, that spell shared all the basics with a revelation spell; it was a matter of removing impurities to let the truth shine through. Or so I had read. I reached inward, willing my magic to bubble to the surface to do my bidding.
“Well,” said Gar, “as creepy as that sounds, I’m kind of stoked to see what you can do.”
“As am I,” came a third voice across the opening.
We both whirled around to face two men standing on the opposite side of the water hole. The first was slight of build, dressed in black on black, jeans and a tee shirt. His hair was buzz-cut, so short that he was almost bald. His bright eyes seemed to sparkle in the fading sun, but I was pretty sure that had to be a trick of the light dancing off the water.
The man standing beside him was mountainous in comparison. He had to be at least six and a half feet, and was built like a tank. Muscle rippled on every inch of his exposed flesh. And when I say “exposed,” I mean exposed. He was naked, except for a leather collar around his neck. Attached to the collar was a chain leash that was gripped tightly by the man in black. The naked man was breathing hard, his body covered in dark, wiry hair, and he seemed to be sweating profusely. Needless to say, I was struck speechless by the sight.
“Who the fuck are you?” said Gar, sounding far more confident than I was.
“Who I am is not important. But you,” the smaller man said to me, “are the one whose magic I felt sing out in the woods just a bit ago. I wondered at the source of it, and now I see. Good to see witches returning to the area; it’s been so long since I’ve gotten to do this.” His smile widened into a frightening rictus.
“What are you talking about?” I stammered, moving protectively in front of my brother.
His smile disappeared as he reached a single hand up to the fastener on the chain, and unclipped it from the larger, much more naked man’s collar.
“Kill,” he said calmly.
The larger man’s demeanor changed instantly. There was a low, menacing grumble that quickly became a rumbling growl that reached Gar and me across the water. The man opened his mouth to reveal very large, very pointed teeth that began to descend from his cracking jawline. I watched in horror as he started to shape-shift, and suddenly he was charging at us across the rocky lip that surrounded the water.
8
“Gar! Run!” I screamed, as I turned and made a mad dash toward my brother.
Luckily, this was the one time Gar didn’t argue or offer some sort of smart-ass retort. Instead, he turned on his heel and ran in the direction I was headed. We ran along the opposite side of the water as the Shifter did, trying to make for one of the trails before it caught us. I chanced a glance to the side to see where the creature was. The giant of a man had finished his Shift, and I was terrified to see a gigantic black bear loping along the water’s edge, already gaining ground on us.
Adrenaline fueled by fear kicked in. Shock of watching a man transform into a creature wore off as we hit one of the trails. I could feel the ground tremble beneath us as the bear began to close in on us. Gar ran off the trail, and I followed, hoping the densely packed woods might slow the beast down. The low-hanging branches scratched and grabbed at my face, but I barely noticed as we barreled ahead. I wasn’t about to look behind me, but the huffing of the bear and the shaking of the ground told me it was gaining on us. We leapt over a downed tree and scampered into a thick cluster of smaller saplings, zigzagging through the grove. I could hear the bear roar, followed by the sound of smashing trees and logs. It wasn’t running around trees like Gar and I were, but right through them.
Fuck! I didn’t wake up this morning planning to die, and I sure as shit didn’t plan on dying by being ripped apart by a supernatural. It was clear we weren’t going to outrun the beast. My lungs were burning and my legs weren’t far behind. I knew I wasn’t going to make. However, maybe, just maybe, I could give Gar a chance.
I took one last look at the fleeing back of my little brother and then turned to face the bear.
I gasped when I realized just how close it was. It was covering the last few yards between us at an impossible pace. It slobbered and roared as it stretched out a massive paw with razor-sharp claws toward me.
“Shield!” I screamed, holding both arms out before me. It was instinctive, and I wasn’t exactly sure what would happen, but I could feel my magic rushing up; I prayed it would at least buy Gar enough time to get away.
I felt a strange, humming sensation coming from behind my belly button and a sudden pressure behind my eyes. Then, my hands began to glow and the air in front of me shimmered blue. The bear was too close and coming in too fast to avoid my shield, and it crashed into it head-first. The impact knocked us in opposite directions.
I hadn’t been prepared for the hit, didn’t have the slightest clue what would happen. My shield blazed, flaring brightly when the bear struck. It felt like I had been hit as well. I had been knocked off my feet and hurled backward about ten feet, but the bear was even more worse for wear. It had been repelled up and back, landing in an giant heap on its side shaking the earth.
I was dazed, and my ears were ringing from crashing to the ground. I felt Gar’s hand on my shoulder, shaking me. Goddamnit, why hadn’t he kept running?
I rolled to a crouch, motioning for Gar to keep running, but he kept tugging at my arm; he wasn’t going anywhere without me. I looked over at the bear, and saw it was beginning to lumber to its feet as well. Eyes that were dark and brimming with hatred and hunger raked over me as it pawed the dirt, preparing to charge. I threw my hands out again, this time using my telekinesis to grab a couple of small boulders that were lying to either side of the bear. I lifted them into the air and willed my magic to flow into them. I had never done this before without touching the object, and had never dreamed of mystically charging something so big, but fear was proving to be an excellent catalyst. The large stones glowed blue in response, an
d slammed into both sides of the bear’s large head. It howled in pain, but it shook off the blow and prepared to charge once again.
My arms felt like they were moving through quicksand. Whatever magic I had managed to call on was most likely all I had left — definitely shot my wad. My pounding head refused to let me concentrate enough to even try forming another shield.
The bear lunged at us, and I could smell the fetid rot of its breath as those massive jaws opened wide to clamp down on us.
“Get down!” I heard, as something rushed past Gar and me to stand in front of the charging animal. Just as the bear was about to make contact, a boom cut through the air, so loud it drowned out the massive creature’s roar.
Officer Cody Hunter had dropped to one knee in front of us with a shotgun braced against his shoulder. He fired point blank into the bear’s gaping mouth. The explosion stopped the monster dead in its tracks, but momentum carried it forward, crashing him on top of Cody.
I screamed as Gar and I rushed to Cody’s aid. He was dazed, lying on his back with the bear’s massive, bleeding head sprawled across his torso. The bear was so big that I wasn’t sure Gar and I would be able to pull the officer out from under it. It took what felt like several minutes, but we managed to get him free and helped him to his feet. He was winded, but had the presence of mind to retrieve his shotgun from a few feet away where he had tossed it.
“You two okay?” he asked, his breath coming in short gasps.
“Thanks to you,” said Gar.
“Where…how…how did you find us?” I asked, confused.
“I slipped your little brother my card the night of your break in when I realized who he was. He texted me that you guys were on your way up here,” he replied. “I had a feeling you might need some company.”
Before I could cast a scolding glance in Gar’s direction, my vision was filled with the incredible large form of the black bear rising onto its hind legs.
“Look out!” I screamed too late, as it swept one gigantic paw through the air. A red mist spewed into the air behind Cody as the claws shredded through his shirt and skin. His body arched and he dropped his gun, and his eyes were comically wide as he slowly fell to the ground. His back looked like ground hamburger meat with dollops of mayo dropped throughout.