Mere Phantasy

by Ashley Lauren

  “Shh,” they warned. “Stay absolutely still.”

  “Zane?” I shook my head free of his dirty mitts, struggling against him. “What are you doing?”

  “I said shut up,” he whisper snapped, careening his head around the tree trunk we were hidden behind to see something I hadn’t through the brush.

  My sense of hearing took over for my lack of sight, zeroing in on the baby’s cries. And I realized, with a lump in my throat, that something about the sound didn’t seem right. Something about it sounded… off.

  “It’s a La Lechusa,” Zane hissed near my ear, grip still tight on me. I wasn’t fighting him anymore. His breath was sticky on my neck. “It can mimic a baby’s cries to lure in prey.”

  I tried to swallow my fear, panting. “Does it like to eat people?”

  “Anyone smaller than her, like mice in comparison. People are great food.” He shrugged. “She must be pretty smart, since she’s half owl and all.” He turned back to look down at me over the tip of his pointed nose. “And a lot smarter than you, apparently.”

  Narrowing my eyes at him, I didn’t reply as we waited to see if the baby’s cries would move along. Still, his hold on me didn’t falter as we breathed, pressed close against a tree and hidden by bushes. A stick jabbed into my side. Or at least, that was what I was trying to focus on while Zane and I were so close in proximity.

  When the sound wasn’t audible anymore and I was sweating like a sinner in church, Zane finally let out a chuckle. It vibrated against my back. “I mean, I’m flattered and all, but I don’t really want to lie here all night with you on top of me.”

  Blushing, I pushed myself up as quickly as I could, shoving aside brambles to get out of our hiding spot. Thankfully, the sun had dipped below the sea, and Zane couldn’t see my embarrassment, getting up and brushing himself off as I peeked around the tree we’d been pressed up against.

  “Do you think she’s gone?” I asked, body trembling from adrenaline.

  Zane rubbed his neck with a grimace and nodded. “Think so.” As I was about to say something, he raised his hand to stop me. “Don’t. Just say thank you and we’ll move on.”

  Shivering at the cold now grabbing at my skin, I let out a shaky breath and hugged my arms around myself. “Thanks,” I said blandly.

  A cheeky smile flashed my way. “You could also just admit how heroic and wonderful I am, if we’re being honest right now.”

  “Don’t push your luck,” I warned and shook again from the dropping temperature. “Can you lead me home now?”

  There was a slight pause before Zane shook his head. “Nah. I got better plans.”

  I turned after him as he stepped past me. “Like what? It’s freezing. I don’t want to go anywhere but somewhere warm. I’m also starving,” I whined.

  Zane didn’t turn around, walking away from me confidently. “No questions. Just walking,” he threw over his shoulder before stepping onto a log, only to hop right back off again. He was getting farther and farther away.

  Gazing around in apprehension, I had no choice but to follow him. The owl-lady could still be lurking around, ready to haul me off to her nest and rip me open like any other rodent out there. So I trudged after Zane begrudgingly, with a hurried, “W-wait up!”

  It was a lot harder to navigate the Neverforest when it was dark outside. I kept ungracefully almost falling flat on my face after tripping on roots or low-hanging branches we encountered along the way. As for Zane, he appeared to know everything that was coming without actually seeing anything. I wondered, as I stumbled over another sharp rock, if he had this place memorized. It was almost inhuman how cool and collected he traveled, whistling jollily the whole way.

  “Zane. My feet are killing me.”

  Ignoring me, Zane stopped walking to crouch low to the dirt suddenly. As a result, my knees jabbed into him, and I used his head as a steadying base so I didn’t fall, letting out an unflattering, “Oomph.”

  “Get off.” He elbowed me lightly, but his voice wasn’t annoyed. Instead, he was staring down through a small enclave in the dark. When I was squatting next to him, he grabbed my arm to steady me and bring me close to where his nose was pointing. “Look, right between the rocks down there.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “You brought me all this way to look at some rocks?”

  He pushed my chin in the direction he wanted me to see. “Just look.”

  My eyes flickered over the light, the only source of it here besides the full moon. It was far away, obscured by foliage and tree branches, and wherever we were looked down on it. I shifted my feet to get closer, and Zane grabbed my arm quickly.

  “I don’t really feel like grabbing you off another cliff, if you don’t mind, princess,” he said softly. When I looked back toward the light, I realized he was right. We were on another cliff.

  “How’d we even get up here?” I asked, craning my neck to see him.

  He shushed me. “Just keep looking.”

  It was hard to pay attention to anything other than his grip on my arm, but I still found myself doing what he asked of me.

  When my eyes finally adjusted, I thought I saw something flash over the light for a second. And then it happened again. One more time. Then it was like a strobe light twinkling through the dark of the forest.

  “What is it?” I whispered like we were hiding again.

  He was quieter, too. “Something… amazing,” he breathed. When I looked back at him, the reflection of the dancing light was in the dark of his eyes. Nice eyes, almond shaped with his brow set above them so he seemed more mysterious. Even in the minimal lighting, I could see his eyelashes framing the rich and playful shine to his shadowy irises.

  “Didn’t your mother ever tell you it was rude to stare?” he startled me by asking. I felt my cheeks get hot.

  “You just seem…” I had to cover it up. “Happy. I don’t think I’ve seen you like that befo—”

  He cut me off, staring back at the happenings over the edge of the cliff again, a wisp of his messy hair slipping from his forehead in the wind. “During the night, you find the stars, right? You can’t help it. They’re the only thing that matter amidst the darkness and the only things keeping it from swallowing you whole. Without them, I can’t help but imagine a desolate world with no hope. No hope means there’s no point in living. So you have to have them if you want to keep going. This place…” He inhaled deeply, eyelids fluttering as he leaned back into a slanted tree trunk. “This is one of my stars.”

  Half the things Zane said made no sense to me; there was no logic behind the words. At least for me, with my very limited imagination when it came to these sorts of things. But of course, it got me to thinking. Whatever this light was, which I still couldn’t tell, it gave Zane a fool’s paradise to lean on and have faith in. What, or who, did I have as my own star?

  A sense of dread touched my chest. I couldn’t even think of any.

  “Here.” Zane got up slowly and offered to help me stand as well. “Since you obviously are blind, let’s get closer.”

  “Should we?” I asked uneasily. Whatever we were going after, Zane seemed almost like a different person when it was brought up.

  He stopped walking and sighed. “Are you scared, Lacey? Does adventure scare you?”

  I glared through the darkness, doubting he could see me, though. “Of course not.” A lie.

  In reality, I was a big scaredy-cat, and things like this wigged me out. And really, I had every right to be scared. There were man-eating monsters and murderers all throughout this forest who had nothing better to do than hunt me down, thanks to the darkness reigning over them. But even back home, I never was that adventurous. No friends to sneak out with, party with, just go do things regular teenagers did. I stayed inside, wrapped up in my own thoughts, sometimes snuck out to paint chaotic mosaics in public places, and stared longingly at my computer screen for the wonderful things that came from it. The adventures others were taking, while I stayed behind.

>   But as I stared at his outstretched hand, I realized here, wherever exactly “here” was, I didn’t have to be that same person. Here, opportunity was slapping me in the face, and though I was hesitant, I really wanted to take it by the hand.

  So I did.

  “No, I’m just freaking freezing,” I mumbled, skin so cold it felt numb at this point.

  Zane flashed me a grin before beginning to lead me along the rim of the cliff. “You won’t be cold much longer. Trust me.”

  “This your star?” Zane flapped his hand at my judgment. “Oh, shush. It hasn’t even started yet.”

  “What exactly are we waiting for?” I peered around him to see his face.

  He glanced at me from the corner of his eye. “You are the most impatient person in the world.”

  “We’ve been out here for a good hour, in the cold.”

  “There’s literally a fire ten feet in front of you.”

  “It’s still freezing!”

  “You complain too much.”

  “Zane.”

  “Lacey.”

  By this point, I was pretty much over this. The sense of adventure I’d felt? Definitely gone when we came down the cliff only to find a large bonfire was what we’d been looking at. It was at least ten feet tall, stacked like a teepee and ablaze with crackling flames, similar to the one back at Robin’s campsite. What was it with Zane and fires? Was he some sort of pyro or something?

  Before I could ask, though, a loud trumpet of sound echoed through the air, startling me to jump back and get closer to Zane. His arms were folded proudly over his chest as he rested against a tree lining the moor where the fire was centered, pale skin seeming warm now that the fire’s light was burning against it.

  “It’s starting,” he whispered, and I found myself following his gaze again.

  Gradually, I noticed the tips of the flames were turning different colors. Pinks, purples, blues. Even green and reds, sparking into the atmosphere like it was perfectly normal for a fire to be colored like the rainbow.

  When I blinked back to Zane, his sparkling eyes flicked to every part of the area in front of us. Was he seeing something I wasn’t? Looking back, I just saw the strange but also completely wonderful flames that cast different hues onto my boots’ shine. He was definitely observing things I wasn’t.

  “What are you seeing?” I hissed at him.

  Zane, never taking his eyes off the space before us, leaned over near my ear and murmured, “You won’t see it unless you want to.”

  My lip curled at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  His smirk returned to his face as he repeated, “You won’t see unless you want to.”

  “Are you possessed?”

  “Try and focus on your faith, Lacey.” Zane glanced my way. “Try and imagine what you’re seeing. I know you have a creative mind. And that’s something you can use here in Neverland. Believing is seeing, and believing in the unseen is how you see it.”

  It was a very judgmental stare I gave him, but he’d moved on, too engulfed in the happenings that were hidden from me. What was he trying to say to me? If I couldn’t see something, why should I believe it was there? There was no direct proof, nothing to show for its existence, whatever it was, and if I couldn’t see it, it wasn’t logically real to me.

  Believing is seeing.

  There had to be something there, something beyond what my brain could fathom or understand at the moment. Zane was seeing it, and though he could easily be a psychopath or on drugs, I felt myself leaning more toward the idea that Zane wasn’t actually lying.

  Some power, some force, was beyond what I could physically see right now.

  And I wanted to experience it.

  Like an idiot, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in. When I looked again, expecting to see all the things Zane was watching, I was disappointed once again.

  “This isn’t working,” I grumbled.

  Unexpectedly, Zane moved behind me and wrapped his arms around me. “You can feel this, right?” he breathed.

  My heartrate zipped up to a hundred and fifty beats per second, a blush covering my cold skin from the brush of his jacket. I couldn’t find words, too jumbled up in my awkwardness and discomfort. It wasn’t that it was unpleasant; it’s just that I wasn’t… normal. Normal girls like me didn’t get the pretty boys who talked about the stars and the heavens like he’d run his fingers through them himself. We didn’t get to feel this boy’s heartbeat against our backs and the tickle of his hair on our necks. Our ordinary eyes didn’t get to take in the exuberant almond color of this boy’s thoughtful ones or the feverous attention of his mind. Girls like me, we were the unlucky ones.

  So this seemed so unreal to me.

  He continued without my answer, though. “This is obviously real. But if I pull away…” He did so, all warmth sucked away suddenly, leaving me feeling breathless. “There’s still the lingering awareness that the touch is still there.” Zane’s voice was low, warm, like honey. “Focus on that, Lace. Focus on the little bit of sense that feeling leaves you after it’s actually gone.”

  Listening to him felt calming, and I noticed how alluring his words were. And he was right. I could still feel the little sensitivity left over on my skin, telling me something had just been there; it’s presence had been real. I brought all my attention toward it, closing my eyes again and taking a deep breath.

  Zane sounded far off as he said, “Belief is something that was once there but is absent now. You just have to find it again.” A deep laugh left him. I felt him watching me now. “Kind of like lost car keys. You can’t live without them, but we always misplace them or forget where we left them. So you have to turn back, retrace your steps, and go find them.”

  I smiled. “Kind of like lost car keys.”

  When I opened my eyes, it all snapped into my vision.

  Yes, the fire from before was still there. But there was so much more surrounding it now. Figures, translucent and colorful, slinked around the fire in twirling swirls of beauty. They were mostly woman-like, curvy and loose, with tendrils of hair flowing around them. They seemed more like auras than actual people, dancing around the flames, both together and separately. Glittering music filled my ears as their ballet continued. Their magnificent dresses of flowers, bark, and other natural earth textures draped over their almost nonexistent bodies. But there they were. As real as ever.

  “See what I mean?” Zane spoke.

  “What is this?” I stepped forward to investigate further, but Zane caught my arm to hold me back gently.

  “Forest nymph ceremony.” His eyes looked worried. “But don’t get too close, Lacey.”

  “They’re… beautiful.” I shook my head.

  “They can also be savage,” he warned, but I was so dazzled by the swift ribbon-like motions of their steps. I just wanted to get closer to them.

  Zane stumbled to try and catch me again. “Lacey!”

  But I was already approaching them quickly, taking in every flash of their florescent light and elegant dips as they moved. The fire’s flame in their center blazed at least ten feet higher than before; the colors ten times brighter. The music they flashed in sync with roared like the fire in my ears, overtaking all my senses. So I couldn’t help but move forward toward them.

  Too late, I realized how stupid of a mistake I’d made.

  When the music cut off, the flames shot into the sky, blasting a wave of heat into my body and sending me flying back into the dirt on my back. I coughed, wincing at the pain and loss of breath, and I didn’t see them. I didn’t know they were coming after me with gruesome teeth and gargling mouths until one was in my face, screeching a piercing sound of delight.

  Out of instinct, my foot shot up to kick the thing off me. Surprisingly enough, its body felt slick and fleshy compared to its original appearance.

  It screamed as I punted it away, rolling to try and push myself up and off my stomach. But just as soon as I was up, another one caught my ankl
e and began to drag me toward the flame viscously. I clawed at the dirt around me, trying to jerk away from its hold, but its claws dug into my skin, hard enough to make me cry out in pain.

  “Zane! A little help would be appreciated!” I growled as I finally got my foot free from the second nymph and kicked it square in the face with the sole of my boot.

  Army crawling now, my only goal amidst my rapid breathing and throbbing adrenaline was to get away. The nymphs hadn’t attacked me until I crossed too close to their beloved ceremony, so maybe if I could get far enough away, they’d back off.

  I was about three inches from pulling myself into the foliage along the moor’s edge when more claws ripped at my back and yanked, forcing me to crash into three of their bodies as they squealed. I tried to fight, elbowing and struggling against them, but one jumped onto my shoulder and started to weigh me down. My shaking legs began to give out, and I blinked around desperately to see if I could find Zane.

  “Zane!” I yelped, but an earsplitting sound drowned out my cry.

  The weight on me fell off with the blast, allowing me to look up through ruffled hair to see Zane positioned a few feet from me. In his hands, he held an old-fashion and smoking pistol that was poised right at me and the nymphs trying to bite into my neck, where a very inactivated locket had yet to help me.

  The other two nymphs holding on to me shrieked again, releasing my jacket and running off at the sight of their now dead friend. The bullet had barely missed my temple, where the nasty thing had tried to bite my face.

  Getting to my feet, I let out an angry yell and kicked its gargling body, stumbling back and pulling up my shirt sleeve that’d fallen off my shoulder. I panted in fear, glancing over at Zane with wide eyes.

  “That was your idea of believing?” I let out a shaky breath, trying to regain my composure. What the heck were those things? Nymphs, yes, but none I’d ever seen or heard of before. Not that I knew much about any creatures here really. But still.

  Zane’s jaw clenched as he brought the gun down to face the ground and turned on the safety. “I never said believing was easy, Lacey.” He stepped forward and crouched next to the bleeding nymph he’d shot.