Ms. Abagail stomped her foot. “I don’t know! I fell asleep too, and when I woke up…”
Wyatt leaned against the dirt wall to steady himself. This can’t be happening.
“I can’t lose her. I can’t lose her!” Wyatt screamed into the dirt, punching it for good measure.
He felt Ms. Abagail touch his shoulder, and he whirled, slapping her hand aside. He glared at her. “We have to find her.”
Ms. Abagail nodded.
Wyatt turned his attention skyward, cupped his hands around his mouth, but didn’t yell. The metal grate that had sealed them in the night before was gone. Nothing covered their prison pit. And beyond, where there had once been open sky, was now the dense canopy of a forest.
“Oh no,” he whispered.
Ms. Abagail must have seen the same thing, for at the same moment, she cursed.
“I don’t think Lucy went anywhere,” Wyatt said, still staring at what he didn’t dare believe was there.
“Then that means…”
Wyatt nodded and looked back at Ms. Abagail. “We’re the ones that went…somewhere.”
Ms. Abagail clasped a hand over her mouth. “Is this…”
“Lucy must be dreaming…it’s how she first used her power, long before I even met her. Remember on the roof? I thought that if we could get Lucy to dream, she could… I don’t think she can control it very well in her dreams. Dreams are funny like that.”
“So, where are we? And why isn’t Lucy here?”
“I don’t know,” Wyatt said as he turned to the dirt wall and dug a hand into the cool soil. “But we need to get out of here and figure it out so we can…get out of here.”
Wyatt reached up and created a second handhold. The dirt was hard-packed, and he held no illusion that it could hold him, but he had to try. And it was better than thinking about the fact that without Lucy with them Wyatt didn’t know how they could possibly get out of…wherever they were. Wyatt no longer possessed even an ounce of power, and that limitation continued to haunt him.
“All right,” Ms. Abagail said.
Wyatt felt her grab his lower body and help boost him upward. He kicked into the dirt, thankful he had put on boots that morning in Sanctuary, and began to climb. The surface was no more than a dozen feet overhead, but it felt like a thousand.
Wyatt hugged the dirt as tightly as possible, but soon outstripped Ms. Abagail’s reach. As soon as he felt her fingers drop away, he froze.
“You can do it, Wyatt,” Ms. Abagail said, moving to the side, into Wyatt’s view.
He didn’t dare nod and hardly dared to speak, so he whispered, “You’ll catch me when I fall, yeah?”
Ms. Abagail smiled. “You won’t fall.” She turned and began her own ascent, securing two handholds and leaving the floor with more ease than Wyatt was capable of. In a matter of seconds, she was even with Wyatt. She jerked her chin upward. “You’re not going to let me beat you to the top, are you?”
Wyatt scowled and set to doing just that.
He nearly fell a number of times, but managed to reach the surface, though long after Ms. Abagail had. He rolled away from the hole, covered in dirt and thoroughly winded. His muscles alternated between twitching and seizing up.
Ms. Abagail knelt next to him. “Well, that wasn’t so bad,” she said, looking around. “I don’t see anything. Just woods.”
Wyatt sat up and saw she was right—trees stretched as far he could see in all directions. The air was cool, but not cold, and smelled sweetly of autumn.
“I think I’ve been here before…” he said slowly as he racked his mind to recall what had prompted the thought. Something about the way the air smelled and the color of the trees sparked a memory. No, not a memory…a memory of a memory… “Oh no.”
“You know I don’t like it when you say that,” Ms. Abagail said. She grabbed his hand and hauled him upright.
“Lucy and I were here before. Back at Sanctuary. We thought it was a dream at first.”
“Well, you did say this was because of Lucy dreaming,” Ms. Abagail said.
“I know, but this isn’t a dream. That’s not how her power works. It’s a memory. I told you all this before.”
Ms. Abagail nodded slowly, clearly trying to process the idea. “Right…oh, shit. So, this isn’t either of our memories, is it?”
Somewhere in the distance, Wyatt could hear the snapping of branches and the rustling of leaves. Then a small smudge of movement appeared, darting between trunks and barreling through the undergrowth.
“No,” Wyatt said as he began to run toward the distant shape. “It’s Athena’s.”
* * *
No matter how fast he ran, Wyatt couldn’t catch up to the shape darting among the trees. It came and went as fast as he could blink, appearing in one spot only to flash in another and vanish again in the next blink.
Ms. Abagail kept pace with Wyatt as he cut a haphazard path through the forest, darting off in a new direction each time he thought he caught a glimpse of the figure.
“Wyatt, slow down,” Ms. Abagail said. “What are you even chasing?”
Wyatt shot a quick glance at her. She didn’t even look out of breath, but Wyatt felt haggard in more ways than one. “It’s Athena. I think. It was the first time.” He turned his attention back to the forest, focusing on the task at hand. He couldn’t think on the possibility of being trapped in a memory without Lucy to pull them out. He had to direct his energy on something more tangible. His mind couldn’t tackle the abstract notion of traveling through memories, dreams, or even the Realms. He needed something concrete to ground him. And if he could find Athena—any version of her—and help her…maybe that would be enough.
“There!” Wyatt shouted, peeling away from Ms. Abagail.
He had seen it for just a moment, but it had looked closer, more refined. He was certain it was the shape of a person. A small girl, perhaps? Wyatt rounded a particularly wide tree and slid to a stop. The forest had abruptly ended, or Wyatt hadn’t noticed the trees thinning. Either way, he stood at its border, looking out across an asphalt street and a row of storefronts. The ground trembled for a moment, just enough to let Wyatt know something had changed.
“Holy crap,” Ms. Abagail said.
There were dozens of people milling about the sidewalk and parking lot on the other side of the street. His eyes darted about, hoping to see some version of Athena. Or anything recognizable.
“Well, whatever this is,” Ms. Abagail said. “I know where we are.”
“You do?” Wyatt asked in disbelief. There was something familiar about the scene, but he couldn’t quite place it. It was as if he were looking at a reflection on the surface of rippling water, the image never lasting long enough to accurately see.
Ms. Abagail jabbed a finger at the large store in the center of the strip mall. “I used to work there,” she said. “For a bit after high school. M and G Toys.”
“I feel like I’ve been here before…”
“You still think this is Athena’s memory? Maybe it’s another one of mine.”
Wyatt shook his head. “We already faced your memories. And besides, you can remember this.”
“Well, I could remember my mom too, but that didn’t stop us from ending up there.”
Wyatt didn’t respond. He knew she had him pinned. It could very well be her memory. For all Wyatt knew, they could be back on Earth in present day—no memory at all. But that didn’t explain what he had chased through the forest to arrive at their current position. Or how quickly the forest had ended. He thought he heard the distant rumble of thunder. And he couldn’t tear his eyes off the store Ms. Abagail had indicated.
Without a word, Wyatt approached the street and continued across, not bothering to look for traffic. There was something just beyond the glass of M and G Toys that called to him. Just as the strange lamppost outside Ms. Abagail’s house had subverted a piece of his free will, the store, too, commanded him forward. He was too far away to tell what could possibly be there, but
some deeper part of his mind saw what his eyes could not. Is this my memory? he wondered. No, it can’t be. It has to be Ms. Abagail’s.
“Wyatt!” Ms. Abagail shouted, grabbing his arm and yanking him forcefully back, just short of the double yellow line in the street.
A minivan nearly brushed his nose as it zipped past Wyatt, horn blaring. It was enough to shock him from his stupor, but not enough to halt his jaunt across the street. However, he used far more urgency to get across.
“Dammit, Wyatt,” Ms. Abagail said, still clutching him at the elbow. “Even if this is a memory, or whatever, I don’t think getting hit by a car is a good idea.”
Wyatt pulled his arm from her grasp and pointed at the toy store. “I’ve been there before,” he said, and though he knew the words to be true, he didn’t understand how or why.
“And that helps us how?” Ms. Abagail said as they entered the crowded parking lot. The air was cold and snappy, cutting like frozen razors, but the sun was warm, leaving his body conflicted.
“No idea,” Wyatt admitted. “Call it a gut feeling.”
Just ahead of them, a young woman was loading bags into the back of a sedan. Ms. Abagail skipped ahead of Wyatt and approached the woman. “Excuse me,” she said. “This is going to sound crazy…” The woman loaded the last bag and slammed the trunk shut. She spun around just as Ms. Abagail reached her. Neither had time to react, but only Ms. Abagail made an attempt to avoid the collision. The woman seemed not to notice her presence and stepped through Ms. Abagail. She circled around her car and got in.
“Holy…shit…” Ms. Abagail said, hunched over, hands woven into her hair. She turned to Wyatt. “Did that just happen?”
Wyatt shrugged. “At least we know we’re in a memory.” He continued walking toward the toy store.
Ms. Abagail raced to catch up. Now she was out of breath. “Did you not see that woman walk right through me? Like I was a ghost? Or she was. Are you not just a little freaked out by that? Before…I interacted with my mom…”
They had nearly reached the storefront, and though Wyatt could now see the towering window display, the sun’s glare kept its contents hidden. “Just go with it,” Wyatt said tersely. “When Lucy and I first went to Athena’s memories, she couldn’t see or hear us either. Maybe it is like a dream…we can only watch. Doesn’t matter.”
“And you still have no idea how we get out?”
Wyatt had grown to love Ms. Abagail, but in that moment, she was wearing his patience thin. He knew little more than she did, but admitting that fact wouldn’t make her feel any better. All Wyatt was sure of was his need to reach the toy store. And even that impulse was beyond understanding.
“All right, fine,” Ms. Abagail said when Wyatt didn’t reply. “I’ll let it go. Nothing I’ve seen recently has made any sense, so why bother trying to explain this? Okay, let’s go to good ol’ M and G’s.”
Wyatt and Ms. Abagail climbed the curb together, Wyatt leading them away from the front door and toward the glass window. A few shoppers milled about, but Wyatt didn’t bother altering his course. It tickled as he walked through them, but it was of little interest.
Wyatt stepped into the shadow created by the building and at once could see through the polished glass. He stopped breathing.
“Huh,” Ms. Abagail said. “You know, those kind of look like—”
“Bearsy,” Wyatt finished for her, eyes locked on the elaborate display of identical stuffed bears, save for the different colored bows they had around their necks. And though they were no more remarkable than any other stuffed bear in the world, Wyatt knew that they were all copies of his sister’s treasured toy.
And if there was any doubt, the small girl rifling through the pile made it utterly certain.
Chapter Eleven
“OH MY GOD,” Ms. Abagail said. “It’s Lucy.”
Wyatt was already running for the door. The strange feeling that had driven him to the store in the first place intensified. He no more understood it than before, but the desperation was palpable.
There was little that would stop his charge, but one of those things stood in the doorway, barring entrance to what Wyatt needed to reach. He stumbled to a stop, nearly colliding with the spectral figure of vitriol and bad memories.
The Bad Man smiled in its usual manner and leaned toward Wyatt, forcing him to back up. Ms. Abagail slammed into his back and nearly took them both to the ground, but she grabbed him, and together, they backed away from the storefront.
“I have to get in there,” Wyatt said.
The Bad Man let out a laugh that was almost a cough and stepped forward. A young couple exited M and G Toys, walking through the Bad Man as they made their way down the sidewalk. The spectral creature dissipated with a hiss, but quickly reformed.
“And yet you’re backing away,” the Bad Man said. “Running away like a coward.”
“I am not a coward!” Wyatt yelled. Without thinking, he charged forward, set on going through the Bad Man if it wouldn’t move.
“Coward!” the Bad Man bellowed, swiping a hand at Wyatt.
The thing’s spectral claw struck Wyatt in the side and he felt the ground vanish from beneath his feet as he was sent rolling along the concrete. When he stopped, Ms. Abagail was kneeling at his side, a hand on his back.
“How dare you?” she shouted.
Wyatt climbed to his knees, but remained in the spot he’d fallen. The pain was there, racing along his bones, but it meant little.
“How dare I?” the Bad Man scoffed. He pointed a long finger at them. “How dare you? Entering a place neither of you belong in. Go on, scurry back the way you came.”
Ms. Abagail stood, pinned in the sunlight, the pink in her hair shining like a beacon. “No,” she said flatly.
“No?” the Bad Man said with a snarl. “You have—”
“No,” Ms. Abagail interrupted, taking a step toward the creature.
Wyatt reached out for her, but only grazed her pant leg.
“You’re the one that shouldn’t be here. You don’t scare us. And you damn sure don’t control what we do. Or what we remember,” Ms. Abagail said.
The Bad Man wore no expression in the misty black of its face, and it didn’t respond to the brief tirade. Wyatt took the moment to stand at Ms. Abagail’s side, borrowing from her steely confidence.
“You don’t want us going in there,” he said.
“And you will not!” the Bad Man shouted, seeming to have regained its composure.
“Why don’t you want us to go in there?” Ms. Abagail asked, pointing at the store.
Again, the Bad Man fell silent.
Something clicked in Wyatt’s mind. “You don’t want us to remember. Any of us.”
The Bad Man laughed, but even for a creature of shade and mystery, it sounded forced. “I welcome you to remember. Shall I show you a bit of your haunted past?”
The Bad Man took a step forward, but a sharp laugh from Ms. Abagail halted it. “Like what you did with my mom?”
The Bad Man tilted its head toward Ms. Abagail and let out a low hiss.
“That wasn’t a memory,” Ms. Abagail continued. “Yeah, my mom was a mean bitch, but she wasn’t a monster. Not like you made her seem. You twisted my memory, or whatever it was, because you didn’t want me to stand up to her. You wanted me to stay scared. But it didn’t matter. I knew what you were showing me was bullshit, and I did what I should have done long ago.”
“You know nothing!” the Bad Man shrieked. “That was only a taste of what I can show you, filthy bitch.”
Ms. Abagail cocked a fist, but Wyatt snared it before she could launch a physical assault on the creature. “I remember what you showed me back at Greenwood. That wasn’t real either,” he said.
The Bad Man twitched and glided toward Wyatt, stopping just a hairbreadth from his nose. Wyatt could feel its cold breath on his face. But he remained firm, taking further strength from Ms. Abagail, who stood tall at his side. He didn’t understand
what the Bad Man was, not fully, but Wyatt was beginning to make sense of what it wanted. And didn’t want.
“She’s right,” Wyatt said. “You don’t want us to remember what really happened. You showed me a nightmare, not a memory. You turned my mom into a monster, too, and made me think it was my fault.”
“It was your fault,” the Bad Man said, sounding as if it were speaking through clenched teeth.
Wyatt shook his head. “You’re nothing but lies. Your only power is to twist what really happened to us. To scare us and keep us from remembering. You want our pasts to stay forgotten or twisted.”
“I want you to see yourself as the selfish little bastard you are,” the Bad Man said.
“You’re a liar,” Wyatt said as calmly as he could. “We’re going into that toy store.”
The Bad Man laughed, rearing back, bellowing at the sky. When its head turned back to Wyatt, it said, “You will go as I allow and see only as I wish. You need to know what you did.”
“Then let us go,” Ms. Abagail said.
The Bad Man turned on her, and for a moment, looked ready to pounce, but Wyatt stayed any attempt by saying, “It can’t stop us.”
The Bad Man swiveled back toward Wyatt, but he didn’t allow the specter a chance to respond. “I don’t think you actually have any control here. You could only twist what you showed me yourself. Even in Ms. Abagail’s memory, you only managed to change her mom for a bit, and it was obvious you were there. This isn’t your world.”
“And you think it’s yours?” the Bad Man hissed.
“Nope,” Wyatt said. “But it’s part of remembering. And maybe that used to scare me. But not anymore.” Wyatt reached for Ms. Abagail and found her hand. She squeezed it firmly. “Now, Bad Man, if you’ll excuse us.”
Wyatt walked straight at the seething creature and willed their safe passage. Part of him expected a violent response, but instinct told him that he had been right in claiming the creature had no real power. Not if Wyatt truly wanted to move forward.
Hand in hand, Wyatt and Ms. Abagail walked through the Bad Man, splitting it in two. The thing howled, gnashed invisible teeth, and snarled behind them. Wyatt didn’t bother looking back.
The Druid's Guise: The Complete Trilogy (The Druid's Guise Trilogy) Page 71