In the Forest of Light and Dark

by Kasniak, Mark

  Abellona turned back towards me giving me her detestable, little smirk and said, “Looks like your friends just let it be known as to where they are. Shall we get the night’s festivities started?”

  And, with that, she was gone, having vanishing before my eyes.

  I took one more look at the light coming from the center of the darkened wall that was the forest of pines on Mount Harrison's lower slopes and I knew I had to get up there before it was too late. I knew I had to stop Abellona before she got to Katelyn—before she had gotten to Terra and the other witches.

  Into the Darkness

  I hurried off down Camron Street headed straight to where the road dead-ended and the forest began.

  As I ran, I thought of Tucker and Owen and had hoped that they’d made it back to their pickup safely. I also wondered what fucking good it was being a witch if I didn’t have a broomstick to fly on? It sure as hell would’ve made my getting to the forest a lot faster.

  When I had reached the end of Cameron Street the pavement had given way to dirt and low-lying brush. Beyond that was an entanglement of small trees whose branches interwoven one another, each armed with one inch thorns. Weaving its way through the thicket, though, was a narrow path that was barely noticeable in the darkness, but it looked as if it might lead me right to the very edge of the Pine Barrens.

  As I hesitantly followed the path, only being guided through the thick, suffocating cocoon of spiked branches by the light of the full moon high above. I thought every sound, every twig snapping and every crunching of leaves under my footsteps was Abellona coming through the darkness to kill me.

  I pressed on though, and as I did I felt the thorns of the branches scratching and digging into my bare arms and legs. It hurt, but I didn’t have the time to stop and find a better way to navigate through the brush more carefully. The only thing I did do, could do, to protect myself as I made my way through the thicket was to keep my head down and a hand up so that I wouldn’t take a thorn in the eye.

  Luckily though, it wasn’t long before I was through the thorn trees and bushes and into the beginnings of the forest of spruces.

  I quickly brushed myself off and felt something warm and sticky on my arms and legs. I reached up to smell and then taste it, first thinking that it may have just been tree sap, but it had that familiar irony taste, and I knew it wasn't. It was my blood. The thorns had cut my arms and legs up something awful, but I would live, though, at least for a little while longer.

  I looked back to see that Midnight had made it through the brush with no problems what-so-ever. Must be nice to be as small and as sleek as a cat sometimes, I thought as I watched her lick her front paw while staring at me from atop an old deadfall log that was halfway rotted. She soon finished cleaning herself, as so did I, and then she gave me a meow as if saying, Move your ass, girl, before taking off through the pines.

  I followed her ascension up a hill and through the spruces, but found myself struggling to keep up. As I would trip whenever I got my foot stuck in the occasional rabbit burrow or snagged on an exposed tree root or downed branches.

  Soon, though, I had made it to a spot in the forest where thickly entwined trees became so dense that they prevented any moonlight from coming through to the forest floor just like how overlapping shingles prevents water from coming through a roof. Only in a very few narrow spots did slivers of light manage to sneak its way through the canopy allowing the moon’s reflected shine to reach all the way down to me.

  In the darkness, every creak, every rustle of leaves, every crunch of dried pine needles breaking under my foot, every scurry of a forest critter, caused my heart to skip up into my throat at the thought that it might be Abellona.

  But I pushed on as scared as I was and the ground soon began to increase in pitch, and I began having to climb over rocks and boulders that were sporadically getting in my way as they pierced out from the side of the mountain.

  Even though I couldn’t see more than a few yards in front of me, I instinctively knew from the few times that I had been in the forest before that Midnight was taking me on the right path.

  The breeze suddenly had picked up, and all the trees began to sway, and with it I thought I could smell wisps of smoke—campfire smoke, though I couldn’t yet see any signs of fire through the trees. But, then after another wind had blown through the forest, this one stronger than the last, the intense smell of pine and burning timber was unmistakable.

  I pushed on for another look-see, and then there, through a clearing and down in a valley below I could see the yellow and orange telltale flickers of a fire in the distance.

  Midnight had taken me passed them. Well… Not only passed, but also higher up the mountain in elevation because I now found myself looking down on whom I thought was Terra and her sister witches. I quickly climbed up onto a nearby granite rock ledge that pushed itself up and out from the mountain’s hillside, hoping to get a better view.

  I tried to focus in my vision. Assuming that surely by now my pupils must have been fully dilated and had adjusted to the darkness, but it was still a struggle to see. Still, I paused for a good long moment and just stared. In the soft, distant glow of the fire I thought I could make out Terra wearing a brown tunic. She was holding hands with several other women in a circle around the fire, none of which looked like Katelyn as far as I could tell. Their heads remained lowered, and they appeared as if chanting or casting spells of some sort, but I couldn’t make out just what it was being said, and probably couldn’t understand it even if I could. Their voices had all blended into unison and drowned on like the distant hum of a machine.

  I took a deep breath, sucking in a harsh lungful of the cool night air. It stung my chest’s insides like needles, and I thought that the temperature seemed to be dropping by the minute even though tonight had been unseasonably warm to that point. (But, being from Alabama, every autumn night was a warm one for me growing up, so what did I know.)

  Making my descent off the boulder I began looking for a path—aided only by moonlight—that would lead me down to Terra and the other witches. But after I had taken only a mere few steps in my descent, Midnight unexpectedly lashed out her open claws at me, bared her teeth, and began wailing at me like I was trying to drown her in a bucket. She quickly managed several hard swipes at my already torn up legs before I had stumbled back in fright of her sudden ferocity towards me, not knowing what had gotten into her.

  I had landed square on my ass, and my ass square on the granite boulder that I had just gotten down from. I winced as I suddenly felt pain radiate up my spine from my tailbone while also shooting down my legs in pulsating waves that reached as far as my toes.

  Midnight inched towards me and I struggled to push myself away from her as fast as I could in fear of another one of her violent outbursts.

  I couldn't breathe or speak, my muscles had suddenly locked up on me in cramps, but I could still hear, and what I heard wasn't Midnight hissing at me anymore. What I had heard was the sound of timber snapping. It was growing exponentially louder, quickly, but I had no clue as to what direction it was emerging from.

  I hunkered down and hugged my legs tight up against my chest as I ducked my head down into my arms. The whole area, then rapidly felt and sounded like it was coming apart.

  Next to me came a tremendous whoosh of air that could have been hurricane force. It had blasted me head on, and I felt my hair whip up and be aggressively pulled back from my shoulders.

  A pine had struck the ground before me with a heavy thud that echoed throughout the forest. Its thick branches and sharp needles raking across my forearm and legs as I continued to hold tight.

  When the tree had finally settled into its new position and stopped moving I slowly picked up my head.

  There before me lay a hundred-foot behemoth of a spruce, probably a year old for every foot. My Step Daddy Cade had called them widow makers, and now I could see why.

  I just continued to sit there for a moment, giving mys
elf time to collect my thoughts and nerves, but the only thing I could think of was how badly I didn’t want to go on. How much I just wanted to go home. But not wanting to move unless it was in the other direction, back to the safety and security of my home wasn’t an option. I knew I had to suck it up and keep going even though I was outmatched, out gunned, and frightened to death. Because sitting here crying like a scared little girl wasn’t going to help. Not if I wanted to save my friends. Not if I wanted to save myself. I knew I had to push passed my cowardice.

  Warily, I got back on my feet and then slowly looked around calling weakly for Midnight. I couldn’t find her at first, but then off to my right, up at the base of the newly downed tree, under a small section of its thicker branches, I saw her head pop up through the greenery. Her green eyes glowing and reflecting the moonlight like neon in the darkness. She let out a soft, low meow and then hopped up onto the fallen tree’s shaft walking towards me.

  “Thank you, girl.” I whispered, having realized that her outburst of hostility towards me a moment ago was nothing more than her way of warning me. Her way of getting me to not walk straight into a trap that she must have sensed was coming.

  From that moment on, I knew that if I wanted to get out of this forest alive, I was going to have to be a lot more careful. I was sure that this tree—which was still solid, lush, green, and very much alive—didn't just fall over on its own. Abellona had something to do with it. And, I was right in thinking that, because I didn't have to wait long to have that theory confirmed.

  There before me she suddenly stood having materialized out of nothing and becoming almost luminescent as if she were glowing. She seemed to hover above the ground—suspended. She smiled that depraved little smile of hers at me, and I felt my body begin to tremble still in my dance shoes which were now, sadly all filthy, tore up, and ruined.

  I had felt ashamed at being so afraid of her, at the feeling of being so utterly powerless. But, being alone with her there in the woods, her presence so powerful, so consuming, it was just too much for me—possibly anybody—to handle. I had felt like a small child being cornered by Cujo.

  “Looks like you've got nine lives just like these goddamn cats do.” she said to me as she looked down at Midnight who was arching her back, showing her fangs, and ready to fight. “Don't worry though... I'll get through all of them before this night is over.” she then added.

  “Just... Just l-let me g-get my friends and I'll go.” I stuttered out, feeling myself shake and quiver as I spoke. “We'll leave the forest and I'll leave Mount Harrison forever. Me, my mama, and my step daddy… We'll pack up our things and leave this place for good. You’ll never have to see us again. I give you my word. Just don't hurt anybody.”

  Abellona then paused, staring back at me for a long moment as if contemplating what I had just said. She then put her hands on her long black hair that was draping over her shoulders and began running her fingers through it. A moment later she let out a bellowing laugh that I could have mistaken for a cackle that of a witch in a children’s book.

  Contentiously Abellona shouted, “What have I told you a Barrett’s word is worth to me! You’ve had your chance to leave my mountain. Now you’re never going to leave it. I'll have your soul just like I have your grandmothers and all the others. And, the Mount Harrison cemetery will have your corpse, but first...”

  Abellona then took another long pause as she looked back down the hillside at Terra and the other witches congregated in the valley.

  “First... I'll let you watch your friends die.” she said to me, her face soured with resentment and disdain.

  And with that, she was gone, having faded into the darkness of the forest from whence she came.

  I frantically looked around for her, fearing she was only playing a trick, that she hadn't really left, but I still couldn't see very far into the forest’s blackness, my vision cutting off just beyond the first few of the nearest trees.

  I closed my eyes, trying to sense what was all around me, but I couldn't hear anything or perceive anything either. But I didn't have to, because again Midnight beat me to figuring out what was going on.

  The coal-black cat had jumped back up on the shaft of the newly downed pine and began rearing at Terra and the other witches down in the valley below us. I peered down at them holding my breath in silence while trying to figure out what had Midnight so upset, but I saw nothing down there in the valley that wasn’t there before. It was still just Terra and the other witches continuing to hold hands while chanting away in their prayer circle. But then, out of nowhere Abellona was there, having reappeared before Terra and her sister witches like she had just done before me.

  The fire at the center of the witches suddenly erupted into white-hot flames with her presence and then began stretching skywards like a geyser.

  Abellona just hovered over the fire’s combusting logs as she looked out over the witches through the encompassing flames that were engulfing her like a goddess of fire.

  I wanted to help. I wanted to tell them to run, but all I could do was watch what was about to happen from afar, completely powerless to do anything.

  Abellona through the flames started to gesture at the witches by pointing her extended index finger at each one of them in anger, but all Terra and the other witches did was just continue to chant, ignoring her, their heads remaining lowered.

  The flames began to rise higher, turning whiter, than indigo, culminating into a searing blinding light. As the flames grew, Abellona seemed to grow exponentially along with them, her anger boiling over at the witches who were disregarding her.

  To me, from my vantage point, it looked as if Abellona had grown twice, maybe even three times her normal size.

  Then, with a wave of her hand the fire spread forth from the base of the fire, shooting out in rows along the earth, and darting in between each of the witches before connecting with the forest beyond them. The flames, then quickly gathered in strength around Terra and the other witches as the forest behind them spontaneously erupted trapping them in burning walls.

  From where I stood it looked like a wagon wheel of fire in the darkness. Each set of spokes containing and locking in Terra and her friends like a prison cell.

  “Come on, Midnight!” I called out to the little black cat. “We gotta go!”

  I then hurried as fast as I could down the pitch-black stricken hillside. I didn't have any idea as to what I was planning to do when I got down there, but I did have at least one trick in my arsenal that I knew I could use.

  By the time I had gotten to within a hundred yards of Terra and the other witches I could tell that they were no longer in the mood for chants any more. Because they were now all panicking, and frantically looking for a way out of the walls of flames that had enclosed in all around them.

  Whatever they’d been doing down there to try to stop Abellona obviously had none or very little effect on her, and now they found themselves trapped in a ring of fire. A bunch of condemned witches getting ready to be burned at the stake.

  I reached the outskirts of the fire and had called out for Terra. But she couldn’t hear me over the cries of the other witches and the ever-increasing roar of the inferno that was now consuming all the low-lying brush and ferns that grew near the forest floor like a tornado eating up trailers.

  I then called out to Terra again, and thankfully this time I had gotten her attention.

  “Cera, you—” she began, but was quickly cut off by a sudden gust-up of flames near her. “Cera, you have to get out of here!” she then managed to shout at me through the flickers of oranges and yellows.

  “No, I can get you out of there. I won't leave you!” I shouted back at her as the smoke and heat began assaulting my face and stinging my throat.

  “Cera, go! Get, Katelyn and go!” Terra kept shouting at me over the cacophony of witch cries and roaring flames.

  Terror-stricken, I looked for a way through the walls of fire to where I could reach Terra and be able
to lead her and the others to safety. But, having found none, I felt my heart sink into my chest while a sob of hopelessness began building in my throat as I panicked in fear along with them.

  Another one of the sister witches cried out in agony as her tunic sleeve caught flame and she began to burn right before my very eyes. The other witches, at risk of getting burned themselves, tried feverishly to help her as they pushed valiantly through the barrier of flames that divided each of them before forcing the burning witch to the ground and smothering her engulfed clothing. Within moments they had successfully managed to extinguish the flames from the witch’s clothing, but they were still almost out of time, the flames from the burning forest and brush would soon be back on them.

  At that point I knew that there was only one thing that I could do if I wanted to save them, and that was... I needed to watch them die.

  So, that's what I did. I stood there and forced myself to watch as the flames quickly closed in around Terra and the others.

  Thick smoke billowed from the blaze causing them and me to begin to gag and cough. The heat grew in its intensity, making me want to hide my face and any other exposed skin. But as painful as it was, I still continued to force myself to watch as Terra and the others screamed for my help, for mercy.

  I blinked repeatedly from the noxious smoke as tears poured down my cheeks in rivulets, and then, not being able to contain the emotions welling up inside me any longer. I let out a cry of despair that I hadn't heard come from me since I saw the bloody lifeless body of my poor dead dog, Maddy. Her head having been caved in by the chrome bumper of that dick’s Chevy.

  And, with that, came the great flood. Wind and rain began pouring into the forest from seemingly every direction. Fulminating thunder and lightning taking turns flashing and blaring from over top of the mountain. Powerful gusts and walls of rain hammered down, battering the curtains of flames, weakening them and ultimately putting them out as if someone had turned off the burner on a stove.