In the Forest of Light and Dark

by Kasniak, Mark

  I stood before her unwavering in my resolve readied to take on whatever she could throw at me.

  From somewhere behind me, I couldn't see it, but I could hear it, my mama, Terra, and the other witches began chanting, their words causing Abellona to cringe and become aggravated, her bluish light beginning to fade.

  Abellona screamed at me in anger, her voice now raspy and hoarse but still strong enough to echo throughout the forest. She then raised her clenched fist to me and came rushing forth ready to swing.

  I didn’t budge. I didn’t even prepare to defend myself because I had an overwhelming sense of calm flowing through me. A calm that could only come from knowing she couldn’t hurt me.

  She swung at me violently over-and-over. Each blow failing to reach its mark as waves of energy shot out before me absorbing her punches in a shield of crimson colored light.

  Seeing that her efforts to strike me were in vain only seemed to enrage Abellona even further. Screaming and flailing about like a lunatic, she gave it her all, like a child throwing a temper tantrum determined to get her own way.

  Soon though, she began to tire as each desperate lunge became met by an even more powerful wall of energy that seemed to grow in strength as it radiated from me.

  Abellona then dropped down to her knees before finally giving up to exhaustion, her coal-black hair disheveled and hanging over her face. I watched her then take several plangent breaths before pushing back her hair and looking up at me. Slowly she got back to her feet, staring at me intensely with hate-filled eyes. She then glanced over at my mama, Tucker, Owen, and the other witches, then back at me.

  “I'll be back.” she then said to me with pure venom in her words.

  “No… You won't.” I replied back to her confidently.

  And, with that, the strays began pouring forth from behind me, Midnight leading the charge. She shot passed me like a shadow on the forest floor jumping onto Abellona's tunic and sinking her fangs deep into her neck. Others then quickly piled on as Abellona screamed, trying desperately to shake them loose. Soon more cats filled in ready to pounce on her, causing the area behind me to become bottlenecked with them.

  Abellona began to stumble back as the weight of the cats began bringing her to the point of collapse.

  From between my legs I could feel one of the felines rubbing up against my battered shin and I look down seeing that it was Casper. I then reached down, picking him up where I brought him to my chest and began stroking his soft, puffy fur.

  Abellona's cries soon became muffled by the steady stream of cats pouring onto her that was becoming rapidly so thick that I could no longer see her through them. But as the mass of hissing fur began to rock back and forth, I knew that deep in there somewhere, in that core of pelts she was beginning to stumble, eventually succumbing and falling backwards. She had run out of room behind her and had hit the fissure slipping over its edge, then disappearing into the fires below, taking the cats down with her. The rest of the felines then still continued to pile forth into the intense heat of the crevasse as if they absolutely wanted to make sure that she made it into Hell. As if it were so important to them that they were willing to sacrifice themselves to the fire.

  The last of the cats spilled forth into the earth and the fissure then gave one last burst of heat and smoke before going silent—dormant.

  As I held Casper snugly against my chest I peered down into the hole that was now no more than a couple of feet deep and looked as if it had never even had a fire in it.

  The burning birch tree at the far end of what was the fissure had by now dwindled down to just a few smoking limbs and a scorched mass still standing upright out of the ground.

  I turned and faced the others, but when my mama looked at me, I suddenly felt small again, and a plethora of emotions began pouring from me as I shambled over to her. She pulled me close, hugging me tightly, and I began to sob uncontrollably.

  My mama, then repeatedly whispered to me that everything was going to alright… That it was all over now, but it didn’t matter. I was inconsolable.

  Casper, who I stilled carried and was nestled in between us let out a little soft meow abruptly catching me off guard and making me smile and laugh a little. With my breathing still hitching I raised him up to my face to feel the warmth of his fur on my skin.

  “You’d think that after seventeen years of selfishly keeping her to yourself you would introduce me to my granddaughter.” A voice then said calling out from behind us.

  I turned around to see a woman standing there before us in the moonlight. She had beautifully long, raven-dark hair and her eyes pierced the night’s veil like neon jade. I had recognized her instantly from the photographs in our house. She was my Grandmother Lyanna, and her very presence lit up the surrounding forest basking everything in a warm loving glow.

  At her feet lay the forlorn body of Midnight—small and still, a shell of the lively feline she once was.

  “Hello, Mother.” My mama hesitantly said to her. “You know that you could’ve just come down to Alabama anytime you wanted to see us. I never kept Cera from you. You didn’t have to go through this whole elaborate scheme to bring us back here.”

  “Alabama was never your home, my child. Mt. Harrison is.” My grandmother said back to my mama tenderly. “Besides, you know what would’ve happened if I had ever left here.”

  “And, that was the problem!” My mama quickly snipped back. “We could never leave. We always had to defend this place… And for what? It wasn’t even our fight. It was between this girl and our ancestors who lived here almost three hundred years ago. And, who were we protecting anyways, a village of people who hated us?” my mama said now lashing out in anger—emotion filling her voice.

  “That wasn’t their fault, you know that.” My grandmother told her, trying to ease my mama’s temper.

  “It wasn’t my fault either.” My mama went on. “I just wanted to be normal. I just wanted to be like everyone else. When other girls were self-conscious about their bodies changing, I had to be self-conscious about fire or electricity, or God knows what else shooting out of mine. Do you know what that was like for me growing up? Being a kid and always being afraid of some witch—some dead girl who lived out in the forest plotting to kill you.”

  “Yes, I do. And, I’m sorry. But thanks to Cera here, it’s all over now and we can talk about the past later. But right now all I want is to see my granddaughter.” My grandmother said this as she opened up her arms to me so I could come to her. “Cera, come here—let me see you, my child.”

  I walked over to her and she hugged me firmly. And while I stood there lost in her arms I could feel her warmth and love flowing into me like a current.

  As I hugged my grandmother, from behind her I began hearing the sounds of something popping and then a moment later, coming up through my feet I could feel the ground begin to vibrate. I slowly pulled myself away from my grandmother’s shoulder so I could peer around her at the forest beyond. What I saw coming up from the ground was the strays, digging themselves up from the depths of the earth.

  What the… I thought, but the words never came to my lips. I turned back to look at Tucker and Owen but they just stared forward locked in a daze, still in shock over the night’s events.

  One by one the cats emerged from the earth only to take a few steps and then lay down dead on the forest floor. Soon after each had rested for the final time, a small orb of light would then emerge from their mouths and begin ascending upwards towards the night’s sky.

  “Is that…” I murmured. “Is that…”

  “Their souls,” My grandmother said, finishing my thought. “They’re free now. Free of Abellona’s curse thanks to you, my dear.” She then kissed me atop my head. “Where did you ever get that blond hair from anyways?” she inquired.

  I didn’t answer her, though. I just watched as cat after cat clawed its way to the surface only to slump over and release its light trapped within. It took what seemed like an eternit
y for all of them to finish out, and in the end the forest floor had been carpeted with their bodies.

  I looked down finding Casper’s motionless body in my hands and when I loosened my grip on him the orb that had once been trapped inside of him floated up passed me on its way to the stars. It was so close that I could’ve touched it. I wanted to touch it, but feared possibly screwing up little Brandon Kolinski’s ascension into the afterlife.

  Katelyn! I then suddenly thought. “Where’s Katelyn? What happened to her? Is she…” I frantically asked my grandmother.

  “Oh, don’t worry about her.” My grandmother said, as she hugged me close once more, her warmth, comforting me in the cool night’s air. “That pain in the butt will be just fine. I’ll have an eternity of her questions and antics to look forward to on the other side.”

  “Yeah, she is kind of a pain in the ass, isn’t she?” I then said to my grandmother feeling for the first time tonight that Katelyn will truly be alright.

  “She sure is, kiddo. She sure is.” was all that my grandmother replied.

  A new Dawn

  A new dawn arose over Mount Harrison a few hours later. And, with Abellona’s curse having been lifted from the village, a new sense of hope and well-being emerged along with it among the villagers. For many it was like awakening from a long slumber and knowing that you’ve had a nightmare about something, but not for the life of you remembering what it was.

  Later that morning we had buried Casper’s body in the backyard along with the remains of Midnight and Popsicle. I had said a little prayer for them even though I knew that they were never truly real. They were just vessels that Abellona had used to contain the souls of my grandmother and the other villagers. But still… Something just felt wrong about leaving them there to decompose in the forest.

  Katelyn’s family had buried her in the cemetery next to her grandparents and her Aunt Catherine. At her funeral the entire village showed up, having been drawn to it and wanting to pay their respects which I’m sure would have made her sick if she were watching it from somewhere nearby.

  At the wake I had a little chat with Katelyn’s parents informing them of just what a wonderful person their daughter was, and I even had thought about telling them the truth about what had really happened to her. But I knew they would never have believed me and it would’ve only made me look as if I was making light of her death. Besides, they were in no way ready to handle the truth anyhow.

  In the end, though, I had walked away feeling that they were much more at peace with their daughter’s death than they would have been if I had actually told them what happened. In addition, I figured that after a little time had passed. I’ll go ahead and conjure Katelyn up from the other side so they can see her again. I’m a witch. I can do these things.

  After the funeral, Tucker and Owen returned home to Alabama, but I have a feeling that I’ll be seeing them up here again real soon.

  A week later I had returned to school, and it was like walking into a brand new atmosphere. Dirty looks were replaced by smiles and sneers exchanged with hellos. I had even gotten an invitation from Keri Mahan to sit with her and her friends in the lunchroom—which I accepted with a bit of caution. But after I had sat down with them, I quickly realized that none of them had seemed to remember the past all too well or how they’d treated me. They just accepted me as the new girl from Alabama, and that was fine by me.

  As far as things went with Katelyn, she was just another one of their many classmates who had tragically died too young, having drowned while swimming drunk one night in the Genesee River.

  I had decided that these are as good of truths as any, and to leave things at that.

  Later that afternoon when I’d gotten home from school and for the first time not having been accompanied by a clowder of strays. To my surprise I had found that the pea-green Pontiac Safari whale, which normally would’ve been parked in the driveway was now replaced by a 1977 Pontiac Trans AM, black with gold trim and a Firebird screaming on the hood.

  Holy shit! I thought as I stared at it in awe. It’s the Holy Grail, the Bandit’s Firebird.

  “So what do ya think?” my Step Daddy Cade asked as he stepped out from the house. “Ya like it?”

  Like it? I thought. “I fuckin’ love it.” I told him.

  “Good. Because it’s yours.” he said, tossing me the keys. “You’ve earned it.”

  That evening I drove through Mount Harrison’s winding roads with the T-tops off even though it was Mid-October and I still only had a learners permit. As I accelerated my new car I felt the wind whip through my hair as it assaulted my face making me feel as if I was flying on a broomstick, but I felt no discomfort. In fact, I never again felt uncomfortable in the village or on the mountain and in its forest. For I am Cera Singer—scratch that—for I am Cera Barrett and I am the witch of Mount Harrison.

  Author’s Note

  First and foremost, I would like to thank you for purchasing this book! And, if you’ve gotten it for free, well… Score for you and still thanks for reading it. There is no purpose what-so-ever of having created a story if there is nobody to enjoy it.

  As an independent author. I, like many of us out there, are subject to tackling every segment of the production process involved in the making of our novels. Unfortunately though, for a lot of us, we just do not have the resources available to hire professional editors, beta readers, cover designers etc. With that in mind mistakes can and will sometimes happen. Nobody is perfect. So, I am respectfully requesting, that you, the reader, would do me the goodwill of acknowledging to me any errors found in my text, whether it be in the storyline or grammatically, before leaving any negative review. I can be reached at mkasniak@yahoo.com.

  I do however fully understand that reviews are part of the writing and marketing process for any author, and in being so I would like to strongly urge you to leave a review of this book on Amazon or anywhere else of your choosing. You can reach my Amazon review page here.

  http://www.amazon.com/Forest-Light-Dark-Mark-Kasniak-ebook/dp/B01603WX7I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449807750&sr=8-1&keywords=mark+kasniak

  I would also appreciate you leaving an honest review of any of my other books based on your enjoyment of them whether good or bad.

  Again, thank you.

  Coming soon…

  Autumn Harvest

  A celebration of Halloween and the macabre

  Lovienthal Montague Spiritual Detective

  A Zombie Novel

  Michael

  A continuum of In the Forest of Light and Dark

  The Hunger

  The Volunteers

  Kayla’s Story

  Ashland

  The good, the bad, and the Lovienthal

  Acknowledgments

  I would like to take this opportunity to thank Andreas Krappweis for allowing me the use of his photograph seen on this book’s cover. You can find more of his works at his website www.andreaskrappweis.com.

  I would also like to thank you, the reader. I know it was a long story, but I do believe that the length was justified. If, you did enjoy this book, be sure to check out my novel Michael coming out in 2016. It’s a continuum of In the Forest of Light and Dark which centers around the archangel Michael having come down to earth on a mission to kill a child. Cera, Katelyn, Lyanna, and Tucker are all players in this action-packed thriller.