Everflame- Mystic Wild

by Dylan Peters

  “We shouldn’t let her wander off,” Kay said after a moment.

  “I’ll go,” I blurted, wanting badly to leave the tension in the kitchen.

  I didn’t wait for my nomination to be seconded. I turned and walked out of the kitchen just in time to see Anna exiting the house, so I followed her out the front door to the porch, staring at something in the front yard. Her chair blocked my view of what was in front of her until I came to stand directly next to her. What I saw then made me call for Jim and Kay immediately.

  As he exited the house Jim saw the concern on my face and pushed me out of the way to get to Anna.

  “They’re playing,” Anna said looking up at him, all smiles once again, as if what had happened in the kitchen had been forgotten.

  In the strewn clothes on the grass next to the driveway was Wisket, playing with a wild dog. The two rolled over each other, wagged their tails, barked, and spun around in circles. I could tell from the looks on Jim’s and Kay’s faces that they had never seen the dog before. They looked at each other with concern, and as they did the wild dog disappeared suddenly into thin air.

  “He’s just like Wisket,” Anna said brightly. “We found another one.”

  Not a second later I felt something brush the back of my leg. I turned and there was the dog. He barked playfully at me, and then at Wisket, who quickly flew past me to reengage with his new friend. Just like that, the two were rolling around like old pals again.

  “Where did he come from?” Kay asked Anna.

  “They were just here when I came outside,” Anna explained.

  “Maybe they can sense each other,” Kay guessed. “I know Wisket disappears, but I’m sure he’s never really far from you, Anna. Maybe the dog sensed Wisket, and that’s what brought him here.”

  “So now you have two of these things,” Jim said.

  “No, he’s not mine,” Anna replied. “I can tell. This is different from Wisket and me. It feels different. I think the dog is someone else’s.”

  Again, Jim and Kay looked at one another with concern, and I immediately understood what they were thinking. There was someone in our vicinity we didn’t know about; someone who had their own strange mystical animal. Our paranoia manifested quickly, but before we could even begin to discuss what we should do, the dog and Wisket stopped playing and took off down the street. We lost sight of the dog quickly, but Wisket was flying, and easier to see in the air.

  “We have to follow them,” Anna cried with excitement. “Quickly.”

  “We’re not going to be fast enough, Anna,” Jim said.

  The girl sighed and pushed her thick-rimmed glasses up on her nose. “Ok, fine, you can push,” she said as if in answer to some long-running debate. “Just hurry, we’re losing them.”

  “All right,” Jim said with a smile. “Hold on.”

  Jim got behind Anna’s chair and pushed the wheelchair in front of him, quickly breaking into a full run. Jim was fast. Really fast. It was hard to believe a guy that big could move so quickly. Kay and I had no chance of keeping up, and with all the destroyed houses and wreckage we lost sight of Jim and Anna before long. If we hadn’t been able to look into the sky and see Wisket, we would never have known where to go, but after a few minutes of running we turned onto a cul-de-sac and saw Jim and Anna up ahead. They had stopped next to a thicket of palm trees near some wetland, and the wild dog was there with them as if it had been leading them to this very place. Once we reached Anna and Jim, Wisket descended from the sky and joined us.

  Now that the dog had our full attention again, he barked and pointed to a place in the thicket where someone had cut their way through. Anna immediately wheeled herself into the brush to follow the path.

  “Anna, wait,” Jim said.

  But Anna didn’t stop to listen. All we could do was follow her. Fortunately, the path didn’t go deep. We soon came upon a tramped down hollow in the brush. There were empty water bottles and food packages, as well as some other random debris. And against one side of the hollow, covered by shadow and a blanket, lay a woman.

  Mom? I thought momentarily, but I knew it wasn’t her.

  This woman had dark hair like my mother, but curly instead of straight, and was also far less pale. The wild dog took the blanket in his mouth and pulled it off of her. The woman’s leg had been cut open, badly, and it looked as if the wound was infected. Slowly she opened her eyes and tried to say something, but she was far too weak.

  “Let me through,” Jim said, and shuffled past Anna, taking his backpack off. He took a pill bottle out of the backpack as well as a bottle of water. He crushed a couple pills in the pill bottle cap with the butt of a plastic lighter, and dropped them into the water bottle. Then he capped the water bottle and shook it. “I need you to drink this,” Jim said to the woman. “It’s medicine.”

  It took some time to get her to drink, but after she took a few sips, Jim stood back up and turned to us.

  “We need to get her back to Esteban’s,” he said.

  “We need to get her to the school,” Kay added. “They have doctors. This woman needs stitches and who knows what else.”

  “I don’t think she’s well enough for that trip right now,” Jim said. “I put some antibiotics in the water, but she’ll have to keep drinking it, and she’ll need more later. If we can just get her to Esteban’s, maybe we can get her strength up a little, and then make the trip to the school, or at least one of us could go for help.”

  Everyone nodded. It was hard to tell how long the woman had been living in the hollow, but she wasn’t doing well. She needed help or she was going to die. It was lucky for her that the wild dog had found us and led us back to her.

  “I think I can carry her back to Esteban’s,” Jim said.

  “No,” Anna said. “She’s bigger than me. You should put her in my wheelchair.”

  Anna was right. The woman was thin but still larger than Anna, who was very petite. We were likely three or four miles from Esteban’s, and even though Jim was a strong guy, the added weight would make things difficult. He’d have a much easier time carrying Anna.

  “Arthur can carry me,” Anna added.

  Why did she say my name? I thought, half in shock.

  “Him?” Jim asked incredulously. “You want Creepy to carry you?”

  “Yeah, why not?” Anna asked.

  “Whatever,” Kay said, obviously frustrated with the bickering. “Let’s just get back. Time is not on her side.”

  Jim motioned to me for help, and together we moved Anna out of her chair. We placed her on the ground, and then moved the weakened woman into the wheelchair.

  “Thank you,” the woman grumbled almost inaudibly. Her long black hair fell over her face, and Kay swept it back for her.

  “We’re gonna get you better,” Kay said.

  I looked at Anna on the ground, and she stared back up at me.

  “How am I supposed to carry you?” I asked.

  “What do you mean?” she asked meekly and I could tell that my question had sounded insensitive.

  I tried to recover. “I just meant, what’s most comfortable for you?”

  “Just put one arm under my legs and one arm behind my back,” Anna said. “That way I can put my arms around your neck to help lift. My arms are strong.”

  She was right. Once Anna got her arms around my neck she lifted herself up a bit and reduced the weight I was carrying. Now that I had her lifted up, her face was right next to mine, and I had to try hard not to think about that. People’s faces were never close to mine. It wasn’t something I was accustomed to. It was making me light-headed.

  “Sorry we couldn’t just do piggy-back,” Anna said. “My legs can’t grip.”

  “I-it’s okay,” I said. “I’m fine, really. Don’t worry.”

  “You sure you got her, Creepy?” Jim asked. “Don’t drop her.”

  “I’m not gonna drop her,” I said bitterly.

  I thought about cursing at Jim. I wanted to curse at him.
I wanted to grab Jim around his neck and… no… I needed to stop thinking like that. Thinking like that is what got me writing those stories. I needed to remember what my mother told me. Refocus my frustration constructively.

  “Just wanted to make sure,” Jim said.

  The anger Jim raised in me took away the light-headedness and helped me to focus on carrying Anna. All I wanted to do now was prove Jim wrong.

  “Don’t let him bug you,” Anna said to me. “I’m not worried you might drop me. I know you won’t.”

  “Thanks,” I said to Anna and tried to smile.

  “And I meant what I said about helping you find your mother,” Anna continued. “I know it seemed like I was just blackmailing you for Wisket’s sake, and… I know I did–I know I gave you no choice–but I will help you as soon as I can. Please believe me.”

  I nodded. “I do. I believe you, Anna.”

  I did believe her, and a part of me knew I needed her help. As eager as I had been to leave this morning, I didn’t know what I was going to do: run straight into the Nullwood and start calling out my mother’s name? I needed some sort of plan, and I didn’t have one. The mynahs were a real threat, and having Wisket along would give me protection from them. Anna was right: she gave me no choice. But it wasn’t because of the blackmail. It was because I needed her help.

  4

  We were close to Esteban’s now, and carrying Anna hadn’t been as difficult as I had imagined. Honestly, I had been afraid I might not be up to the task, but I managed. It felt good being useful, being strong. It brought about a warm swell of emotion in me that almost felt like happiness. I don’t know what I was feeling exactly, but it made me say something without thinking.

  “Thank you for letting me carry you, Anna.”

  Anna blushed, and I swallowed hard. Why did I say that?

  “I’m not afraid of you, Arthur,” Anna said, not defiantly, but compassionately. “I think maybe I understand you more than I understand people like Kay and Jim. Sometimes they chip away at other people’s pride and don’t realize it.”

  I nodded and swallowed hard again. Was that what I felt? Pride? That seemed like such a familiar word, such a simple emotion. It seemed ridiculous not to have recognized it. Why couldn’t I move past things? Why did I have to overthink my emotions, and then suppress them so I didn’t have to think about it anymore? Why couldn’t I just be normal?

  I was glad we could see Esteban’s in front of us now.

  Once we reached the bar I set Anna in a chair, helped Jim lift the sick woman onto a bed he made out of sleeping bags, and then returned Anna to her wheelchair. We all sat in the barroom and silently watched Jim nurse the woman. He gave her more water and then tried to dress her leg wound with a first aid kit he had kept behind the bar.

  We waited a few hours without conversation while the woman rested, which I didn’t mind at all. Then, as evening crept closer, the woman stirred. She had gained enough strength to sit up, so Jim gave her a granola bar.

  “My name is Jim,” he said. “And this is Kay, Arthur and Anna.”

  “My name is Ah’Rhea,” the woman said. “Thank you all so much for helping me.”

  While she ate, the wild dog appeared at her side and nuzzled its head against her shoulder. Ah’Rhea smiled and pressed her cheek against the dog. Wisket appeared as well, and leaped into Anna’s lap. The sick woman watched Anna and Wisket with great interest.

  “You are very young to have established such a bond,” Ah’Rhea said to Anna. “I was much older than you when this one came to me.” She looked down at the wild dog lovingly.

  “I thought Wisket was the only one,” Anna said as she stroked the fox’s neck.

  “No, child,” the woman said. “There are as many as the world allows room for.” The answer was cryptic, and it looked as if Kay was about to ask a question, but Ah’Rhea preempted her, still focusing on Anna as if she were the only other person in the room. “Would you mind explaining how the fox came to you? It might help me to understand what has happened to your world.”

  If the woman didn’t have our attention already, she did now.

  “Okay,” Anna said meekly, hesitating a bit. It was apparent that the story of how she met Wisket was not one Anna wanted to share. Her face reddened, and she continued to stare at Wisket as if keeping her gaze upon the fox was the only thing stopping her from breaking down. “It happened after the Demise.”

  “The Demise?” Ah’Rhea asked.

  “Yeah,” Kay chimed in. “That’s what we call the night everything was destroyed. That’s also when the Nullwood appeared.” Again, Ah’Rhea seemed confused with the terminology. “A large dead forest appeared a few miles west. We call it the Nullwood,” Kay continued. “We don’t go in there. Monstrous creatures come out of there at night. Large birdlike things we call mynahs.”

  Ah’Rhea’s eyes widened at the mention of the mynahs. “It was one of those things that injured my leg,” she said and then sighed. “I might not have made it if you hadn’t come along.”

  “When you get stronger, we’ll need to move you again,” Jim said. “You need a real doctor. There’s a school a few miles away, and they have a couple doctors there. Maybe tomorrow you’ll be okay to make the trip.”

  Ah’Rhea nodded and refocused on Anna. “So, tell me how you met your Wisket.”

  Anna looked around cautiously before beginning, as if she was looking for some way out of telling the story. I felt bad for her and wished I could help. I wanted to take her away from here so she didn’t have to deal with the hurt. I knew what it was like to want to disappear.

  “I was at home during the Demise,” Anna said. “My parents were celebrating their anniversary in Orlando, and they thought it would be okay for me to be home alone for the night. Bad luck I guess… I was listening to music in my bedroom when a boulder crashed through the wall. Then, through the gash in the wall, I saw the sky alive with fire, and I could hear screaming coming from somewhere down the street. I lost it. I was terrified. I wheeled out of the house as fast as I could, because when I left my bedroom I could see the house was on fire. It was night and I was afraid to be out in the open. I was afraid to look for other people, too, so I stayed in the woods behind my house for hours, and just watched my house burn to rubble. I didn’t know what to do, and after a while, I cried myself to sleep.”

  Anna took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes. She was crying now, and so was Kay. Anna continued.

  “David’s group found me the next day and brought me to the school where they were staying. David seemed like a good person. A lot of people were following him. Everyone was scared, and he didn’t seem to be. He seemed strong. I guess I followed him because of that. I had never been more afraid in my entire life. I was devastated, and almost everything around me was too. It was like the end of the world, and I just wanted my mom and dad, but… Days went by and there was no sign of them. I lost hope. So many people had died or been lost. It seemed impossible that my parents would have survived, especially after the first time the mynahs attacked.

  “Even David lost hope after the mynahs attacked. He started acting like a dictator ordering everyone around. He became cold, hostile, and he did… terrible things.”

  Anna stopped talking and cried harder, her face scrunched up like she was in pain. Kay went to Anna and hugged her. My stomach hurt. I felt a sense of dread I can’t fully explain, but I knew I didn’t want to hear what Anna had to say next.

  “Then my parents came back,” Anna said between sobs. “They came out of the Nullwood, and I was so happy… but then… David convinced everyone that the Nullwood was evil and that no one could trust anything that came out of there because the mynahs came out of there. He said that people in the Nullwood had been tainted, and would eventually turn into mynahs.”

  I looked at Ah’Rhea, and her green eyes were filled with pity and tears.

  “He killed them,” Anna gasped. “David killed my parents and everybody let it happen because they
were scared.” Anna sobbed hard in Kay’s arms. Wisket sat up and pressed his forehead into Anna’s chest. The wild dog whimpered.

  “We knew we had to leave the school that day,” Jim said as if in response to subconscious guilt. “Kay and I prepared to get Anna and leave, to find somewhere to stay that wasn’t the school, but Anna beat us to the punch. She left the school before we got to her. Kay and I were terrified when we found out she had left alone, because I knew where she wanted to go. Luckily, she hadn’t been in the Nullwood very long before we tracked her down.”

  Anna hugged Wisket and slowly her sobbing receded. “I just wanted to disappear in there,” she said. “I just wanted whatever the Nullwood was to swallow me up and erase me.”

  “But we didn’t let it swallow you up,” Jim said, his voice thick with emotion. “We found Anna just on the other side of the tree line and convinced her that coming here, to Esteban’s, was a better solution. We pulled her back out of the Nullwood before anything happened. Well, almost.”

  “Wisket heard me crying in the woods before Jim and Kay came for me,” Anna said. “He didn’t approach me there, but he followed us all the way to Esteban’s. That first night we stayed here I felt him curl up next to me while I was lying in my sleeping bag. I was scared at first, but then he spoke to me. Well, he didn’t speak out loud, but he can communicate with me.”

  “I know exactly what you mean,” Ah’Rhea said. “Mystical animals can communicate with our minds.”

  Anna nodded. “He told me that he followed me because he didn’t have anybody. Wisket lost his family in the Demise, too. He was all alone, just like me.” Anna hugged Wisket close. “So I told him what happened to me, and that I thought we were meant to meet each other. I told him I would help him, and protect him, and I wouldn’t leave him. He promised to do the same for me. I don’t know if I would have made it without Wisket,” Anna said, and then sniffled. “Everything had been taken away from me. My whole world had crumbled to pieces. He’s my angel.”