by Blair Aaron
Elsa and Theo continued to make a life together, in the aftermath of all that had happened. He loved her with all his heart, but he knew her situation--that the moment she tried to choose him over Zamir was the moment the forest would pull all of them back into its clutches. So Elsa remained faithful to Theo, but still occasionally wondered about Zamir and whether he would ever come back to her
Theo and Elsa finally would get the chance to consummate the love that burned between their hearts so long ago. Elsa could see through her own nature that Zamir was waiting for her, somewhere in the distance, and even though she tried to communicate with him during the day, she only managed to talk to him at night in her dreams. Maybe one day he would return to her, and when that day came, she would decide what to do about the two men whom she truly loved, the two men who completed each half of her divided soul. She laid the crystal on her nightstand, fearful but excited for the possibility that it would, in the not so distant future, come sparkling to life.
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Prologue
As a child growing up in a Bavarian village, Elsa Gutz learned about the area surrounding her home town through various paranormal myths her parents told her at night before bed. Her father, a stern man who showed his love the best he could, informed Elsa and her sister that their village was surrounded by a forest she must never enter, because the place was full of witches, warlocks, and werewolves. These magical creatures used to actually be normal people, with lives and families, he told her.
“Like with mommies and daddies?”
“Yes,” her father told her. “And brothers and sisters, too.” He plopped Elsa down onto her bed, covering her and her sister with a blanket.
“What happened to them?”
“They entered the Forbidden Forest, which their parents told them not to go into. Just like I'm telling you. The Forest lies far on the edge of town, where you must never go.”
The 6-year old Elsa grimaced, her toddler imagination painting tragic pictures of kids her age waddling into the forest, their parents chasing after them, crying and screaming.
“Did they ever come back?” Elsa asked, groping for some happy ending.
“No, never. The forest ate them, swallowed them up whole, like a hungry demon. But one local blacksmith, furious at his wife for allowing his children to even get close to the forest, vowed to get them back. He got a pick ax and ventured deep into the forest, and he didn't return for days.”
“Did he ever find his kids?”
“Oh, yes, he returned. The villagers asked him if he ever found his children, expecting to say they were gone forever. But to their surprise, he had found them, hidden in clearing between some trees, dancing and sinking naked around a fire pit, the moonlight shining through the trees. He tried bringing them back, but they told him they didn't want to go. His children's fate hurt the blacksmith worse than if they had died. They were lost, evil, gimps of the forest. The blacksmith could not make them normal children again. And he came back with a large bite out of his thigh--from a werewolf, who had driven him out of the forest, away from his children, who were now lost forever.”
Elsa squeezed her big sister's hand, as they listened to their father every night tell stories like this. Before falling asleep, in the space between her dreams and wake, she thought she could see some werewolves outside her window in the forest near her family's humble cabin home. She chalked up the faint images of green eyes staring at her from the recesses of the woods as her mind playing tricks on her.
But in the back of her thoughts, even though she grew older and knew the time for children's games had passed, she still wondered if it all had been more than just a dream.
Maybe, just maybe, the stories were true.
---
A throng of bearded men, wearing sad and somber robes, stood circling some unknown misfortune on the edge of town, near the border between a small, secluded Bavarian village and the wild, chaotic forest which surrounded it from all sides. Further back, the rest of townspeople, every last one of them, stood staring at the unforeseen developments of the night. Earlier, during religious service, young Priscilla entered the town hall, interrupting Father O'Grady's sermon.
“She's back!” Priscilla squealed, and the entire congregation looked up from their Bibles. Father O'Grady looked up from his spectacles, a rosy-faced, white-haired man no taller than five feet.
“Who is back, my child?”
“Lili and Ennis!” Priscilla said, breathless, as she turned and rushed back into the airy night, the autumnal cold creeping through the open doors. Father O'Grady slapped his Bible closed and pushed his little body down from the altar, approaching the open door. The rest of the townspeople followed--old women with their ailing husbands walking on canes, young mothers with babes suckling at their bosom, mischievous teenage boys picking at their female crushes.
On this overcast and wintry evening, the entire congregation followed Priscilla out of the church hall, into the dusky evening, as she led them to the scene discovered at the edge of the forest. The minister ran to the front of the line which formed quickly, so that the rest of the town was pushed back into a confused crowd near the center of the town.
Father O'Grady came close to the three people who lay in the grass in the darkness near the forest, his hands shaking but controlled by the courage of his warm heart. He reached down and touched the shoulder of the woman wrapped in a red shawl, trembling from fight.
“Miss, are you okay?” Her black head raised up to reveal Lili's face, and the entire crowd sighed with shock and relief. She had returned home. “My dearest Lili, you've returned to us. We're so glad you're safe. You gave us quite the scare,” he said, trying to keep his cool. Father O'Grady's eyes were perpetually twinkling with the inner goodness of the man whom many might come to associate with alms giving and a white, curly beard. He picked Lili up by her shoulders. “My, my. You are still in one piece.” He looked down, along with the rest of the crowd, to see young Ennis smiling up at them. “Happy Goodness!” Father O'Grady squealed, picking up Ennis by his armpits and planting a forceful kiss on his tiny cheek. “He's back, too.” Father O'Grady's tears streamed down his face as he studied the young toddler, who stared back at him with a curious blankness, as he then ran his tiny index finger along the damp trail on Father O'Grady's cheek.
“Why do you cry, sir?” his little voice said, elf-like and magical.
Father O'Grady smiled from ear to ear. “Because you're home, little one! We missed you so,” he said, burying the boy in his bear-like chest, taking in his heartbeat with his own. The boy pushed back, squirming to get out of Father O'Grady's hands. He jumped down onto the ground, his feet curiously bare, and ran into the crowd of people. “My sir, where are you going?” Father O'Grady called back, before returning his attention to the young woman at his face. He helped her up by the small of her hand, and she smiled back at him. “Miss Lili, did you go off and become a hero for your son?”
“I tried,” she said, looking around the crowd in the waning light. She seemed so grateful all her townspeople looked after he so intently.
“We are lucky you have returned,” Father O'Grady said. “This has never happened even once in my lifetime. Please tell us how you made it back?” But she didn't answer him, a tiredness growing in her eyes, as if she had just returned from a long marathon or war. She glanced down at the third figure, whom none of the people in the crowd had ever met. Father O'Grady gasped when he realized he had almost stepped on the unconscious blond mane at his feet. He kneeled down to the man, whose upper cheek featured a dark and purple bruise, his ragged clothes hanging in disconcerted shreds from his body. He was hairless and beautiful, blond hair and black eyebrows, perfectly symmetrical about his face. Lili stooped down as well, taking the man's paw in her hand, placing a single soft thankful kiss on his knuckles.
“My hero,” she whispered, as the congregation carried her away before her emotions took over. Holding her in their arms, an elderly couple
guided Lili past the crowd of people, toward the safety of the church-house, passing a curvaceous and subtly beautiful woman in the process. There were several women in the crowd, and they all seemed to take a peculiar interest in Lili's predicament, but possessed even more infatuation with the stranger in their midst. The fading sun, setting on the girls' round and ruddy cheeks, reflected an interest one might expect from much younger ladies, still in their teens.
“I hope she's okay,” one of them said. “Maybe she brought back a husband for us.” The woman laughed.
“That's such an indecorous thing to say, madam. Take it back. He's so beautiful. Who is he?” asked another lady, her broad shoulders grabbing the aforementioned curvaceous woman, pointing her in the direction of the crowd's concentration. “Elsa, look.”
Elsa could not look, as the throng of legs and bodies blocked her view of the scene. She shifted her gaze back and forth, attempting to get a better look at whom Father O'Grady was talking to. “I can't see,” she said, feigning less interest than she had. “Let's forget it, gossips. We should focus on what we have regained. Lili and Ennis have been returned to us.” The comment had a powerful effect on snapping the two other women back into their places, as flashes of genuine guilt spread over their faces.
“You're absolutely correct,” one said. “We mustn’t speak so lightly of a great tragedy which has been averted.”
They all agreed with the woman, tightening their collars and rectifying their attention to the solemnity of the situation. This didn't last long, though, as the entire crowd moved as one entity, closer and closer, to the man laying on the ground near Father O'Grady. The blond man was in this moment a feature in some exotic show, inadvertently put on by the leaders of the town. The crowd filed in a single line past the man, getting one good glimpse, then moving on for the people waiting behind them. When Elsa's turn came, she saw this young, beautiful man sleeping soundly at her feet, while Father O'Grady called for the local healer to fetch a white sheet on which to carry the man. Elsa experienced a strange recognition upon seeing this man, a familiar feeling overcoming Elsa for reasons she was not yet aware of. Around and about him, and between the unsightly forest border and the wheel-track leading into the main area of the town, was a natural pattern which resembled a threshold for the man exiting the forest, a circular red ivy careening around the contours of his physical shape, cradling him in a way that Elsa imagined the ivy offered its fragrance and fragile beauty, as a token for the blossoming recognition growing inside her, beckoning her to take pity on the broken creature before her.
That night, undressing and placing her garments in the washing basin, Elsa massaged her clothes through the warm water, tilting her head as she daydreamed about the day's developments. Her thoughts centered around this man who emerged from the forest. Elsa had never seen the stranger anywhere before throughout the town, as its small population stimulated that its people know others fairly well, there were some occasional exceptions. The blond man might have seen Lili walk into the forest and chased after her, though if he had any family, the town would have known he was missing. But there was another possibility--that the man was a forest dweller to begin with, and Elsa's imagination sparked to life numerous ideas, but she immediately felt guilty about them. Her parents taught her she should do everything to remain safe and sound in the towns, away from the uncertain creature which resided in the woods. She rushed to shut down the track her mind wanted to go down, put away her laundry, and went to bed.
---
The next morning, while she attended daily church services, the congregation was abuzz about the mysterious man who'd saved Lili. The preacher tried his best to focus on his daily lecture, but the crowd was never as responsive as it usually was.
“Today I'd like to remind my beautiful congregation as Waldensians, we have made a sacrifice of poverty in the name of Christ. We are simple town, full of simple people, and if we wish to retain our nobility as Christians, we must continue this path of humble poverty. To be rich in Christ, but poor in funds, is to be the richest man in all of Creation. Amen,” he said, bowing his head at his wooden lectern. The church house, hot dust swirling through the sun rays, aggravated a sneeze Elsa spent several minutes withholding. She sneezed over the back of a young woman's bonnet. Several of the people ahead of her turned back to give her a stern look, sending embarrassed red flushes through Elsa's cheeks. She looked down to avoid their gaze.
“And we witnessed a miracle last night, outside these very doors. Should any of you doubt the power of our Lord, please look down at the front pew for proof, as our dear Lili sits with us once more, her lovely son Ennis by her side. It has been a long time since one of our have ventured past the borders of our tiny village, into those Forbidden Forests, and longer still, that two of them have returned to speak and see as they did before they left us.” Lili huddled with her son on the front row, covered in a black shawl, frightened and weary of how the other church members would treat her. They were cordial to her, of course, and kind, as the townspeople were to everyone. But there was a titanic undertow of fear coursing the vein's of this little village. They feared what Lili had seen, or worse, what knowledge she had brought back with her from her venture into the deep solitude of the forest. So fragile and innocent this town was, with utterly no defense against danger, with not a single violent member.
“Innocence,” the preacher continued, “has been preserved in this village yet another day.”
“And what about the man, sir?” a young girl spoke out from the altar. “What are we to do with him?” she asked.
The preacher looked out over his audience, at the girl who asked the question. He paused in silence, thinking, though the girl believed herself on the verge of castigation for interrupting a leader.
“I'm s-sorry,” she said, before he could respond. “Please forgive me for speaking out of turn, it won't happen again.” She looked away hiding her face.
“My child, this is a place of worship. You belong here as well as anyone else. As for the man, I know you all are thinking of him. I know some of you fear what he might bring to this community, possibly danger.” He stopped, taking a breath. “After some thought, the governor and I have decided to allow him to stay,” he said, grabbing the edges of the podium. The entire congregation erupted into confusion and boisterous chatter. Several lone voices peaked out from the vocal rumble and gossip.
“And what should we do with our children? Who's to keep them safe?” one asked.
“Yeah, we have wives and families we cannot protect from someone, should they want to harm us.”
The preacher made an effort to quiet down his people. “We do not believe this man wishes to harm us. He's very ill and has almost no energy. Leaving one of God's creations out to die, when we can help him, is not our way. All of you know this.”
“He will bring others, more dangerous!”
“We have no reason to think he intends to harm us. After all he brought us our sweet Lili and Ennis home. What motive would someone have to harm us, if they would do that?” The congregation quieted down. “We are following of Jesus, who preached love and forgiveness. This man will not bring harm to this village, I can assure you. We are people of peace and kindness. This was most surely the reason he has returned our Lili and Ennis,” the preacher continued.
“Where have you stored him?” another asked.
“We have not stored him anywhere. He resides, resting in the sable cabin on the outskirts of town. Our dear Father O'Grady, along with the resident healer, watches over him. When there is news that changes the course of this story, I will make an official announcement to all of you. Now, if you please, will you follow along with me on Exodus 3:14…” The preacher continued his sermon, ignoring crowd's unrelenting restlessness, as if nothing had interrupted him to begin with.
---
“Darling,” Elsa said, holding her friend by the shoulders, her face too close for comfort, “please kiss me.” Elsa then kissed Priscilla o
n the cheek, as she turned away in revulsion. Two other girls, Sarah and Chloe, squealed with delight at Elsa's jocularity. The four girls stood in a circle in Priscilla's bedroom, several candles softly burning in the corner by the door. The room was tight, somewhat crowded, but this was where the girls held their semi-weekly vigils on gossip among the other young people of the town.
“I can't believe you did that to me, Elsie. God will smite me for kissing a girl,” she said, rubbing her cheek with the palm of her hand.
“Oh you'll be all right,” Elsa said, her smile stretching across her face, in the way a big sister might after she's put a younger sibling in an embarrassing choke hold. Priscilla fell back on the bed, between twin sisters, with whom Elsa was friends as well. The twins were red-headed, with powder blue eyes, and their smiles belied a mysterious secret only they knew, bonding them together, a two-person tribe against the outside world.
“Elsie,” one of them said, looking up at her from the ridges of their crafty brows, “we have something to show you.” The sisters were known for pulling pranks and concocting mischief in their tween years, but the community caught wind of their shenanigans and put Elsa in charge of making sure the girls didn't stray too far from God's way. Elsa, still laughing at Priscilla's reaction to her joke, looked over at the twin girls, immediately recognizing their familiar glare when they were up to no good. Elsa caught her breath and sat on the edge of the bed, folding her billowing dress under her.
