by Sarah Swan
“Going to a meeting.” He made a face.
“Oh. Who with?”
“My father,” he answered solemnly. He didn’t look like he was looking forward to it.
“Oh, that’s right. You said he’s a professor. Right?”
“Yeah, exactly. It kind of sucks, though, that the only time he has time to see me is during his office hours.”
“He’s that busy?” I asked. “But at least you get to see him here. My parents are literally on the other side of the country.”
“I guess,” he laughed. “And yeah, he’s always working. Since I started living in the dorms with everyone else, we’ve kind of just… drifted apart, I guess.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
He shrugged. “I’ve gotten used to it by now. Not that I wish it hadn’t happened, though. But yeah, I’ve got to run. When I just saw you, I thought we needed… to talk about us.”
“What do you mean, ‘us’?” I asked suspiciously.
“I mean, are we dating now, or boyfriend-girlfriend, or somewhere in between…?”
“Oh! I hadn’t thought of that yet,” I told him honestly. “You’re right though. It’s something we should definitely talk about. Later today?”
“Sure,” he agreed cheerfully
“Just give me a call?”
“Okay. Will do.”
“Great.”,” I said, giving him a quick hug.
He turned around to leave, and after a second’s hesitation, I called out his name. “Chris, wait!” He turned around, and I went on my tiptoes to give him a little kiss. He smiled dreamily, and touched his cheek. “I’ll see you later,” I said.
Not long after, I was on the path from the main yard to the dorms, looking for the small trail leading to the lake. It was no more than a half a foot wide, and made entirely of downtrodden earth and mud. I thought I could have walked by it every day this year and never seen it had I not been looking for it. It extended over the hills into the forest.
The forest that covered the northern half of the island was enormous and imposing. Grassy hills had sprung up where it had been cleared to make room for the main parts of campus. Everything north of here was pure wilderness. As I walked toward the tall, dense trees, making sure to stay on the path lest I enter the woods in the wrong place, I felt a little like an adventurer, entering the wild, untamed parts of the world. When I got up to the edge of the woods, I looked for that orange, triangular mark that Liz told me about. I spotted it on a tree about a dozen feet away, and started toward it.
From there, finding the next triangles turned out to be pretty easy. There were hints of the path on the forest floor, making it fairly easy to go the right way. There were a few times, though, when I had to climb over a toppled evergreen, or sneak around a rotting, half-cleaved trunk to spot the next marker.
As I moved farther and farther away from the civilized part of the island, the trees seemed to grow a little denser, and the air turned a little thicker. Soon, the sounds of the bustling main yard faded, replaced by a serene, calm quiet. I could hear the birds right above me. Every now and then, I picked up the hurried footsteps of some small animal. I hoped there weren’t any large predators here, like bears or anything like that. The wind rustled high above me, shaking the tops of the tall evergreens. Small needles came showering down. I took in everything, realizing how much these trees reminded me of the forests back home.
It took me another half hour before the orange triangles brought me to a clearing in the forest. There, I saw the lake for the first time. I had to stand still for a minute just to admire its beauty.
The shimmering blue surface of the lake reflected the sunlight perfectly. Not a single wave marred the calm water, which looked in enviable harmony with its surroundings. Everything about the lake, from its pebble rock beach, to the way the trees lined the edges, looked as if it had been placed there by a brilliant artist. The place was a sanctuary from the rest of the island, protected by the shelter of the forest.
Across the water, I saw a young deer lapping at the lake. I approached slowly, taking care not to make any sound. The fawn still noticed me, its ears up and alert. It stared right at me. Then, sensing no immediate danger, it returned its attention to the lake.
I looked around for Liz, but couldn’t see her anywhere. I wasn’t sure why she wanted to meet me here, but I wasn’t complaining. The spot was absolutely pristine. Picking a seat underneath the shelter of a tall tree, I settled down on the ground, leaning against the gnarled bark. I inhaled deeply. Nature here was untouched by humans. I heard a wild bird call in the distance. Its cry was answered by another closer to me. I was perfectly content to wait for Liz.
A small breeze made its way through the trees and across the lake, stirring up the calm surface. The water lapped gently at the shoreline. In the serenity of the moment, I found it fitting to close my eyes. The lake was just so peaceful, so very calming that I couldn’t help myself. And, without realizing it, I drifted off into a blissful sleep.
Chapter Fifteen – The Seekers
“Tracy? Hey, Tracy!”
I was awakened by something nudging my leg. Groggily, I looked around, trying to figure out what it was. I saw Liz standing over me, hands folded in front of her chest. Suddenly the end of her toe jammed into my leg.
“Hey!” I protested, pulling my leg away. “What’s that for?”
“Trying to wake you up. Duh!” Liz moved to do it again. I scrambled up before she had the chance.
“I’m up, I’m up! Jeez…” She hadn’t been gentle about it, nor did she look particularly happy right now. I rubbed my leg.
“So what’s going on? I told you we need to meet at four, and I don’t find you here until hours later?”
“Hours later…? What are you talking abou—” I looked around for the first time, and saw in alarm that it was already getting dark. The dying rays of the sun were reflecting off the calm lake surface, and the shadows of the trees stretched far along the water. “How long was I asleep?” I said, half to myself.
“Don’t know,” Liz replied. “I found you here just now.”
“I got here right when we were supposed to meet!” Could I really have slumbered for that long? Something didn’t add up. “Before that, even.”
“Well, you’re here now, at least,” Liz said with a sigh. “There’s a lot we need to talk about.”
“I know.” I wondered if what she wanted to talk about had anything to do with what I wanted to talk about. “Where do we begin?”
“Actually, I need to tell you something, first.”
“Sure. What is it?”
Liz bit her lip in a moment of uncertainty. “Actually, it would be better if I show you.” She turned around and took a few strides away, before looking back at me. “You coming?”
With a start, I realized I was standing still, and quickly followed her. My entire upper body felt stiff, especially my back, from falling asleep in an awkward position. But why had I dozed off, anyway? I hadn’t felt particularly tired. Anyway, those were questions for another time. “Where are we going?” I asked Liz.
“You’ll see,” Liz said in the same secretive voice Chris had used when leading me to the crystals.
“I don’t see why we had to meet all the way out here,” I said as I picked my way through the undergrowth, catching up to Liz. “I mean, the lake is nice and all, but wouldn’t it have been easier to just talk in one of our rooms? Or somewhere in the main yard? Why did we have to come so far?”
Liz shot me an inscrutable glance, followed by the barest of frowns. “Just come on,” she urged.
She led me halfway around the lake. At a gnarled old stump of a tree, she turned into the deeper forest. She seemed very sure of the way she was going. After walking for maybe five minutes, I had no idea where we were. We had taken so many twists and turns that it would have been hard for me to say which way the lake was, now. Liz, however, shared none of my uncertainty.
“Where are you taking
me?” I asked again, breaking the uneasy silence. The only sounds I could hear were our footsteps crunching on the dry forest floor.
Liz nodded ahead. “It’s not much farther.”
“What is it, though?” I asked.
“You’ll see soon enough,” Liz replied vaguely.
I sighed. Against my better judgment, I kept going. There wasn’t much that ever felt threatening to me, but walking toward some unknown destination in a quickly darkening forest would definitely have been on the list. The orange glow of the day’s remaining light shone sporadically through the trees, casting rays where the canopy wasn’t too thick. One of those smaller rays shone down ahead, and as Liz walked through it, I thought – just for a moment – that the air around her took on an almost angelic luster, much like the way it shimmered around the crystals.
The crystals! Around them was the last time I had zoned out inexplicably. Today, it happened again, although this time I had merely fallen asleep. Both times, it seemed, I had, somehow, lost complete track of time. It was more than that, though. It was as if I had just ceased to notice the passage of time. Nothing like this had ever happened before. It was frightening. I wondered if the two events were related, and if so, if either of them had anything to do with the concussion I’d suffered recently. I made a mental note to go back to the clinic and get myself checked out if it ever happened again.
Suddenly, I picked up the faint scent of burning wood. A fire? I looked around, but couldn’t see anything. It disappeared so quickly, I thought I had imagined it. But not long after, the smell returned, stronger this time.
“Do you smell that?” I asked Liz. In my head, I tried to retrace the path we’d taken back to the lake. If there was a fire somewhere in these woods, I didn’t want to be anywhere near it lest it flare up. Not that I expected to be able to outrun a forest fire. “That’s not a fire, is it? I asked anxiously. “We should probably turn back.”
Liz turned around to face me. “I think it is,” she said gravely. “And I can see it right now.”
“What?” I shrieked. Panic gripped me. If there was a fire burning this close to us, we had to run to have any chance of getting away. With any luck, it would still be small, and wouldn’t ignite any of the heavier vegetation. If those caught fire, we’d both be done for. “Where?”
“Right there,” Liz said, pointing in front of her. She stood at the top of a small incline, and was pointing down the other way. I couldn’t see anything from where I stood. I raced up toward her, expecting to see the worst….
Instead, I found a wide, flat clearing in the woods up ahead. There were small stumps scattered all around, where trees had once stood. Right in the middle was a raging bonfire. Thick, dark smoke curled up into the sky. Every once in a while, a passing gust blew toward us, bringing with it the smell of burning wood.
Liz laughed beside me. “Scared ya, didn’t I?”
I punched her in the arm. “That’s not funny!”
“You always need some humor to lighten up a serious moment,” she told me.
I didn’t know what she meant. Then I noticed, seated around the fire, three very distinctive human shapes that I would have recognized anywhere. There was Eve, the girl who protested so strongly against bringing Liz to the clinic; Ashley, who I didn’t know at all but had taken some sort of perverse interest in me; and Madison, the only one out of the three who was friendly toward me.
“What is this?” I asked Liz. I had a sinking feeling that it could only be bad. “If this is some type of hazing thing…”
“No, no! Nothing like that,” Liz assured me. She shot me a quick smile, but it looked a little forced. “Come on. We’re almost there.”
Liz linked her arm through mine, and, giving me a reassuring pat on the shoulder, started forward. Madison was the first to notice us. When we were halfway down the incline, she gave a small wave that she quickly suppressed. For some reason, I thought she looked nervous.
“Girls,” Liz announced as we came up to the fire, “Tracy is here.” The heat of the flame raged against my face. I wondered why the three girls were sitting so close.
Eve looked up at me for the first time, gave a condescending snort, and turned back to stare at the fire. Ashley, the dark-haired raven, didn’t even so much as glance my way. Madison was the only one who stood up and came over to embrace me. “I’m glad you came,” she whispered in my ear. When I tried to catch her arm to ask what it was I came for, she slipped away. The fire cackled loudly in front of us. There was a palpable tension in the air.
“What’s going on?” I asked, directing my question at Liz but including the other girls as well. Eve didn’t look my way. Ashley squinted at me, as if I were some sort of threat to her. I met her gaze, though, and saw that the area around her eyes was lined and creased, as if she hadn’t had any sleep for days. Why was she looking at me with such apprehension? Only Madison smiled, and nodded tightly to Liz. “Liz?” I asked again. “What’s going on? What is this place? And isn’t it dangerous to have a fire going out here?” The timber around us was dry, and a single spark could ignite the whole forest. It hadn’t rained on Traven Island since I arrived.
Ashley scoffed, and stared daggers at me. “You shouldn’t have brought her here, Liz.” Her voice was serious.
“That’s not for you to decide,” Liz said with just as much gravity.
“I have just as much a say in this as you!”
“No,” Liz shook her head. “That’s not true.”
Ashley snorted, and crossed her arms. “Why don’t we let the group decide, then, as we’ve done every time in the past?”
“The decision’s already been made, Ashley.”
“But that doesn’t mean it’s the right one!” Ashley looked at Eve, and Madison. “I invoke my right to call into question the necessity, no, the legitimacy, of this action.”
Liz sighed. “We’ve done this before, Ashley.”
“Not under my rights,” she said defiantly.
“Could somebody tell me what’s going on?” I asked.
“Fine,” Liz exhaled. “We’ll have the vote again, this time under your rights. But this is the last time! We can only go in circles for so long.”
“Fine,” Ashley said, grinning like a Cheshire cat. “This time, I’ve had the chance to give my arguments to the other girls.”
“Overruled,” Liz said. “You know it’s a violation of our standing regulations to lobby for your position without all members present.”
“They’re the same concerns I raised to you.”
Liz rolled her eyes. “Fine. In this case, since I was the one absent, I’ll allow the vote to go on.”
“What is going on?” I asked again.
“Great,” Ashley said smugly. “So. Given that we’ve all heard the evidence for and against, I’ll simply raise my concern to the group: I believe it a terrible, damaging, and completely irreversible proposition to reveal to this…” she glanced at me, “…this outsider the secrets that should be guarded with our lives. So, I say we dismiss the current procedure, following proper protocol of course, and return Tracy to her insignificant, little life. Everybody for?”
Her own hand shot up, as did Eve’s. I looked at Liz, who was struggling to keep her composure. Both her hands, however, remained firmly at her sides. Ashley looked expectantly at Madison, who seemed to be in conflict. Her eyes darted from me and Liz to Ashley and Eve. She looked struck by indecision. Her hands, which both rested on her knees, were both still. After another long second, her eyes settled on Ashley, and she started moving her left hand. Ashley smiled in victory.
But, Madison didn’t raise her hand. Instead, she moved it to the side, and thrust it firmly underneath her legs. She shook her head defiantly at Ashley, and then looked at me and cast me another tight smile. I wasn’t dumb enough to misunderstand the implication: a stalemate. You could cut the tension with a knife.
Ashley’s victorious smile quickly turned into a frown, and she gritted her teeth. “E
verybody against?” she said in a tight, controlled voice.
This time, Madison’s hand went way up, as did Liz’s.
“A draw,” Ashley mumbled.
“Not a draw,” Liz corrected, “since my vote is weighed more so than yours.”
“But mine more than Madison’s!” Ashley exclaimed.
“Yes, and Madison’s more than Eve’s,” Liz reminded. “Remember, the highest-power members on either side are matched up against one another.”
“Humph!” Ashley sat back, crossing her arms. She may have just been defeated, but the way she sat there, her back perfectly straight, said that she would fight to the bitter end.
“Would somebody please tell me what’s going on?” I demanded, more loudly than before. “Liz? Madison?”
“A vote,” Liz said plainly, as if I hadn’t just seen that, “on whether or not we should allow you in.”
“Allow me into what?”
“Our group,”
“What do you mean?” I asked again. “What is your group? How do you know I even want to be a part of it?”
“You said you wanted to know what happened that night at the party.”
“I— what?”
“At the party,” Liz repeated, “when you found me in that room. I heard you were asking about what happened.”
“Yes, but I don’t see how—”
“We don’t have to tell her everything!” Eve exclaimed over me. Liz glared at her.
“Were you not just here for the result of the vote?” Liz demanded. “We’ve followed all protocol. Bringing her into this was the group’s decision!”
“She could endanger all our secrets!”
“What secrets?” I asked. “Who’s secrets? Why should I threaten these secrets you’re all talking about?!” As before, I was ignored.
“She’s not like that,” Liz stressed.
“But she’s an outsider, Liz,” Ashley said indignantly. “Why should we let her in?” It seemed the vote did little to deter her initial position.
“Because she’s the one we need.” Liz flashed me a tight smile. To me, all this sounded like a fight they’d had before.
