Her face had lit up with excitement, and I couldn’t help but feel a rush of excitement for the prospect of running away all together again through a limitless forest. Yet I had my doubts that any of what she was saying was even real, so I kept my feet firmly planted on the familiar side of the creek.
“I’ll go and get Evelyn?” Fred offered, looking at Lucas questioningly.
“No,” he muttered, and Tressa leaned closer to hear him. “This isn’t right. We saw her fall, but we never saw her reappear again. This has got to be a ruse to get us over the other side, to meet the same fate she did.”
Fred pouted, torn between Lucas’s advice and his friendship and concern for Tressa. “She must be so lonely.”
“Oh, I’m not alone!” Tressa giggled, and suddenly I wanted to leave. My feet stayed firmly where they were, though, and I felt a deep panic begin to rise. “See? There are lots of us over here, all the people who made the right choice and came to the right side. Come on out!”
The situation turned worse when Avery stepped out from behind a tree with a curious, albeit a little bit nervous, expression. He was looking at me as if I might wring his neck regardless of the Boundary, which I as definitely trying very hard not to do.
“Hello,” he greeted us meekly, not meeting our eyes.
Fred took a step forwards, an unfathomable expression of hate written all over his normally jovial face, and a hissing sounded from the Boundary sizzled through the tension in the air. He jumped back, cursing, and I saw with revulsion that the tip of his nose and his whole left hand were burned a sickly greyish color.
“That supposed to convince us to join you?” I snarled at Avery, throwing as much anger as I could into every word.
“No.” He shrugged. “But this might.”
“It can’t be,” Fred murmured, sporting his injured hand as dead weight and gazing transfixed at the Boundary.
“Beatrix,” I said in amazement.
“I’m so sorry, my darlings,” she apologized emotionally, wiping away a tear. “I’m so sorry I had to leave you like this.”
I felt as though I hadn’t seen her in years. The lined face, messy grey bun, and big heart had been sorely missed, so Avery had been right in guessing she of all people had almost convinced me to cross over. But I held firm.
“You filthy liars,” Lucas snapped, making Fred and I flinch. “Beatrix is dead. We buried her. Are you telling me that the other side is some kind of afterlife? Because I don’t fancy dying just yet, no matter how perfect death is.”
“Won’t you join us, please?” Tressa begged, and my heart cried out for her. She looked so forlorn and helpless – so very unlike the Tressa I knew.
That was when they began to change.
Like the mind monsters that had haunted me before, their eyes turned completely black and demonic, as their teeth elongated to sharp deadly points stained with crimson. A dribble of blood leaked out of the corner of their mouths, and their features became skeletal against translucent skin.
“Please? I’ve missed you so much,” Beatrix pleaded in a grating voice like a badly played violin. It sounded so very wrong coming out of her mouth, but I still couldn’t move.
“What’s happening?” Fred shouted, alarmed. “I can’t move backwards!”
“Well, we sure as hell aren’t going forwards,” Lucas exclaimed, clenching his fists and wrenching himself away from the nightmarish scene. At once, his face cleared of the pain, so I guessed that the visions had faded with his escape. “Penny, Fred, just turn away!”
“I can’t,” I choked, feeling the truth hit me. I physically couldn’t turn away. My legs just wouldn’t move backwards, even as a demon Tressa began to jerkily ascend upon me. “Fred…”
“Me neither!” he panicked, hair standing on end at his proximity to the static Boundary. Beatrix was only a few feet away from him, and reaching out a distorted hand to pull him through.
“Not yet,” another voice spoke, and I froze. It was neither male nor female, not even really human, and I could see no one else standing behind the three monsters. Fred hadn’t so much as flinched, so only I had heard the strange voice. “You and I, we aren’t finished. I have a promise to upkeep, and you won’t get out of it this easily.”
Just like that, Tressa disappeared seconds before she was about to grab me. Avery and Beatrix vanished too, and I felt sadness as if I had lost them all over again.
I stepped away from the Boundary with a shudder, an inkling of who had spoken in my mind but too afraid to speak it aloud.
Fred still stood transfixed at something I couldn’t see, reaching out to touch an apparition with an expression of internal conflict. Standing there in his pajamas, feet turning blue against the cold and burned hand starting to blister painfully, I realized what the trials were doing. It might not have been my time, but apparently they thought it was his.
“Fred, no!” I shouted desperately, grabbing hold of his arm and trying in vain to pull him away from the monsters. Reflexively, he pulled away from me and moved dangerously close to the creek, which was gurgling a lot more eagerly than usual. “Lucas, help me! He can’t hear me anymore!”
There was nothing I could do, and we both knew it. It was down to how strong Fred was against the will of those controlling the vision.
“It’s all right, I’m decent again!” someone called merrily from behind me. “You can all look now.”
Evelyn sauntered near, her hair back in free curls and a pretty blush color dress on. She stopped when she saw Fred, her smile dropping faster than a pebble in the water.
“Fred!” she screamed, running forward to him before I could stop her. “Fred, what are you doing?”
“Evelyn, stop, it’ll only make it worse—” I began, also rushing forwards. Yet Fred didn’t shy away from her. In fact, a look of relief replaced the blank expression on his face. Then he wrenched himself away and fell heavily to the ground, sweat beading on his now flushed face.
“You utter fool, what were you thinking?” Evelyn sobbed, pulling him into a brief hug before wiping her eyes with a soiled hankie. “Why would you even consider leaving us like that, I’d be dead in an instant without you!”
“I’m sorry,” Fred whispered, slightly dazed.
He sat there, shivering in his nightclothes on the damp muddy ground, staring with hollowed eyes at the once again serene Boundary, as if waiting for the monsters to appear once again and drag him to the other side.
“We should go,” Evelyn whispered in a high-pitched tone. “This place is giving me the shivers.”
I fought down a loud cough, nodding as my chest racked with the need to expel whatever was causing the discomfort.
After the leaves fell we always felt a little under the weather, but usually Beatrix gave us some of her medications to quash them within a few days, just as she had with Evelyn’s cold. I had no idea how long they lasted if they were unattended, and for all I knew they could be fatal.
“Dear me, Penny, stop sniffing or I shall personally chop your nose off!” Fred chuckled, only half-joking.
I threw him a poisonous look, snapping back, “You wouldn’t dare, considering that the number of unharmed living people seem to be becoming a rare species! Besides, Lucas has been sniffling all day and you haven’t told him off!”
“This is true,” Fred acknowledged reasonably, and Lucas guiltily removed his nose from his shirtsleeve.
“Maybe we could go and get some medicine from the kitchens,” Evelyn suggested vaguely, sliding over to take hold of Fred’s burned hand protectively. “Fred needs something for his hands, and you two could do with some cold remedies. I myself have a slight sore throat, and I’m near certain the lower quarters are left unlocked since…”
“Good idea!” Fred smiled, gently pulling his hand away. A flash of pain crossed his face, but was quickly replaced by a typical warm grin. “Sorry, Evelyn, it’s a little bit tender.”
“I shouldn’t have left you all.” She frowned, pouting s
o prettily I felt a familiar flash of envy that I tried to subdue. “It was terribly selfish of me. To think of what might have happened had I not come back!”
“Don’t worry,” Fred comforted. “Gosh, you’ve already saved Penny and I from crossing over once before, remember? You owe us absolutely nothing!”
Evelyn blushed a deep pink that matched her gown, and I looked away. I had a feeling the conversation wasn’t supposed to include Lucas and I anymore, so I zoned out to allow them privacy.
Irritatingly, we had sleepwalked to the far side of the Boundary, and there was absolutely no recognizable path leading back to the lawns. I also knew we would have to pass by Beatrix’s grave and Tressa’s memorial, which would not be pleasant considering which state we had just seen them in.
My nightgown snagged on a bramble, my arms scraping against a gnarled tree trunk. I tripped over a network of roots covered by a layer of shriveled leaves. By the time we reached the spot where the trees became less dense, I was in a foul mood and sporting an array of bruises. And it was only before breakfast; some days were simply destined to be awful.
I threw out my hands to stop my friends.
“What’s wrong?” Lucas asked in confusion, rubbing the spot on his face where my outstretched arm had slapped him.
“Where’s Evelyn?” I replied, spotting Fred beside me. He must have heard the panic in my tone, as he whipped his head around to find her so fast that I heard his neck snap.
“Ouch!” he hissed, stumbling into the overhanging branches of a dead willow. “She’s right here.”
“I never went anywhere,” Evelyn informed me, puzzled as the rest of them.
“Oh no,” Lucas said, deathly quiet.
I followed his line of sight and saw him looking at the same thing as me, his face quite pale. “That cannot be good news.”
For just visible amid the rolling mist over the lawns were a couple of familiar shapes outlined in black granite against another dead tree, eerie and melancholy at the same time. Beatrix’s grave was the largest, the writing still perfectly legible on the smooth speckled surface. Tressa’s tall, thin monument equally was polished but plain as ever, standing a few feet away but just as prominent.
That wasn’t what had stopped my heart.
There was a third stone.
It was the same size and shape as Tressa’s but without writing. A memorial for those who had failed to withstand the trials, by their hand or another. A sign of what was to come, and the fate that awaited one of us.
“Perhaps it was meant for me,” Fred suggested shakily. “You know, as if I was meant to step over the Boundary and disappear a few minutes ago. Evelyn probably wasn’t fixed into the equation, so He didn’t count on me surviving and planned ahead.”
“You still think He is behind all this – the trials?” Evelyn pressed curiously, wincing at the dread any reference to Him brought.
I briefly thought back to the barely concealed fear He had sported whilst reading D’s letters, then focused in again on the situation at hand.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said dismissively. “I don’t think this was meant for Fred – at least, not at the moment. Look what’s at its foot.”
Lucas stepped forward and picked up a crunchy brown ball of something from below the pillar, showing it to Fred and Evelyn solemnly.
“A rhododendron blossom,” Evelyn gasped, covering her mouth with a wavering hand.
Beware.
“It’s meant as a warning,” Lucas explained darkly, dropping the flower to the ground as if it was unlucky. “But it might only be to scare us into doing something stupid, so let’s not lose our heads just yet. Besides, if it is a legitimate foreshadowing, there is probably nothing we can do to stop it from happening, so why worry?”
His words hung in the air like the low storm clouds, but instead of bringing comfort they just set a mood of anxiousness and dread.
I looked at each of my dear friends, thinking about which one of them it would be. Perhaps it was gentle, positive Fred, who had already experienced one too many narrow escapes. Shallow, sweet Evelyn, never one to think about her actions. Dependable, clever Lucas, who like me could be hiding secrets of his own. Or me, grimly certain of my immunity.
I couldn’t stand losing anyone, but Lucas was right, there was nothing we could do.
“We should go,” I suggested flatly, my voice lower than usual. “If we’re going to get some medicine before breakfast, we’d better get moving, or else all the food will disappear.”
“Shame,” Fred muttered sarcastically. “I rather enjoy the taste of dirt in the morning.”
Evelyn giggled, drawing a pleased beam from Fred, and I found myself looking away again. What was wrong with them being happy? I chided myself.
The third tombstone vanished as the thick silver mist enveloped it, only the pointed top visible through the dense blanket, like the point of a shark’s fin in the foggy ocean.
I was only too glad to finally turn the corner towards the front doors, away from the graveyard. The slightly higher elevation also meant that the ground was clear of fog, and the brittle grass was once again visible under my blue, bare toes. It was positively freezing, sharp bits of twigs and a thick layer of caked mud covered the souls of my feet. What I wouldn’t give for a nice, hot, steamy bath!
The first thing we did when we were back inside was rush upstairs and put on proper clothes. I pulled on my favorite, most comfortable navy dress and accidentally ‘forgot’ my chemise, not even bothering to comb my hair yet taking extra time to select my thickest stockings. Evelyn patiently waited on a chair whilst I made myself decent, applying some power to her pale face to make it seem rosier.
We met the boys in the breakfast room, deciding to get medicine afterwards, and choked down some disgusting substance that resembled colorless vomit. Whoever was in charge of food had clearly decided that disguising foul tastes with appetizing-looking dishes was not worth the bother, for now the food seemed to resemble how it tasted.
I ate because I didn’t fancy starvation, and my stomach was grumbling meekly inside my rapidly shrinking tummy.
“That was probably the worst meal yet,” Lucas exclaimed, looking somewhat greenish. “Nothing edible should have that consistency.”
“Urgh…” Fred moaned, rushing out to the balcony and leaning over to be sick. Evelyn hadn’t even eaten anything at all!
Then we went to what had been Beatrix’s quarters. Down the few steps, along the passageway, and through the unlocked door straight ahead to the kitchen.
The kitchen was a tiny room of simple whitewashed cabinets, with slabs of varnished wood for countertops. I could see no oven or any sort of stovetop, and when I peeked my head into the little pantry, there were only a few loaves of bread, tins of flour, and a couple of jars lined up along the back. It wasn’t functional at all, which of course meant our food was coming from outside the Boundary. Which meant there had to be a way out.
We found all the cabinets to be empty of food, only containing the dinner service and cutlery that we used during our meals. In one end drawer, though, we found Beatrix’s old first-aid kit, complete with bandages and a few containers of odd substances.
“Do you know which ones are which?” Fred asked me, as if I was suddenly the expert. “They all look exactly the same.”
“No idea. Maybe we should just try all of them and see which ones make us feel better,” I suggested, picking up a little white bottle and sniffing the contents testily. They were utterly odorless – so perhaps harmless.
“Don’t be stupid.” Lucas rolled his eyes scathingly. “These things can be poisonous if taken the wrong way, I read about them in a book. Besides, they might not even be medicine.”
“Do you have a better idea?” I replied in the same tone. “Evelyn, do you remember what Beatrix gave you for your cold?”
She shook her head. We stared at the twenty or so bottles in blank confusion, until my eyes started to become unfocused and I saw the lit
tle wavering rips in between the air. Offhandedly, I levitated one about an inch off the ground before I was forced to blink and drop it.
“Do you know what?” Evelyn announced into the silence, and we wearily turned to look at her. “I think we should abandon this. It’s just a cold we all have, not serious at all, and since we don’t know what these medicines do it really would be silly to experiment with them. They might just make us worse, and for all we know they could be part of the trials!”
“Beatrix’s medical stash part of the trials?” I said scornfully. “It’s been here forever.”
“But what if the sickness is a test!” Evelyn explained vigorously, throwing her arms around to try to get her meaning out clear. “What if taking the medicine counts as failing and we lose? Disappear like Avery did!”
It was quite peculiar being lectured on a deep, cryptic subject by Evelyn, yet what she said made sense. Were we willing to take such a risk for the sake of a stuffy nose or sore throat?
“Thank you for scaring me!” I shuddered lightly, taking a step away from the jars as if one might force itself down my throat.
So we left. It had been a hectic morning to say the least, with so many events in quick succession happening like hops over a pond. It seemed like everything was happening – yet nothing had happened.
I visualized the bottles in the drawer as tiny tombstones, with demonic clones of their owners appearing from behind in the mist. Was there anything I could do to stop that last grave having an owner?
21
I had a peculiar dream. It hadn’t anything to do with the baby or strange, realistic scenes, and was in fact just like every other normal dream. I was walking through the gardens by myself, admiring the freshly blooming flowers (it must have been springtime) and wandering about in an exceptionally good mood. The graveyard was silhouetted in the distance, but I paid it no mind. Until I smelled something odd.
Smoke rose from behind the granite like a great billowing cloud, but unlike normal smoke it was forming hideous monstrous faces which tried to bite me as I walked. In my subconscious, I was both afraid and steadfast, facing the smoke with unsure interest.
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