She waved Brett over in panic.
“My cousin is gone. I need to go outside and check on him.”
“Sure, we’re slow. I’ve got it covered.”
Juniper raced outside to find Ethan and Damien arguing at the back of the parking lot. She ran toward them, hoping to break up their altercation.
“You’re supposed to be my friend,” Damien shouted at Ethan.
“I am, but she’s my family. She’ll always come first.”
“She’s left you to rot time and time again. You think she’d do the same for you?
“I know she would. You’re medicated and unstable right now. You are a danger to her. I will not let you hurt her.”
“Stop!” Juniper yelled, inserting herself between the two large men. “That’s enough.”
“Get out of the way.” Damien shoved her, knocking her to the ground. Ethan lunged, grabbing his old friend by the neck. Damien threw a hard punch that connected with Ethan’s nose. Blood poured down his chin.
“If you think I’ll let you snitch on me you’re sorely mistaken. Should’ve held those cards a little tighter to your chest.” He struck him again.
“You’re a coward,” Ethan panted as they brawled. The words came out slurred and his eyes darted around in confusion. The blows were taking their toll and the world now spun in circles around him.
Juniper began shoving Damien, trying to break his grip of Ethan.
“Let him go!”
“A restraining order? Really?” He walked backward, towing Ethan in a chokehold.
“Only if you didn’t leave. I won’t do it, just let him go.”
“This jerk is supposed to be my best friend. How’d you convince him to act as your witness? To provide the cops with outside proof?”
“I didn’t have to. Your crazy behavior was enough motivation.”
“It’s your fault this escalated. Just like last time. You act so innocent but you’re the real pot stirrer. Causing drama then dipping from the scene to keep your hands clean.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Everything! Our whole relationship. You ruined me. Made me look like the bad guy who pushed you away. Turned me into a monster that everyone hates. I came here to make things right and look what you’ve done. Made me out to be the villain again.”
“You’ve done that all on your own.”
“No, this is your fault.” His grip tightened around Ethan’s neck and her cousin turned from red to purple.
“Let him go now and this won’t get any worse.”
Damien’s rage caused his entire body to tremble. The chemical mixture coursing through his body distorted everything: her voice was lined with static, his vision was double, and he couldn’t keep up with the speed at which his mind was processing the situation. His senses were heightened. Each second felt like a slow step through quicksand, their every move was magnified as if it were being viewed through binoculars. She took another step closer to him but he saw it as an attack. He swung around, dragging Ethan with him by the neck.
Now she pounced.
Once attached securely to his back she began pounding the side of his head. After a few slams he finally released Ethan to deal with her. Before he could, Ethan caught his breath and rammed his shoulder into Damien’s sternum. Juniper jumped off his back and let the men catapult past her.
They fought relentlessly. The motivation for their fight quickly escalated from being about her to being about everything they’d ever fought over through their decades of friendship. Damien fought Ethan into submission, then stood over him and pummeled his face with aggression. Juniper sobbed and launched herself back onto Damien in an attempt to make him stop, but he was doped up with medication and barely felt her blows or kicks.
Damien was so lost in his fury it took a few minutes for him to gather his wits and realize what he was doing. Ethan was curled in a bloody heap beneath him and Juniper was on her knees sobbing next to his body.
Damien became rigid.
“What is wrong with you?” she exclaimed.
“This is your fault.”
“You killed him.”
He shook his head. “He’s just knocked out. He’ll come around.”
“He was knocked out two minutes ago, but you kept going.” She collapsed onto her cousin’s chest, hugging and crying onto his beaten body. His eyes shot open and he inhaled as much air as he could swallow. Shocked and confused, his body went into a fit of sobs as he gasped for every ounce of oxygen he could get. No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t catch his breath.
She stood and ran toward the bar to call 9-1-1 but Damien chased her down before she reached the door.
“No way you’re turning me in for this.”
“What is wrong with you? He needs medical help!”
“Not at my expense.”
“Let go of me,” she screamed. After a moment of struggle, she broke free of his grasp and ran toward the bar. Brett was now at the door, assessing the scene in horror and stepping out to take action.
“Call an ambulance,” she hollered. She pointed to Ethan. “My cousin needs help.”
Brett ran back into the bar to call the police as Juniper pulled out of the lot on her motorbike. Though Damien gave chase, she had a small lead.
It wasn’t enough. The Triumph Roadster he rented was too fast. He was on her tail within minutes and she wasn’t able to shake him.
She wasn’t sure where to go or what he expected to achieve by following her. Did he plan to take her out too, just like he had done to Ethan? Or was he just on a psychotic rage with no clear purpose or end goal? When he began ramming her bike she realized he wanted her dead.
Instinct led her to the forest. His bike would not ride well there and maybe she could lose him on the trails.
When she reached Hurricane Ridge it turned from gravel to dirt and she began putting distance between them. The dust kicked into his eyes and his wheels held less traction. After almost skidding out and launching himself over the edge of the mountain, he slowed and followed her at a safer distance. It was a single road with no turn offs, so it didn’t matter how far she sped ahead of him; she couldn’t lose him until she reached the forest.
The wind picked up as she reached the end of the road. Her frantic and scared energy radiated into the sky and swooped down over the trees as a distress signal. They swayed in ominous defense. Though the sky now looked as though it might rip apart and destroy everything beneath it, seeing the weather behave in congruence to her current emotional state calmed her nerves. Deep down she knew nature was on her side.
She hit the first trail with speed, aware that Damien’s roadster would struggle on this terrain. The moment he entered the woods her suspicion was proven correct. He decelerated immediately and almost fell at the first turn. When it began to pour his chase slowed even more. Juniper was a skilled rider and the rain was not a problem. She did her best to keep her wet hair out of her eyes as she sped forward. Damien was losing her and his distant howl of frustration was followed by a blast of thunder. The clouds covering the trees made the forest darker than night; only their headlights and taillights were visible. Damien tracked her red taillight with miserable accuracy. Though he could no longer ride his bike with ease, he was still managing to keep up.
Juniper drove faster. The slick mud and her dim headlight turned her progression into a reckless and dangerous slide down the hill. She hit a rut that turned her front wheel unexpectedly and caused her to fly over the handlebars. Ignoring the new pain, she stood up and ran. Deeper into the forest and away from the approaching headlight.
Everything was dark but her feet seemed to know where to step. She didn’t question her body and let it lead based on instinct. Something told her the forest guided her now, but it was hard to determine the source of her newfound direction. It wasn’t coming from her—she couldn’t see anything through the pitch-black shadows of the trees—but she carried onward with inexplicable confidence.
Her bike blocked the trail and forced Damien to pause in his pursuit. Part of her believed for a moment that she was free of him, that the chase was over, but her momentary relief was promptly squashed the moment she heard an engine rev. A small light returned to the trail and grew in brightness as it got closer. She never imagined she’d feel safer cloaked in darkness, but the luminous return arrived with alarm. She ran faster but the bike was on her in seconds. It blasted her with harsh light and defeat; she was caught.
“You’re done,” Damien shouted over the engine and the roar of the wind.
She ignored him and kept running. He let her expend her energy, following her at slow speeds. The chase turned pathetic and he openly mocked her by letting it continue. Watching her futile attempt to escape fed his ego. Seeing her struggle beneath his newfound control of the situation was intoxicating. She was powerless, just like she used to be, just how he liked her.
She fell to her knees, completely out of breath. He stopped the bike a few feet away and left her in the spotlight of his bike’s headlamp.
He was a shadow as he approached; she couldn’t see anything past the light.
“What do you want with me?” Her mind circled around Roscoe, willing him to come, praying he’d sense her distress. She cried out to him in her thoughts.
Damien remained silhouetted, knowing that her inability to see him would heighten her fear.
“Obviously, you are incapable of reason,” he shouted over the pouring rain. “I came here in peace. I came here with good intentions, but you turned my amicable visit into a freak show. You’ve made my honest attempt to reconnect into something poisonous. You are the root of my woes, and I don’t want to suffer anymore.”
She heard the threat. Soaking wet and covered in mud, she tried to catch her breath so she could run now that he was on foot, but she was spent. Kneeling with hands buried in the sludge of the trail she surrendered.
She kept her head down, not wanting to see the blow before it came. She hoped it might hurt less if it came without warning, but when the crack of the strike echoed through the sky, she felt nothing. She turned to squint through the glow of the headlight toward the sound that came from the treetops. It was a screech, one of true horror, and it came from Damien.
Another snap of the whipping wind and his howl abruptly travelled in the opposite direction. She stepped out of the light and looked up toward the noise, hoping to determine what was happening. It was still too dark to see much, but what she could see was otherworldly.
Damien was being tossed among the trees like a ragdoll, branch to branch, seemingly at the trees’ discretion.
She pinched her arm twice to make sure she was not dreaming, but the scene continued. As sinister as it was, and as unnatural as she should have found it, she felt safe. She felt peculiar comfort in the trees’ defense of her well-being.
Numb to the vision of Damien’s slow and gruesome murder, she stood like stone, watching with relief. Rain fell with relentless momentum, cleansing her as it cascaded down. The cool water acted as an agent of serenity as she felt her greatest demon expel from her body and dart toward the murder in the sky. Its shadow wrapped around Damien as he flew between boughs. His screams accompanied the thunder and lightning like a ghostly melody. The rain acted as steady percussion. She found herself swaying, dancing with dead eyes beneath it all. He was stripped from her, taken up and away, leaving her lighter than she’d felt in years. Stunned at her new buoyancy, she smiled amidst the terror.
The rain softened to a drizzle and the clouds parted. It was early afternoon and the sun was finally allowed to reemerge. Hazy light shone on the forest, warming her saturated body with fresh spring heat. She looked for Damien.
It took a few minutes but she eventually found him speared to a tree limb that was sixty feet high. Blood showered the ground as his body drained. She ignored the twisted guilt she felt at his bizarre demise and walked up the trail toward her bike.
She examined the forest around her. In the light of day, the trees moved as she always knew them to, but there was no mistaking they were capable of much more than a simple sway. They were animated; they were more alive than she ever dreamed.
“Thank you for saving me,” she announced into the sky.
She waited a moment hoping to receive a response, but there was none.
Everything went blurry as the reality of what she just endured caught up. Her energy was depleted and her body was breaking down. As her vision began to fade, a cool breeze crossed her path, causing her to halt.
Your survival is ours to protect, dear Champion.
She nodded in gratitude before blacking out. The horrific aftermath still hung above her, dead by the hand of nature.
Chapter 12
When she came to, she was in Roscoe’s arms. He was carrying her into the hospital, she recognized the emergency room.
“Where’s Ethan?” Juniper asked with a pant as she forced herself awake. She tried to wiggle her way out of his arms but his embrace was firm.
“Juni, calm down. You’ll hurt yourself further.”
“I’m fine, put me down.”
“No, you’re not. I found you unconscious in the forest.”
She looked around in confusion. Teek, Misty, and Carine were sitting in the waiting room.
“Put me down!” Her outburst worked and Roscoe obliged.
“What are you guys doing here?” Juniper asked her friends.
“Brett filled us in, he’s still at the bar,” Misty explained.
“I need to see Ethan,” Juniper repeated.
“Where’s Damien?” Roscoe asked.
“Didn’t you see him when you found me?”
“No.”
“He’s dead.”
“Dead? How?”
“You wouldn’t believe me. Where’s Ethan? Is he okay?”
Roscoe shook his head and there was a long pause. Tears filled Juniper’s eyes before he answered.
“He didn’t make it.”
Juniper stared back at him. The emotion she didn’t feel for Damien’s death came pouring out with doubled intensity for Ethan.
“He has to be okay.” Frantic tears fell.
“The head trauma was too significant. He died in the ambulance,” Carine explained. “We waited here, hoping this would be your first stop.”
“Where is he? I need to see him.”
“It’s been a few hours. They had to bring him to the morgue.”
“This isn’t possible.” She wiped the tears from her face with angry force. “He was going to get better. I had him thinking of a better future. It can’t end like this. He never got a second chance.”
Her friends watched her breakdown with sympathy but had no words of comfort to offer.
“He wasn’t supposed to die. Not for me,” she sobbed and fell into Roscoe’s arms. “I ruin everyone I love.”
“You do not. Stop it,” Roscoe demanded. “It was unfortunate circumstances and timing. If he were still here I bet he’d tell you he’d do it again if it meant your survival.”
“I’m not that important that anyone should die on my behalf.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“It’s Damien’s,” Misty chimed in. “This lands on him.”
“You’re grieving,” Carine added. “You’ll see the situation clear in a few days.”
They huddled around Roscoe and Juniper and turned their embrace into a group hug. Amazed that their affection made her feel better, she let herself drown in the warmth of their compassion.
She wasn’t sure how long they stood there, or when the hospital transitioned into Roscoe’s townhouse, but when she reassessed her surroundings, she was on his couch wrapped in a blanket.
She sat up, thoughts clouded and memory faded. She looked over her shoulder to find Roscoe in his kitchen cooking. The aroma was divine.
He caught her bewildered stare, finished stirring the sauce, then made his way to sit next to her.
“How are y
ou doing?”
“I am so confused.”
“You’ve been asleep for a few hours. I think the shock of recent events knocked you out.”
“Remind me of everything,” she requested with tears in her eyes. She already knew what he’d say but she needed to confirm it was true.
“Ethan passed away this afternoon.”
She nodded and the tears fell.
“You told us Damien is dead too, but never said how.”
These words came as a punch to the chest. She recalled the chase through the forest, she remembered how the trees saved her from Damien’s wrath.
“Can you tell me now?” he coaxed.
She shook her head.
“Why not?”
“Because you won’t believe me. I have to show you.”
“Where?”
“In the woods.”
He glanced out the window at the setting sun, then back at Juniper.
“In the morning. We can sort it out then.”
She nodded, still exhausted from the trauma.
“How did you find me?”
Roscoe hesitated. “I think I heard you speak to me. Your voice came to me in a thought. I heard how scared you were, and somehow I sensed your location. It was really weird. I didn’t try to make sense of it. I just had to find you. I’m not sure how to explain it now. I’m just grateful it happened.”
Juniper did not respond. She remembered calling out to him in her thoughts, but never imagined they’d actually reach him. She suspected it had something to do with the trees.
“I’m grateful too,” she said with a smile. They relocated to his bedroom and Juniper fell asleep in his arms.
When morning came, they got dressed and headed toward Olympic National Park. At the end of Hurricane Ridge Road, Roscoe followed Juniper down her man-made trails. They weaved along the dirt paths, over exposed roots and through dense sets of trees. When the path opened wider they rode faster and memories from the previous night assaulted her senses. Juniper tried to keep them contained, tried not to be overwhelmed, but it wasn’t easy. Her stunned and impassive reaction to the supernatural events that took Damien’s life rushed through her once more and she felt terrible guilt for the way she responded. Not on his behalf, but as the kind-hearted human she believed herself to be. It was gruesome, unnatural, and disturbing; she hoped if it had been anyone else suffering that fate her reaction would have been different. She played it over in her head, ashamed of her callous acceptance of brutality. Then she remembered the trees had done it to protect her from certain death. A wave of familiar security washed over her and it overpowered the shame. She was connected to them, they were loyal to her; she wasn’t sure why or how, but she cherished the bond. Recalling this made the rest of the ride to the murder scene less daunting. The trees were on her side.
Hall of Mosses Page 11
