In The Woods Somewhere

I open my eyes to the sound of birds chirping around me, and the wind blows through my braided hair as I stand on my feet. I yawn and stretch my stiff limbs, shaking the snow from my body. It’s a beautiful morning, the moon is still up, but as I look to the east, I can see the sun peeking out from behind Mystwick Mountain. It’s not actually called Mystwick Mountain, but that’s what I’ve named it ever since I was younger.

The forest is my favourite place to be and whenever I stay the night, I always sleep in this same clearing.  It calms my nerves and helps me to forget who I am for a while. It’s my haven. As I move silently through the snow topped trees, I find the river, which has been frozen over with ice. I follow the river for a few minutes. I never worry about getting lost, for I know this forest like the back of my hand. And I don’t need to be worried about being attacked by cats or bears or anything of the like, because it will be the last thing they ever do.

But I don’t like to think about that. So I don’t.

Instead I clear my head and focus on the crisp air going in and out my nose. My breath comes out of my nose in swirls of steam. It reminds me of the breath of a dragon. I like to draw dragons. They’re magnificent creatures and I’ve always wanted to fly high in the sky with them.

While my thoughts have carried me away, I don’t realise I’ve got company until it’s standing right in front of me. The snow white lynx sits before me and stares up at me with stunning yellow eyes. Suddenly I’m scared. Not for myself, but for the lynx. I wave my hands at it, trying to frighten it into running away, but it doesn’t. It just sits there and stares at me. All I want to do is pet it but I can’t. Its fur looks so soft and unintentionally my hand reaches out for the lynx. Just before I feel its fur, I realise what I’m about to do, jerk my hand back, and run away. I go back to the clearing where I was before, hoping that I lost it.

I sit on the bed of snow and take my hair out of its braids. The sun is up now and has begun the day by melting the snow that has gathered over night. I don’t care about getting wet because I’m already soaked. That’s another thing about me. Although I’m always cold, the temperature doesn’t affect me. The only time I feel warm, is when I am touching a living thing. And I hate myself for it. It’s this fact that gives me nightmares every night ever since I remember.

Just as I’m beginning to relax, I hear a rustling noise in the bushes that surround the clearing. It came from my left, so I turn my head, but find nothing. Then I look to my right and find the lynx sitting near the edge of the clearing. But I swear it came from . . . Well, I guess not then. The lynx walks towards me and I hear a purr coming from its throat. And I’m frozen like ice.

I cannot move. I know what’s going to happen and I hate myself for it. It’s getting closer. Move, I tell my body, but it won’t listen. Its face is only centimetres from mine know and it’s looking right at me, but it doesn’t even realise the danger it’s in. I want to scream, but my body won’t listen. And then the inevitable happens, the soft lynx bends forward and rubs its neck against my shoulder, and suddenly I am filled with warmth, and then it’s cold again, and I turn to the lynx which is now lying on the ground beside me.

I hear another rustling in the bush. And the birds have stopped chirping. The only thing I hear are the shaky breaths going in and out of my mouth. I stand up and look at what I’ve done and I’m disgusted with myself. I’m a killer. A murderer. The clearing seems to be getting smaller. I need to get out of here.

I run.

I follow the river until I get to the lake it flows into. To the right of the river and upon a small hill on the banks of the lake, lies the familiar three story mansion I call my home. The doors slam against wooden walls and I run up the stairs to the third floor and through the maze of corridors to the end of the west wing. The West Wing is all but closed off, except for my room, far away from the others. Which is exactly how I like it.

I think I hear loud footsteps and shouting following me, but I cannot be sure as I’m crying. I burst into my bedroom and slam the door shut behind me, flinging myself onto my bed as the tears stream relentlessly down my face.

I grab the closest thing to me and throw it against the opposite wall. It did nothing. Bloody pillow. My sobs are getting louder as the reality of what I’ve done hits me. I look to my bedside table and find a beautiful glass lamp. Perfect. I chuck it across the room and it gives a satisfying crash.

I close my eyes and let myself calm down. Just forget, I tell myself, just forget. And I try, but just sitting here isn’t going to do anything because all I can see is the lynx and how it fell to ground before me.

I stand up, and storm into the side door of my room that holds my bathroom. I shed my clothes and hop into the shower. I stand under the showerhead and let the water flow over my body. It soothes me and now I can think clearly again. The kind part of my head is telling me that everything’s going to be okay. It’s not like it hasn’t happened before. It’s always been a part of your life and you’ve just got to accept it. So just for the moment, I do, and I let myself slip away into a sort of trance where my life is normal.

But before long I hear a knock on the bedroom door, and a voice is saying “Come on Madison you’re late! They’re already here!” My eyes open wide in panic as I look at the time hanging above the bathroom door. It’s 9’o’clock. I’ve been in here for 2 hours? Well shit. “Sorry Mum! I’m coming I’m coming”

All previous worries behind, I shut the water off and quickly dry my body. I don’t have time to dry my hair. I chuck on the first clothes I find and run through the halls, down the stairs, and even through a secret passageway that I had once found, until I come to the doors to the dining room. I open them and step through, but what I see has me frozen on the spot.

A purple haired, green eyed woman, or I could just say my mother, was speaking with Professor Matthews, my teacher which I was expecting because I am home schooled, but what I was not expecting, was the beautiful young man standing a few steps behind the Professor. He was staring around at the interior of the dining room, his blonde hair shining in the pale sun light that beamed through the windows. His chocolate brown eyes followed the exquisite craftsmanship of the mahogany table, then to the clock throne like chair at the head of the table, and then his eyes wandered about until he saw me.

I quickly look down but I can tell he’s still looking at me. My face is getting hot and I’ve got butterflies in my stomach. Internally I pull myself together and walk towards mum, but I stumble a bit as I feel the boys gaze on me. What is wrong with you? Stop being an idiot! I mentally scold myself for behaving like such a fool. But the only males I have seen with my own eyes before have been Leroy and Professor Matthews, and although Leroy is very handsome in my opinion, he is my brother, and Professor Matthews might have been good looking when he was younger but his exterior has grown wrinkly with age. And with that said, I now realise it is totally acceptable for my reaction of this interesting specimen.

It’s not like I’ll ever see him again anyway. This is probably just a one off.

I stumble while walking to my mothers’ side, and as she sees me, she pulls some white gloves out from the side pocket of her jacket. I am confused but then mentally slap myself, reaching out quickly and almost snatching the gloves from mothers’ hands, hurriedly pulling them on.

After I have got them on I hear Professor Matthews clear his throat, “Good morning Madison”

“Good morning Professor Matthews. How are you this morning?” I say nervously peeking at the boy behind the Professor.

“I’m quite well thank you,” but he notices my uneasiness and it doesn’t take long to put two and two together. “I see you’ve noticed our company. Ben, would you like to introduce yourself?”

All eyes turn to the boy, and I realise he’s older than I am, not by much though; I’m guessing 18, maybe 19. But then suddenly the boy walks ever so confidently around the Professor to stand right in front of me. His eyes turning upwards to meet my green ones and as I stare at his magnificent beauty, the whole world seems to just slip away.

And it’s just him.

A light nudge on the shoulder brings me back to reality, and I realise with an inward groan that I’ve completely missed what this handsome stranger has just said to me. I’m just going to assume he said something like ‘Hello, my name is (whatever my name is). Nice to meet you,’ or something along those lines.

So I reply “Nice to meet you too. My name’s Madison,” Which straight away I can tell was not the right thing to say, as all at once the boy looks at me with a confused but slightly amused look upon his face, the professor shakes with silent laughter, and I hear a sigh come from my mother. Well shit.

 I instantly know that I’m blushing, and not just the little pink spots on the cheeks blush, but an angry red all over my face blush. And then there’s silence. The kind where everyone is just awkwardly looking from one person to the other, nobody knowing what to do or say. I know what I wanted to do anyway, which was run to my room and hide there for the rest of eternity. But I knew I couldn’t.

Finally Mum breaks the tension, “Well you guys better get on with your lesson then right Professor?”

“Why of course, of course.” And with that the boy and I were lead by the professor to the magnificent dining table that ran through the centre of the room.

Well this was certainly going to be interesting

Now I’m just lying on my bed, day dreaming about the forest and Mystwick Mountain, when there’s a knock on my door. “Come in,” I say, knowing exactly who it is. My brother walks in and comes and sits next to me on my bed.

“Mum wants to talk with you downstairs,” he says.

“Can’t it wait? I’m a little busy at the moment,” I reply.

“Doing what?” And he’s got me.

“Whatever then. Lead the way.” I gesture towards the open door way. I follow him through the corridors and down the spiral staircase to the ground floor, and through an open door way to the living room. Mum’s sitting on the couch watching the news. I didn’t realise it was 6’o’clock already.

I sit next to her and watch the news. It was currently showing a list of missing people with their pictures. They are describing this one girl at the moment, and the story is that she ran away from home with her boyfriend. And then there’s the picture of the girl and her mate, with arms wrapped around each other. They look so happy, and I know I will never forget that girl. Why would she run away when she looked so happy? There have been a lot of disappearances lately, all of them apparently runaways.

The ads came on next so I had a look around the room. For the old looking mansion the lounge was pretty modern, with a huge flat screen TV and wide couches with tons of cushions. There was even a mini bar on the back wall, although we don’t really use it much. I see that Mum has even changed the flowers on the coffee table. Good for her.

I turn to her and she mutes the TV. “Why were you crying?” she asks.

It takes me a while to realise what she’s talking about. “I killed a lynx.” I say dejectedly.

“Everyone makes mistakes.” Mum says but we’ve been over this and she doesn’t seem to understand.

It makes me angry. “But my mistakes hurt people! You’ll never understand!”

And with that everything in the room is now floating around in the air, even me. Everything except Mum and Leroy. My mother has an extraordinary gift, where she can control the gravitational pull in a limited area, and that’s what is happening right now. She’s always does this when I get upset, and when I was younger, it used to make me so happy, but now it just makes me angry.

“Put me down!” I scream at her.

“Not until you apologise.”

“Apologise for what? I didn’t do anything to you!”

The expression goes as soon as it comes. Hurt. But why?

She returns the gravity to normal so I’m spread out across the coffee table.

“Leroy can you please leave us?” Mum asks, turning to my brother. He gives me a pointed look, and then walks silently out the room.

After a few seconds of silence, Mum turns back to me. “I think it’s time I told you.”

Now I’m confused. “Tell me what?”

Just as she opens her mouth to speak, there’s a loud knock on the door.

“Will you get that please Madison?”

I look at my Mum wondering who – or what – it could be. We don’t have visitors, so who it is, is a mystery to me. I leave the living room and walk towards the front doors. There’s another knock, this one louder and longer. Impatient are we? I open the doors quickly and standing there is a person who looks to be holding something in their hands. I can’t see too well, but I see that’s it’s raining and realise they must be soaked in water.

“Come in, please” I say ushering the person inside. When we’re inside I realise the person is a she, with dark skin and brown hair, and she’s holding a package. I take her into the lounge where Mum is waiting.

After taking in the sight of our visitor Mum quickly ushers her out of the room to get warm and dry. But before leaving, the girl, - who seems to be only a few months older than I, - she gives me the package and says in a dry and croaky voice, “This is for you.” The she walks briskly after my mother.

I sit down on a chair and place the package on my lap. It’s wrapped in News Paper, which makes me intrigued of what this package holds. I tear away at the paper and realise it’s a jewellery box. I picked it up to examine it further. It was fully wood, although I’d have no idea what kind, and covering the box were beautiful and intricately designed carvings. They were mainly pentacles and rose vines. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

I shook it slightly and heard something move inside it. Excited I quickly opened it, and I found an ugly doll with pins stuck in it. But underneath it I saw a folded piece of paper. I took it out and unfolded it to reveal a letter.

We know what you are and what you can do, and for that we’re going to kill you.

V