Eden's Gate

Chapter 27: Life in the Forest

Taylor and Kaitlyn were gone into the forest well before Nikolai could pick up when exactly they went. They realized that the forest was a good place to hide for more than one reason - the many animals living and frolicking about in it would hide their presence, like static. They found a clearing and went to sleep, safe in the knowledge that at least for now they wouldn't have to worry about being found, though both of them had uneasy dreams.

Curiously, it was not the same dream about the door. These were, for lack of a better term, more normal. Dreams of losing their friends, of being chased by monsters, of nightmare, but they were actual honest to god dreams.

Before they had gone to bed, they had decided on going to find the LaBeauxs. They supposedly lived a hermitous existence somewhere in this very forest, so they could find them and go from there.

The fact that Mrs. LaBeaux had come to visit them and seemed involved never once popped in either of their heads.

Besides, if they didn't work out, they had a back up plan. Kaitlyn had read in her books that one of the surest ways to survive in a situation like this was to keep going in a single direction until you came to a river, creek or stream, some sort of body of water, and then follow it down. You will eventually come across civilization because that's where humans build their towns - along waterways.

Which, thankfully, they had just so happened to find just such a creek right when they were getting exhausted. Kaitlyn was fairly certain it wouldn't make good drinking water, but she'd know for certain in the morning, and she could at least wash her face in it to help her relax from the nightmare.

She had been awoken from her restless sleep by the squawking of a particularly agitated crow. She wondered how Taylor could sleep through it. She walked up to the creek and cupped some water in her hands, splashing her face, and as the reflection settled in the water she saw the Beast again.

"Another one of your friends dead," it said. "You're running out real fast."

"Shut up, would you? Richard sacrificed his life for us. It was his decision, and we couldn't do anything about it."

"Well, you certainly didn't try to," it teased.

"What would I have done?!" Kaitlyn snapped. "Run back in, get caught, spit on the sacrifice made for us!?"

She picked up a rock, and tossed it into the water at the reflection, who responded only with a chuckle.

"He thinks this is all your fault." It decided to try and prod another open wound.

It stuck. His remarks about her being the important one, her being the one that mattered...that he had been willing to give his life for her in part because she was so important, and the strange things kept happening to her. Because of her.

"No, he doesn't. He knows that it's Eliza's. Whatever...whatever is wrong with me, it's Eliza who wants to use it to summon these monsters."

"But that still makes you responsible. Your power is the source of the problem."

Kaitlyn snarled and picked up another rock, throwing it at the reflection, "Stop it! Shut up!"

The Beast grinned, her teeth appearing jagged and sharp as it got wider and wider, wider than the margins of her face should allow, as she said, "or what?"

Kaitlyn scraemed, turned around, and saw that That Thing had appeared. Mr. Lepus wasn't here to help her, and her flashlight was back in the bedroll. A spiralling purple rift to the Vast had been torn open, out of which a single flickering eye of the monster peered. One of its inky black hands reached out, tearing up the ground to rip open a new hole.

She turned to the creek, seeing that the Mirror Beast was still there, too. "How do I stop it?!" She asked.

She had tried to make very voice sound angry and demanding, but her fear was very obvious in it all the same. The smile on the Mirror Beast grew so big it tore itself off the edges of the face, its teeth articulating back and forth inside its mouth as it laughed, "why ever do you think I would tell you that?"

"Because I know you know!" She said, "and if you really are me, then if I die, so do you!"

The beast's gnarled and horrible appearance suddenly snapped back into a regular reflection of sorts, save for its eyes which remained a vibrant glowing purple. The smile on its face was now one more of pride then of manic glee.

That Thing pulled out the chunk of Earth and crushed it in its hands. The dust scattered on the wind, pulverized in the blink of an eye. Inside the hole it had made was another deep tear into the Vast, which a screaming mouth was behind. It began to undulate and form itself into a shape that would allow it to slide out of the thing. A mouth opened up on the arm, which vomited forth yet another four clawed spasming hand, writhing and twisting as an eye burst into life on it. It tore open a rift in the world, from which more of the black mass that was its body began to pour. It started to make those awful sounds, disrupted by the mass of...whatever the hell it was made of coming out of its mouth as well. The original tear was widening as well, as two more claws reached out to grab it and pull it open.

Kaitlyn's whole head beat with blood as her heart pumped at insane speeds. She had nothing to help or fight it.

"Calm down," the Beast said flatly.

"I'm sorry, what?!" Kaitlyn demanded.

"It's attracted to your fear. It feeds on it. So calm down," it elaborated.

Kaitlyn took in a deep breath, put her hands together, and tried to focus. But staring down the endless, toothed maws of That Thing as they moved up and down with the twisting of its seemingly endless body made it very hard to think of anything but how much it would hurt if it bit her. How long she'd be stuck in those teeth as they carried her into whatever qualified as its stomach. How much those four clawed hands would hurt if they dug themselves into her flesh. She needed to find something, anything, to focus on.

That crow. That damn crow was still screaming its head off about something. She focused on that. What was it upset about? She tuned in to its mind. Once again, it wasn't a wholly perfect connection, but its mind was surprisingly clear, even if it was different and distorted.

She took in a breath. She closed her eyes. She breathed out. The crow wasn't angry at all. It was excited! It knew that the large, hairless apes that it had just entered in its territory would also be carrying yummy treats with them - some of which they might even drop! And they loved to leave trash too, lovely for building nests. What a delight, it thought! It was alerting its friends to this glorious find, but for some reason its friends weren't responding.

There was a note of confusion in the crow's mind. Why weren't its friends responding? He wasn't about to leave this gold mine of supplies, but he didn't want to leave this either. He thought maybe it heard a warning call? But he wasn't sure.

She performed a body scan. She felt her heart rate slow, she felt the blood no longer pounding throughout her body. She could hear the monster twisting and screaming and ambling in whatever way it could, but she just let it wash over her. The Mirror Beast wouldn't lie. She believed that, not when its own existence was on the line. If that were true, then if she kept going like this, That Thing couldn't hurt her.

It made sense. If it fed on her fear, then it wouldn't kill her - she'd stop being afraid then too. So it could hurt her - it probably would - but it couldn't kill her. She also noticed the damage it did was always gone whenever she came back to where it had been, so whatever ways it did hurt her would go.

She just had to focus on the crow. She felt sort of sorry for it - he was stuck between a rock and a hard place too. Leave the human smorgasbord, or his friends. He was finally desperate enough to fly away and try and find his friends.

Kaitlyn opened her eyes to watch it leave. That Thing was gone, having apparently decided to move on. She wasn't sure how long she had been focused like that, but it had worked. She sent a wave of gratitude to the crow, to let him know how grateful she was, and as it flew away, she swore she saw a third leg hanging from it in the pale light of the moon. Had Amaterasu protected her by sending Yatagarasu?