Far Away From Home

Part Eight

Like a magical mist fading as noon came closer, a dark shadow like a cloth fell off, and neither of them could identify where they were.

The path suddenly disappeared. The trees suddenly turned blood-red, and they were suddenly sitting on rocks.

None of them moved for a while, and then Steph said,
“The charger...we can try that.”

She searched her bag for the charger. Come to think of it, she couldn't find anything else that she had put in her bag. The torches, charger, pegs, batteries, and everything else except what they have at hand, which includes the tent, sleeping bags, first aid kit, water bottles, tarp, and lantern, were gone. 

“There's nothing here,” she said.

She searched her bag and touched something that gave her a cut. She had hoped that it would be the knife she had brought, but it wasn't.

Instead, a gaping hole was found at the bottom of her bag. It hadn't been there before. She wondered what could give her bag such a large tear. 

“My bag's torn. I don't know how it got torn. It wasn't there before.”

She was waiting for everyone to scold her, but when no one said anything, she looked up and found them all besides themselves in horror.

She felt the impulse to say something—just about anything that would come to mind.

“Come on, guys. We have to do something. We can't just give this creature power over us. So, what if our phones are out of power? We can do it by ourselves. We have to fight this thing. So, what if we can't use our powers? We have all these stones. It will give us ample opportunity to run while using our wits. We can beat this, guys. We are stronger than this.” she said.

Renia mumbled something under her breath and said,
“I knew we shouldn't come here, but what can we do? Illusions are difficult to combat. Once it comes undone, there is always confusion.”

“Illusionists don't use one covering if they want something from someone. I'm thinking this is another illusion covering another one. We can't go back if we don't know where to go. It would be a waste of time.” Tony said.

“So, we have to keep going?” Caleb said.

“Yes. But we need a weapon. They are illusions, but maybe they would do.” Renia said.

Steph stared at the stones for a while. She had suggested it at first, but she wasn't really planning on using them. She just said whatever came to mind to ease herself and ground herself instead of staring at the ground or trees in horror.

“You mean the stones? They are not illusions, Renia. They are real.” Steph said.

“How do you know that?” Renia said.

Instead of going the easy route and explaining that she could sense them with her power, she explained it like she knew her father would.

“Illusions stay long enough if the illusionist is near, but there's no one here, and the stones are actually digging at my shorts. I cut my hand while searching through my bag. That's a shock enough that will jolt me from the illusion, but I see and feel the same thing you guys see and feel. So, this is not an illusion.”

“Oh, does that mean that we can make our way back to town?” Caleb asked.

“No. Even if we break out of the illusionist grip, we have been walking for hours, and we don't know how many turns we've made or what the area actually looks like for us to go back. We've got to continue our journey and hope that the forest will be so kind as not to let in any human eating monster,” she concluded with a touch of humor, but no one commented on it.

“Okay. Let's throw in some rocks then.” Jackson said.

They picked up stones from the forest floor and threw them into their bags. Steph made sure to stuff smaller ones in her pocket, but she didn't tell the others anything.

She also made sure that her bag wasn't so heavy that she couldn't carry it. She put little stones in the pockets of her bag because the main part has a big tear in it. Caleb hoists his bag and grumbles when the bag seems heavy.

“Are you stupid? Don't stuff it to the brim. You need to be flexible enough to be able to run when you have to.” Steph said, feeling proud of being better than Caleb.

“Well, how are you going to fight the monster with a few stones?” he groaned.

“Are you planning on throwing unplanned hits at the monster? That's not how fights work, or else you've lost the element of surprise. You're supposed to work around your strengths and weaknesses, like these stones, for example; they are strong and heavy, but for you, you can easily manipulate them with your telepathy. I know that still works,” she said.

Caleb glanced at Tony, and Steph grinned. He removed the bigger stones and collected the smaller ones.

At the corner of Steph's eye, she saw Jackson, Tony, and Renia doing the same. She felt proud that she had impacted some sort of knowledge on them, but she knew that they would rather pretend that she hadn't than be grateful to her.

If only they could pretend that she's as intelligent as her dad for one day, maybe she wouldn't feel resentment towards them. 

Together, they stood up and kept on moving forward, with Jackson taking the front and Tony bringing up the rear.

The forest seemed eerily quiet. Neither of them thought to bring the camping equipment Steph had removed from her bag earlier. Not even Steph remembered her belongings. All they had were stones stuffed into their backpack, packed with their empty flask that had housed their previous meals.

Jackson left a sandwich in his bag in case they needed it, but for a brief second, he had a thought that the witch would probably prefer human skin to sandwiches. But that thought was so scary that he had to put his feet down.

He wouldn't die.

He couldn't die.

His parents have undying faith in him, and he got into Dictorial. He's just an investigator in training, an undergraduate. He will prove everyone wrong in their community.

He can do this.