Fire's Catching

Chapter 4 - Gemstones and such

"Last thing we need is rose quartz," Forrest reads from the list of ingredients needed for the ritual. "Its apparently needed to see everything, without it, I'll only see the bad. That would have its own purpose though I suspect."

"Cool, okay. I got some different crystals from the spiritual shop down the street from the library. Do you know if any of these're rose quartz?" I ask. I pull out a small pouch that rattles when moved. The gemstones are tossed out onto the grass in the clearing.

"Careful! We need to make sure they still have the correct energy!" Forrest exclaims. He's really worked up about this, acting as if the gems are his favorite figurines. I've never seen him this protecting of anything other than... well, his figurines.

"Geez, fine, I get it," I mutter to myself. "No need to get all 'Hulk-smash'."

Forrest grumpily grabs the correct crystal and adds it to his pile of shinies. On the grass, he's poured out a circle of salt that's not perfectly round at all. In the middle is a square handkerchief with a Lightning McQueen motif. It was the only one he found at home. On top of that is the pile. It consists of a few different stones, a golden necklace, some herbs and sage, plus some additional dried berries. Forrest is sitting inside the circle, in front of the pile, his legs crossed. I see him close his eyes and scrunch his nose. In his closed hand is a folded piece of paper, but I don't think he remembers that it exists. After a while, his face turns red, and veins are showing on his forehead.

"Forrest?" Joy asks, probably wondering if a reminder of the paper will help. He just hushes at her, continuing his... whatever it is he's doing.

"Forrest!" I snarl, upset at his quick rejection of Joy. I see her smile a little in the corner of my eye. Forrest snaps out of it and looks up at me. "The paper," I drag out every syllable. It takes Forrest a couple of seconds before he suddenly jumps a little.

"Yes! Yes, of course! Thank you, Grey!" He unfolds the crinkled paper. I huff. Joy loses her smile. Why?

I flinch at the sudden gibberish exiting from Forrest's mouth. It sounds like Latin? Only with a really bad English accent. It makes me cringe really hard. The worst part is that I know exactly how it's supposed to be pronounced. Unlucky that he was the one that got the Latin-needing power.

After Forrest's long rant is over switches the entire vibe in the clearing. It goes from a normal sunny day to grey skies and heavy air. Clouds cover us with a small ray of sun shining through, hitting the pile in front of Forrest, creating small dancing lights in different colors. He looks at peace, Forrest, almost as if he's dreaming. I see his eyes flicker back and forth behind his eyelids, making me wonder what he might be seeing. I look over at Joy, making sure she sees this. She's watching the events taking place, but I'm not sure she's paying attention. She seems disoriented, like something's on her mind. I brush it off, it's probably nothing.

A loud gasp escapes from Forrest's throat and his eyes roll back into his head so only the whites are visible. I jump forward, wanting to tackle him away from the situation, but I feel a hand on my shoulder. Joy is tapping her finger rhythmically on the cotton covering my torso, creating a warm, fuzzy feeling through my entire body, starting at my shoulder.

"H-how did you-"

"I've been practicing by myself a little. It's nothing special." Normally Joy would remove her hand after downplaying her talents like this, but this time she doesn't. I squint at her, trying to find something different in her eyes, but I only see the same Joy.

"Thank you," I whisper.

Our eyes return to Forrest as he stands up and shakes his head. We look expectantly at him since he clearly went through something. His face turns towards us.

"That ... was ... EPIC!" He grins wide like a complete dork and half-jumps-half-walks over to us. "I saw, like, so much stuff that I've never seen before! I even saw you, Grey," he says the last part in a sing-songy tone. I hate that. My fist finds its way to his arm, and he flinches in pain.

"Ow! Unnecessary, Grey!"

"I found it completely necessary. That's what you get for acting like a dumb guy."

"But I am a dumb guy," Forrest says, before catching himself. "Wait, no, I'm a guy. Forget the dumb part, I'm not dumb."

"Yeah, if you say so," I snicker. He looks annoyed and grumpy down at his shoes.

"On a more serious note, though, what did you see?"

Forrest freezes. He is completely still. Several seconds pass, I'm not even kidding, and he's just standing there. After enough time has passed, I've had enough. I look over at Joy who's just as confused as I am, just without the annoyance. She reaches out to touch Forrest, most likely to jerk him out of this ... trance? Just as she's about to reach his back, he straightens up and gathers himself into a very dramatic and solemn pose. His expression just screams 'I'm going to do something very weird and unnecessary'. I'm proven right when he starts to wave his arms around as if he's trying to create magic, but in the way a hobby magician would do it.

"I saw something terrible, something horrible!"

I just sigh at his antics. This isn't the first time he's presented something this way. Not the second either. Or the third. I swear, his old kiddy-roleplaying from kindergarten really shines through at times.

"Aren't you going to ask me what I saw?" He keeps on trying to conjure magic with his hands.

"I already asked, but you just froze, you idiot," I lecture. "Seriously, stop with the magic hands."

"A-ha! So you admit that my hands are magical!"

"It's not a compliment."

"Oh." He stops with the hands, finally. "I guess I'll just tell you."

"Yes, please!" I grunt.

"Okay, so. Firstly, I was just trying to see something, anything! That's the point where my eyes were closed. Nothing popped up, but I didn't want to give up. That's when I felt it!"

"Felt what?" Joy asks, suddenly joining the conversation.

"The warm feeling from last time we were here! When you guys thought I had the 'power of chill'. It was almost like I could feel a thread in the back of my mind, which was a little uncomfy, but I powered though! I, like, grabbed it, with my brain almost. My brain pulled it forward to my eyes and through my skull. I could see the thread! It was blue and glowing. I had to stand up to catch it, and when I did, I made it into a knot."

"What, why?" I ask.

"It just felt right, now shut up," he teases. "The second the knot was created, it evolved into a glowing ball of blue light! It didn't stop, it just got bigger and bigger, I got dragged into it. Then, I was in a cinema. I was all alone, sitting in the middle of the room on one of the chairs. A movie started playing, and of course I got really indulged! You know me and movies; I can't stop watching when one is on-"

"Yes, yes, I know! Now continue!" I argue.

"Okay, okay. Calm down. Jeez. That's when you appeared on the screen, Grey! It was like an out of body experience, 'cause the point of view expanded, and I saw myself sitting with you! We were on a bench, just talking. I got small snippets, something about love and crushes." He winks at me. I throw up a little in my mouth, extremely close to hurling in his face. He catches my queasiness, losing his smug look.

"Anything else?" I retch as I ask. "Anything of any use at all?"

"Yeah, just let me finish, God," he rolls his eyes. "After the smoking conversation on the bench-"

I interrupt with some retching again.

"I saw the two of us running through the woods, looking very hurt, especially you." Forrest is suddenly very serious. "Joy wasn't there."