Darkness Drops Again

Part Three

Once the forest burst back into life, the girl next to Audrey shifted. The brambles creaked and moaned back into the dirt. Audrey scrambled out of the bush over to where the small door lay. The crack split the frame into two pieces. The arrow that cut right through was buried in the trunk of the tree. No longer could she see her old home through it. Arranging it back together on the ground, she slammed the door shut and then yanked it open again. Nothing.

Her heart pounded like a jackrabbit and her hands trembled as she leaned the door back against the tree. The ground was uneven and she couldn't force the frame to stay completely together. Her fingers fumbled with it and she shut the door and opened it several more times, but still nothing changed. Audrey fell to a sit, staring at the broken pieces and cradled her head.

"That was your door."

The voice made her jump and she jerked her head to look. The woman stood over her, hand on her hip and tangled black hair hanging down. The low sun cut through the trees and the strands of her hair, but her face looked dark.

"I don't understand what's going on." Audrey licked her lips, but her mouth was dry. She gathered the pieces of the door in front of her. "My house is on the other side of this. Well, it was."

The woman shrugged. "Well, the Queen smashed it up – so now you're stuck." She didn't act surprised, didn't look at Audrey like she were crazy. It unsettled her. "I'm Chard."

"Audrey. But... how is this possible?"

Chard held a hand down to Audrey. "You'll find many things are possible here."

Accepting the rough grip, Audrey was helped to a shaky stand. The breeze cooled the sweat at her nape. "So I'm stuck here."

"If you want to be." Chard yanked the arrow out of the trunk of the tree. Running her hand over the red fletching, she grimaced at the wicked three-barbed tip and then it disappeared in the bag at her waist.

"What's that mean?" Her pulse thrummed. The trees, they didn't seem so serene any more, everything abruptly claustrophobic. "Of course I don't want to!"

Chard pressed a hand against the rough wound the arrow left in the side of the tree. She turned her olive eyes onto Audrey. "Then you'll find a way."

"Will you help me?" She didn't like asking what was essentially a stranger, but felt she didn't have any other options. Wander the woods with no outdoor skills? With a creepy blade-tailed dog stalking around? And not to mention the eerie, hooded woman? No thanks.

The woman's hand tightened against the trunk. She didn't reply for a minute and finally: "It isn't safe here at night. I'll take you to my home." She let her hand drop from the tree and the hole was mended, the bark a soft sienna.

Audrey swallowed, counting her options. She had no idea where she was, didn't feel comfortable trying to figure this new place out on her own. Obviously, some strange stuff was happening. The word came to mind, magic, but her chest tightened at the thought. Her mother had her believe, until she could think for herself, that magic was real. The word had become synonymous with her mother, with deception, with crazy. But she couldn't find any better an explanation for the door, for what Chard had done.
And she couldn't shake the feeling that Chard had saved her life.

Pinching the skin between her forefinger and thumb, she winced at the shock of pain – not a dream.

Chard quirked an eyebrow up. "Well. I'm going now. I'd bring that door if I were you." She swung around and started walking.

Collecting the door pieces in her arms, Audrey jogged to catch up. The pieces were surprisingly light. "Couldn't you just..." She held the door out.

Looking sidelong at it, Chard shook her head. "Nope, enchanted."

The grass nudged out of Chard's footsteps, but Audrey felt bad that her own feet trampled everything. They passed a section with a huge circle of the purple flowers. The smell made her nose itch. They walked in silence.

Finally, the grass gave way to a dirt trail. Chard paused at the edge, staring up one way and then another. There was a sign with arrows pointing in many directions, but Audrey couldn't read any of the words. Her shoulders tense, Chard turned them to go down the left path.

"Where are we?"

"Nowhere right now," Chard replied.

Audrey shifted the door in her arms. "OK. Well, where are we going?"

"My house, I told you."

Audrey bit down on her frustration and went instead to studying their surroundings. The trees thinned out some. To their left, through the twisting trunks and millions of wild flowers, a crisp blue stream wound along. She saw no animals, though birds chirped just out of sight. It seemed normal, but somehow out of sorts.

She turned her eyes to her companion. The woman stood nearly a head shorter than her, but she felt she was probably older. Chard's hair hung in dark strips to her lower back, a stark comparison to her own pixie-cut blonde hair. She wondered how they looked together – even their clothes were vastly different.

Ahead, the path gave way to a solid fence, entwined with metal vines. The sunlight broke through the canopy and she blinked as it snapped into her eyes. A person appeared on the other side of the gate, dim and blurry as Audrey tried to squint through the sun.

"What are you doing out there?" The voice was harsh, deep.

Chard took them closer to the fence without saying anything.

When her eyes adjusted, Audrey gaped at the man. He wore some sort of brown uniform, a club in one hand. Poking out of his hat were two tall, white rabbit ears. They twitched and he squint at her.

"Who's this?"

"A guest. Now will you open up?"

The bunnyman grimaced, looking somewhere pass the two of them. "You're lucky the sun's still up. They told me I shouldn't open it after five, but I didn't think the threat is that bad." None the less, he only opened the gate a fraction and the moment they were through, slammed it up again.

Beyond the gate was yet more trees, but Chard relaxed. She shot a glance back at her. "Welcome to Atrium."