The Hill Witch

Into the Forest

Into the Forest

JJ drove the Jeep to Hector, her in the front seat and Ral in the back. They'd picked him up from the high school after the buses had already gone and taken the side streets through the village to get to road to take them up the opposite side of the lake. The scent of sulfur ebbed and retreated in waves from the backseat; JJ cracked his window when his eyes watered.

Emma turned in her seat and asked, "Can you – are you fluctuating?"

"I have a cold," he said slowly. "I can't regulate when I'm sick."

Which explained why his cheeks were flushed and one eye was blue while the other was hazel. She watched him push his dark brown hair off his forehead, and lean against the window before facing forward again.

They parked in a tiny lot off of County Road 4, and followed the trail in. The forest had the kind of quiet that set Emma's teeth on edge; JJ's shoulders twitched as he fought to keep his hackles lowered, and Ral dutifully brought up the rear, hands in his jacket pockets. The only outward sign of his discomfort was the crease in his forehead.

JJ stopped completely at the edge of the clearing, the scent of blood and death lingering in the air. It grew stronger the closer they got to where the campsite had been; he whined deep in his throat as Ral hissed through his fangs.

"What the hell happened here, Emma?" JJ asked.

"A murder and a kidnapping." She crouched, and put her fingertips to the Earth. Easing her magic open as wide as it would go, she felt for anything unusual.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

She flung her left hand over her shoulder; Ral wrapped warm fingers around her own, humming a nameless tune as he doubled her magic with his own.

Still, there was nothing.

They separated; Emma stood, fingers flexing with aftershocks as Ral coughed up a lung into the crook of his arm.

"Dude," JJ muttered, "you can take a sick day. You know that, right?"

Ral tapped his chest. "Perfect attendance. Since middle school."

"Can you smell anything?" Emma asked, interrupting the pair of them before they could get going.

JJ stepped away from the two of them, and inhaled deeply. He shook his head. "No. There was sort of something, then it ends here." He walked a few more feet to where the land bent upward into a small hill. "Nothing. Nothing beyond here."

"What's the something smell like?" Ral shoved his hands in his pockets.

He took a careful breath. "Earth. Dense earth. Fresh stuff." His forehead furrowed, eyes closed. "Like, the kind of stuff that you find when you dig pretty deep. But it's musty, too. Really old." He took another step toward the hill. "Rock."

"Stay just like you are," Ral murmured, stepping carefully to JJ. He wrapped two fingers around the shifter's pinky, shuddered, and closed his own eyes. His free hand reached for Emma.

She saw it the moment she touched him – a door of carved stone, ancient and oozing with malice. The others must have seen it, too; JJ curled his shoulders inward with a whimper and broke his connection with the other two. Fed by something they couldn't see, their magic compounded and compressed.