A Small Town

Chapter Fifteen\ The Forest

Bax was lying on the ground. He opened his eyes and stared at the canopy of bare branches overhead. Sitting upright he hugged himself against the cold and he shivered despite the fact that he knew he was dreaming. If he closed his eyes and concentrated he could still feel the barn owls body against his own in the bed. She was warm and soft but when he opened his eyes again he was still in the forest and still shivering.

Rising to his feet he realized that he was naked and felt a flush of embarrassment. It's a dream Bax, wake up! Just wake up! - he told himself but now he could hear the sounds of the forest, the rustle of the dead leaves at this feet, the howl of a wolf in the far distance, and the closer hoot of an owl somewhere overhead.

The barn owl - he closed his eyes again and tried to feel her skin on his, expecting the reassurance of the soft curve of her breasts against his side, but this time there was nothing except the cold November wind and the prickle of gooseflesh rising on his arms.

A sound came from somewhere ahead and his eyes snapped back open. It was a creaking sound and he had heard it before but couldn't place it in his mind. He moved forward slowly, cringing at the noise his bare feet made in the dry layer of leaves that covered the forest floor. To an outside observer, he would have looked like he was performing a crazy, naked ballet as he leapt then landed softly on tiptoe and leapt again in his attempt at stealth.

He thought of being dragged by Norma to a ballet when they were first married. Was it The Nutcracker... or maybe Swan Lake? He wasn't sure. He had hated it but now he would have paid a million dollars to be sitting on that balcony with his ex-wife's stuffy friends, instead of shivering, naked in a forest.

There was a movement in the trees and he slowed, half hiding behind the trunk of a gnarled Aspen. He stared at the spot in wonder. There was a man in the tree's moving slowly side to side... back and forth. Bax almost ran then. Would have run if he wasn't sure deep down... ninety-nine percent positive... he was dreaming.

"Fuck it!" He said aloud, then he stood up straight and stepped out from behind the tree.

The man did not hear. He kept moving though, slowly from side to side, back and for- With a start Bax realized what he was seeing. He was dead. The man was two feet off of the ground, hanging by his neck from a rope looped over a stout branch. His body swayed in the breeze and as Bax watched it spun slowly to face him. The man was smiling. There were no eyes, just dead empty sockets full of darkness. As Bax watched a bat crawled out of the left socket and flew off into the night, screeching it's radar scream as it sped up into the trees.

Bax was frozen in horror, he felt his throat tighten and his stomach lurch. He began to back away, afraid to take his eyes off of the corpse in the tree, but then it moved. Not with the wind this time. The things arm rose very slowly, almost imperceptibly at first but then in a sweeping gesture. It was pointing... pointing with fingers that seemed to be missing most of their flesh. The bones of that hand gleamed in the moonlight and the remaining skin seemed almost translucent.

Bax turned his head to see what it was pointing at and saw firelight through the trees. Now he could hear it too. The crackle and pop of a large fire burning somewhere off to his left.

The sound and smell of the fire drew him like the proverbial moth to a flame. The hanging man was forgotten as Bax threaded his way through the trees. Creeping again from tree to tree he closed the distance, no more than fifty yards, and found himself at the edge of a roughly circular clearing. Near its centre was the fire, he could feel the heat radiating from it as he hid in the lee of an enormous willow. Two huge birch logs made up the base of the fire with bundles of twigs and small tree branches on top. Off to one side was another bundle of sticks held in reserve and a small pile of birch bark, natures perfect firestarter.

She was dancing around the fire and like Bax she was naked. Her body was lithe and rippled with tight muscles. She was thin, painfully so, each rib beneath her small breasts stood out starkly reminding him of the terrible pictures he had seen of young girls afflicted with anorexia nervosa. Her hair was black and shined in an oily way as if it hadn't been washed in weeks. Worst of all were her eyes, rolled back in her head showing almost nothing but the bloody pink whites as she flailed rhythmically as if to some waltz that existed only in her mind.

As Bax watched she fell suddenly to the ground and began rolling amongst the dirt and the dry leaves. When she once again regained her feet there were bits of grit and sand stuck to her body with sweat and leaves caught in her hair.

The dance went on an on. Flailing, twisting, falling and rising again. Finally, she stopped and stood close to the fire. Her chested heaved as she gulped huge lungfuls of air. She stayed there for a long time, minutes passed and Bax was about to turn and leave when she dropped to her knees. She swayed from side to side reminding him of the hanging man and then she lay back fully on the ground and began to speak.

Some of the words were French but most were something else, sounding guttural and musical at the same time, and then her voice rose to a climax and at the same moment, the fire flared. Bax was sure this was something important, the way you might say 'Amen' at the end of a prayer. The whole spectacle had that kind of religious feel about it.

The woman got back to her feet, it was Agathe LeTourneau, he was sure of this somehow. She walked away from the fire towards the trees on the other side of the clearing. It was then that Bax saw it, a tree like no other he had ever seen before. At its base, it was at least ten feet in diameter. It looked strange, with two great branches on either side that seemed to hang down like the arms of a man. Its bark was black and ancient looking with deep cracks that made him think of the wrinkles on an old man's face. Just below that wooden face grew another branch. It was no more than a foot long, bent upward and stripped of bark. In contrast to the rest of the tree, it stood out smooth and white.

Agathe approached the tree with her head bowed in seeming reverence and that's when Bax realized what was about to happen. He turned away as she mounted the branch, but he heard her gasp in what might have been pain but was surely pleasure. His eyes flicked back towards her, some sick lurid part of his brain wanting... needing to see.

She writhed against the tree in a steady cadence as if riding a horse, and her breath came in short sharp huffs and puffs. Agathe sounded like a dog panting on a hot day. The tree seemed to move its armlike branches to enfolder her naked body, but maybe – hopefully - it was just a trick of the flickering firelight.

The lurid scene went on and on. Bax tried to wake himself up, pinching his arms and slapping his face but it was no use. How long had he been asleep? The barn owl... Lisa... Evelyn... whatever... she would wake him. He closed his eyes again, trying to feel the bed or the pillow against his head but still, there was nothing but the cold night air and the soft damp ground beneath his bare feet. When he opened his eyes again he saw a girl hiding in the trees. She had been hidden by the tall flames of the fire but now it was burning down and he could just make her out behind two narrow trees. Lisa was here... she was watching Agathe, with a look of horror on her face. The wild dark haired woman continued to thrash in a travesty of sexual ecstasy, impaled upon the tree.

Bax moved and Lisa's head jerked in shock as she suddenly spotted him. She seemed about to run to him and then shrunk back into the shadows, afraid.

"Fuck it!" Bax said for the second time since he had begun the nightmare. He stepped out into the clearing expecting Agathe to turn or scream but she was oblivious to his intrusion. He sprinted across the clearing and as he did so, Lisa seemed to find her own well of courage and she ran out to meet him. They crashed together, both naked and cold and afraid. Bax crushed her to his chest and felt her nails claw into his back.

Then he was awake, they were in the twin bed clasping each other tightly and shivering.

"Bax..." Lisa sobbed, "the woman and the tree and..."

Bax rocked her and whispered softly, "I know, it's okay... just a dream... it's alright..." But it wasn't because he knew they had both dreamed the same dream... and he had a sinking feeling that it wasn't a dream at all.