StarFall (Completed)

Ch. 13 - Worn

Miller dropped the watch, and pushed the old man hard against the cabinets. "How? How did it get here?" His words were loud, and aggressive.

I tried to pull him away, but it was no use. 

"Miller, calm down."

The old man grunted. "Yes, yes, listen to the cursed one."

"Not until you tell me about my father," he said, blinded by rage.

The old man sighed, and hung his head. "Book boy, I know nothing of your father. The watch was in the contraption that crashed into the trees. I know not of where it came from." He put his hand on Miller's shoulder. "I'm sorry."

Miller loosened his grip, backed away from the old man, and soon his rage subsided. "There's gotta be an explanation." He turned to me. His voice picked up. "What if he's alive? What if he's here somewhere?"

My face held a blank expression, paled in an uneasy silence. What could I say to ease his desperation?

"What about the funeral? Didn't you...see the body?" My voice was soft and fragile.

He walked past me. "Yeah...but, what if--"

I grabbed hold of him. "Don't do this to yourself. I'm sorry, but...I don't think your dad's here."

His stare was heart wrenching, he pulled away. "You're right. I'm sure you're right. But, maybe..." He looked up at me.

My eyes met his with as much empathy as I could bear to hold, and I shook my head lightly. I knelt down, and picked up his father's watch.

I opened his hand. "Here," I said as I closed his hand around the watch. "Your father is here, Miller, not out there." I smiled.

He tried his best to return the gesture. Miller grabbed his sack of books gifted by the old man, slipped the watch into his pocket, nodded goodbye, and left.

"I'm sorry for any trouble I might have caused," the old man said when we were alone.

"Don't be. This journey's been rough on all of us."

"Let's go, Adderall," Madison's voice shrieked from somewhere outside.

I shivered. "Some more than others."

The old man smiled. "I wish I could be of more help."

I titled my head and narrowed my gaze slightly. "You've been a tremendous help--"

He shook his head. "I fear you do not understand the dark depths you are wandering dangerously closer to."

I stood, hushed before him. 

"If it isn't rude of me to ask...how were you cursed?"

"How?" I had to regain my composure before finding my way to an answer. "A hair. She pressed a hair to my forehead and then said some words--"

"I see." He stroked his flowing beard. "Then what the young book boy has taken will be of definite use to you." He grinned.

"Summers?" Bobby's voice echoed from below the treetop.

I turned my gaze to the door. 

The old man chuckled. "Go, cursed one."

I looked back to him. "But the poem. Do you know what I must do?"

The skin around his eyes wrinkled, his nose scrunched up as his mouth formed into a smile. "Yes and no." He laughed. "Find what is missing, find the meaning of it all, and you will find your salvation."

I could hear them growing more restless the longer I lingered here. 

"Go. It will be alright."

"But..." I sighed, unable to look up. "What if I fail?"

"What if, what if, what if," the old man laughed. "The great thing about 'what ifs' is that they hold infinite possibilities."

I lifted my head. "Who are you exactly?" 

He paused, answering me first with another smile painted warmly across his face, and second with, "I am but an old, old man. A halfling. Unwanted in one world, cast aside in another. But, who I am is not important here. It is who you are."

"Who I am?"

The overwhelming shouts, and patience-worn cries from somewhere beyond the confines of the old man's tree-house had finally pulled me away. I stole one last glance at Krumb, and retreated from view.

A final farewell to the scenic--and deadly--view above the forest, I climbed down the ladder, and met the others below. 

"Took you long enough," Madison groaned insufferably. 

Bobby walked past me. "Let's get moving before dark."

Miller stood alone behind us, the watch clasped tightly in his fist. 

"Are you okay?" I said as I neared him.

He put the watch away, and turned around. "No." He half-smiled. "But, that's okay." He breathed in deeply and walked ahead of me. "Come on, let's get this magical journey started, shall we?" 

I smiled faintly as I followed close behind. Bobby walked in front, Miller second, a book in hand, and I was third. I stopped and looked back. Madison, with her back turned to us, seemed to be mumbling to herself. She grabbed at her hair and appeared mentally elsewhere, as if unaware of her surroundings. I called out to her, but received nothing in return. 

"Madison?" I crept near her, hand outstretched, I tapped her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

She whirled around in a hurried fright. 

I jumped back. "What's wrong?" I said, my heart pounded against my chest.

Her hands fell to her sides, she eased the pained expression worn upon her face. "What?" She looked around before her gaze settled on me. She scoffed. "What are you waiting around for? Weirdo." She rolled her eyes and brushed past me.

I watched them move further ahead without me. I couldn't help but sneak a glance back at the tree-house. What dark depths were we heading towards? And, what new surprises could we possibly hope to encounter on the road ahead? A growing pain festered in the pit of my stomach as I moved on hesitantly. Each step forward met with the dawning realization that this "fairy tale land" we had been trapped in was not made of bedtime stories, and happily ever afters, but of something much darker, and terrifying. Something that would forever change us, whether we made it home or not.