Misery County

Chapter 10 - Part 1

Cassie had won a minor victory in getting Eric to come to his own conclusion about how her missing corpse could have been a vampire, but it was one step forward and two steps back when she brought up his hussy. If only he could see things like she did.

"Hey, what do you say we go for a walk?" Eric called out cheerfully as he followed her through the back door and out of the ruined house, his irritation seemingly gone.

Cassie thought better than to question it. "What do you have in mind?"

"Nothing special. Just these woods here." He gestured to the dense foliage in front of them. Fireflies were once again dancing in the dark, illuminating the area more than seemed physically possible. "I feel... drawn to them."

"Normally I'd mock you for a comment like that, but I'm feeling the same. I felt it earlier as well, back when I came here for the first time."

"It's interesting, isn't it?" he mused. "Come on!" Grabbing Cassie's hand, Eric took off for the mystical woods.

"Eric, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I have to ask, what's gotten into you?" As far as Cassie could guess, he must have been feeling the same thing that she was regarding the woods, but even more so, somehow.

"There's something in these woods," he said wildly. "Something's calling out to me."

"Yes, I gather that," she said, trying to keep up with him as they passed through the treeline. "Now, call me pessimistic, but should we really be going into dark woods in the dead of night because we feel something supernatural calling to us?"

"I don't see why not. We've charged headfirst into danger before, and I'm talking about times when we've known we were going into the lion's den."

"But you're always the one going on and on about good preparation, and –"

"Cassie, quiet. Don't question it."

As much as she wanted to question it or turn back and run, possibly carrying Eric on her shoulders, she was under the same spell that he was, and a part of her – an unthinking part of her – wanted to go on.

The woods got denser the deeper they got. Were it daytime, the trees would probably be blocking most or all of the light coming from the sun, but at this time of night, with only the moon shining down light from the sky, the effect was even more pronounced. In spite of this, they could see reasonably well. Cassie couldn't explain it, but the fireflies seemed almost magical. They were like tiny lanterns that lit up the woods. She had seen the woods earlier and likened them to a fairy tale. Now she was only hoping it wasn't one with a wicked witch or a big bad wolf waiting for them at the end.

"Wicked witch, heh," Eric mumbled.

"What did you say?"

"I was just thinking about a wicked witch hiding in these woods."

Cassie was more than a little surprised. "That's one hell of a coincidence. So was I. Were you also thinking about a –"

"Big bad wolf," they finished the sentence together.

"Whoa, trippy," Eric said. "What number am I thinking of?"

"Seventy-three?" Cassie tried.

"No, it was Ross Perot."

"Ross Perot's not a number."

"I know, but I thought that if we could read each other's minds, you'd know that."

"Eric, I don't think we can read each other's minds. There's something else happening here, I think it might be –"

"Spirit syncretism," called out a tiny voice from between two shrubs.