these sweet nightmares

chapter 17: falling down

I was foolish not to bring a light or candle with me.

I was even more foolish to go at night, when I couldn’t see anything. The trek back to the forest was variably impossible, but I got by using my sense of direction and depended on my familiarity of the winding roads and shortcuts available. It was by pure luck that I came in one whole, not counting the times I tripped over rotten woods or creepers underneath my feet.

Thankfully, I was a resourceful boy and learned quickly how to lean on the cosmic and astral universe to lead the way, otherwise I would inevitably be lost. I lit up a small match and used that as a little makeshift illumination, though I burned my fingers once or twice trying to strike it.

The forest at night was nothing compared at daylight. In the day hours, the forest was only sleeping. But now in the dark, the whole ecosystem was awakening, the nocturnal instinct sharpening, welcoming my return.

I would have to admit that I was scared out of my wits. Every branch raking at my ankles I thought of a skeleton grabbing for me and taking me under. Every rustling of the trees I imagined fingers coming to pick me up. And every crunch of dead leaves I pictured a leviathan slithering behind me. A gargantuan behemoth to gobble me up.

I kept my sanity by obsessively reading the book. It was my sole key in getting to the spot I needed to be. And the blood depictions…they were hypnotizing to watch, like a quickly flicking movie.

“Turn left upon the twisted tree,” I said to myself, reading the map. “Over the fallen gates, through the wicking thistles and out into crumbling ruins. Easy.” Not. My trepidation was something to blame as I hiked through the woods. I was acutely aware of the growing anxiety, how, though I might backtrack, I would find myself coming back to the place where I started. I even wore out a direct circle ringing a cluster of trees.

I looked up and saw that the sky was covered, the moonlight barely showing through the top. “Oh, great,” I muttered. What now? I couldn’t go anywhere, lest I should be clumsy and trip over a log and bleed to death in the night, within the forest, where no one could hear me.

Backing out was not a choice, if I had one. The trees were closing onto me now, closing off the ways so that I would be a prisoner here, now and forever. I had to face it, though I was stuck. I would just have to wait around here until agreeable conditions arrived. How long would the sun rise up? I had no idea. I had not a single wristwatch on my person to check the hour.

Just when hopelessness began set in, I was met by an unexpected surprise.

A lone pebble came flying over, hitting me between the eyes. “Ouch!” I cried out, jolted by the sudden assault.

“Hey, you came back.”

James appeared from some underbrush with a slingshot in his hand, wearing that famous cocky grin of his. How I joyfully took the brightening sheen of his teeth as a good omen! I had never been happy to see anyone in my life. “Thought you would never play again after that trick.”

“James!” I ejaculated, forgetting about the pebble. I rushed up to him. “James, you have to help. I’ve been wandering this cursed forest for hours and hours. I’m afraid I’m lost. And––”

“Hold your horses,” James said, backing away. “First off, why are you here in the dead of night? Isn’t that a bit too scary, even for you?” The edges of his mouth curled upward, taunting me.

I was about to ask him that, but I shoved the snide remark aside. “Long story James. But you must help me find the lake.”

James narrowed his eyes. “Eh, now why’s that?”