CRYPTID

Chapter 21

The raven on the other side squawked as if to urge her on.

She'd already come this far...

She set her jaw and took the neon tape from her pocket. She wound it several times around the trunk of a tree at the very edge of the clearing. Whatever happened to her beyond this point, this would be a clear signal that she had been here. Hopefully, this would help someone find her if she got lost, too.

As she pulled the ribbon taut around the tree, she realized that its bark was strangely textured. Running her hands along its surface, she turned her gaze upwards. Its branches were woven together in a tight, intricate pattern, almost like braided knots. This tree was not like the others she had seen, which had been young and springy, easy to bend and weave. This tree was tall and old, its wood fusing the knots together as it grew thick. This pattern had been made a long time ago...

Penelope stepped back from it, admiring it for a moment before the raven called to her with another squawk.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," she said. She made her first tentative step forward, into the gap. The neon ribbon in her pocket pulled tight. She tugged on it, trying to get it to keep unrolling, but the tape stretched and then snapped, sending her stumbling.

Suddenly there was a tight hand squeezing at her arm, pulling her back towards the woods.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Penelope turned. It was Liam. He had hold of her arm, staring at her with wide, intense eyes. His face was ashen.

"I was... I was just walking!" she shouted back. "Where the hell did you come from?"

"You were just walking?" Liam snapped back, ignoring her question. "Off the edge of a cliff?"

"What? What cliff?" Penelope asked.

Liam turned her around again, facing her towards the rocky gap. Only the gap was a chasm now. They were on the edge of a cliff, just like Liam had said. She could clearly see over the cliff's drop to the swollen, rushing river below.

Penelope staggered back, against Liam, pushing them both away from the brink. He kept a tight hold on her, winding an arm around her waist as if to keep her from slipping away over the edge.

"I—I was somewhere else... I wasn't..." she sputtered.

As she blinked at the change of scenery, the memory of her dream from that morning came back to her. She had dreamed of this place, of this cliff, of falling off the edge. She looked across the gorge, to the forest on the other side. It, too, looked just like the scene from her dream—it was lush and thick and green. And just like her dream, there was a swarm of black birds circling over the treetops.

Only there was something else, too. Something that hadn't been in her dream.

It was hard to see at a distance, but the bright shade of pink made it stand out against the green of the forest. There, tied around the trunks of one of the perfectly straight trees, was a small length of neon marking tape, its torn ends flapping in the wind.

"Liam? Where are you, honey?" came Beth's worried voice from behind them.

"I'm over here!" Liam called back. "I found her!"

Despite hearing Beth's calling for them, it was Penelope's dad who appeared first. He ran out of the trees, his eyes wild as he looked left and right. As he spotted her and Liam, he charged at them, pulling Penelope from Liam's grip and into his arms.

"Careful, dad! There's a cliff!" she said in a squeaky voice as he lifted her off the ground.

"I was so worried! I was so worried I was going to lose you, too! " he cried, squeezing her tighter. "What the hell happened?" He pulled back, finally putting her back on her own feet. "You just disappeared!"