Joshua
The smoke was forced back into me. I looked at Lori. I wasn't sure what I was expecting Lori to see, but every part of me wanted to stop when I saw that man grab her and push her against that tree. Her screams had petrified me and I wondered if everyone else could hear them.
I have always had the rule that I would respect people and their fears, but something kept my eyes on her. I wanted to look away, I wanted to end it, but something stopped me.
And then I felt it. It exploded first onto the tree; then pushed everything back into me. Everything came collapsing down as if some part of the illusion knew she was dangerous, deadly. Black covered my vision and when it fell, she was lying on the floor again. Looking up at the tree, that molten rock was fresh, replacing where her hands had been. There was no doubt it has come from her. I could now tell that it was something other than the rock I assumed it was, it looked brittle and pieces of it were falling off the tree.
Lori stirred. Her body slowly moved and rolled until her eyes opened and looked directly at me. She said nothing as she looked up and slowly breathed, then moved into a sitting position matching mine leaning back against the tree. Parts of the decaying tree continued to fall behind her.
Her voice was quiet when she spoke, "What happened?" It still held a hint of that southern accent she had.
I pointed behind her and simply said "that." She looked behind her at the tree and just stared. Eventually, she reached her hand out to touch it. More parts of the tree crumbled beneath the delicate touch of her hand. She moved it gently across and little pieces fell, revealing the decay beneath, it was spreading into the tree.
A loud crack came from a branch above. The bark started to bend until the branch fell from the tree and landed on the ground. Lori jumped slightly at it. From the part that broke off the tree, I could see that same black brittle substance, with some green and purple veins running through it.
"Well, that happened," my voice had some humor in it. She remained quiet, her head looking down at her lap. She looked so defeated, "Hey, are you ok?"
She fiddled with her hands for a long time, "Ho-how much did you see?" Her voice was still so quiet, she sounded so broken.
"Enough," was all I said, the idea of confirming that fact that I had seen everything didn't sit right with me. A small sniffle came as Lori brought her knees to her chest and rested her head on them. My heart broke, "I'm so sorry you had to go through that, but like I said, it's just an illusion, it..."
"...didn't really happen," she said with me, her voice was more stern, "But it did, Josh," she looked up towards me, "it did happen, maybe not this time, but it happened before, and I just had to live through it again." I was speechless. What could I possibly say to give her words justice? To make it better?
She sniffled a little, then took a deep, audible breath. "My dad died when I was four. My mom was a mess. I don't remember it clearly but my mom was a shell of herself and everyone knew she was falling apart. The neighbors took care of me and held me when I cried—not just for my dad, but for my mom too. I felt like I had lost her. She barely got up in the morning or got dressed and we basically lived off of casseroles brought to us by different people. My dad's business partner, John Whittman, came over one day and just decided that he needed to help. He had always been over to see my dad as one of his closest friends and wouldn't let this happen. From then on, he was always over to help my mom with anything she needed. Almost all our financials were done by him and he took care of me when my mom needed it. I remember I once asked if he was my dad. My mom had laughed at the time but I saw tears, I knew it made her miss Dad. John would pick me up from school and take me for ice cream and did all those things that a father should.
"I don't remember exactly when it started, I do remember one time when I was eight when my mom was home and it happened. He told me I needed to be quiet. He had always called it a game of ours....a secret game. He told me that if Mom found out we couldn't do anything fun together. I was young, and every other kid had their dad, every other kid did fun things with their dad, this, this was the closest person I had to that. I didn't know it was wrong, I didn't like it, but he was an adult, and I trusted that he would do the right thing.
"I'm from Alabama, a small, Christian town. Everyone knew and loved my mom, she was who everyone wanted to be. When I found out what John was really doing, I was so scared of how people would look at me, like I wasn't 'Holy' enough, and how would everyone look at my mom if they found out. She had already lost my dad, and she was finally starting to be happy again, I didn't want to ruin it for her.
"John had gotten more and more pushy as I got older. He would pick me up from school and take me places to......have his way with me. Sometimes I would fight, sometimes it was easier to just let him get it over with. It was a normal day when he picked me up. I hadn't paid attention where he was driving, I knew it was taking longer, but I thought it just meant we were going to....'play'. It was worse. We drove for an hour or two. When I realized he was kidnapping me, it was too late. I was twelve, I didn't know how to get home, at least he was someone I knew. He paid cash for the motel room......I couldn't get away from him there.......and there was no one to stop him......it was a week of this. I had no idea where I was and I thought I was safer staying with him.
"One day he left to get food for us, while he was gone, the police found me. I was screaming and crying and felt awful. They brought me to a hospital where my mom met me. They asked me questions and ran tests for days. I felt numb when I got home. I just sat in my room, I barely ate. A few days later, John broke into our house and found me again. I was thankful then that my mom had a gun. She heard me scream. Clarice has a 'shoot first ask questions later policy", at least she did with John. She didn't kill him, but he was downed until the police came." Lori was quiet for a while. A few tears fell onto her hands. She hadn't looked up the whole time. I still had no words to respond with. Flashes of darkness came in and out, a warm that felt cold, peaceful, unnerving quiet.
"Do you know what happened after the trial? After he went to prison?," Lori's voice was shaky, "People would whisper when I walked by. They pretended like I was a victim to my face, but they blamed me, they said that I should have watched how I acted around him. They thought I was an abomination for getting an older man to want me. I count myself lucky that my mom was there for me." She broke down crying. It was brutal; each cry rang in my ears and pulled at every muscle in my body.
I watched as the ground beneath her began to die, the decaying material forming again. It spread all around her, like tentacles. They moved slow, progressing with each outward cry. Cracks started to form, revealing purple and green veils of liquid. It was killing as it moved.
Like Clay, Lori was death.
Like Nat, Lori was destruction.
The tree behind Lori was now dead. All the leaves had shriveled up and the bark had decayed. That...stuff coming from Lori was poison, she was killing things.
There were still tears streaming down her face when she looked up. Her eyes registered what was happening and grew wide. She immediately started backing up, the poison stopping in its tracks. She was gasping — hyperventilating. She backed right into the tree, hitting it hard enough to make the entire tree shake violently and another branch to fall, spooking her again, and the poison started to grow again.
I slowly stood up; she was surrounded by the poison and if I wanted a shot at getting to her, I would need to figure out if I could even touch it. I moved as close to her as possible, I was only a few feet away, and pulled my jacket off and dropped it on the edges of the poison, it had spread around her in a circle unlike the veins in the bedroom. I waited. After a few moments, my jacket stayed intact, so I stepped on top of it. Again nothing happened. I stepped off the jacket and onto the brittle rock, only my shoes to protect me.
It was a slow walk to Lori, and she was still crying and hyperventilating. When I finally got to her and reached out to comfort her she backed away again.
"Don't touch me," she screamed.
"I-I"
"I don't want to hurt you. Just stay away," her hands swatted at me, trying to keep me a good distance away.
"Lori," I bent down where I was, trying to be on her level, "I need you to try to calm down. Breathe. Focus on each breath, focus on the smells around you, focus on the sun rising, anything. But you need to calm yourself down, you're hurting yourself more by staying stressed. Look around," I turned my head to look out at the dead grass, "it's spreading because you're upset. Breathe."
She started to take large breaths. The sun had just started illuminating the sky, not yet at the horizon, but streaks of light ran across it. The tears finally stopped, staining her face. She refused to look at me.
"I'm ok," Lori breathed through each word, "I'm ok now." I reached out a hand to her. As expected, she didn't grab it. Instead, she stood by herself, using the dead tree to support herself, and more pieces crumbled to the ground.
"Do you want to go home?"
"That," she whipped her head to me, "is not my home."
"Ok, well," I stuck my hand in my pockets, "would you like to get out of the forest?"
"Do I get to live?" She was serious, but I still laughed.
"Yes, you get to live. Come on," I turned, knowing she would follow me this time. It was a quiet walk, I only knew she was behind me because of the sound her feet made walking in the forest. We came up behind the house, no one was on the back porch. We just sat out there. Lori wasn't allowed inside yet so I went in to get her something warm to drink after the long night. I found Devon, Liz, and Clay inside, well that answers the question of who she ran into. Liz grabbed a blanket to cover herself before they joined us on the porch.
Lori refused to take the drink, refused to sit, she barely wanted to step onto the wooden porch. "You're not going to break it." I reached out again with the mug.
"You don't know that," despite the statement, Lori took the mug.
"See," my voice was jokingly condescending, "everything survived."
She was scared. Scared of her Lure and everything that came with it. I couldn't blame her. When Liz first started using her Lure, she would start choking people anytime she had something to say, and often struggled to let go. She was mortified. Before I learned to channel the fog for nightmares, people would just fall into them, any time I was down, or thought about Emma, or thought about...... Her being scared wasn't abnormal.
I stood near Lori, enough away that she didn't move, but still rather close. Devon, Liz, and Clay were on the other end, Liz sitting on the only bench and the boys leaning against the railing.
Lori leaned slightly towards me. "Please don't tell anyone," she said in a hushed tone. I knew what she meant. Don't tell anyone about the illusion.
Slowly, the others emerged, some coming from the tree line, some going through the house to meet us in the back. People took their time, some grabbing blankets or something warm for the cool morning, most making themselves the morning drink of their choice. Everyone found a spot they wanted, chatting amongst themselves. Zara sat on the bench, slightly shielding Liz from Lori. Clara and Nat hopped up onto the railing to sit. Tara was wedged between Devon and the corner of the railing, Clara on her other side.
Mahdi was the last to arrive, coming out from the kitchen back door. He made his famous smile "Damn," he said and Lori shuddered, "I thought I was going to have some fun during the night." I rolled my eyes, Mahdi and Devon both bothered me in the way they enjoyed hurting others. It was different from the triplets, it was sheer pleasure, hurting for no reason other than entertainment.
"I know," Tara, "it's funny how Josh was the one to 'see her Lure'."
I rolled my eyes, "Oh come off it. Rules are rules; I followed them, I'm hoping you followed them too," I gave her a mocking smile, daring her to challenge me. Tara gave a quick smile back, one that told me she was pissed about what I said.
"Care to enlighten the group, Joshua?" sometimes Natalia was the only sensible person to speak up, though she was still being condescending.
"I think it's poison," Lori's eyes shot to me. There were a few words of confusion, "She killed a tree, it snapped within minutes of her touch. I think that stuff is poison....or maybe acid, you should have seen how parts of it just crumbled."
"Can we touch it?" Nat asked.
"Obviously we can't," Devon snapped, "If it killed a tree imagine what it would do to us."
"I walked on it," I stated. Everyone looked at me, "After it stopped, I had my shoes on but I was still able to walk on it."
"So can we assume fear?" it was Clara this time with a question, "I mean, meeting Liz for the first time would be scary, what did she see? How did she react?"
Lori and I exchanged looks. "Maybe a Hail Mary? It was very last minute.....close to the end when her Lure surfaced." It was hard giving them information without telling them what I saw, but Lori's secrets are hers.
"So we don't get to know," Clara asked.
I wanted to speak, but it was Lori who spoke, "What do you see?" she looked up and stared down Clara. I laughed.
Clara was taken aback, no one expected Lori to bite back. She quickly recovered then scoffed, looking so much like Tara, who looked ready to fight Lori for that comment. "Careful there, darlin'," Tara spoke condescendingly, "we could always send you back out again."
"I doubt you could do any worse than what happened tonight," who was this person? This Lori who had fire and talked back? She playing with fire for sure, testing Tara. Unfortunately for her, things could be much worse than what she experienced tonight, the Triplets and Mahdi would make it much worse, it's hard to fight your mind.
But something snapped back after that statement; Lori looked down and away, maybe she could see it in Tara's eyes. "Oh, darlin'," Tara was mocking her accent, "you don't want to know how much worse it would be." It was a threat. Everyone knew it. Lori bit her lip and shied away even more.
I watched as Liz tapped on Zara's shoulder, even sitting down Zara was significantly taller and Liz had to look up at her. An unspoken conversation passed between them before Liz laid her head on Zara's shoulder and Zara put her arm around Liz, they cuddled into each other, both under the blanket. Liz yawned loudly.
"What.....what can you do?" Lori asked, facing Tara again.
"Besides make your life a living Hell?" Tara's irises glowed gold in a split second. Lori stiffened beside me, her eye frosting the same gold color only this one filled her entire eye. Tara tilted her head to the left, deadly calm. "Jump," was all she said. Lori just started jumping up and down.
"Tara," it was Clara who gave the warning voice. But it did nothing to stop her.
"Stop," Lori stopped jumping, "slap yourself." It was Tara's most basic command to get her point across. Lori followed instructions.
Clara jumped off the railing, reaching out to Tara to get her to stop. It didn't work. Lori stood still, eerily unmoving, but a tear started rolling down her cheek. Others soon followed. Clara started shaking Tara but nothing helped. Tara was holding Lori's mind, torturing Lori by the fact that she had no control.
I took a step towards Lori. "Josh," Tara's eyes were still unblinking, but I knew the warning, if I made the wrong move, things would only get worse for Lori.
Zara sighed and got up. Liz whined at the loss of her pillow and curled the blanket closer to her. "Enough, Tara, you've made your point," Zara's voice had no empathy, she was only doing this for Clara.
Tara relaxed, her eyes returning to their normal brown, annoyed. Lori followed shortly, collapsing on the ground. Her body shook from the sobs but no sound was made.
"And that was just me. Don't fuck with me, or my sisters."
Lori slowly got up. "There was no need for that," I turned to the others, "she's been through enough in the last twenty-four hours."
"I don't know," Devon put his arm around Tara as she leaned into him, his smile growing bigger as he spoke, "she asked, and she has to learn somehow, might as well know who is a predator and who is prey," I rolled my eyes, " I would say that Mahdi is up next."
"Why not me?" Nat mocked being offended.
"Cause if we let you show her your Lure, we would need more duct tape for the house," there were a few chuckles around for the joke. Mahdi stood up from the armrest on the bench he was sitting, next to Liz was settling into Zara again, her eyes were heavy.
I stared directly at him, "No."
"Explaining this would be too hard," he responded, "It makes more sense after experience." I went to protest again, Lori had been through enough torture.
Clay's voice was quiet as it came from the back, "Make her feel better," we all looked at him questioning, "she's scared, make her calm. That is at least better." Lori just looked up, scared. Her eyes grew even wider as she saw a similar black smoke emerge from Mahdi. It crept from behind his back, the smoke was darker than the one I make, an eternity without light. It moved as a unit, a blanket of smoke, smooth and flat, and went towards her until it covered Lori. Then disappeared completely.
She was dazed. I made a step towards her before a stern Don't was yelled at me. Lori's eyes were heavy, she was fighting to keep them open. Her whole body sagged and slumped, a single gush of wind would knock her over.
To my surprise, Mahdi did listen, "it is calm....you feel comfortable......everything is fine," his voice was even more smooth than it usually is. Mahdi's voice alone could make anyone comfortable, but with his Lure, it was almost impossible to not succumb to his influence. The last bits of tension released from Lori's muscles as Mahdi continued to mutter comforting words, anything to make her relax.
The smoke appeared again, rushing over her and back to Mahdi. Lori quickly came out of her daze, disorientated. She looked around, not sure what was going on, but she wasn't as sad, or scared.
We all allowed her a moment to collect herself and digest what just happened. After a minute, she asked the question that took us years to answer, "How is that different from what Tara did?" We had spent a long time figuring that out. Aside from how they felt to use, the two Lures seem virtually identical from the outside. We had all spent hours understanding the intricacies of each to find the differences.
Mahdi shrugged. "There's not much difference. Theirs is more forceful, while mine is more of suggestion, it has to deal with the brain more, how your brain feels and is communicating, while theirs is more so control over the body —"
"Which is why ours is more powerful," Clara interjected, she was giddy saying that.
"Well when you have a three-person hive mind it's definitely stronger, " Mahdi bounced back, this was going to start another fight.
Clara gasped, "We are NOT a hive mind! We are each our own person," Clara's voice rose, but not in the "getting louder" way. It was slightly louder but her pitch moved and her voice came more from the roof of her mouth. That was Mahdi's easiest way to rile them up, taking away their individuality, their autonomy. Each girl had fought so hard to figure out who she was, which was a button Mahdi loved to push. If only for the fact that it was the only defense against the fact that they were some of the most powerful here.
"Wait," Lori finally spoke, " all three of them can do that?" The triplets nodded. It took some time to explain the intricacies of each Lure, and it would be a while before she knew and understood everything. But explaining the Triplets mattered. A three-person battering ram into your body's operating system wasn't something you gloss over. And then there was explaining Mahdi's siren song, the influence he has over how people think, both definitely more dangerous than Liz or Devon, well more difficult to master training against.
Nat was last. But we refused to let her show hers. It was destructive. A high pitch scream that could shatter any material if high enough, sometimes getting so high you couldn't hear it. The danger came if she chose to speak death into it. If you weren't dead by the time she stopped, you would go mad until death seemed a better alternative.
The sun was well into the morning sky when we finished. Liz had fallen asleep on Zara's lap. Zara was the first to get up, claiming that some people needed sleep, "some people" being Liz. Zara slowly got up and looked to Dev for help getting Liz upstairs. Devon silently walked over and scooped Liz into his arms and went inside, Zara in tow. Clay silently moved to sit on the bench with his coffee, just staring out into the forest. The rest of the girls started chatting again, as usual and went inside, I know that Clar and Nat would eventually end up outside again with food, warm drinks, and a blanket and huddle together on the steps down from the porch, enjoying the morning as Clay does.
I looked to Lori, silently asking her if she was ready to go inside, she grabbed her mug, a gesture that she was, and followed me. When we entered the kitchen again, Lori immediately went to put her mug in the sink and started washing it. "What are you doing that for?" Clara asked. Devon entered the kitchen again from the stairs.
"Jus.." Lori looked around confused, "Just trying to clean up after myself?" Clara faced back to Nat and Tara, she was sitting on the island while the others were sitting on the stools in front of it, and started giggling. Devon moved from the doorway over to the girls, leaning against the countertop next to Tara.
I walked over to Lori, a little too close as she stepped away. "Here, you can just leave it," I said as I reached out to take the mug from her. My hand barely brushed hers as I grabbed the mug. For a moment she just stood there, not moving her hand. Then a sudden realization hit her and she pulled her hand away.
We silently walked upstairs, her movements sluggish: she needed sleep. Liz was already passed out on her bed when I opened the door. Lori remained in the doorway, she bit her lip, then asked "Is there anywhere else for me to go?"
"Unfortunately, no. Liz was the only one with her own room."
"Then I can go back downstairs, maybe sit outside," she offered.
"Lori," I sighed, "you need sleep. Your body needs to relax and calm down." She looked around. Then, with a sigh, sat down on the floor against the wall. "You're going to sleep there? Sitting up?" Lori responded by fully laying on the floor and closing her eyes. I made a little laugh to myself then turned to walk away, hoping that no one would disturb her.