“KIM! Wait!” I shouted into the night as I ran after her, the flashlight I snatched off the couch tight in my grasp. It was hard to keep the flashlight trained on her as I pumped my arms up and down, but I managed to keep her in sight as I sprinted closer and closer to the woods.
Georgina and Flora had to be moments behind me, but their distance made a huge difference when it came to catching up with Kim. Kim and myself had taken Cross Country and Track at school, making us excellent sprinters. She was the only one who had ever been able to out run me, which was not helping the current situation.
As we neared the edge of the property I picked up my pace, starting to get a little worried that she would enter the woods. The forest beside my house is extremely easy to get lost in, with only a few weaving bike paths and hiking trails that were hardly ever used. It is said that the forest even has its own Natives, although most people just referred to them as the Gypsies, who live deep within the forest and kidnap anyone who strays too far from the path.
I snapped out of my thoughts and realized I had lost track of Kim. My heart raced in my now heated chest, as I searched the grounds quickly. I spotted Gee and Flora way back behind me, shouting at me to stop as they struggled to keep up.
Feeling a strange sense of déjà vu, I scanned the tree line, my eyes honing in on the small figure, standing directly under one of the massive trees that indicated the start of the forest. My breath caught in my throat as I looked upon the scene. Was it my imagination, or did the trees seem to lean slightly towards her with every passing second?
“KIM STOP!” I shouted, finally finding my voice.
She slowly looked over her shoulder at me as I shined the torch light in her face. Her expression was blank but as I watched, her features contorted and her the corners of her mouth lifted up into a wide smile before she turned and sprinted into the forest.
I ran in after her, caught off guard that she really had run into the forest that was host to so many horrifying rumors.
Those who didn't believe in the Gypsy rumors came up with other tales to explain the disappearances and even the killings of the hikers that dared brave those deadly trails. That there was a demented wood cutter who lived in a lonely cabin deep within the woods and invited cold travelers in for coffee and a bed, was the most popular one with the teenagers. They said that in the dead of night he would creep into your room, lift his axe high above you head and CHOP!
The adults of the town insisted that the woods were simply filled with dangerous animals. It wasn't uncommon to see a bear lumbering around on the outskirts of the forest. But even this tale had been warped over time and now it was said that the woods were unnatural in size and therefore must be host to all sorts of unnaturally large creatures that could knock your head off with one swipe.
But it wasn’t the tales of lost, and killed hikers, or even the warning of the unnatural creatures that gave me the unnerved feeling in my stomach as I followed her retreating frame into the woods, it was the memory of my Grandma telling stories of the forest, stories that were so bizarre, so exaggerated that she was deemed crazy by all of her neighbors. Even my own parents hardly ever spoke to her any more, so ashamed they were by her obsession. She lived in a small cottage on the outskirts of the town and was hardly ever seen by anyone.
My Grandma had been entranced by the Folk Tale stories all of her life, insisting that most of them were real. When I had been smaller, she would sit me down on her lap and tell me these stories, so many wonderful tales, that she knew, all off by heart. She was an amazing story teller and I would listen as she created worlds with her words. Worlds that regular, ordinary, every-day people couldn't see.
"You have to believe to be able to see little one," she had whispered to me once. "You have to believe that they are real or else they are incapable of revealing themselves."
Grandma told me that the Gypsy stories were real to an extent, that there really was Natives that lived in the forest, but they weren't Gypsies, she said. They were Faeries. She even told me that she had met one once, she said that they were like us, but far, far more beautiful.
"And that's why you must be careful Heather," she had said. "If you ever meet one, you must remember three things. Never promise anything to them, never follow them or stray from your path, and never ever play any of their games."
She never elaborated on the warning and when I got older, my parents stopped taking me to see her altogether, telling me that she was filling my head with nonsense.
I became so lost in own thought I realized Kim had suddenly stopped in the middle of my flashlight trail. I crashed into her knocking us both to the ground. We tumbled down the steep hill, separating at some point. Sharp weeds and twigs slashed at my skin, leaving razor-like cuts along the surface of my arms and feet, and the rock hard unforgiving, ground banged against my fragile body over and over again kicking up leaves and debris.
I tried to claw at the ground as I rolled to try and slow down my speed.
Finally after a dreadful amount of time I hit the base of a tree with a snap, and my journey down the hill stopped.
That was fun.
I rolled over painfully on my back, knowing my shirt had to be torn and ripped apart from the rocks and branches I had just slid along. My back and arms felt on fire, as my flesh was ripped off from all of the scratches.
I sat up, groaning, somehow I had managed to keep a hold of the flashlight during my fall and it was currently wedged between the ground and my back. Reaching around, I grabbed it, sweeping the small beam of light over the clearing and feeling incredibly relieved that it was still working.
Looking back up the hill I could see a clear path had been made as my body crashed and bashed its way down to where I was now sitting and I winced as I noticed that the path went over several large, rather pointy looking rocks.
"Kim?" I called out, waving the flashlight around again. We had separated during our fall but she couldn't be too far away. Perhaps if I retraced the path, I would be able to see which direction she rolled in. I wriggled my toes gingerly, stretching out my arms and checking for bruises. My shoulder ached a little but other than that I seemed to be fine.
As I turned, about to begin the climb back up to the top of the hill, a snap echoed from behind me.
I froze, looking back over my shoulder and sweeping the flashlight around the me again.
"Hello?"
Nothing to the left, nothing to the right...
Suddenly the shadows were writhing and twisting and then out of the darkness looking almost as though it had been created from night itself stepped a black horse. It snorted at me, it's wide nostrils flaring in its dished face and I couldn't help but gasp at its magnificence. Its obsidian coat shone all the way from glossy mane to its broad muscled chest that tapered into slender black legs with shiny hooves that stomped on the ground nervously. But the thing that had me captured was its eyes. Both were coal black, but the left eye held a bright splash of white that swirled around the pupil like light disappearing into a black hole.
The rest of it's body was encased in shadow but when it tossed its head and skittered to the side slightly before moving forward, I found my breath catching in my throat at the sight of what, or rather who, was seated on its wide back.
He sat regally, without any kind of saddle or cloth between him and the animal beneath him. His skin was pale, but still held a slight tan. Hiis face was haughty and he had a long straight nose with full lips and high cheekbones, giving him that 'aristocratic' look that most male models would sell their souls for. His long lashed eye lids were drooped to almost half closed, but instead of making him look drowsy, it simply added to the air surrounding him that exuded nonchalance and a 'couldn't-care-less' attitude.
Gypsy
"Who are you?" I choked out, although the more appropriate question probably would have been,what are you.
His head tilted slightly as he regarded me, the top half of his head shadowed by a branches shadow. I shivered, suddenly struck with the unnerving feeling that he was x-raying me with his hidden gaze. His perfect mouth twitched upwards at the corners into a smile that didn't quite reach his dark, shadowed eyes. He hadn't said anything, but I knew it was because he was enjoying my reaction to him. But it wasn't his exquisite face or the presence, he had that made me entranced. No, it was his hair. It was bright electric blue, and even though my flashlight had fallen to my side, hanging limply from my hand, his hair gave off enough light to light up the small clearing.
And it moved, it swayed back and forth, mirroring his slightest movements as though it were alive and when I had spoke, every single glowing blue strand and curled to frame his face, pointing towards me, yet he made no attempt to speak.
The horse skittered nervously again and just when it seemed he was about to open his mouth to answer, a shout echoed out from back up the hill and the horse reared up, his large front hooves pawing through the air.
How he stayed on that horse without stirrups or a saddle I will never know, but he did, his fingers tangled in its mane and he leaned forward against its neck as he guided it back down to the ground before they spun away from me and disappeared as silently as they had come.
I was left standing there, trying to understand what I had just seen, with my friends shouts drawing closer every second.
"Heather! Heather, where are you? We found Kim!"
My head snapped around and I looked back up the hill, just able to make out the weak beams of their cellphone lights at the top.
"I'm down here!" I croaked out. "Guy's I'm down here!"
"Heather?"
"Yup! I'm coming up!" Casting one more uneasy look around, I turned and shined the flashlight forward before climbing back up to safety a whisper of a voice echoing behind me.
You already know who I am.
* * * *
When I awoke the next day, I was squished in a comfortable pile with my three best friends. After the woods incident, we had taken turns raging at each other and hugging each other to death before we had finally decided to zip all of our sleeping bags together and watch a nice safe movie.
Well at least as nice and safe as Paranormal Activity 2 can be. Fortunately for us, after the events of the night, Paranormal Activity hadn't seemed so scary anymore now that we had, as Flora put it, "Been to hell and back with that damn Ouija board." So ten minutes into the movie, we had all fallen asleep.
I had only slept a few hours, though, because I just couldn't get the image of the blue-haired boy out of my head.
I yawned and stretched, looking fondly at my besties who were asleep in various positions that would make great blackmail, if I happened to take photos.
Suddenly, I smiled evilly.
*
Ten minutes and one permanent marker later....
Snap
I grinned to myself looking over the camera from the picture of Flora to the real version who was slumped on my floor, a Hitler mustachio on her top lip, a massive 'L' on her forehead and a pair of Harry Potter glasses drawn around her eyes.
The other two were decorated similarly except Kim was now being Jack Sparrow and Gee had a two massive words scrawled across her face reading 'Heather owns' and a cute little puppy dog nose complete with a tongue poking out the side of her mouth.
I gave myself a congratulatory pat on the back as I hid my camera where they would never find it. Down my bra.
Making my way into the kitchen I searched the cupboards, cussing when I couldn't find any coffee. I shrugged, oh well, that's what Starbucks is for. I grabbed the keys off the kitchen counter along with my purse, scrawled a note on a post-it before sticking it to Kim's forehead and walked out the door whistling cheerfully.
My cheerful mood abruptly went away when I noticed something on the passenger seat of my car. Frowning I unlocked the car and slid in on the drivers side, looking around to see if anyone was watching me before turning to study the mysterious object.
A small, ice blue wrapped parcel sat neatly on the passenger seat, a darker blue bow wrapped around it and keeping the small folded note that was on top in place. The wrapping paper was perfectly around the box shaped present, almost unbelievably well. Around it was a see through netting, sparkled with blue and white glitter. With shaking hands I reached out to pick it up. It rattled slightly as I carefully undid the bow, slid the note out and unfolding it. My eyes skimmed over the note in perfect cursive.
Heather,
I assure you this is not a gift; I am simply returning what is yours. Do not rid of it again or I will attach it to your body in a rather ... permanent fashion. Do not make the mistake of thinking that your promise to me has disappeared over time. I have a few issues to take care of at the moment and will probably find some way of using you to help me deal with them.
Keep away from the woods, including anything near it. Also, keep your windows shut tight, as well as that mouth of yours and you won’t have any problems with me. I hope my English has improved, it is still quite strange to me.
I will collect.
There was no signature, I even flipped the paper over to check the back but it was blank. I read back over the letter, feeling slightly scared.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that your promise to me has disappeared over time.
What was that supposed to mean? What promise? Something stirred inside of me, some long forgotten memory that I had pushed to the back of my mind but as hard as I tried, I just couldn't bring it up.
Fingers trembling I slowly pulled away the wrapping and my eyes shut tight as the last of the paper fell away. The object was thin and small and slightly spiky and I ran my fingers over the curious surface, unwilling to open my eyes for some reason.
Look at it
With a sense of foreboding I slowly cracked my eyes open.
"No," I breathed, gazing down at the object in my palm. Whatever I thought it could have been before I looked, nothing could be worse than this.
Nestled in my palm was a single beautiful glass snowflake, which hung off a thin silver chain.
Not glass.
Gently, I lifted it up in front of my eyes, mesmerized by the way it caught the light from the early morning sun. Crystallized beams bounced off the sharp tipped edges and for a moment I was reminded of a ninja star, as I gently brushed my fingers along the edge of the snowflake. It certainly looked as though it could cut fairly easily but at the same time, it appeared to be much too delicate. I looked at it closer wondering if it had been handcrafted, I had never seen anything like it before, even in the jewelry shops. It was stunning.
I looked down at the note again, frowning at the first sentence.
I assure you this is not a gift; I am simply returning what is yours. Do not rid of it again...
Puzzled, I looked back at the snowflake. The letter was implying that I had once owned this, but gotten rid of it. Why would I have thrown away such a beautiful trinket? I could feel something nagging at me in the back of my mind, trying to push forward and suddenly I saw a little girl, standing in front of a boy who was a bit bigger than her, but just as thin. She was smiling widely and looking at the boy with adoration, while she cradled something in her palm. I leaned over her shoulder to get a better look and her slightly chubby hands parted, revealing a single, beautiful glass snowflake.
Look at me.
The thought rushed into my mind on an icy wind, pushing me out of the memory and I wildly looked around the car, my chest heaving as though I had just run a marathon. I clutched the snowflake in one hand, not caring when the sharp points punctured my skin, my other hand reaching up to grip my head as I tried to launch myself back into the memory to confirm what I had seen.
In your hands, it will never melt.
As hard as I tried, I couldn't bring the scene back, but I was still as sure as my next breath, that the boy in the memory had blue hair.
The scene brushed away as quickly as it had lingered into my mind.
* * * *