All is well in the wicked woods

We all know what happens in the woods after dark. The dense fog will slowly roll in, the shadows will take on life, the sounds will become sharp and overbearing, every twig snap a panic inducing plea from body to brain to run far and fast. The moon will shine its light just enough to make out the shapes of the monsters in the trees who have come to play. 

Knowing these things and choosing sunset to venture into these woods is a battle between bravery and stupidity. It’s a war I have become quite accustom to in many ways in my life. Tonight will be no different, the tree line coming into view as I make my way up the hill and onto the path that leads to the forest outside of town. 

I stop at the line of trees and breathe deeply knowing the air in the woods will seem thicker, easier to become winded and out of breath. I pull my long black hair over my shoulder, braiding into a thick rope before tying it off and throwing it back behind me. I reach in my pack for a bright red cape, pulling it on as I make sure my knives are secured to my body. One strapped to my thigh, one each stashed in my tall boots, and one secured to each wrist. 

Monsters just love that stereotype, innocent girl lost in the woods. It will be fun when they find out this cloaked damsel in distress is pissed off and armed to the teeth. Nothing can stop the grin that spreads across my face as I pull the hood over my head and secure it so it covers my eyes just enough that nobody will notice how odd they are. One just normal and bright blue, the other while normally shaped is just an ink black star on the white of my eye. I watch the sky as the pink and orange turn to gray with the setting sun. Shouldering my pack, facing the sunset, I step back slowly into the woods. 

Spinning on my heel, my eyes adjust as the last light of day is taken over by the dark night of the woods before me. The silver rays of that wicked moon illuminate a small amount but never enough to really truly see what's lurking. I know from experience all the strange things that live here. This isn't my first walk through this dark place. I know it, and so does the woods. I almost feel it sigh as I step forward. 

The trees are dense towering everywhere. Overgrown with moss and branches that will grab you should you choose to stray from the path. As with everything that is dark and evil the trees in this wood are never as the appear, most seeming to have a life of their own. I think if you sit long enough you will see them get up and move when they think no one is looking. 

There is a single path cutting through the walls of trees tall on either side. It's heavily covered in leaves making it almost like a damp carpet underfoot. This path will lead you through the forest and to the other side, well, if it wants to. Like everything else in here it doesn't always have your best intentions at hand. It will change direction on a whim, or block you off completely with fallen logs, sometimes you will have the end in sight and a small turn will have you back at the start cursing whatever brought you here in the first place. As fickle as the path can be, just know, it is ALWAYS better stay on it. Venturing off is a red flag to your intent on self destruction, or death.

Some will go through life happy and carefree. Kissed by luck and knowing only love and peace. Others will succumb to fear and sorrow, shying away from anything that brings harm or danger. Lock themselves up tight letting no one or nothing in and dying alone always wondering what could have been. Then there are people like me. We have seen enough that fear is no longer an option. There is nothing that will ever stop me from my plan. The years, the effort, the places I've had to go, they all mean nothing if it gets me closer to where I belong. 

Touching the pendent hanging around my neck, I bring it to my lips, imagining I’m kissing my sister's cheek. I took this from her body when I found her and my mother dead. The only thing left of the family that was robbed from me. The necklace falls as a howl breaks the unearthly silence. It’s followed by another howl and then another, none of them far away enough for my liking. 

“I’m not playing around with wolves tonight.” My eyes narrow as I glare into the trees. The leaves all around me rustle as if the woods is laughing. Best to keep moving now, my presence is known and I’m here for a very specific reason, not to play around with whatever monster the night wants to provoke me with. 

Moving as swiftly as possible but also remaining quiet, I make my way down the path. The occasional twig snapping in the distance and the calls of strange night birds doesn’t take my attention from the task at hand. I come to a stop to assess my progress along the path, breathing deeply I let myself really feel what I’m searching for. There is nothing for awhile but just as I’m ready to continue ahead, I feel it pulling. 

Some desires will bond themselves so tightly into your soul that its a physical pull when you are on the right track. It’s a cold shiver down the back of your neck, when your stomach drops at the sense of fear, it’s the whisper in your ear of sweet promises in store. I hear that faint little whisper guiding me, the wind pulls some hair loose from my braid, another pull in the direction I need to be. Why am I not surprised to find him, the one I seek, is off the path.

 “Come this way, He is just through here.” The whisper giggles as the knife drops from wrist to hand in one fluid movement and I step slowly off the path. Tree to tree I stalk, stopping to watch, stopping to listen. Following the pull of desire for peace, for freedom, for death. I’ve raged, grieved, felt too much, and not enough. Now, tonight, its put to an end. The pull jolts me one last time and then it’s gone and I’m left staring into a clearing in the trees. My eyes adjust to the moonlight in the open space and there I see him. He is hunched over a form, a lady sleeping, one hand gently on her throat the other cupping her jaw and turning her head to the side. He lowers his face slowly, some of his black hair sliding forward covering his eyes from me and I see his lips part as he goes to whisper into her ear. 

No time to think, I need to move now before he can whisper to her, “come with me”, and she will be gone forever from this side of the world. There is no way to hide the sudden movement from him as I sprint forward full force and slide into the sleeping lady, pushing with all my weight, she shoves just enough out of the way so now it’s mostly me underneath his large body. I hear her gasp air awakened from a dead sleep. Well, an almost dead sleep anyway, and I can’t keep the smile off my face even as I yell to her to run. 

It doesn’t have to be said twice, she is pulling herself off the ground half stumbling, half running. We listen to her screaming as she takes off into the trees. His breathing is heavy but he is frozen in place. If the bastard had a heart I bet it would be beating out of his chest right now. The hood of my cloak has stayed firmly in place over my eyes. A blessing from the fates, one look into my eyes and there would be no mistaking who I actually am. Quickly I turn my face towards the ground and raise my ear slightly upwards. 

“Whisper to me instead” My plea is winded and begging, maybe I’ve caught him off guard enough this will work. Silence blankets over us, the moment still. All I feel is his presence surrounding me, suffocating me, as he leans towards me. His breath hot on the shell of my ear, his lips so close. The smell of his breath is mint, and smoke, rolled together, sweet as it chokes the air from your lungs. This is it. All my planning, all my scheming, I don’t dare move as I wait for him to speak. 

“Wish I could say it’s a pleasure to see you Nova,” his lips grazing my skin, his deep voice in my ear. “But it’s not.” He grabs my face hard squeezing and pulls the hood off my head with his other hand. His face is a mixture of anger and disappointment. 

“Oh hey Grim,” I squeak out as best as I can with the grip he has on my cheeks.

Grim blows out a hard sigh. “Most people are running from a Reaper Demon. You are the only woman crazy enough to stalk one." he releases the hold on my face. “It’s been a while this time Nova, I thought maybe I had finally gotten rid of you.” His fists land on either side of my head pushing into the dirt and he doesn't move from above me as he cages me in between his arms. 

"You will never be rid of me," my jaw clenches as I grit my teeth, growling. "Not till I get what I want." 

"I won't take you Nova, it's not your time. It doesn't work like that. No matter how much you miss your family, death is not in your fate yet." Grim searches my face staring into my eyes, pity and sadness written all over him. 

"Don't look at me like that." Pushing at his chest trying to get him away from me. "At least I saved her and all the others before her since you took my family from me. As long as I'm still alive I will follow you and I will stop you from doing what you do."

He rolls away and sits up next to me. Scrubbing his face with his hands and running them through his hair he sighs loudly.

"You are no hero. You are not saving them. It is not your place to delay their destiny, or your own. Nova you are the monster now. It will take years for the fates to put that woman back on her right path and it is your fault." Grim's solid black eyes search mine, "I'm not lying. If you continue to mess with the fates they will fight back." 

"No, that's not true, I'm not a monster. What I'm doing is the right thing, I'm saving these people from death that you are bringing to them." My mind is reeling, I can feel my emotions getting the better of me. 

"When that woman finds her way back to her home she will find herself alone." He shakes his head sadly. "She has been lost in these woods and her mate ventured out to look for her. He lost his life out here searching, but they were never supposed to lose each other. I was keeping her on the right path so she could join him. Now it will not be so easy for the fates to carve her a new plan and she will grieve until then." 

I feel the tears fall from my eyes as I listen. What he is saying is the truth. What have I done? How have I become the monster? Grim puts his arm around me and holds me while I cry. He offers no words of comfort but he keeps me close while I let my thoughts collect. He smells like freshly dug earth on a rainy day and I breathe it deeply. 

Another howl pierces the night and my head snaps up sharply. Wiping my tears with the back of a hand I pull my knife. Grim jumps to his feet peering into the dark.

"That was too close." He kisses my cheek and sprints a few steps away. Spinning around he calls out, "Don't worry Nova, we will see each other again, when the time is right and the stars align." 

"Nice friend leaving me out here to fend for myself!" My breathing is heavy. Damn demon takes off at the first sign of danger leaving me all alone. 

"I have to follow the fates," a low chuckle fading into the distance. "Oh and we aren't friends!"

Twigs snapping, growling, getting closer, and it's too late for me now to run. I face the trees head on, knife pointed in front of me waiting for the wolf to emerge. I hear the panting, the thud of heavy feet. My breathing is fast and hard but I don't dare turn away or even blink. 

It's not a wolf that steps out from the trees but a man. He pauses staring, sizing me up from across the clearing. He shakes out his long black hair and I can see it's shaved close on one side. The muscles in his arms flex and his jaw clenches as he cocks his head like he is smelling the air. He strides purposely towards me, it's everything I can do to stand tall and not shrink back. He towers over me as the space between us melts away and just as he stops in front of me the moon clears the clouds and lights the clearing up so I can fully see the strangers face. My breath is knocked from me and I can't stop staring. 

His black hair hangs to the side of his face and with his golden toned skin and sharp jaw there is no denying how handsome he is. There is a smile on his full lips that would make anyone weak but all I can focus on are his eyes. One normal, beautiful green and gold, but the other? Solid black except for a perfect silver crescent moon in the center.

He reaches out and cups my cheek turning my face towards the moonlight to look into my star shaped eye. The smile breaking into a full grin of perfect white teeth. 

"Nova, I've been searching for you for a long time, you haven proven to be a difficult woman to find. The fates have sent me to get you, it's time for you to join me in our work." He grins even harder like he expects me to know what he is talking about. 

"I don't understand?" I shake my head. 

"My name is Varchas." He says. "I've been looking for you for years. Together we will work for the fates aligning the stars for people destiny's to take place. Can you feel the pull toward me? This is the path to your destiny Nova. Come with me and I will show you everything." 

I feel the chill on the back of my neck and the twinge in my stomach and I slide my hand into his. When our fingers connect and I look up at him his moon eye is glowing slightly and I can see in the reflection my star eye is doing the same thing. I breathe deeply and for the first time in a long time the empty alone feeling in my heart is gone. I bring the necklace to my lips and kiss it softly as hand in hand Varchas and I walk out of the woods.