To The Forest - Part Twelve
This episode is part of a larger story, Soft Touch. If you haven’t yet, you can go back and read it from the beginning right here.
Port Sitka is aglow with dancing summery sunlight. At first glance everything is either green or golden, aside from the deep blue stretch of the sea. On closer look, there are pools of pale purple shadow beneath the blossoming trees, white houses tucked into the explosions of colorful beach flowers, the rich brown wood of the docks.
Rose and Leyla had us meet them at a favorite restaurant of theirs. The place isn’t set on the beach, but on the forested side of town, which means it’s lightly populated with locals instead of busy with a lot of tourists. The small, snug building looks like it’s been here forever, with a wooden sign over the door that creaks softly in the breeze as we sit at the picnic table outside.
Rose is in a cute pair of maroon overalls, with a bright bandana knotted around her silver hair, a few silver curls escaping to frame her face. Leyla is wearing a chic cream-colored top. A beautiful, sheer, turquoise wrap is loosely enfolded around her elbows, draping gently down and fluttering in the light wind. The edges are embroidered with intricate little flowers, every stitch done by hand.
I can guess exactly who made that for Leyla based on how perfectly it compliments her, down to the last detail. Also based on the glowing, admiring glances her wife keeps casting her way.
The dogs are snoozing under the table in a little heap, occasionally lifting their heads to watch drowsily as people go in and out through the restaurant’s open doors. There’s a little crowd scattered across the outdoor tables, just enough for us to talk without being overheard.
“So, how was meeting Ralph?” was pretty much the first question I asked when we got here.
Leyla was the one I asked, and she didn’t say anything in answer. But she gave me a small, warm smile that felt like a very good sign.
“Are you boys all ready for your camping trip?” she asks us now, leaving a pristine red lipstick print on her coffee mug. “Not expecting any problems, are we?”
“Yeah, we are,” Aiden sighs, reaching for the hot sauce. “Jamie’s definitely gonna be mad when I wake him up so early in the morning. I’m gonna get a whole slew of slurred, half-asleep, Irish-accented sass first thing tomorrow.”
The giant bite of breakfast sandwich that I just took prevents me from responding verbally, so I kick at Aiden’s shin under the table. He moves his leg out of the way in time, giving me a warm, laughing smile.
“I wasn’t actually complaining.” He gently ruffles my hair as I swallow my food and scowl indignantly at him. “You know I love it.”
“I’m not complaining either, if that’s the biggest obstacle you’ll be facing,” Leyla laughs.
Rose giggles, too, then drops her gaze to the table. She fidgets with the torn sugar packet beside her coffee, then nudges her glasses back up her nose with the tip of her finger and takes a deep breath.
“Well, we wish you boys all the luck in finding what’s left of my Tree,” she says softly, glancing quickly around to make sure no one is listening. “I’m sorry that I still haven’t made up my mind about telling Spencer and Floyd. I know you wanted their help for this.”
“No, no need to apologize!” I answer earnestly, waving a hand at her. “Take all the time you need to think it over, honestly! We just figured we should get looking in the meantime. It’ll probably take us multiple camping trips, anyways, which I’m - totally fine with. Do you happen to know if there are bears in that forest, by the way?”
“What - bears? I’m not sure.” Rose glances over at me, then hastily looks down at her coffee again. “But, ah - bears aside, the forest has - this is part of why we asked to see you before you go…”
Rose trails off with an anxious glance at Leyla.
Leyla doesn’t have to look at her to understand. She leans in closer to us across the picnic table, so Aiden and I lean in, too.
“I assume you recall what I told you about the demon illusion that Rose created?” she asks, loosely weaving her fingers around her mug. “In order to scare off anyone trying to reach her Tree?”
Aiden and I both nod, listening closely, then look at Rose in surprise when she abruptly takes over.
“That wasn’t the only one I made,” she explains, in a soft rush. “I had to sew each of them separately, but I had a few designs I had already been working on that I was able to alter for the purpose. So I was able to create a small collection of illusions, even though time was tight. I also used a powerful needle, one I’d been using to sew magic for a very long time. The same one…”
She trails off, but we know what she means. The same needle that Leyla uses to mend Rose’s spirit each night. The one still humming with magic and power, after all this time.
“The illusions were very powerful,” Leyla goes on, lounging gracefully to the side with one elbow on the picnic table, her snowy hair spilling over her shoulder. “That’s why the demon was strong enough that I could ride it. And we have no idea what became of it. Or any of the others.”
Rose has been rummaging around in her bag, and now she draws something out to show me and Aiden. A stack of six needlepoint hoops, each neatly framing a piece of Rose’s hand-sewn magic. She sets them out on the table before us, one by one.
I recognize the demon one that she already showed us. But Rose’s art, while gorgeous, is completely abstract. It’s impossible to tell what any of the other designs represent just by looking at them. One is a swirl of oceanic blue, with sea green and silver worked in. The one beside it is a jagged explosion of black and purple and gold, with shimmering threads of sparkles.
All of them are completely different from each other, totally unique aside from their shared beauty.
Aiden and I gaze down at them, then slowly look up at Rose.
“Six illusions?” Aiden asks, his blue eyes very wide.
Rose nods. Aiden and I exchange a swift glance before we look back at her.
I put into words the immediate and urgent question. “One demon. What are the others?”
Rose winces apologetically, her fingertip fidgeting with her bandana.
“Ah… the truth is, I did this so long ago, during a very frantic time. This was the part of mine and Leyla’s plan that I was probably paying the least attention to, it was just supposed to be an extra safety measure… I made the illusions very quickly and set them loose as soon as they were done. And the only one Leyla ever saw was the demon, s-so… we um…”
“We don’t remember,” Leyla finishes smoothly, sending away the waiter who was coming to check on us with a dainty flick of her fingers.
Aiden and I stare at her and Rose in mounting alarm.
“And you don’t know what happened to them,” I repeat. “Only that you gave them a lot of magical energy…”
“Enough that they may still exist, yes. Maybe enough that they retained their powers, too. Of course, it’s completely possible that they disappeared when I lost my powers.”
I suddenly remember that Spencer told us there were all kinds of stories about the mysteries hidden in the forests of Port Sitka. Checks out, if there were six powerful magical illusions on the roam… yeah, something tells me they didn’t disappear when Rose’s powers did.
“Okay,” I say slowly, setting down my coffee. “Um… do we need to be worried about that?”
“I’m - I’m just not sure. I wish I knew.” Rose’s shy eyes are full of anxious apologies. “What I do know is that they were designed for the one purpose of leading people away from my Tree. Their every instinct is to scare away or confuse or mislead anyone who starts getting too close, aside from me, Leyla, and Charlie. So - that would include you two.”
There’s a brief silence.
“And, um,” I answer, in a scraping, determinedly calm voice, “You definitely don’t remember what they are?”
“No,” Rose sighs sadly, then pauses, her eyes brightening up. “Oh, wait! I think - one of them was some kind of frightening mythical sea creature that I put my own twist on, adapted for the forest. Yes, I remember that! Does that help?”
Aiden and I must have some comical expressions on our faces, because Leyla is laughing with her eyes, hiding her scarlet lips behind the coffee cup in her fingers.
“Did you say something about retaining powers-?” I begin weakly, but Aiden quickly lays a hand on my knee.
“Hey, let’s - let’s not speculate about stuff like that. I’m already gonna be dragging you out of the hotel tomorrow as it is.”
“Leyla told me - the best way to plan for an attack is to try and look at things through the eyes of your enemies,” Rose says. Those particular words sound extremely funny in her gentle, chirping voice. “But we had no idea what would scare off the agents who were coming, because we didn’t know who would be sent. So I tried to make six very different illusions. Something for each kind of person who might get too close to the Tree. And they’re scattered all throughout the forest, at different distances encircling the Tree.”
I suppress a little sound in my throat. “Does that mean we can’t avoid them?”
Rose nibbles her lip, tucking a silver lock behind her ear. “Well - if - if you want to avoid them, you could certainly try… but I’m not sure you could do it, and we actually - we wanted to ask if - maybe-”
“Since Rose can no longer do magic,” Leyla gently cuts in, affectionately tugging on a strand of Rose’s hair, “We were hoping that you boys might be able to dispel the illusions for us. Set them free, so to speak.”
Aiden and I stare at Leyla in amazement, then look at each other with startled, nervous eyes.
“We would really appreciate it,” Rose says softly, looking hopefully into our faces. “It’s something only a Guardian can do. If you channel your power through Jamie, the two of you should be able to take care of it. Together.”
“I - I can try,” Aiden begins anxiously, doubtfully, with a fretful knot appearing between his eyebrows. He blushes in embarrassment, glancing up at Rose. “Just - look, I hate to say this, but I really don’t know if I’m good enough to, um - I’m pretty sure I’ve never dispelled anything before, and my training was really short, like I told you-”
He breaks off in surprise as Rose stacks up the six needlepoint pieces and pushes them across the table, into his hands.
“We have total faith that you can handle it,” she tells him earnestly.
Aiden blinks at her, then looks searchingly over at me. I give his hand a gentle squeeze.
It sounds scary, but way less scary with Aiden by my side. He’s already not giving himself enough credit. The fact that I’m even considering doing this when there’s a demon involved is a testament to my faith in him. Whatever this turns out to be, I know I’m safe in his hands. I let that show in my eyes.
Aiden sees the way I’m looking at him, and the troubled expression on his face softens a little, as if in relief. He looks at the six pieces of magic again, biting his lip.
“They may be powerful illusions, but they do have a set amount of energy,” Leyla adds, drawing our eyes back to her. “It has to be close to running out, if it hasn’t already. They must only be ghosts of what they were before.”
Aiden looks at me again, and I flash him a nervous, encouraging smile, giving my shoulders a shrug.
“Not like this is our first ghost hunt,” I tell him.
~~~~
Kasey comes zipping up the crowded Port Sitka boardwalk behind us, in the form of a zig-zagging streak of silver light. She phases right through the unknowing people as they stroll along, leaving a very brief glowing trail in her wake. She breaks out of it like someone coming out of a run, slowing to a jog as she reaches me and Aiden.
She looks breathless with delight to be on vacation from Ketterbridge, shining with Will’s borrowed energy. Shining with excitement, too. She turns her translucent face to the sea and takes a deep breath, as if she could still taste the salt air.
I can tell how stoked she is to be somewhere else again, and the resolve in my heart grows stronger.
We’re doing this for Kasey and Will. I can camp in a forest full of terrifying unknowns, that’s fine. Totally fine. Fine fine fine.
“Spencer’s bookstore is so great!” Kasey says brightly, beaming at me. “I’m glad I got to see it before they take it apart for the move. And Naomi is so adorable! Her little green turtle face!”
“I know!” I let out a too-cute groan. “So little! So green!”
Aiden blinks at me in confusion, then seems to understand. He slips the ghost glasses onto his face, pushes a glossy chestnut lock out of his eyes, and gives Kasey a nod.
“Hey, Ghost Office manager. Ponder this.”
“Do tell,” Kasey answers, trotting along at his side.
“We’ve got to dispel six illusions before we can reach Rose’s Tree.”
“Really? Shit. What kind of illusions?”
“We don’t know. The ones Rose made, which she can’t remember. All we know is that one of them is a demon, and another one is some kind of terrifying sea beast. And they might have powers.”
“Oof. Okay.” Kasey tilts her head back to look up at Aiden, her dark eyes growing troubled. “Should I be worried for you two mortals?”
“I trust Aiden to handle it,” I answer firmly.
“I’m not gonna let anything happen to Jamie,” Aiden says, at the same time.
We glance quickly at each other, both of us blushing a little.
“Aw.” Kasey lets out a soft giggle, abandoning her silver jacket on the sand as we descend from the boardwalk onto the beach. “Cuties. I’m gonna be sad if you get eaten by a demon. Is there any way we can get more information before we strike out into the haunted wilds?”
“That’s exactly what we’re doing,” I explain, leading the way down the beach.
We’re headed away from the crowded part, to the lesser-populated area with more rocks than sand lining the glittering ocean. Kasey seems to notice we’ve got a specific destination in mind, and she lets out a little breath.
“Okay, good,” she says, clearly relieved. “Let’s just make sure we know everything we can. Should I go back to Ketterbridge while you guys take care of this? I don’t want to expend too much energy today, I’d rather keep it all for when we set out tomorrow morning.”
“Hang on,” I tell her over my shoulder. “You can’t leave yet, because we’ve got two extremely important things you need to see.”
She tilts her head to the side in surprise. “Okay? What’s the first one?”
I catch Aiden’s eye and give him a nod. “Let’s make the reveal.”
Aiden and I have been carrying them, but now we pull them on, then simultaneously strike a dramatic pose to show Kasey our new black windbreakers. On the back, in official-looking silver letters, they read: TEAM GHOST OFFICE. And on the right-hand side of the front breast, in much smaller letters, they say: Official Ghost Hunter. They look like FBI jackets, until you read them.
“Wh-?” Kasey stops where she is, then lets out a sharp burst of disbelieving laughter. “Holy shit! Are you two serious with those?”
“Yeah, it’s easily the most embarrassing piece of clothing I own,” Aiden sighs regretfully, setting off walking again. “But they make us seem a tiny bit less sketchy when we’re asking people questions. They still think we’ve lost it, but in a harmless way.”
“Devin sent them for us!” I tell Kasey brightly, to another wave of giggles. “I can’t decide if it’s the best or worst thing ever, but we need to do that later. We’re nearly to the second thing you need to see before you go.”
“Which is?”
“Our source of intel in Port Sitka,” Aiden answers, and knocks on the shuttered windows of the tourist information booth.
~~~~
Aiden and I were a little worried that someone else might have taken over the booth on the beach. But as soon as the shutters crash open, I know we’ve got who we were looking for.
“Hey, yo!” comes a voice through the smoke pouring out from the stand. “Hey, don’t mind that, we’re just disposing of some confiscated, um - contraband. Welcome to Port Sitka! You looking to rent a kayak?”
He spreads his bony hands on the counter and leans out through the wall of smoke. His long, thick blonde hair is a ridiculous mess beneath his grey beanie, and his nametag is clinging to his Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt at a wild angle.
“Hey, Joni!” I spread my hand in a friendly wave, trying to keep a straight face as Kasey lets out a sputter of laughter from behind me. “Good to see you, man! How’s our favorite distributor of kayaks and Port Sitka information, among other things?”
Joni’s big, very red eyes blink at me slowly and blankly a few times, then light up in sudden recognition.
“Oh, shit!” he gasps, with obvious delight. He leans perilously far out of the booth to slap Aiden’s extended hand, then mine. “No fuckin’ way! It’s you guys! Man, I knew you were real! Nobody believed me when I told them about you! I was like, I swear to god, I met a guy who was like fifteen feet tall with glittery eyes, and he was with a guy with the smile of an actual angel but hair el color del diablo, and the two of them were hunting ghosts and cyborgs on the beach, and I helped. But no one listened to me! Except for a few of the skater guys at Van Fest, kinda… I thought they were listening, anyways. The van was rocking, come to think of it… oh. Yeah, no, they - they weren’t listening.”
Kasey lets out a little sound of amazement, then dissolves into a fit of helpless giggles behind me. I bite down hard on my lip, struggling to keep it together.
“Fifteen feet tall?” Aiden sputters indignantly. “Come on, dude-”
“Hey, uh - don’t worry about that!” Joni calls past us, as a tourist pauses to stare in alarm at the smoke still billowing out from the info booth. “It’s all good! We’re - smoking some bacon back here, it’s a Port Sitka tradition! Port Sitka - smoked, um - smoked up Sitka - to eat! And we’re testing out a fog machine. Unrelated. All normal stuff, nothing to worry about! You have a nice day!”
Joni gives the bewildered woman a sunny smile and a flourishing wave, then shoots me and Aiden a look like - whew, that was a close one.
Kasey laces her fingers over her mouth, her translucent body shaking with silent laughter.
Aiden twists his mouth to the side, working hard to keep his expression under control. “How’ve you been, Joni?”
“Pretty good. Got myself banned from another Six Flags, though. Can’t go back unless I apologize, and I won’t, goddamnit! I won’t! I was pretty bummed out about it, tell you the truth… but then I got to thinking - hey, banned from six different Six Flags. Kinda cool. Dig the symmetry.” Joni folds his scrawny elbows on the counter, leans forward, and lowers his voice to a confidential volume. “So? Did you guys solve the case? What was it, again?”
“We did solve it,” Aiden says, then breathes out a huff of laughter when Joni’s mouth drops open in delight.
“Cleared up a whole bunch of ghosts!” I add, smiling up at Joni. “Couldn’t have done it without you, dude.”
Joni presses a hand over his heart, closes his eyes for a second. “Music to my ears, cherub-smile. Music. And - oh shit, you guys even got the jackets now! Nasty! I fuckin’ love it!”
“Thanks, man,” I manage unsteadily, with great difficulty.
Joni runs a hand over the blonde scruff on his jaw. “Why are you back, though? Are you on another case?”
This last bit was said with some obvious intrigue, and Joni sort of waggles his eyebrows encouragingly as he glances between me and Aiden.
“We are, and we could really use your help again,” I tell him, matching his confidential volume.
He beams eagerly at me, then lifts a half-smoked, three-sheeter joint to his mouth. He sparks it up, takes an obscenely long drag, then exhales all of his words on a thick stream of smoke, spreading his hands wide.
“Alright, boys! I’m all yours. The bonafide high guide for your Port Sitka ghost hunting ride. What can I do you for today?”
“Are we really just not gonna ask any questions about the Six Flags thing?” Kasey giggles. “We’re breezing right past that?”
“Oh my god,” I whisper beneath my breath, barely holding myself back from collapsing into laughter. Kasey is making it twice as difficult, nearly impossible. “So, Joni - um-”
Aiden mercifully takes over for me. “Have you heard any weird stories about the old-growth forest around here?”
Joni’s blonde eyebrows arch up, and he sweeps the joint from his mouth to answer.
“Heard, tall friend? Shit, I’ve seen.” He lets out a heavy, resentful exhale, resting his chin on his palm. “You wanna talk about nobody listening to me? No one has ever believed me about that night, just ‘cause I had a few tiny mushies. And smoked a few joints. And hit the bong a few times. As if that means I don’t know what I saw! As if everyone who’s ever wandered too far into those woods didn’t come back with some weird fuckin’ story to tell!”
Aiden, Kasey, and I have grown serious very quickly. That sounded promising, even with a lot of bong hits and psilocybin factored in.
“Would you tell us?” I ask, making a mental note to take all the details with a grain of salt, or maybe a handful. “We’d really appreciate it, dude.”
Joni straightens up in surprise.
“Whoa, really, you wanna hear? Alright, man, sure… it was back when I was just a little Joni, in high school.” He pauses for a second, gathering the details from his memory. “So me and my cousin went pretty far out into the forest, set up camp, ate this big bag of mushrooms. We thought it would be dope to take the ride out in nature. It was so pretty out, we got it in our heads to wander further out into the forest while we were trippin’. We got split up at some point… Andrea just walked off without a word, which was weird. Not something she’d normally do. I was stumbling around totally lost, looking for her, and… that’s when I saw him.”
Aiden, Kasey, and I exchange a swift glance.
“Him?” I repeat, turning back to Joni.
“The - the-” Joni hesitates, then winces, struggling for the right words. “Alright, I don’t know what the fuck he really was. All I know is that he was. I saw him, and he felt real.”
Joni’s expression fills with vague, distant fear at the memory, as if he can still see it playing out before his eyes.
“All of a sudden I was just staring up at this huge, like… thing. Like a person, but not… he was something else. I could barely tell him from the darkness. Mostly I could just see his eyes, but dude looked like pure malevolence, I’m telling you. The first thing I thought of was the fairy tales my grandma used to tell me. Felt like the fucker was an evil sorcerer of the forest, about to smite me with magic. And the whole forest started shaking around me when he appeared, like he was making a windstorm.”
Joni shudders at the memory.
“There was black and purple smoke, and he had these sparkling lights in his hands. He was about to hurl them at me. I shot out of there faster than a cannonball, but then I remembered that Andrea was still out in the forest. I was afraid she might get got by whatever I’d seen, so I went back to find her. I was fucking shaking from head to toe, but the - thing was gone by then. Eventually I tracked down Andrea, she was trying to find me, too. We got the fuck out of there without looking back.”
Team Ghost Office collectively stares at Joni for a long moment of wide-eyed silence.
“Did - did your cousin see anything?” I finally ask, after Kasey whispers the question in my ear.
“I think so. She came back running. Running the same way I was, like, running for her life. And she was all wet. She seemed confused, way past freaked out. But she said she didn’t remember what happened, and you know… we’d had the mushies, so like… could’ve been anything. I figured she tripped and fell in a creek or something.”
He wrinkles his nose at us, then adds -
“Wasn’t the best trip, to be honest! Scared the fuck out of me. We rallied when we got out of the forest, obviously, but not ‘til then. And I haven’t gone back into that forest since, except around the very edges. Even then, I get goosebumps. Get them whenever I think of him. In my head I call him the Sorcerer.”
I slowly look up at Aiden. He meets my gaze for a moment, then opens my bag and pulls out Rose’s needlepoint magic pieces. The piece on top is the most familiar, rich and vivid and red.
“The Demon,” Aiden says quietly, setting it out on the counter of the booth.
Joni watches curiously as I pick up the next framed piece - the one all in aquatic blues - and carefully set it down next to the first on the counter.
“The Sea Creature,” I answer.
Aiden picks up the piece of magic in shimmering purple, gold, and black, then places it at the end of the row, leaving only three unknowns in his hands.
“The Sorcerer,” he murmurs softly.
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