13:9
“Why are we waiting?” Patti craned her neck to look up the height of the large, banded wood double door.
Ivan looked around the environment, his eyes searching the clouds acting both as ground and cover for anything that might be moving below their knees or in the case of Prairie’s smaller frame hips. “It’s too quiet.”
“No,” Patti shook her head, all sad. “Never say that. It’s just an invitation.”
“I’d invite anything except this silence,” Ben said. When Patti turned to glower at him, hands on hips, he lifted his shoulders and gave her an exaggerated pout. “It doesn’t seem strange to you?”
Patti leaned into her stance. “Music Magicker.”
“And?”
“Yes, man, the lack of sound is freaky. Doesn’t mean I welcome an attack. Anyhow,” she pivoted to look at Dan and Siobhan standing close to each other and slightly behind where she was planted in front of the castle door. “What can we expect?”
Dan just gave her a steady look. “Unknown.”
“Seriously?” Patti rolled her eyes. “Guess that’s my bad for expecting a different answer.” She shifted her attention fully to Siobhan. “Siobhan?”
Siobhan eyed the door then shifted her gaze to meet Patti’s. “Unknown.”
Ben snickered. Patti heaved a big, dramatic sigh. “You too?”
Siobhan seemed to take pity on Patti. “Last time there was a giant. When it hit you with a hammer you were removed from the story.”
“Removed?”
“Yes.”
“From the story?”
Siobhan refrained from making a snarky comment. If the question had been directed at Kim trust she would have responded with something like. “Uh, yes. Is there an echo in here?”
Luckily for Patti, and arguably her own face if Patti took enough umbrage with the comment, it was Siobhan who replied. “The first time we entered ARFA, which we were not aware of as you can guess, it was much clearer what we experiencing wasn’t real. As soon as we entered we were greeted as characters.”
At Patti’s frown Dan added, “Character seven.”
Gwen lifted her hand. “Four.”
“One.” Siobhan nodded.
“Characters?” Patti drew the word out.
“Yes.”
“What changed?” When Dan started to answer Patti quickly said, “Let me guess. Unknown?”
Dan shifted his toothpick from one corner of his mouth to the other then nodded. A definite twinkle made his brown eyes appear amber. “Unknown.”
Patti blew out an exasperated breath then turned back to look at the door. “Well, I guess we won’t know what’s behind the door until we open it. Brace for giant?”
“We hid from it the first time,” Prairie said.
Patti turned back to the group. “So, is that our plan again?”
Before Dan could give a dry response Ivan said, “We can play it by ear, but I think if we see the giant we hide. No sense in any of us being removed from the story if we can avoid it.”
“Okay.” That said Patti turned back to the door then shot a look over her shoulder where Ben hovered. “You want to open it?”
“It is in my skill set.”
“Opening doors?”
“Yes. Locked doors. Unlocked doors. Big doors. Little doors.”
“Red door, blue door?”
Humor lit Ben’s dark eyes, magnifying his broad white grin. “Old door, new door. May I?”
He didn’t wait for Patti to respond, but instead bumped her shoulder with his as he stepped up to the door. A quick twist of his hand on the doorknob showed it wasn’t locked. He tossed a look over his shoulder at the group, shrugged, then gently pushed the door open enough that he could sidle through the narrow crack. A moment later, his head popped back out through the opening. “Clear.”
With that he nudged the door open fully and stepped back to let the others filter into the castle. Specifically into the large kitchen they’d entered into previously when they found Mal.
Kim started forward when Gwen stiffened next to her and came to an abrupt halt with her hand pressed to her sternum.
“Gwen?”
Gwen didn’t respond immediately. Instead she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then turned to look at Kim. “Hurts.”
“Hurts?” Kim’s gaze darted quickly over the group, before settlling on Siobhan.
“Siobhan!”
Siobhan turned from where she stood next to Patti. “Kim?”
Kim waved a hand at Gwen. “Hurts.”
“Hurts?”
Gwen opened her eyes and frowned, shifting her attention between Kim and Siobhan. “Is this a comedy routine?”
Her voice sounded strain despite the light words. Kim turned and eyed her while surreptitiously waving her hand at her side, urging Siobhan closer. Siobhan picked up the cue and approached with a frown.
“Gwen? Are you in pain?”
“I don’t think so?” Gwen’s voice went up on the last word.
“You don’t think so?” Kim pressed.
“What I said.”
“You also said hurts.”
“Not me!” Gwen snapped then curled her lips over her teeth while drawing a long breath through her nostrils. “I think it’s Dempsey.”
“You think?”
“Feels like.”
“Well,” Siobhan shifted her bag strap higher on her shoulder and turned to the door. “Faster.”
“Yes, boss,” Kim saluted then shot Gwen a look. “Do you need help?”
Gwen shook her head fast. “I’m good.” She lofted her chin. “It stopped.”
“Is that a good thing?”
Gwen rubbed her hand against her sternum then dropped it to her side. “Unknown.”
“Funny.”
“I am.”
With that Gwen headed towards the castle door. Kim trailed her. She paused in the doorway and looked around, ears pricked for any sound of a giant or his wife or any other potential threat.
Nothing. There was nothing. Like less than nothing. Not quite a vacuum but close enough. She shifted her attention to where Patti was slowly wandering into the space with her head cocked and a frown pouting out her mouth. Her expression seemed to suggest she was straining for sound.
Patti stopped next to the stove with the oven big enough to cook an ox in. Very slowly she lifted her hand, reaching up to above shoulder level to tap the lip of the stove where the cooktop elements sat. The stove was iron. Kim wasn’t sure what kind of noise Patti expected it to make when she tapped it but it should have made some noise. Maybe not a ping, but some noise. But it didn’t. Not even a thump. Patti turned back, lips pursed.
“Not even a vibration. This ain’t right.”
“Hmm.” Ben hauled himself up on the bench tucked close to the trestle table near the side wall. It was high enough he had to add some spring to the motion. Once he caught his balance and settled in a crouch on the bench he lifted his hand to run his finger over the surface of the table. He pulled it back, showing a light coat of dust, white against his dark skin. “I don’t know that anyone has been here for a while.”
His voice was loud in the unnatural silence, causing Kim to frown as she considered the phenomenon of their voices carrying but no other sound in the environment. Testing the same theory Patti had exercised tapping the stove she lifted a foot and brought her heel down hard on the flagstone floor. The force reverberated upper her leg to the knee but no sound rose from the strike.
She looked to Patti. “Why can we hear each other but nothing else?”
Patti just shook her head as her frown deepened. “I’m going to borrow Dan’s standard unknown.” She cocked her head and looked around the space. “It isn’t like the sound is being absorbed. I’d feel that. Just nothing is producing sound. Like if I wasn’t touching this,” she popped the stove again, this time with her knuckle and with the same results, “and know it’s here I’d say it wasn’t. I’m not sure if my ears are fooling me or my Magick is or–”
She trailed off and looked down at Sass. “Sass?”
Sass leaned out of the window of its belt house. It made a peep then cocked its head. Made another peep. Then looked up at Patti.
“Nothing?”
Peep.
“Yeah.” Patti curled her lips over her teeth, then drew a deep breath. “This gives me the willies.”
Gwen wandered over and hefted herself up on the sink then opened one of the cabinets above it. “Nothing in here but dust.”
Siobhan shifted her gaze around the space. “Based on the cobwebs and dust it seems to be abandoned.” She turned to Prairie. “Are there any Spirits?”
Prairie shook her head. She didn’t even take a moment. “I don’t feel any. It’s as spiritually quiet as it is physically.”
Gwen hopped down from the sink and dusted her hands together to clear the dust on them. “Maybe coming here was wrong?”
“No.”
Gwen looked at Dan. “What do you mean no?”
Dan didn’t immediately answer. Instead he stared intently at the air. Or probably whatever his Magick was showing him in or on the air. After a moment he refocused. “This story has already been told.”
Kim narrowed her eyes on him. “What do you mean?”
“It’s hard to explain.”
“Try?”
“Have you ever shown up late to a party?”
“No–” Kim drew out the word. “I’m not really big on parties.”
“Oh!”
She turned at Abe’s exclamation and the blonde gave a fast bob of their head before focusing on Dan. “It’s like you get there and there’s balloons on the floor and maybe confetti and the streamers are starting to droop from the ceiling and walls? Maybe even some crumbs on plates to let you know there was something there but its all gone?”
Dan shifted his toothpick and nodded.
“So,” Patti ventured, “the party is over?”
“The story has already been told. Whatever Magick was fueling it was spent. This is the balloons on the floor and the drooping streamers in Abe’s example.”
“This is just freaking confusing.”
A number of heads snapped around at Kim’s exclamation. “What? Why the beanstalk? Why the castle? Why any of this? Why bring Dempsey here? None of this makes sense.”
“To us.”
Kim stared at Dan. He returned the look with an enigmatic one of his own. When he said no more she frowned. “What?”
“It doesn’t make sense to us. It makes sense to someone.”
“Who?”
“ARFA!”
Kim turned to look at Abe. “ARFA?”
Abe bobbed their head hard enough their curls bounced into their eyes. “ARFA.”
“You’re going to need to expand.”
“Why the fairy tales?”
“I don’t know.”
“What if ARFA likes fairy tales?”
“Okay?”
“What if the fairy tales are ARFA’s way of creating a connection with others? Us? What if ARFA can only interact with us within the context of stories?”
“How do you figure that?”
Abe shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just something that came to me?”
“Fairy tales are archetypes.”
Kim turned at Dan’s statement. “Okay?”
“They reflect the collective unconsciousness of humanity.”
“Okay?”
“Abe’s idea that ARFA uses the fairy tales as a form of connection makes sense in that context.”
“I’m still kind of lost.” Ben shot a finger gun at Kim and Patti nodded in agreement. Glad it wasn’t just her at least.
“Will knowing this is a story or that it’s played out help us in any way?” Everyone turned to look at Ivan.
Abe looked chagrinned. “No? I don’t know.”
They turned to Dan, like he’d weigh in either way. Dan shifted his toothpick to one side of his mouth, then to the other. Then he did it again before shaking his head slowly. “Unknown.”
“Well, we can keep it in mind while looking for Dempsey. But I don’t think we should stand around any longer.” Ben hopped down from the bench, his feet making no sound when they contacted the floor. “Let’s go.”
Patti took another look around the empty room, then nodded. The others made sounds of agreement, then Siobhan settled the strap of her bag over her chest and walked towards the closed door in the wall opposite the stove. Ben hurried up next to her and grabbed the doorknob. “My job.”
“Okay.” Siobhan stepped back with a short nod.
Ben pushed the door open slowly and poked his head through the opening. He drew back a moment later. “Clear.”
With Ben in the front, the group moved past the door and into a hall lit by torches. Something niggled at the back of Kim’s head or brain, a subtle ache that was more a lack of ache. Or just a lack. She frowned as she drew near one of the torches then held her finger out to poke it into the flame. Cold. No, not cold. Nothing. Not hot. Not cold. And completely lacking any Fire within its dancing flame. A shoulder bump drew her gaze around to Gwen sidled up next to her.
“What?” Gwen whispered.
“Why are you whispering?” Kim whispered back then rolled her eyes. Well, shit.
Gwen shrugged. “Don’t know. Because?”
“Eh.”
“Why are you staring at that torch like it just made a slightly stupid joke and you don’t know whether to laugh or roll your eyes at it?”
“It isn’t hot.”
“No?” Gwen lifted her hand before Kim could stop her and poked it into the torch flame. Even knowing what she knew, Kim still flinched as she waited for Gwen to cry out in pain. Gwen swished her hand back and forth in the not-flame and then looked at Kim.
“Not hot.”
“What I said.”
“Are you two done?” Ben’s voice drew Kim’s attention to where the group had moved on with Ben at the front. Clearly they’d stopped when Kim and Gwen paused to poke at the torch.
Kim gave the torch one more look then nodded and hurried to catch up to the group with Gwen right beside her. “Sorry.”
“Fire is usually hot in ARFA?” Gwen whispered.
Kim gave a quick nod. “Yep. Fire is hot. Water is wet. Earth has presence. This place,” she swept her hand to encompass the hall, “has no elemental energy. It feels wrong. Flat. Like a painted backdrop on a stage.”
“Fee Fi Fo Fum!” The sudden deep voiced call carried in the unnatural silence.
Ben stopped and threw himself against the wall, his gaze jerking side to side. “There’s nowhere to hide.”
“Then,” Ivan snapped his wrist and his shield spiraled out from his arm. “We brace for a fight.”
Before they could fall into formation, a huge shape stomped down the hall toward them. This was going to be bad.
“Don’t let him touch you!” Siobhan snapped as she stepped up next to Ivan who’d centered himself in the middle of the hall with a glass vial in her hand. Prairie slid in on his other side, daggers held low at her side. The hall was wide enough they didn’t fill it even three across. Made sense. It was sized for a giant.
“Can we touch him?” Patti took up a stance a few steps behind Prairie, her body angled slightly towards the wall with her shield up so she blocked any egress from that direction.
“Unknown.” Dan opened a book and started riffling its pages as he took up position to Patti’s right on the second row of defense.
Abe stepped up next to Siobhan on the far right near the wall, similarly blocking it as Patti was on the left. Then they snapped their arm out, sending a ribbon of ink towards the giant.
Kim took up a spot behind them, craning her neck slightly so she could watch the flow of ink. The torches lining the walls lit the hall well enough that she could easily see the giant. See his hair standing in tufts on a head that almost brushed the ceiling way above them. See the veritable forest of dark nose hairs protruding from nostrils that had to be the size of her balled fist. He was so tall she had a really good view up into the cavernous, hairy holes.
Damn, had he been that huge before? Probably. Probably. He was a giant. She couldn’t really remember the details as he had smacked her out of the story last time before she really got a good look.
Abe gasped as the dark ribbon of their Magick collided with the giant’s broad chest then kept going. They jerked a quick look at Siobhan then pulled the ink back before snapping it back out. Again it hit the giant’s chest. Again it went right through.
“It’s,” they paused a heartbeat then said on a frown, “not solid?”
The giant didn’t show any indication of being hit by Abe’s ink. It didn’t slow its steps. Its eyes looked right over them, focused on the hall behind them. Ivan braced as it came within swinging distance. And then it walked right through him, emerging on the other side without a flinch or a pause in its forward movement.
Kim tensed as it moved next to her and continued down the hall. Jerking around she watched its back. She squinted. Was it?
“Is it transparent?”
After the momentary shock of the giant walking through Ivan the entire front line pivoted to watch it walk down the hall and disappear into the kitchen. A slightly distant “Fee Fi Fo Fum,” came through the kitchen door. Kim shifted her gaze to Prairie.
“Is it a Spirit?”
Prairie took a moment then shook her head slowly. “No.”
Kim shifted her gaze to Dan who shifted his toothpick then said, “Unknown.”
“Abe?” Kim pivoted to look at Abe. “Your ink touched it.”
“I think,” her tow-headed friend drew out the thought, “I don’t– I can see its code but–” they trailed off and looked to the side before returning their attention to Kim, “the ink is gray not black. Faded. Old? There’s no–” their shoulders fell and they tapered into silence.
“It’s an echo.” Patti’s words drew Kim’s attention.
“How?”
“I don’t know.” Patti shook her head then tossed it to clear the swish of hair that fell into her eyes. “That’s just the feeling I have. Like all of this–” she swept a hand out, “is the memory of sound. Does that make sense?”
“Memory of sound?”
“An echo is a sound repeated after it bounces off a surface and returns to your ear with a delay.”
“Okay?”
“My brain wants to put this in the context of what I understand so the best I can say is it feels like an echo.”
Sass peeped, apparently in agreement with her mama.
“It isn’t the original sound, but it still exists and your brain perceives it. That’s what this feels like.”
“Old code.”
Kim turned to look at Abe when they said this. “Old code?”
“An echo. Of code.” They folded their hands near their chin, tapping the steepled fingers against their jaw. “It’s not quite real but it’s real enough that we perceive it.”
“How does this help us?” Ben asked.
Abe shrugged big as they turned to look at Ben. “It doesn’t. I was just observing.”
“Well,” Ben lifted his brows then turned back in the direction the giant initially approached. “Dempsey is waiting.”
Gwen rubbed her breastbone and blinked away a sudden shine in her eyes.
“Ben’s right.” Siobhan shifted her bag against her hip and then looked down the hall.
“Always.”
Ivan rolled his eyes at his best friend’s droll response then looked over the group. “Let’s keep moving. Don’t assume that anything we encounter isn’t real. We can’t afford to be complacent.”
Prairie nodded. “That’s sensible. It would be bad if we assumed everything is an echo and then we get hit by something that isn’t.”
Kim turned to Gwen, frowning when she saw she was turned and looking in the direction the giant disappeared with a confused tilt of her head.
“Gwen?”
“Yeah?” Gwen didn’t stop staring at the kitchen door.
“What’s up?”
“I’m not sure.” Rubbing her sternum, Gwen said in a distracted voice, “Why come back here?”
“Uh, beanstalk?”
Gwen turned and looked at Kim. “Not us. Mary and Geppetto.”
“I don’t know.”
“Power.” Kim turned with a start at Ivan’s voice.
She realized the group had stopped and returned to where she and Gwen stood holding up the hall.
“Power?”
“Have we seen any of the Three do Magick outside of ARFA?”
Ben strolled over, hands in pockets. “We’ve seen them open rifts several times outside of ARFA.”
“That’s a Magick item.” Ivan lifted his brows. “Their own Magick?”
A moment stretched into two or three as the group seemed to consider this. Finally Prairie offered in a tentative tone, “Mary used her Magick in the warehouse.” She paused, looked down, then back up meeting Ivan’s gaze. “Tried to? She inferred they have a well of Magick but it seems to be limited.”
Ivan looked around the hall, going so far as to tilt his head back to study the ceiling, before refocusing on the group. “I think to use the full depth of their Magick they have to be in ARFA.”
“Al seems to use his Magick,” Patti offered.
“What if that’s just a fraction? We don’t know what he’s actually capable of, do we?”
“No.” Patti looked down in thought. “We don’t.”
“Hate to be the voice of reason,” Ben interrupted. “Really hate that, but gonna ask, how does this affect us or this situation?”
Ivan frowned. “I guess it doesn’t.”
“Knowing that Mary and Geppetto may be at full power does affect us.” Ben turned to look at Siobhan. She tilted her head, meeting the full power of that stare without the slightest flinch. “I realize there is an urgency to this situation but we can’t run head first into everything.”
“I mean,” Ben drawled, “We can.”
Siobhan made a ‘hmm’ sound then lifted her brows. “But should we?”
Before they could continue Gwen let out a small pained cry and stooped forward with her hand pressed to her sternum. Instantly Siobhan shifted her attention from Ben to Gwen. “Gwen?”
“Hurts,” Gwen gritted out. She grimaced then straightened. Then she visibly shook herself and lowered her hand. “And its gone again.”
“We need to move.” Ivan snapped his wrist, retracting his shield then started forward. Everyone else hurried to catch up, Kim and Gwen trailing the group.
“It’s getting worse,” Kim murmured quietly to Gwen.
Gwen just nodded hard and bit her lip. She sniffled then blinked hard to clear the sheen from her eyes. “Sometimes my Magick sucks.”
“At least we know he’s alive. That’s something?”
Gwen shot Kim a hard look. “Way to look at the bright side.”
“We can’t all be Little Mary Sunshine.”
“I am not Little Mary Sunshine!”
“If the sun shines out of your ass–” Kim flared her hands, leaving the rest unsaid as Gwen sniffled again and then gave a somewhat watery smile. Ah, success.
The group reached the end of the hall. It came to an abrupt halt at a wall. The only way forward was a sharp left into a small room. Kim frowned at the floor.
“Is that straw?” She tested the surface with her toe. It gave slightly, spongy, compressing a bit before she felt something harder that was probably the same stone floor the hall and the kitchen had.
Ben crouched in the center of the small room, hand digging in the straw. “It is. This was where the goose was before.”
“Goose?”
“That laid golden eggs.” He rocked back on his heels and dusted his hands together. “No eggs this time.”
“No goose either.”
“No goose. Lots of dust.”
From the far side of the room, Ivan called, “Let’s get going.”
Ben shrugged then rose from his crouch. Patti sidled up next to him. “No eggs? Really? You didn’t pocket any and tell us there were none.”
Ben pressed his hand to his chest. If he had pearls he’d be clutching them. “What are you accusing me of?”
“Stealing–” Patti drew out the word. “Eggs–?”
“Not saying I wouldn’t steal an egg or two if there were any but, nope, nothing.”
“Hello?”
Ben turned at Ivan’s raised voice. “Hello?”
Ivan heaved a masterful sigh. Usually he was so composed, so Selectman Ivan, but that single sigh spoke of years of experience and familiarity with his best friend. “Get your ass over here.”
Ben grabbed a cheek and wiggled his hip. “Ass coming.”
Prairie giggled next to Ivan who just shook his head then heaved another sigh. “I need better friends.”
“I like him,” Prairie said in a soft tone.
Ivan smiled down at her. “Me too. Every group needs an ass.”
“Have ass! Will travel!” Ben declared as he sidled up next to Ivan and peered at the closed door Ivan stood in front of. “Door.”
“Door,” Ivan agreed in a dry tone.
Before he could say anything else, Ben was grabbing the doorknob and twisting it before pushing the door open and poking his head through the small opening he made. “Clear!”
He looked back at Ivan for a moment then sauntered through the door with the air of someone who knew others would follow. Which, of course, they did. The door opened into yet another long hallway.
“How many hallways does this castle have?” Patti muttered as she peered at the walls, the ceiling, and then the stone floor.
No one answered. It wasn’t really that kind of question. More an exclamation or whatever.
Patti shrugged then started down the hall after Ivan, Prairie, and Ben. Prairie walked next to Ivan while Ben strode slightly ahead. Dan and Abe followed behind Patti while Siobhan, Kim and Gwen walked three across down the wide hallway.
When Gwen rubbed her chest again, Siobhan asked in a quiet voice, “Hurts?”
“No.” Gwen screwed her mouth up. “Completely no hurt.”
“That’s good?”
Gwen hesitated a moment then shook her head in the negative. “It doesn’t feel that way.”
“We’re making progress.”
“We are.”
“We’ll get him back.”
“Of course we will.” Gwen’s tone belied her positive words.
Kim felt compelled to shore her up. She forced confidence into her, “We will.”
Enter The Woods 