Chapter 6

A Chapter by CassieLynne

After my weird encounter with Liam, I felt shaken up at the thought of him watching me yesterday. But, as soon as I saw the bright clearing in front of me, and the willow branches swaying in the wind, I began to relax. Besides, whom was he going to tell about my crying tirade yesterday? It’s not like I knew anyone. Still feeling a bit self- conscious, I perched on the edge of the well again and ran my fingers over the rough, rocky surface I was sitting on. Tracing the crevices of the rock washed away all my feelings of uneasiness. I curiously looked around, and my eyes finally rested on the trunk of the willow tree. The trunk looked to be riddled with age, but its leaves were as green as ever. The branches looked strong and I remembered when my dad told me that he used to swing on willow tree branches when he was a kid. I laughed out loud, picturing myself hanging onto a branch for dear life as I swung precariously through the air. I turned to look around the clearing again when I almost jumped out of my skin at the sight of Liam sitting directly across from me on the other end of the well. He was staring off into the distance, and his eyes seemed to be reading the sky. I slowly stood up and backed away towards the exit. I knew nothing about this person, yet I was still captivated by him all the same. I didn’t know whether to fear him or allow him to keep following me around.

“I’m sorry for startling you again.” Liam said gently as he awoke from his trance. “I really need to work on my light footedness.”

“Is that even a word?” I let out quietly. He smirked at my shy sarcasm, and scanned the tops of the trees before replying.

“Whether it’s a word or not, I’m sure you understand what I am talking about, am I right?” He looked at me and grinned.

“So, why do you keep following me? And how did you know about this place?” I asked quietly, with genuine interest.

“You think I’m following you? Why, I’ve come to this clearing every day since I’ve lived near here. As you can see, I’m not that offended that you have intruded.” I suppressed a giggle at his obvious attempt to flirt. What was I thinking anyways? I didn’t know a thing about this guy, except for his name.

“Look, I’m not sure how I found this place, but I really love it. I hope you won’t mind if I come by once in a while?”

“Do what you want, but I wouldn’t suggest getting too involved with this place.” He almost seemed to glare at the surrounding trees as he looked away from my face.

“What are you talking about? It’s just an old clearing, and this well was probably dug up centuries ago, left here to tell the tale.”

“That’s exactly what it’s here for…” He stood up suddenly and walked around me to the exit. “I must go for now, but please heed my warning. Only God knows what you’re getting yourself into if you don’t.” Then he was gone. Shocked, and more confused than ever, I looked back at the willow tree once more and decided that it was time to get back home. Whatever his warning meant, it must either be the truth, or just him trying to keep me away from his discovered clearing. Sighing, I moved aside the branches and made my way through the thick brush. Following the dirt path, I slowly made my way back home.

“Oh my Audrey, you smell all musty. What on earth have you been doing?” I smiled mockingly up at my mother, who had her nose wrinkled in disgust.

“Get used to it mom, I found a new hobby.”

“Well, whatever this hobby is, you’d better do it in a cleaner fashion.”

“Helen? Can you come in here for a minute, I have something to tell you.” My mom looked towards the living room and followed my dad’s voice into the next room. I sat down at the kitchen table. A few minutes later, I heard my mom shriek. I ran into the living room and saw my dad trying to comfort my mom.

“What’s wrong?” I asked worriedly. My dad looked up and motioned for me to sit down.

“Audrey,” he began slowly. “I’ve been…Let go.” I looked at him, puzzled.

“Let go? From what?” I couldn’t believe what he was saying. He couldn’t be…

“I’ve been let go. Fired from the company.” I heard my mom sob and my dad wrapped his arm around her shoulders as he tried to soothe her.

“But, how? Why?” I asked in astonishment.

“I refused to do a certain job for my company. They wanted me to blackmail our competition, sabotage them, and do whatever it would take to make them lower their sales. But, I refused to do it. It’s against my morals, and it’s just plain wrong. I will not work for a company that has to cheat its way to the top.” He sighed in anger and frustration.

“The bills. How are we supposed to pay for this new house? Or the hydro bills? We’ve moved around so much we haven’t even been able to pay down a mortgage. We won’t even be able to afford groceries!” My mother said, sniffling and sobbing with each word she spoke.

“Calm down dear, don’t lose hope yet. I’ll begin searching for a new job, and while I’m doing that, we’ll have to use some of our emergency money until we can get a new income.” My mom sadly nodded in agreement.

“You’re right, I’ll only buy what we need and save the rest for paying off some of the bills.” She stood up, grabbing a tissue, and said, “I’ll go and try to unpack some stuff. It’ll give me something to do besides dwelling on this depressing news.” She left the room as I stood up as well.

“I’m so sorry dad. I really hope everything will turn out okay.” I went over to give my dad a hug. He just nodded in silence as he hugged me back. Then I trudged up to my room. I looked at all of the boxes lying around, and I decided to do some unpacking. It looked like we were going to be staying at this house for a while. As I stacked some novels onto my shelf, my eye caught my little horse statue, and I sighed as I went to pick it up. I didn’t know if the feeling was contentment or if it was just me being overwhelmed with emotions, but holding the statue, and gazing at it, seemed to comfort me. I lay down on my floor and held the horse up, examining it from every angle, trying to figure out what it was, and how it had fixed itself. I thought maybe I was hearing things, for a second or two later, I heard “It’ll be alright,” in a faint whisper.

I woke up with a start. It was pitch black and I shook myself fully awake. I groped around, not knowing where I was. My hand hit my end table, and I pulled myself up to sit on my bed. My alarm clock stated in red lettering that it was 2:36 a.m. I tried to remember what had happened. I turned on my lamp and looked around the room. I had obviously dozed off. I picked up my horse figurine from the floor and gazed at it curiously. Again I heard strange whispering noises. I shrieked and threw the horse onto my bed. I stared at it in horror and wonderment. What was going on?

“Go to the clearing…” The statue whispered. I shook my head, and decided I must need sleep, but the horse whispered more urgently about the clearing. I wanted to scream! What kind of an insane dream was I having? I grabbed the whispering statue and put it under a pile of clothes in my closet, not wanting to touch it or listen to it. I got into my bed, careful to leave the lights on, and pulled the covers up over my ears. I lay in bed for what felt like years before deciding what I had to do. Whatever was going on, I knew it had to do with Liam’s warning, and that clearing in the forest. Something had repaired my horse figure, and had obviously put some sort of communicating device into it. I didn’t believe in magic or sorcery, so that was out of the question. I got out of bed and pulled on my sweater and warm pants. I retrieved the now silent horse from the closet, and tucked it safely into my sweater pocket. I was going to find out what was happening, no matter what time of night it was.

After sneaking out of the silent house, my courage began to drain as I walked towards the forest path with just the light of my flashlight to guide me. Like in all movies, the hooting of an owl scared me down to my toes. I thought of turning back, but if I did, I would never find out what was going on. My curiosity overpowered my urge to flee back into the safety of my house. I entered the forest, humming softly to myself as I tried not to look into the tangles of tree branches on either side of me, but rather focus on the path ahead of me. My senses seemed to soar as I revealed in the quietness of nature during the night. All I could hear was the constant song from the crickets, and sometimes the sound of the wind echoing through the leaves of the deciduous trees. I walked on until I came to the familiar fork in the path. I looked to my left and tried to find the entrance into the clearing, but I failed to see it in the darkness. The faded light from the flashlight was no help at all. I was about to give up, when it suddenly occurred to me that the first time I came upon the clearing, I had used my senses to find the opening. I faced where I thought the path was, and I closed my eyes and focused on the picture of the clearing in my mind. Nothing happened, but when I opened my eyes, it seemed as though my eyes had adjusted to the darkness. The wind blew faintly, rustling an area of branches that seemed to be sparser than the rest of the forest wall. I walked towards it and realized I had found the way in. I looked for some sort of landmark so that I wouldn’t have to try and find my way in the next time. All I could see were some tiny stones forming almost a triangle shape, and after staring hard at the rocks, realized that they actually formed an arrow pointing to the clearing.

“Liam must’ve made this,” I thought to myself.

And so, after gathering all of the courage that I could muster, I entered the clearing, in the middle of the night, to try and solve the “mystery” that was to change my life forever.

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