11 Chapter 10
My heart was still beating at an unnatural pace after the encounter with Derora. So much for making crazy people stay out of my life. I just sat in my room staring at the walls for hours. I couldn't even watch my favorite crime show, because the thought of me almost being in such a situation was too much. At that moment I heard a forceful knock on my window. With my tennis racket in my hands, I opened the curtains.
Derora peeked in from where she sat on a flimsy branch.
"WHAT THE FU-"
Quickly Derora placed her finger over my mouth. For a second I considered pushing her out of the tree. Derora pointed at the flower bedding near the white picket fence. My heart fluttered just like the wisp fluttering above the flowers. Is that why Derora was sitting in a tree in front of my window? As if reading my mind she whispered, "It led me here..."
Hurriedly I climbed into the tree as well. The branch creaked under the weight of two people, but I jumped down before it could break. The wisp hopped on the fence railings, and I followed impatiently. Derora tumbled out of the tree and came after me as soon as she got the leaves out of her hair. We followed it down the street. My heart sank when I saw David jogging with another lanky figure beside him. Why couldn't these people just leave me be! David was out of breath when he reached us, and I saw a smaller wisp joining the one we chased. The boy with David had Caramel skin with inky hair. The small mustache he tried to master made him look like he could be in his twenties.
"The wisp led us here," David said out of breath. I looked the Caramel boy up and down. I didn't like the idea of other people knowing about the book and wisps.
"Hey, I'm David's friend, Jesper. He told me about all the crazy things happening, so I wanted to see it for myself." His voice sounded raspy. David shrugged his shoulders apologetically, for telling someone about the book. The two wisps got our attention again when they started merging together. I followed it without introducing myself to Jesper. The wisps led us back into the forest, moving at a fast pace. It sounded like a stampede how we moved as we struggled to keep up. The tree's grew taller and closer together the further we moved.
"Man what are we even doing!? I'm getting exhausted!" I heard Jesper cry out from the back.
"I thought you wanted to see if I'm not lying!" David punched him playfully in the ribs. Derora giggled at the two of them even though worry clouded her eyes. I tried to ignore them and strolled further. Finally we stopped at the greenest part in the forest. Vines curled around tree's and flowers sprouted between the moss. The scenery felt more like something from a movie paradise. Jesper looked disappointed when the wisps disappeared. What did he expect to happen. His attention landed on me, and he looked me up and down like I was a disposable rag-doll. He didn't look like a painting himself either. I had a bad feeling about Jesper.
"What now?" David asked. We all looked at our surroundings. There wasn't anything unusual except for all the vines and mushrooms covering the tree's.
"We should all search for something," Derora suggested. Jesper walked towards a pile of mushrooms underneath a tree. His eyes widened in excitement.
"Sweet! The Magic Blue Gym mushrooms puts you on a trip. They are usually very rare in the market," he said while stuffing mushrooms inside of his shirt. "Anyone want some?" he asked while picking another bunch. We all shook our heads to say no. "More for me then!" Jesper claimed excitedly.
We all searched through the ferns and shrubs in hope to find something magical. A glimmer suddenly caught my eye. I ran towards it.
"Did you find something?" David asked. I stepped backwards to cover the shimmer with my foot. "No, I thought it was something," I lied. David eyes me suspiciously but kept digging through the plants. Quickly I grabbed the gold object, which was still stuck in a block of dirt, and stuffed it in my pocked. I wasn't about to trust someone who's probably going to overdose on psychedelic mushrooms when he gets home. I pretended to keep on searching the bushes.
"Maybe the guy writing the book also had a few shrooms in, and none of it actually happened," David joked. I wanted to comment, but my words were drowned by a droning sound above our heads. Derora's eyes got as big as plates.
"We should go NOW!" She yelled. I started panicking and ran after Derora. David followed with Jesper on his heels, desperately trying to cling onto his mushrooms. We ran all faster with the whirring of helicopter blades not far from us. I looked up to see three black helicopters in the sky. Derora ran as if her life depended on it. I wouldn't be surprised if it did. She suddenly stopped near the tree house.
"You have to go home now! If they come knock on your door to ask questions, we were never in the forest. Got it?" She pushed us away with shaky hands, "Now go!"
"Wait, who are these guys?" all of us asked at the same time. Derora looked around panicking.
"The mushrooms are illegal. They have to watch it, and if they catch us with it we could all go to jail." I knew Derora was feeding us lies, but David and Jesper seemed to believe her. The helicopters came closer with every passing second. "I said go!" Derora yelled. Her fear drove us away. Jesper looked scared once we were outside the forest, but ran away with David immediately. I got home without a helicopter stopping me.
After locking myself inside of the bathroom, I took the block of dirt out of my pocket, and ran it under hot water. I looked at the golden object in shock. "This can't be happening," I thought while running my finger along the warm golden metal.
