Chapter 5 - Mist

Mikhael is still asleep when I get up. I pack the bag that I have with me when he found me, the book rolled into several cloths, as if that would make it shut up. I can hear it laughing at me, taunting my stupidity. "Foolish little mortal girl," it chuckles. Claws tearing at my head from the inside. "Foolish little murderer." I put bread, cheese, and dried meat in my bag and open the door.

This time I know to look for the trap, but it isn't set. The night still lingers in the trees. Owls and foxes and other things creeping in the depths of the forest, watching me. I go up to the creek to fill my waterskin and look around. Once again, the forest has changed and looks different, trees and shrubbery have moved. The creek is the same, with everything around it slightly different.

I remember an elder woman in my hometown talking about the Lucus spirits, beings that dwell deep in the woods of Old Deities, protecting them. Perhaps this is their land, and they're protecting themselves against the militia, poachers, or any other human that tries to take from them what they don't deserve.

The wind howls as I stand by the creek and listen to the movements of the trees. They're in fact, moving. Before my eyes, shifting places, making way for something. I focus my eyes, trying to see what moves in the darkness beyond me. On a hill, a shadow stares back.

It looks like a man, the slender shape of something almost human, and yet… not quite. The shadow stands still and watches me. I feel a tug from inside my body, something pulling at me. The moon, suddenly the moon rises from behind the hill, bloodred, and glistening. I see the shadow turn to flesh as the bloodred moon shines its light over him as if it creates him. Makes him whole again. His face. There's a part of it missing. His jaw shows through patches of flesh, teeth visible. Fangs. He's not a man and at the same time, he is.

"I've been looking for you," he hisses but doesn't move his mouth. The voice is coarse and rough. It sounds like claws on a blackboard. Like biting into glass. My mouth fills with the taste of blood. I blink and he's gone, the moon as well, as if they've never been there. I rub my eye and take a breath. As I turn to walk back to the cottage there he is. Darkness embodied. He has gleaming eyes, one white, one red. His torn-up face shifts into a horrendous smile as he reaches for me, a hand of claws and metal, stretching for my face and I scream. Scream until my throat feels sore and then – a slap hits me across the face.

"Wake up!"

Panic. Where am I? Sweat drips from my body, from my hairline. My heart… I think it's going to explode from the sheer force of its beating. Pounding. Throwing itself at my ribcage in vicious panic. I can't see anything at first, blurry, and dusty. My eye fixes on my hands. Claws and metal and blood. One blink and it's gone. Calm light from dawn stretches out in the cottage. Mikhael on his knees in front of me. I've been screaming this entire time and now, I stop. I feel my throat give in. Coughing, breathing. Mikhael takes my arm in his hands and presses a spot on my wrist, and I calm.

The storm inside me settles and I realize it's been a dream. That I've fallen asleep as I was trying not to and…

"There is a demon out there," I say. "He's watching us." Mikhael shakes his head and moves his fingers to my other wrist, pressing on another spot. I don't know if he's shaking his head because he doesn't believe me or he doesn't want to worry me.

"What did he look like… this demon?" he asks and helps me up to my feet. I'm feeling dizzy. I can't say. The more I try to describe him, the harder it is to form the words as if I've forgotten the language, I can't find it in me to speak about him. I shake my head.

"This forest is protected," he says. I nod. Breathing comes easier and easier. I'm still shaking but Mikhael holds my wrists in his hands, I don't know if it's for healing or something else. Like comfort. I have a hard time thinking he could be that worried about me but I don't say anything about it. Words still failing me.

"We should leave soon." Again, I nod. He looks at me with a tilted head. "Have you lost the ability to speak? Did all that screaming finally make you shut up?" He smiles, wanting to taunt me and make me laugh. The uneasy feeling settles, and my body, this body, calms down.

"I'm fine," I say and clear my throat. "Apologies that I woke you up… and…" Mikhael shakes his head.

"Don't worry about it," he says. So easy, so relaxed. "I've grown tired of this quiet life anyway. I'm glad you found me, spicing things up for me." Glimmer in his eyes and then he lets my wrists go. My breathing is steady, my heartbeat calm. My legs and arms still shaking but not as badly. I can smell the herbs on him, calming herbs, eucalyptus, and persimmon flowers. Perhaps he had a hard time sleeping as well.

"I'm glad I can make your life less boring," I say, trying to sound happy, teasing him. He smiles with lips pressed together. He brushes some hair from my face, sweaty as it is. His fingers touch the scarring around my empty socket.

"How does it feel? Is there any pain?" I shake my head.

"It's hard getting used to. I used my left eye to aim and now I don't quite have any depth perception," I shrug. "I guess I'll just… it will take time I suppose." He nods and lets his fingers linger on the scarring a little longer. I look into his eyes and try to read his mind. With the back of his fingers, he caresses my cheek and then turns around before I have a chance to register the softness of it.

"We should get moving," he says and clears his throat. I let a silent sigh leave my lips, my face warm after his touch.

--

I try not to think about the demon that had been staring at me from the hill in my dream as we leave the cottage and walk up towards the creek. We follow it until we come to a fork in the road. Mikhael says one way leads back to my town, to the smelling dying Pits and the misery that follows there. The other way leads to Emerald City, where his -friend- lives.

"You can still change your mind. Go back and claim your money, even though whoever ordered this job would probably have to kill you to be able to use the book…"

"Why would they have to kill me?" A cold shiver runs down my spine.

"Because you killed its last owner… and some debts can only be paid in blood."

My gaze does not stray from the fork in the road. This man knows far more than he wants to let on. Perhaps, going with him to Emerald City would be a trap. I draw a deep breath and look at him.

"If you betray me," I say, making my voice as hard as possible. "I'm not someone who forgives easily, and as you said – some debts can only be paid in blood."

"If I was going to betray you," he says, stepping closer. His gaze fixed on mine. "Would I tell you?" A crooked smile forms on his lips. I open my mouth to answer when I hear the bellows from the forest. Howls of ice and terror. The forest moves to make room for them. Shadows gush between trees and rocks, sparkling grey and green mist at the front of it. The demon's smiling face blinks before my eyes. I take Michael's hand in mine and start running.

Fast.