Friday: 06/07/2030: My phone goes off at 11 AM and wakes me up. “Morning, Lindsay.” “Morning, Kyle.” “Did I wake you up, Lindsay? Sorry if I did.” “Yeah, kinda, but it’s fine. Speaking of being woken up, did you see or hear anything weird last night?” “I didn’t see anything, but I did hear this awful screech that interrupted my dream about hunting the prize buck. I was about to secure the kill when the racket woke me up.” “Poor thing.” “It also woke Red. He was barking mad for an hour.” 😜 “Lindsay, who are you talking to?” “I’m talking to Kyle, Mom.” “Are you excited about our camping trip in the woods today?” “Yeah. I have that book of scary campfire stories.” “Awesome. See you later.” “Bye, Kyle.” We hang up and I get myself dressed for the day. Xena finds my bathing suit and I put on my brown cargo shorts, Duluth Trading T-shirt, and hiking boots over it. “Thank you, Xena.” “I’m glad that the weather is going to be in the 90s all the way through the week.” “Me, too, Xena.” I come out of my room with the cats and almost immediately, TJ appears abruptly in front of me wearing his Pennywise mask, tackling me. “TJ! I will get you!” “Pfbptpt!” He turns invisible and I look all around throughout the house. “Morning, Lindsay.” “Morning.” “Hunting for your brother?” “Yeah. In his IT mask.” “Well, while you’re at it, you should pack your clothes and plenty of bug-spray.” “Will do, Dad.” I grab a banana and eat it for breakfast while scanning for TJ’s thought patterns in order to locate him. Eventually, I hear him coming up invisibly behind. “I will tickle her neck. Hee hee.” Just as he is about to tickle my neck, I grab his little schnoz through the clown mask, making him squeal, still invisible. With my grip, I pull off the mask and he is visible again. “Aww!” “I told you I’d get you!” “You ready for camping, Lindsay?” “Yeah, I just have to get my stuff ready. Do you know where the bug-spray is?” “Yeah, in the barn.” “Thanks.” I go to the barn and Xena finds the bug repellent in the feed storage, and she hands it to me. “Thank you, Xena.” “You’re welcome, Lindsay.” My horse, Fengma, approaches me and Xena, pressing her velvety nose into mine. Fengma is a beautiful gray dappled mare with ice eyes and silver dapples, mane, and tail. She is also very fast and is adept at finding her way through the Forest. I feed Fengma and she goes into the pasture to graze with and protect our cows. Xena and I go back to the house with the bug-spray wherein I place it in Dad’s bag like he asked me. “Hey, Lindsay!” “Yes, Lyral?” “Can you help me get our tents set up at the creek?” “Sure.” I carried two of the three tents we’re sleeping in tonight to the spot we chose by the creek. “How did you sleep last night, Lindsay?” “I slept well. You?” “Yeah.” “I have never fought off anything that strong before. In fact, I have never fought against anything with magic, especially not in a real fight.” “Well, I think all immortals might come across something like that at least once in their physical lives.” “Have you ever encountered it before, Lyral?” “I did. Once. It was when I was a young Sentinel, just learning how to protect the People. I was living in this region during the winter of 1530 when I was attacked by that same entity that invaded last night. Unlike you, I lost that battle, and I was worried, for the entity had been terrorizing the tribes who once lived here, which is why my sister, and I were sent here. I never forgot that day in the winter of 1530 A.D.” We finish setting up the tents and walk back to the house, where we hear shouting. “Thomas Jefferson James, you clean up that room of yours! What is that?! Slime mold?!” “Aww, Mom!” “Uh-uh! You clean up that room if you want to go camping with us today!” “Ok, Mom.” Mom comes downstairs and out the back door. “We set up the tents, Mom.” “Good. Now if your brother would clean up his room.” “Did he have a real slime mold in there?” “Yeah, in his trash can!” Then, his window opens, and the leafy contents of TJ’s trash can rumble to the ground, slime mold and all. “Bye, little buddy.” “You’re silly.” “Hey, guys.” “Hey, Kyle. How are you doing?” “Good. Just thought I’d drop by and say hello. The others will be here in a while.” “Good. Would you like some breakfast?” “Aw, no, I already ate before I came over here, but thanks for offering, Mrs. James.” “You’re welcome, Kyle.” Lyral and Mom go back inside while Kyle and I go out into the cornfield. “Want to hear something interesting, Lindsay?” “Sure. Is it aliens or fairies?” “Kind of a blend of both. I think.” “You’re gulling me, aren’t you, Kyle?” “No. I’m telling the truth. There is a species of invisible humanoids living in these very woods. I’ve caught enough glimpses of them to know that they have blue skin, pink hair, can become invisible, and can run inhumanly fast.” “So, you’ve been seeing my little brother running around in a costume, then?” “No, not TJ. I can never get a good look at their faces, though. Only from behind. I also know that they can be mischievous. I can always tell when they’re nearby, even though I’ve never talked to one before. I just know they’re from another world.” “So, we might just see them tonight?” “Maybe.”
It’s 2 PM. “Come on, kids! It’s time to go into the woods!” “See you later. I need to go home to get my stuff.” “Okay. See you later.” “Bye.” I run back into the house where I grab my overnight bag and the first aid kit while TJ and the others have their stuff. “Do we have everything? Lindsay?” “Got the first aid kit.” “TJ?” “Got the cooler.” TJ can barely lift the cooler. “On second thought, Lindsay and TJ, why don’t you switch?” “Ok.” He picks up the first aid kit while I hoist up our cooler such that it rests on top of my head like how women in many African nations carry large baskets atop their heads. I reminisce on some past trips with the Crawfords. “Remember our first trip when in the middle of the night, Silo came into our tent wearing that wolf mask?” “Oh, yeah.” “I only screamed while you were so scared you practically wet the sleeping bag.” “I did not wet the sleeping bag, you made that up!” “Did not, I remember the size of the stain!” “All right, that’s enough, Lindsay.” “Sorry, Mom. Sorry, Tom. Remember the time when Buck realized he forgot to shut their chicken coop?” “Oh, I remember the look on his face and him racing back home at 2 AM.” After a few more minutes of walking, we reach the tents; there are four: one for me, Mom, and Grandma, the second for TJ, Dad, and Grandpa, the third for the two Crawford women, and the fourth for Mr. Crawford and his sons. “Lindsay, put the cooler down by our tent, please.” “Sure, Mom.” I set the cooler down by our tent. “Mom, can Lindsay and I go in the creek and swim? It’s so hot.” “Sure, but y’all need to set up your stuff in our tent, and we should probably wait for the Crawfords.” “Ok, Mom.” TJ and I start setting up our sleeping bags in our tent when we hear the pots and pans in the fire circle make a big clonk. “What was that?!” Grandma reaches into one of the pots and shows us a rock that had apparently been thrown in there. “Who threw this?” “Not us.” Another clonk. An even bigger rock lands in our big pan. I catch a glimpse, by the big oak tree, in my peripheral vision of a flowing silver cloth, which disappears as soon as I turn to face it. “Did y’all see anything shiny over there by the big oak tree?” “Not me.” “Me. Neither, hun.” “Probably just seeing things, eh, Lindsay?” “Be quiet, Mr. I’m-Scared-of-the-Wolfman!” “Hey!” Grandpa snickers and guffaws. TJ sticks his tongue out, I boop his nose, and he squeals. “Y’all can go and pick some berries for dessert.” “Ok.” We take the big reed basket that Grandma made and go to a part of the Forest where blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries grow. We are almost done filling the basket with berries when TJ jumps into my arms and yelps, almost spilling the basket. “What’s the matter, TJ?” “Something touched my shoulder, Lindsay!” “It’s all right. Who’s there?!” “Let’s get back to the tents, Lindsay!” “Ok.” I pick up the spilled berries and we walk back to the tents, all the while I keep seeing brief flashes of shiny silver, pale pink, and sky blue. We get back to the tents. “Did something happen?” “TJ got spooked by something while we were picking berries.” “It tickled my shoulder.” “We saw some silver flashes in our peripheral vision while we were running back here.” “Ok.” “Kyle said earlier that the invisible people are quite mischievous but harmless.” “He did? He didn’t just make that up to mess with us, did he?” “Kyle says he’s not making it up.” The Crawfords are our neighbors going way back to when Dad’s parents were in high school. In fact, the grandma of the Crawford family, Ida, went to Patrick Henry High School with Grandma and Grandpa back in the early 1970s. There is also another Crawford that Kyle once told me about, but didn’t elaborate on him, because according to Kyle, Buck and Binky don’t want the boys to discuss him, for whatever reason, so I never asked any questions about this mysterious member of the family. I mean, it’s not really any of my business, anyway. Mom and Dad went to high school with Buck and Binky Crawford and were and still are great friends. We first revealed our magic to them when I was 10 and TJ was 7. The boys were amazed by my powers, especially Billy, their youngest. Billy is 9 years old, same as TJ and they like to play video games together as well as play tricks on me and the older boys. Kyle is 12, same as me and we like to run around and chase each other in either our cornfield or their massive back yard. Silo, their eldest, is 15 years old and is a rising sophomore at PHHS. He does a lot of yard work around their property and is already proficient with almost every outdoor tool they have. Last Halloween, Buck and Binky were giving a spooky hayride to kids from around town and had just passed through the spookiest part when Silo ran out at the truck from behind the big oak tree in their front yard sporting a Jason Vorhees mask and brandishing a denatured chainsaw, scaring the wits out of every small child there. If I remember correctly, I think even a few adults might have peed their pants. I remember Buck and Binky chewing him out for terrorizing the little ones as the little ones were clinging to me. I chuckle a bit just thinking about it. “What’s so funny, Lindsay?” “Remember when Silo scared all those little kids on the Hayride last Halloween?” “Oh, yeah. I remember the talking-to he got from Ida. Grounded for two weeks, no more power tools till he’s 18, and an apology to all the little kids he scared.” On our farm, we mainly grow corn, raise chickens, ride horses, and grow berries for us. We give most of the crops we harvest to the Food Lion across the street and to stores in Ashland. The Crawfords are also farmers who sell to grocery stores for income. We each make hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, most of which goes to paying for college one day and to charities. Mom and Dad work in the HVAC industry, running a small business, so we still have income even when the crops are still developing. They have a van with their BlazingCool logo and get roughly one or two appointments every week. Whenever either me or TJ would misbehave when we were younger, we were disciplined by having to pull weeds out of the cornfield. A la the Twilight Zone, it was called getting “Sent to the Cornfield.” I remember the most annoyed I ever was with TJ was when he spiked my favorite nail polish with clear Krazy Clue just before I gave myself a pedicure with it. I put some socks on when I thought it was dry, only it wasn’t, and the inner surface of my socks got stuck to my toenails and I couldn’t pull them off. He burst out laughing and I chased him around the house until I caught him and tackled him to the floor. I was so mad that I threatened to throw his precious X-Box out the window if Lyral didn’t stop me, all the while TJ shouted, “My Precious!” For his little prank, he was sent to the cornfield, and I learned a bit about how to control my temper. That wasn’t the only time he got on my nerves. Once, when I was having a sleepover with 美雷, he snuck into my bedroom closet and started making weird noises to mess with us, and 美雷 got really scared that there was an intruder. I forcefully opened the closet door and found TJ in there, albeit invisible and doing a poor job of concealing his presence. I zapped his hair, and it puffed out like Einstein, and he ran back to his room. There was another incident in which he switched my short essay homework with a silly drawing of the moon, and I didn’t know about it until my teacher pointed it out to me. Fortunately, it wasn’t a major assignment, and my teacher believed me, so it didn’t hurt my grade that much, but he was grounded for a weekend, and we weren’t allowed to touch each other’s school stuff after his little trick. In essence, we’ve pulled a lot of mischief on each other in our lives.
Dad lights a fire in the fireplace and the adults begin cooking our dinner just as the Crawfords turn up by our tents, the boys whooping and hooting like monkeys and wolves. “Hey!” “Hey, guys, sorry we’re late!” “No problem, Binky. We’re already set up.” “Lindsay, TJ! Ready to go swimming?!” I reveal my Americana one-piece and take off my boots. “Yeah. Race you to the creek!” Kyle and I race to the water and I jump in, making a huge splash. Kyle comes in at a close second, almost tripping over himself and falling into the water. “You alright, Kyle?” “Yeah. Hey!” A mischievous giggle throws us for a loop. “Something touched my neck.” I feel a brief tap on the back of my neck. “TJ? If that’s you, show yourself.” Then, Kyle and I are showered with acorns as one particular little boy sits up in the big oak tree, laughing his heinie off. “It figures.” “Come down and swim until the sun sets.” He sticks his tongue out and I pull him down from the tree and he makes a huge splash despite being so little. “1, 2, 3, 4, I declare a splash war!” An almighty splash war ensues, and Kyle’s brothers join in, creating a cacophony of splashing, screaming, and laughing. I splash the boys even though they have me surrounded. “Don’t forget about me!” Grandma Crawford runs into the creek brandishing a rubber chicken and throwing it at us. Chaos ensues. Grandma Crawford is incredibly athletic despite being in her seventies, owing mainly to her many decades working with farm tools, as well as descent from a mysterious being, I’ve been told. We spend the next few hours throwing the rubber chicken at each other and chasing each other up and down the creek, making as much noise as five kids and a septuagenarian can generate in one summer afternoon. According to stories told to me by Kyle, his grandmother is one of the leaders of a coven of witches that spans the Galaxy, also claiming descent from the same mysterious being. Specifically, she’s known as Her Wisdom, Reverend Mother Wander VII, almost like a shamaness-queen of their goddess, with her being the Reverend Mother of Earth. Kyle says that the title is passed only to the most experienced witch in the chapter, often from mother to daughter or granddaughter, and only women have magical abilities, though men can sense energies. Eventually the sun sets, and Binky calls us to the fire circle. “What’s for dinner, Mom?” “Your father brought some smoked venison and fresh chicken.” “Sweet!” The Crawford boys scramble out of the water and race back to the fire circle faster than either TJ or I can catch our breaths. “You want to race, Lindsay?” TJ just takes off like a cheetah. “Cheater!” I jog my tired body up and out of the water, trying to keep up with Grandma Crawford as well as my brother. “Come and get it!” I sit down on the beach chair between Kyle and TJ just as Dad and Buck begin passing around the plastic bowls of meat and corn and bottles of water while the parents and grandparents discuss all the goings on in the world of social media. “Lindsay, did you bring the book of campfire stories?” “Yeah.” I reach into my bag inside my tent and grab the book “Stories to Make You Question Everything.” “Who wants to read the first story?” The boys all raise their hands before I even finish my sentence. “All right. I’ll read first.” “Aww!” The first creepy story recounts the tale of a man who arrives in a Japanese airport in the 1950s and is confused to discover that his native land doesn’t exist despite presenting legitimate credentials (passport, license, and currency), albeit from a country that doesn’t exist in our universe. After a series of questions, the man becomes quite irritated at the airport workers telling him that his country isn’t real until he sees a map and points to the little land nestled between France and Spain only to see the name Andorra, not Taured. Anger turns to outright confusion, and they put the man up in a nearby hotel under guard until they can decide what to do with him. The following morning, however, they go to his room to find him gone, with no trace of him ever having been there. Since the room was on an upper floor, there was no way either through the door or the window that he could have escaped the room without being seen, apprehended, or potentially injuring himself. It was now thought that the Man from Taured was a traveler from a parallel dimension and that his disappearance from his room in our world should be celebrated, for only then he may have been able to return to his home. Grandma Crawford then tells us a story about an incident that happened when she and her late husband (then her boyfriend) were in high school. “We were returning from the movie theater, for we had just seen Star Wars: A New Hope. We enjoyed it and had a wonderful time. Anyway, Grandpa Crawford, rest his soul, was driving his light blue 1975 Pontiac down Elmont Road when a dark figure appeared in the middle of the roadway near the corner of Elmont and Yowell, just standing there. We stopped at about fifty yards from the intersection, hoping that in a few seconds, it would just leave the area and we’d be on our way. However, it did not move. In fact, it started moving towards us. Faster than I could process it, he had banked a three-point turn and was booking it in the other direction, hoping to lose whatever it was in the dark, and we did, but not before whatever it was almost tore the trunk door off the Pontiac. I used the protective sigils that I learned from my mother to try and banish the entity, and it worked. She has not been seen in this place since that night. Until now.” “I always wondered how Grandpa’s car got those scratch marks on the trunk.” “The thing was, we decided not to tell anyone, even our parents or the police, because we thought they wouldn’t have believed us, or worse, thought we were up to no good. Weird thing was, John’s parents never noticed the damage to his car, but ever since then, until the day he died, my husband was always reluctant to drive that way at night.” “I never saw any dark figures on the roads at night, Mom.” “I only fear that sightings will increase. I sense that as much as she was then, she is still looking for something.” “One more story and then we go to bed, okay?” “I’ll tell you about this one: There is something living in the forest behind my house. I had just moved to a new area for my job, as I got a huge promotion. I was roughly six months into my new job and home when I noticed that my winter wreath would go missing in the night from my front door only to reappear on top of my car. At first, I just thought it was some bored neighborhood kids, but then, I started seeing a pair of faint lights at the edge of the tree line from my bedroom window, which when they vanished and reappeared briefly, I realized they were eyes glowing in the dim light reflecting off the blanket of snow on the ground. For the next few weeks, the glowing eyes would appear in the trees, and it became almost a nightly routine, with me falling asleep to them. However, going into the early spring, one night, they didn’t appear. At first, I thought that whatever animal it was had migrated further north, but then I got a weird feeling that something was wrong, not just because my nighttime forest visitor was a no-show. To my utter horror, there was this thing. Just peeking up at me from the bottom of the foot of my bed! It opened its mouth and smiled at me, with tiny sharp broken teeth and a gurgling noise in its throat. I closed my eyes, hoping it was just my head messing with me. After what seemed like forever, I opened my eyes and was greeted with the sight of the creature’s face just an inch from mine-“ Then, Silo let out a terrified scream and ran into his tent, for TJ had snuck up behind him in his clown mask and jump-scared him. “And you said you weren’t afraid of clowns, Silo!” “Oh, really?!” Silo runs out of his tent and starts chasing TJ into the trees and Buck chases after them. “Hey! You’re making too much noise, boys!” Mom stands up from her spot. “TJ! Get your heinie back here!” Then, I feel a force swipe across my back. “Ow!” “Lindsay, your swimsuit’s torn!” “TJ, I’m gonna get you!” A shout of “Sorry!” comes from the trees. Eventually, Silo tackles TJ and brings him back to the fire. “Look at my back, TJ! You’re lucky you didn’t break the skin!” “Sorry, Lindsay.” “Looks like you owe me $35 for a new bathing suit.” “We’ll talk about maybe for Christmas. Won’t we, young man?” “Yes, Mom.” “All right, time for bed.” We get ready for bed, the guys and girls going to separate areas of the forest to change. I got into the tent with my mother and grandmother. I think about my disturbing experience from the previous night. I can hear Kyle and his brothers talking about it. “I wonder if the creature that Grandma and Grandpa saw back when they were dating will come back.” “Y’all go to sleep now, ya hear?!” “Okay, Grandma!” We all bury ourselves in our sleeping bags, trying not to flinch at every forest noise, given all the scary stories we told tonight.
Saturday: 06/08/2030: I woke up a few hours later. When I check my phone, it says it’s 2:45 am. I realize suddenly that I need to relieve myself, so I leave my phone, grab my hand sanitizer, and I step out of the tent, walking as quietly as possible to the makeshift bathroom we made. I quickly relieved myself and was about to go back to the tent when I decided to take a short detour by the creek just for a few minutes. Around me were the noises of the trees, leaves, insects, and the soft summer breeze. The sky was full of stars, and I spent the next twenty minutes or so trying to find the band of the Milky Way through the top branches of the trees. “Are there other great witches like Ida out there amongst the Stars?” I eventually reach sight of the creek, and from my position behind a tree, I can see what looks like a young maiden with pale pink, curly hair and blue skin wearing a silver cloak, sitting silently in the creek. I can only see her from behind and she never turns around. Then, after a few seconds, I feel a sharp pain on my shoulder and I wince, louder than I meant to, which scares the strange fairy girl away from the creek, because I heard a splash and rapid footfalls heading away from me. “All right. Very funny, invisible alien fairies.” Suddenly, a loud, high-pitched screech filled what felt like the whole forest, knocking me to the ground, leaving my ears ringing for a few seconds. As soon as my ears recovered and I came to my senses, I got back up and with my hair turning silver and my immortal form emerging, I began firing streams of current at the black mist as it responded with its own streams of black crystal. The commotion wakes the others, with TJ and the Crawford brothers coming first, to see me locked in single combat against an amorphous fog-like blob of Lovecraftian nope, firing streams in every direction as it surrounds me. “Boys, get back to the tent, right now!” The adults came running in a panic towards the scene. “You, too, Thomas!” “I can fight!” “No! She’s too strong for you, brother!” Dad pulls TJ away while Buck sends his sons along with TJ back to the tent. My parents and grandparents erect shielding around the camp. All the while, Ida, wearing the Wanderer’s Mask, stands there, raising her totem book at the beast, a nine-pointed star on its cover, and shouting: “So, you’re back! You dare invade the domain of Lady Wander, of the Goddess of the Silver Roots, and of the Ancestors of Old Olympus!” “No, Ida, now come back with us! It’s like Lindsay said. It’s too strong for any of us!” Ida invokes a protective sigil from her book and hurls it at the beast, at which moment I smite it in the chest yet again, forcing it away into the night. Exhausted from this night fight, I collapse again, though this time, my mother catches me before I hit the ground. “Lindsay, baby, are you alright?!” I black out and I wake up again in my own bedroom, back in my mundane form. “What?” Mom brings me some chicken pot pie and some water. “We ended the camp out early. I found this.” She brings out a large, shiny, silver textile object. “That looks like something I saw a person wearing in the creek, just bathing. Not the mist, though. They probably were frightened off by the ruckus, so I don’t know if she’ll come back for it.” “Well, later on, I’ll leave it in the backyard. Maybe she’ll come back for it eventually. Just get some more sleep.” “TJ in bed?” “He’s in his room, a little worried.” “I don’t blame him. I’m the one who fainted.” “Well, just eat this and get some rest.” “Ok. I love you, Mama.” “I love you, too, sweetie.” Mom and I hug each other tightly. “This must be so much for you to deal with so young.” “I guess I wouldn’t be much of a warrior if I was only fighting against weaker threats my whole physical life.” “Yeah.” “Goodnight, Mom.” “Goodnight, honey.” Mom goes back to bed while I eat my chicken pot pie and watch the new promo for Midnight Oil, which is supposed to air its first episode this Sunday night. I haven’t read any critics’ reviews yet since I don’t want any spoilers for any characters or plot devices, but either way, I’m really fired up about it. After that, I read more of Diary of a Teenage Goddess. In chapter two, Lysea is still struggling with her new reality: being immortal, having magic, as well as attending a middle school where virtually anything goes when it comes to bullying and quite a few corrupt faculty members. The changes she’s experienced make her a target of vicious relational aggression from a group of elitist and racist girls who are jealous of her beauty, and seek to ruin her life, mainly because by the end of the chapter, she’s caught the eye of the former love interest of the clique’s ‘queen’. Lysea promised her parents that she would not use her powers in public under any circumstances, just because they don’t want her to draw any unwarranted attention to herself. Besides, what’s a queen to a goddess? I finish up and having calmed down enough from the night’s excitement, I settle in for bed as Xena and Spock curl up next to my face, making me feel safe. I begin to dream of something that feels familiar yet is significantly different. The world around me looks a bit like Hanover County, but there’s no paved roads or power lines. In fact, there is no evidence of industrialization as it exists today. Instead, the “buildings”, if they can be called so, are more so clusters of huge rocks, trees, and chunks of ice grown together. I come to a big beautiful house made out entirely of ice that does not appear to be melting, even in the summer sun. It is surrounded by an ethereal garden of frost that, like the house, seems to resist the heat. Everything looks like something out of a fairytale kingdom, from the seemingly magical houses to the amazing splendor of the natural world around them. I realize how strange it is, but I feel something special about the house made of ice with the frost garden. I don’t know why, but I feel a special connection with it that I can’t explain. Eventually, amidst the splendor of this fairyland, I can hear a faint noise, like a young woman crying in the distance. Within it, I can hear her saying, “Help me, sister!” Then, a familiar sensation arrives, familiar and dark. It is hostile, brooding, and clearly has power over the crying woman, who fades from earshot as the darker spirit fills my visual field, turning the summer sky starless black, corrupting all the scenery around me into a nightmarish and Lovecraftian hell-scape, like in The Color Out of Space, but with black rather than magenta. I feel long, tentacle-like tendrils of black crystal wrapping around my waist, arms, and legs, and though I am fighting with every ounce, I can’t break free. Just as the last tendril is about to wrap itself around my jaw to stifle me, a sudden sound, like a thunderous roar mixed with a ululating war yowl, swipes away the black crystal tendrils which shatters them, catches me as I fall, and drives the evil away. I black out once again and I wake up in my bed, relieved that it was just a gnarly dream. Xena and Spock are nudging me to sit up. “That was messed up.” “You’re telling me. Only hours after a physical attack, it invades your dreamscape.” “Either I’m just too much to handle in the real world and it’s a coward, or it’s trying to drive me batty. Either way, it won’t let me sleep easily.” I get up and take my dirty dish down to the kitchen to wash it. “Hey, you all right, Lindsay?” “Yeah. Considering I’ve been attacked three times in the past two days.” “Three?” “It invaded my dreamscape and Xena intervened.” “One question. Why would a big dark cloud of cosmic horror be interested in you? And why now?” “That’s the thing, TJ. It never speaks or gives any indication of what it wants other than trying to drive me insane apparently. All it does is scream when I smite it.” “Geez. Well, just stay inside today and take a break.” “Ok. I will.” I rinse off my plate and fork, throw away the chicken pot pie packaging, and place the dishes into the empty dishwasher. “What time is it?” “2:00 pm.” “Yeah, thanks a lot, cosmic horror cloud!” I take my laptop into the sunroom and TJ joins me, eating a hot dog. “Whatcha doin’, Lindsay?” “I’m trying to find out if there have been other sightings of this entity in the past, other than the Elmont Road Incident described by Grandma Crawford last night.” TJ’s expression changes abruptly. “What is it?” “I just remembered something that happened a few years ago. I didn’t say anything at the time because I thought it was just my brain fussing with me, but I remember that I woke up one morning. It was just before sunrise and I thought that my window was being blocked out by something, because there was the twilight one moment and then five seconds later, the window was black. At the time, I chalked it up to my imagination, so I didn’t say anything.” “Wow.” I type into Ecosia: ‘Black mist cloud sightings.’ A few results come up, mainly on forum sites. “Wow. It looks like Grandma Crawford wasn’t the only person to be chased by this thing. Here’s a Reddit post on an old police report from 1962. Apparently, a family was nearly run off a road in Staunton on the way home from a picnic by what one of the children described as a pitch-black fog-like cloud that followed them even as they hit 90 mph. When questioned by police as to why he was going so fast, the father claimed that they were chased by a black cloud. The police initially did not believe him, but after passing a breathalyzer and blood test, it became apparent that something had truly frightened this family to the point of speeding, so the police merely issued a fine.” “There’s only a few sightings here.” “Yeah, well, there may have been more sightings that are kept quiet for fear of ridicule, only being talked about now on hidden corners of the Internet.” “Looks like we’re not alone.”
At 4:00, Lyral calls us down into the basement where our sacred space is and many of our animals follow us in, finding Ida down there as well, her book sitting open nearby. Waving her hand over the clear water from the font, Lyral freezes the top half-inch of the water, leaving it virtually smooth and flawless. “What are we doing, Lyral, Ida?” “We must place a seal of protection upon both Lindsay and the house as a whole and also encourage the owner of the silver cloth to reclaim her property.” “How do we do that?” “You must add your sacred plant and the marrow of the most recent deer killed into the water. Let’s go and get them.” We leave the basement to pick one of our sacred plants while Ida takes the long femur bone of a deer with various protective sigils carved into it, breaks off the end, pouring the marrow into the font. I pick a purple rose from my rose bush. TJ picks a nice, long blade of grass. Mom picks one of her Arctic flowers, etc. Once we are finished, we bring them down into the basement where Dad melts the ice in the font and brings it to a boil. “Add your sacred plants now.” We do and they begin to dissolve. “So, what now?” “Let the water simmer and the plants and marrow dissolve. Then, when it gets dark, we will cast the spell. Until then, we wait.” “Hopefully then, I’ll be able to sleep tonight.” “What’s for dinner?” “Chicken fried rice.” “Yes!” We go back upstairs to the den and turn on a Saturday Night Live parody of President Sharp’s hair routine. She has long, purple hair, which because it grows so rapidly, she must cut it every two weeks. A young actress playing her blue-haired daughter Courtney shows the camera a hamper filled with a huge purple fluff of the President’s hair, prompting the obligatory laugh track. “Wow, Mom! I could knit enough sweaters for all of Congress by Christmas!” We all laugh as she pulls out a long “rope” of her mother’s hair and begins literally turning it into leagues of purple yarn and a sweater of the same then lands in POTUS’ lap. “Wow, sweetie, that was fast, and live from New York, it’s Saturday night!” After the episode ends, Grandma turns it to the pilot episode of Bewitched, and we LOL at the first interaction between Darrin and Endora as she trolls him by repeatedly teleporting him from the hotel room. “Dinner’s ready!” “Dibs!” Dad, Grandpa, TJ, and I run to the kitchen for our food, rushing upon Mom before she can finish dishing out the first serving. “Cheese and crackers, will you four hold on before you make a huge mess?!” Mom dishes out the first serving to Grandma and Grandpa, then Dad, then us kids, and then herself. We get to the part where Samantha trolls Sheila with her powers and we mega-LOL as the witty witch puts the snooty socialite in her place. As we finish eating, I look for a game to occupy us until the sun sets. “Y’all want to play UNO?” “Sure.” I bring out our two sets of the game and deal out the cards to everyone. Over the next few hours, we LOL and Mega-LOL through every single Skip and Wild card, culminating in five wins for Grandma, the most of us all. At 8:30, the sun dips below the horizon, and we go down into the basement to complete the spell. The plants are completely dissolved, turning the water somewhat cloudy, still steaming hot. “Now the one needing protection must drink it whole before it cools below body temperature, or the spell will go to waste.” I look at Mom and she puts her hand on my shoulder. Feeling reassured, I telekinetically lift the steaming blob of liquid out of the font and into the air in front of my face. Ida begins chanting in an unknown language, with protective sigils traced in golden light manifesting within the blob, and her tattoos are outlined in a pale silver. I force my lips to drink the potion, the whole time feeling the burning pain as it goes down, recalling the images of the black cloud surrounding and its grip on me, feeling the fear, pouring all my desire for undisturbed sleep into the mix, and wanting the fairy sight unseen to come back for her veil. I also see the lily-shaped outline of a female figure with wild golden hair and large gleaming ram-like horns. I continue with my intentions until I consume the last drop. “That hurt.” “I’m sorry, honey. I wish you didn’t have to drink it so hot.” “It’s ok, Lyral. I think it’s worth it if it means I can sleep tonight.” “Goodnight, Lindsay. You might see me before you wake up again.” “I hope I don’t have to drink a hot spell like that.” “Me neither, TJ. I’m going to have some ice cream.” “Actually, you shouldn’t eat or drink anything for a few hours, to not hurt the spell, especially if it’s cold.” “Well, in that case, I’ll just go to bed. Goodnight.” “Goodnight, Lindsay.” I go back upstairs to get ready for bed. As I am washing my face and brushing my teeth, I can feel the draught coursing through my bloodstream and into all my cells, producing a warm, tingling sensation. “So, do you think it will work, Lindsay?” “After having my beauty sleep interrupted twice in the course of twelve hours, I’m ready for anything.” “I can relate to that.” “Like the time you snuck down into the basement at midnight to play on the PS8 until dawn, waking everyone in the house when you shouted your victory, forgetting it was night?” “You just had to bring that up again, didn’t you?!” “I just thought it was funny when Mom did the whole ‘middle name’ bit while she chased you through the house with a flyswatter.” I grab the flyswatter from the vanity and bop him on the head with it and he squeals very loud. We horse around for several minutes, laughing and squealing. “Will y’all pipe down?! Holy cats!” “Goodnight, TJ.” “Goodnight, Lindsay.” We go to bed, and I fall asleep fairly quickly. It isn’t long before I begin to dream of the fairytale landscape turned corrupt by the black mist, though not far from me I see another person, dressed in a long, white linen dress and wearing the Wanderer’s Mask. “Ida?” “You see me as I really am, child.” “Wander VII?” “Yes, Feline. You see the Reverend Mother of Earth’s branch of the Guardians Against the Empty.” Amidst the terror of this nightmare world, I can hear a voice demanding, “Where is it?!” What does it want? I begin shouting to the entity. “What do you want from us?! Come out here and face us if you’re not a coward!” The creature does not respond. “Come out here!” Then, a sinister giggling comes from the shadows. “Show yourself so I can finally get some sleep!” A stone falls and hits the ground. “You want something, eh?” I conjure up my lightning in my hands, bringing out my immortal form. “You want some of this?!” I cast a bolt of lightning high into the dream-sky, creating a massive storm that lights up the world, leaving no corner of the corrupted landscape unlit. For the first time since I first encountered the black mist, I felt even a slight bit hopeful that I could adjust to the coming changes in my life. At last, the black mist materializes in front of me. “So, you are the great Feline Current, Hanover County’s beloved goddess! And the Reverend Mother, of course!” The voice sounded somewhat feminine and was as if it was made of many voices. “I am, though I prefer ‘immortal’.” “Who, then, are you?! You, who comes into our sleep, who plans to terrorize our people?!” “We are the Queen who stalks the night, the Mother of Nightmares, the One who lurks where none dare look!” “You?! A skulking Eldritch abomination?!” “Is that how you speak to your Queen?” “Leave me and my people alone whilst we sleep!” “Make us then, if you’re so determined to catch 40 winks!” I direct lightning at the creature, only for them to pass through her as if she was made of smoke. “You cannot hurt us! We are a Goddess! We are the Queen Mother of all that goes bump in the night!” She and I square off like a pair of gladiators at opposite sides of the clearing while Ida draws a circle of golden light around us. After a pause, the beast charges at me and I jump up onto a corrupt tree branch, charging up my hands, and then I pounce onto her from above, bringing the charge in my hands down upon her, at the same time doing a volley of bunny kicks before using my legs to forcefully send her flying horizontally across the clearing, causing another tree to crash down on her. She gets back up and flies up into the dream-sky, filling it with nightmarish visions, and transforming the ground into a pit of Eldritch quagmire, and not a moment later, numerous crystalline tentacles with the consistency of crude oil pull me abruptly facedown into the corruption, gripping me even tighter than they did in the previous nightmare. Ida tries to throw more sigils at her, only to be gripped as well by the black tendrils. With every move I make, the entity crushes me tighter and tighter until it hurts more than the draught that I drank in the hope of ever sleeping at night again. I am then bombarded by a chaotic, seemingly infinite choir of voices shouting incomprehensible noise. Ida begins chanting again in the unknown language, slowly chipping away at the mire on the ground, prompting the beast to attack her, enclosing her in darkness. Just as the mire begins seeping into my eyes and mouth, I think back to the little girl at the 7/11, for shaken though she was by what could have happened save for my intervention, she had a light in her eyes, a hope, that was unmistakable. With that in mind, I blast away the tentacles from my body, and still covered in gunk, I rise into the air to find the creature, shocked at my having overcome the mire, and after giving her a look signifying my newly born sense of confidence to both of us, I burn a hole in the dark cloud cover through which a mighty bolt of lightning emerges and smites the horror down into her own mass of corruption. I shout in a semi-divine voice, “You were saying?” In rage and fear, she lets out a scream like the monotonous whine of an accursed flute, like the screams of the condemned and her mist disappears. To solidify my victory in spiritual combat, I raise my face, arms, and heart to the sky, unleashing a barrage of energy that goes up into the sky and across the land, doing its best to purify them of the cosmic horror, and cleansing myself of the mire. Ida lays there on the ground, having been freed from the beast’s grip. “It looks like our spell worked after all.” “Thank you for being here, Your Wisdom.” “You’re welcome, Feline. Sleep well.” With that, the corruption of the landscape lessens somewhat, but does not vanish completely, so my dream-self moves on to other subjects, ones more mundane for a preteen. Outside, the silver veil is swiftly swept away from the table where Lyral left it. “Lindsay, wake up!” “Hmm?” “The silver cloth is gone, Lindsay! Our spell worked!” “Good morning, TJ.” “Did you dream of the black mist again?” “Yeah, but I fought back this time. And with Ida’s help, I won.” “That’s my big sister!” He hugs me tightly around my ribs. “Ouch!” I get up out of bed and walk downstairs with my hair a mess. “Good morning, Lindsay.” “Morning, Mom.” “Did you sleep well last night?” “Yeah. I won the fight.” “Good. Now you should be able to sleep without being disturbed. How did you fight her?” “She charged at me, I jumped into a tree, jumped onto her, did bunny kicks, and sent her flying across the clearing. She turned the ground into a Lovecraftian mud pit and tied me down. Then, I got back up and struck her down into her own mire and she fled from me, and the mire disappeared.” “Wow. I just hope that’s the end of the nighttime disruptions.” I sit down at the kitchen table with TJ and eat an apple. “One thing I can’t understand is why this ‘thing’ was so interested in you and Montpelier in general. I mean, Hanover County isn’t the type of place where you normally find cosmic horrors.” Lyral enters the kitchen carrying sacred herbs. “Guess what happened last night, Lyral.” “What?” “I fought off the Eldritch horror last night.” “Good. The scarf that was left behind by the unknown person is now gone. My best guess is that she came back for it during the night.” “I honestly don’t think I can remember any draught of yours failing, Lyral. Thank you.” “You’re welcome, Lindsay. Though I do wish I could have made it so that you didn’t have to drink it boiling hot.” “What matters is that it worked either way and I can actually sleep at night.” “That’s for darn sure.” “Morning, Grandma.” “Morning, honey. I heard you won last night. I’m proud of you and glad that you’ll be able to sleep.” “Me, too, Grandma.” I grab my phone and text Kyle about my sleep victory. He texts me back saying that his grandma found a massive line of scratch marks on the side of their house, though they weren’t woken up last night. He said that it looked as though they were made by a human hand, but twice as big as that of a grown man. He says the cops came but found nothing to identify the culprit. I then tell him that the scarf that was left behind by the unknown person is gone, so that certainly means that he wasn’t making up the invisible people. We spend the next half hour texting about the upcoming Squirrels game that we’re going to in a few days. We’re supposed to sit in the front closest to the field and all our tickets are paid for, and we think that the game will sell out by this evening. Even all our meals have been paid for. “What I don’t understand is why in blue blazes this creature goes out of its way to terrorize you in particular. I mean, the only enemies you’ve fought thus far are mortals, and this being seems to be beyond the scope of any mortal.” “Yes. It is strange that my sleep should be disturbed when I have never angered or been antagonized by any immortal. I just hope that for what it’s worth, it doesn’t move on to anyone who isn’t as able to fend it off.” “Second.”
Previous Episode: Your Average American Goddess.
Next Episode: Rainy Days.
