Hidden Magic

Danger

Finding the entrance to the enchanted forest again wasn’t hard at all. Rosie just followed the route Shane had driven and found herself facing the same entrance once again. Only this time she didn’t feel full of butterflies and nervous energy at being alone with Shane. Instead she felt betrayed, scared and a whole shipload of angry.


The wet grass surrounding the huge trees squished and squelched under her converse as she walked towards the entrance. The weeds tangled up in her legs and it felt strangely like they were pulling her. She shivered and hugged her black jacket closer to her as she pressed on into the forest. It looked familiar all around her. Shane had gone towards the left, so not knowing what other route to follow she went that way, tracing every step and turn they had taken. She was amazed she could even remember.


After a few miles of determined walking she reached the big area where Shane had made the forest glow. Tears stung at her eyes but she pressed on, towards the magical meadow where they had spent most of the afternoon.


It was beautiful, warm and sunny inside the meadow. The weather outside in the real world was chilly and cloudy, and the contrast had Rosie dizzying from the sudden light. She walked over to the long stream of crystal-like, clear water they had sat beside and watched the brightly coloured red, blue and orange fish swim in the gentle currents. Her hand reached down and softly stroked the grass they had been sitting on. She felt her heartache. She missed him already. Mourned the loss of the relationship they’d had; the trust and loyalty.


She took a deep breath and thought back to earlier that day. She remembered Shane had pointed to the other end, where the vast and glorious meadow ended, surrounded by bushes and trees. Now Rosie thought to focus on it more, she noticed the trees and bushes there looked darker compared to the ones behind her.


That’s it. She thought grimly and walked towards trouble.


She reached the dark trees and pushed through them. She felt chills run down her body as she stepped through and stood on the dry, crumbling ground. The trees blew frantically, as if being pushed by a strong, forceful wind. The sound of it made a piercing scream that made Rosie want to cover her ears and crawl into a ball on the ground. But she didn’t. She bravely carried on, up a steep hill and into higher grounds. Up here, the chills were worse – stronger. All around her looked the same; dry, dark and deadly. This part of the forest just oozed fright and terror. The sight was ominous and haunting.


Rosie looked around, but all that surrounded her were trees. No places to hide a young teenage girl. Nowhere. It seemed like coming up here had been a pointless idea. If Amy was hidden somewhere, she couldn’t see her or where she could possibly go from here. Downhill there were trees and darkness, uphill there were more trees and the darkness was darker, if that was even possible.


She sighed. Maybe I just can’t see it because it’s hidden to me? She considered the thought for a moment. It could be true. I couldn’t see the entrance to the forest or the meadow without Shane clearing it for me. Maybe it works the same way for the dark part? The prospect just made her feel frustrated on top of everything. How was she going to find and protect Amy before...before she got seriously hurt?


Groaning, she turned back around and started to make a hasty exit back down the hill, but stopped dead in her tracks as she caught sight of the cloaked woman ahead of her.


Rosie hid behind a wide, wooden tree trunk and carefully peered out from behind it. The figure was walking through the upper part of the dark forest, stroking the trees branches with its pale, icy fingers as it went. Rosie couldn’t see its face or anything particular about it, really. It just looked like an eerie black figure, moving timelessly in the wind.


As it got closer and closer to Rosie, she began to feel a painful prick at her skin. The feeling made her want to squirm, but she stayed glued to the spot; afraid to move in case she made the slightest sound. It felt like a thousand static electric shocks attacking her skin.


She noticed a blur coming from the figure. Her breath caught in her throat as the cloaked mystery raised its hand up into the air. Rosie noted a flash of long, grimy and green coloured nails.


In a blaze of blood red and a sizzle of murky blackness consuming the air around the figure, a nearby tree burst up into glaring flames. Rosie covered her mouth in shock and instantly thought about the flames Shane had created before. His were impressive and utterly impossible...but these were scarier, gloomier and deadlier.


Rosie took an unconscious step back, snapping a twig under her foot. The noise echoed throughout the forest like a loud, snapped bone. She stood there, frozen for a second, her heart beating in fear and anticipation. Time seemed to pass in terrifying slow motion for a few moments as the figure turned around, revealing a disturbing pair of red-green eyes. It was the most horrifying thing she had ever seen, yet so strangely familiar. They made Rosie’s blood run cold and life fade from her legs. She felt weak and defenceless, vulnerable under the eyes of the creature.


The cloaked figure snarled, a strangled, purely evil sound that if she wasn’t standing there staring at it right now she would mistake for a rabid animal.


Rosie couldn’t help it, she screamed. A loud, high pitched volume that vibrated off the trees and could be heard from all areas of the immense forest.


She turned and ran. Ran for her life.


It was no use.


The figure stood in front of her in two seconds flat. Yet another completely impossible movement.


But what did impossible really mean anymore?


Rosie breathed in fast, desperate pants. “Please,” she begged. Her voice sounded shaky and petrified. “Please. Don’t hurt me.”


An inhuman chuckle escaped the cloaked figure’s mouth. The sound of it triggered recognition in her, but she couldn’t place where she’d heard it before. It seemed likely she wouldn’t live to find out as the concealed figure took a couple of steps closer to her.


It reached its hand out, but a bizarre thing happened right at that moment. Its hand started quaking violently. The eerie eyes met hers and Rosie saw real terror in those eyes for a moment before it dropped at her feet, just mere inches from touching.


Rosie gasped and jumped back. She pressed her back against the tree and...breathed. In and out, never once taking her eyes off the awful creature. It didn’t move. Not even a flicker.


She screamed and cowered at the arm tapping lightly on her shoulder. She whirled around, expecting to see the figure to have magically appeared behind her, ready to kill her.


It was Shane.


For a moment Rosie forgot about all that he’d done and flew into his arms. She started crying immediately and buried her head in his shoulder. The comfort of his safe arms warmed and calmed her until she felt okay to let go.


That’s when she remembered.


Tears came to her eyes and she couldn’t look at him. He touched her arm gently and asked her what was wrong. She ignored him, like he wasn’t even there.


Eventually, he gave up and wordlessly walked over to the body of the...thing. He cautiously bent down and reached out his hand and grasped the hood of the cloak. He was about to pull it back when the creature snarled viciously and upraised its arms, pushing Shane back at full force, flying through the air and skidding across the ground until his head smashed into a tree at least a hundred yards away.


Rosie screamed and despite her anger with him tried to run to him, but the cloaked figure stepped in her way. Still snarling with fury, it grabbed her neck and pushed her back against the tree. Rosie’s spine smashed into the trunk and caused her to scream in agonizing pain. She flailed wildly and tried to claw its vice-like hands away from her throat, but it was no use. It was like a mouse trying to fight a hungry lion. She couldn’t do anything. Its strength, its power and its evil left her weak and defenceless.


Suddenly, she felt its iron grip loosen on her neck and the figure snapped its covered head around and surveyed the area surrounding them. Its hand trembled where it held her and she didn’t miss the opportunity – the only opportunity – to twist free. She fell to the lifeless ground and then crawled and fought to her feet. To her greatest fear Shane was still down, surrounded by a pool of red substance that had come from his head. She tried not to think of that red substance as blood. She was afraid of what it meant, of its damage. 


She tried to run to him again, but a branch curled around her foot and pulled her back down to the forest’s floor.


Rosie flipped on her side to see the dark figure coming for her at lightning speed. She could hear its steady breathing and could almost see the smile hidden beneath the hood. It liked that she was suffering.


It stopped just shy of her. They both looked down to see another cloaked black figure boom from the forest below them.


The other cloaked figure charged at the one just inches from Rosie, knocking it into a tree far away. That didn’t stop the evil figure though, it flashed back in a second’s flat, snarling. Then it let out an almighty roar and the cloaked person that had saved her burst into bright, flickering flames.


Rosie screamed and cowered back, covering her face in horror.


The other figure seemed unaffected.


It charged and set the evil figure ablaze when it touched it and they both crashed into trees at a supernatural speed all around the dark forest.


Rosie tried to force her legs to get up, move. Do something. But they wouldn’t obey. She felt too shocked by what she’d just seen...was seeing right in front of her.


Impossible, but true.


Finally the new cloaked figure pulled out a small, razor-sharp knife coated in something black and slimy and stabbed it into the evil figure’s stomach. It went all the way through the thick fabric of the cloak and an agonised scream ripped through the forest, forcing Rosie to cover her ears, close her eyes and crawl into a ball.


She opened her eyes in time to see the evil figure roar a promised return at the new figure, and then speed away through the forest, disappearing into the eerie, immense darkness.


Rosie looked across at the new cloaked figure in awe. It saved me. The thought felt foreign to her. She couldn’t believe something she would have thought as evil had been the one to save her. Not Shane, even though he was kind of passed out at the moment, but... She was still trying to wrap her head around it all when the cloaked person pulled back its hood and revealed a face Rosie recognised instantly.


Standing before her was the young woman with the gorgeous and delicate ringlets of light blonde hair and beautiful, unforgettable crystal-violet eyes she had encountered just a couple of short hours ago.


The woman walked towards her and spoke in the same honey-American accent. “Are you okay, Rosie?”


Rosie nodded for an answer and finally managed to pick herself up from the forest’s dry, rotten floor. She felt light-headed and sick, but she fought through it and tried to remain as calm as possible. She was remembering Shane, how he had smashed into that tree at a deadly force. How the pool of blood had swirled around him... It didn’t matter what he’d done to her. She couldn’t just watch him die. Despite her fear she spoke, “Shane’s hurt. Can you please help him?” She dared a quick glance over at him. He still lay motionlessly on the ground beside the tree he’d struck. There was more blood now, the pool around his head looked bigger and near the end of his body another pool of blood wetted the ground there... And, oh my god, everywhere.


Rosie snapped her head away as a thousand of unfamiliar emotions brutally charged into her, leaving her confused and vulnerable.


“I understand,” the woman said softly and gave Rosie a knowing smile. “Charming boys, the White’s, aren’t they?”


She swallowed and looked up into the mysterious woman’s eyes, pleading.


“He’ll be okay.” There was something so gentle and kind about her voice. The young woman almost oozed humanity, Rosie thought. Although from what she had seen with the fire, strength and unstoppable speed, this woman was anything but.


But no matter how much trust she felt she could give to this woman who had saved her, been kind her, done nothing wrong, she couldn’t. Looking back at Shane’s battered body proved that. You have to be careful who you trust these days. I need to.


Rosie turned back and opened her mouth to speak, but the cryptic woman had vanished. The only thing left in her place or that even proved she’d been there in the first place was a tiny cream card. The fierce wind blew the card and it carried a lovely and strong scent of an expensive, sweet, rosy perfume. She bent down and picked it up. There was one, single thing written in intricate hand-writing: Ama ♥


She shoved the card in her pocket and sprinted over to Shane’s body. She fell down to the floor beside him and yelled, “Shane!” Her voice sounded desperate and shaky as she shook him, willing him to be alive. To open his eyes and see her. “No!” Tears filled her eyes. “You lying, asshole. Don’t you dare leave me!”


He didn’t move, not as much as a shake of his finger.


Tears silently ran down her cheeks as she stroked his messy brown hair. His blood wet her trembling, ghostly pale hands. “I’m sorry, Shane,” she whispered.


Suddenly, Shane’s body violently jerked and he gasped, choking for air. “Shane!” She felt panicked and relieved all at the same time. She put her hands on his chest and pushed him down, trying to stop his mad and panicked flailing. Underneath his sweaty shirt his muscles were tense and as hard as steel.


He squirmed away from her touch, screaming loudly. Rosie flinched, but didn’t move her hands from his chest. But her strength was hardly any match for his and she knew he could pull away easily, do anything in this state.


But he finally looked at her. His pupils were wide and terrified and he looked like he didn’t even know her one bit. For a moment it felt like time had frozen as they stared at each other. She couldn’t breathe; she was too afraid. Her heartbeat plummeted in her chest with fear and doubt. What if he doesn't know me? How bad is he hurt? What will he do if he thinks I’m trying to hurt him?


Shane’s eyes calmed and softened as he realised who she was. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to him with his quivering arms. He held her tightly, as if afraid to let go. She put her arms around him and stroked his dark hair, trying to tell him it would all be okay. But he clung to her, so desperate, so vulnerable, it broke Rosie’s heart and made her want to cry again. It didn’t matter what he’d done. She couldn’t even begin to hate him when he was like this. When he needed her so much.


“Shhh.” She tried to make her voice soothing and comforting. “It’s okay. You’re okay. I’m okay. Everything's okay.”


Minutes later, Shane loosened his grip enough for her to pull back a little and look into his face. His face looked puzzled when he looked at her and Rosie frowned, trying to figure out what he was thinking about. “How did you do that?” He asked.


“Do what?”


He pulled completely back and stared at her. She couldn’t describe the look in his eyes at all.