The Summoning (working title)
Chapter Two
Erick found himself lying face-down in cool, dry, matted
leaves. He struggled to recall what happened when Ryan caught him. Maybe there
was a punch, but he didn’t feel pain. He knew if he had blacked out he would
only remember the before and after. What made this wrong was he remembered the
blackness — the feeling of falling and the silent utter blackness.
He inhaled sharply. A heavy weight pressed down on him,
making it difficult to breathe in the pungent earthy air. The weight groaned,
shifted, and rolled to the side.
Erick raised himself and saw Ryan lying on his back,
blinking rapidly and breathing deeply. He then took in their surroundings.
They were new and strange.
He and Ryan sat in a woods, but clearly not the same one
they’d been in moments before. The towering trees looked ancient, with massive
trunks and roots as thick as his leg, extending out, clutching at the ground.
The canopy formed by the giants made a dark roof which blocked out sunlight and
smothered any breath of a breeze making the air feel heavy and oppressive in
the gloom. The most striking thing about this place was the absolute quiet.
Erick couldn’t hear any of the wildlife one might expect in nature. No sound to
hear at all. The eerie silence unnerved him.
“Where the hell are we?” The sound of Ryan’s voice made
him jump. The suddenness of the whispered words seemed unnaturally loud in
the stillness.
Erick didn’t answer. He had no idea as to where they
could be, although he thought Ryan’s use of “hell” might not be far off. He
began to feel dizzy as his eyes darted around for anything familiar. In the
midst of his panic he focused on the only real thing in this surreal situation.
Ryan. Ryan was real.
A split second later Ryan rolled and launched himself at
Erick, knocking him back onto the forest floor. The speed at which he came
stunned Erick, leaving him helpless as Ryan grabbed his shirt and shook him.
“What did you do? How did we get here?” Ryan panted in
his face.
Erick felt his head thud against the thick layer of
leaves as he tried to make sense of the questions.
Ryan shook him harder until Erick felt his teeth begin to
rattle. “Where are we?” he yelled in Erick’s face. “Tell me! Where the hell are
we?”
Erick began to claw at Ryan’s hands to make him stop.
Stop the questions he couldn’t answer. Stop the shaking that pounded his head
against the ground. Stop making him more scared than he already was.
When he couldn’t get himself free he began hitting Ryan’s
arms. “I don’t know,” he yelled over and over until his eyes and throat both
burned, and the impossible questions ended.
Ryan finally released Erick and shifted away from him. He
sat up, drew his knees in, and covered his head with his arms.
While catching his breath, Erick watched while Ryan
rocked himself back and forth. He felt a tightness on his cheeks and reached up
to wipe the tears that hadn’t evaporated yet. He hadn’t realized he’d been
crying, but the worst part was knowing Ryan knew. He continued to watch
Ryan, afraid if he looked away somehow he would disappear.
After
a time, Ryan’s rocking subsided. He reached down, plucked a large dead leaf off
the ground, and began tracing the edges with his finger. After numerous passes
he unceremoniously let the leaf drop back to the ground, then stood and
surveyed their surroundings. Erick noticed that he appeared calm, or at least
had come to terms with the situation. Without a word, Ryan started to walk off
into the gloom.
Erick scrambled up, not knowing what their plan was. He
quickly took a step after Ryan, reached out and touched his shoulder. “Wait—”
Ryan wheeled around, placed his hands on Erick’s chest
and shoved him back. Startled, Erick lost his footing, fell backwards, and hit
the ground with a loud huff. He sat there, looking up blankly at Ryan.
“Don’t touch me.”
“I … I just think sticking together would be better.”
Ryan began to brush the dirt and leaves off himself. “You
can do what you want, but I’m out of here.”
“Maybe we should stay put and wait.”
“Wait for what? Answers?” Ryan mocked. “There’s no food,
no water, and this doesn’t look like the kind of place that gets visitors
often. I need to find out what’s going on, and it’s not going to happen sitting
on my ass.”
“We might get lost.” As soon as the words were out of his
mouth, Erick knew how stupid they sounded.
“Lost? Take a look around you and get a clue! Lost means
you started from somewhere you knew with the intention of going to a place that
exists and simply didn’t make it there. In case you haven’t noticed, we had no
intention of coming to this place, and now we’re nowhere!”
Erick glanced at the never-ending expanse of forest while
getting to his feet. “You’re right,” he admitted grudgingly. “But we should
still stick together.”
Ryan fixed Erick with a look that could melt steel, then
turned and started making his way through the ancient trees. “Make sure you
keep up,” he called out without looking back.
Erick hesitated for only a second before he hurried after
Ryan. He hated Ryan more than ever, but hated the thought of being alone in
this unknown place even more.
They trudged through the stifling gloom for what seemed
like hours. Erick studied his surroundings while he hiked after Ryan. Bushes
wove themselves around the massive tree trunks. Tortured branches shrouded by
large dark leaves, grew right out of the ancient giants’ sprawling roots. They
reminded him of parasites using a host to survive in this forbidding place.
Erick noticed the forest dimming, but wasn’t sure if it
was the coming of dusk or his eyes playing tricks on him. The thick canopy didn’t
allow him to see what direction the light came from, and everything seemed
unchanged. They could have been going in endless circles, like rats in a maze,
but Ryan’s desire for a way out kept them moving.
The silence between them became magnified in
the still forest, punctuated only by the sound of their breathing and the
steady swoosh of feet swiping through dead leaves. Erick followed Ryan steadily
and unquestioningly. Why not? He had no more of an idea where they were going
than Ryan did, and questioning him didn’t seem wise. Ryan never looked back to
see if he followed, but Erick was sure he could hear him.
When darkness overtook them, Ryan came to a stop at a
particularly overgrown area and sat with his back against a large fallen tree.
Erick hesitated, then sat a few feet from Ryan, resting against the same tree.
He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. He felt random pulses flickering
through his tired legs and tried to ignore the thirst parching his throat. In
all their wandering they had never once come across any type of water.
“What’s your name?”
Erick jumped slightly at the sound of Ryan’s voice, but
kept his head back and eyes closed. “Erick. Erick Porter.”
A long pause followed. “I don’t remember seeing you at
school.”
Erick felt like saying, It’s kind of hard to notice a
white spot on a white wall, but decided to keep it simple. “We don’t have
any classes together, and I don’t play sports.”
Ryan snickered. “Yeah, I can tell.”
Erick let the remark slide mainly because he was tired,
and Ryan’s assessment rang true. Although nearly as tall as Ryan, he was
slender and not in any way athletic.
After another long pause, Ryan broke the silence again. “Don’t
you want to know my name?”
Erick opened his eyes and glared at Ryan. “I know who you
are.”
Ryan gave an arrogant nod of approval. “That’s good. It’ll
make things much easier between us. While we’re here, you’ll do everything I
say. If you don’t like it, then you can take off any time you want. If you
become a problem, I’ll ditch you without a second thought.” Ryan stretched out
beside the fallen tree and turned his back to him.
Erick wasn’t surprised at Ryan’s words and knew it was a
pointless waste of air to say anything back. He picked a smooth spot on the
ground to spend the night, noting the still air remained comfortably warm. He
was only in short sleeves, his sweatshirt left behind with his backpack.
Fear began to steal through him as he peered out into the
forest. His eyes strained against the encroaching blackness slowly swallowing
everything around him. Erick found himself envying his backpack. More than
anything he wanted to be home with his parents where it was safe and everything
known. This place offered nothing but the unknown. Alone in the silent dark,
and with nothing to distract him, his unanswered questions hammered against his
brain.
A chant of whispered words began to fall from Erick’s
lips, weaving a calming spell. After a few moments, he realized he was praying.
Actually, it was more like begging and pleading, but he didn’t care. He even
threw in a few promises for extra emphasis. After his self-pitying litany ran
its course, and weariness began to leave his mind numb, he decided to focus on
the only good thing in this situation. Thanks for not sending me here alone.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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