Vwosh…
The world turned. They appeared in his thoughts again:
— A pumpkin patch filled with jack o'lanterns under a black sky.
— A field of wheat bobbing their seed heads as if listening to a jolly tune.
— A pale girl in a bunny mask holding a paper lantern with no flame.
— A spoked star hung on a string, turning slowly in the sky.
'What…does it mean? 'His mind seemed to flow like jelly through a faucet. James felt himself falling. It felt as though his brain and spine were slipping out of his skeletal meat suit, but just before they could separate like elastic, everything suddenly snapped back together.
Click. The soft sound of a door closing behind him. James opened his eyes. He lay flat on the earth, his gaze led upwards.
Above him, a vast sky twinkled with an aurora. Seven colours mixed and blended, creating a cascade of brilliance against the inky night.
'Wow... Am I still on Earth? I-' James felt a strange peace wash over him, gazing up at the sky.
But James noticed something else: The stars were gone. There was no shimmer, just colours dancing and drifting along a black canvas.
He wasn't given long to wonder. Leaves rustled nearby.
Swish. Swish. Swish.
James pushed himself up with his palms. He massaged his fingers into the dirt. Leaves and litter crumpled in his hands as he pushed himself off. He stood up and examined where he was.
'This place looks normal enough... But where are Gasper and Hazel? And what happened to Gasper right before this happened? What did I see in his eyes? Could they be together? Unlikely, Gasper was holding the knob with me when it opened, and he's not here?' James immediately began to analyse his situation as best as he could, making the best possible assumptions he could in the moment.
He was in a small clearing within a sprawling forest. Most of the leaves had fallen from the trees, and now layered the earth in a soft mat of amber and russet. Along the bases of the trees were rings of luminescent mushrooms. They glowed a dim blue and were about the size of a fist.
'I've never seen mushrooms like this, but I've heard of similar things.' James was still unsure if he had left his world behind. He began to make observations and conjectures, compiling a list of things that validated his theory or opposed it.
"Hmm?" After pacing for a few seconds, James also noticed that he was nowhere near civilisation, and the Halloween house, along with the fairgrounds, were not visible by any means. 'Does that mean we did transmigrate? Or could we have teleported?'
James sniffed the air. It smelled organic but not the scent of decay he smelt in the house. The air was also cool and almost refreshing. James had been scouting the edge of the clearing to determine if there was anything strange he should be wary of, but so far, the world was silent.
Something he would find comforting, albeit just for a moment.
Unwilling to walk into the forest without a light source, James felt around his pockets.
Wallet, phone, keys– all gone. In their place, a small parchment. 'Oh, what would have happened if we called for help? Did we even try to leave?'
They each heard something. James still didn't remember what he heard, but he was able to grasp one phrase. 'Wicker men', He was not sure what it meant to him.
'Mabel heard someone telling her she would be free of boredom. Gasper didn't hear anything...'
James then thought back to their final moments together. Gasper's expression appeared once again. A vague realisation formed in the depths of James' brain. 'Maybe he did see something.'
James now thought about how strange it was that they were always heading towards this. Coincidences, lapses of judgment, Voices calling out to them. They did not even consider calling for help. 'Was it the fear? Or something else? More importantly, what is this paper?'
James looked around once more, peering deeper into the treeline. Nothing but vast swathes of forest. No signs. No paths. No lights in the distance. "Hmm. Getting lost would be pretty bad-"
James looked up. "-And there's no north star or anything I can use for directions."
James peered into the forest again, catching something off in the distance. Two beads of red floating above the ground. But by the time he was able to double take there was nothing there.
Frowning, he made his way to a sturdy tree and leaned against its bark. It had hints of brown and grey and was cold and dry. He crouched slightly and looked at the ring of blue mushrooms surrounding the tree. 'I've never seen these before'
James stepped forward to balance himself and get a bit more leverage in that motion, he snapped a branch that had fallen off of the tree.
Instantly, the mushrooms dimmed, revealing a swollen, fleshy texture. Their bulbs were layered in striated tissue layers like cardiac muscle, and their stalks looked meaty; just staring at them made James imagine their texture on his tongue.
He subconsciously shifted his tongue and swallowed. 'Ughh, that's... not a good feeling.'
He shook his head, reorienting himself. 'Hmm, I have to focus...I don't know where I am, and there are no landmarks. I have no food or water. The time I spend now, while not starving, should be used to formulate a plan of some kind. I also need to find Gasper and Hazel.'
James thought for a second and cupped his hands around his nose and chin and opened his mouth and was about to shout, but suddenly a strange feeling overcame him as he froze and his thoughts stalled.
It was like a gust of wind, a small whisper at the back of his mind that dissuaded him from making any loud noises. It was ethereal, like a premonition of an outcome yet to occur.
Something cold pranced up the ridges of James' spine. He held his breath. Nothing. Feeling that strange sensation that tickled his mind dissipate after a few seconds, he exhaled.
'I'm definitely far from home...' This instance basically confirmed James was not on Earth but confirmation seems to always come in the worst ways.
James finally relaxed and touched the parchment still sitting in his pocket. He pulled it out once again and unfurled it to reveal lines of text.
~ Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. My dear fool.
By the Figure of Gold, and the crooked moon above
Take this card as your own, one of twenty-two
The most mysterious of the few, be sure to keep it hidden from certain view. ~
Suddenly, on the back of the parchment, he felt something appear between the paper and his fingertips that was previously not there.
He flexed his fingertips, revealing the tips of a card paved in gold. It was heavy. There was a supernatural weight to it. The card was ornately decorated with drawings of brambles and bushels of wheat. The four corners of the card beheld drawings of a spoked star and crooked moon.
The face of the card, independent of the adorning effigy along the rims, was black. At the centre of the card, golden stars draped together forming a constellation, one James was familiar with; it was Sagittarius, his birth star and like a web, more and more stars connected, forming a weave spreading out from that centrepiece like a crack in space. In the foreground, beholding all of this was himself.
He saw a golden drawing of himself. It was perfect. Although he was dressed in the cloth of the fool, it was adorned in gold, and he pointed upwards beyond his constellation, beyond everything past the confines of the card!
James instinctively raised his head. The aurora still danced, mesmerising as ever. But something else hung there…
'Holy-'
Above his head.
A crescent moon slowly spun in the sky. Strung into the sky like a paper lantern. A string visibly tethering it that extended far beyond the heavens, vanishing into the aurora. On the face of the moon was deep jagged cracks in the regolith forming a crooked grin. At that moment, James felt it. A deep sense of recognition. There was no question to be asked.
He was no longer home. He was no longer in the world he hated. He was somewhere new. Somewhere different, somewhere he could be different. He was granted a second chance, a new chance to be someone. James held the card up to the sky, and his face was reflected in the pale light as the card shimmered before a marking of a web of stars appeared on the back of his palm.
James stared up at the smiling moon. It occupied a tenth of the night sky. Massive. Impossible, and yet it was there in front of him. Something larger than life. Something bigger than himself.
It's surface was almost close enough to study. He could not help but think of the tides, the day and night cycle, all things that would've required the moon to be millions of kilometres further than it was now, and yet this world existed.
"It's beautiful...So beautiful..."
In his reverie, James had lowered his guard. Tears flowed from his eyes.
Rustle. Rustle. Rustle.
"Huh?" James blinked. ' Did I hear something?' He turned his head around, wiping the teardrops from his eyes. There was nothing, but before he could relaxed, he heard it once again, leaves shifting softly.
He folded the parchment and scanned the clearing this time with a heightened vigilance. He was no longer seated but crouching with his palm bracing the tree behind him and his other hand in the dirt. He had assumed a basic sprinting form, his feet dug into the dirt with a heavy crunch.
Silence.
Then another realisation dove to the forefront of his mind, as the silence of the forest grew even louder.
The forest itself emitted no ambient noise. The trees swayed, but there were no creaks or rustling of the leaves. No insects were chirping. Even the wind seemed to gag itself slightly.
But a more pertinent observation he made was that everything about him felt louder.
James listened to his heartbeat, breath, and the tiny clicks of his joints. Everything about his existence felt unbearably loud in that moment.
'Mmmm. How do I make less noise?' James had never been brought to a situation where he needed to silence his own heartbeat, the sounds of his lungs expanding, or even something as simple as the clicking of his joints. This was inhuman, and quite possibly the only way to stop those things was for him to die.
After thinking this, James had a strange premonition about this forest and its ambient silence. 'If I'm the only thing in this forest not being quiet, then what silent things know I'm here?'
James looked around at the branches of the tree that swayed with no noise. The mushrooms that cast a pale glow on his person. The vast treeline seemed to be full of things he couldn't hear but could hear him.
Fear. The oldest emotion of man. One that has kept humankind from extinction time and time again. And the oldest and most powerful motivator is the Fear of Death.
Rustle. Rustle. Rustle.
Again, this time, it was coming from directly in front of him.
But nothing was there. Just the trees, their roots hidden beneath matted leaves.
James bit his lip. He could hear his heart thud like a calling drum.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Rustle…
Closer now. Right in front of him. But still, nothing.
'Mmmm…'
After a moment of hesitation and contemplation, James overcame the mental barrier of speaking, as remaining silent would do nothing to help him now.
"Is…is someone there?"
Silence.
His breath hissed through his nostrils; at this moment in time it felt as loud as air brakes on a semi-truck. His heart thumped even louder like tribal rhythms into his ears.
Hesitation…Decision.
James edged away. Making a slow semi-circle from the tree. Then he glanced down and froze. An indentation in the soft earth. They looked to be the paw prints of a large hound. 'What is that?'
But there was nothing there? To his eyes, the earth had sunken slightly. But looking beyond the nearest tracks, they led nowhere but up to him.
Gulp.
He stepped back. Another paw print embedded itself… Deep into his footprint.
'It's Invisible!' James didn't know what to expect, but this was not in his expectations. He thought he would at least have it easy, like the characters he would often read. He glanced at the web of stars on his palm and held it out in front of him while slowly stepping backwards again. Nothing.
'Mmm? No powers? What do I do?' James' mind whirred.
Thunk.
He backed up into another tree.
Huff. Huff. Huff.
"Mmm. Get Back!" He shouted as the pawprint sank into his footstep again, this time a bit faster.
James reached out behind him, feeling the tree.
Snap!
A ring of darkness formed around him; the mushrooms had dimmed. James held up the withered branch he'd plucked from the tree.
Thrust!
"Not good."
There was resistance, as if the branch was blocked by something unseen. James' mind seemed to move faster than humanly possible as adrenaline was poured into his bloodstream by his brain. ' I can see through it. What do I do? How many are there? Is it just the one? How do I defend myself? I can't just punch something I can't see? Do I run? Where? Anywhere would be better than right here...'
All of these thoughts made rounds in James' head for what felt like a split second.
Gulp.
He looked at the stick, then around him. After less than a second of contemplation.
Decision.
Thwack!
Step! Step! Step! Step! Step! Step! Step! Step!
He ran into the forest. He stared at the trunk of the broken branch and chucked it behind him, perfecting his sprinting form. He did not look back, only forward. He dashed through the rapidly changing treeline.
He made so much noise as he ran, and he could feel it. Once again, that strange intuition came to him; he could feel that more and more things were starting to notice the lack of silence and were paying attention to him. Things he was too focused to see or notice. Shadows that shifted within the thick haze of trees as his feet made heavy strides forward.
Howl! Howl! Howl!
Wolf-like cries spread around him. If James could have run faster, he would have, as his feet spent less and less time on the ground.
Step! Step! Step! Step!
James tore through the trees, occasionally changing directions, but he couldn't escape the heavy crunching of leaves behind him. He was designated prey.
James looked around. A glint. A river glinting ahead. The rushing flow of water came into his ears. Any sound other than himself and the incessant howling gave him a sense of euphoria, and his stride even seemed to relax a little.
"Yes! God! Yes!"
Huff! He leapt over a fallen log. 'Just a bit further! I can make it! Yes! I am destined! I can change! '
Crunch…
'Huh?'