The oak was old and dying, Jane could tell, yet from it dripped an aura that was potent and threatening. Something very powerful had lived here once.
Jane took a deep breath and stepped onto the field. She sensed Caleb’s hesitation; he too had been caught in the dying oak’s gripping trance.
“Come on, Caleb. Whatever is still here is just a remnant. The brunt of it has moved on,” she said, reassuring him.
Together they walked toward the tree and studied its appearance. Its once pure bark had grown dirty and gray, easily torn by even the gentlest touch. The branches that had once carried a giant crown of the prettiest leaves were bare now and had lost most of their strength; they would snap under the slightest pressure.
Yet there was somehow a semblance of life left, surrounding the once mighty tree and still whispering shreds of its ancient truth.
Jane considered briefly what the wisest course of action was in this situation. The power surrounding the tree was undeniable but small. Could she handle it? Or would she be consumed by it if she allowed, invited, a direct interaction?
Caleb said, “This tree is wrong, Jane. It’s just… not right. This is what you were looking for, isn’t it?”
“It is. I’m contemplating what I want to do with it.”
“I say we get some axes and chop the fucker down right now. This thing isn’t right.”
Jane smiled at the suggestion. “I’m not sure but I think they tried that once already. It didn’t go so well.”
No. Force wasn’t the answer here, Jane realized. Even now, with the oak in its lamentable state, it would be able to protect itself in ways normal people couldn’t understand. Jane knew it would whisper to them, gently at first but then louder and louder, until its echoes became so vicious that death seemed the kinder solution.
Jane took a deep breath, knowing that there was only one thing left for her to do. The thing that she had come here for to begin with. To face the oak’s hideous truths and learn more about the terrible force that had once lived here.
She put her hand on the tree and focused on its rough bark answering her touch. The oak reached out to her then and asked, almost carefully, if it could embrace her soul. It would tell her things about the stars and the moon and about the truth of nature, it promised.
Jane closed her eyes as she whispered, “Yes. Show me your truths.”
Caleb stood closely behind Jane when he watched her touch the tree and close her eyes.
The dark mood that lingered over the field was lifted instantly, and its oppressive air that had slowly choked the life out of him vanished. It was as if, as soon as Jane touched the oak, all that darkness had found a new place to live.
Caleb wondered if it now roamed inside the young woman that he was supposed to protect.
“Jane?”
She didn’t answer.
“Jane, are you alright?”
Still no answer.
Caleb sighed as he realized that he was, again, completely outclassed by things he didn’t rightly understand. What even was this field? How was it possible that such a threatening feeling came from a damn tree? A feeling so potent that even he, without any type of special ability, could sense it without effort.
The tree scared him, and so Caleb hated the tree. Hated what it represented and that he couldn’t control it. Couldn’t control the feelings it sparked in him, either.
All he could do now was wait for Jane’s attention to return. Caleb wasn’t great at waiting.
He wanted passionately for Jane’s eyes to open and for her to turn around. She’d give him one of those trademark smiles and he’d know that the darkness hadn’t taken her. That she was still here with him on this field, ready to lead him to the next destination he didn’t understand.
As it was, all Caleb could do was look at her childlike face and count the pearls of sweat that slowly appeared on her forehead. He stared at the focused curve of her eyebrows and the muscles that strained to pull up her cheeks. Her thin lips squeezed tightly, as if she was withstanding an invisible pressure that Caleb couldn’t touch.
If he could have helped her… if he could have shouldered some of the load for her, Caleb would have done so. He looked at her tiny shoulders and realized that they weren’t meant for heavy lifting. That she had to be protected and taken care of. She deserved that from him, Caleb believed.
He would wait for Jane to master the darkness that seemed to wrestle with her mind. He would wait and he would follow her wherever she wanted to go next. When the time came, and she had said that it would come, he would be there for her. It wasn’t a question anymore. There was no more room for doubt. This was his life now, this was his duty, and he would see it through like the good soldier he had always wanted to be.
Caleb noticed that Jane’s body began to tremble. Her small shoulders jolted up and down, as if she was struggling to hold up weights that were too heavy for her.
Then her knees began to shake and gave out underneath her. Jane collapsed.
Caleb caught her before she hit the ground and carried her with both his arms. Looking down at her face he noticed her eyes had opened. They seemed even darker now, in contrast with her skin that was going increasingly pale.
“Are you alright, Jane?”
She threw him a vague smile, the best her tired facial muscles could muster. It was, somehow, a heartbreaking sight.
As Jane returned to Caleb’s world, so did the darkness that had previously drawn into her. It filled the air with its oppressive atmosphere and made it harder for Caleb to breathe again.
“I’m getting us out of here,” he said.
Caleb turned around and, with Jane still in his arms, walked off the field.
“I sure as hell hope you learned something useful here. This place belongs to the devil.”
Again she smiled at him, her strength quickly returning to her. “Not quite the devil, but remarkably close, actually.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“I shit you not.”
They left the field and Caleb immediately felt better. An invisible weight lifted from his chest and shoulders.
“You can let go of me now, Caleb. I can stand,” Jane said.
Gently Caleb put her down and watched as she stretched her arms and legs.
“I’ll be sore tomorrow!”
“What happened there? What did you do?”
“I, um… I connected with it.”
“With the tree?”
Jane shook her head. “It’s not really the tree. It lived there, for a long time too—couple of centuries, actually.”
“What is it, then?”
“I’ll explain later. For now, I’d like to get moving. It’s gone from here but I don’t think we’re necessarily completely safe, either.”
Caleb gestured for her to lead the way and, when she passed him, quickly followed behind her.
“Hey, Jane?”
“Yeah?”
“I mean, if it’s no longer here….”
“Right. Then where has it gone?”
The evening was already falling when Agent Bradford first stepped inside Ellie Aulding’s hospital room.
He found an atmosphere that was even darker than the fading twilight, with Arthur Toaves looking grave as he stood next to the girl’s bed. The old man’s arms were folded tightly and his forehead had dug itself into a worried frown.
The small room’s only source of light came from the lamp hanging in the middle of the ceiling. The toxic green walls were draped in wide shadows, as if they were trying to hide secrets the special agent had no interest in anyway.
Agent Bradford walked up to the left side of the bed, positioning himself across from Arthur in the process. He briefly met the old man’s tired gaze before focusing his attention on the girl.