Thursday 20 March 2014

Chapter Nine

I was late. I might make it to my first class before the final bell rang, but it would be by the skin of teeth. After coming in for the night after that whole big reveal thing at the tree, I had trouble sleeping. I mean, what had I been thinking? I'd accepted his whole soul mate thing so calmly, taking it at face value that he wasn't an okay sort of guy to spend eternity with. Who knew how long we'd live? Were we immortal? I can't believe I hadn't thought to ask that. Besides, what if as time went on, he got tired of me or something? What if after all this was over, we discovered we were incompatible?

How did I even know that the whole string business wasn't some hoax Romney was pulling on us to see if he needed to get rid of us or something, the way he had with my dad?The more I thought about this whole thing, the more I became convinced that I needed more information that I found out myself. I liked to think that Jason was on the up and up, but he could have been fed false information. He could conceivably be taking me for a ride down Betrayal Lane.

I hurriedly grabbed the books for my first class from my locker just as the first bell rang. The hall was still fairly crowded as kids were hurrying to make it in before the tardy bell. I slammed my locker closed and turned to join the back of the throng. Everyone else was already disappearing through the various doors further down the hallway. I practically ran. The door was still open, and I hurried towards my usual seat.

Just as hurried down the aisle, I tripped. A long jean clad leg ending in enormous white sneaker had quite suddenly swept out from one of the desks I had to pass, causing me to stumble. As I went to pull myself up, I instinctively looked at the cause of the obstruction.

“Ewww... you really are a fag as well as a dork, Cody! Huh, you wanting what you see?”

Crap. It was Josh Henderson and the way he'd twisted in his seat to casually put his leg out meant that while getting up, his crotch was at my eye level. I could feel myself redden. I turned away, ducked my head, and began to gather up my books. The snickers grew louder from around the room.

“You wanna suck...”

“Mr. Henderson! Please sit properly and don't chatter through class. And you, please watch where you're going and try to not be so disruptive.”

Yeah, as if this was my fault. How come he was getting away with being so nasty? Josh moved his leg back under his desk, though not without kicking me in the ankle as he did so. I winced. It was going to be one of those days, I could already tell. My life was really beginning to suck. I thought it had been bad before, what with Mom dying and Dad being gone a lot, and the occasional bullying at school.

I must have done something really awful in a past life or something. First I get abandoned by my real parents, kicked out of fox spirit land or where ever the hell they'd lived and dumped in the human world. Then I get lucky and get a nice new mom and dad and we do the happy family gig, only for junior high and the bullies to happen, Mom dying, high school happening and being even suckier than junior high and the bullying much , much worse recently, dad disappearing, the whole evil goblin wants to rule the world thing, and oh yeah, my being practically married off and the fate of the world or something depending on my not screwing up with Jason, like ever.

I slumped down in my seat, let my bangs fall all the way over my eyes, and desperately wished the world away as I tried my hardest to not commit complete social suicide by crying.


©2013-2014 Lillian McKinnon. All Rights Reserved.

Tuesday 18 March 2014

Chapter Eight

Jason wasn't hanging around the tree by the front steps or by the park across the street when school let out. It was just as well, because I didn't want to have to answer any questions about just how my lip became split and my hands scraped up. Yeah, so NOT wanting to share how I was hit from behind while changing back into my clothes during gym, face hitting the locker, then futilely attempting to brace myself from being picked up and crammed inside. They hadn't actually managed to do it as Coach had come in unexpectedly and told us to “stop horsing around”. I could tell by the way his eyes wouldn't meet mine that he knew what was really going on, and didn't care to act on it more than that.

I limped home, my legs sore where my legs had kicked out, hitting the bench with the back of my calves as my legs swung wildly, and my knees and shins feeling bruised where'd they'd tried to lift me and tried to use them to stop my locker bound ascent. My arms hurt too, where hands had gripped and squeezed. I was so pathetic. I heard whispers and the odd laugh as I trudged, grateful to at last reach the bus stop just moments before the bus pulled up. No one else rode this route, so I could at least sit and try to forget the day's bullshit during the ride home.

No one appeared to be home when I got there either, though the front door was unlocked. I trudged up the stairs to my room, where I found Jason sitting on my bbed, reading a book and apparently waiting for me.

“Shit, babe, what happened to you?”

He reached his hand out and gently touched my lip, which began to throb all over again. His face looked concerned and angry at the same time. Also, again with the “babe”. I wondered if he called everyone that or what. I had no idea, because I'd only ever heard him speak to Romney, and no way did he call that guy babe. I shuddered at the notion.

“You okay?” he asked as he pushed me towards the bed to sit down.

“Just some guys at school being stupid,” I said.

I did not want to rehash it. He seemed to get that.

“So uh, got any homework?”

I shook my head. I was all caught up with my assignments.

“Okay, well look, I've been meaning to speak to you, but, uh, the timing wasn't quite right. Yeah, anyway, um, Romney's gone for a couple of days on a business trip, and like, I thought I should talk to you about the tree thing.”

“The tree thing,” I repeated. “You mean the tree thing as in YOUR tree thing, or the thing with the Christmas tree?”

He nodded. “Yeah, that. I mean, both. Uh, it's easier to explain if I show you, and I can now with him gone, right?”

Both, huh? This should be interesting, and yes, waiting until Mr Creepy was gone was most decidedly a faboo idea. An absolutely freakin' marvy idea, in fact, so I nodded. He looked relieved, and took me by the hand. He looked about as if checking for spies again, despite no one else ever being in the house. He led me along the hall and then down the stairs, poked his head into the kitchen as if to scout for any possible on lookers, and then across the kitchen and out the back door. He quickly glanced around the garden. Boy, was he paranoid. Given the general weird state of affairs, I didn't blame him one bit. He smiled then, and let go of my hand. Leaning against the tree, he put his arms around me and drew me to him. Wait, what?

He leaned back slightly as if to lean further back against the tree, taking a half step backwards. I did not have time to register exactly what was happening precisely because one moment we were embracing against the oak, and the next we were not. The space was dim and I could not see where the light was coming from, though it was dappled, as if shining through a leaf canopy. It had a fresh, green sort of smell, and I could see darkness along the sides as if there were walls of some sort. Then it clicked. This must be the In Between.

I looked down at where my hands clutched him, and thought I would pass out. My hands looked strange. They looked almost paw like, with soft red fur shading to white and my nails were now tiny claws. I looked up at Jason, startled. He had a bemused expression on his face. Why wasn't he as surprised as I was? I pulled myself away, and turned away, giving a huff. Something whipped around as I did. Somethings, actually. I felt them smack Jason, so turned, almost fearful to see what they were. I'd half suspected a tail given my paws, but not nine.

I counted them. Yup, nine. They felt solid to me, but had an ethereal look to them, as if they both were and weren't there. They looked like some kind of ghostly fire actually. It was way cool, but I was too busy panicking to appreciate that. What had he done to me?

Jason reached for me again, wrapping his arms around my torso.

“Breathe, baby, just breathe.”

I stopped struggling as I realized he was right. I was holding my breath. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes as I did so in order to center myself.

“That's better. See, babe, you're like me. Well, not exactly. You're a fox, and I'm not. The tree thing, well um, so it seems he found out your dad had adopted a kid he'd found by this tree where he works, yeah? And the kid is way different looking, so Romney, um..checked you out. And since he's a goblin, he could see what you really were, which is um, a fox spirit. Now, he's been “acquiring” us magical folk as he finds us. He uses us to do stuff for him. Some are servants and some he uses as employees and others of us, well, he keeps us around to use whenever it's handy. The more of us he has, the more powerful he feels, as he then has control over our magic too, kinda. You, I don't know if he wanted you for business or if he thinks you being found in the forest is related to that tree he keeps looking for.”

I just stood there. I understood what he was saying, but this was going to take time to digest. I was a fox. A FOX.

“So, um, anyways, I didn't know he already had sights on you. I found you the day before the thing with your dad went down, which I did NOT know about,” he whispered fiercely against my ear as he rested his chin on my shoulder. I believed him.

“He'd always made it clear I was only to go to where he said and no where else, but, there was the thread, and I HAD to find where it went.”

As he said this, he lifted his arm. I looked down. Sure enough, now that I actually looked, there WAS a deep red colored thread tied round his wrist. One end of the tie went inside, and the other...the other went to me. It was around my left wrist, winding up t my wrist, woven into a bracelet sort of pattern, and then carrying off somewhere into the darkness of the In Between. Like my tails, it was both there and not there. I couldn't feel it unless I consciously reached for it. I turned my head and gazed into his eyes.

“It's a Red Thread of Fate,” he said. “For some reason, they've bound us, like soul mates, and uh, more than that, it's the sort of thread that helps hold everything together.”

They? Oh, he meant the three women from the old myths? But those were just stories...I smacked myself mentally. Duh. Sure they were, just like dryads and spirit foxes and goblins and magical trees. I wanted to go lie down. This was simply too much. I sagged against him, and he turned me towards him, breathing in deeply against my neck and rubbing gentle, calming circles on my back just like my Mom used to when I was little. Only Mom didn't make me feel quite like this. I closed my eyes, allowing myself to be comforted. If I had to be someone else's for eternity, I guess he wasn't so bad. I opened my eyes suddenly as a thought suddenly occurred to me.

“Hey, where does the rest of the thread go?”

His hands stopped, and he peered into my eyes. In unison, we turned to look at where my other end disappeared. Yes, just where did it go? I bet where ever that was, we'd find some answers.


©2013-2014 Lillian McKinnon. All Rights Reserved.

Friday 14 March 2014

Chapter Seven

I was in that strange place again. I knew I was dreaming, but it felt so real. This time, I was sitting in a kneeling position, back upright, hands folded onto my lap. My hands... they weren't my normal hands. They looked like strange, not quite hands and not quite paws, and lightly covered in white fur. I glanced up, and noticed I was sat at a low set square table.. Three other beings sat around it, all with the same strange hands, all wearing human clothes, and startling, all them with the heads of foxes. Behind them plumed multiple tails which shimmered in out out, reminding me of heat rising off of pavement on a hot summer's day and the way it makes the air around it shimmer and distort.

The fox to my left had a sad expression, as if lost to some unknown tragedy. This one seemed full grown, towering over my smaller self even in the kneeling position we found ourselves in. His clothes were Western, with a hooded sweatshirt proclaiming “Shiny It Up” over the image of a smiling sun. It was incongourous given his expression and normally the Engrish would have had me sniggering, but the deep sadness emanating off of him made it somehow tragic rather than funny. To my right was a smaller fox, only a bit bigger than myself. It wore a flower tucked behind one ear and what I recognized as a kimono. Not only her tail was shimmering. She herself seemed to fade around the edges, coming in and out of focus only there in a quite disconcerting manner. Both foxes were watching the third, who sat opposite me.

She too wore a kimono. This one was made of fabric that even my untrained eye could see was of the finest of weaves. She had a teapot before her, and a mortar and pestle. Her carefully guided movements were elegant and purposeful. I realized I was watching a tea ceremony, and thought to myself that it was on odd thing for a boy for California to dream about. Then I mentally chastised myself as recently, everything around me was decidedly odd.

We sipped the tea served to us in the handleless cups. It was a watery green and slightly bitter. Small, elaborate looking confections were shared out. They were delicious and fruity. The tastes of the tea and the sweets burst across my taste buds as things that were familiar, yet I could not recall ever having had them before this moment. I closed my eyes, savouring, only to discover that I was alone when I opened my eyes once more. The teapot, cups, and plates of sweets were gone. The table was now off to one side, standing on edge, leaned against the wall. A light layer of dust seemed to coat everything.

I stood, noting I still seemed to be in an animal-like form, and wandered throughout the rooms, looking for where the others must have went. I found no one, and as I stood in the doorway to the outside, I was struck by the odd silence. Not a single sound indicated another living being was anywhere to be found. No birds sang, no insects, nothing. A great wave of loneliness washed over me, until I noticed it.

A large tree stood to one side, wearing a strange tasselled belt. The ends of the rope tassels swayed gently in the wind. Feeling suddenly playful, I ventured towards it. I swiped at the ends, playing in an almost kitten like manner. Wait, was that a hole? Yes! The tree appeared to have a deep hollow within it. I peered inside, amazed to see a seemingly distant light dancing, as if at the end of a very long tunnel.

I awoke with a jolt, my heart racing. This ad not felt like a mere dream, but yet here I was, snug in my own bed. I rolled over, nestling my face deeper into my pillow and re-closed my eyes. Sleep did not come.


©2013-2014 Lillian McKinnon. All Rights Reserved.

Thursday 13 March 2014

Chapter Six

I stood in the garage, surveying the nest of boxes and shelves full of junk crammed up into the back and nestled partway along the side wall. That was a lot of stuff to go through. I'd kinda hoped I'd get out here and find just a few boxes, with one plainly labeled “Christmas tree”. It seems Dad was not a very organized kind of guy. I should have probably guessed this given the usual state of our hall closet and the kitchen drawers filled with junk.

Nothing for it, I guessed. I had to find that tree and see what it was Dad might've hidden in there. I sighed, brushed the hair away from my face and pushed my sleeves up a bit. This was going to take awhile. The first box was heavy. I looked inside. It was full of some of Mom's old clothes. So was the second and third. Dad must've boxed them up and then forgot to donate them or something. I found myself wanting to take them out, and rub my face on them. I didn't though, because they smelled a bit musty from being out in the garage, and also because I knew if I did that, I'd sit there thinking about Mom and all the good times. I would never find the tree, and I might get lost in the memories and miss getting back to Romney's place in time.

I found the Christmas tree box under a box that was inexplicably filled with partially empty bottles of cleaner, old cleaning rags, and a package of sponges. Shaking with excitement, I pulled out one section of the tree “trunk” and peered inside. Nothing. I turned on the overhead light and aimed the tube towards it as if it were a telescope. Yup. Not a damned thing. There was nothing in the next piece either. The third section definitely had something in it as I could not see light through the other end. I tried feeling along the ends with my finger. Whatever it was, it was not where my fingers could get to it.

I looked around for something skinny enough to poke in without getting stuck. Nada. I thought about it for a moment, and then remembered seeing people unbunging up vacuum cleaner hoses and stuff using a wire coat hangar. I went inside. The hall closet was crammed full of board games, Dad's old bowling ball from back when he was in a league, and coats on wooden hangars. No good. I went to my room. That was a wasted five minutes as well. All the hangars in there were brightly coloured plastic mixed in a few from shops that were that brittle black plastic with wire hooks stuck in, the kind that swivel around. Those wouldn't work either.

I found a single hangar that would do the trick. It had dad's one suit on it, still in plastic from the dry cleaners. He'd last worn it to Mom's funeral. I made a note to mention it, because if he was dead, surely they had a body, and I was pretty sure you buried people in their best clothes, like this suit. My eyes began to sting a little, and I swiped at the moisture leaking from the corners.

Taking care to not crumple the suit, I rehung it on a plastic hangar and placed the plastic back over it the best I could. I had to tear the hole for the hook a bit bigger to do it, but it didn't look too bad. I hoped we didn't have any moths or anything like that. Or was that only for wool sweaters? I shrugged, then turned my attention to my prize. The wire made the usual expected triangle sort of shape, with one end becoming the hook and the other sort of wrapping around its neck. I tried to untwist that bit, but had no luck. I took it back the garage. Maybe if I used a pair of pliers, I'd have better luck.

Dad's toolbox was sat in plain sight, but his pliers weren't in it. I rummaged about the shelves in the garage before getting desperate. It was then I remembered Dad doing some sort of minor repairs in the kitchen a few weeks back. I dashed to the kitchen, and began ransacking the drawers. I finally found it in an old cutlery tray, along with a wrench and a pair of spaghetti tongs. I took the wrench back to the garage with me. I simply could not leave it there. It belonged back in the tool chest, where these pliers were going to go once I'd finished with them.

Having more or less straightened the hangar and put the pliers (and the wrench) away, I was ready to fish out whatever awaited me in that tree. I carefully placed it into one end, and carefully slid it along. I didn't want to damage anything in case it was a microchip or a piece of microfiche or whatever. I carefully wiggled, and inched it along. At last, the item fell free from the other end of the tube. I put the tube down, and bent to pick up my find. It appeared to be a small piece of colored paper with something silver in it. I carefully uncrumpled it. It was a gum wrapper with the inner foil sleeve inside it.

That was it? Just a piece of trash? I started to toss it, but then had a thought. Why would someone cram one of those inside the hollow tube of a Christmas tree? I unfolded the coloured paper again and held it to the light. Nothing. I examined the paper that was the inside of the foil wrapper. Nothing there either. Maybe it was in invisible ink. I took both pieces to the kitchen. I found a little plastic lemon shaped bottle with a little juice still in inside the door. If I remembered right from elementary school science class, lemon juice and heat could reveal secret messsages written in invisible ink. I didn't know if that was true for all types, but hey, I figured dad was not some guy with ties to people with high tech labs or anything, so he'd use ordinary stuff. I mean, he used gum wrappers, right?

I dripped on some of the lemon juice and brought the hair dryer out from the bathroom. I was blowing it on high heat, willing something to appear dspite the paper already going dry when I jumped about ten feet in the air from a hand touching my shoulder and a voice asking, “What are you doing?”

Holy crap, that scared the life out of me. It was just Jason though. I felt I could trust him, so I told him the truth.

“You thought your dad found out something no one wanted him to tell and he wrote it on a gum wrapper and hid it in a Christmas tree?” he asked disbelievingly.

Well, said like that, it did sound stupid. But yeah, that was what I'd thought.

“Babe,” he said, and pulled me towards his chest. I didn't expect that, and was a bit startled, but it felt nice. “You really don't know, do you?” he said softly. He held me tighter.

I craned my neck to look up at him. “Don't know what?”

“About the trees, “ was all he said, releasing me. “We gotta go, “ he said abruptly.

I glanced out the window. Holy shit. When had it gotten so late? I followed him out the door, locking up as we left. Funnily enough, our shadows made strange shapes where the sun bent them along the ground and against the walls of the house. I could've sworn mine looked almost like a fox, if he'd had several tails.


©2013-2014 Lillian McKinnon. All Rights Reserved.

Tuesday 4 March 2014

Chapter Five

After having spent a few days and nights mulling over the weirdness of Tree Boy's, excuse me, Jason's apparent delusions, I woke up feeling oddly at ease with what he had said. I mean, I sem to have fallen down a rather weird rabbit hole. There's no way I was drugged, I realize that now. Too many days and too many meals eating the same food have gone by, so I came to understand that this was real. Like, REAL real. As in, this shit was actually happening.

I also knew that in my old life, people did not pop in and out of tree trunks, but I saw Jason do just that. So, if what I'd thought I'd seen was real, then Jason saying his room was that tree outside made a weird kind of sense. I have no idea how he gets from that tree to the other one somewhere else he says is his actual tree, whatever that is supposed to mean. Does he somehow next go into the blades of grass? Into a dandelion? Who the heck knows? The new reality I found myself in apparently has rules my old one didn't.

Yeah, my new reality. I don't know how, but I think I went to bed and woke up in some alternative universe or something. So, my Dad might be back home with the me from this one. My dad here might be dead as they claim, but if it's a different version of my dad, maybe he did different things, things that led him to hide that secret stuff in our old Christmas tree. Whatever that secret was is probably key to my getting back to my own world. No offence to the other me, but this place was too weird for my tastes. My old life might've sucked from the bullies and my Mom being dead, yada yada yada, but at least it was my life and I knew what was what. I also missed my Dad. He might not've been around much at home, but he was sorta there all around me in our house and I knew that if I needed him, he'd be there for me.

So, first thing to do is go along with Jason and hope he could help me play along so no one suspects I'm not me. The other me, that is. I don't know why, but I think if they found that out, it' d be really, really bad. The second thing I gotta do is go back to my house and check out that Christmas tree. I can't just ask Romney to drive me there. He has villain written all over him. Maybe Jason could tell me if there is a bus stop around here or something. Or I could avoid trees as much as possible and skip school to walk back home and look. I hadn't had to change schools seeing as it was the only one serving this area, so that was doable. Yeah, that was my best option. I could do that tomorrow, avoiding any trees in case Jason or any of the invisible staff were in them spying on me.

Now if only I could get the weird dreams to stop. I'd begun dreaming about foxes of all things. Not regular old foxes either. These were like ones out some Japanese cartoon or something. They had nine tails, sometimes walked upright and wore clothes. Kimonos and stuff like that. I have no idea why I'd dream something like that. Either this place was getting to me, or it was just some random dream my brain stupidly placed on a replay loop. I'm sure this didn't mean I was becoming the other me or getting secret dream messages. Besides, I'm sure if the other me was a five foot something fox with nine tails who stood upright and wore clothes, they'd have definitely noticed that I was not who they thought I was. Nah, stress was just getting to me is all and my brain is using images from some manga or anime or something I must have seen part of.

I finished dressing and went downstairs. Breakfast was on the table and Jason was already eating. Romney had already left. He first time that'd happened, I thought my clock was wrong and I was running late and had panicked. Turned out he just left for work earlier. Guy must be a workaholic. He always seemed to be going to meetings and stuff. Whatever. At least he wasn't around to bug me. Neither was the staff. I still hadn't seen anybody. It was rather creepy. It was as if the house was ran by ghosts or something. I almost expected to come down one morning and find out the stove was alive and when no one was looking, sprouted arms and stuff to cook the meals. Like the clock and stuff in Beauty and the Beast. I mean, who knew if that was possible here? Look at Tree Boy- Jason. I need to call him Jason. Tree Boy sounds on the rude side, given that I know his name.

He saw me enter, and looked up from his fruit salad. He broke into a smile that sent a warm fuzzy feeling through me. He liked me. I had one friend here at least. That felt good. If we'd been back home, and he was a normal guy and not a tree person thingy, I would have probably daydreamed about becoming his boyfriend. Though not accepting his treeness might make me rascist. I frowned at myself. Jason saw my frown and got the wrong idea. I quickly smiled again, and said, “hey!”

Jason smiled back at me again. Yeah, maybe if we were back home and he was as he is, I could have become a tree hugger. Heh. That sounds so hippy. But hey, Jason's a nice guy and he was hot. I'm a teen aged boy with hormones. So sue me. I just need to control this crush I'm developing, because I'll seriously miss him when I leave. That would suck big time. But first, time to eat some fruit salad.


©2013-2014 Lillian McKinnon. All Rights Reserved.