Forest Secrets

It was Wednesday evening and I was nervously waiting for Josh to show up in the library, he was eager to meet with me to discuss the project and also the other things. I had driven Andrea crazy with how many times I altered my outfit and did that hair before leaving.

“You know that it’s not a date right?” She snickered watching me fix my hair.

“Well I don’t need him thinking I look like a bum.” I anxiously responded.

She rolled over on her stomach and sat up with her phone in her hand, “Regardless, you two still have a major project to work on.”

I groaned and finally agreed on an outfit, skinny jeans and a plaid top. My hair pulled half back and braided down the side.

“Alright, I’m out I’ll let you know later how everything goes.” I said grabbing my keys off the counter and heading out into the hallway.

“Have fun; don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” I heard her laugh as the door shut.

I glanced at my phone and looked around the library, his text said he would be here around 6:30 and it was now 6:15 and there was no sign of him. I sighed wondering if he would even show up.

“Hey, sorry I’m late; the bus got caught in traffic.” I heard his voice say casually as he approached where I was sitting in the library; he pulled out a chair and nervously sat across from me.

“You’re not late!” I laughed, “Its 6:20, you’re 10 minutes early!” He smiled and broke out into a quiet laughter for the first time since I met him.

“Ahaaha, very funny; I see you’re a timely one.” He grinned. “Hey, uhm I just wanted to say I’m sorry for being an asshole when I first met you; I was just sort of I guess protecting you.”

“What from?” I asked curiously.

“The forest, and everything else going on; I didn’t feel at first that it was safe to talk to you but now I’m not so sure.” I could feel a confession coming on from him; he was having trouble looking right at me.

I nodded and reached into my bag and pulled out my sketchpad and handed it to him, he seemed surprised at first but then started glancing through it slowly and stopping at where I started drawing him surrounded by fire.

“These are…wow, accurate.” He said astounded by how precise the drawings where.

“Same with yours, how did you know all of that; I mean with my dad and everything?” I pondered curious to find the answers.

“You would never believe me; you’d think I’m crazy.” He replied dejectedly looking at his hands and letting out a deep breath.

“Aren’t we all a little crazy these days? I know about you, and how you never intentionally started the fire that killed your parents.” I confessed to him.

“Ever since then; I’ve been able to do things; I can start fires and read minds and send things flying across the room. But, I can’t read your mind and that’s when I knew it was you; after it all happened I started dreaming about you and when I saw you for the first time I was taken aback that everything was real and that you weren’t just a dream anymore and that everything would start happening with the forest.” Everything mostly came out at once from him; he had this look on his face that showed he was generally concerned for my safety. “That’s why I wanted to stay away from you, because I know that they would be watching and I took notice in how you got all those warning messages and knew that it was too late.”

“Josh, what’s it too late for?”

“The forest dwellers, I know this sounds absurd but they are terrifying. They’re only so many people like us and they hate us coming in there and you’ve already been curious enough to ignore the warnings and go anyway.”

“Forest dwellers, what does that mean and how are you able to go in the forest?” I asked him curiously.

“Wolves, fairies, vampires, that kind of weird stuff.” He looked worried that I wouldn’t believe him, and in any other situation I probably wouldn’t but based on the letters I’ve gotten I did. “I’ve gotten past most of them, I’ve been going there for years now there’s this one place I’ve been dying to go in there though but haven’t been able to; but now you’re here I think I’m able to…I hope you don’t think I’m crazy.”

I reached out and grabbed his hand which he had laid across the table; he looked up at me surprisingly and looked out the window for a moment before looking back at me. His blue eyes finally taking light to everything happening.

“I believe you.” I told him.

“Great, now that we have all that taken care of; we should get started on this project I don’t want to procrastinate either.” Josh chuckled taking out his laptop.

************************

“Wow, it’s literally 10 pm, time flies.” Josh sighed looking at his phone and stretching.

“No kidding, we seemed to have a lot done I should probably get going since we have an 8 am class tomorrow.”

“I… won’t be there, I have an appointment; but can I meet you afterwards?” He asked hopefully glancing at me. “I need to check something out, you know; in the forest.”

“But, isn’t it not safe?”

“Only if you’re alone; if I’m there it should be okay.”

“Oh, okay; sounds like a plan. I’ll text you when I’m done class.” I stood up and walked past him; he had his eyes on me the entire time and walked up beside me.

“I can walk you back if you don’t mind?” He was quite taller than me, which in a way made me feel safe and protected.

“Oh, sure I don’t mind.” I told him as we made our way out of the library which was now starting to close up for the night.

“So, where are you from?” Josh asked making conversation as we entered outside making our way to the dorms.

“A little bit of everywhere.” I told him giving a bit of a mysterious smile.

“That’s specific.” He snorted holding the door open for me. “Same here really, kind of moved around a lot as a kid and even more when my parents died.”

“So why can’t I read your mind? Since we both can read everyone else’s but not each other’s.” I wondered still concentrating on him in hopes to catch a glimpse inside of his mind.

“I can feel you trying, and there’s been times where I know was able to communicate with you; like at the bar that night and at the gas station while you were on your way here. It was difficult and impacted me heavily but I just…need to know if you were real.” It all started to make sense now, everything that led up to meeting him was all him trying to find me and communicate and know that we were indeed connected.

We reached my door and I turned to say goodnight to Josh and noticed that he had a strange look on his face and seemed worried about something.

“What’s wrong?” I asked reaching my hand out, grazing his shoulder ever so slightly.

“Uh what? Oh, nothing. Uhm...goodnight Jewel I will see you tomorrow.” He gave me a quick glance and turned and made his way down the hallway. I stood watching for a moment and waved as he glanced back before turning a corner. I shrugged and took out my keys and unlocked the door, Andrea was in the kitchen heating up some leftovers.

“So....how was it?” Andrea asked as I walked in the room. “Tell me everything.”

“He’s actually....very sweet.” I replied kicking off my shoes and sitting on my bed. I had explained everything to her and why he was such a jerk at first, and everything about how we were connected and about the forest.

“I guess that...makes sense.” She said. “I mean, beside the weird part but alright it makes sense.”

“I don’t know, he said he wanted to meet me after class tomorrow to show me something in the forest.” I told her.

“Doesn’t he have that class with you?” She asked curiously.

“He said he had an appointment and to text him afterwards.” It was getting late and I was starting to become very tired.

“Makes sense, goodnight; ill set my alarm for you just in case yours doesn’t go off in the morning.” Andrea said playing around with her phone for a moment before setting it on the bedside table.

*********************

“And that’s it for this class; if you have any questions please email me or set up a time to meet with me. My office hours are posted on your portal.” This teacher was short and practically bald, but he was very nice and explained all the class details and tried to make it fun for us. I got up and started packing my things into my bag getting ready to leave and text Josh.

‘I’m done class; I’ll meet you outside in the courtyard.’ I took a deep breath as I sent it and made my way downstairs to the courtyard, I wanted to text Andrea to come wait with me but she was still in class for another hour then had a music meeting straight after.

As I reached outside I stopped abruptly at a sign I noticed hanging in the hall.

Art exhibit signup sheet, sign up here and submit Artwork to this website: www.artexhibitexport.com, winners will win a grand prize of our choice, good luck to all who enter!

I smiled and signed my name on the sheet, and wrote down the website. This seemed like a huge deal and I really wanted a chance to have my art shown.

“I knew you’d sign up for that.” I turned and saw one of my teachers behind me smiling; she had her phone in her hand and was talking to someone loudly on the other end before she noticed me.

“How could I not?” I laughed. “It’s such an honor to even be here, I’m planning on entering as much as I possibly can.”

“I wish you the best of luck, you seriously are very talented.” She smiled at me again before going back to her phone conversation.

‘I’m here, and there’s someone else here that I want you to meet. He’s an old friend of mine; I hope you’re okay with that.’ He texted me just as I made my way outside and sitting next to him on the bench was Andreas friend from the other day who gave her the liquid magic.

I tilted my head to the side and he recognized me right away.

“Christopher?” He stood up and started walking towards me.

“You two know each other?” Josh asked curiously.

“Yeah, we met the other day. I gave her roommate that stuff I told you about.” Christopher told Josh.

“Oh no…” Josh said putting his head between his hands.

“What’s wrong Josh?” I went up and sat down next to him on the bench; he looked at me with sad eyes and took my hand in his.

“I’m sure it’s nothing, did she say to either of you what she was making out of it? If it’s what I think it is we have to stop her, if it’s anything else then its fine.”

“She told me something along the lines of a spell to help her with school and her music but I don’t think it’s anything else.” Chris told him, and Josh let out a huge sigh of relief.

“Okay good, that’s fine.” He got up off the bench and handed Chris some money and he gave Josh a container of bright blue liquid.

“What’s that?” I asked worriedly.

“I can’t tell you just yet.”

“Catch you later buddy, I got to meet my girlfriend in the cafeteria.” Chris said turning and taking off into the school.

“Let’s go catch the bus; we have to get there before noon for this to work.” Josh said taking off down the courtyard. I followed behind him and he kept his pace up he seemed to really be on a mission of some importance.

“Josh, you’re scaring me what’s going on?” I finally caught up to him just as we reached the bus stop.

He turned on his heal and glanced at me almost glaring, but his face softened quickly and he just sighed and smiled almost mysteriously.

“You’ll know soon enough.”