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Chapter Two: Into Dreamland
Eva blinked. It was bright in the room, and she was tucked into a bed. She felt immensely tired. The bed was so comfortable too… like sleeping on a bed of roses. Eva was so consumed by sleep and comfort, that at that moment she had totally forgotten about her dream. The boy, the man, the tree, the trunk—they were stray thoughts, distant and strange.
“Eva, get up. You can’t sleep all day.” Eva looked through hazy eyes at Paula. Paula was frowning disapprovingly. She looked good with that expression, wrinkles and all. She had dressed appropriately for hiking—jeans, jacket, and turtleneck sweater. And she had her light brown hair pinned up in a bun. It was very fitting for her. Paula glared at Eva and repeated, “Get up.”
“Can’t I just sit here all day and read?” whined Eva. That was such a big lie. Eva hated words, and hated anything with words on it. Harold was the more bookish type, while Eva liked skiing and swimming, hiking, and all manner of outside sports. Eva taught Harold how to ride a bike, and he helped her on exams and reports. It was a you-scratch-my-back, I’ll-scratch-yours relationship.
Paula wagged a finger at Eva. “Now, don’t try fooling me. You’re getting up, and you are going hiking. Ah-ah-ah-ah! No buts! A little woodsy hiking’ll be good for you!” Eva sighed. Paula wasn’t going to let go, no matter how mush sucking up and whining she did. Normally, Eva would happily agree to go hiking, but she just felt so tired.
Her sheets were swept from on top of her. All of a sudden she felt immensely cold. Paula threw it on the floor and pulled at her legs. “Up you come now!” she said, laughing as Eva protested by grabbing the headboard and attempting to kick at her. Paula stopped and Eva threw a pillow at her. “I’m getting up! I’m getting up!” Eva screamed, and Paula exited the bedroom laughing. Adults, thought Eva. Them and their practical little jokes.
Eva got up from her bed and dressed in some jeans and sweaters. It was unnaturally cold for summer, especially in the mountains. They had decided to visit the Smoky Mountains as a vacation. She wondered why, but dismissed the thought as she brushed her teeth. She was the “average height” for her age, but Eva called herself short. Her hair was messy, and her face looked a little bit grimy. She scowled at herself in the mirror and freshened up. Satisfied, Eva exited her bedroom and entered the living room.
Harold was sitting in the lazy chair, reading an abused paperback book, and Annie was lying on the couch, reading an astrology magazine. Finn was at the dining table, sipping coffee and reading the local newspaper, and Paula was cooking breakfast.
“Morning,” everybody said to Eva. She replied and took a spot on Annie’s legs. Annie yelped and glared at Eva, pulling back her legs. Eva pondered her dream. Who were the boy and the man? And why was everybody in the dream? It looked so real… and what was the big deal with the truck? Eva shook her head. Dreams were weird. Most of them did not even mean anything. But still. It was just plain creepy how real it was…
“Why are you staring at me like that?” asked Annie nervously.
“What?” said Eva, blinking.
Annie gave her a weird look. Eva had always had a hard time staring in her eyes. They were piercing blue and just plain… deep. “Uh, you were staring at me like I had a third ear,” she said. Eva blinked again. Her friend sighed dramatically. “And to think, people call me the crazy one.” Eva scowled and stuck her tongue out at Annie, who gave her a sweet smile with her white teeth.
“Hey you two,” called Finn, Eva’s uncle. “What do you want to do today?”
Harold looked up from his paperback and spoke to Finn. “If they say shopping, deny it. It takes them hours to pick out just one shirt, not to mention to stop fooling around with purses and such, or even—Ouch!” Two well aimed couch pillows hit him in the head.
“It does not take us hours to pick out a shirt!”
“Look who you’re talking to! You could spend a day in a bookstore trying to find one book!”
“Really!”
“Looks like they outnumber you two to one, Harold,” said Finn.
“Oh, shut up,” said Harold. He glared into his book. Eva could just imagine him burning a hole through it with that look.
“So, what do you guys want to do?”
“Well,” said Annie. “I’d love to go hiking.” Eva nodded also. Harold ignored everybody and consumed himself in his book. “What about you, Paula?” asked Finn. Paula, Finn’s wife and Eva’s aunt-in-law, gave a thumbs-up and immediately went to tackle the stove. “Hiking it is then.”
Paula emerged from the kitchens minutes later, holding a simple breakfast of eggs and toast. Eva didn’t feel hungry, though, so she let Harold eat hers, as well as her drink.
A few minutes later, Paula and Finn went into their bedroom to pack their backpacks. Harold also went to change into some more suitable clothes (He had been wearing yesterday’s torn jeans and a shirt with some rather rude words on it). Only Annie and Eva were left in the room. Eva thought about her dream and Annie, and decided to jump into the subject.
“Annie…” began Eva uncertainly. “Did… did you have any strange dreams last night?” Eva winced. Annie was interested into astrology and superstitions, so she might persuade Eva to spill, and then Annie would tell her some magic bogus.
But Annie just looked at her with a bored expression. “No. Did you?”
“Well… there was this boy and this man…”
All of a sudden Annie’s eyebrows shot up and she leaned to Eva eagerly. “Yes? Yes? Please continue. Madam Annie has come to interpret your dreams. That’ll add up to five dollars, total.”
“I’m not telling you anything until you stop that,” said Eva stubbornly. She folded her arms. Annie sighed. “All right. Just tell me the dream. But next time you’ll have to pay ten bucks. Ten cent tax included.” Eva looked at Annie. She then continued. “The boy was in a tree, and I climbed up it to help him, because he was hanging by one arm, but then he fell, and he was injured, and then the man came, and he hurt me and—”
“It would be best if you forgot about that dream.”
“What?” said Eva, startled. “I didn’t even finish—”
“You heard me.” Annie looked at her. “It means nothing. Madam Annie knows all.”
Eva was confused. Why did Annie come to such an abrupt conclusion? She seemed so final.
“Annie…” Eva began, but stopped when her uncle and aunt came in, lugging two stuffed backpacks on their backs. Harold followed soon thereafter.
“Ready?” said Paula, grunting beneath the weight.
Eva frowned uncertainly, and then said “Ready.”
A fizzy pop surrounded the creek. Time seemed to slow down, but really it was paused. The trees and the creek, the air and the sky, turned into a blue, icy landscape. People’s faces oceans away became flawlessly perfect and cold.
But even though time was stopped, only in the small area in the Smoky Mountains in which Eva and her friends were was tampered with.
Something, a thing, an it, a voice came back. It said, “It is done.”
Then it returned. It returned to a time not far from now.
But it left something.
A song.
Annie skipped along the path, being unfazed by the rain, singing a tune:
“Forest boy, forest boy, forest boy-boy,
Living in the wild woods alone… lone.
Spending his time plucking the apples-ples,
Whispering to invisible ghosts… ghosts.
Forest boy, forest boy, forest boy-boy,
Scaring little girls in midnight hours… hours.
Perchance you will see him by bad luck-luck,
Better hope you will not be stolen… stolen.”
Annie smiled back at Eva and Harold and began to hum the tune. Eva was scared by the song. She didn’t know why, but it seemed familiar. Somewhat.
“Hey Evs!” called Annie. “Why don’t sing the song together!”
“Sure.” Eva sped up to Annie’s pace, and Annie told her the song. After a few comic mess-ups, both got it right, Eva being one phrase behind Annie. Both softened their voices when some bikers whizzed by on the biking trail. Eva couldn’t make out what the bikers looked like, but one girl was staring at them, open-mouthed, face covered with her brown hair. Then they were gone.
“Weird girl,” muttered Harold. He jogged up to Eva and Annie. Eva looked at him and smiled. His black hair was soaking wet because his hood fell down when he caught up to them, and his long face was set in a devastated grimace. Harold did not like wetness.
“Why the long face, Harold?” teased Eva. “Let down by a few rain drops?”
“Eva, you sure are one mean little girl, you know.”
“I’m not,” Eva cheerfully said. She tweaked his nose. “You’re just a big softy!” Annie snickered, and Finn and Paula, a ways ahead, laughed.
Harold wrinkled his nose. “Shove off. Don’t get all girly on me.” His two friends laughed, eyed the other, and laughed even harder. Their laughs ended when both walked under a low beech branch, and Harold yanked it, letting out a tubful of water on their heads. They looked at themselves in horror. Harold wickedly smiled. “Look who’s laughing now.”
He then scampered ahead so the two girls wouldn’t be able to attack him.
They walked for a little bit, and the rain soon ceased, making gloomy Harold happy. Finn and Paula just talked to each other about politics, which interested none of the teens. A fork in the road approached. One way looked tame and scenic, but the other had gnarly trees and practically no path to follow. Finn and Paula automatically turned to the tame path, and Harold followed in suit. Annie whispered to Eva, “Hee hee, watch this!” She had picked up a catalpa seed pod that was considerably heavy. She then chucked it at Harold’s head. He yelled and turned around to find Annie, but Annie was already ten feet ahead of him, laughing crazily. He roared and followed her down the tame path.
Eva watched her friends and smiled. They were so silly. She started down the tame path, but then stopped. The other path seemed tempting… who knew what could be found at the end of it? Adventure? Eva shivered with delight. She loved adventure. Second thoughts fleeted through her mind. What about her adoptive parents, Finn and Paula? What if they didn’t know where she went? Nonsense! She had a key to the cabin, and she knew her way back. Exploring that path wouldn’t be a problem at all.
She looked down the tame path. Her companions had already turned the curve. She started toward the other path, then saw something on the ground. A blue stone. She picked it up. Annie always said that blue was the color of hope and serenity. Excited, she skipped over to the other path, paused, and then began to walk leisurely down what she presumed the faded path.
Eva enjoyed walking down the wild path. The trees cover made a leafy roof over the path. The twisted and thorny bushes and flowers bordering the path were beautiful, in a black way. There was no noise besides her breathing and the cracking of branches and twigs underfoot. Sunlight penetrated through the canopy of leaves in remote spots, but when it did, Eva had to shade her eyes from the sudden light. Best of all, the path was peaceful and not uncomfortably scary, but like the silence before a storm. Quiet, and thick and consuming.
Eva found herself humming a tune. That weird one Annie had been singing. She closed her eyes and skipped along, then tripped.
“Ouch!” she yelled as her head hit the ground. She got up again and rubbed her bruised hands. Looking back, she saw a tree root that had tripped her. What a coincidence, she thought, that I had to trip on the only root on the path. The woods seemed to be laughing at her.
“Forget you!” she shouted angrily. A nearby oak gave out a belly laugh. She was almost tempted to kick it. She decided not to. It would probably puke a bunch of acorns at her.
Eva continued her trek. She soon heard the trickling of a creek—Whisper Creek, she remembered from Uncle Finn’s map of the woods—along with a distinctive churning of wood and a rush of water. She also noticed a lighted part of the woods ahead. What was she coming up to? Eva stumbled through a thick hedge of trees and brush and into sunlight.
She gasped.
It was the most beautiful place she had ever seen. The churning noise had been a water wheel. The wheel was old and sturdy, decked with lilies that were floating in a pond next to it. Water hyacinths dotted the clear pool, which fed into a small waterfall that soon became Whisper Creek, and four swans, two white and two black, swam gracefully in it. A cobblestone path led up from where Eva was to a garden of roses—pink, white, red, orange, purple, and even light blue. Past it, Upper Whisper Creek curled under a small white footbridge with rose laurels twined in it. Ornate ivory benches and small fountains of mythical creatures lined garden paths, and two curved candle-holders bordered the house neighboring the wheel and its control shack (though the shack could hardly be called a shack—it was made of bricks cunningly aligned with white plaster walls, and Eva hardly doubted that the inside would be anything but highly advanced mechanics). Wispy willows bordered the water wheel and the house giving it a fey look.
The house was a simple two-story with a curved chimney. It was a bit old-fashioned, having blue shutters on the outside and flowers hung from them, but Eva assumed that old-fashioned worked perfectly with the clearing. The place also had an extreme feel—like you weren’t even where you thought yourself to be, but in a whole different world completely. Colorful birds tweeted and optical colored butterflies inspected Eva as she walked down the path to the garden. The roses, Eva admitted, were a little bit strange. They seemed to be growing out of the ground from single stalks, and not in bushes. But Eva couldn’t care less about how they grew. They were just ethereally magnificent.
Eva walked lightly on the path, pausing to sit in a few benches or to pet a tame parakeet. The house didn’t have any lights on and looked empty. Eva decided to walk toward it. If the house was locked, she’d just explore the woods more. If it wasn’t, surely the owner wouldn’t mind her exploring it? Eva was not a thief, but she just couldn’t resist seeing what was in the house. Eva walked over to it and rattled the doorknob. It clicked! She entered.
To Eva’s surprise, the house was sparsely furnished. The living room had only a couch, a lazy chair, a table, a coat rack, and an antique, chestnut grandfather clock. The couch looked very comfortable, as was the laze chair, and the table had curved legs and a polished finish. There was a fireplace too, and on the mantelpiece was an interesting painting—it was a rosy red apple on a white background, supported by a rose stem like those outside. Obviously by the owner, Eva thought. She looked around and saw a open doorway to what she assumed the kitchen, a doorway to the right, and a doorway to the left. She quickly strode across the room and peeked in the kitchen. Confirmed—kitchen was rustic and wooden also. She passed by the clock, marveling its ornate preciseness. Skipping over to the right bedroom, she entered.
It was even simpler than the main room. A plain, hard bed; a dresser and a wardrobe similar to the table in the main room, and just a simple, maple toy box. The only signs of life in the room were a torn-up soccer ball lying on the untidy bed, and a black-and-white photo of a man and a woman hugging each other. Eva picked it up. The man and woman were smiling. How nice, thought Eva. She put it back on the dresser and left the kid’s bedroom to enter the left. Before she entered, however, she felt as if the room was daring her. Daring her to enter and come out… unscathed. Eva put on a hard face and opened the room.
The bedroom—she could tell it was a bedroom by the luxurious red velvet canopy bed—was the opposite of anything she had seen in the pass few minutes. The floor was red and furry, completely unlike the hardened pine floors she had previously encountered. Deep mahogany chests, dressers, tables and chairs were strewn across the room orderly. Heavy velvet drapes covered windows and dainty doilies sat under vases of roses and pictures. The ceiling was painted like the night sky.
There now were two doors—one she assumed to be this person’s private bathroom, and the other… she didn’t know. Eva decided to explore the other room. She walked across the carpet, enjoying the fuzzy feel of it. The handle of the door was even different—a golden spout. She turned it but then stopped. Maybe going in there wouldn’t be a good idea after all. This house, the wheel, the garden… who knows what would be in there? She shook her head and left the room. The main room looked like a dump compared to the richness of the previous room. Eva exited the house.
The sky was rapidly fading to a colorful mix of indigo blue and light pink clouds. How could’ve the time passed so quickly? Eva thought. Fireflies and speedy dragonflies began to wake up, whizzing over the pond and the four swans. Eva hadn’t noticed this before, but in the trees, paper Chinese lamps glowed luminously, and in the garden lantern posts held up more. She was pretty sure she hadn’t seen strings of lights hovering over the pool, but she didn’t give it much thought about how it changed. Instead, she saw something that completely hadn’t been there before—a path to the north. Still brimming with insatiable curiosity, she walked up to it and started to feel a little uneasy. Her head was starting feel fuzzy and she was starting to forget things… who were Finn and Paula, where she lived, the past. Then something cloaked her, a comforting thing that said for her to be calm… she’d be okay…
Eva shook her head and walked briskly down that path, not bothering to look at the scenery. She didn’t realize the trees and plants became sinister again, but this time their sinister looks were actually meant to do harm. Eva ignored it though and picked up her pace. She saw a white wicker gate ahead, and… nothing. After the wicker gate there was nothing but a black wall that rippled and moved like a wall of water. Eva stared. And stared. Now, this was starting to get weird. Water wheel mill, a little creepy on the scary meter. But this topped the scary meter by twice as scary, then multiplied it by one thousand.
“Well, here goes nothing,” she said. Whatever was on the other side must be interesting. She opened the gate and stepped through…
Into an orchard.
Now, it wasn’t a normal orchard. It was an apple orchard that had the apple trees covering the sky as a leafy roof. A few beams of sunlight peeked through, but otherwise it was a rather dark orchard. The grass was green and evenly cut, and the apple trees were all symmetrical and repetitive. The orchard seemed to go on forever, but Eva could just barely make out a golden background far, far away. Sweet, succulent apples’ smell hit her like a tidal wave. She decided stealing a few apples wouldn’t be a big crime.
Eva was about to start at the first tree when a boy came humming out of the trees. He didn’t seem to notice her at first. He was about her age, but a little taller than her and a little shorter than Harold. His skin was a slight tan, but Eva suspected he was as pale as the moon underneath. Eva really couldn’t see a lot of him, since he was a ways away. But she did notice the deep blue of his eyes.
Then, all of a sudden, he noticed her.
Eva and the boy just stared at each other, then the boy started to scream at her, fear dotting his face like freckles dotted her nose (she didn’t have many freckles anyways). “Get out of here!” he screamed. “Go! Go before he gets you!”
“Excuse me?” Eva said. What in the world was this boy talking about? He started to run toward her.
“Are you stupid?” the boy said. “Run! Go back through the gate!” He pointed to the wicker gate.
“Why?” Eva said, folding her arms and pouting.
The boy threw up his hands. “Go…back…through…the…gate! All right? Go!”
“I’m not moving an inch until you tell me why.”
“Get—” He stopped and stared at something behind her. Eva turned. There was a man wearing a black trench coat and a menacing aura surrounded him. He was staring in the opposite direction, but like a rubber band, he snapped back to face Eva and the boy. He started a step forward, then began a brisk pace to them. The boy panicked and grabbed Eva’s hand, pulling her toward the gate, swung it open, and went through the blackness…
Back onto the path.
“Don’t panic, and keep a hold of my hand,” he said, then began to run down the path. Usually, Eva would have had no trouble keeping up with him, but as they ran, the plants decided to have their revenge. Tree roots attempted to trip them and branches smacked their faces. But the boy just kept his pace, until the reached the mill. All the beauty was gone to be replaced by a sick, purple glow. The roses were twisted and ugly, the pool green, and the shack and house crumbling and deceased. No animals were there, but in the background, somewhere in the forest, Eva heard something… a great crashing and grunting, belonging to no animal found on earth.
“The Beast,” said the boy as he flew from the north path to the south path. “Never go in the forest alone at night… the Beast is not usually… merciful.” Eva tried to speak, but she was out of breath to say anything.
They continued their breakneck pace down the mountain (if none of you have ever run down a mountain, you will never know how scary it is). Previous animals Eva may have noted earlier had turned sinister and evil. Flowers were poisonous and beautiful all the same. What scared Eva most was the gravestones. What she had presumed boulders were really gravestones, dying places of people who had crossed here before. Worse, she could see the ghosts of the people who had died. They were mutilated, sick, bloody and speechless. It was a horrible dream she couldn’t escape.
The crossroads appeared before them. Eva never felt more relieved in her life. It was a normal night here, without any of gross and sinister happenings found near the water wheel. The boy let go of her hand and spoke to her.
“Never come back to the mill again. This road...is the boundary. Understand?” Eva nodded. He looked relieved. “This place isn’t for you… it… does things. Strange things. You don’t want to… to come back. It… it wouldn’t be a good idea to come back… o-okay?” Eva nodded again. The boy smiled. “Thank… God you have sense.” He started to walk back to the path when Eva grabbed his hand.
“What about you?” she said. “How come you can go back?”
“I am…” He paused. “Bound. I can’t… leave. He… they… I just can’t leave.” He yanked his hand from hers, but Eva grabbed it again and pressed the blue stone she had found earlier into his hand. “Keep this. Maybe this’ll help you to hope.” She patted his hand. He looked at the stone, then at her. “Thanks…” he said, then left.
Eva watched him, then turned and ran. She ran all the way from the path to the cabin, not stopping to take a breather. She was filled with adrenaline to exit the forest.
After ten minutes of so, she was at the cabin door. The trees were slightly swaying in the wind and singing melancholy to their cursed brothers and sisters. Eva ignored this, though, and banged on the door.
“Open up!” she screamed. Paula opened the door and gasped. She had tear-stains on her face and was red and puffy-eyed, and her hair was unpinned and messy.
“Eva, where’ve you been? And what’s happened to you? I nearly thought—” Eva barged in and fell on the couch. Harold was sitting in the lazy chair reading his book as usual, and Annie was lying on the floor doing some puzzles. Finn wasn’t to be seen.
Harold had dropped his book and was staring at Eva open-mouthed. Annie looked up and Eva could see she had been crying too.
“Evs!” Annie cried. Annie attacked her, crying. “Evs, Evs, Evs! We thought you were dead! How could you do this to us Evs? Oh Evs!” Harold looked at her embarrassed.
“It’s true,” he said. “After we lost you at the crossroads, Finn and Paula panicked. We ran back to the lodge and called the police. They told us teens got lost in the forest all the time, so they were used to it. They got a search team of some of the town men and most of the police force with dogs to comb the forest. But we didn’t find you. The police told us you probably fell down a hillside and broke your leg, or something, and were probably covered in leaves or the like. Most of those kids weren’t ever found, so… we thought you were dead. Or forever lost.”
Paula came next to Eva and took some tissues from the table. “Never do that again! Finn and I were devastated!” she cried, and Eva unlatched Annie and started to comfort her adoptive mother.
“Where’s Finn?” Eva asked.
“He’s still bargaining with the police in town that they could do another search. He believes you’re still out there, but the police say otherwise,” Harold informed her. “I’d better call him to come back.” He exited the room to get his cell.
“Evs, where were you?” Annie questioned. “And why are you so dirty? Oh Evs, you aren’t hurt are you?” Eva looked at herself. Indeed, she was grimy. Her pants and jacket were torn, and her sneakers were out of hope. Worst of all, her hair was so tangled it would take her hours to fix it. Or (shivers) cut it.
Eva managed a shaky laugh. “You wouldn’t believe me.” Who would? She thought. My experience was too fantastic for even a crazy person to believe.
“Eva,” said Paula, frowning. “As your mother, you are going to tell us. We must know if you’re hurt, and we need to know why.”
“All right,” Eva sighed. “But you won’t believe it.” She told them a cut-out version of what happened. She tried to explain the mill in detail, but kept out the part of the man and the horrible change that happened on the way back. After she was done, her mother and her friend were staring at her.
“You know what,” said Annie to Paula, “she must of hit her head on a rock and been knocked out for hours.” Paula nodded.
“Or,” Paula noted, “Eva could be taking drugs and imagined all that. Did you take any drugs Eva?”
“I do not take drugs!”
“She could be lying,” said Annie, shrugging. “Either way, are you hurt?”
“I’m not hurt!” Eva screamed. “Why don’t you believe me? I wasn’t lying! I swear I wasn’t!”
“Evs, that’s impossible! There is no water wheel, or orchard on the map of the resort property, or any forest outside of it! Whisper Creek does not go through a wheel. Eva, you are just being stupid. Tell us the truth.”
“I did!” Eva said, crying. She stood up and screamed while stalking to her room. “I’m not lying!” She slammed the door and locked it. She then collapsed on her bed, crying. Eva pulled up her covers.
Why don’t they believe me? Eva thought. I know what I saw. Maybe I am going crazy.
No.
I know what I saw. It may be really weird, but there is something strange with this resort. The dream… Annie’s song… the wheel and the orchard. Something was wrong with this place. I don’t know what, but I fear that this will be no ordinary vacation.
Eva sighed. Why can’t anything be normal?
Though ugliness thrived here, one little pinpoint of light, of good, stood out.
It was a voice. It said, “It is done.”
And it was over with.
For now.
