Warren in Hiding

Prologue

Once upon a time. In a big black forest. There lived a little girl, with hair of fawn and eyes of gold.

She lived alone in the forest with her grandma and every Sunday evening they would go out to collect apples from a nearby orchard.

One Sunday, when the girl was about ten, the little girl turned as they walked their well worn path and asked, “Grandmother? Why do we live so far up the path?”

“Because, my darling,” Her grandmother said, giving her a bright warm smile in the heavily leaf shadowed light. “There are monsters that live off the path.”

“But then,” the little girl thought. “If monsters live off the path, why do we not move into the town near the orchard?”

“Because, my dear.” The grandmother said. “There are monsters that live there too.”

“Then does that mean that we can only live in our house in the forest?” the little girl asked, feeling uncertain about what her grandmother said.

“Yes.” Her grandmother said in a firm, but gentle voice.

“We live in our home because it was blessed by the holy men when they came through this land. We walk our path to honor the path they blessed and keep it strong. And we avoid those of the town and forest because any one of them could be monster’s in disguise, waiting for us to forget our heritage so that they may take advantage of our weakness and slay us. ”

The grandmother’s words scared the girl and gave her something to think about, that kept her on the path for many years. However, on the girl’s seventeenth birthday, her grandmother’s health took a turn for the worst.

Come Sunday, when it was time to make their trek down the path to the orchard, her grandmother had become so sick, she could not get out of bed.

When the sun began to lower in its descent across the sky, casting long leafy shadows over the forest, Grandmother called the girl to her and told her.

“Tonight I will not make it to walk the path with you. This night, you must do it alone. Stay true to the path and make your steps quick, for the sun will set faster than you think.”

“But Grandmother, I cannot do it alone. I have never before made the trip on my own.” the girl cried with fear and disbelief, but deep in her mind wicked thoughts began to churn and seethe.

“There is a first time for everyone and one day I will be gone.” Grandmother said.

“You are strong and fast, smart and you know the path. Stay on it and it will keep you safe.” But grandmother couldn’t send the girl off without a warning.

“But be warned, if you leave the path, monsters may follow in your wake.”

So the girl set forth, two baskets full of vegetables on her arms, a cape on her shoulders and hood over her head.

She made the trip to the orchard quickly for fear of the shadows of things she might see, but by the time she got there she had managed to relax.

She had seen no monsters off the path, shadowed or otherwise.

Just the long reaching, leafy fingers of the trees.

And when she got to the orchard, she saw no monsters lurking behind trees or under barrels brimming with apples.

She only saw the Apple man, who always gave her grandmother the apples for their vegetables, and a group of kids that looked to be around her age playing a game tossing apples here and there.

When he saw her, the Apple man looked worried. “Where is your Grandmother?” He asked with concern.

“Laid up in bed, sick and worried.” The girl told him.

The Apple man frowned at this but took the baskets she held out to him. “Well, then,” He said thoughtfully. “I suppose you will be needing help filling these baskets today. Luckily, the kids from the town came to help with the harvesting before the season change.”

The girl was nervous, anxious about kids that came from a town of monsters, but when she met them, she found they looked just like her. One kid had freckles, one had red hair. One had eyes so blue they almost glowed and another was so big he was almost the size of a small bear.

They were all nice and kind and helped her to collect so many apples she didn’t have arms enough to carry them, so the Apple man loaned her two extra baskets and they all invited her to stay and play in the orchard with them.

She did, but to her detriment, because when she finally noticed the height of the sun, it would have set by the time she made it home.

The girls had to go, but the guys worried about her making it back. They said it was dangerous to walk in the forest alone at night, so they borrowed a lantern from the Apple man and insisted she let them guide her back.

She wasn’t quite sure, but they made the argument that she couldn’t carry home all her apples alone and that they would really feel a lot better if she allowed them to walk her back to her home.

She consented, arguing with herself that it would really make her feel better if she didn’t have to walk back home alone through the black dark forest just to get home.

And she had seen no monsters, neither here nor there, to make her think she was unsafe anywhere.

So she let the boys walk her home, both carrying her baskets and giving her the lantern to light the way.

Surprisingly, she had found that when they got to the path, it was too small for all of them to walk through together.

She would fit fine, but it was too narrow for her new bear sized friend and her new friend with the beautiful eyes said it was too dark for him to see without the lantern in front of him.

So instead, she decided to walk along the side of the path, where the brush was a bit thicker underfoot, but they could all walk side by side and use the lantern’s light.

The walk seemed to take forever and by the time they got to her home, the sun had long set.

The forest was dark and black and the boys still had to make their way back, so she gave them the lantern for the apples which she sat on her doorstep and thanked them both for walking her home.

They invited her to come play with them again and said goodbye, heading back down to the orchard along the side of the path.

She watched them go until their lantern light was swallowed by darkness and then took the baskets inside, carrying them to the table, before going to check on her grandmother.

Grandmother gasped and cried at the sight of the girl, saying “Dear, oh, dear, I thought you were lost. I feared when the sun set, you’d never make it home.”

“I am fine, grandmother.” The girl smiled, patting the old woman’s back gently. “I had a lot to get back.”

“‘A lot to get back’,” Grandmother asked, “What do you mean by that?”

“Four baskets of apples and it was a long walk.” She didn’t mention her new friends, getting the feeling her grandmother wouldn’t like that much at all. Or the fact that she hadn’t used the path to get back, but walked beside it instead.

“Four baskets of apples, that’s quite a feat.” grandmother crooned. “I suppose, if I’m feeling well tomorrow, I’ll owe you a treat.”

The girl and her grandmother went to bed happily that night, but the girl was plagued with nightmares till morning light. The next morning, Grandmother was feeling better, cooking and baking and even working on a sweater.

“How did you sleep?” Grandmother asked when the girl arised.

“I have slept better.” the girl muttered. “The sun hurts my eyes.”

“Perhaps you are sick. Maybe, caught my cold?” Asked Grandmother.

“I couldn’t say otherwise, I feel like death…” the girl collapsed at the table much to grandmother’s surprise and didn’t wake up until the next sunrise, but her sleep was angry and full of fits, and the family doctor couldn’t make sense of it.

In the girl’s mind she screamed and hollered, chased by monsters through the woods and halls of her home. When she woke, she was paranoid, almost crazed and she kept seeing monsters hiding in the shade.

When Sunday finally came, Grandmother went to the orchard alone. Telling the girl before leaving, not to open the door to their home.

It was the first time in her life that the girl hadn’t walked the path on Sunday, and though she felt bad for making Grandmother do it alone, she couldn’t get past her fear or the eerie loneliness of being at home alone.

When a knock on the door sounded, she rushed to it, hoping to find Grandmother on the other side, but the door didn’t open so instead she peaked outside. “Who is it?” She asked nervously, but recognized the two boys outside. When they gave her their names, she flung the door open wide.

“We missed you and waited for you to come out, but when we saw your grandmother alone worried if you were alright.” The one with the glowing eyes said with a smile.

“We decided to come check on you for our peace of mind.” Said the bear sized kid kindly, before they asked together, “May we come in for a drink?”

“Oh, yes, of course, come in.” She stepped aside and waved them in, before closing the door behind them and going to the kitchen to get them some fresh pulled water.

“It’s a long way to walk from the orchard to here, isn’t it?

” She asked as she turned to them, but dropped their cups in terror as saw what had entered her home.

Before her stood two monsters, a giant one that resembled a beast and smelled of brimstone and a tall, gaunt, lanky monster with a mangled limb, and glowing eyes. Both monsters had rows of razor sharp teeth bared and growling at her and she screamed.

The girl ran, tearing through her home as the monsters gave chase.

But she knew they were playing with her.

They’d catch her and give her an opening to run, letting her go, before catching her again and repeating the process.

This continued until the sun began to set and finally they caught her one last time.

But this time, they didn’t let her go.

When Grandmother arrived home, the house was silent and no matter how many times she called, the girl never responded.

Assuming the girl had gone to bed, Grandmother left her alone and instead bowed to make her Sunday prayers.

It wasn’t until she entered her room to go to bed herself that she found the girl.

Her head staring in wide eyed terror at the door, and blood, limbs and innards scattered all around the room as though the girl had exploded from the inside.

Mehet said spookily, the shadows behind her painting her words in the fire cast shadows behind her as she did her best to menace the captivated children before her watching with horrified expressions.

“And that, dear children, is why we don’t trust outsiders.

Because any one of them could be a monster in disguise. ”

“Ma’bet, stop…” One of the kids stuttered out. Some of them had begun crying fearfully, as they clutched their blankies and stuffed animals for safety. “You’re scaring us.”

“That’s good.” She said eerily, she was aware that the story had never really been all that scary and that she was terrible at telling them, but this was one of the stories they told all the children to make them beware of strangers.

If they were scared of her, that was a good thing.

“You should be scared of me, but I will never hurt you… I can’t say so much for an outsider. ”

“Mehet.” Lamonte snapped, jerking her from her intent to menace. “I need to talk to you… now.”

Swallowing hard, she gave a tight smile to the children crying on the other side of the campfire and stood to go answer her twin brother’s summons on the side of the barn.

“What was that?” He took her sharply by the arm and rounded the corner so that the kids couldn’t see her, but he could see them.

Mehet frowned uncomfortably and shook off his hand. “I was told to menace the kids. That’s what I did. I would have thought you’d be proud of me. You know how bad I am at storytelling.”

“No, I mean the thing you did with the shadows and the walls.” He said tensely.

Mehet shook her head gently, uncertain what he was talking about. “What ‘thing with the shadows and walls’? What are you talking about?” They were only sixteen, but was he already losing it?

Lamonte frowned sternly, taking a deep breath as he thought. “While you told your story, the shadows from the fire acted like a movie on the barn wall behind you. It was impressive and terrifying… Are you sure you didn’t do it on purpose?”

A hand came up to cover her mouth in horror as she listened to her brother. Even if it had been something she hadn’t done, since she was the story teller, their people would have put her to death for it. Burned her as a witch while her brother watched, helpless, with the whole tribe.

Lamonte heaved a breath through his nose. “Very well, we’ll tell the kid’s it was shadow puppets and talk more about it tomorrow.”

Mehet fell to her knees, distraught. All this time she’d been ignoring it. Trying to pretend it didn’t exist in the hopes that it went away… It wasn’t going away. Turning big frightened eyes on her twin she shuddered out a sound, barely even a whisper…

“It’s getting stronger…”