Chapter 33
Ihad told myself I wouldn’t be going back into the forest, but I find myself drawn back to it like a moth to a flame.
Whatever is going on out there has been a constant weight on my mind, especially considering Alaric’s ceaseless studying of the mushrooms. Maybe it’s my morbid curiosity or the nagging sense that I’m missing an important piece of the puzzle that my life has become, but whatever it is, I can’t shake it.
After spending last night with Alaric, my resolve only strengthened. Whatever this is has been eating him up inside, and if I can help him with this research, then maybe I can speed up this process. He needs to rest, and I need to satiate my curiosity.
Taking advantage of the three-hour gap between my second and third classes of the day, I head toward the forest, grateful that my Monday has been relatively easy so far.
Clarissa didn’t bother me at all during Intro to Magical Theory when she did her rounds of observing students perform simple candle spells.
Maybe she left me alone because she didn’t have a reason to demean me, considering I performed mine perfectly.
I had elected to do a spell that assists with the revelation of truth for obvious reasons, using a white candle for clarity, carving my intention into the candlestick with a small knife, and anointing it with clary sage.
Now, I can only hope that it will actually work.
Even Dr. Lowry’s class wasn’t as painful as usual today. He lectured through the entire class and didn’t call on any students for answers, which meant he ignored my existence and I walked out of the lecture hall unscathed.
The harsh November air bites at my exposed skin as I make my way down the familiar path, my boots crunching over dead leaves as I easily navigate through the trees, many of which have become bare as the season has grown colder.
I’m not even sure if the mushrooms will still be growing now, considering the weather.
From my mycology class, I know that some mushrooms thrive in cold temperatures while others die off in them, and since we don’t know the species, it’s impossible to predict whether they’ll still be there.
Regardless, I brought a specimen jar and gloves just in case.
That same oppressive sense of dread overwhelms me before I even reach the area where the mushrooms have been growing, but I power through. The sensation is even stronger than last time, turning my stomach and creating a tightness in my chest.
The cloying scent of rot hits me, and I gag. I almost turn back again, every instinct in my body telling me that something’s not right, but I need to see this through. I force myself forward, pushing through the underbrush until the circle comes into view.
But it’s not the mushrooms that catch my attention. It’s the body sprawled on the ground beside them, its head twisted back at an unnatural angle just enough for me to see his face.
I recognize the face immediately, and my heart stops. For a moment, I can’t breathe, can’t think, can’t come to terms with what I’m seeing.
I take a step closer, and the only thing that brings me any momentary relief is the realization that it’s not AJ lying there unmoving with vacant eyes.
It’s his twin brother, Mitchell, who’s been missing since Saturday night.
He’s still wearing his clothes from the ball.
Relief and horror crash over me. Thank God it’s not AJ, but whatever happened here is still a tragedy beyond measure.
With shaky steps, I walk closer to him, circling the area. Bile rises in my throat at the sight before me.
The mushrooms are growing from his body.
Black caps push through tears in his dirty clothing, erupting from his chest, and when I get closer, I see that they’ve begun to sprout from his partly-opened mouth as well.
The mycelium has spread across his entire body, encapsulating him in delicate white threads like a net ready to drag him underground.
Mitchell’s skin is gray and waxy, and the thick smell of decay makes my eyes water and my stomach lurch.
What is this place? And why is Mitchell dead all the way out here? Did someone do this on purpose, or was it a terrible accident after him drinking too much and getting lost?
I stumble backward, nearly tripping on a root before catching myself at the last second, before I tear my eyes away from the gory scene and run.
Scrambling through the underbrush as fast as I can, I crash through the forest in an attempt to get out as quickly as possible. By the time I burst from the tree line, my legs and lungs are burning.
I don’t even think about where I’m going as I run straight toward the Natural Sciences building, only diverting my path when I notice that the greenhouse door is open. Forcing myself to slow down, I rush into the greenhouse where Alaric is directing a class of what seem to be undergrads.
His brow furrows when he notices the panicked expression on my face and my heavy breathing.
“Go ahead and get started on your labs,” Alaric announces to the class. “Your materials are all laid out on the benches there. I’ll be back in a moment.”
My head swivels as I check to make sure nobody else is around before I duck into one of the empty alcoves along the walls of the building.
“There’s a body,” I gasp out. “In the forest. The same place where the mushrooms were growing. I went out there to see if I could get more samples for you or find something that might help you with the research and I found a body. It’s AJ’s brother who’s been missing since Saturday and there are mushrooms growing out of him and I don’t know what to do and—”
Alaric interrupts me, even as color drains from his face. “Breathe, Vivian. It’s going to be okay.”
I shake my head vigorously. “No, it’s not. He’s dead. That’s never going to be okay. I need to go tell someone. The Chancellor, probably.”
“Wait,” he says too calmly, resting a hand on my shoulder. “I know this is going to sound crazy, but I need you to trust me. You can’t tell anyone about this yet.”
My jaw drops as I jerk away from him. “What? Are you serious? I just discovered a dead student in the woods and you want me to keep it a secret? We don’t even know if this was an accident or intentional.”
Alaric looks over his shoulder to make sure nobody’s approaching before he continues. “Just for a little while,” he pleads. “I’m going to try to find him tomorrow morning, okay? But let me deal with it right now. Please trust me.”
“Deal with it? Alaric, what the hell is going on? How do you expect me to trust you when all you’ve done is keep secrets without giving me any insight into what’s happening, even when I’m the one who discovered the mushrooms in the first place?
” My voice rises, verging on hysterical. Is he involved in this somehow?
He runs his hands through his hair, and I notice they're shaking. His voice is low when he answers, “I can’t tell you everything, but I’ll tell you this. I think the mushrooms are part of something larger and more threatening. And if I’m correct, we need to handle this carefully.”
“Okay, so tell me why you think that,” I challenge. “If this is putting me in danger somehow, you should be giving me information, not hiding it from me.”
“Because I don’t know yet,” he hisses. “I have so many pieces of information that are impossible to put together into something that makes sense. But the mushrooms you collected are not a known species. They don’t seem to exist in any records.
Their cellular structure is wrong, their growth pattern is impossible, and the way they seem to affect the surrounding environment is unlike anything I’ve heard of.
They’re magically enhanced, somehow, and I’m trying to figure out how and why. ”
“Then we need to tell someone who can actually do something about it,” I argue.
“Tell them what? That I've been conducting unauthorized research on potentially dangerous specimens? That I had a student illegally collect samples for me in an area she’s not supposed to be?”
“I don’t know!” I shout. “But you’re asking me to keep a dead body a secret, let alone the fact that it’s my friend’s brother. You’ve been keeping secrets since we met, and I can’t handle it.”
Alaric sighs, his gaze dropping. The frigid wind whips between us, and off in the distance, the chapel bell tolls the hour.
“Give me forty-eight hours,” Alaric says. “I’m going to find the body in the forest then analyze the mushrooms that are growing from his body. Then I’ll go to the administration with the information and tell them I was looking for a specific plant when I came across it. Okay?”
“And how are you going to find it considering you’ve never been able to before? Because I’m sure as hell not going back there.”
“I’ll figure it out. It’s northeast from the clearing, right?”
“Yes. But… we’re just going to leave his body lying there for two more days?” The thought makes me sick to my stomach.
“It’s been there for two days already. Two more won’t make a difference.”
I stare at him with my mouth open, shocked by his callousness. How can he say something so insensitive at a time like this?
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
I shake my head. “Two days. You have to report it, and if you don’t, I’m going in there and dragging you down with me. Got it?”
He nods, and I walk away without another word.
Instead of heading to my room, I head straight to the infirmary in a daze, passing by students going about their normal lives with no knowledge of the tragedy that’s befallen this place.
When I reach the infirmary, I promptly vomit into a garbage can at the inescapable image of the mushrooms protruding from Mitchell’s open mouth.
I don’t particularly want to be around other people right now with a nurse hovering over me, but there’s no way I can attend my next two classes like nothing has happened, and I can’t risk Max sensing my emotions right now.
My next class in an hour would be with AJ, and most of all, I can’t face him.
I think about the worry that’s been weighing on him for days now about his brother’s disappearance, how he’ll react when he hears the news.
How I hope he never finds out that I hid the information for days after discovering his brother’s dead body in the woods.
He deserves to know. He deserves closure and time to grieve.
After the nurse checks my vitals and gives me a bed to lie down in, I stare at the ceiling as my mind races.
My father’s letter comes back to my thoughts. Trust no one.
What if I’m making a mistake? What if I am trusting the wrong person? Alaric seems so intent on hiding everything, and I’m still not even sure what his end goal is. He knows I’m naive when it comes to everything to do with this world of magic. Might he be taking advantage of that?
I don’t think so. Regardless of what he’s working on, he must have good intentions. He cares about me; I’m certain of that if nothing else. He may be mysterious, but he’s not dangerous.
Maybe I’m a fool for my faith in him and letting my feelings cloud my judgment, but I’ve spent my entire life following my instincts with good results, and right now, my instincts are telling me to trust him.
As I lie on the thin, hard mattress beneath too-bright fluorescent lights, I wonder how rare it is for a student to die on campus when I recall the story Victor had told me at the party earlier this semester. It might be an urban legend, but now I can’t help but wonder…
He had said that many students have disappeared here over the years with no explanations or resolutions.
But how can so many students disappear on a small island without a trace?
Except I saw how those mushrooms were eating away at Mitchell’s body and how his body will probably decompose and become part of the earth within a week or two at the rate it’s going. Is it possible it’s all related?
I sigh, rubbing my temples as I consider it. I’m not even sure if the stories about the missing students are true. I shouldn’t be connecting dots that might not even exist.
For the rest of the afternoon, I attempt to nap, but every time I close my eyes, I’m met with the image of Mitchell’s waxy face and the black mushrooms pushing through his skin, the mycelium capturing him as if it was ready to drag him below the ground.
God, AJ is going to be devastated when he finds out.
I only leave the infirmary once most of the classes on campus have ended for the day, and I head straight back to my dorm where Max sits on her bed reading.
“Are you okay?” She asks, like I knew she would.
“No,” I answer numbly, “but I can’t talk about it right now. I just need some space.”
Her expression is conflicted, but she nods. “Okay. Well, I’m here if you need me.”
“Thank you.” I collapse onto my bed, curl up beneath the blankets, and spend the rest of the night tossing and turning until the gray light of dawn illuminates the room.
Thirty-six hours to go.