A Vision of Green (Florence Vaine #2) (5 page)

“
You're asking me for help?” I say in surprise.

“
Forget it,” Josh replies with annoyance and goes to walk into the living room, where I can hear the others chatting.

I put a hand on his arm to stop him. “It's aura manipulation if you m-must know, and I'm actually going to start doing it at the bookshop in town this Thursday for people. They have this psychic night once a week and Frank's foster mum works there, she asked if I wanted to be a part of it.” I suddenly realise that I'm rambling now, providing Josh with far more information than necessary.

“
Sounds...weird.” Josh snorts, glancing down at my hand on his arm. I quickly let go and look up at him.

“
So I'd have to pay for this aura manipulation business then?” he asks.

I shrug and grin. “Of course, you only get the f-first one free you know.”

I could be mistaken, but I think Josh smiles at me then, if somewhat vaguely. “Fine, but I'm not getting involved with a bunch of hippies down at the bookshop. You can come to my house.”

I raise an eyebrow, not entirely comfortable with the idea of going to Josh's house alone. My need to touch his aura and make it better is strong though, so I come up with a compromise. “I'm not g-going to your house Josh, but you can come to mine.”

“
I don't know where you live,” he retorts, getting impatient now.

I rattle off my address and he makes a face as though committing it to memory. Even though Dad's around, I don't mind bringing Josh to the house because at least my dad's antics might keep him on his toes. He tells me he'll drop by tomorrow after school, and I agree, at the same time I'm hoping Dad isn't too off his face by then. He tends to sleep during the day though, so he'll probably still be in bed.

In the living room I sit down next to Frank, who cocks a questioning eyebrow at me when he notices Josh and I had been alone in the hall for a minute. I shrug to let him know it was nothing. It's strange that we have this whole silent communication thing going on a lot these days, even though we've only known each other a couple of weeks.

“
I took the liberty of printing out some info at my house before I left,” Caroline announces, handing stapled bunches of paper to everyone. Josh sits casually on one of the armchairs and stuffs the paper down the side without even looking at it.

“
This is a good children's charity for us to work on,” she says, as she finishes distributing the papers and sits back down in her seat. “All of the basic information is there for us to start with.”

“
Boring,” Josh sighs. I see he hasn't decided to follow my advice and keep his comments to himself.

“
Shut up, or get out,” Frank orders him intently. Josh scowls with resentment.

“
I'll tell you what's not boring,” Alex puts in, “if you all want to hear something kinda freaky.”

“
Freaky as in scary or freaky as in
get your freak on
?” Caroline asks.

“
Freaky as in scary,” Alex laughs. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Caulfield.”

Caroline grins happily and nods for him to continue.

“
I don't want to hear it if it's too scary,” says Ingrid, absently admiring her orangey pink fingernails.

Alex rubs his hands together, getting ready to tell his tale, but also relishing the chance to frighten Ingrid. “Me and Benji were out for a run in the woods last night..”

“
You go running in the woods? At night?” Ingrid interrupts, and I catch her glance momentarily at Caroline. She doesn't want to say it, but she's clearly thinking of Caroline's cousin Lauren, who was murdered and whose bones were found in the Chesterport forest. I'm sure that her death was the talk of the town back when it happened.

Alex grins, flashing his teeth at her. “Of course I do, night is the best time to go for a run.”

“
You're weird,” Ingrid tuts with distaste, still studying her perfectly manicured nails.

“
You don't know the half of it, sugar tits,” says Alex, soliciting a murderous glare from Ingrid. “Anyway, as I was saying, Benji and I were going for a run and we got pretty far into the forest, it gets denser the further in you go so we had to slow our pace a little. Then all of a sudden we heard this thundering wailing noise coming from somewhere in the distance ahead of us.”

He stops and leans close to Caroline who's sitting beside him, and blows on her neck. “You know the kind of sound that when you hear it, it gives you chills all over. Like that,” he winks at her and nods at her neck where he just blew on her. A faint blush colours her cheeks.

“
Well Benji got all excited to go and investigate,” he looks to Frank, “you know what a hyper little git he can be, so I indulged him. Although in all honesty I thought it was just going be a weird animal or something. When we got to the swamp about a mile ahead of where we'd first heard the noise we found a bunch of dead rabbits scattered about all over the place, like around twenty of the things. Only they weren't just dead, they were completely ripped to shreds, their guts all spilling out and everything. Then I thought I saw some bloke standing behind the trees watching us, but when I blinked he was gone.”

“
That's messed up,” says Josh, though he does look slightly intrigued.

Both Ingrid and Caroline appear distinctly paler than usual. And I have to admit, I'm a little spooked myself. Not so much over the dead rabbits, but more because of the man Alex thought he saw behind the trees. How creepy.

“
You never mentioned all this to John,” says Frank, eyeing Alex with some kind of unspoken meaning. Perhaps the two of them are communicating telepathically right now, the demon-cursed can do that apparently. I wonder why Frank has gone extra still all of a sudden.

“
I don't know how you two can stand it, living so close to the forest,” says Ingrid to Alex and Frank, rubbing her hands down her arms, probably to get rid of her shivers.

“
I think we should go and have a look now,” Josh suggests.

Alex stares him down curiously, he seems to have come to a conclusion when he says, “Okay, if you're up for it.”

“
We're supposed to be working guys, I think we've gotten a little off topic here,” Caroline points out. She's right, but still, there's something drawing me to the forest, a morbid curiosity perhaps.

“
We could always go check it out, and then c-come back and finish off the project s-stuff.”

“
What?! No we're not going out there Flo, it could be a wild animal that killed all those rabbits, it's dangerous.” Caroline looks like she's about to faint.

“
I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but I agree with the ginger, no way am I stepping foot in that forest,” says Ingrid with conviction.

I turn a little to face Frank. “Do you want to?” I ask him.

He smiles indulgently. “I'll go if you go.”

“
Great, so us four can go and the scaredy cats can stay here and work on the project,” says Alex.

I have to hold in my laughter when I see Caroline and Ingrid both regard each other with almost identical looks of horror at the thoughts of having to make small talk until we get back.

“
Fine, I'll go,” says Caroline grudgingly.

“
Me too,” adds Ingrid.

We leave through the sliding doors at the back of the house and then walk across the quarter mile expanse of grass between the house and the forest.

“
This is such a bad idea, by the way, just remember I said it first,” Caroline sighs, pulling her dark blue jacket tight around her.

The daylight is quickly receding, the sky a rapidly darkening grey. Perhaps investigating the swamp at night is not the wisest move. But I feel sort of frightened and excited all at once. Frank's thumb is brushing back and forth over the inside of my wrist, so maybe that could account for some of the excitement.

We all walk in silence for a bit, as our feet make crunching sounds on the twigs and debris. A crow flutters through the clearing, cawing loudly, causing me to jump with fright. I love the smell here, it's so full of plant life and earth. So green. Frank tucks his arm around my waist, with his fingers holding firmly onto my hip.

“
You know, nobody from the town ever really comes in here,” says Ingrid. “You've got to wonder why, there's something eerie about all of these trees. It's like they're hiding something.”

“
Well look at you, Boobs McGee, getting all deep and shit,” Alex teases, bending down to scoop up a bunch of dried out leaves. He stands up and pours them over Ingrid's head.

She screams and shakes them out, brushing her hands all over her body as though spiders are crawling on her. “Oh my God!” she yelps. “You prick, there could have been all sorts of bugs in those leaves.” There's a slightly flirtatious tone to her voice, despite her protestations. “And don't call me that again,” she warns.

“
It's not my fault you've always got them out,” says Alex with a shrug.

Ingrid fumes and folds her arms over her chest, perhaps to cover her cleavage which is clearly viewable through her open coat.

“
He's right though, Ingrid, you do always have them out,” Josh says with a wicked grin. Ingrid grins back at him and shoves him forward.

Alex turns to look around at Caroline, who's walking just behind him and mouths, “Arseholes.”

She smiles and nods in agreement, but she seems a little off. There's apprehension and a slight touch of fear to her aura colours. I feel bad for wanting to come into the forest, since it's obviously reminding her of Lauren. I wish I could tell her that her cousin's murderer isn't still out there, that she's serving her punishment now. Somewhere.

After about another fifteen minutes of trekking through fairly dense woods we reach the swamp. It's not at all like a lake because the water in it is thicker and covered with sludge. I can't imagine it would be a pleasant experience to fall into it.

“
That's weird, I'm not seeing any dead rabbits. I think you were lying Falco,” says Josh smugly.

“
Maybe whatever killed them came back to eat the remains,” Alex suggests with a ghoulish laugh.

“
Why would they come back for stale remains?” asks Caroline, ever inquisitive. “Surely it would be better to eat them when they're freshly dead.”

“
You've got a point there,” Alex agrees.

I lean back against a tree to rest my legs after the walk, while Frank goes for a stroll around the swamp, peering at the ground, perhaps looking for evidence of the rabbit bodies.

It seems as though the temperature has dropped suddenly, so I pull the hood at the back of my grey cardigan up over my head and button it all the way to the neck. I stare at the trees surrounding the swamp and for some reason my eyes latch onto a weird shape in the distance, amid all the brown and green nature colours.

You know when you think you're seeing something, but your eyes just won't adjust to it properly. Like those optical illusions that look like an old woman to some people and a young woman to others, but for a minute you can't see either as your eyes figure out what they're looking at. Since the light here in the woods is becoming ever more non-existent, the task is even more difficult.

I stare at the shape, squinting my eyes to see, and for a few brief seconds I know what it is. My heart flips over on itself, because I'm looking at a face that appears to be made of leaves, with deep black eyes peering out behind them. Above the leaves that make up the face are two grey devil horns, like those depicted on mythical creatures in story books. The eyes stare back at me, but the next time I blink the face is gone, camouflaged back into the tree as though it were never there to begin with. My imagination might be getting the better of me.

“
Come on, I think we should start making our way back to the house,” says Caroline, hovering by the edge of the clearing. Just as she's finished speaking I hear leaves rustling somewhere close by. The others must hear it too, because they all begin looking around to discover the source. The sound gets nearer, and then I hear the gallop of hooves coming our way.

Moments later a ghostly white horse emerges from out of the trees and takes a flying leap right into the swamp, its incorporeal body disappears seamlessly into the thick, slimy water.

“
What the...” Caroline whispers as she rushes to my side and wraps her hand tight around my upper arm.

Ingrid looks like she's about to pass out and she practically jumps into Josh's arms. Both Alex and Frank are scanning the area and then looking at each other in that silent communication way again.