Redemption (11 page)

This pleasant
distraction from his condition was short-lived.  His head began to ache, and a
pain in his chest drew his attention away from his musings.  He stood and
stretched, hoping to ease the clenching feeling in his muscles.  There was a
flicker of movement on the periphery of his vision and he turned to it at once,
not trusting anything around him.  For all he knew, some rabid hellhound was
about to jump out and use him as a chew toy.

He stared into
the deep shadows of the forest, made even darker by the rapidly deteriorating
weather conditions.  A slight gust of wind ruffled his hair, carrying the scent
of rain.  There.  Just a few feet away, right beside the path.  An orb of light
hung suspended in mid-air.  It was about the size of a softball, with a bluish
sort of cast.  It hovered, wavering a bit in the breeze, moving to and fro, but
generally staying in the same spot. 

Isaac glanced at
Rebecca to see if she noticed the light.  She was crouched by the path,
reaching deep within a bush to extract the fruit, and had no attention to spare
for him, intent as she was on not getting scratched.  He opened his mouth to
call out to her, but something stopped him.

He was too
reliant on her.  She was the one who always seemed to get them out of the tight
spots.  He would like, for once, to be able to solve a problem by himself.  He
felt useless having to depend on her so much.  Being useless wasn’t a new
feeling, but depending on someone was.

He turned his
attention back to the orb and found that it had drifted a bit further into the
woods.  He took a step toward it to better study it.  It floated a step farther
away.  He stopped.  It stopped.

Isaac stared at
the orb in wonder.  He slowly followed the light into the woods, intent only on
finding out what it meant.  There was no danger evident, and he wouldn’t stray
so far as to be out of earshot from Rebecca, not that he would call her into
danger if something happened. 

Every time he
drew close, the orb seemed to dance just out of reach.  There was a nagging feeling
that kept him moving on, as if there was a realization about to burst forth. 
He sensed nothing sinister from the orb.  If anything, there was a playfulness
to it.  It teased him as it led him on. 

Finally, Isaac
grew tired of the pursuit.  He stopped and came back to himself enough to look
around at his surroundings.  It had grown much darker under the canopy of
trees, and the wind had picked up, making the branches sway overhead.  His leg
throbbed.  He realized, quite suddenly, that he had no idea what direction he
had come from or how long he’d been walking. 

“Moron,” he
muttered to himself.  “Idiot.  Why did you wander off?” 

He looked about
for some sign of his passage that would lead him back.  He found nothing. 
There was not a single footprint, or broken branch, or crushed fern.  All
directions looked the same- not that he could see much in the encroaching
darkness.  Soon it was so dark that he could see nothing, as if he were surrounded
by inky blackness.

Isaac’s chest
hurt again, clenching and burning, but the sensation faded quickly this time. 
He noticed that the wind had stopped.  That was the first real sign.  The first
time fear finally made itself felt.  There was no wind.  There was no sound of
wind.  There was no feeling of the trees, or of other things residing in the
darkness with him- in fact, there was no feeling at all.

~~~~~

Rebecca tossed a
few more berries into the basket she had made of her shirt.  She straightened
and glanced behind her.  The sky was growing darker, and the deviation in the
weather worried her.  A bend in the path blocked her view of the boulder where
Isaac was sitting.  Tension quickened her steps as she headed back the way she
had come.  She didn’t like being out of sight of Isaac.  He was struggling. 
She knew he was trying to hide it, but she could see the pain in his eyes and
the weariness in his movements.  Something twisted inside her and she realized
that she actually enjoyed having someone to worry about.

She rounded the
bend and halted, staring at the empty boulder.  He wasn’t there.  Her eyes
searched the path, but he was nowhere to be seen.  There was a faint rustling
in the trees and a dark, hooded form stepped onto the path.  Rebecca fisted her
hand in the hem of her shirt to keep from dropping the berries.  She was so not
in the mood to deal with death.

However, the
figure wavered, going see-through for a moment.  He solidified and held out a
skeletal hand toward Rebecca.  Then he vanished.

Rebecca stood in
the middle of the path, tense and on guard, waiting.  The seconds ticked by and
there was no further sign of the reaper’s presence.  She slowly spun, scanning
the forest at the edges of the path.  She was afraid to leave the road, but
that must be where Isaac had gone.  She wondered what had called death away
from tormenting her.  Her chest clenched.  She had no clue which direction to
take, but all of the sudden she felt like she should hurry.

“Isaac,” she
called.  “Come on, this isn’t funny!”  There was no reply.

When she turned
back to the boulder where she had last seen him, she met the mismatched eyes of
the black cat.  It sat on its haunches for a moment, tilting its head as it
studied her. 

Rebecca worried
her bottom lip with her teeth.  “Uh… you don’t by any chance know where Isaac
is, do you?”

The cat stood
and stretched.  Then it hopped off the rock and headed to the left of where she
was standing, toward a tiny trail that Rebecca swore hadn’t been there a moment
ago.  She hastily dropped her pile of fruit by the rock and followed the cat
into the woods.

“What kind of
creature are you anyway?” she asked the cat as she followed its question mark
tail further into the forest. 

The little beast
cast a glance over its shoulder and kept on trotting.  Rebecca followed.  The
forest became darker as they went, the huge, old trees blocking out the light
of the cloudy afternoon.  Deep green moss and lichen covered everything, like
something from a fairytale. 

There was an
ominous rumble in the distance and the air smelled of rain.  The cat’s steps
sped up and Rebecca had to jog to keep up.  Suddenly, the cat came to a stop. 
It cocked its head this way and that, as if watching something in the gloom. 
Rebecca was about to start moving again when she saw something flicker in the
air above the cat.  She drew closer and watched in awe as a beautiful yellow
butterfly fluttered away. 

The cat launched
into motion, quicker than thought, running after the butterfly.  Rebecca didn’t
pause to wonder what she was doing.  She dashed after the cat, afraid she would
lose him in the gloom.  As they ran, she realized that there were more
butterflies.  They were all the colors of the rainbow, fluttering against the
dark backdrop of the ancient forest.  The butterflies all seemed to be headed
in the same direction, and she followed her furry companion that way.

They reached a
moss-covered clearing and Rebecca stumbled to a halt.  “Oh!” she breathed. 

All around them,
thousands of butterflies danced and fluttered, a swirling tornado of delicate
wings.  The cat stalked to the center of the clearing, where it began batting
at the butterflies. 

Rebecca
carefully made her way to the cat.  “Stop it,” she whispered, still overwhelmed
by the sight before her eyes.  The cat leapt, just missing a big, beautiful
white luna moth.  “Stop it, you’ll hurt them!”  She reached toward the cat, but
it turned its mesmerizing eyes on her and hissed. 

The cat yowled
and darted through the butterflies, following the white moth.  Rebecca sighed
in exasperation and followed, trying not to damage the little creatures.  Their
wings beat at her skin, soft as a sigh.  A wing brushed her cheek and she
gasped.  She had seen images, for just a moment.  She had watched a baby be
born and grow, in jumps and flashes, into an old man. 

She raised a
hand to her cheek to ward off the touch of wings as dozens of lives flashed
before her eyes.  The cat let out a plaintive mewl and she pushed herself into
motion, fighting through the butterflies to where her furry companion leapt and
hissed.  That white moth was dancing just out of the cat’s reach, a bit above
Rebecca’s head. 

She stretched
out her hands, but she couldn’t reach.  She strained on her tiptoes and jumped,
but to no avail.  The moth was drifting higher, following the others in an
ascending cone toward a little break in the canopy above.  Panic clawed at
Rebecca’s chest.  She couldn’t let that moth fly away.  She dashed to a moss-covered
log and scrambled up.  Then, not thinking of anything but catching the moth,
she launched herself into the air.  Her hands reached, straining desperately,
and she and gently caught the delicate creature.

She fell onto
the mossy ground, sending up a shower of twigs and old leaves.  Her heart was
in her throat as she opened her cupped hands, afraid that she had crushed it. 
It sat on her hand and slowly opened and closed its wings.  Then it took
flight, slow and erratic, low to the ground.  Rebecca pushed herself to her
feet and followed, afraid she would lose it again.

The moth led her
to a place near the clearing, where a long form lay sprawled on the ground.  It
landed on Isaac’s chest, then flickered and disappeared.  Rebecca stumbled
sobbing to his side, just as the storm above broke and a deluge of rain began
to fall. 

~~~~~

Isaac was lost
in a void.  He had enough senses left to know that there was darkness, but
beyond that, he had no sense of himself.  He couldn’t feel his body, the ground
beneath him, or even any sense of where, exactly, “beneath” would be.  There
was no up or down. 

The weight of
the blackness around him was oppressive.  He found that it was easier to just
accept it than to waste thought on fear or reason.  He was, he realized, really
very tired.  He was tired of failing, tired of trying, and tired of pretty much
everything.  It would be so much easier if he didn’t have to deal with it all. 
He was glad that he couldn’t feel his body.  It had been a heavy, cumbersome
thing.  Not having to breathe was easier.  More comfortable.

And while he was
not breathing, not being, he didn’t have to worry about other people.  His
brother and sisters would be fine.  They’d grown up well and had their own
lives.  They didn’t need him anymore.  His few friends weren’t close.  They
wouldn’t really notice he was gone.  He had, at most, been one more face at the
party, nothing more.

As these
thoughts swirled around incoherently in his mind- or whatever there was left of
himself- faces swam to the surface and floated away.  His siblings he passed
over with a feeling of peace, his parents long gone from his life.  His
grandmother was well taken care of- he had made sure of that.  There was only
one face that gave him pause.  It caused him discomfort in his otherwise
unconcerned state.  Those brown eyes stared at him accusingly.  He didn’t like
the feeling brought on by that look.  He tried to forget that particular
face.  

It was
pointless.  Though he floated in nothingness, she followed him, her eyes
accusing, her expression disappointed and hurt.  He finally admitted to himself
that he wasn’t going to be able to escape her.  He stared into her face and
heard her call his name, only then realizing that he was once again hearing,
which of course meant that he had ears.  He was pleased to find that those ears
seemed to be attached to a body, though it was oriented all wrong. 

He lay on
something cold and lumpy, his head cushioned on something warm and soft.  Cold
raindrops were pattering on the exposed bits of his skin, and he could hear
them hitting the leaves overhead.  As he looked up, he met those beautiful
brown eyes.  They didn’t look accusing anymore, he thought happily.  They were
filled with a kind of guarded relief. 

“S’okay,” he
said, lifting a heavy hand to pat the side of her head as she leaned over him. 
He was lying flat out on the ground, with his head in her lap. 

 She brushed his
hair back from his eyes, and he did the impossible and roused himself to sit
up.  He was just so damned tired. 

“What
happened?”  He still had a bit of a headache.  Had he fallen and hit his head? 
He had the oddest feeling of having
gone
somewhere.  Rain pounded down
overhead, and filtered down to them under the leaves.  Their hair and clothes
clung wetly, plastered to their bodies.

Rebecca, now
more assured that he was going to be okay, spoke in clipped tones.  “I was
hoping you could tell me.  I was picking berries and I looked up and you were
gone.”

He ran his hands
through his hair and shook his head.  “There was a light and I followed it,” he
said sheepishly.

She opened her
mouth to reply, but he held up a hand in defense.  “I know!  Asshat move.”  He
shrugged.  “But I think I wasn’t really… in my right mind? “  He put a hand to
his chest, realizing that it didn’t hurt so much anymore.  He was achy, but
didn’t feel sick like before.  “I haven’t been feeling too great.”

Rebecca stared
at him.  “You’re sick?  But why?  I feel fine.”

He shrugged. 
Then, thought of something.  “Will-o-the wisp,” he said suddenly.