Into the Woods

“Hey.” The girl said as Charlie stared dumbfounded at her.

It took a moment for his brain to re-engage with what had happened. And how he’d been effectively told to fuck off.

“Just. Please. Leave me alone.” Charlie said. He didn’t want to come off as rude or anything like that. He just wanted to go home. At least there he could be miserable in peace.

He wasn’t going to get off that easily however, as the girl continued to call after him as he exited the shop and headed back out into the cold street.

Ignoring the shouts from behind him, Charlie heads towards the telephone pole where he’d locked up his bike. Hoping that nobody had tampered whilst he was inside.

 Whoever was behind him, however, was clearly not giving up.

“Hey, Boy!” The girl shouted after him. Charlie though ignored her, she was probably just going to say that he’d broken some other rule in that shop. Instead, he makes a deliberate show of unlocking his bike from the lamppost. “Where you going?”

Jesus Christ would nobody here leave him alone. Charlie would have given anything to be alone at that moment. But reluctantly he gives in and watched as the girl came towards him before responding to the question.

“I guess one of the other many places in this town.” Charlie said annoyed. He’d only come down here to have some fun. He’d thought that one of those places might be in a toy shop. But no, apparently the adults had made that a no kid zone now too.

The girl only shrugs though.

“Yeah. My Dad can be a dick sometimes.” The girl said. It was immediately apparent that this was a conversation that the girl was used to having.

Charlie paused at this. “Your Dad? What God did you piss off to end up with that bad deal?”

The outburst had come unexpectedly, and he’d more than likely have to pay for it. That was what happened when he usually ran his mouth at school anyway.

The girl however, smiled at the comment. “Yep. He sometimes thinks that he’s some hotshot businessman. But forgets that he’s running a toy store.”

Charlie was about to respond, when the door to shop opened up again, and the man pokes his head out the door. “Sadie. What the hell are you doing? Get back in here and help.”

The second-hand embarrassment was enough for Charlie to fell his face go red again from it. He sees also that Sadie’s had gone red too. Though he thought that might be in anger, rather than his own reason.

“Gramps told me to go outside and enjoy myself.” Sadie replied. Clearly her Dad had nothing else he could say to that, as he glowered once more at Charlie before heading back into the shop. She waited a moment for the man to re-enter the shop, before flipping him off. Charlie stood stationary and watched on.

“Okay?” Charlie said as he resumes untangling the chain from his bike.

“You’re new here?” Sadie asked. “Aren’t you?”

“Yeah. My parents own a holiday home here.” Charlie replied. He wished he’d said nothing though. The look Sadie gave him was worse than any look his brother had ever given him. But it slackened, for a second at least.

“Yeah you have the look of an out-of-towner.” Sadie said. “So, what do I call you? Parasite seems a bit rude.”

“Charlie.” He pauses, then adds with a little more confidence than a few seconds ago. “Just don’t call me Charles.” He didn’t like the way her instinct had gone to Parasite simply because he was not from around him.

“You don’t need to look so scared Charlie. I ain’t going to bite you.” Sadie said

Charlie doesn’t relax. He was acutely aware that despite the fact that he had about a head on this girl. She still looked like she could take him out in a second.

“And why don’t you want me to call you Charles? It’s only a more formal form of your name. Isn’t it?” Sadie watched him, like she was trying to suss him out.

“It’s what my Dad calls me.” Charlie said, hoping that they wouldn’t have to delve into the topic any further. He didn’t want to talk about family business with his family, let alone with someone he’d only just met.

Sadie blinks at this. Not sure how to reply.

It was in that moment, that Charlie thought that he’d blown it with the one person right now that wanted to talk to him. That was until he saw Sadie unlocking her own bike. It wasn’t as good as his, looking more like a family heirloom more than anything modern. But he guessed that if he mentioned that fact, she’d be more than capable of taking him out. He didn’t know much about the girl, but he suspected that she’d be more than capable of taking a swing at him.

“Come on. I’ll show you around.” Sadie said. And before Charlie could do anything but stare dumbstruck at her, she kicked the ground hard and pelted off. Charlie stared for a moment longer, then quickly followed after her.

When he’d first seen her bike, Charlie had been convinced that he’d be the one slowing down, allowing her to keep up, especially on the uphill ascent to wherever they were going. However, he quickly found out that whilst the bike might be old, it was more the other way around. It had clearly been modified to easily outstrip his newer model. Either that or Sadie was just a faster cyclist.

The town didn’t suddenly vanish as they continued to pedal along the road, it more gradually disappeared. With more and more of the shops and homes becoming boarded up wrecks the further they cycled out.

“Where are we going?” Charlie asked as they crested yet another hill. At first he’d thought they’d been going in the direction of his Dad’s lodge. But they quickly passed the driveway and continued onwards.

“You’ll see.” Sadie said as she pelted off, leaving Charlie to only follow the trail of dust.

He didn’t have to wait long, as Charlie managed to catch back up to Sadie a mile or so further down the road. She sat, her feet on the dirt ground in front of a break in the trees that led into the woods he’d witnessed when his family had first arrived.

“Is this it?” Charlie said as he skidded to a halt, kicking up dust from the verge as he did so. He wondered what was so special about this place. Other than the gap in the tress, it looked no different than any other part of the road.

“Inside.” Sadie replied and quickly dismounted from her bike. “Path’s too rough to ride the bikes down it. Well, yours definitely.” Sadie explained, and Charlie, getting the point quickly, also dismounts, following Sadie into the woods.

Charlie had not realised on the drive here how big this forest must have been. Sure, he’d noticed them on the drive in. But he’d never stopped to think that they were anything more than a couple of hundred meters deep.

He quickly realised how wrong he was.

The woods seemed to be going on for miles as he and Sadie trudged their bikes along a small track that ran through the trees.

The word: Track, was doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence as well. It was nothing more than a slightly less overgrown part of the woods. Charlie guessed it had been made by the very few travellers from the local town who might need to cross the forest for, what? He didn’t exactly know what. But Charlie guessed there must be some reason, elsewise, the tracks wouldn’t have been there in the first place.

“Me and my friends used to call this place Mirkwood.” Sadie said as she continued to push her bike over the tree roots. “That’s from-”

“I know where it’s from.” Charlie interjected. He read Tolkien’s works the summer prior, much to his Dad’s annoyance.

“Yeah. Well just keep close. It’s surprisingly easy to get lost in here.” Sadie said, she sounded annoyed. Like Charlie had taken a major treat away from her by interrupting her explanation.

Not that he could fault her naming, or the warning. He guessed that if Sadie wanted to lead him here as a joke, only to run off leaving him stranded. He’d only manage to find his way out by pure luck. The path they were on twisted back and forth, almost doubling back on itself at some points of the route.

Charlie was starting to get more and more annoyed with every passing minute. Checking his watch what seemed like every few seconds if the slow-moving hand was anything to go by. If he didn’t get answers soon, he’d take his chances and head back to the lodge, and leave Sadie here alone.

But just as Charlie’s legs began to cry out from exhaustion, the trees ahead of them began to thin out; revealing a sudden drop in the terrain a few feet ahead of them. Sadie had already come to a halt, letting bike fall to the ground. Charlie follows suit, though his was more of a placement rather than simply dropping his means of transport.

“Careful of all the mains lines.” Sadie said, stepping over one as she spoke.

Charlie, also now seeing them found it odd that the small, raised line of cable that ran across the forest floor, leading to a small power outlet were here to begin with.

“Why are there power lines out here?” Charlie asked. It seemed like an odd place for them. It wasn’t exactly like it was a built-up area that they were in.

Sadie shrugged at the question.

“Dunno. Some big electric company was going to build a massive power station near here a few years back.” Sadie explained. “Never got it past the locals though. They tried to start anyway. So, we chased them out of town. This is all that remains of them.”

“Oh.” Charlie didn’t know if he liked the sound of that. His thoughts going to people with literal pitchforks running people who they don’t agree without was some shit you saw in films, not in real life.

“Yeah. This place really hates outsiders messing with our shit.” Sadie replied, either not seeing what Charlie had meant, or choosing not to.

“Right, parasites.” Charlie said remembering what Sadie had called him when she’d first spoken to him. She didn’t even try to deny the comment either.

“Yep.” Sadie agreed.

This simple response from someone who he’d started to think might be halfway alright, made Charlie audibly gulp at this. But a more important question had come to him.

“What are we doing here?” Charlie asked, he was trying to keep the fear out of his voice. He didn’t know why. It was only a forest. But something about this one made him feel… odd.

Sadie looked over at Charlie, her eyes gleaming with mirth.

“Scared?” Sadie asked. The mockery jolted Charlie back to his senses.

“No.” Charlie said, his pride was stung, he was a man, he wasn’t supposed to get scared like a little kid just because something didn’t seem right. “Just wanna make sure I leave this place alive.”

Sadie ignores the comment and walks over to the ledge. However, seeing that Charlie was remaining put by his bike, she calls him over. “Look down there?”

This was bad, he’d made big show and now he had to back it up. But something else was happening, curiosity was taking over. The part of his mind that craved danger and excitement was still present. So, Charlie walks up to the edge of the ledge and looks down into the small valley below.

It was kind of anticlimactic, if he was being honest with himself. A large round clearing surrounded by trees. In the centre, a slightly rotten wooden stand, with two poles standing a meter apart from one another.

“What is it?” He honestly had no idea, it looked like somebody had started to build something, but had given up within the first minute of work.

Sadie smirked at this.

“Back in the old days. The townspeople would bring outsiders here, those that had displeased The Old Gods. The Gods of Nature, and take from them what they had deemed to have stolen.” Sadie said. As she explained, Charlie first looked over at the clearing, then back at her. She couldn’t be serious, this was all about scaring him. She’d brought him out here, after seeing that he was new in the town and probably an easy mark, and made up this story to frighten him. Sadie though, seemed to guess what exactly was going through his head though. “Maybe it’s just a stupid scary story.” There was no smug look on her face now. It instead resembled the look of someone who’d been recently condemned. “But you said your head was full of them back at the store.”

Charlie took one more hesitant look at the clearing, trying to imagine it, people being brought here to be sacrificed for simply holding a different belief. He knew this stuff had happened, he wasn’t a complete idiot at school, he knew about pagan sacrifices to long forgotten Gods that had happened before the rise of Christianity in Europe.

Then shook his head.

“Let me guess. The Gonks.” At the word ‘Gonk’, an unnatural wind started up, howling through the trees. Though Charlie ignored it, ploughing on with his train of thought. “That your family’s toy store sell have something to do with the story.”

The wind disappeared as soon as it had started. It was this that made Charlie more nervous, much more so than the wind picking up. It was now like they’d both been sealed inside a pressure cooker.

“If you want them too.” Sadie said and driving Charlie’s attention back to her. “I can see why my Grandad wanted me to help you.”

“Why’s that then?” Charlie asked, wondering how this girl who he’d only just met, along with her Grandad who he’d also only just met, had come to that conclusion.

“Well. You look like a kid who’s giving up on imagination.” Sadie answered.

Charlie could only scoff at this. What did this girl know about him, or his life.

“Well, you should try holding onto it with my Dad and Brother as relatives.” Charlie retorted he was annoyed now. “They will kill anyone’s imagination.” They’d sure as shit tried to destroy his over the past few years.

Sadie though, only shrugs at the comment.

“Please. Have you seen my Dad.” Sadie said.

Charlie couldn’t exactly blame her. If from the little he’d seen her Dad was true to what he was really like. Then both their parents were cut from the same cloth.

“But you’ve got your Grandad? He seems pretty cool with having an imagination.” Charlie said. He didn’t have anyone like that. Not anymore he thought. Not if the conversation he’d overheard had been anything to go by. “I’ve got no-one.”