A Sinister Spell in Faerywood Falls Read online

  I managed to find a few frozen dinners. They weren’t anything special, but it would get me through a day or two until I could find the nearest grocery store. I worried that if a gas station was this difficult to find, how much harder would other basic human necessities be to come by?

  That was just my exhaustion talking, I knew. If people lived all the way out here, then there were definitely things that helped them to survive, including places to buy food.

  My hands and arms laden with goodies, I waddled up toward the counter, careful not to tip any of my purchases over the counter and onto the floor.

  “There we are,” said the woman’s voice again. She’d appeared in the doorway.

  She was an older lady, with wildly curly red hair. A streak of grey was mingled in there, which she tucked behind her round ear as she smiled at me. She was a plump woman, with rosy cheeks and kind, blue eyes.

  Perched on her shoulder was something brown and furry, tinged with grey. It took me a long, hard second to realize that it was a squirrel. A living one, too.

  The woman with the squirrel on her shoulder beamed at me across the counter. “Well, good evening, dear. What brings you all the way out here on such a rainy night?”

  I stared at her, trying very hard not to look to her left where the squirrel was perched. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his bushy tail twitch as he nibbled on a large walnut clasped in his tiny paws.

  “I needed some gas,” I said, pulling my wallet out of my back pocket. “Do you know how far I might be from Faerywood Falls?” I asked. I knew it might be a bit of a reach, but I was getting so tired of driving…

  “Sure do, dear,” said the woman, picking up my first bag of puffed cheese curls and scanning them before putting them into a plastic bag. “You’re about thirty minutes outside of the town limits. If you keep following the road north here, you’ll be there in no time.”

  My hopes jumped. “Really? That close?”

  The woman nodded, and the squirrel on her shoulder chittered happily.

  There was a rustle behind the counter as the woman picked up my half gallon of milk. I glanced behind the chair that the woman had set up for herself, and saw a raccoon. A rather rotund creature, he seemed intent on crawling into a shallow cardboard box that had been lined with a fleece blanket and pillow. It looked like the perfect nest for a cat, and yet, there went the raccoon.

  “My, don’t you just have the prettiest shade of hair?” the woman asked, apparently completely unaware or completely okay with the raccoon curling up in the box. “It’s like the color of a chestnut. Or earthy, ancient tree bark. It’s lovely, dear.”

  I reached up and twisted my finger around a strand of my hair, all of which had been tied behind my head in a loose ponytail. “Oh…well, thank you,” I said. It was something new I was trying lately, wearing my hair loose or in ponytails, instead of pinned up in a formal looking bun all the time, the way it used to be. I’d been told the new look softened me.

  “So, what brings you all the way out here to Faerywood Falls?” the woman asked brightly, her smile growing wider as she finished packing up my frozen meals. “You must be new to the area. That’s no surprise, really. Visitors come through here all the time on vacation. It’s a nice change of pace from all that city life.”

  “Oh, well, I’m actually just moving into the area,” I said, watching my total change on the digital screen above the cash register. It was good to see some modern technology all the way out here in a place that felt like the middle of nowhere.

  “Are you really?” the woman asked, almost swelling with excitement. “Well, isn’t that just wonderful? It’s always so nice to find out that our little town is growing, especially with young people like yourself.” She chuckled. “Allow me to be the very first to welcome you here to our humble little town. I hope you’ll find it everything you’re hoping it is, and that you’ll be able to settle right in and call this place home.”

  The squirrel was attempting to bury itself underneath all that bushy hair of hers, and all I could do was smile in response to her kindness.

  “Your total is…oh, heavens, I can’t ask you to pay for this, not when you are just moving here! Have the whole lot on me, dear,” the woman said, beaming.

  “Oh, I couldn’t possibly ask you to – ” I said.

  “Nonsense,” the woman said. “Please take it as a welcome gift. I know how stressful it can be to move. The last thing you need is something else to be worrying about.”

  “That’s very kind of you,” I said.

  “And one more thing,” she said, holding a finger up and turning around. She knelt down, and just when I was sure I’d hear her shriek in fright at the sight of that raccoon, she surprised me by pushing the box slightly to the side and pulling out a colorful brochure from a stack tucked away in another box. “Here we are,” she said, standing back upright. “This is one of those tourist maps that are available at all of the popular destinations around town. There’s the old train station restaurant, the antique shops down Main street, and the overlook where you can see the Blackburn castle.” She held out the folded map to me, a broad smile on her face. “This should help you get your bearings at first. It shows you the lake, the main lodge for tourists, and the various paths through the forest all through here.”

  I smiled, reaching out to take the map from her. As my fingers grazed the tips of hers, there was a quick, sharp pulse that sent a shiver up the length of my arm and down my spine. My head throbbed once, and it caused me to withdraw my hand quickly, the map clutched tightly within it.

  “I’m sure that’ll help you just fine,” the woman said, clearly unaware of the shiver I’d felt. She’d already turned to my bags and was hoisting them across the counter toward me. “You’ll be very pleased to see that the weather is expected to be much nicer tomorrow.”

  “Right…” I said, grabbing the bags. “Well, thank you very much.”

  “Come back and visit sometime soon,” the woman said with a wave of her hand, grinning. “I want to know how you’re enjoying life in Faerywood Falls!”

  “Will do,” I said, moving across to the door and shrugging it open with my shoulder, trying hard not to upend any of the bags I was carrying.

  I hurried back to the car, tossed the bags inside the backseat wherever I could find room among the boxes, and quickly jumped into the driver’s seat.

  I sighed, wiping some of the rain from my eyebrows and lashes.

  What had that pulse been? It was like I’d been dunked in icy water the way the goosebumps had run up and down my body. Even at the thought, another shiver ran down my back.

  I shook my head, and headed back toward the road. A woman with a squirrel and a raccoon for pets. I’d heard of weirder things, but I wasn’t ready to write it off as a manifestation of my exhaustion just yet.

  I drove on, desperate to find the town.

  Not much further now. And then I’d be home.

  3

  Why my GPS was now telling me that my final destination was almost seven hours away made absolutely no sense to me. It didn’t matter what I did. I closed the app, I put in different directions before reentering the address for Faerywood Falls. I’d even shut off my phone, but it didn’t matter.

  I was glad I’d run into that strange woman at the gas station. She had been very nice, even if just a little weird in her choice of pets. The more I drove, though, the more I became convinced that in my exhaustion, I’d just made the whole thing up. No person in their right mind would let a squirrel hang out on their shoulder like she was. And the raccoon? It must have actually been a cat, or maybe a weird kind of dog. There was no way it was really a raccoon.

  I came up over the crest of a hill, and I nearly burst into tears with relief. In the distance, I could see some streetlights. There weren’t all that many, but they were the first I’d seen since it got dark, and I was so incredibly ready to be done driving.

  The rain had slowed to a gentle pitter patter against my wind
shield, which made it easier to see at least a little further on the road. I wasn’t all that excited about just how far away those lights were, but the prospect of finally being done with this journey was overwhelming, and all of my anxieties were shoved away.

  I drove across a bridge that revealed a gorgeous night sky. I caught a glimpse of lightning darting back and forth between the rain clouds overhead, and found myself excited about seeing what this place looked like in the daylight.

  Soon I was surrounded by the trees once more, like thick walls on either side of the road.

  My headlights revealed something copper colored in the middle of the road a short ways ahead. I squinted through the rain, trying hard to figure out what it might be. Was it a pipe of some sort that had fallen off the back of a truck? Was it a road cone?

  My heart sank as I drew closer. It wasn’t any of those things. It was a fox lying on its side.

  I slowed the car to a stop, not seeing any cars coming in either direction. I stared out at the little creature.

  Poor thing…how terrible it was that someone had hit it and just drove off like that.

  There was a lump in my throat as I watched the tiny creature. It had a gorgeous coat, a vibrant orange, with a white belly, black paws, and a tiny black nose.

  I was choked up, watching this small, beautiful creature, its tail wrapped around itself as if in an attempt to ward off the inevitable.

  Its tail twitched.

  My heart jumped.

  It was still alive?

  Without even thinking, without wasting a second, I jumped out of the car and hurried to the trunk. I threw it open, the rain still coming down, peppering my jacket and hair as I searched with growing frustration for the one thing I knew was in there but couldn’t find.

  I pulled and pushed boxes out of the way until I found my roadside emergency kit. I tugged the zipper open and rummaged through the flares, the rope, and the jumper cables until I found what I was looking for.

  Gloves.

  I tugged them on after closing the trunk and hurried toward the fox, who was still bathed in the glow of my headlights.

  I cautiously approached, trying not to splash in the puddles all that much. Everything was dark, and all I could hear was the rain.

  I bent over the tiny creature, my heart aching as I did. I expected to find a wound, but didn’t see anything aside from mud marring the fox’s otherwise glorious fur coat. I walked around to stand behind it, letting more of the light wash over the animal.

  Then I made a discovery. One of the fox’s legs was stretched out behind it, while the others were not. It didn’t look broken, but the fox definitely seemed to be nursing it. This close, I could see the rapid rise and fall of its tiny chest.

  “It’s okay…” I heard myself say in a soothing, quiet tone. “You don’t have to be afraid. I’m going to do what I can to help you.”

  What in the world was I going to do? The only thing that I’d really ever known how to do was accounting, which was the job I’d left to come all the way out here. On weekends, I’d also been a church organist, but that wasn’t of any practical help with this situation. I had zero experience with anything to do with animals.

  I glanced toward the woods, wondering if I were to carry the fox over in that direction, if it would just rest until it gained enough strength to run back into the forest. I knew that wouldn’t work, though. If it had been strong enough to do that, it probably would have already. And the longer it lay there on the ground, the more likely it became that something bigger and hungry would come along and see the fox as easy prey.

  I took a deep breath of the air, heavy with the scent of the rain and wet earth, and knelt down beside the fox.

  I reached out with one gloved hand, and gently touched the poor creature on its back.

  The fox’s black eyes snapped open and it fixed its gaze on me.

  Help…

  My heart constricted as I stared down into the fox’s face. The eyes were alert, and there was an extraordinary depth behind them. Life, and longing. Fear and hope. I could see it all as I stared down into that fox’s face.

  It was as if I had heard the fox call out for my help…inside my head. But that wasn’t possible. The animal was just so frightened, and it was so clear on its dirty face that it needed help, that my tired mind had set my imagination into overdrive, making me think I’d heard some sort of telepathic cry for rescue.

  A soft whimper escaped the fox, and I bit down on the inside of my lip.

  I couldn’t waste any more time. I had to do something to help this fox.

  But what?

  The fox whimpered again, and I looked up into the surrounding trees. Was there something nearby that only the fox could hear?

  I noticed something glowing just inside the tree line. My headlights reached just the edge of the forest, and beyond that, there was a pair of yellow eyes, staring out at the fox and me in the street.

  I swallowed hard. Those eyes were not kind like the fox’s. They were sinister, and the sheer size of them made me want to never find out the size of the body they belonged to.

  The fox may have sharp teeth and may not exactly like it when I picked it up, but that would be preferable to whatever it was that was staring out at us, perhaps contemplating making the both of us into a meal.

  I knew I should have looked up more about this area before moving here. What sort of large creature could be out in those woods?

  Without wasting another second, I scooped the fox up into my arms and headed back toward the car. I didn’t turn my back on those golden eyes in the forest, though. Whatever it was could have probably made it to us in one leap.

  The fox squirmed in my arms, but didn’t make any attempts to bite me. Little grunts escaped its muzzle, and I worried that I was hurting its already injured leg.

  I opened one of the back doors of the car, trying as hard as I could not to jostle the fox around too much. I kept glancing at the forest. The eyes were still there, watching, waiting.

  I upended a box of clothes into the front seat with one hand before grabbing one of my towels that I’d wrapped around a vase to keep it from breaking, and tucking it into the box. As carefully as I would a newborn child, I laid the fox down on the towel.

  The fox turned its head to look at me, and my heart squeezed painfully. Was that a look of affection? Worry? Maybe a little bit of both?

  Whatever it was, this fox and I had been through something together tonight, and I was going to do my part to help the animal out.

  I nestled the fox’s box up in the front seat, tucking some of the now loose clothes around it to prevent it from moving around as I drove, and before long was able to hop back into the driver’s seat and close the door.

  I breathed a sigh of relief, staring out into the darkness.

  The golden eyes had disappeared, likely searching for more accessible prey in the depths of the forest.

  I puffed out my cheeks, expelling all of the air in my lungs.

  “That was close, huh, little buddy?” I asked, putting the car into drive. I pulled off the gloves and set them down beside the fox’s box, and peered inside. “You doing okay down there?”

  The fox’s tail twitched as it stared up at me. I was pleased to see that it was sitting up a little more. For the first time, I feared that it might leap out of the box and try to attack me while I was driving.

  Maybe I hadn’t thought this all the way through…

  I glanced down at my phone, seeing that the GPS app had crashed, and it wouldn’t open up again.

  I sighed, realizing I was just going to have to keep driving and hope for the best. The lights I’d seen in the distance. That had to be my destination.

  Then I could have a hot shower, eat something for the first time all day, and sleep.

  Oh, blessed sleep…

  “Don’t worry, new friend,” I said as we started off down the rainy road once again. “I’ll call a vet in the area. Or maybe there’s a wildlife depart
ment or something. There’s definitely someone out there who will be able to help you.”

  At least I hoped there was. Well, I guessed there was always the internet, and maybe someone from a nearby city, nearby being relative, would be able to come out and get the fox.

  I glanced into the box again, and saw the fox had settled down as if to sleep, its head on one of its front paws.

  The little animal was definitely cute, with its long snout, slender legs, and fluffy orange and white tail.

  I shook my head. First a lady with a squirrel and raccoon, and then a fox begging me for help.

  There was no way this place could possibly get any weirder.

  4

  The GPS started working again as soon as I crossed into the Faerywood Falls town limits. There weren’t all that many streetlights, but there were some, and the cabin where I was going to be staying wasn’t all that far away.

  The ride with the fox had been mostly uneventful, the worst thing being the smell of wet animal that filled the car. I realized I probably didn’t smell much better, but I also knew that smell would seep into the fabric of the seats and linger for months now.

  I sighed.

  I took a turn off the main road, which was nothing more than a narrow two lane street, and pulled off onto a dirt lane that divided the forest. I bumped along for a while, trying to avoid potholes, grateful that I was in my SUV and not my mother’s tiny hatchback, before breaking through the trees and discovering what must have been the lake.

  It was nearly impossible to see. The rain had since cleared, and the moon was trying to peek through some of the clouds. It reflected on the water, but I couldn’t for the life of me see the edge of the bank.

  I stayed on the road, following it around the lake, passing a few cabins as I did.

  This was a place that my mother’s sister had picked out for me. I had yet to see it. I hadn’t even gotten pictures. Mom said that my aunt claimed it was just fine, and that should be good enough.