Join My Cult - Original Falcon Press

wide, even if it is so simple as ‘you really can be whoever you want to be
and do whatever you want to do.’ If, and it’s a big ‘if,’ we can learn to
work together… The only thing I know is that I will never give up.”
Ken had no response.
Alexi looked back at Andy, and realized he was thoroughly miserable.
“What’s eating at you?”
“The wind. What the hell are we doing?”
“You’ll see. Don’t worry too much about the cold—once we’re in the
protection of the trees, you’ll barely notice it. Anyway, I imagined you’d
want to be involved in this little expedition. That’s right, isn’t it?”
That shut him up. In fact, mentioning the protection of the woods
seemed to speed him up a great deal, and soon they were out of the open
field, and the harsh bite of the air. The path was really just a giant mudslide
devoid of vegetation, possibly an experiment in land erosion. The
incline of the path was even steeper than had been apparent at a distance,
and most of the group began down timidly, especially Renee, who was
quickly losing her breath. Alexi, however, growled and charged headlong
down the hill, leaping from one side to the other to slow his decent over
the small chasms and gullies that riddled the way to the bottom.
Ken pointed at Alexi, now far ahead, with his lit cigarette and said to
Jason, “he’s enthusiastic at the most random times.”
When they reached the bottom, Ken and Alexi waited for the rest of
the group to catch up. They stared through the naked, skeletal trees at the
night sky, brilliantly lit by the near-full silver moon, temporarily mesmerized.
Though they could still hear the wind bearing down on the trees
above in giant blasts, it was eerily calm, still and silent except for the
light rustling of falling snow and the sharp crunching footfalls of their
companions. The two of them stood at the bottom of the valley, at their
feet lay a fallen tree that reached all the way to the other side of a whispering
stream. The path stretched in either direction, parallel to the
stream which ran the full length of the dale.
Once they were together here in this silent valley, they found themselves
standing in a ring beside the path. Their hands met, in unison now,
arms linked. They slowly began turning counterclockwise. The movement
was slow, steady, and became quickly hypnotic. Alexi wasn’t sure
what had prompted the action, and could tell from the looks on all of
their solemn, curious, and frightened faces that no one else knew, either.
A sliver of fear ran up his back, like frigid liquid dripping in reverse, and
Alexi tried to pull back but found that he could not. Somehow the hypnotic
swaying of the trees, the flakes of snow falling in slow motion,
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