Join My Cult - Original Falcon Press

since been forgotten, which threw this mourning into the azure twilight
of the pre-dawn sky.
Ken called out when he found the foundation of another building long
since burnt to the ground. Everyone ran over to him.
“I was just noticing…this could have been a road.” He motioned
around him. “See how the trees are all cleared out or very young in a
straight line all the way to the left, and then, to the right. I would guess,”
he said, looking at the trees directly, “that these new trees are no older
than twenty years.”
“Why do you think these woods are so angry, Ken?” Alexi asked
suddenly.
Ken turned around, the cold leaving a scowl on his face. “The
McMansions are fast approaching…and these were once used as sacred
lands, don’t you remember Dawn talking about that?”
Alexi nodded, “Yeah but— …did you hear that?”
There was a scuffling sound somewhere in the darkness. They all
froze in place. A form, long and low to the ground, darker than the night,
rushed past them. It moved too fast to register anything beyond a blur.
Alexi scanned the moonlit tangle around him. He heard another crash,
and the popping of dry leaves. Looking in the direction of the noise, he
saw Jason clumsily trudging past the building toward a circular grove of
trees that stood behind it, on the far side.
“Hey Jason, what a—” His question fell flat in his throat. There, in the
middle of the grove stood a hazy blue form. It looked like moonlight collected
on shimmering water—and if it hadn’t been arranged in the form
of an upright human, he would have assumed that’s what it was. Still, it
could have been a trick of the eyes, but something in his gut told him
otherwise. He felt both nauseous and inextricably pulled towards it.
Jason continued forward, now gliding through the underbrush like a
spectre himself. Alexi froze, watching transfixed as he crossed the
periphery of the trees. The woods fell silent as Jason stood there. Suddenly
the tugging sensation in Alexi’s stomach stopped and Jason fell,
seemingly unconscious, into the underbrush.
His senses returning to him, Alexi called out to the others and rushed
to where Jason had fallen. As he approached he heard the unmistakable
sounds of retching. There, in the circle of trees, Alexi found him,
writhing and vomiting amidst their tangled roots.
Leaning over, he put his hand on Jason’s shoulder firmly, and rolled
him over so he could look into his eyes. Already the bout of sickness was
passing, and Jason looked back at him with a perplexed look.
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