Sturm’s Thicket

The inn is quite charming. The white wainscoting and grey floral wallpaper are nice, and remarkably, the bed is just big enough for me to fit. I usually end up having to sleep in weird positions in these small-town inns, but this was refreshing. 

I pull myself free from the soft embrace of the mattress and stretch. It’s been a couple of weeks since I arrived in town. The foundation for the barn is set, and I think I might be able to finish the frame today. 

After a quick shower, I head down to the inn’s dining room – the building is a converted home, so the dining area is quite small and cozy, with only four small tables with two chairs a piece. There is a pot of coffee on the counter that runs the length of the room, along with a toaster and an assortment of baked goods – muffins, cinnamon rolls, pies, fresh bread, bagels, and scones. 

I pour myself a coffee and take a cinnamon roll with me to one of the tables by the window, and as I eat, the author I saw in the bar comes in. Lorelei, I thought her name was. She drops off her stack of notebooks at the corner table and heads back to the counter with stars in her eyes, staring at the food like a hungry dog. She gets herself a coffee and fills her plate with a little bit of everything, and plops down in her chair. She twirls a few strands of her messy hair around her fingers as she scarfs down a piece of buttermilk pie with her bare hand. 

“Bill said you’re a writer,” I say. “What do you write?” 

She wipes the crumbs from her face and gulps down a big mouthful of coffee. “Occult horror stories. I wrote the ‘Midnight Coven’ and the ‘Blood Sisters’ series’.” 

“I’ve heard of those, they’re really popular, aren’t they?” 

Lorelei shrugs in reply and chomps into a chocolate chip muffin. 

“What brings you to a small town like this?” 

“Mmnnfrrmmmm,” she replies, her mouth full. She swallows and clears her throat. “I’m working on a new book, so I’m travelling across the States investigating ghost stories, hauntings, strange sightings, demon possessions, and witchcraft, looking for inspiration. I heard a rumor about a haunted forest out here so I decided to come stay for a while and take in the atmosphere.” 

Yukiko would have really liked her. She loved people like Lorelei – unusual yet passionate. I can’t help but smile at the thought. Lorelei certainly picked the right place to set up shop, too. Even now I can feel the presence lurking deep within the heart of the woods. 

“Can I ask you a question now?” She says, licking a bit of chocolate from her thumb. “What’s the story with your tattoo?” 

I instinctively look at Yukiko’s sigil on the back of my left hand. “This? It’s just something my late wife created. It’s supposed to represent the moon.” 

She raises her eyebrow, clearly intrigued, but she doesn’t prod any further. I finish my coffee and take my dishes to a plastic blue tub sitting at the end of the counter next to the kitchen door, then I head out. 

The walk to John and Donna’s farm is nice. The trees provide some shade, and the morning breeze is always welcome on these hot days. 

At the farm, I work on assembling the frame of the barn. With magic, I could have it finished in a few hours, but I’m in no hurry. I want to take my time, work with my hands, and keep my skills sharp. 

Donna comes by at lunch with two burgers and fries for me, and a few hours later with a big helping of mac and cheese and pulled pork sandwiches. They’re kind people, from what I see of them. They go for walks around their property every day, holding hands like I used to with Yukiko. It’s a bittersweet feeling, seeing them dote on each other. 

As the sun begins to set, I wipe the sweat from my brow and step back to take in my progress. At this rate, the frame might be finished tomorrow. 

I head back toward town, but along the path I get a chill that runs down my spine. I snap toward the woods, staring into the growing darkness. My sigil lights up, and a small orb appears in my hand, casting a gentle, pale blue light. There is nothing there that my eyes can see, but I sense something stirring in the heart of the forest. The presence within is on the move. Is it me? But it doesn’t seem to be coming closer. Is it reacting to something else? 

It’s best not to linger so close. I close my hand, extinguishing the light, and continue down the road, my head on a swivel. 

I head back to the inn and hop in the shower. After I get out I grab my grimoire and flip through the pages to a magic circle with wavy lines in the center surrounded by elaborate geometry. The circle glows, and my hands begin to radiate enough heat to dry my hair and beard. 

With a heavy sigh, I sit at the edge of the bed. I think about how Yukiko would sit in front of her mirror in the mornings, brushing her beautiful dark hair as I used this spell on her. Whenever I caught her gaze in the mirror, she would smile at me. And I’ll never get to do that with her again. 

A lump forms in my throat, and I tilt my head back and shut my eyes firmly, pushing back the tears. I take in a deep breath, and exhale. 

That night, I dream of a delicate green moth with pink lining the edge of its wings. Yukiko had a luna moth just like this as one of her familiars, but Bōrei passed away shortly after she did. The moth gives off a gentle green glow, illuminating the forest grove around me. I hold out my hand, and it lands on my palm. Lorelei’s face flashes in my mind, and I spin on my heels just in time to catch the shadow of some strange creature darting into the darkness. 

When morning comes and I wake from the dream, I immediately sense something ominous from the woods. Perhaps I should take the day off and stay in town – I don’t want whatever is prowling out there to take notice of me. It’s best to leave well enough alone. 

I head downstairs and grab a bagel this time, toasting and buttering it, and I eat it with my morning coffee. As I walk out the front door, I see the inn’s owner standing outside, smoking a cigarette and looking around anxiously. She’s a tall, skinny woman with fashionable clothes and bright blonde hair. 

“Something the matter, Mrs. Dell?” I ask her as I get close. 

“You didn’t happen to see that writer out and about yesterday, did you?” She continues looking up and down the road as she talks. 

I shake my head. “Not since the morning. I was at the farm all day. Why?” 

“She said she was going to investigate the forest yesterday after breakfast. I tried to tell her it was a bad idea, but she up and went anyway, and now… she didn’t come back last night,” she replies, her hands shaking as she takes another long drag off of her cigarette. 

Could the entity of the forest be hunting her? I run my hands through my hair and sigh. The last thing I want to do is get involved with a strange magical presence. But if the rumors about those woods are true, Lorelei is in danger. “I’ll go and look for her.”

“You shouldn’t! Those woods are cursed, I don’t want you to disappear too!” 

I try my best to give her a reassuring smile. “I’m quite resilient, Mrs. Dell. Don’t you worry about a thing, I’ll bring that woman back safe and sound. Just tell John and Donna I won’t be around today.” 

I head back inside for a moment to grab my grimoire, then I make my way around the back of the inn. 

I flip through to a handy tracking spell, which lets me sense Lorelei’s trail. I follow the path she took through the bushes and into the forest itself. My intuition screams at me to turn back, but I ignore it. The forest presence is oppressive, and it’s difficult to maintain my focus on the tracks as it overwhelms my magic senses. 

The trail suddenly disappears, and I look around in confusion. The woods behind me look nothing like the area I had just trudged through. Out of curiosity I use the tracking spell again to pick up my own trail, but I can’t detect it. 

Space is distorted inside the woods. So that’s why people keep disappearing here. Only a particularly powerful being could create a trap like this. Which means the culprit must be – 

My throat tightens and restricts all of a sudden, and I can feel some invisible force pulling me to the ground. I claw at my neck, but the force squeezing it is completely intangible; I can’t touch it. My sigil glows and a pulse of magical energy emits from my body, freeing me. 

My sigil’s glow intensifies, and I can feel the magic of the moon flowing through me. “With the moon’s authority I command you; step into the light!”  

As I shout the words, the apparition is revealed – a ghastly, skeletal, inhuman creature with empty eye sockets and a grotesquely large mouth full of teeth, long bony fingers sharpened into claws, and a mass of hard tendrils with pointed ends. 

The monster, draped in thin, filthy-looking white cloth, lets out an ear-piercing shriek as it realizes its form has been unveiled. 

I snap my fingers and my grimoire disappears, then with a quick motion, claws of ice form over my hands. 

The creature flies at me and swings its arm. I catch it at the wrist, and it stops dead. “Yeah, I can touch you now.” 

I swing my claws and sever the monster’s arm, but its other hand grabs me by the throat, and the tendrils coil around my body, holding my arms in place. 

As the monster unhinges its jaw and poises to bite me, I rapidly begin to freeze every part of the monster that touches me in ice. It recoils, and the second my arms are not restricted, I flail them loose from the tendrils and shred the monster, its body blackening and turning to ash. 

It takes me a minute to catch my breath. As I take a moment to recover, I hear a woman’s scream in the distance. 

Due to the forest’s warped nature, the voice sounds like it is coming from all directions, but I close my eyes and focus my senses, and when she screams a second time, I can feel where the source is. I rush through the woods, crossing a little creek, and just ahead, I see Lorelei cowering against the trunk of a tree, a dangerous presence around her. 

I dismiss my claws, raise my hand, and repeat the same chant from earlier: “With the moon’s authority I command you; step into the light!” 

The spell reveals two more wraiths like the one I just destroyed. They both take notice of me, but instead of attacking, they flee. 

“Lorelei!” I call as I run to her side. “Are you ok?” 

She looks up at me. She looks worn out, with scratches all over her and a cut on her right forearm.

“You’re that man from the inn,” she says. “What happened? A minute ago it felt like I was being attacked by something, and now it’s like whatever was there is gone, and you’re here instead.” 

I grab her arm and inspect the cut. I hold it with my sigil facing down so she can’t see the glow as I quietly heal her wound. The cut closes on its own, but black lines come from the scab and spread all around her forearm. A curse, damn. 

“Mrs. Dell was worried since you didn’t come back last night,” I explain. “I came to look for you. Can you stand?” 

She nods and I help her to her feet. When I look back over my shoulder, the creek I crossed is gone. The forest is trying to force us to head closer to the epicenter of the presence. 

“I went exploring, looking for the old Sturm Manor here in the woods, and I got lost, and no matter what I did, I kept getting turned around. And then out of nowhere there was this fog and it got super cold, and something cut my arm, so I ran as far as I could until something grabbed me, then you found me,” She rambles. 

I pat her shoulder. “You must have been scared. I’m sorry.” 

“Are you kidding?” She replies with a big smile and sparkling eyes. “I’ve never felt so alive! There’s a real ghost here and I am going to find it!” 

“Whatever’s in this forest almost killed you, and you want to find it?” I reply in utter disbelief. 

She nods excitedly. “It just cut me a little, I’m fine. I wonder what it looks like? Would it resemble what the person looked like in life, or would it look like a dead body? Do you think it’s invisible? Who do you think it is? Could there be more than one?” 

She’s like a kid in a candy store, just brimming with excitement. 

Yukiko definitely would have liked her.