15
15. 6. 22, Tuesday, 01:03
One word to sum the wood up at night would be ‘dark’. Two would be ‘grabby trees’. Three would be ‘undergrowth growing everywhere’. Four would be ‘buzzing with unseen insects’. Five would be ‘moonlight joining with the faint flashlights’.
Similarly, if there were three words to describe the whole plan, it might be ‘into the unknown’, or ‘walking without direction’, or even ‘wild goose chase’.
Because, if the Phobia Club weren’t pretending to know where they were going, those were exactly what they would say.
Emma was spraying repellent on everyone, whether they wanted to or not. “Where do we go from here?”
“Adonis is reading the map,” Denver said, not-so-subtly hinting the fact that if they failed to find whatever and wherever the ‘X’ was, it would be Adonis’s fault. Denver shot a look at him, who was bending over the map so much his nose was nearly touching it.
“Shut up, bloody git,” Adonis snapped, startling Leo, who had been acting as the lamp holder.
“Give me that.” Freddie snatched the map away.
“You’re reading it upside down,” Lana pointed out helpfully.
“That. That explains a lot.”
Emma peered over Freddie’s shoulder. “We should go straight for like, until we reach whatever that circle thing is supposed to be.”
“I thought it was an oval, but then again you’re the one without glasses, so yeah.”
“I think that’s a circle of trees,” Julian said, looking over his sister’s head. “See those green mosaic dots around it? You should pay attention to Geography class.”
“How could anyone not? Miss Ross is so loud,” Denver quipped.
Leo nodded.
“You know what I have just discovered that without any legend I cannot read maps,” Freddie announced. “I’m hungry anyway.”
“Right then, let’s go,” Adonis barked and stomped into the undergrowth, but stamped out later to go the other direction, rather flustered. The rest looked at each other, shrugged, and followed him.
Usually on creepy nights where something mysteriously spooky is going to happen on night time wanders will be graveyard silent, but even though it was also a creepy night where something mysteriously spooky is going to happen on night time wanders there were many, many noises. For instance, the crack of whatever insects and leaves and twigs they accidentally stepped on. The squealing of some nocturnal bird hiding. The sound of bushes and backpack contents rustling. The chewing as the seven passed around ginger biscuits they stole from tea. Somehow macaroons were also procured, but then again today’s meal’s theme was France – past weeks included Spanish tacos, English breakfasts, Russian blini, Ukranian borshch and Malaysian dishes. Eating macaroons on creepy nights where something mysteriously spooky is going to happen on night time wanders may be a little bizarre, but they did have a taste for the finer things.
Finally Adonis came to an abrupt stop, leading to the other six fanning out to take a look at whatever obstacle or landmark they had come to. Alas it only turned out to be a giant spider on a boulder which they had to chase off before Adonis woke everyone at Ashwood Mansion with his yelling, but they did come to the landmark indicated on the map shortly after.
“It really is a circle of trees and bushes and plants,” Lana said amazed – they had come to a peculiar arrangement of trees before and since they couldn’t tell if it was a circle unless they were in the air they walked an entire round around it.
“This is definitely not natural,” Denver said.
“Whoever made the trail come here somehow planted or chopped the trees to make this,” Emma agreed.
“It might actually be natural,” Adonis argued. “Haven’t you seen those pictures of weird plants growing perfectly?”
“Yeah, but what are the odds of that?” Leo piped up.
“Where do I throw my energy bar wrapper? I don’t think there’s a dustbin here,” Freddie said mildly.
“Okay, according to the map we enter the circle and once we’re in the centre we turn a sharp left,” Julian said, staring at it hard enough to burn a hole in it. “At least that’s what the lines are pointing to.”
“Alright, but don’t touch those plants! You never know if they’re poisonous and kill you,” Lana reminded for the tenth time.
“We’re not babies,” Denver grumbled. “We don’t stick things in our mouths just because it looks cool.”
Once those directions were obeyed they ended up in another small clearing, surrounded by gorse bushes that caught on their clothing. The wood looked terribly wild on the outside, but as the Phobia Club discovered it was actually full of tiny clearings, which the map was guiding them through.
Several times they were held back when Emma panicked at a bug, or Adonis bellowing at an arachnid, or Denver trying to hop over a puddle of water, or Julian being paranoid that they couldn’t see in every direction due to the wide open space, or Lana simply nagging at them to sanitize their hands.
Northwest, left, right, northeast, diagonal right, sharp left, westward…
At last the lines ended, but a new problem rose: where was the ‘X’?
“Are we supposed to be looking for a chalked marking on the ground? A ring of stones? Some wooden sign?” Freddie questioned, munching on a macaroon slowly. “Something that won’t wash away after rain, most likely.”
Everyone craned their necks around, spread out and shined their flashlights everywhere, but the clearing they had arrived to had absolutely nothing. Lana then suggested they split up a bit more, and despite the very strident protests from a few, the seven walked off into directions akin to the points on a heptagon.
Yet again they returned back to the clearing empty-handed – there was simply no ‘X’ to be found.
Sighing and disappointed, they flopped into limp-noodle positions under a tree. Lana worried that they would get lost if they wandered any further in search of the elusive ‘X’. Emma fretted about the bugs under the tree. Freddie dripped water from her bottle to wash her sticky fingers. Adonis eyed the web above him warily. Denver wanted to go to sleep. Leo stared up at the sky wondering if they would find the ‘X’ better from an aerial view. Julian frantically checked the map to see if he read it wrong.
“Ugh, can’t believe we stayed up this late and came all the way out here for nothing.”
“I’m so tired, even though we put this trip off for like two days to sleep.”
“I think the pool wasn’t the map after all.”
Denver groaned and leaned against the trees (he was in between two) some more, making his frame resemble a hunchback’s. He was going to sleep right there –
Plak.
“Ow!” Denver yelped, opening his eyes. Apparently he had misjudged the angle on leaning and had fallen in between the gap in the middle of the trees. He rubbed his head, glaring at the branches above him. Denver hoped they would get chopped down, but he knew since they were so intertwined to form an arch they probably wouldn’t.
Intertwined. Arch.
“GUYS, THE TREES ARE THE ‘X’!”
Denver leapt to his feet and jumped a few paces back. He couldn’t believe how blind they had been before, walking around the few meters radius and not noticing the two trees forming a very bendy ‘X’ in the middle.
“We’re stupid.”
“How?-”
“OH MY GOSH, IT’S BEEN HERE ALL ALONG?”
“I think we all need glasses.”
“Apparently I was reading the map sideways.”
Mumbling in embarrassment about their blindness, the Phobia Club, excluding Emma who didn’t want to touch any worms like the one on Freddie’s finger she was snickering at, eagerly crouched at the base of the tree and started digging, scrabbling at the dirt with their hands. Soil got stuck under their fingernails, which would doubtlessly annoyed them later when they washed. Bits of loam skidded off their clothes. Stones were thrown back like those people who throw clothes out of their drawers when they can’t find something.
“THERE’S SOMETHING HERE!” Lana screeched, shoving away clods of earth. Six other pairs of hands scuttled to her side and brushed away turf, moss and pebbles. Adonis and Julian reached down deeper and pulled it up.
It was a box.
A box that resembled one of those pirate’s treasure chests. A box with wooden planking and steel frames. A box that had a giant padlock, rusted and stained.
“THE KEY!”
“GET THE KEYS OUT!”
“C’MON, FASTER! THE KEY!”
Everyone turned their pockets inside out and patted themselves all over, forgetting who had the ring of keys. Several peculiar items were procured, but unfortunately not the –
“I HAVE IT!” Emma cried. She held it up, the keys jangling.
Adonis snatched it and frantically fitted each one into the lock, feverishly trying one after the other with everyone else breathing down his neck in impatient anticipation. None. Of. Them. Worked.
“HOW?”
“TRY AGAIN!”
“THIS ISN’T FOR REAL!”
“Maybe there’s another key we haven’t found?” Leo suggested. Everyone groaned.
“WAIT! NO!” Adonis slammed his hand onto the ground. “We didn’t try the one we used to open up the compass!”
“Dude, that’s a knife! This is a box!” Julian pointed out.
“I have the knife,” Freddie interrupted.
“GIVE IT!”
She pushed it to him so quickly it was a wonder that she didn’t accidentally stab Adonis. He held it up to the lock, suddenly freezing uncertainly. Maybe the knife didn’t work. He poked the knife around the keyhole, but nothing happened. He gulped nervously, feeling everyone’s eyes on him.
“That,” Lana began. “Doesn’t fit –”
“I KNOW THAT! I’M NOT BLIND!”
“BECAUSE THE KEYHOLE IS A DECOY!” Lana shouted back, annoyed. “THE ACTUAL SLOT IS AT THE SIDE!”
Adonis went red, but turned the lock sideways to find a thin slot, thing enough for a knife. Murmuring unpleasantly unprintable curses under his breath he slid in the knife. Turning it produced another satisfying ‘click’.
The chest’s lid popped off.
The Phobia Club nearly fell over each other in their rush to grab whatever was in there. When they finally broke away from the mad dash each was left holding a dusty, mystery item each. Rather like the party game where everyone reached in to take a present from a bucket, except this was going to be less innocent than expected…
“Another key,” Emma noted, holding up the jagged object to the light, blowing away the years of grime off it.
“Another diary?” Denver said, flipped through it. “Written in code too.”
“Is this some sort of bloody brochure?” Adonis complained. “I swear, if this is advertising something about vacation in some fancy schmancy cruise – oh wait, never mind. It’s…a blueprint?”
“Ew, what is this?” Lana shuddered, holding up a stack of mildewed papers by a corner. “Guys, sanitize your hands after touching this, we don’t know what germs are on them. Also don’t breathe in the dust otherwise it’ll get into your lungs and –”
“Yellow envelope here,” Freddie said, prying it open.
Julian showed off his grubby pen, clicking it and testing it on his hand. “Works…?”
Leo waved around a rectangular piece of paper that on closer inspection turned out to be a faded photograph of an old man with two children on his knee. The quality was too terrible to actually see the faces, but the inked date was still visible: August 15th.
Emma slotted the key in with the others. The blueprints, pen, photograph were chucked into someone’s backpack. Denver, Leo, Adonis and Julian tried to read the diary – it had a few English sentences in it – while the girls smoothed out the letter.
“Interesting,” Freddie said slowly.
“Well? Read it out.”
Lana cleared her throat.
“You know by now I have been developing something that could help humans by removing all obstacles, superstitions and fears. It was an amazing thing. My fellow colleagues were delighted as were the few who knew. You, my dear boy, was excited about it. I was too.
There was always going to be someone trying to get it illegally, so I hid it within the mansion, only accessible if one could solve all the puzzles. Only I knew the exact location, and I intended to keep it that way until it could be released into the world. Not even my colleagues and my boss knew where it was.
But after a few more tests, I realized the truth: it wasn’t safe.
It was supposed to remove the amygdala’s purpose. It did. Then things started getting out of hand, however. It made the test subjects absolutely fearless – they feared nothing. Which might sound positive, I suppose, but it is not. They became more reckless. They didn’t think of the consequences of whatever they did. Altogether, you might say they became like those villains in your stories you’re always reading. Why would they? They weren’t scared anymore.
Yet everyone else didn’t see it that way. They thought it was a miracle, a breakthrough in medical science. I knew now more than ever that it should never be found again. I left it in its hiding spot to rot; I convinced them I had failed.
Some didn’t believe me, and I regret to say they are those that I fear the most. They will do anything to find it, hidden as it is. Dear boy, I wish I could destroy it once and for all. But sadly I am too old now: my body will not be up to the challenge and my memory is not what it once was. I need you to do it for me.
Find it. I know you will, if you investigate carefully enough to everything I’ve ever given to you and her. Then destroy it. It must never be found. And whatever you do, don’t let anyone else know about it.
Forever your loving grandfather, Jon.”
Silence ensued. The quiet was unnerving in the wood at midnight, so it didn’t last very long. But the shock lasted very, very long. As did curiosity. And as would the consequences.
“Jon Ashwood wrote that?” Julian said.
“What’s he talking about?” Emma piped up.
“Who’s it addressed to?” Adonis demanded.
“Damon probably,” Denver said scornfully. “It did say ‘grandfather’, and there were so many references to a boy.”
“You’re wrong,” Lana said surprisingly.
Freddie looked up from the letter. “Who’s Curtis?”