The Pink Lab: Call of the Faeries 3, Pt. 6

We're getting to it now. On our way to the finale!

Chastity was ahead somewhere, lost in the maze of trees. Her heart hammered in her chest as she ran and scrambled, and dug claws in the earth to keep pushing herself forward. There was something ou here, something very much not human, and she was following the oldest impulse the world had known - to run!

No directions was more or less appealing than another, so she went straight ahead. Memories of movies where people got lost in the woods, walking in a straight line only to discover they had been traveling in one grand circle. It was easy to criticize such decisions from the comfort of a sofa, watching these stories of survival. It was another to feel the rush of adrenalin, the peculiar prickly feeling of air on your skin, to really appreciate that kind of thinking. 

There was a mist growing up around her, the earth exhaling smoky lungs. The scent was flowery, too, and Chastity knew it was something unnatural. The girls were behind her, though. She could hear their giggling and eerie joy call from behind. It grew more indistinct with the rise of the mist that now circled her waist and continued to rise. Soon, it would color the whole world.

Her energy flagging, she fell against a mossy tree and pressed her body against it, melting into it to disguise herself while she rested and listened. The mist was over her head, now, and the dark bark of her tree was the only true color. The rest was white and gray, trees that were mere feet away nearly hidden by the thick haze.  

And the smell! Like a faceful of roses and wildflowers crammed into your nostrils, Chastity decided. But the sound of the girls was all but gone. Nothing stirred and an uncanny silence settled over her. Chastity’s heart was very loud in her ears, and her breath was thunder. 

She jerked her hand away from the mossy bark, her fingers sticky from where something touched her. She examined the clear slime on her fingers, webbing between her fingers when she spread them. She moved her head around the circumference of the tree to see what had touched her, expecting to find a grinning girl staring back at her. 

It wasn’t that at all. It was a bright green vine, decorated by what looked like weins, dark green than the rest. The tip of it, round and bulbous, hung loose inches from the tree. That was what brushed against the tops of her fingers. While she studied it, the tip turned, as if it looked at her.

“What?” she wondered.

It thrust at her, pushing past her parted lips and diving down her throat, She reached for the tube, but new vines grabbed her wrists and ankles. Her nostrils sucked in air as her mouth was stuffed with the vine. It throbbed in her mouth while she struggled in her floral bondage. The earth sank beneath her as she was held aloft by the vines, her body spasming in midair. 

The phallic vine reached an apex of its pulsing. It hesitated, shuddered deep in her throat, and released wet seed. It was thick and warm and sweet in Chastity’s mouth. What had been struggle became greedy surrender. She sucked at the vine, cheeks hollowed as she slurped for every drop from the thing. The vines eased their grip on her wrists, and Chastity reached for the vine, caressing it, urging it to continue its feeding. 

While she fed, the others found her, gathered around, and watched as a new sister was born. 

Deep in the woods, there was only darkness. Occasional winks of light would break up the monotony of that pitch canvas, but mostly it was still. And very quiet. Andi stood at the edge of the light, not daring to take a step beyond the glow of the RV and its waning batteries. To step into that darkness would be to lose oneself, she thought. She admonished herself for such fairy tale fears, but she knew it to be true. Andi was very afraid of the dark in that moment. 

“Still nothing?”

“No,” Andi called back to Colin. He had wanted her to go look down the path Ryan and Chastity had taken. There was the same nothing in that direction as there was in every other. Only the slight silhouettes of drees, slightly darker in the blackness. 

“Where do you think they went?”

‘Into the dark. With them.’

With who? She did not know. But she suspected the girl, Juno, had been one of them. Her theory of the case was half-formed. She only knew that the girl wasn’t right, and the slow disappearances of her friends was distinctly not-right also. 

“We have to find them,” she announced. Maybe she was talking to Colin, or maybe it was her way to still the voices of doubt and panic threatening to steal the last of her resolve. 

“You shouldn’t go out there.”

“Ryan has the keys.” She laughed, a bitter sound. “We can’t go anywhere without him unless we walk. And if we’re walking anyways, why not try to find the others?”

“Because there’s a road. We just start heading the direction we came from and we’ll find a gas station or something. We’re on the road to Banish. There is going to be traffic.”

“Where is it, then? Huh? How long have we been out here? Two hours now? Longer than that? I’m not sure because my cell phone is totally dead.”

“Mine, too.”

“Just like the RV. There is something out here, Colin, and it doesn’t want us to leave/ I’m not even sure we’re in the United States anymore.”

“This is crazy.”

“I know,” Andi answered. She heard the razor of near-insanity in her voice, high and jittering. “I know it is. The only way out is through. Dad says that. I think we have to go through, Colin. But I need you to stay here. Can you do that?”

Colin looked around at the shield of dimming light that kept him safe. “Be fast,w ill ya?”

“Fast as I can,” she promised. “I love you.” She kissed him on the cheek and hugged him in his chair, a messy hug, but tight and full of heart. 

She didn’t look back but aimed for the last place she’d seen Bailey and quickened her pace. Whatever she would find, might as well find it fast.