Dark Trail

Dreams

In the dream, Ember was in the middle of Dark Trail woods, surrounded by trees. She couldn't tell North from South and everything looked the same. She was, no doubt, lost. Above her, a large crow soared and landed on a limb. It's caw seeming to be warning her- no- ordering her, to run. Ember backed up, not taking her eyes off of the crow that seemed to have human eyes that were black as night and could see right through her.

Right when she turned to run, vines snaked up from the ground and twisted and entwined around her ankles. With her heartbeat racing, Ember bent and desperately clawed at the vines that refused to be torn. While Ember was tugging at the vines, she didn't notice the girl that had stepped out from behind one of many large trees. Ember didn't notice her until this girl's bare feet came into Ember's vision. Ember fell back, her feet still unable to move from their spot on the ground.

"Ember," the girl's wispy voice sounded strained. Her hair was a snowy white, her lips a pale purple, and her body seemed starved. "You need to leave," she said as if it wasn't obvious of the plant that climbed up her legs.

"I'm trying! I'm trying," Ember's voice was panicked and she started trying even harder to get the vines off. The girl set her bony hands on Ember's fingers that were now bloody from scraping at the plants. It was then that Ember actually looked at this girl. It was then and only then did she recognize her sister's face.

"Ember. I'm not here anymore. You need to leave while you can. Only you and Salem can leave. The others are lost forever. There's nothing you can do," Eira told her. Ember shook her head.

"What? No. What's wrong with you?" Ember asked as Eira took her cold hands off of her sister's. "Eira?"

Eira kissed her unhealthy looking fingers and touched the vines, causing them to shrivel away from Ember. "Eira I don't understand."

Eira smiled at her sister. "You won't, Em. It's okay. Remember how mom always told us that our ancestors were witches? She was right, Em. Descendants of Hecate, the Greek Goddess of magic. It's the only reason why you can leave. So go. Leave this place."

"What about Salem? You said that he could leave, too." Eira nodded.

"Descendant of Apollo. He's the only other one that may leave." Eira stayed silent, letting the information sink in. In a small voice Ember asked, "What about you?"

"I belong here, Em. You know that deep down. I know you do," she said.

"No, you don't. You didn't even want to come here!" Ember raised her voice, getting irritated at her sister. Eira raised a brow.

"I'm the one who had the idea, Ember. I planted the newspaper article for Jarvis to find in the library. I e-mailed stories about this place to Alena. Those guys weren't going to go if they thought that nobody was scared, so of course I had to pretend that I didn't want to come," she revealed. Ember's jaw went slack in disbelief.

"But... Why?" Eira's beautiful blue eyes went dark.

"We have to feed, too."