Hidden

Chapter 2

She was in the middle of an open field, trapped by chaos. Surrounded by lightning striking the ground at every turn. She tired to run but the lightning boomed and blocked her path, when she tried another direction, it struck there until she was forced to remain still as the chaos continued.

Viola spotted her family across the field from her, her mother’s smiling face and her brother and father standing stern as always. The scene around them was serene, the sun was shining brightly. She could see their mouths moving, forming her name but she couldn’t hear them through all the mayhem.

A bolt of lightning struck directly in front of her, she could feel the ground shake under its power and the electricity it left in the air. The hair on her arms and neck stood on end almost painfully, telling her to run the other way. But she couldn’t, her family was on the other side.

“Viola!” she heard a voice call from behind.

Spinning around she saw Chloe standing alone, opposite of her family but everything was still, no booming bolts of lightning striking the earth, no electric air daring her to move, it was safer over there.

Viola glanced between the two sides, her family and her best friend. She could either take a chance on the storm, the danger, or she could run to safety. She debated for just a moment before she made her choice.

She took a step and ran, ran as fast, faster than she ever had before, ignoring everything else around her until she reached the finish line but just as she was almost there, are loud boom rang through the air and pain pounded throughout her entire body as she fell toward the ground.

Viola woke with a startled gasp, throwing herself forward. She glanced around the room, until she realized that it was all just a crazy dream. Sighing, she ran her fingers through her hair only to realize that her arms were covered in goosebumps and her hair was frizzed out in the dry staticy air. She attempted to tame the mess by running her fingers through it, only for the static to shock her in protest.

She groaned and fell back onto the bed, covering her face with her pillow. This was stupid. It had been years since she’d had a dream that made this little sense and startled her so much.

A pair of heavy padded feet stood on her stomach. Viola lifted the pillow off her face to see Sphinx staring down at her with concern in her big green cat eyes.

With a sigh she scratched the cat’s ears. “It’s okay. Just a dream,” she told the cat, unsure if she was trying to reassure herself or Sphinx.

There was a knock on the door. Viola stifled another sigh as she sat up on her elbows, “Come in, Cedar.”

He poked his head in and raised an eyebrow at her, “How’d you know it was me?”

She frowned at him, “Because Mom doesn’t knock and Dad is making breakfast.” She sniffed the air, her stomach growling in longing toward whatever yumminess of bacon and eggs her father was making for breakfast.

Cedar shrugged, “I suppose that’s fair.” He stepped into the room and tossed something solid at her.

Viola winced slightly as it bounced off her knee and landed on the mattress in front of her. “Ow, what did you just throw at me?” she whined as she picked it up; it was her mother’s smooth orange carnelian stone, “Does mom know you took this?”

He nodded, “Yeah, just keep it with you for today.”

Viola gripped her mother’s precious stone in her hand as she bounced out of the bed and bounded out of the room after her brother, “What for??”

Cedar grinned at her, “For luck?”

“What do I need luck for? What do you have in mind, Cedar?”

He smiled over his shoulder, “We’re going hiking, Vi.”

She paused to stare at her brother, “I’m okay with hiking but are you sure you can handle it? After last time I thought you swore never to go hiking with me again.”

Cedar paused in the hall and glanced back at her, “I forgot about that. This time I’m picking where we’re going and if I have to put a leash on you to keep you from wandering all over the place, I’ll do it.” He pulled up a chair at the table and sat.

“Hey, I’m sixteen now. I can listen better,” Viola protested with a grin.

“Cedar did you come home just to fight with your sister?” their mother called from the hallway as she stepped into the kitchen.

He laughed and shook his head, “No, but I was going to take her out to Dad’s favorite fishing spot today.”

Cecily Silva raised an eyebrow at that, “You sure? It can get pretty dangerous out there.”

“Dangerous how? It’s a pond full of fish,” Viola mumbled as her father set a plate down in front of her.

“There are more than just fish, Vi,” her father warned in his usual way by somehow sounding foreboding and amused at the same time.

She shook her head and took a bite of the food, choosing not to pay any attention to the teasing of her family. When she was a child her father and brother had accidentally caused her to be terrified of going to the place by telling her that monsters lived under the water, waiting to snatch little girls and drag them to their lairs. She’d even worked herself into believing she’d seen a dark figure rising out of the water the one time she’d gone camping with her father at the pond. She’s never been back since.

“What do you think, Viola?” her mother asked suddenly.

She blinked, her family sat staring at her expecantly and she realized she’d tuned them out. “Sorry. What was that?” she asked, smiling apologetically at them.

Cecily frowned at Viola over the morning paper, a lock of red hair hanging in her face killing the authoritative look she was trying to pull off, “I suggested that the two of you go see if your old treehouse was still standing too.”

She thought about it for a moment and shrugged, “It wouldn’t hurt anything.” She quickly shoved a spoonful of egg into her mouth and hopped up from her chair, “I’ll go get ready.”

~~~

Viola groaned, “Cedar, why did you put so many rocks in my pack?”

“They’re not rocks, they’re crystals,” he said as he glanced back at her. Before they left the house and after she’d finished packing, he’d added three more of her mother’s crystals to the carnelian--amethyst, Azurite, and an emerald.

It wouldn’t have been much of an issue if she hadn’t already over packed and if the amethyst wasn’t digging into her spine through the padding of the pack. Her only saving grace was that the pond wasn’t as far as she felt it was when she was six years old.

The pond was located a short ways in the forest behind their house about a mile and a half, longer if they took the more complicated scenic routes which were Viola’s favorite, Cedar’s… not so much.

“That still doesn't tell me why you made me bring them. I can’t believe Mom let you take them, anyway,” Viola complained as she tried to wiggle the amethyst out of her back, hoping it’d stop the irritating tingling sensation.

Not answering, Cedar just kept walking up the path in front of her. Viola grumbled to herself about how her brother was ignoring her and wouldn’t even let her stop long enough to move the crystal.

So when Cedar suddenly stopped, she almost crashed into his pack but in an attempt to avoid the collision, she pulled herself to a halt, only to feel herself tip backwards until her butt hit the ground.

Wincing, she frowned up at his back. He ignored her. “Cedar,” she growled before finally turning to see what he was staring at so hard.

In the forest off the path a red fox poked her head up, watching them. It’s light colored eyes looking in between the two trespassers before focusing on Viola. She recognized her the moment she saw her, this was the fox that she’d befriended. Viola smiled and slipped the pack straps off her shoulders as she crouched on the ground, holding a hand out to her furry friend.

Suddenly a falcon alighted on a branch above the fox and stared down at her. Viola frowned and watched the bird, it seemed familiar for some reason but she couldn’t place where she’d seen it before. Maybe because she didn’t see falcon’s often.

The falcon watched the siblings calmly, surprisingly not making any move to run from them or to the fox beneath it.

Cedar hauled up her pack and held it for her, “Come on, we need to keep moving.”

“Why are you in such a hurry?” she asked, pulling the pack on her back once again, no longer being stabbed by the crystal as the pack shifted. “Hikes are supposed to be leisurely, you know.”

“Hikes have never been leisurely with you, Vi. Do you still try to run everywhere you go?” he asked as he lead the way.

Viola shook her head, a memory of dragging Cedar behind her as she chased the horses in the city parade as a child making her smile, “Only when I’m late.” She followed after him, glancing around at the forest surrounding them to see if the fox or the falcon were following her. She could hear leaves crunching occasionally she wasn’t sure if it was her fox or something else following. She hoped it was the fox.

She jogged a bit to catch up with her brother, she was the runner in the family but his long strides made it hard to keep up with him when he was in a hurry. As she fell into step beside her brother, her mind wandered away from the hike.

The dream she’d had the night before came to mind. It was unsettling and ever since she’d woken up that morning, she’d even had stiff, tingly shoulders and back from tossing that night. She wasn’t in pain or anything, it was just that her body didn’t feel the same as it had when she’d gone to bed the night before. Like there was some sudden change over night.

She was suddenly snapped out of her thoughts when the siblings arrived at the pond. It was just like it had always been, large and ominous and murky. She was never sure why her father liked coming out here. It always gave her the creeps.

Viola walked to the shore, stooping down to pick up a pebble before attempting to skip it across the pond like she used to watch her father do. It bounced along the surface a couple times before sinking to the bottom.

Cedar sighed to himself behind her before plopping down on the ground with a bottle of water in his hand. “Why don’t you get a bottle and come sit with me for a bit?” he said gesturing to the packs further away from the water on the sand.

She shrugged and walked toward her pack but when she was within a foot from the bags, her feet suddenly began sinking into the ground, every time she tried to pull one loose, the other went further under until she was knee deep in the wet sand.

“Cedar, I need your help,” she called. She tried to push down with her hands to get out of the quicksand but they just sank with only a little resistance, not that she expected it to work anyway. She couldn’t find where the solid ground was anymore. Where had this thing come from anyway? Did she just happen to miss it when she came through the first time?

Glancing up, she spotted red ears pointing up and a furry brow wrinkled in concern. The fox was creeping closer to her, peeking her nose through the tall grass and sniffing the air around her, coming further out into the open. When she got closer, the falcon alighted on top of Viola’s pack and the fox bounded off into the forest again.

Viola scowled at the bird who somehow seemed amused by her predicament. She tried to twist around, “Cedar!”

He sat with his back to her, not hearing her. She grumbled under her breathe, “No good big brother.” She stretched over a bit to snatch up a pebble resting on the sand beside the quicksand pool and tossed it at her brother.

It struck him in the back and he jumped. When he saw Viola he shot to his feet with a grin and walked over to her, “Need a hand?”

She glared up at him, “No, I’m just sinking to my death ‘cause I want to.”

Cedar raised an eyebrow at her attitude and turned to walk away, “Well if that’s all then I guess--”

“No!! Cedar help me, damnit! This isn’t the time!”

He shrugged and reached out a hand to her. Viola gripped it and he hauled her out of the icky wet sand like they did in the movies. She felt the sand around her cling to her legs and her shoe slipped off with a sloshy popping sound.

When she was finally back on solid ground she scowled at her brother before stomping off to the edge of the pond and sat, trying to get the muddy sand off her pant legs and feet.

“So how did you manage to find quicksand, Vi?” Cedar asked as he walked over to her, the lost shoe miraculously in his hand.

The wind tickled her face with wisps of red hair and she sighed, “Cedar, I don’t think I’m up for hiking anymore. I just want to go home and shower.”

Cedar shrugged, “Yeah, I guess I could understand that but I really wanted to spend more time with you.”

Viola splashed some water onto her hiking boots and jeans. She saw Cedar kneel down beside her from the corner of her eye but paid him no mind until she heard the water splash and felt fat drops slap against her face and hair. She opened her eyes again and looked up at him, “Seriously?”

He shrugged with a sheepish grin but his shoulder slumped a bit, “Didn’t think it’d actually hit you.”

Viola suddenly jumped up from where she’d been sitting and gave her brother a hard shove toward the water, “Right, like I don’t actually expect you to fall in!” she said as he stumbled into the water.

His fall caused her to end up ankle deep in the water and splash over her clothes, but it was worth it. He blinked water from his blue eyes and looked up at her with a laugh, “I may have deserved that.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “May have?” she asked with a laugh of her own.

Laughing, Cedar hauled himself out of the water and trudged over to the shoreside by the pond and plopped down on the sand. Viola followed suit and sank down beside him, grinning, proud of herself.

“That fox of yours is very fond of you. She hasn’t stopped following us once,” he said gesturing over his shoulder.

Viola turned to look at her poking her head up above some weeds at the edge of the forest, “Isn’t she so pretty? She’s probably hoping I’ll leave something for her, though I’m not sure what’s up with that bird. He’s kinda weird.” She watched the falcon flutter it’s wings on a branch.

Cedar shook his head with a grin, “Maybe he’s hoping for a hand out too. Maybe you’ve been given a reputation with the predators here.”

She shrugged and looked out over the water, watching fish splash the surface. It still seemed hard to believe her father would actually chose to fish here. She was even more amazed that there was actually something living in that water.

“So why were you so scattered this morning, Vi?” Cedar asked, glancing over at her.

The dream came back to her again and she shook her head, “No reason, just had a very bizarre dream.”

“What was it about?”

She shrugged, “I don’t really know. It doesn’t matter though, it was just a dream.”

Cedar nodded, “I suppose.” For some reason she didn’t think he really felt that way. “So what happened in the dream then?”

She sighed, “Why? Like I said, it’s just a dream. It doesn’t have any meaning.”

“What could it hurt to talk about it then? Especially if it doesn’t mean anything,” he said with a smile.

She considered that for a moment then shrugged, “I guess.” After hesitating another couple seconds, “I was trapped in the center of a storm at first and then it switched to where I was separated from you and mom and dad by the storm and behind me was Chloe separated by a big open space.”

“So like you were choosing between us? That’s strange,” he mumbled.

Viola nodded, “Right, anyway, I went to run and then something hit me and that’s when I woke up.”

“Which way were you running?” he asked suddenly.

Viola looked up at him, “Why?”

He shrugged, “Just curious.”

“I don’t really remember,” she answered mostly honestly.

Cedar just frowned and looked out at the water. In an attempt to avoid the silence, Viola hopped up, brushing sand off the back of her pants. She headed toward the dock. Not many people fished here and especially not with boats but her father always told her that the dock was the best place to get the feel of the water, whatever that meant.

Carefully, she stepped across the boards, trying to make sure she wouldn’t find a rotted board and fall into the water. Imagined or not, Viola had no intention of falling into the clutches of dark scary monsters waiting for innocent victims to devour.

She scanned the surface of the pond curiously, until her attention was brought to the left side of the pond when she heard a quiet splash. When she glanced over she saw the tail of a large snake slithering into the water and across the top toward the center. It was the size of an adult python, about as long as she was tall, and was probably about as thick around as her calf. It’s coloring was weird, having a mixture of white patches with the ordinary brown diamond scales.

The sight of it sent a shiver down her spine and she turned to head back to the shore to avoid the thing. She thought it might be someone’s pet though she wasn’t sure what it was doing way out here.

The hair on her arms stood up and her back itched as she felt it grow closer to the dock. She looked up and saw Cedar standing at the other end waiting for her.

When she finally made it to him, he put a hand on her shoulder, “Come on, let’s head home now.” He glanced back at the snake once before heading for their packs.

~~~

By the time the two made it back home, the sun was going down. Viola sighed and slipped her quicksandy shoes and socks off at the door. There wasn’t much she could do about the sand left on her pants but she knew her mother would kill her if she tracked that much through the house.

When Cedar pulled the backdoor open and Viola followed him inside, their mother gasped as she looked them over, “What in the world happened to the two of you?”

“Cedar tried to kill me,” she stated as she set her pack down on the floor. Miraculously it didn’t have as much sand coating on it as she did.

Cedar laughed, “I didn’t try to kill her. She found a patch of quicksand, that’s all. Besides, she pushed me into the pond, she tried to drown me.”

“Only you would claim I tried to drown you in ankle deep water,”she chidded as she padded barefoot down the hall toward the bathroom, “I’m going to get a shower.”

Her mother laughed and followed her down the hall, “Let me get your clothes before you make a beach in my bathroom.”

With a laugh, Vi lifted her t-shirt up, her back turned to her mother. She heard her mother gasp and turned to look back at her, “What’s wrong, Mom?”

She held a hand over her mouth shook her head, “What happened, Vi?” her voice coming out in a whisper.

“I told you, quicksand happened.”

Pausing for a moment, she slowly shook her head, “No….Your back. Look.” Cecily Silva reached forward and pulled up Viola’s shirt again, exposing her back and turning her daughter so it faced the mirror.

Viola looked back over her shoulder. Peeking out from under her shirt was a series of streaking red lines that looked like branches traveling down her back. Panicked, she hauled her shirt off over her head and dropped it on the floor.

Reddish-pink lines branched out from the center of her back just beneath her shoulder blades spreading from the back of her neck to the small of her back, like the branches of the giant naked oaks she’d climbed in with Chloe as a child.

Tentatively, she reached back, trying to run her fingers over the marks. There was no pain, it looked like it should burn or sting, or… something. She slowly realized that the tingling sensation she’d had most of the day was along the jagged lines and center.

“Where did you get this, sweetie…?” her mother asked, concerned as she tucked a lock of hair behind Viola’s ear.

Viola shook her head, staring at the markings, “I have no idea….”