Six chicken thighs, two cups of steaming rice, a cup of beans, and a copious amount of hot sauce were all sitting in a bowl. A half hour later, the bowl was clean and placed to dry, a nearby radio crackled on, and a large man settled by a workbench. Three chainsaw chains were removed from a canvas workbag. Benjamin, the man, carefully sharpened the edge of each cutting link. His work done, he bathed and settled down on his bed, which composed of a mattress resting on two wooden pallets.

The next day, Ben was walking a rough trail through an evergreen forest. Eventually, he and his companions reached an area where a couple hundred tall uniform pines were marked with orange ‘x’s. They set to work.

The next Friday, Benjamin was waiting outside an office. He could hear a conversation held within turn interesting.

“That northeast ridge scheduled for next week could be a problem.”

“Why’s that?”

“I walked it just today on my break. It felt… different. I have a gut feeling that we should cut somewhere else. Anywhere else.”

“What’s wrong with it? I looked at the pictures. The trees are in good shape. We’ll get a good chunk of change for them. What is there that I don’t know?”

“...nothing, boss, forget I said anything. See you next week.”

Benjamin saw his coworker leave the office. “Steven. We still on for later?”

“Sorry, Ben, change of plans. Something came up.”

“No worries.”

“I’ll make it up to you. See you Monday.”

“Bye.”

Ben walked into the office.

“Ben! I’ve got your paycheck right here… Seems you’ve kept your streak going! Keep up the good work.”

“Thanks, boss. See you next week.”

That night, Ben drank alone.

The next morning, Steven knocked and entered into Ben’s house with a large bag.

“Steven?”

“Hate to bother you, Ben, but it’s urgent. I need to borrow your truck.”

“I’m not busy. I’ll come with. You sound worried. Is this related to why you were busy last night?”

“You could say that. I’ll explain on the way.”

Steven drove them to and down a highway. “It’s this… it’s difficult to explain. See, yesterday I was looking at the plans for next week and felt like scouting out the timber. I found something. There’s a piece in the bag. Don’t look inside, I think it might be dangerous.”

Ben glanced nervously at the bag.

“We’re headed to the university. There’s a famous mycologist that teaches there. She’s our best bet at identifying it.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“Mycolo– Steve, you’re saying there’s a mushroom in your bag?”

“It’s not normal. Ben– promise you’ll keep this secret for now. When I approached it, it felt strange. In my head. At first I thought it was a psychedelic experience– poisonous spores? But then after last night…”

“You’d better explain. Stop beating around the bush.”

“I had a vision, alright? Ugh… I know how it sounds, but it gets worse. I saw… death. I saw things dying. Birds, insects, critters of all kinds in the forest, in different places and in different times. But I saw one human, too. A man, in the night, murdered by his wife in the big house on Curved Street. I thought I was poisoned, going to die. But it got better. The visions subsided, and I ran. So after work, I was freaked and just wanted to go home, that’s why I bailed on you, but on the walk home I saw a dead squirrel. A squirrel I remembered from the visions, killed by a car.

“I figured it was Déjà vu, one of those weird psychological things, but there was enough uncertainty in my mind that I decided to take a detour to Curved Street. And as I’m thinking I’m crazy, I sneak up through the woods to that isolated big house, and what do I hear? The wife’s clearly drunk, screaming about some betrayal of some sort. I see her in the window, and she picks up this big kitchen knife. And it’s just like the vision. So I freak out, I run and bang through the unlocked door. And the husband and wife jump, start screaming at me, asking who I was. So I ran.

“I have no idea how they are, now. But that was when I started thinking that I wasn’t just poisoned. I figured that massive mushroom had to mean something crazy. Like, prophetic crazy. I went back for it, and I broke off a piece and stuffed it in my duffel. The thing is huge, bigger by far than any mushroom I’ve ever seen. I’ve been afraid to breathe too deeply next to it or the piece I took.”

“Steven, I’m not going to call you crazy, because you’re one of the sanest guys I know, but mind-altering chemicals can do some strange things to a man’s mind. I once saw a homeless man charge headfirst into someone’s car, full speed. Bloodied the poor bastard right up. It’s a good idea to visit that mycologist. If it’s really dangerous, someone’s got to have studied it, and if there are longer-term consequences, there’s got to be a cure of some sort.”

“My thoughts exactly.” (maybe add in a sentence about how they are continued driving in silence?

The two of them found directions to the mycology department from a passerby, and from there, found the professor’s office from the secretary at the front desk. “Yes, Professor Erin Briggen is on the fourth floor. You’ll see the sign.”

Ben pressed the elevator button, "We should have just gone to the hospital. What are we going to say to her?”

“Just let me talk. She’s a professor. She’s got to be curious about a mushroom this big. And if I went to the hospital, my visions would go on record. I still think they might… Nevermind.”

The elevator brought them to the fourth floor.

Dr. Briggen’s door was open. Inside, they could see several curtained shelves, a desk covered with unorganized papers, and a whiteboard with lots of biological diagrams. Steven leaned through the door, looking for the professor.

“Looking for me? You don’t look like students. And if you were students, I’d remember you. You’re huge.”

They turned around to look at the source of the feminine voice. A short woman with brown hair in a lab coat looked at them inquisitively. “So?” she said, “can I help you?”

“We’re, uh, looking to have a mushroom identified. We figured it was rare, due to the size. Any chance you can…”

“Take a look? I’m guessing it’s in the bag. Let me see?”

Steven held the bag a little closer, “Wait. We have reason to believe the spores are toxic. When I found it, I… saw things.”

“Saw things? Like, non-existent things? You must be joking. There aren’t hallucinogenic spores. Aspergillus and Stachybotrys spores are toxic, but they give you pneumonia, not an acid trip. What did you see?”

“Can you just… take a look at the mushroom and tell us what it is?” Steven held the bag open.

Dr. Briggen glanced inside and visibly twitched throughout her whole body. “That— ah, hahaha, this is a prank, isn’t it? This is for the joke on that pathetic bacteriologist. I mean, ha ha, very creative, showing me that. Fae’s Folly is obviously not real. Get out, job done, you got me for a second, I admit.”

“Ma’am, this isn’t a joke,” Steven said. “I came across this near a ravine in a pine forest. I had a vision of death. That came true.”

Dr. Erin Briggen just looked at them, lips pursed, head tilted slightly to the side. “You know what? I won’t fall for this obviously tall tale, but I am a scientist. I’ll take a spore sample. If it grows in my lab, I’ll hear you out. Now give me your contact information and get out.”