Mystery Lake

[19] Destinations

Chiara again had to grip the wheel tightly as she backed out of the spot, doing her darndest not to look in the guy's direction. She had no intention of backing into him threateningly unless he tried something.

Ross, in the back seat, looking through the rear window with the harshest death glare he could manage, seemed like he would have no problem burning rubber right at the guy until he flattened him. Roxy focused on Jake as his heartbeat began to slow to a normal level. Soon, they were out of the truck stop and back on the road in the direction they'd been heading. But in what direction were they heading?

Miranda chimed in for Roxy and Jess's benefit that there had been a brief discussion while they had been away, when she finally managed to secure feeble access to the meager free Wi-Fi provided by the truck stop. She used it to do quick research on recent matters above and beyond what Duncan had been able to do since Miss Clifton's lecture. That included looking up the names Cerberus, Rydia, Molly's, and a bunch of other things. She provided the summation.

"I couldn't find much. This area is cloaked in so much legend, as Miss Clifton alluded to, but it's not well documented. It's this general hearsay and feeling in the air. Missing 411 stuff, where people just vanish from the world without a trace, even though they are only a few feet away from civilization. Mentions of pocket realities. Not that weird from what we've seen. But there's a shop not far from here called Triton's Trinkets & Oddities. Several links that I looked up used them as a location with several interesting references. Not only that, they are the publishers of several pamphlets about the legends in this area. Even more, I thought I recognized the name because, in the supplementary materials for Ms. Clifton's class, she actually cites Triton. Unfortunately, they don't have any hours listed, but they are in the very small town of Neverwink, Michigan. It's barely on the map, and the Google stuff is super fuzzy, but I saved the exact address. As long as we follow the map, we should be able to find them. And maybe some answers."

Chiara frowned at the dashboard and noted, "We probably should have filled up back there, but I don't want to turn around now. We only have under half a tank left. So, if you get a connection again, see if you can find another gas station." Miranda dutifully agreed to this task as the co-pilot.

Without a connection, Miranda was limited to offline maps and apps that kept directing her to Wau-Ke-Na down in the southwest instead of up where they were. She overrode that and pointed it to where it should've been going in the north, very close to the border.

After a few more minutes of fiddling with the map and puffing long breaths of frustration, Miranda leaned back as comfortably as she could to look in the back and remarked, "I've been thinking about how those things... The Hollows... I don't know if that was a proper name, but remember, they said we smelled like fairies, and that seemed to be important to them. Unfortunately, what I know about fairies is limited to Disney movies, some books back in elementary school, and maybe a handful of games and independent films that stretch the folklore. I know there are evil fairies, and those three definitely seemed to fit the bill. But maybe they were something else. That means fairy tales are more than just old stories. Anyone else know anything about fairies?"

Miranda didn't focus in Chiara's direction because she was driving and she didn't want to distract her. However, Chiara offered up a little bit when they came to a red light near a logging area.

"My grandparents on my mom's side are from Ireland, although the Watsons are Scottish. I was very young when they were alive, so I don't remember much. My mom may have told me one story, but it was a typical "don't go in the woods because there are monsters" thing. Oh, and the banshee wail when someone in the family dies. That terrified me because I would sometimes hear it in my dreams as a kid and think it was real. I know there's swimming black horses. That might be Scottish, though, on my dad's side..." She stopped talking when the light turned green and refocused on the road.

Miranda nodded and turned to check on what the others knew.

Roxy was still energetic, even though that energy had turned into a nervous fidgeting and picking up the once abandoned trashy romance novel to peek and poke and see if there was anything that her new feelings might better latch onto. She probed and plumbed her thoughts, sifting for something she might have retained from boring classes, rare trips to the library, or anything else that might be the least bit helpful. Unfortunately, she shook her head and had to squeeze a temporary frown onto her face in response.

Jake had some recollections on fairies from courses she had taken, but they tilted more towards history and were less on specific folklore and mythology.

It was something, though, and luckily she had saved her notes on her phone and was able to read off the main points. "The fae, or fair folk, are often seen as mercurial but merely mischievous. Unseelie courts are more dark and cruel. The aos sí literally translate as the 'people of the mounds'. The sidhe, or the Tuatha de Danaan, also known as 'the people of the goddess Dana'. They came from four cities: Falias, Findias, Gorias, and Murias. The fomoiri and fomorians were another group, but they're often seen as evil. A lot of different stuff associated with water, but I didn't take down the specifics because the instructor glossed over that. That might be something to ask at this Triton place."

Miranda started by swiftly taking down notes before Jake commented that they had the same type of phone, and he could just send it over wirelessly without a dedicated connection. Not everyone had that, but Miranda promised to modify the text format into something universal that would work for sharing with everyone else.

Compared to this outpouring of information, Ross and Layla in the back couldn't possibly compare, but Layla gleefully laid out everything she knew about fairies. "So, no surprise, but fairies aren't just little, sparkly creatures that live in the woods with bunny-deer friends. There are all sorts of fairies all over the world. Pixies, sprites, elves, brownies, goblins, trolls, gnomes, nymphs, and dryads, just to name a few! The Hollows might have been a kind of fairy too; like Mira said, dunno! Definitely the dark kind. Some of them eat babies! And they can lure you into their realm of dangerous and magical mirth and trick you into staying with them forever. The Otherworld! It's beautiful but also sooo deadly, and people don't usually return from it! There are some really cool games with lesser-known creatures, and some are super hard to beat. My hand went numb playing this one..."

Ross coughed to interrupt. Layla paused there with a smile, and Miranda politely remarked that what Layla told her was really helpful. She didn't write down as much or as furiously as she had with Jess, but Roxy noticed that Miranda was definitely taking notes on her phone when she named the creatures and mentioned the Other place. Layla flashed a friendly thumbs up and laid back. Ross shook his head. He had nothing to say about fairies.

Miranda sighed and scrolled through the collected information. "Clearly, not just stories. Freaky. Makes me wary of the world. As if fear needs any help there. If we can avoid it, I really don't want to camp around here, especially after sundown." That was an easy prospect for the group to agree upon. Roxy was actually looking forward to camping before the lake happened, and maybe she wouldn't give it up entirely, but not in this territory, not in fairy country.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Everyone settled down after that and watched the dipping road and dense forest pass by. Roxy still felt joyful, but it was like playing a beautiful song with silence all around. It disappeared into the dark. The energy was still in her, but it was as if the weight of it all didn't want to translate into smiles on her face.

It was better to be subdued and silent. Jake still smiled at her, but it was a carefully crafted smile, not one that overflowed, burst forth, and beamed with sunlight. The implication was that he wanted Roxy to simply offer up the same pleasant little smile. She did, but it still felt wrong to hold back the symphony inside.

It puzzled her that something as silly as a smile meant so much to her. Joel didn't smile the way she felt now. He smiled, but it was a photogenic grin, a clever smirk, or a confident curve of his lip. Roxy smiled like it was the only thing she could do to translate the bliss that was surging through her soul. It was weird, and maybe there was something really wrong with her—broken in her brain—but she liked being ridiculously happy.

Jake put himself against her, breathing and touching pure light and ecstasy into her soul. It sounded like a bad book—an overzealous celebration of sex that no sex could ever possibly live up to. But she was living it; she felt as if an invisible tap had been turned on, and she didn't know how to shut it off or if she wanted to. Terrifying, but beautiful.

She thought about making a self-service infusion of whatever this was, but her legs were still pulsed slightly, and she had to prop herself up carefully from time to time. Joel knew from Jess and others that girls could quietly and surreptitiously press flesh, like rocking some thighs. It just felt wrong to do it in the middle of a crowded car, especially with Ross looming with the desire to return to every possible lewd accusation.

It was a miracle that he didn't latch on to her comments at the table, even though she dodged around the most suggestive elements. Later, she told herself, be patient and try it out later, in private. A thrilling, scientific experiment to see if this crazy, rare, mind-melting arousal required the touch of another or if it was just the touch. She was tempted to tickle the itch with the book at her side, but maybe it was a remnant of the boy she used to be or something else entirely; she didn't want to do it that way.

Time passed with the road flowing past them. Miranda checked her map and noted that they were still making progress, though perhaps not as swiftly as their speed suggested. It was beginning to feel like their drive to this tiny town was taking forever. Probably an illusion, along with recent stresses and thoughts of all this mystical folklore. But the group made sure to check that they weren't just in some old movie loop where the same scenery passed by without any progress made. Roxy wanted to drop a rock somewhere obvious by the roadside and hope they never saw it again.

It wasn't long before they came to a series of long, bright blue reflective metal signs flanking a roundabout. They marked all the minor municipalities and sorted them by their direction.

One way listed Tanglecreek, Bleak Harbor, Havenshire, Windemere Hollow, and Shady Bend. None of them were keen to wind up in Bleak Harbor; Tanglecreek didn't sound much better, and that H-word was right out. The second path included Midwich, Everville, Spellwood, and Wonderwood. Roxy avoided saying out loud that they really liked their wood around here. The last one around the circle was the best, though, as it cited Climax, Ample Hills, and South Lips.

Roxy didn't know what to do with herself and resisted giggling. Miranda broke the ice and offered up dryly, "I feel really close to Ample Hills. Maybe I should get a place there someday."

Jake chuckled, and Roxy held herself to a smirk. Even Ross made a sound like a cousin to laughter.

However, no Neverwink showed up anywhere on the signs. They even made a few more rotations around the circle to double-check that they hadn't somehow missed it. That particular tiny town's name was nowhere to be found on the signs, even though they'd taken the time to mention a dozen of them, including the most ridiculous-sounding ones.

They weren't worried about this development; at least Roxy wasn't trying to be, and everyone else in the car was looking around, their breaths held but not too tight. Miranda sifted through what she had available on her phone while plugged into the dash charger to keep that lifeline going. She soon concluded that the silly set had to be the one, especially since they were the closest places to Neverwink and that sign only contained three listings. Each road seemed practically the same, but they took that one.

It was well and truly stretching into the afternoon, with the modest springtime light feeling quite meager before the looming trees and the tense climate. Though she had been resisting it, Roxy flipped to the last previous section of the romance book she could remember before Brock excitedly announced about breakfast.

It was ridiculous—exactly as ridiculous as she remembered it from a while ago. It was silly, worthy of ridicule, and written in a style that still made her roll her eyes. She kept reading.

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...Once more, Jane found herself gazing upon the manly form of the mysterious and handsome stranger with the long black hair that rippled like the midnight ocean, his face as sharp and striking as a thunderbolt from Zeus himself. She couldn't resist the pull of the man's eyes and soon found herself drawn into his powerful embrace. She was swept off her feet as he picked her up and carried her into the cottage, their lips locked in a passionate and tender kiss. They fell into a frenzy of passion, tearing at each other's clothes as they stumbled into the bedroom, their desire consuming them. He laid her gently on the bed and crawled on top of her, his eyes glinting with mischief as he prepared to unleash his exquisite skills on her delicate, quivering body. As she lay there, she knew that this was where she was meant to be. She was no longer afraid of her feelings or of losing control. She let go and allowed the wild storm of emotions to sweep her up in its passionate embrace. She was ready for anything he had to give her, and she was more than happy to take it all. As she gazed into his eyes, she felt a deep connection between them, and she knew that this was a moment she would never forget. His lips found hers once more and they melted into each other's arms, their bodies moving together in perfect harmony. They surrendered themselves to the passion of the moment, letting their desires consume them. As the waves of ecstasy washed over them, they knew that they were meant to be together, and nothing could ever keep them apart. Their love would last for eternity...

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The mysterious stranger description made her glance back at Ross, but only for a second so he wouldn't get suspicious. The mention of mischievous eyes reminded her sweetly of Jake. Being swept up, the sense of harmony, and the beautiful translation of feelings and thoughts that she felt like she didn't have words for existed on the page even though they were still embarrassingly overwrought. All this didn't make it a good book, but the book rekindled the feeling that made her giddy inside, even if it was a frail translation and imitation of her experience in the shower with Jake.

Her heart wanted to cling to this crude literary island. She kept checking out the window and felt the same rush of relief as the others when a new sign appeared, updating the towns ahead, with Neverwink mercifully tacked on at the bottom.

They were okay.