Chapter Five

“You good?”

“Huh?” Eddie blinked, looking up from the counter she was wiping down with disinfectant. It was getting dark outside and Tall, Dark, and Coffee had closed moments ago.

“You good?” Farhan asked again.

A tiny, closed smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Had Farhan noticed she was feeling off since that hunter showed up and threatened to kill her? The end of the shift worried her. She dreaded the idea of walking to the bus stop alone. Her next idea came to mind. She’d ask Farhan to walk with her since he cared enough to check in like this.

“Yeah, I guess I just–”

“Look, I gotta go. We’re almost done, right?” Farhan cut in.

Eddie’s gaze darkened. Her stomach sank with disappointment, and her shoulders slumped a little. Of course, he didn’t notice.

She nodded and went back to cleaning. “Just lock the door when you go.”

The chimes above the door sang, and he was gone.

Eddie busied herself with the rest of the closing routine, pushing that odd interaction from her mind every time it tried to bubble to the surface. A hunter paid her a visit at work today, threatening to kill her if she was a witch. Sure, she talked to spirits, sensed emotions and intentions, and practiced lighting candles with her mind. Little things, party tricks. She didn’t think of herself as a witch, or dangerous.

Finish work and go home. That became her mantra as she prepared the store for tomorrow's opening manager. It took half an hour, but she finished the last of her cleaning. As she put the mop and bucket back in the storage closet, her blood ran cold when the chimes sounded.

Nobody locked the door.

From the back, Eddie entered the main area by rounding a corner. “We’re closed–”

“You didn’t lock the door,” Clay said, reaching behind to latch the deadbolt.

She swallowed hard as the waves of murderous intent emanated from the burly, bearded man in overalls whose brown eyes sharpened on her. The hatred that poured out from him and washed over her almost ripped the very breath out of her lungs.

“So,” Clay began, placing his hands in his pockets as he grinned. “Don’t suppose you can make me a fancy drink?”

Eddie mustered all her will not to show her fear at this moment. “Any chance it would change your mind if I did?”

He laughed in his gut, genuinely amused. “I think you know the answer to that, kid.”

“Then no, no drink for you.”

Clay pulled his hands out of his pocket, flashed a crooked smile, and cracked his knuckles. “Fair enough.”

He lunged at her, pulling his fist back and throwing all he had into it. Eddie ducked underneath, feeling the air rush and jostle her hair while she evaded and slid between his legs. The momentum of missing made him stumble forward and she turned to face him as she got back on her feet. When she did, she saw him slip on the wet floor.

“Shit!” Clay cried out, falling forward and catching himself on the counter. He turned around and oriented himself, glaring at her.

Eddie didn’t have time to unlatch the deadbolt and flee as he was already charging forward like a bull set on murdering the matador in a bullfight. She threw a chair in front of him to slow him and he stumbled over it, cussing her out.

She narrowly sidestepped out of his range, avoiding another punch. How the air whistled made her wonder how hard he could hit something.

Clay stalked toward her and she could sense the confusion and frustration surging within because of how clumsy he’d been while trying to kill her. “Stubborn little thing, aren’t ya?”

Eddie backed away, buying time to escape out to Whyte Avenue. “Maybe you’re just old and slow.”

She felt his rage flare with that remark.

He growled and lunged for her. “I’m only thirty!”

Clay accidentally stepped on a toy car that a child left behind, and somehow missed during all the cleaning tonight. He lost his footing and fell backwards, sprawled flat on his ass. Eddie grabbed the nearby fire extinguisher out of its casing before he could get up, and as he tried to scramble to his feet, she closed the distance and swung true. The red canister struck his temple with a loud crack and he went down, bleeding.

The image of the arcana, The Wheel, flashed in her mind and she chuckled, throwing the extinguisher down beside the man writhing on the ground. “Remember when I told you that you have a lot of luck? Bad luck is luck, too.”

“Fucking witch!” Clay snarled. “I’ll kill you!”

Eddie rushed towards the front door. She thought of getting as far away from him as possible while stepping outside into the nighttime hustle and bustle of Whyte Ave on a Saturday night.

A chill rushed over her when she instead stepped over the threshold and onto a bed of pine needles. Eddie breathed in the scent of crisp, cool, mountain air and when she spun around, the door and coffee shop weren’t there at all. The pine trees towered above, reaching up into the darkness of a cloudy, starless sky. Insects trilled and the hoots of an owl rang into the night.

"Oh no," Eddie exclaimed, realizing she was a long way from Edmonton, or civilization for that matter. She patted her pockets to find her cell phone but cursed when she remembered she had it set down on the counter before Clay showed up. She found herself stranded in what she believed were the Rockies with no phone to call for help. At least a brutish circuit queen wasn’t trying to kill her anymore.

“Evening, dearie.”

She followed the playful voice and saw a man leaning against a tree.

“H-hi?” Eddie replied, pensive and cautious as the man stood away from the tree and sauntered in her direction.

“You may call me Kirk,” the mysterious man said, though the air shimmered about him and distorted his features. As though two distinct faces overlapped and muddled one another.

“I’m Eddie,” she replied, trying to make sense of all the odd happenings tonight.

She backed up as he drew closer, though not a hint of malice radiated from this odd man.

“What’s the matter, child?”

“I, uh,” Eddie tried to form the words, “lost here. Two faces?”

Kirk bristled, ceasing his advance toward her. He then nodded. “Clever girl. Your gifts are manifesting quickly. Yes, I am wearing a glamour. Do you know what that is?”

Eddie nodded, swallowing hard. “A spell where you can change how others perceive you.”

“Very good,” Kirk praised, smiling with a warmth that put Eddie at ease. “Your gifts are not developed enough to see through the illusion, yet.”

“My gifts?” Eddie huddled for warmth, the late summer air in the mountains seeping into her bones. “A hunter just attacked me. I wouldn’t call that a gift.”

“Perhaps, perhaps not. It will not be the first time someone tries to kill you, though,” Kirk laughed and materialized a turquoise autumn jacket into his hands that looked to be a perfect fit. He approached her and held it out. “What matters is what you’ll choose to do about it. Here, take this.”

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“Thank you,” said Eddie, taking the jacket and putting her arms through before zipping it up. She was oblivious to the sly smile on Kirk’s face as she did.

“You’re welcome, child. Perhaps, one day, I’ll need to rely on your kindness as well.”

The meaning of the words went over her head, but she smiled, relieved to feel a little warmer. “Okay, but who are you and why are you wearing a glamour?”

“Testing your brot–” Kirk cut himself off there and Eddie blinked, confused and unsure of what he stopped himself from saying.

“Tell you what, little one,” Kirk offered, patting her head like a puppy and looking down at her. “When you can completely see through my illusion, I’ll tell you who I am and why I’m wearing this face. Deal?”

She scowled, pulling away from his touch. “Uh, sure?”

But Kirk was already gone and Eddie stood alone in the woods, wondering if she’d die out here.

She set out, her intuition telling her she needed to go in this direction. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness, and she smelled fresh water after walking for a while. The song of the crickets trilled in their peaceful melody soon joined by the sound of trickling water. When Eddie found the mountain spring, she followed it downstream until it fed into a small shallow river.

The beautiful song of nature, of crickets and the hoots of owls, came to an abrupt end and the sound of rocks underfoot was all that she heard as she approached the shallow river. Eddie exhaled, nervous a predator might lurk nearby. Branches shook and something approached. Eddie stiffened, tasting bile as her stomach twisted in horror. The noise drew closer, and she gasped when he emerged, dried blood where she struck him, but not a scratch left behind.

He leapt down from the ridge of the bank and onto the pebbles of the river’s edge, stomping toward her. “Thought you’d get away that easily?”

“How?”

“Through the door, dipshit,” Clay growled, closing the distance before he grabbed her by the collar of her jacket with both hands and shook her. “Take us back. Now.”

“I-I don’t know how,” Eddie said, almost hanging in his grip.

“For fuck’s sake,” He threw her to the ground, and she yelped as she felt pain flare through her limbs with the impact onto the damp rocks. “You’ve killed us both, then.”

Eddie looked up at the towering man, sensing icy fear beneath all that wrath that burned from him like the heat of a flame. She clambered back onto her feet. “What do you mean?”

Clay glowered at her and then scoffed. “Something’s out here with us. I was trying to find you before it did.”

She raised an eyebrow and tilted her head to the side. “Weren’t you trying to kill me earlier?”

“You’re our only way back. At least, I thought you were. Now, though, I might as well leave you to die,” he said, turning from her and taking several paces forward before what they heard made them both freeze.

It was a blood-curdling scream echoing through the night in Eddie’s voice.

“I-I didn’t do that,” Eddie squeaked, the terror rising had made her joints feel frozen and heavy as lead.

“I know,” Clay said in a low voice, a slight bend in his knees as he lifted a hand up to keep her from saying anything else. He looked around. “Be ready to run.”

A tall shadow rose on the other side of the river, white eyes shimmering as they trained on the both of them. Eddie gasped at the sight of it. “Antlers?”

“Shit! Run!” Clay whipped around and grabbed Eddie’s hand, running so fast he nearly dragged her behind him.

“Clay, I can’t run that fast!”

“Damn it, kid!” He scooped her up and threw her over his shoulders into a fireman’s carry and kept running. Eddie screamed when Clay leaped into the air, beyond what would be possible for a man his size. They soared over the ledge of the river bank and landed hard as he bent his knees to absorb the impact. He sprinted forward as the branches whipped at them.

“Damn it!” The creature shouted in Clay’s voice.

Eddie turned her head to look behind them and shrieked when she saw it. Shining white eyes, obsidian skin so taut as though it stretched over a skeletal frame, and antlers. Its mouth hung open, jagged yellow teeth bared, as ribbons of saliva dripped from it. That thing was gaining on them and bounding along on all fours. It sprung forward and pounced with its claws extended. Eddie closed her eyes and prepared to be caught and ripped to pieces. When she heard a frustrated shriek in her own voice as the air rushed through her hair, she opened her eyes to see Clay running along the canopy of the pine trees, leaping branch to branch, high above the ground.

“How did you?” Eddie cried out in disbelief. “Are we safe up here?”

“No,” Clay said in a strained grunt as they descended, leaping from branch to branch, because they approached a clearing.

They landed in the clearing, which was the ruins of a campsite, his boots sliding along the dirt and pine needles. There were human limbs strewn about and the shredded vestiges of what had been a nylon tent. The blood was days old and dried, soaked into the ground. It was when she saw the mostly eaten human remains that she threw up in her mouth.

Clay slung her over his shoulders and dropped her down onto the spongy, soft ground, looking up at the treeline where the creature perched along the higher branches, its gaze locked on them both. “There’s a woodpile and a fire pit. Get a fire going while I keep it busy. It hates the light.”

Before Eddie could protest, Clay sprinted for the treeline, disappearing. After looking at her for a moment, the creature disappeared into the woods to pursue Clay. The sounds of a vicious struggle rang out from beyond her sight and she knew she had little time as she built the woodpile and started with kindling.

Without a lighter, she resorted to holding her hands out to the pile.

“Come on, come on,” she begged, shutting her eyes tight. Her heart pounded against her ribs and she could hardly breathe, but she kept trying to clear her mind. If she could light a candle at home, she could start a campfire, too.

Clay’s voice howled out in the woods, a blood-curdling scream. “Kid! Help me! Please!”

Eddie gasped and opened her eyes, she looked toward the sound of Clay’s voice. She didn’t know what to do. What could she do?

“Kid, don’t listen to it! Get that fucking fire going! Hurry!”

She smiled. Though she hardly knew him, she knew that was the real him. Her mind cleared, and the fire roared to life. After the kindling burned, she added smaller pieces of firewood and the flames brightened, encasing the ruined campsite in a protective dome of firelight.

Clay dashed out of the woods, holding his bleeding arm with a strained and pained expression. Relief washed over him as soon as he saw the campfire. He hurried towards her as the lanky creature followed in its vicious pursuit, but it stopped as Clay crossed into the light and slid on his knees to stop by the fire, panting as his chest heaved up and down.

The creature screeched and shielded its eyes before it turned away and bounded into the woods. The branches rustled as it climbed a pine tree and perched atop it to watch them from afar.

“You’re hurt,” Eddie said with genuine concern as she knelt beside him to look at the gash on his arm. “They might have had first aid supplies, let me–”

“Don’t worry about it,” Clay said, cutting her off as she saw it slowly improving before her eyes. The bleeding had stopped, and it had already scabbed over. While it didn’t heal as fast as she’d seen in a superhero movie, it still didn’t seem natural to her.

"It will be mostly gone in an hour. Don't worry," Clay told her. “I heal fast.”

Eddie moved away from him and back to her seat, watching him with suspicion. “You’re not human?”

Clay laughed, sitting back to relax and catch his breath as he crossed his legs and watched the fire. “Oh, I’m definitely human.”

“Normal people don’t move as fast as you do, or jump in and out of trees, especially while carrying someone,” Eddie said, regarding him with a skeptical tone, her eyebrow raised.

He watched her and made no outward expression, though she could tell that he knew what she was getting at. “Never said I was normal.”

“But you know witches are humans too, right? Humans with special gifts. You might not be a witch, but you are a human with special gifts,” Eddie continued, annoyance giving a sharp edge to her tone. “And what, you kill them because they’re not normal? Neither are you.”

“Watch it, kid,” Clay warned.

“If we follow that logic, it means someone should also kill you.”

Clay stood up, but it did not intimidate Eddie. She added another log to the fire and poked it with a stick. The embers rose into the night, lighting the fury in his gaze as he looked down at her.

Silence lingered between them until she broke it.

“You’re not a defender of humanity or a hero. You’re a hypocrite and a murderer.”

He clenched his teeth, looking like he’d cross right through that campfire and choke the life from her, though he refrained from it.

Eddie ignored his posturing. “Why did you save me?”

“I told you already,” Clay said, folding his arms. “You somehow took us all this way. You’re our ticket back.”

“What about that thing out there? It’s not gonna stop coming after us. I think it killed these campers, too.”

“It’s a Wendigo, and it absolutely did,” he said with a nod, looking towards where it perched in the trees. “It’ll keep away as long as we keep that fire going. Then when dawn comes, it’ll be gone till nightfall.”

“So what?” Eddie asked with a faraway stare, shaking her head. “Either it kills me or you do when I’m not useful anymore.”

“One problem at a time, kid,” Clay said as he sat down again. “That thing’s a bigger problem than you’ll ever be. You’re barely on my radar now. Any witch worth her salt could have torched that thing like nothing. I don’t see you as a threat anymore.”

That had to have been the most backhanded reassurance she’d ever heard, yet she hid a smile when she realized this colossal idiot was too proud to tell her he’d changed his mind about killing her.

“One problem at a time,” Eddie repeated, her gaze moving between the Wendigo, the flame, and the dwindling woodpile. “The fire won’t make it that long.”

“Wake me when it gets dimmer,” Clay said, lying on his side. “I have a plan.”

She sensed his fear as he turned from her, settling until he found a comfortable position to doze off in. Beneath it, though, Eddie also could sense a glimmer of hope rising within him.

Clay was going to save his strength and fight it head-on.