The Cursed Ones

Without any windows or doors, she remained trapped within a cold and damp room, as she was chained to a large glass bowl filled with water. The Great Mother's iron and gold tower stood from the far reaches of the City of Silver Stone shrouded in an eternal fog. Like the citizens, she too was cursed. She was a soulless entity whose existence wasn't known to the citizens outside of the tower.

"Animal by day, man at night - cursed, we are to have no face; a thousand years, I have searched. Find me the one who will be the next king, so that he may break our curse," the Great Mother's voice spoke into the darkness. Her words transformed into a green mist, which hung in the air above the bowl until it dropped into the water.

Dark light flashed, and her reflection rippled and morphed, transforming into Earth. The Great Mother raised her hand; with her mind, she moved the water. The Earth morphed into woods and then into a cottage, entering a field where three children played. A little girl sat alone while two boys wrestled on the ground. The water stilled, as she dragged her fingers across the image of the older boy's face.

"Jaxson McKenedrick, you will be our next king."

~ Callimae, Mississippi ~

The trees were long and skinny, as if God took regular pines and stretched them out. The sun found small open patches to escape through the stagnant rain clouds that jam-packed the sky. The Jacobsons' blue and white cottage resided within a clearing surrounded by trees. The yard was vast and filled with flowers and plants, and a large oak with elongated spider-like branches sat beside the back porch.

Lily Jacobson kicked her legs back and forth on the lawn chair. She watched her brother play with his best friend. She grabbed a handful of yellow flowers at her feet. She set them on her dress and brushed off the grass and dirt. When she was satisfied, she picked up one of the flowers and smelled it. She giggled when it tickled her nose.

Lily didn't like sitting alone. Grandma said she had too, but she was bored. After picking the petals clean from the flower, she threw the stem down. Now, she wanted to play. Grandpa wouldn't mind if she ran off and got dirty. Lily tossed the rest of the flowers aside and looked down at her brand new, yellow sundress. She hadn't moved much, and already mud streaked across the hem. She couldn't possibly get any dirtier than this, so she wanted to have some fun before grandma dragged her inside.

She slid off her chair and looked toward the woods. The trees seemed to almost touch the sky. She was jealous of those trees. She wished she was able to climb to the top and enter heaven, so she could meet her mama there. At the same time, she loved the trees, because they protected her. If she ever got into trouble with her grandma, she would hide among the branches.

Lily shook her dress. A clump of dirt fell between her sandaled feet. She rubbed her eye, smudging dirt along her eyebrow and nose. She wanted to play hide-and-seek, but she had to convince her brother. Myles refused anything that he did not want to do. She swore he didn't like her, as Myles was always grouchy. He liked to hog his friend all to himself, but she liked his friend too. She'd get Myles to play with her. She had to hurry though, and if Grandma found her out of her seat, she'd drag Lily inside the house without a word. Lily rubbed her eye again. She gave a big sigh before she skipped toward her brother and his friend who wrestled on the ground. She squatted, asked if they'd play with her, and then quickly avoided a foot to her face.

Jaxson McKenedrick laughed and dodged his friend's elbow. He watched Myles's little sister skip toward them. He cleared his throat and tried to tell his friend, but Myles wasn't in a listening mood. Lily finally squatted and said, "Do you want to play hide-and-seek?"

Oblivious to her, Myles continued to wrestle with Jaxson. Myles's leg kicked out and nearly caught his sister in the face. Jaxson shoved Myles off him and sat up with a sigh.

Clutching her dress with dirty fingers, Lily shouted, "Will you play hide-and-seek with me?"

Myles hollered back, "You don't need to scream Lily. We can hear you." He sat up from the ground and crossed his legs.

"Well maybe not after that," Jaxson commented. He watched Lily's face turn red.

"You weren't listening to me - I didn't make you go deaf, did I?"

"I ain't deaf," Jaxson replied in a dry voice as he lay back down in the grass, putting his hands behind his head.

"What do you want, Lily?" Myles asked, watching her.

"I just said it twice. Weren't you paying attention?"

"No. Why would I listen to you?"

"Because I'm your sister Myles. Stop being so mean," she nearly shouted again. She looked toward the house and then back to Myles again.

Myles stuck his tongue out.

"Fine. If you won't play with me, I'll ask Jaxson."

"Oh no, you don't Lily. Jaxson doesn't want to play with no twelve-year-old. We're fourteen. Who wants to play with a girl?"

Lily took a step forward with fisted hands by her sides. "What'd you say, Myles?"

"You heard me."

"I dare you to say it again!"

Jaxson sighed and sat up; grabbing his friend's forearm, he pulled Myles toward him. Jaxson whispered so only Myles could hear. "Don't be so mean to her. Let's just play for a little while, okay?"

Myles groaned, "Do we have to?" Jaxson nodded. Myles fell onto his back with a sigh. "Fine. But only for ten minutes. Then she'll have to go."

Myles stood up from the ground, shoving Jaxson away from him. "Lily, if you want to play... what did you say you wanted to play again?"

"Hide and seek."

"Whatever. We'll play. But you'll have to be it."

Lily nodded.

"Since Jaxson is still on the floor -"

"Only because you pushed me there," Jaxson interrupted.

"Shut up. I'm talking," Myles growled and then looked back at Lily. "I'll go hide first." He started to walk toward the woods when he stopped and said, "You better start counting. And you have ten minutes to find us." Myles ran off into the cover of the trees.

Jaxson sat up and looked at Lily. "Don't cry."

"I wasn't going to cry," Lily said.

"Myles is... well, you know how he is. Don't take what he says personally. Okay?"

She bobbed her head and left to walk over to the big oak. Jaxson got to his feet and followed her. Lily folded her arms on the bark and started to count. Jaxson sat and leaned against the tree. He waited till she got to seven when he tapped her on the shoulder.

"You don't have to be it. I'll do it. So go and hide."

Lily pushed away from the tree and glared at him. "I can do it. I'm not a baby."

"I know you're not a baby. But I've always wanted to be it. You always end up being the seeker. So let me do it this once, okay?"

He watched Lily twirl her black curly hair. He always liked her eyes. She had nice green ones. His eyes were green too, but not like hers. Her eyes were more like the grass, while his reminded him more of a murky greenish-brown swamp. To top it off, while she had jet black hair, his hair was more like the inside of an orange. He grinned and shook his head.

Lily finally sat down and asked, "What's funny?"

"My hair."

"But I like your hair. It's really, really orange like a carrot." She reached over and touched it. "It's softer than mine, and I'm a girl."

"I guess I can always tell you my secret, but then Myles might be jealous that your hair will be softer than his."

She laughed and tucked her dress under her legs.

"So you'll let me be it?" He asked again.

She nodded and stood up, brushing off her dress.

Hiding a smile, he gawked at her. Lily was wearing a yellow sun dress. She kept trying to brush off the grass streaks and dried mud patches that clashed with the fragile, delicate color, but she ended up making it worse. She gave him a smile and said, "Fine. If you're going to be it, you'll have to count to a hundred. And you can't do it fast either. You have to go like this 'One Mississippi, two Mississippi'. Got it?"

"Oh, I got it all right. Lily, can I tell you something?"

She gazed at him from the corner of her eyes. "You're not going to say anything mean like Myles, are you?"

"No. Lily, I... you have dirt all over your face."

He couldn't say it. He wanted to tell her that he liked her, like how a boy likes a girl.

"I do?" Lily touched her face, smearing even more dirt on her cheeks. "Grandma's going to be mad at me again." She looked back at the house. "I'll have to wash my face later before she sees."

It's not like he wanted her to be his girlfriend or anything. No. He just wanted to see if she liked him back. He hated this one-sided liking. He had to know to pull himself out of this miserable state. If she did like him then he would be the happiest fourteen year-old ever, but if she didn't, he would keep his feelings bottled up for the next couple of years until she started to have the same feelings - that is if she ever did.

He was going to say it. The words were there. They filled his mouth, but he swallowed them back up and kept them lodged in his throat. He failed. She wouldn't know, but maybe that was a good thing. He didn't want to ruin their friendship. He decided to keep his feelings to himself and wait, but he still wanted to touch her. Even if he only touched her hand, he needed to satisfy the hunger for acceptance.

Jaxson reached out, but before he could touch her, Lily ran off. He sighed and leaned back against the tree. He gazed up at the sky and thought it might rain soon. He faced the bushes, crossed his arms and closed his eyes. He thought he had heard a rustling sound, but when he pushed away from the tree and looked around, the bushes stilled and remained silent. Was Lily hiding in the bushes? No, she was more of the type that climbed a tree when playing hide-and-seek. He didn't have time for this, so he returned to his counting spot and began the countdown.

"Ninety-nine Mississippi, one-hundred Mississippi! Ready or not. Here I come!" Jaxson shouted against the tree.

He peeked through his crossed arms and glanced toward the shadowed, menacing woods. He disliked dark places, and the woods during mid-afternoon always bothered him for some reason.

The bushes shook again, yet this time voices whispered, "Jaxson McKenedrick will be our next king."

He took a step back away from the oak and away from the trees. Was he hearing things now? The branches waved for him to leave, as the wind danced through them. He tripped over a rock and landed on his behind. He scrambled to stand and kept moving backwards. His skin burned from the sun, but fear sent icy shivers down his limbs and into his stomach. He stopped after he was a few feet away.

"I-Is someone there? Myles, I swear if it's you I'll make you regret this." He heard what sounded like a twig cracking behind him. He tensed and closed his eyes. "This isn't funny man. Myles?"

Jaxson opened his eyes when there wasn't a reply and saw that a large buck watched him. The animal's black eyes reflected his face. Entranced by the magnificent creature, Jaxson never noticed that two more appeared at its sides. He spun around to find a fourth behind him.

The bucks chanted, "Jaxson McKenedrick, you are our next king."

Terror rushed through him. He tried to run, but he was knocked backwards by their antlers. Grabbing one of them to push the creature away, he instead was yanked back by his shirt. Jaxson attempted to regain his footing, yet the animal was too powerful. He coughed after dirt was thrown into his face, but once he opened his eyes, he realized that they had dragged him to the woods. The trees' shadows overwhelmed him. He didn't want to go in there. He yelled and clawed at the animal, as he dug his feet into the ground.

Grandma and Grandpa Jacobson threw open the door to their cottage. They ran across the clearing to save him, but they were so far away. Lily's and Myles' grandparents wouldn't save him. No one could.

~

Lily wandered further into the woods. She walked unknowingly through distorted air and light, and as the temperature immediately plunged from eighty to thirty degrees, she coughed and sneezed in violent spurts. She struggled to breathe with aching lungs, for the sudden temperature change was too much on her small body.

July would never be this cold in Mississippi. They were by the coast, and while the sea breeze occasionally brought in storm clouds or hurricanes, this freakish cold was impossible. Her grandmother lectured her to turn off the lights and water when she wasn't using them, because global warning was real. Yet, her grandpa was a skeptic and claimed that it was all a myth. Her grandparents loved to argue about the subject, and Lily learned that was how they showed each other their love.

She wiped the tears from her burning eyes. She needed to accept reality and admit that she was lost. She wasn't in Mississippi anymore either. The trees were no longer thin; they were thick and enormous, and instead of touching the sky, she swore they reached space since she couldn't see any branches or leaves. She walked until her legs screamed for rest, yet she was afraid to stop and wanted to go home. Her body refused to acknowledge her fears and instead collapsed to the ground. She lay with the side of her face in the dirt and struggled to remain awake. Her eyes drooped and then closed.

Soft whisperers woke her around sunset, but even though it was mostly dark, hints of moonlight penetrated through the trees. Lily sat up and scooted closer to a nearby tree trunk. She pulled her legs toward her chest and wrapped her arms around them. About ten feet away, Lily saw various animals poke their heads out from behind the trees, and in the dim light, an owl stepped forward. She opened her mouth to scream yet no sound left her. She gaped in horror at the creature that had the body of a human but the head of an owl. The other humanoid-like creatures inched closer until they surrounded her. With no room to escape, she closed her eyes and prayed with all her might. She rocked her body back and forth.

She prayed louder and louder until she yelled, "I rebuke you in Jesus's name. I am protected by his precious blood. You must leave."

One of the creatures whispered in awe, "You brought God into the forest."

She repeated her prayer three more times, and after the third prayer, she lifted her head and saw that they were gone.

Lily scrambled to stand and then ran with what strength she had left, and as the image of the humanoid-creatures recurred within her mind, she prayed that they wouldn't follow her. She no longer cared that her grandma would ground her because of her dirty dress. She just wanted to go home to her family.

Her legs buckled once she reached the largest tree within the woods. Piles of dead leaves laid near the bulging roots that protruded from the earth. She remained still on the ground with her pulsing legs as she lay on her stomach. With her eyes stinging from the cold wind, she shut them to sleep, but the footsteps that crunched through the crisp, dry leaves woke her within an instant. She was afraid that the animal-people had found her, yet when she moved to stand, her legs remained immobile. A light moved through the darkness, as it inched closer and closer to her until a shadowed figure appeared from the direction she ran through earlier.

A hooded man in purple robes held a torch above her. With a deep voice, he stated, "I had heard that there was a girl in the forest."

"Who are you?" Lily asked in a quivering voice.

"Calm down little one. I will not hurt you."

"I saw monsters out there." Lily tried to point, but her arm fell onto her lap.

"Monsters?"

"People with animal faces. Are you one of them?"

"I am not."

She looked up at his towering figured when she demanded, "Show me your face then."

He crouched down and removed his hood, as he held the torch closer to his face. Lily looked up into clear blue eyes that appeared like water. With long blonde hair that went past his shoulders, pale skin, and a sharp nose, his face was relatively normal.

She relaxed and stated, "You're human."

He smiled as he said, "My name is Plutonian."

"I'm Lily, Lily Jacobson."

He nodded. "A pleasure. Now Lily, how did you end up here?"

"I don't know. I was playing hide-and-seek with my brother and his friend. I just walked and walked. I thought about giving up because it was really hot, and then it was very, very cold. That's when I ran into those animal-people."

"I see."

"Do you know how I can get back to my home?" Lily asked after a couple moments of silence.

"I don't. But I know someone who does."

"Really? Who?"

"An old friend of mine. Can you stand?"

"My legs are numb." Lily tried moving.

Plutonian moved his hand over her head. A blue light flowed from his fingertips and onto her skin. "Is that better?"

"How did you...? I can feel my legs again." She stood and brushed off her mud-covered dress. She looked down at the fabric and shook her head.

"Fear caused your legs to act like the roots in the earth. I simply freed your mind. If you remained any longer at this spot, you would have become part of the tree."

"What? You mean, I would have died?" Lily stepped away from the tree and hugged her arms to her body and shivered.

"This place is cursed, so any fear that you show here allows others to find you." Plutonian patted her head and smiled, "So always remember to smile. Now, let's go before you freeze to death."

Plutonian held the torch in front of him to light their way. She looked up into the trees and didn't see any branches.

"How large are these trees?" She asked, as she walked next to him.

"They're a thousand years old. It's impossible to see them at night."

"A thousand?"

"We call this place the Thousand Year Forest. It's as old as my people are."

"You mean the animal-people?"

"Yes. Animal by day, man at night. Cursed are we to have no face. Only the truth can free us. Lily, I don't think you came here by accident."

"What do you mean? I don't understand."

"It's simple. You were allowed entrance into our world to break the curse."

"No, no, no. I can't break curses. I am not magical, and even if I was, I'd be too scared to do anything."

Plutonian continued to walk without responding to her. She thought he might not say anything until he finally cleared his throat and said, "I'm going to tell you a story, and you tell me if this curse was just."

He cleared his throat and then began the story. "There was a king who was loved by everyone, and what he wanted most was for his queen to be happy. They had everything that anyone could possibly want, but Queen Xavia was sad. She secretly loved another, but he was a weak, poor man. Eventually, the king found out about the queen's lover and killed him. He said to his wife, You will love only me.

"In response to the king's words, the queen drowned herself soon after. Her death made him lose his mind, and with old magic, he managed to bring his wife back to life. A voice spoke out from the heavens and announced, He who tries to take creation into his own hands must dream for death and curse life.

"Soon the king lost everything. He was damned to be immortal and watched his kingdom fall into ruin. The world forgot the king and his people. They were erased from Earth and sentenced to live a life within the darkness, as they cursed the light."

"How is that even possible? I have so many questions, and I don't even know where to start."

He sighed and then said, "Unfortunately, Lily, I must remain silent. You'll find out the truth sooner or later since our world is bound to you now."

"Even if I asked what that meant, I know you won't say anything. But will you at least tell me how much longer it will take to reach your friend? I'm worried about my grandparents. My grandpa has a weak heart, and if I'm gone for too long, I'm worried that he'll have another stroke."

"I promise you that when you return, it'll be the same time you left."

"But I slept here and then ran forever. I don't even know what time it is."

"There's no notion of time here. Only two people age in this dimension. You and the king."

"The king of Silver Stone? But then what about the animal-people? What about you?"

"Here touch my hand," Plutonian said.

Lily uncurled her arms from her body and touched him, but her hand went right through his. She jumped back and nearly fell when she yelled, "You're a ghost."

"A spirit actually."

"I don't see the -"

"Do I frighten you? You weren't afraid me before I asked you to touch my hand."

Lily stared at him. She licked her lips and crossed her arms again. She directed her line of sight toward the trees and then back at him. "I'm not...afraid of you."

"I'm glad. We're almost there."

After a couple more minutes of walking, they finally arrived to find four bucks that faced distorted air.

Plutonian called out, "Rodger Grumwell, I have a favor to ask of you."

One of the bucks turned toward him, left the group, and walked toward the pair.

"I'm in a bit of hurry," Rodger said, as he looked at Lily with curious eyes.

"You're to bring back the next king. I hear the current king has a day or two left before he passes."

"So what do you need from me?"

"I need you to take Lily back to her world."

"You mean the girl who brought -"

"Rodger," Plutonian interrupted, "don't you have to be somewhere?"

"I do. I can drop her off on my way," Rodger said before he returned to the group.

"Lily," Plutonian said looking at her. "Rodger will take care of you. Just sit on his back and hold onto him so you don't fall off."

"Thank you for all your help."

"Let's hope that we meet again," he said with a smile before his body and torch vanished. The darkness returned, and now the distorted air was their only light source.

"Plutonian!" Lily shouted and glanced around in the darkness. She shifted toward Rodger and asked, "Where did he go?"

"Just climb on my back," he answered, ignoring her question.

Lily shoved her fear away and focused on returning home. She asked, as she climbed onto Rodger's back, "How is it that you can talk?"

"You mean being an animal?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'm actually a human. Hold on tight. We're about to leave."

Plutonian reappeared behind Rodger and Lily. He whispered, "Forget." Green light poured from his fingers, and the spell surrounded her. Lily's eyes glazed over. Her head collapsed onto Rodger's back. Her grip still held as Rodger and the other three bucks entered the swirling air and light.

Myles shook her immobile body until she woke. She sat up in the grass and looked into her brother's tear-streaked face.

"Thank god, I found you."

"Why?"Lily asked in a scratchy voice.

"Jaxson's gone. Grandma... she wanted me to find..." Myles rubbed his eyes and hiccuped.

Lily sat up and hugged her brother. "What happened, Myles?"

"Grandma said he was dragged away by a deer." He stood up and helped her stand. "Why were you sleeping anyway?"

Holding her head, she replied, "I can't remember."

He shook his head and sighed, "Let's go back to the house."

"But I'm covered in dirt again."

Myles laughed and wiped the tear marks from his cheeks. "You're always dirty. What else is new?"

"They'll find Jaxson, Myles."

Myles didn't acknowledge her statement and instead said, "Come on. Grandma's worried."