Lost woods
“Hello, you must be Daisy. Jon told us all about you. I’m Molly Fairchild and this is my partner, Claire.” The cheerful lady that introduced herself to Daisy smiled, her eyes filled with an unnatural and stunning blue, while her partner’s eyes glittered with the stars. They both smelled of the Vast, but in a gentle way that Daisy wasn’t expecting. Jon had mentioned they weren’t threatening, but meeting them had proven once again, Jon was terrible at describing things.
“I am. Thanks for making the trip out here. Jon mentioned you were from out of town.”
“We are. But it’s no problem. We’re going to hit up a few places in London while we are here and then crashing at Jon’s.” Claire took a sip of her coffee.
They were meeting up in a cafe for the initial meet up, without Jon. He was worried that him being there would extract a story from them talking to Daisy about how they Became. He was still watching from afar of course. His curiosity too powerful to not Know. He’d told the three of them ahead of time, with Daisy laughing while saying something along the lines of ‘how is that different from any other day with you. I’m aware I have no privacy cause you care too much.’
Molly and Claire weren’t all that happy that Jon would be watching, but he had promised them information, no questions asked, whenever they needed it. Having a Favor owed to them from the Eye was tempting enough, but also Claire might have done it without the favor. She’d already called in the favor for having imposed on her meal all those months ago, and after they continued to talk. She’d grown pretty fond of Jon through that time. And she was always happy to share the Vast with others. It was after all how she had fallen in love with Molly. If not for the Vast, she would be in a very different place.
“So, what now?” Daisy didn’t quite know what Jon’s plan was. They had the Leitner but it didn’t seem to react the way that either of them had wanted.
“Well. I guess step one would be to tell you a little bit about us? I mean, you are already halfway there since you have made the choice, you just need to feel it. Claire would be better at explaining that, since she followed me in a much more poetic way. I just kinda stumbled into the Vast because of moments I swam through the sky each time I caught air. I always hated when my wheels would hit the ground, then one day, they didn’t. It was amazing.“ Molly’s voice dripped with fondness. “Terrifying the first time, for sure, but after that, I didn’t stop.”
“It’s so easy for you to just drop that on a stranger?” Claire looked a little more hesitant.
“Course, not often we get to talk to someone about the details. Most the other avatars are downright horrid. It’s always about ‘serve our god’ or ‘feed it or it feeds on you’ just cause some victorian prick turned it into a monster night club.” Somewhere Jon had to explain to Martin why he choked on his tea.
“We aren’t here for another one of your Smirke rants.” Claire poked.
“Yeah yeah, sorry. Just hate him. There are so many limits because of him. He tried to limit the Vast, which is the extreme opposite of the Vast, ya know?”
“Mmhmm. We get it, love. So guess my turn?”
Daisy was watching intently.
“So yeah, Um, I was in a bad place, something about me seemed to attract entities, but I didn’t have a damn clue what they were, I just knew the monsters under my bed were real.” Claire let out a sigh as Molly took her hand. “Well, thing with monsters under the bed, the grand population never experience them. So I needed to learn how to deal with them myself. I- I wasn’t very good at it, but it was good enough to navigate life? Least until the Lonely. It wasn’t the Fog sort that seems to be in all the lingering corners around here. It was, hm, like that feeling of you are in a room full of people, bleeding out from a wound, but no one calls an ambulance cause they assume the person next to them did. So they don’t, they all don’t. That sort of feeling.
“I was caught up in that, it was subtle at first that I didn’t realize it was another monster, just thought it was me feeling that no one else seemed to know the monsters were there. That I was the only one. I was Alone. By the time that I’d noticed it was a monster, just less tangible, I’d noticed I was unnoticed. Not invisible, but just no connections close enough that would notice me. So I started to do things to get myself noticed, mostly self-destructive things.
“First it was things like making obnoxious amounts of noises, then petty crimes or graffiti, hoping to get caught, but didn’t. So moved to bigger crimes. Shoplifted without even trying to hide it, and no one stopped me. I knew it was because they assumed someone else could stop me. That I shouldn’t be their problem.
“Then I met Molly.” Claire paused for a second to just look into her love’s eyes. “I could tell she was like the monsters that came to me all my life, but she was free. Like there wasn’t a care to be had around her. I hated it. The jealousy that she could be haunted by a monster, but living like a bird, wasn’t something I had an emotional intelligence to deal with. So I did the only thing I knew how to do, I went after her like all the other monsters, since until the Lonely, I’d been able to fight them off.”
“But you know what I did when she came after me?” Molly grinned, not giving Daisy a moment to guess. “I saw her! I looked at her and knew she was being clung to by a nasty strain of Lonely. And I was very aware of Smirke and other Avatars cause the Fairchilds like to adopt anyone into their family that has connections to the Vast. So I looked her right in the eyes and asked-”
“She asked me if I ever tried flying. Not even a hi or a greeting. Just stretched her hand out.”
“In my defense, the Lonely sort tend to run when you see them.”
“I didn’t run though. I took her hand, and then flew. Wasn’t till a year or so later I truly gave myself to the Vast and got my sky. Till then the Lonely was still clinging to me, and I was tired of it. Molly being the only one to see me. After that, things went easy. I’m not a Fairchild. I refuse to take on the name unless through marriage.” Molly blushed when Claire said marriage. “She’s gotta ask me. Otherwise we take on my last name.” Claire grinned and Daisy laughed.
“Sounds like quite the adventure.” Daisy finished up her coffee. “What did you do? To shake the Lonely?”
“Hm, well it mostly came to choice, but honestly Molly would be the one to help out there. She walked me through it like it was a dream. Like guiding me through a maze of fear.”
Molly nodded. “That's why we are both here. I was gunna help since the book didn’t do anything but give vertigo. My connection to the Vast is a bit more on the expansiveness of it all, rather than the falling. Claire’s is a bit more along the lines of the calming beauty. Both are terrifying in their own right to the right people, but otherwise, its very pleasant. I like having date nights in Claire’s sky.”
“We should probably do it someplace were there are less people, preferably with the Archivist near in case the Hunt is too powerful. He can stare it down by force.” Claire shrugged. She wasn’t sure what Jon’s deal was, but he was too powerful for a normal Avatar of the Eye. She’d asked him once, but all he said was he was the Archive and it was in his nature, like that made any sense to her. Whatever it was, would be handy since it seemed like something about the fears bent around him and to his whims.
“I know a place. Where no one would be. It’s in a forested area.”
“Sounds good. Sure Jon Knows the place, so we can meet on the way there.” Molly smiled knowing Jon was listening in.
Daisy looked a little guilty after Molly said that. Jon knows it alright.
---
Jon met up with them at one of the stations and climbed into the car that Claire had driven up to London. The two of them texted each other the meet up location much as Molly wanted to have Jon show up all ominously since that was this thing. Daisy pointed out Jon only had two skinny legs and would take him hours to pull that off.
Jon was a bit nervous once they reached the tree line, and drove into the forest. He and Daisy both didn’t seem too willing to talk for a bit before Molly started asking them things to do in London. They started to talk about various date spots they’d gone to. Daisy supplied places with low populations that her and Basira had gone too, while the majority of places Jon suggested were places with quite a lot of foot traffic.
Once they got to a clearing, Jon stood by the car with Claire, while Molly and Daisy got just out of ear shot. Jon agreeing to not tap into audio, just visual to keep Molly safe if need be.
Molly set up a blanket in a small cleared space. “This looks like it should be. If you want to sit on the blanket and close your eyes, then we can get this party started.”
Daisy nodded. Her blood was starting to rush a little. Like the Hunt was aware of what was happening. That it would fight this.
“Don’t worry. It will be fine. Claire was nervous too. It was almost hard to focus on her when shared the Vast with her. You ready?”
“I am. It’s-I’m ready. I’m just scared-”
Molly’s expression shifted. “I would hope so. Wouldn’t be any fun for me if you weren’t. Now close your eyes so you don’t see something move and lose focus.”
Daisy did. Molly had told her about this, and it was important that Daisy keep her eyes closed to isolate the Hunt in her system. A blindfold wouldn’t do the trick since this required Daisy to fully want this. If she opened her eyes, then it would mean she hadn’t been ready.
“Now. Don’t focus on the chase, hear it, but don’t answer. Focus on the space around, all that contains the endless grounds that watch over the chase. Don’t focus on the end results, but instead that there will always be the hunting ground. The air around that provides the life to both the hunter and the hunted in that space. Not the call the blood sings of, but the speed in which it sings, the voice that carries the call. It won't be as strong as the call to hunt, but it’s there.
“Accept the call to the endless songs of the sky, and let it lead you from the Hunt. Let go and breathe.”
Daisy inhaled and smelled ozone.
“I’m going to push now. When I do, remember your choice and good luck.”
The air rushed from Daisy’s lungs like she was falling. She could still feel the ground below her, Daisy wasn’t falling, but every nerve in her body was screaming she was. Her blood rushed, urged her to fight back, to Hunt the creature doing this to her. Urged her to open her eyes and attack.
Daisy kept her eyes closed. Tried to gasp for air with no such luck. It felt like eternity for a moment. She didn’t understand until suddenly eternity felt tangible. Endless and Impossible, she could feel them, understand them without words, if only for a moment.
And she could breathe again.
Daisy inhaled a sweet breath and exhaled. The blood was quiet. The forest was quiet. There wasn’t the need to chase.
Daisy opened her eyes and before her was an endless forest, with sunbeams filtering through the canopy, light-catching on the particles in the air. There was no Sky here, but there didn’t need to be. It was there and Daisy could feel it expanding over her forest. Her empty forest with nothing to hunt, but no reason to hunt.
It wasn’t the pain like it had been while she was in the Coffin. This place would cause pain, but not to her. Never to her.