The Untouchables: Blight

Chapter Five

Joshua

The smoke was forced back into me. I looked at Lori. I wasn't sure what I was expecting Lori to see, but every part of me wanted to stop when I saw that man grab her and push her against that tree. Her screams had petrified me and I wondered if everyone else could hear them.

I have always had the rule that I would respect people and their fears, but something kept my eyes on her. I wanted to look away, I wanted to end it, but something stopped me.

And then I felt it. It exploded first onto the tree; then pushed everything back into me. Everything came collapsing down as if some part of the illusion knew she was dangerous, deadly. Black covered my vision and when it fell, she was lying on the floor again. Looking up at the tree, that molten rock was fresh, replacing where her hands had been. There was no doubt it has come from her. I could now tell that it was something other than the rock I assumed it was, it looked brittle and pieces of it were falling off the tree.

Lori stirred. Her body slowly moved and rolled until her eyes opened and looked directly at me. She said nothing as she looked up and slowly breathed, then moved into a sitting position matching mine leaning back against the tree. Parts of the decaying tree continued to fall behind her.

Her voice was quiet when she spoke, "What happened?" It still held a hint of that southern accent she had.

I pointed behind her and simply said "that." She looked behind her at the tree and just stared. Eventually, she reached her hand out to touch it. More parts of the tree crumbled beneath the delicate touch of her hand. She moved it gently across and little pieces fell, revealing the decay beneath, it was spreading into the tree.

A loud crack came from a branch above. The bark started to bend until the branch fell from the tree and landed on the ground. Lori jumped slightly at it. From the part that broke off the tree, I could see that same black brittle substance, with some green and purple veins running through it.

"Well, that happened," my voice had some humor in it. She remained quiet, her head looking down at her lap. She looked so defeated, "Hey, are you ok?"

She fiddled with her hands for a long time, "Ho-how much did you see?" Her voice was still so quiet, she sounded so broken.

"Enough," was all I said, the idea of confirming that fact that I had seen everything didn't sit right with me. A small sniffle came as Lori brought her knees to her chest and rested her head on them. My heart broke, "I'm so sorry you had to go through that, but like I said, it's just an illusion, it..."

"...didn't really happen," she said with me, her voice was more stern, "But it did, Josh," she looked up towards me, "it did happen, maybe not this time, but it happened before, and I just had to live through it again." I was speechless. What could I possibly say to give her words justice? To make it better?

She sniffled a little, then took a deep, audible breath. "My dad died when I was four. My mom was a mess. I don't remember it clearly but my mom was a shell of herself and everyone knew she was falling apart. The neighbors took care of me and held me when I cried—not just for my dad, but for my mom too. I felt like I had lost her. She barely got up in the morning or got dressed and we basically lived off of casseroles brought to us by different people. My dad's business partner, John Whittman, came over one day and just decided that he needed to help. He had always been over to see my dad as one of his closest friends and wouldn't let this happen. From then on, he was always over to help my mom with anything she needed. Almost all our financials were done by him and he took care of me when my mom needed it. I remember I once asked if he was my dad. My mom had laughed at the time but I saw tears, I knew it made her miss Dad. John would pick me up from school and take me for ice cream and did all those things that a father should.