Deep in the Forest (Wattpad Editor's Pick, June '22)

8

Mac carried Zoe to the Sohappy dining table and set her down on a blue padded chair. Blood dripped out of the ripped jeans and pooled on the white linoleum underneath her. Wild eyed, her gaze darted around the room, and she shook like a leaf in a storm. 

"I'm so sorry, Z. I swear, I thought you were right behind me the whole time." Takota rubbed his temples in an effort to relieve the headache that throbbed with each pulse of his heart.  

"It's okay, Takota." Zoe didn't look at him, she always looked him in the eye unless she had something to hide or was lying. He would give anything to go back in time and make sure she was behind him the whole way home. The guilt he felt over this would haunt him for the next few days or until she truly forgave him. 

The rocking chair in the corner gently swayed as the ghostly form of a gray-haired woman sat there, knitting a scarf or small blanket, Takota wasn't sure which. "You should not have gone into the forest tonight, Hatali," she said in her broken English. 

"I know, grandmother, but mom was in trouble," Takota thought at her. 

"Ste ye hah is a trickster and would've killed both of you if you hadn't run when I told you to." 

Her words further unnerved him. In all the years she's been one of his guides, she's never led him astray. But right now, he wished she would keep her thoughts to herself, so he could focus on his best friend and her injury. 

"Here." Dyani handed everyone a dry towel and quickly wrapped her long hair up in one of them. 

Takota smelled the lavender detergent as he wiped the drips of water from his face and hair. It didn't bring him comfort like it used to. 

Zoe scrunched her face in pain as his mother dabbed at her injured leg with a wet washcloth. He stared at the growing puddle of blood and tried to swallow his guilt away. She wasn't the one who usually got injured, that was his job. Seeing his best friend in pain was more upsetting than if it happened to him. 

Mac reemerged from the kitchen with four mugs of steaming coffee. He handed one to Takota and set the rest on the table before taking a seat across from Zoe and Dyani. He was quiet as a mouse, but his presence filled the room, pushing negativity away like a lighthouse on a stormy shoreline. 

The black liquid was hot and bitter on his tongue, but Takota appreciated how it chased the cold away. Warming him from the inside out. 

"Did you break anything, Z?" he asked as his mother applied disinfectant to the wound. 

"I don't think so, but my jeans are a lost cause." The dark liquid was still near the rim of her mug. Her fingers were white and appeared small wrapped around its clay circumference. 

Takota grabbed a towel and sopped up the blood from the floor. 

Dyani wrapped Zoe's leg with a bandage then stood from her crouched position. "It looks like a deep puncture wound. Keep pressure on that so it clots. Once it stops bleeding, you should get cleaned up in a nice hot shower to keep infection away."