The Playing Fields First Draft

Chapter Eight

     "They don't want to work." Claire complained out of frustration.
It was a half an hour since they started on their journey again. The dowsing rods weren't pointing them in any kind of direction.
     "Give it time." Rick told her. "The only reason why you were able to pick up the cloth was because you were close enough to detect them."
     Of course there's a range of effectiveness. Claire sighed, the harsh reality of psychic powers was hitting her. While Claire always wanted them to develop, but now it just seemed like she wanted them because Claire wanted things to go back to the way things used to be. They won't. Claire realized.
     Even if Claire came out of the Other World with psychic powers, would she be able to forgive everyone who turned their backs on her? Would Claire want them back in her life?
     I don't. Claire realized, there was too much pain associated with those people.
     The rods began to move, startling Claire from her thoughts. They were moving apart from one another, and Claire stopped to realign herself with the rods. Each way she turned, they didn't move any closer to each other.
     Finally Claire turned behind her, and the rods slightly moved toward each other. Maybe a millimeter closer, but it was a start. "This way!" Claire said, as she walked in the direction. I hope nothing gets in our way.

                                                                                                           ********
     After what seemed to be a few hours of turns in the Forest, the rods finally touched one another. Claire's expression brightened when she saw the two sticks touch. "I think we found it!" Claire announced.
     "Oh, you found something all right." A familiar voice said, chilling Claire's blood.
     Mari gasped.
     "Claire! Get back!" Rick called out, his tone mixed with anger and concern.
     "Will?" A whisper squeaked out from Claire.
     Will stepped out from behind a tree, glamour projected his human form. "It's nice to see you again, Claire." Will said with a mocking smile.     "But it looks like the feeling isn't mutual."
      "You're hunting us." Claire replied, plainly. "You want to kill us."
     "Against my will." Will remarked. "I'm as much of a puppet for their amusement as you are."
     "Then why are you doing this? If you can control what you say, you should be able to control your actions!" Claire protested.
     "Oh, Claire, it's not that simple." Will said, examining a tree as he had before his transformation. "I have free will over what I can say, however they tampered with my instincts to make killing you my priority." Will ripped the bark off of the tree.
     Claire could feel the tears forming in her eyes. It was over, this changeling would kill them all, and they were apparently betrayed by the dowsing rods that Claire held. We were so close. Claire thought miserably.
     No.
     Claire decided at that moment to take her life into her own hands for once.
     Will was completely unprepared when Claire charged at him, the dowsing rods used as clubs to batter him. While the branches had the appearance of old, dead wood, they hit Will with a satisfying crack.
     Claire was in berserk mode, she didn't let Will gain the opportunity to recover from Claire's attacks. While Will was a spriggan changeling, the glamour didn't just change his appearance, it also locked his abilities as a spriggan down.
     No superior focus to take the branches from Claire. No superior strength to break the branches with Will's bare hands. Claire had the upper hand by virtue of having weapons, and Will collapsed at Claire's brutal assault. Claire looked at the branches, broken and slick with blood, she dropped them as soon as she came to her senses.
     Despite the thrashing Claire gave Will, he got back up. Slowly, but surely.
     Claire could feel Rick pulling on her. "We have to go, now!"
Not long after the trio ran, Claire could hear Will roar in rage. Nothing about this situation made sense to her, Claire never thought that she'd go into a berserker rage. The fae seemed to enjoy manipulating the emotions of their abductee.
"Damned fae just want to ruin everything, don't they?" Claire shouted toward the others. Rick surprisingly chuckled at the comment.
"Where did that come from?" Mari asked.
"Dunno." Claire replied, "It just hit me!"
"Funny choice of words!" Mari shot back.
Will roared again, it sounded closer to them now.
"We need to split up!" Rick told them.
Claire was torn on the idea of splitting up, horror movies would split up the characters to be picked off one by one. It was something that Claire wanted to yell out to Rick, but she had second thoughts on that.
Rick was the seasoned paranormal investigator, he wouldn't say "split up" if there wasn't some plan in mind. Then again, the Playing Fields had an ability to change the abductees personalities. Perhaps the fae wanted to see what their abductees could do as opposed to the horror movie characters.
All right, this should be interesting. Claire thought. "I'll find you guys later!" Claire shouted to Rick and Mari.
Both Rick and Mari nodded, and headed in different directions.
Now Claire was alone.