The Fear You Know

5. Faces in the Clouds

The wind in the uncanny valley wasn't like the wind you might find in a regular forest: not a soft swish through leaves or even the rattle of dry branches. Instead, it came with the haunting echo of distant mournful singing, just barely at the edge of his hearing, fading in and out like the undulation of fog. More than once, Eli found his eyes glazing over, drawn away into the midst of his imagination where the owner of that voice danced before him in the forest.

He imagined her as a beautiful woman dressed in white, long dark hair rolling down her shoulders like the waves of an ebony sea. Her feet were bare and her skin was pale as alabaster flitting through the trees as ephemeral as a memory before vanishing into the mist.

"Usually, people leave daydreaming for the day and regular dreaming for the night."

Eli lurched upright, shaking the fog from his brain as he returned fully to his spot near the fire sitting half upright against a twisted tree root.

Wink sat beside him, his glistening amorphous body glowing red in the firelight.

Eli cleared his throat. The scratchiness from earlier was getting worse not better.

"Looking a little pale." Wink said, large single eye blinking slowly

Eli grunted, "We knew this would probably happen. That's why we brought supplies."

"Let's just hope you haven't caught something really nasty... like the plague."

"Funny." Eli muttered, reaching out a hand and unceremoniously tipping wink off the bag and onto the ground. Wink hit the grass with a wet squelch as Eli reached inside the bag and withdrew the book he had taken from the library, inspecting it from cover to cover with a critical eye. He was worried that their journey through the swamp and the city might have damaged the book, but, luckily he saw no evidence of such an event.

He turned through the index dragging his eyes down a page lit by flickering red firelight.

Agony

Crushing

Affliction

And then finally at the end of the list: Exclusion.

His fingers brushed over the black inked word feeling the subtle abrasiveness of the page against his fingertips..Turning to the desired heading his eyes scanned down the page casting a cursory inspection over double thick columns of tightly packed script.

But he couldn't do it.

He was too tired, and, at that moment, the text was as daunting as their escape from Veerus city, and he had to shut the book, setting it back in his bag and rubbing his eyes.

"Wow, you really aren't feeling well are you.... Must be plague."

"I am so glad that, in you, I have such an empathetic and supportive friend."

Wink wiggled his gelatinous mass, "I know, what would you do without me."

"Live my life in peace and tranquility I am sure." he said with a sigh sliding down onto the grass and leaning back against his log. He hadn't noticed until just then, but, if he looked close enough, he thought he could see shapes in the fire, wicked faces staring out at him from the dancing flames.

Under his legs, the grass felt as if it was subtly moving.

Elid did his best to ignore the strange disquiet of the forest, and turned his attention back to his satchel, the cool leather gone dull and gray in the misty evening. He had managed to stuff several volumes from the Veerus library into the satchel, but was still surprised when, upon looking into the bag, he saw the spine of a book he did not recognize: russet red and faded with time it shone in the dim evening light.