Fire in the Woods

Chapter Six

Jasmine's grandparents were exactly like she remembered them.

Her grandmother was like her daughter and granddaughter - same olive skin, jet-black hair - hers with streaks of shimmering silver - and steely gaze. She was over sixty, but she had the body of a woman three times younger than she was, with her stance suggesting that she would defer to no one. Jasmine's grandfather was just as intense, with the same shade of hair as his wife but paler skin and eyes that were so dark brown that they were almost black. They were both wearing practical clothes, shirts and sweatpants in varying shades of dark colors.

And Jasmine was going to stay with them for a month.

She tentatively extended a hand to her grandfather as he approached her, studying her with her bottomless dark eyes behind a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. "Hello, Jasmine." He smiled as he shook her hand. "I know we haven't talked in years, but we're going to be fine living together. I'm your grandfather - duh - but you can call me Dave. Or Grandpa. Or whatever you want."

"And you can call me Krystal," Jasmine's grandmother told her with her arms crossed. "This is our home. As you can see, it is quite big. You'll be staying in the cottage that we're in front of right now" - she gestured to the cozy little house behind them - "but you're welcome to explore after you're settled in."

Jasmine nodded, her eyes locked on the forest. She knew exactly where she was going after she was "settled in".

Her grandmother - Krystal - followed her gaze. "Ah. The woods. You can go there whenever you want, but don't go beyond the boundary of our property. You'll see where it is - we've marked it."

"But - but why would you need a boundary?" Jasmine asked, puzzled.

Krystal's eyes locked on her. "It's a dangerous place. You wouldn't understand unless you've seen it."

Jasmine would've kept arguing, but she reminded herself that she had to make a good impression on her grandparents.

Fine. But I'm still exploring the woods, even if I do have to respect a boundary. She nodded.

"Are we ready?" Dave asked. "I can get your backpack."

"Okay." She handed her backpack over, then glanced at her parents. Her mom gave her a small smile. "You'll have a great time. Look at this place!"

Jasmine nodded. She had been excited about coming here, but now that it was actually happening, she felt a lot more nervous.

 Not to mention that creepy tree art...

She shuddered, resolving to put that picture out of her mind. But still. Why would her grandparents have something like that?

Strong, warm arms enveloped her, and Jasmine's dad said, "It'll be fine. But I get why you're nervous. This is a bit intimidating."

Jasmine nodded, putting on her best brave face and responding, "I'm not nervous. It'll be fun." She looked up at her dad, offering a small smile.

"Are you ready?" Krystal asked, sounding slightly impatient.

"Yeah," Jasmine murmured, hugging first her mom, then her dad. She waved to them as she followed Dave and Krystal into the cottage.

The floorboards creaked as she walked through the doorway, catching her first glimpse of the house. It was cozy-looking. The room that they had walked into was a small sitting room, with a couple of chairs and a velvet sofa surrounding a large, well-used coffee table. She spotted two doors perpendicular to each other on one corner of the room, while a hallway cut through the opposite wall. The walls themselves were a soft shade of gray-blue, with pale silver furnishing.

"It's pretty," was all Jasmine could say.

She swallowed and finally made direct eye contact with the people she was going to be staying with for a month. "What should I do?"

Krystal gestured at the house. "Explore. We'll get the rest of your things from your parents' car. Do whatever you want."

"R-really?" Jasmine asked, astonished.

Krystal shrugged. "We're not here to order you around. You're living here for a month. Make the most of it."

"Thanks." Jasmine didn't know what else to say, and Krystal was starting to walk out the door again, Dave right behind her.

As soon as they were gone, Jasmine started wandering around the room, trying to figure out if there was anything that could occupy her until her grandparents came back with the rest of her things. There wasn't much. On the coffee table, there were a few books, but nothing that was really her taste. Looking up from a paperback novel, her eyes caught on the doors.

The doors.

She crept over to the door on the right and inched it open, not sure why she felt so guilty. After all, Krystal had told her to explore the house. So she wasn't breaking any rules - right?

The doorway led to a long, narrow hall that smelled musty and old. Jasmine fumbled around in the dark, but there didn't seem to be any light switches. Giving up, she sighed and started to creep down the hall, letting a hand brush the side to keep her from bumping her nose on the wall.

Unfortunately, this did not protect her nose from anything directly forward, which she discovered when her face slammed into something large and heavy in front of her. She ignored the ache, groping around in the dark until she felt a cold metal object, long and slender. Jasmine realized it was a door handle.

She had reached the end of the hall.

Jasmine grunted as she pushed the heavy door open, wondering how long it had been since somebody else had done the same. White light washed over her, and she breathed in the smell of fresh, crisp air as the door swung open to reveal an overgrown lawn, a couple of broken glass mosaics stretched out across the the ground, and her grandparents' dark, wild forest practically right in front of her.

A side door.

She ran outside, ignoring the sudden burst of heat, and sprinted toward the trees, dodging the glass mosaics that seemed to be scattered everywhere. The trees were even more massive and looming than she had expected. Their branches arched overhead, tangling up in one another and creating a vast canopy, almost like a roof. The forest looked creepy, but inviting too, beckoning Jasmine to rest in the shade and climb the trunks of the trees. There, she could be herself. She didn't have to worry about online school, or missing Jason, or creepy maple art hidden within a glass path. She could just be among the trees.

Jasmine quickly lost site of the cottage as she ran nimbly through the undergrowth, searching the trunks for a viable candidate to climb. She spotted an oak that looked climbable and veered toward it. She was almost there when her eyes caught a glimpse of tawny fur and a long, tufted tail, gone almost as quickly as it appeared.

She froze, eyes widening. It looked like a cougar.

Cougar sightings were incredible rare in Wisconsin. So see one right now, so close to where she was going to be living... well, it wasn't an opportunity she was going to waste. She made up her mind quickly and started slowly moving in the direction of where she had glimpsed it. She didn't want to spook it, or, worse, have it attack her.

Actually, she had no idea what to do. She had never been this close to a cougar in the wild before. 

After minutes of cautiously stalking through the woods, trying to follow the cougar's trail as best as she could without much luck, she can across a clearing.

 No. Not a clearing. More like a tear in the ground. All of the trees and bushes had been ripped up, leaving just a barren stretch of dirt. Jasmine poked her head out of the woods and saw that it extended in both directions as far as she could see.

So this was what Krystal had meant by a boundary.

Jasmine narrowed her eyes. She was going to see that cougar. Ignoring the rational part of her mind that reminded her of Krystal's warning and that the cougar could have ran off in any direction, not just this one, she stepped into the boundary.

After all, it was just a forest. What could go wrong?