Shaynen’s eyes popped open, he sat up and found himself still in the branches of the tree though it seemed bigger somehow.

  “Shaynen! Thunder! Come on down!” Called Mayhem from the base of the tree.

  “Okay!” Shaynen called back but his own voice startled him. It sounded far too high pitched to be his. He cleared his throat while scaling down the tree. Seeing Thunder above him, he made a jump to the ground in order to beat her down. He laughed and stood up and looked up at Kilek who’d lost a few years from his face. Mayhem was taller than Shaynen by a lot more and had more roundness to her face. Jiit was a little taller than Shaynen with big round eyes.

  “What happened?” Shaynen asked.

  “I think this is part of the trance.” Thunder said as she reached the bottom. She had more fur and it looked much softer.

  “I would agree. It seems to have de-aged us. But not in any obvious way. It’s clear that we haven’t all regressed in the same way,” Kilek said, looking at the party.

  “You seem to be the eldest, and Shaynen’s clearly the youngest.” Thunder said, “Mayhem and I are at opposite ends of teen. And Jiit is a child, older than Shaynen but younger than Mayhem.”

  “More or leth,” Jiit said in a voice that was wildly different from the one they were used to. “Pleath don’t menthon the thpeeth impediment.”

  “Fair enough, speaking around new fangs is hard.” Kilek said sympathetically.

  “Shaynen has trouble with his S’s right now too.” Mayhem pointed out.

  “I do not!” Shaynen said.

  “You’re missing a tooth where your S’s are enunciated.” Thunder said. Shaynen investigated his mouth and found he was missing a front tooth.

  “Oh,” Shaynen said. “Yeah, okay.”

  “Now, where is the demon?” Kilek asked, Shaynen realized everyone was looking at him.

  “I dunno.” He said with a shrug.

  “Right.” Kilek said. The world seemed oddly quiet, but slowly there was a sound of shovels. Thunder’s jaw tightened and she went to the curtain created by the willow. She drew back the curtain and revealed the garden and university were now replaced with a dirt wasteland where trenches were being dug by teens of various ages.

  “What?!” Kilek shouted. He ran out of the willow and found the first adult in the area. “What do you think you’re doing?” He made no motion that he could hear Kilek at all.

  “I don’t think this is real!” Shaynen shouted.

  “I know it isn’t.” Thunder said. “This is my hometown. At least it was before it was finished.”

  “What do you mean?” Kilek asked. He waved his hand before the warden, still getting no reaction.

  “This was the way the local authorities tried to rehabilitate the wayward youth, by making them build new towns from the foundations.” Thunder said. “It worked for some of us, we would learn skills that we could then use to join a service or create our own. For others, it just made them better at breaking the law.”

  “Thuch ith the juthtith thythtm.” Jiit said, everyone nodded politely as they tried to translate the sentence. Jiit’s scales flushed with embarrassment and shame before he pulled up a hood and hid his face with it.

  “It’s all exactly as I remember it, nothing seems out of place.” Thunder said. “How do we know if there’s any possession or demons?”

  “I think it’ll only be with Shaynen’s memory unless we see something strange, it should be fine.” Kilek said. “Shall we move on?”

  “To where?” Mayhem asked. Kilek shrugged but started walking away from the building crew. The party shrugged and followed after him with no other clear direction to go in. They walked along kicking rocks to each other as they walked, making their own fun. Shaynen kicked the large rock forward with a laugh and Mayhem ran forward and kicked it to Jiit who uncovered his face to kick the rock forward. Thunder snorted and ignored it but Kilek smiled and gave it a donkey kick back to Shaynen who howled in laughter. The three now youngest grouped together to kick the rock back and forth between them. Kilek occasionally would intercept a pass and run them further which would result in screams of joy.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  It came to a hard stop when Mayhem stopped to kick the rock but froze instead.

  “Mayhem! Pass it!” Shaynen yelled, but Mayhem didn’t move. She just stared forward in a thousand yard stare that seemed vacant. “Mayhem!”

  They had left the wasteland of the developing town behind and now found themselves on a coastal path that bordered the sea, all leading to the cottage on the hill where Mayhem was staring.

  “What is it?” Kilek asked.

  “I don’t wanna go any further, I want to leave.” Mayhem said, her legs didn’t move.

  “What is it? What do you see?” Thunder asked, bearing her claws and teeth.

  “I don’t see anything and I want to leave!” Mayhem yelled.

  “But why!” Shaynen yelled, as he and Jiit ran up to her. Mayhem’s lip quivered.

  “This is where I grew up with my father.” She said quietly. “It was just us. Then he started forgetting things.” Mayhem held herself tightly.

  “He forgot you.” Kilek said and tried to put a hand on her shoulder but she shrugged it off.

  “Ith that when you ran away to the thea?” Jiit asked. Mayhem nodded.

  “It’s okay now,” Shaynen said and he pried her hand free. “You got us now, and Ratscratch, he’s cool right?” Shaynen smiled and Mayhem looked and snorted in unexpected laughter.

  “You just look so damn hopeful and innocent.” She said, shaking her head. “And goofy as all hell with a missing tooth and messed up eyes.”

  “C’mon! This place looks fine, so let’s leave it in the dust.” Shaynen said and began pulling her in another direction. “C’mon guys! This way seems promising!”

  “Good a way as any.” Kilek agreed.

  “Whatever gets us out of here.” Thunder said.

  “Agreed.” Jiit said. Shaynen led the party into the trees, they weren’t ones he was used to seeing but thought they looked climbable in any case. He kept his face turned up to see if there was just one good tree to climb up and travel through when he stepped into mud.

  “Whoa!” He cried as he backed up out of the mud. The forest had opened up to a marshy glade with wooden paths that he’d stepped off of. “Ew…” He wrinkled his nose and felt squeezy in his stomach.

  “This isn’t yours either then, I take it?” Kilek asked. Shaynen shook his head.

  “Is it really going to go through all of us before it gets to you?” Thunder asked, annoyed.

  “Very well could,” Kilek nodded. “Could be the possession trying to ward us off with our own minds.”

  “Let’s just hurry up and get through this,” Mayhem sighed.

  “I agree.” Jiit said. “The thooner we get out of here the better.” Mayhem looked between Kilek and Jiit in confusion.

  “I didn’t grow up in the marsh, Mayhem” Kilek said. “It seems that it’s Jiit’s?”

  “It ith.” Jiit nodded. “Now let’th go.”

  “Fair enough, lead us through.” Kilek said. Jiit took the lead and started walking quickly down the wooden path through the deceivingly deep waters in the marsh. The path soon split, leading back into the trees or to a cottage in the marsh.

  “Who lives there?” Shaynen asked. Right behind Jiit with curiosity.

  “No one anymore.” Jiit said. “Uthed to be a withes’ hut.”

  “A witches hut!” Shaynen’s mouth dropped in awe. “You knew a witch?”

  “No, we were terrorithed by a with.” Jiit said, sorely. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

  “But-”

  “Shaynen, move on.” Thunder said, interrupting before Shaynen could protest further. He sighed in frustration but didn’t ask any further questions.

  “Why don’t you try focusing real hard on your own childhood and see if we can’t get it to come to us?” Mayhem asked.

  “Sure, I don’t remember much of it though.” Shaynen said, but he began focusing hard on the parts he did remember. The clean stone halls. The gardens. Classes.

  They passed through the marsh and into a hilltop meadow.

  “This you?” Thunder asked.

  “No, and I tried really, really hard.” Shaynen said with a sigh. “I tried so hard, I have colors in my vision.”

  “So do we all,” Mayhem laughed. Shaynen laughed too, quickly forgetting his task.

  “I don’t think it’s reacting to any of our memories.” Kilek said as he pushed to the front of the group. “I think it’s trying to force us to turn back or distract us.”

  “Well, I’m starting to think about getting out of here.” Thunder growled. Shaynen hung his head.

  “I’m sorry, I’ll focus harder.” He said, dejectedly. Thunder’s glare melted.

  “Oh, don’t look at me like that.” She said in defeat. “It’s not your fault all this happened. C’mon, we gotta keep focus and find whatever the possession is hiding.” Kilek stopped the party at the top of the hill, looking down with tears in his eyes.