“Thomas!” Ivy said finally prying herself out of Thomas’s chest to wipe some tears away but his shirt had a dark spot symbolizing where Ivy poured her heart out and released the breath she held since they lost him. Thomas didn’t seem to mind at all how much Ivy destroyed his clothes with snot, he hugged her again. His cries were being suppressed but it wouldn’t last until he joined her as their tears matched each other perfectly.

  “Where were you?” Thomas asked, he didn’t dare let her go again. Ivy looked back down the trail then to the moon above and finally back at the giant tent that was holding Willow. She was trying to put all that happened into some words so Thomas understood they never stopped looking for him but it was too much for her. Ivy froze and shut her eyes just trying to take in this victory.

  “She was in the woods. She never left.” At first Albert’s voice sent shivers through Ivy, she didn’t expect him to be here right now. Her muscles relaxed when Thomas patted her on the head and pried her off of him, he made sure his hand was out so Ivy knew he was still there to comfort her.

  Albert smoothly burst out of the small tent. The lights shined directly on him, they illuminated him making Ivy think for just a moment she was seeing an angel. “My guess is her, Willow and Jinar were looking for you just like you did the same for them.” Albert said. His figure came more into reality as the lights escaped him. He was wearing the same uniform of those people who saved Ivy and Willow from the thing pretending to be Jinar.

  Albert had two steaming mugs in his hand, he extended one out to Ivy and drank from the other. “Don’t worry. It’s hot coco, it’ll help calm your nerves.” This was all Ivy needed to hear, she grabbed it with her free hand and drank it not realizing how hot it actually was as she almost burnt her tongue.

  “Thank you.” Ivy said behind clenched teeth trying to show giving her the hot coco wasn’t a bad idea. Albert chuckled as he turned back to be consumed by the lights once more. His angelic silhouette stopped before it fully vanished inside the tent.

  “Why don’t you two join me.” Albert said more than he asked. Thomas didn’t take a second to think before he followed Albert blindly taking Ivy’s hand in tow. After all that happened Ivy wouldn’t let her friend be alone again, she will follow Thomas everywhere.

  Once they cleared the radiant lights Ivy noticed Albert had already taken the seat at a fold out table furthest from the entrance. There were many blurry pictures scattered across the table that had coffee stains littered among them. There was a white board, that had more notes and photos on them, on each side of the tent beside the entrance. There was an ice chest behind Albert with its lid wide open, smoke was pouring out of it making it impossible to see what’s inside. One photo in particular stunned Ivy causing her grip on Thomas to loosen. It’s so blurry that she couldn’t be sure but she swore it was a photo of either Ivan, Jinar or Thomas floating above the old barn.

  “Please sit. I have some questions for you if that’s ok.” Albert said as he leaned forward propping his head up with his arms, he was practically leaning over the table pushing some photos of the edges. Thomas was the first to take a seat across from Albert and Ivy did the same shortly after.

  “That demon is still out there I know but there is no need to worry.” Albert said calmly as he looked through the messy stack of photos on the table until he pulled one out and gave it a good look before turning it around, showing it to Ivy. The picture was so distorted and stained that all she could makeout was some shadow crawling on the floor that had a humans body hanging out of its mouth like a dog would carry its toy. Ivy didn’t want to be rude so she just nodded.

  “This demon, like any monster born out of sin and darkness hates the light. So long as we have power we have safety and a way to fight back.” It was clear Albert was trying to reassure the kids that they were safe but it just came out as bragging. Thomas was fully invested, he was studying the photo of the demon.

  “Even the flash of the camera was enough to send it running.” Albert leaned out of his chair and reached inside the ice chest and pulled out a round object the size of his palm that was wrapped in red cloth.

  “You see, this abomination crept its way into my life 12 years ago.” Albert said his grip tightened on the object squeezing it, Ivy swore it screamed in pain but by the way Thomas was paying it no attention she wrote it off as all of her fear playing tricks on her.

  “I’m sure Jinar told you about this story already. About the previous owners of this land?” Albert’s grip loosened. It didn’t seem like he was really asking the kids this or that he was even talking to them, more of just using them as an audience for a speech he had been preparing for years.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Albert grew silent, all of his concentration was stolen. His gaze was fixated on the object the entire time, he wasn’t even blinking. “Not really. He just said they were the ones that planted all these trees.” Ivy said after almost a minute of silence went by not knowing what else to do. This made Albert chuckle, his attention still unbroken.

  “They were nobody’s really. They were a simple old couple that had nothing really going for them. They owned a failing tree farm but they didn’t seem to care too much since they knew they didn’t have much longer to live anyways.” Albert’s words were cold. They made Ivy shudder from how they were so void of emotion. It was as if Albert was just stating a fact.

  “Why are you telling us this?” Ivy asked after sinking into her chair trying to seem as small as she could. Thomas turned to Ivy with a big frown on his face and held his finger up to his lips. When he was sure Ivy got the hint he turned to face Albert with a big grin, he was practically jumping in his seat with excitement.

  “We were running low on subjects to experiment on. So me and Stein thought animals would do. We sent soldiers out into the woods to gather some back dead. When one of the men shot a dear on this land the old couple were furious. They said that the deer was their pet.” Albert said not paying attention to Ivy’s earlier outburst. The thing in his had began twitching as if it were trying to break free of the cloth prison.

  “This is my favorite part!” Thomas said covering his mouth to hide his smile and conceal his voice as to not interrupt. Ivy began to look around the room as to prepare to run if things kept getting too creepy for her.

  “Seeing this as the perfect chance we simply brought it back for them with the help of our new experiment, the red moss. At first it seemed to be going fine and the old couple was happy again. That is until it began to speak.” Albert said as he took one of the corners draped over the object in his hand and peeled it away. The cloth before seemed to be dry but the way it clung to itself and fell implied it was soaked.

  “We told them this was an improvement but they disagreed saying it was unnatural. The husband was furious, probably fueled by his crying wife so he shot the deer, but it kept getting back up asking why he was hurting it. He shot it again and again with a shotgun until nothing remained except this.” Another corner flopped off of the object revealing only part of it. From what could be seen it looked like a black ball. Ivy leaned in closer, unknowingly mirroring Thomas perfectly.

  “The old fool said this was in the deer’s chest probably next to or in its heart. He couldn’t have known that this was our experiment, the red moss.” The last two corners seemed to have fallen off on their own from how much the object was moving on its own now. The object looked like a polished 8-ball. That was until it rotated on its own and an eye was now looking at Ivy.

  Ivy looked up to Thomas who had her hand still but a tighter grip now. Him and Albert were staring with the orb at Ivy. She tried to break her hand free and get up but Thomas stood up and held her in place by the shoulders. Red moss started to collect and pile up from under the orb making it seem like it was crying. So much of it was pilling up that it began to pour over the table and photos.

  “Don’t worry I only needed to check if I had allowed enough time to pass. Its gaze only lands on those who were introduced to it already. You know, through your hot coco.” Albert said sending Ivy’s stomach through a pit. The lights became brighter until they were almost blinding. Thomas laughed as if this was all a joke, that he just made one of his friends go through what he just had to. His laughs quickly turned to cries for help. Ivy looked up to see one of her saviors from before holding her down now. In the chair next to her was Thomas who was kicking and screaming with a large man holding him down like how she was.

  “Let her go! You said…” Thomas screams cut through the laughs of his false self. The guard holding him tightened his grip causing Thomas to cry cutting him off from speaking more.

  “Now you and Thomas are just like Willow, not as perfect as Jinar in the state he’s in but you’re getting there. This marks phase one as a success. I have introduced this demon into two new bloodlines and I now have two new subjects to help me.” Albert pulled the eye away and wrapped it back up carefully before putting it carefully into the ice chest again.

  “Why are you doing this?” Ivy cried in a way that almost reminded the man holding her down that she was just a child.

  “I need results and the minds of children are so much easier for the red moss to infiltrate. I’m sure you’re already seeing things that aren’t true.” Albert said seeming to somehow know that she had. Ivy began to cry as she looked at Thomas who was crying right along with her. She didn’t know if it was him holding her or not, even now she couldn’t trust if the hand she was holding was his.

  “You see we found out that while the red moss does bring back the dead it replaces the soul of the body with that of a demons and in turn puts the original owner of that soul into the hell it came from. You’ll now be entering a new plane of existence. If you wish to survive make sure the alter stays intact until the moon sets, it’s the only way.” Albert’s word began to fade and trail off until they were only a whisper. The smoke coming from the ice chest increased in thickness concealing everything in the tent. Ivy still held onto what she thought was Thomas’s hand tightly not daring to let him leave her again. The walls of the tent began to crumble until they fell to the ground.

  Ivy thought this was all a bad dream since everything looked the same, until the trees began to twist and dance. Ivy’s eyes shot up to see a red mass rise out of the forest. It looked like a giant bubble that toward over the trees, the inside of the bubble was dark but dark human shapes could be seen moving through it like serpents in water. Screams of someone or something came from the red mass in the sky, as time passed the screams turned more distorted. Countless more red masses continued to raise from the forest until they blocked the stars. The habitants tried to reach out of their barriers but the bubble like shell stretched but didn’t give. Behind them all was the massive red moon that Willow was screaming about, now Ivy understood her terror.

  Ivy clenched her hands and brought them in to cover her eyes, that’s when she realized she was still holding someone’s hand. The smoke the ice chest produced began to thin revealing Thomas who had his head buried in his knees, he didn’t want Ivy to see him like this.

  “Jinar!” Danicas voice stole their attention. They saw her standing in front of the house, which didn’t have a tent around it anymore. A half decomposed body was hovering over her like a predator looking at its next meal.

  Thomas was quick to react helping direct the stunned Ivy. He brought her in and they hid under the fold out table. The monster standing over Danica raised its hand almost as if commanding her body to rise and so it did. Danica screamed and tried to get free but nothing was actually holding her, she was flying.

  Her body kept rising until it intersected one of the red masses. Danica passed easily through the bubble like exterior, thousands of screams filled the air and the shadows in the red mass swarmed around her sending blood flying out in all directions.