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Chapter Seventeen
Bianca
I’m alone, back in the woods. I don’t even know when I returned. I guess I snuck out again, believing that Edmund and I probably missed something, some vital clue that would have led us to the discovery of the well.
I wander through the woods, not really sure where I’m supposed to go. It’s still dark. Pitch black even. A part of me seems to remember that it was almost morning when Edmund and I returned to the factory building, but obviously I got something wrong. It’s still the middle of the night and I’m back where we were hours ago.
The fact that I don’t remember how I got here doesn’t sit well with me. I have a strange feeling that I’m not alone, but there is no one around me. At least, no one I can see. But my gut feeling never lies.
I keep walking, still not sure where it is I’m going. But something is telling me that I’m following that map. I don’t have it on me, but I have memorized it. I almost memorized Edmund’s entire song. But still, I’m not seeing what it is I’m supposed to be seeing.
Suddenly, I notice a flickering stone in the grass. I frown, wondering what it could be. For a moment, I’m thinking it could be a diamond ring someone lost. What other stone could sparkle like that?
I bend down to pick it up. It’s not a diamond. It’s just a rock. A shiny rock at that.
While I’m pondering what on earth this could be, I notice another one a few feet away, sparkling in the darkened grass. I take a few steps closer to it, then there is another one and another one, leading me down a path through thick shrubbery, where I have to move the branches and keep them out of my face.
I don’t know how many of these blinking stones I find, unwilling to take any of them into my hand. They look so strange, almost as if something bad might happen to me if I touch them again. So, I keep myself at a safe distance from them, but at the same time, I can’t help but follow the path that they seem to be setting for me.
At one point I reach a tree, that is filled with wild cherries. From afar, they look much smaller, almost like… berries.
Berries! I think to myself. Maybe we’ve been looking at it the wrong way. Maybe berries aren’t berries at all, but cherries. After all, cherries are berries, only bigger.
I chuckle to myself loudly and my laughter echoes all around me.
“Bianca…” I suddenly hear someone whisper from somewhere behind me.
I quickly turn around, hoping to see a monster that stems from every child’s imagination. But instead of a boogeyman, what greets me is nothingness. This makes me even more frightened, because I’m sure that I heard someone call out my name.
I swallow heavily. “Is someone there?” I call out.
The desire to hear someone talk back rivals my desire not to hear anything. But at least, if I hear someone’s voice, I’ll know that I’m not insane, that I’m not hearing voices that don’t exist.
At that exact moment when I’m looking around, the little shiny stones suddenly start projecting light in the same direction, right at the cherry tree. I focus my gaze there, wondering how on earth this is happening. Am I dreaming? Have I fallen into a haze between wakefulness and sleep? I’m not sure, but I’m not going to question it.
Obviously, some invisible force is drawing me there, forcing me to take this course, because I wouldn’t end up there otherwise, on my own.
I walk to the wild cherry tree. While I’m standing underneath it, a cool nightly breeze ruffles my hair, as if some invisible hand raked their fingers through my hair. Strangely enough, it felt peaceful. It was like a caress almost.
Then, someone whispers right into my ear.
“Behind the tree…”
I turn around, hoping to catch whoever it was, but once again, there is no one behind me. I focus my attention once again on the tree, wondering what the voice was referring to.
“Behind the tree?” I say out loud, hoping that the voice might clarify these instructions, but nothing happens. I am left on my own.
I walk around the tree and notice scattered rocks behind it. They appear big, laid out in no particular order. Maybe I’ve seen them before, but I haven’t paid attention to them. Now, I obviously need to.
Just as I’m about to bend down and see if I can move the closest one, I open my eyes, and gasp loudly. I am no longer in the woods, but on a makeshift bed in the factory basement.
“Are you alright?” I hear Edmund ask. He’s lying on the bed opposite mine, but he was obviously woken up by my gasp.
“Yeah,” I say, sounding confused. I sit up on the bed, planting my feet firmly on the ground. “I just had the weirdest dream.”
“About what?” he asks.
“The well,” I say, and immediately, his ears prick up, like a Doberman’s.
