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Finn was here, somewhere. I needed to find him, to make sure he was okay. The fear was a drumbeat inside my head, driving me forward. I just needed to find Finn.
People were crowding close again to see what was going on since the immediate danger had passed, and I searched the crowd for blonde hair and freckles, but I couldn’t see my son anywhere. Someone jostled me, crowding closer. The heat, the people, it was suffocating. I couldn’t breathe, but more importantly, I couldn’t see my son.
I stumbled through the crowd, gasping out apologies when I shoved through a gap too narrow for me. My skin was crawling with each touch, the fear ratcheting higher and higher. I finally burst free of the crowd and doubled over, coughing and trying to suck air into a chest that felt crushed flat. It was like there were bands of metal wrapping around me, squashing my ribs.
When I finally caught sight of Finn off at the edges of the main clearing, standing unhurt with a group of his friends from school, a couple of those iron bands fell away. He was fine, and it looked like he was keeping his friends from getting too close to the fire and the efforts to keep it controlled. A little sliver of pride wormed its way through the fear that was still eating at me. Finn was still looking out for others.
He was okay. I finally managed to get a little trickle of blessedly cool air past my lips. I wanted to go over to him, hug him, check him over, but I knew he wouldn’t be thrilled with his mom fussing over him in front of his friends. Just the thought of heading Finn’s way made my anxiety take a leap forward, because it suddenly dawned on me that he was safer away from me.
The thought brought me up short. I would never put Finn at risk, he could never be in danger from me. But everything near me lately had been going up in metaphorical and literal smoke, and even if Wanda said I wasn’t cursed, I didn’t want to risk being around Finn until I figured out what the heck was going on.
So, with one last longing look back to make sure he was really okay, I staggered away from the crowd. More people were coming closer, trying to see what was going on. Pushing through them felt a bit like being a salmon spawning against the current of a river, but I eventually found a clear space between two stalls where I could stand and get out of the way. The evening breeze picked up, drying a bit of the sweat on the back of my neck, and I shivered.
I should have been in that crowd, trying to organize the efforts to put out the fires, keeping things under control. But I just couldn’t force myself to go back over there, so I just watched the people crowding closer, and the sense of dread filled my belly with ice that climbed all the way up the back of my throat.
It was then that I remembered the gris-gris around my neck and reaching up, I ran my fingers past it, feeling suddenly calmer. Movement in the wrong direction suddenly caught my eye, and I turned my head just in time to see Andre slipping away from the crowd and into the trees at the edge of the field. When had he even arrived? I had no idea, because it wasn’t as though he’d come up to see me. Maybe he’d arrived at the exact moment the fire had broken out of control?
Regardless, the bigger question now was: where was he going? Normally, when things went wrong, Andre was right there in the thick of it, handling whatever came at him with a calm that I was wildly envious of. It was odd to see him heading in the opposite direction to where people were still battling with the flames, especially since we’d made plans to meet up at my stall—plans that were supposed to have happened hours ago.
It made me wonder if something else was going on, and maybe he needed help. So, I dragged up all my courage (or the tatters of what was left), and stomped down on the insidious little whisper that told me I should keep away, break it off, stay away from him for his own safety, and I headed for the break in the trees where I’d seen Andre slip through.
With the sun set, and the last of the ruby light just smudging the sky above the horizon, stepping into the woods was like jumping from twilight to midnight. The shadows hung thick off the boughs as birds muttered sleepily while I passed under their perches. The wind moved gently through the canopy and the leaves rustled.
He hadn’t gone far. I saw him leaning against one of the trees, like he was waiting for me. But something was wrong. The longer I looked, the blurrier Andre became, like someone had smeared the paint on a canvas. I had to blink hard to clear my eyes. There was still a person standing there, but it definitely wasn’t Andre.
I squinted, but that didn’t help any. Pale hair instead of dark, the style cut shorter than Andre’s, but not by much. She, because it was a woman, wore a pale gray jacket as she waited beneath a large oak tree, looking like a ghost in the dark.
Lacey, I realized after a second. It was Lacey. And then I felt a little stupid for ever mistaking her for Andre in the first place. I must have been more freaked out than I’d realized. And yet... I could have sworn it was him I’d seen. I mean, how would my mind have made such a mistake? Maybe I’d just wanted to see Andre that bad? He always made me feel more secure, like there wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle if we were together.
Well, either way, whether I’d imagined Andre or whether there was something more sinister going on, I was definitely curious as to why it looked like Lacey was hiding out here in the dark.
“Lacey.” I tripped over an exposed root and had to stumble to keep from falling flat on my face.
I was half afraid she’d vanish in front of my eyes like the last two times I’d tried to speak to her. But she just watched me blunder towards her, a small smile on her face.
“I just wanted to say how sorry I was about the other day. I didn’t mean to snap at you.” I batted some leaves away from my face, trying not to let the branch swing back and smack me. Even though I muttered the apology, my heart wasn’t really in it. Instead, there was something about this woman that had me on edge. The apology was just a way to hide my suspicious curiosity. “Things have been really terrible lately, just everything going wrong,” I continued, all the while studying her for some clue that might hint at why she was out here alone. “But that’s no excuse, and I hope you can forgive me.”
Lacey hummed, considering. She was still wearing that tiny little smile, almost a smirk, and leaning back against the tree as she watched me—acting as if she had all the time in the world and wasn’t the least bit concerned about the fact that the bonfire had very nearly just consumed the entire festival.
I shifted my weight, making the leaf litter under my feet rustle. It was awkward, waiting for her to say something, and I wondered how she’d respond. Finally, after a long wait, Lacey stepped away from the tree. She brushed off her sleeves, batting away little flecks of bark stuck there.
“Well, Poppy,” she said, still wearing that little smile. “Have you ever thought that things have been terrible, because that’s what you deserve?”
I gaped at her, my mouth dropping open as a rush of hot anger raced through my body, and my mouth moved, but I couldn’t think of what words to say. But I didn’t get the chance to say anything when she laughed at me, at the expression on my face, and my mouth snapped shut so fast, that my teeth clicked together.
“What I deserve?” I repeated, frowning. I never had been good at confrontation and I figured this was just another example of as much. Had I been Wanda, I was fairly sure Lacey would now be a toad. Wanda didn’t do well with being offended.
“You know, Poppy. I haven’t been entirely honest with you.” Lacey took another step forward, and the leaves didn’t stir under her feet this time. It was like she wasn’t fully touching the ground. She smiled again, but it was more a quick baring of teeth than anything friendly.
“You haven’t been honest?” I repeated, getting that same sense of dread in my stomach.
She nodded. “For one thing, my name isn’t Lacey.”
She took another step forward, and I took an unconscious one back. I had no idea what to expect from Lacey (because I still wasn’t getting anything other than ‘human’ vibes from her), but I was suddenly very aware that everyone was distracted by the bonfire, and I was out in the woods alone with someone who at the very least was short a few marbles.
Lacey stopped, and her body kind of blurred, like the lines of her body shimmered until I couldn’t really see her any longer. Kind of like what I’d witnessed earlier, when I’d thought I’d seen Andre.
Pale blond hair darkened at the tips into a red so vibrant that even in the very faint moonlight breaking through the canopy I could see it. More scarlet welled up in her eyes, spilling over her cheeks to run in bloody tear tracks down her face. My breath froze solid in my lungs.
