Free It Is Said (Mathias Bootmaker and the Keepers of the Sandbox) by Edward Medina Page B

called to him.
      “Leave here,” the man said, as he pointed down the dark road. “Go and never come back.”
    His declaration was followed by more whispers. They were growing louder with each step Mathias took towards the road. They followed him as he got closer to the man, and the last bit of light Mathias knew he would see for quite some time. They were clear in their intent by the time he reached him.
    “Get out,” was whispered in quiet unison.
    Mathias caught only a quick glimpse of the man at the torch before he smothered his flame with a cloth. His eyes were a deep grey. His skin was pale, on the verge of translucent. Mathias couldn’t see anything of the man anymore, but he could feel his presence coming closer to him through the dark.
    His voice was suddenly behind him.
    “Never return to the village,” he whispered. “Stick to the path. Stray from it and you’ll regret it.”
    “I already have,” Mathias said, “and I already do.”
    Mathias felt the man’s hands on his shoulders turning him to the face the road.
    “No matter which choice you make remember, always hide, always run.”
    The man put his hand against his back and pushed Mathias forward into the nothingness as the whispers became voices. At first there were just a few, then a few dozen more. As those voices became clearer, Mathias began his journey onto the dark path ahead of him.
    The will of the now hundreds of voices pushed him further on. Further away from the village. They forced this upon him with one single message.
    “GET OUT!”

     
     

7.
    Voices in the Forest
     
     

    There were no starlights in this place. No moons. No other worlds in the night sky. The darkness in this forest was complete.  
    Mathias had traveled the only road from town as far as he could.   He had stepped off of the path and felt his way through what was now a dense patch of overgrown roots and bare prickly bushes, until he found the pond and the long flat rock.
    He had been sitting alone deep in the forest for what seemed like several hours. It took that much time for his eyes to adjust to the thick blanket of endless gloom that surrounded him
    He could see now. There was a barely perceptible source of light coming from somewhere, but Mathias couldn’t tell from where. He could just make out the leafless trees that populated this lifeless forest.   In the time that he sat, there was not one sound of life.   There were no creatures of the night. Mathias was sure there were no creatures of the day either.  
    The tall trees were an angry tangled mass, and in the darkness, the thin, gnarly branches above seemed like fingers. Fingers on hands waiting to scratch and snatch at the unsuspecting. Trunks seemed to have faces. Eyes. Lips. Teeth. Fog from the cold night mist intertwined itself around these hollow faces adding sorrow to their already tortured features.  
    This place was not Sandbox Harbor. This place couldn’t possibly be the world in which his father and mother lived. All those people and all their children couldn’t be part of a community that was this grey and doom swept. In this eerie place, full of so much sadness, Mathias could understand why, in this village, these people and their children had either gone or were in hiding.  
    Looming over all of this, was the castle in the sky. Mathias really couldn’t see it, but it was there. It was always there. He could feel it drawing him in, and it was succeeding. Mouse said no one ever goes to the castle, but Mathias was convinced it was there that he would find the rider, and the boy.
    Mathias was still trying to wrap his mind around the moment Mouse was taken. The rider came out of nowhere. He was a blur. A deliberate, mean, calculated blur. He was a razor thin skeleton in black and red. He wore a long black cape with a hood to hide his face. Tall black boots. Black pants. A black blouse. A long red vest trimmed in black and black gloves trimmed in red.
    Mathias wasn’t sure he was