Free Servants of the Living Forest by Brandon L. Summers Page B

you, am I?"
    "No!" Cameron said, a half-truth. Her heart was still racing madly. "No."
    "Good," Jocelyn chirped. She clapped her hands. "So! After we unload all of our stuff, I am going to take you to the lake, and we'll go swimming together. And tomorrow we'll go on a hike, just the two of us! We'll see bunnies and squirrels and chickadees, and maybe, just maybe... chipmunks!"
    "I like that idea very much," Cameron said. "I'll make us lunch."
    They sat for a moment in silence.
    "Do you want to hear what I'm going to do to you with my little finger?" Jocelyn said.
    Cameron smiled, blushing even more brightly. "I do," she said. "But then we might crash."
    For a long while they simply listened to music, enjoying each other's company and their tranquil surroundings.
    Cameron marveled at the vast green sameness around her, interrupted by stripes of black-brown. The late morning light was broken by the dense multitude of trees, creating an uneven layering of brightness and shade. She glanced at the clock and was shocked to find that after almost an hour they weren't even twenty miles into the woods yet. She wondered if they were lost, certain she had screwed up somewhere and hoping she hadn't already disappointed Jocelyn by being herself.
    She glanced to her left. Her eyes went wide then, and she looked out the window fully. For a moment, she thought she had seen something large and dark moving behind one of the nearby trees. But there was nothing.
    "I see it!" Jocelyn announced. "Our home away from home!"
    Cameron, no less shaken, peered through the glare shining against the windshield and slowed the van to a stop.
    *~*~*
    They stepped out.
    Jocelyn raced ahead and Cameron followed. The cabin was exactly as she had imagined: perfectly square and brown with a gray door and single window cut into its stacked logs. It was also overgrown with vines and tall grass, and somehow both hidden in shade and awash in light.
    The trees, Cameron noticed, were spaced away from the cabin in a tidy circle.
    Still spooked, she put her hand to her brow and searched the immediate area, but found only the warm, airy summer morning and quiet. She tried but couldn't even hear birds or a single insect. She took a breath and calmed then, deciding to appreciate their solitude. It was nice to be alone. At that moment, it felt like she had succeeded.
    They were both students. Cameron was studying programming and graphic design, and Jocelyn was training to become a registered nurse. They both studied hard and had full-time jobs to support their education. It made spending time together a challenge, though, and any sort of escape nearly impossible.
    Jocelyn took Cameron's hand, and with a playful giggle, raced her to the cabin. She took the shining silver key from her pocket and opened the door. It swung open slowly with a long and loud creak.
    A column of light extended directly ahead of them, cutting the dark. They took a reluctant step forward, and the dusty room dimmed. The window was so dirty, no other light could enter. Small, shiny black things skittered away and disappeared into the shadows. A scent like rotten eggs and musk saturated the trapped air.
    "Oh, wow," Jocelyn said. "So, this is it."
    "I like it!" Cameron said, overenthusiastically. "It's new and different. For me, at least."
    They paced about the ten-by-twenty room, examining the single narrow cot and the table in the corner. Cameron took care to step around the specks of insect waste that dotted the floor's broad planks.
    "See! There's plenty of space," Jocelyn said. "It's just a little dusty."
    Cameron looked closer then. There were dime-sized spots on the floor, black in the dark and obscured by her shadow. With a grunt, Jocelyn forced open the window and the room flooded with light that made the spots bright red. Cameron stifled her gasp and looked away, but the fresh light had revealed new wonders. A squirrel skull and bits of bone, fish hooks covered in dried, yellow slime, and