This fic was inspired by discussions had among my friends on discord. It was pointed out by either Elsh or Headsplit that Peoria, the town that Crystal is from, is well-known for hauntings and ghosts. Again, my thanks for the inspiration! You guys rock!
Too focused on keeping up with Clem, slightly ahead of her on the forest path, Crystal did not notice the large, gnarled tree root until her foot made contact with it.
It was only by chance that Clem had looked back just as she had begun to fall. He stopped jogging and reached out to catch her, quick as lightning (Clem had the best reflexes!). He grasped her by the upper arms, but her momentum had been too fast and too strong, and as a result they both plummeted onto the ground with a hard thud.
"Oh my God, Clem!" She sprang off of him, her knees scuffed and stinging. "Are you okay?" she asked, her voice high with panic. Of the two of them, he'd taken the harder fall- she'd been cushioned from much of the impact by, well, him.
Clem rubbed the back of his head, sucking air in through his teeth. "I'm fine. Hit my head but it's nothing too bad. How about you?"
"I'm so sorry!" Crystal cried, guilt clawing at her chest. "I should have been paying attention to where I was going! If I wasn't so stupid I wouldn't have tripped and you wouldn't have-"
"Hey, hey, hey, Crystal!" Clem cut her babbling off and put his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly. "It's not a big deal. It was just a small bump, that's all."
Crystal sniffed, twining her fingers together nervously. "Really? You're okay?"
"You bet!" He tapped the side of his head. "The screws in here were loose way before I fell!" He laughed, and she joined in, relieved that her mistake hadn't harmed him too badly. "What happened?" he asked as they rose, dusting themselves off.
"Um." Crystal looked back towards the path behind her. The root she had tumbled on was only a couple of feet away, a twisted snake-like thing that took up nearly half the track, the tree it belonged to impossible to know. "I think I tripped on that," she guessed, pointing at the root, "while I was running."
"Ouch. I hope you didn't twist your ankle," Clem said, concern furrowing his brows.
Crystal lifted her leg up and rotated her foot. "It's A-okay!" she reported, and what a relief that was- walking back to camp with an injury would have surely put a damper on a day that had already been pretty soggy to begin with.
"Hey, that's great!" Clem said, his face relaxing as his worry departed. He looked ahead, his eyes scanning the trail before them. "The path's pretty rough over here," he observed.
He was right. Roots encroached upon the thin dirt trail on both sides and fallen branches and rocks littered the parts that the roots hadn't overtaken. Running on this path would certainly result in one of them falling again. And where did it even lead? All that she could see were trees, endless and green, stretching out forever for all she knew.
Crystal swallowed and turned her head back towards the direction they had come from, an odd unease creeping up her spine. All she saw were more trees, more vibrant leaves and brown trunks in varying shapes and sizes. "We must be really far from camp, huh?" she said, sweeping her gaze upwards. Branches swayed above her, obscuring the sky.
"Good." The word was practically spat out, devoid of Clem's usual cheer and positivity. His face did that thing where, for the briefest of seconds, it would morph into an expression of pure bitterness- the corners of his mouth would turn downwards and the shadows under his eyes would appear deeper and darker. He shook his head (he always shook his head whenever that expression came over him, as though there were some invisible creature on his face that was making him look that way) and the look was gone, replaced by a strained version of his earlier smile. "We'll be able to look for our acorn without anybody interfering."
The Golden Acorn was why they had run so far into the woods. Crystal and Clem were partners for the scavenger hunt, an activity that, like everything else assigned to them at this camp, was not going smoothly. Luck, however, had seemingly been on their side this morning. They'd been practicing their cheers shortly after dawn near the Main Lodge when out of nowhere an acorn hit Crystal right smack in the middle of her forehead. And just as she had mastered her new cheer, too!
Her annoyance had turned to joy once she realized that she had been hit with one of the items on the scavenger hunt list. Neither of them knew who had thrown the acorn, though Clem speculated that it had been a squirrel. No camper, no matter how irritated they were, would give up a rare Golden Acorn just to teach the two of them a lesson about the futility of trying to spread cheer in a place like this.
They waited a few hours, keeping the acorn close, before setting off to present it to Ranger Cruller. That had been their mistake- they should have just gone to him immediately, even if that would have required waking him up. If they had, than Bobby and Benny wouldn't have ambushed them shortly after they had arrived at the G.P.C. area. Their acorn had been quickly requisitioned, along with all of their arrowheads and one of Clem's wristbands ("You'll get this one back when Bobby flings it at your stupid head!" "Shut up Benny.").
The loss of the Golden Acorn had stung Crystal badly, but Clem had bounced right back. "Well, easy come easy go!" he had said, clapping his hands together. "I guess we'll just have to find ourselves a new acorn!"
Going this far out into the woods was a smart move, and even Crystal could understand the logic behind it. If there was another Golden Acorn to be found, they were more likely to discover it in a location not often frequented by other campers. And it wasn't like being here was any more dangerous than being in camp itself, where bears, cougars, and projectile-throwing squirrels freely roamed.
And yet, Crystal felt herself stiffen, a chill creeping up the back of her neck despite the mid-morning heat. Maybe she was just rattled by her fall. "We're allowed out here, right?" she asked, tucking a strand of hair that had come loose from her ponytail behind her ear. "We won't get in trouble?"
Clem, apparently having the same concern, was already taking his map out of his pocket. He unfolded it, and after studying it for a moment, pointed at a spot on the far end of the map. "We're right on the border of the off-limits section," he said as he folded the map back up. "We're cutting it kind of close, but we should be fine if we don't go any further."
Crystal nodded, although the words hadn't given her that much comfort. "This place is kind of weird, don't you think?" she said, twisting the hem of her t-shirt as she glanced around. Only trees surrounded them, their shapes blurring into each other. It would be so easy to get lost if they strayed off of this path.
"Weird? How so?"
Crystal wasn't sure if she could articulate it, as she barely understood why she felt so nervous herself. "I just feel kind of freaked," she replied, watching a cobalt blue dragonfly as it buzzed around, its wings flapping rapidly. "I don't know why."
"It might be all of these tall trees," Clem suggested. "We're so small next to them, so it makes us aware of how meaningless and insignificant our lives actually are in the grand scheme of things." He raised his arm up, gesturing at the foliage around them. "This place isn't any different than camp, or anywhere else in the world for that matter."
Crystal blinked, her mouth dropping open as her mind processed what she had just heard. She knew the definitions of the words Clem had said, but she wasn't entirely sure of what he had meant when he had put them together. The main gist of it seemed to be 'there's nothing to be afraid of', and that was enough to ease her nerves.
She smiled up at Clem, newly energized now that her fears had abated somewhat. "Where should we start looking for that acorn?"
"Good question," Clem said, scratching his chin contemplatively. The both glanced around, silent as they considered their next move. To the east, two squirrels popped out of a large knothole set in an oak and scurried down its trunk, chattering all the while. "Aw, look at them," Crystal said as one chased the other up a neighboring tree. "They're so cute!" They were, with their little black noses and fluffy tails. One allegedly throwing something at her head hadn't changed that!
"They left their nest unguarded," Clem noted, pointing at the tree they had just left. "We could climb that tree and see if they have any Golden Acorns."
"O-M-G! That's a great idea, Clem!" Crystal exclaimed, jumping up excitedly. Clem always knew exactly what to do! "You're so smart!"
"Eh, no, not really," he replied, brushing her compliment off with a laugh. "Let's go over there and check it out before they get back."
The tree in question was not far from where they stood, about twenty feet away from the path. They had to backtrack to get to it, which meant that they would be moving away from the forbidden section of the woods. That fact alone should have made Crystal feel safe, but oddly enough, it had the opposite effect. Her anxiety returned, increasing steadily with every step she took, like a ball of dung being rolled by a beetle.
She tried to take a calming breath, her eyes darting from one side of the trail to the other. Instinctively, she reached out, aiming for Clem's hand with her own, but pulled away at the last second. Clem was not averse to touch, but the last time she had attempted to hold his hand he had become so tense that she had immediately let go. He hadn't voiced any discomfort, hadn't said anything about it at all, really, but she figured that she had crossed a line that he wasn't comfortable treading over. So she kept her hands at her sides and settled for following Clem as closely as she could without stepping on his heels.
She didn't feel any better when they arrived at their destination, but Crystal decided not to mention it again. Clem was likely right anyway, it probably was just the sheer, dizzying height of these trees that was causing her brain to make her feel all funny. Her brain often did that; sometimes it would fool her into feeling really bad for no readily apparent reason, or into hearing voices that nobody, not even her fellow psi-cadets could or make her think that there was someone with her when she was alone. That's all it was- just her mind acting up again, same as usual. Better to just focus on finding that acorn.
The oak that she and Clem were craning their necks up at was just as tall as it's fellows around it, its lowest hanging branch at least fifteen feet off the ground. "It's a lot bigger up close, huh?" Crystal mumbled, her eyes wide. "How're we gonna get up there?"
Clem made a 'hmm' noise in response, mulling over that very question in his head. Crystal tried to follow his example and concentrate on solving their current problem, but found herself distracted by her nerves once again, her attempts to rationalize her anxiety away failing. She clutched the hem of her shirt, twisting it in her fists as her gaze drifted down past the oak. There was another path, she noticed, one that they hadn't seen while they'd been on the original trail. This one led further east, possibly towards the stream that cut through the camp. This path was smooth and flat, unobstructed by roots and obstacles. Walking on it would be so easy, what with there being nothing to stumble over. She felt the sudden urge to abandon the scavenger hunt and take a nice stroll down that path, just to see where it would take her. She raised her foot up to walk forward, almost unconsciously.
"Do you think you could do it?"
Clem's question stopped her before she could complete the movement. She snapped her head back around to face him, opening her mouth to answer before realizing that she had no idea what it was that Clem wanted her to do. A short, stupid "uh" passed between her lips in lieu of an actual response. Crystal swallowed and tried again. "Sorry, I didn't, um, hear what you said," she admitted, her face flushing.
Clem frowned, more out of worry for her than annoyance. He scrutinized her face, no doubt doing his best to figure out what was wrong with her without actually asking about it. "There's another trail over there," she explained hastily, pointing over to it. "I was thinking we could look over there, you know, if we don't find the acorn in that tree." There, that was a reasonable enough explanation for why Crystal hadn't been paying attention to what Clem had just said to her.
Clem glanced down in the direction she had indicated, nothing in his expression implying that the path was having the same mesmerizing effect on him that it had had on her. "Oh, I didn't see that. Yeah, we could look over there." Clem smiled, and automatically she smiled back. "Good catch, Crystal!"
"Thanks Clem!" she said happily, savoring the praise (something that was rarely directed her way). "So what did you want me to do?"
"I was wondering if we could bounce onto that branch using our levitation balls," he said, touching the tree's smooth trunk. "I don't think it's possible for us to climb it. There's nothing for us to get a grip on." He pulled away, looking up at the thick branch above their heads, hands on his hips. "We wouldn't be able to reach that even if you stood on my shoulders."
That really did leave the bubble as their only option. Levitation was the only skill that she and Clem seemed to have any sort of skill in (other than cheering, of course!) and though she hadn't earned her merit badge yet, she was able to call her ball on a pretty consistent basis. She could even stay on it long enough to participate in Agent Vodello's races (as long as Bobby didn't try to knock her off). "I can do it, Clem!" she said, already concentrating on the positive feelings that made it possible for her to use the ability.
"All right! Let's do this!" Clem jumped up and landed firmly on his feet. "Uh, whoops," Clem said, laughing at himself derisively. "Looks like that didn't work. I must still be bitter about how easy it is for certain people to just take the things they want and how nobody does anything to stop it! Hahahaha…."
"Oh don't give up Clem!" Crystal shouted, putting every bit of spirit she had into her words of encouragement. "You can do it! Try again!"
"Yeah! That's the way to think! If I can't do this with you cheering me on than I must be just as worthless as everybody says I am!"He breathed in, and then out, and then squatted down to jump again. "Alright, take two!"
Take two brought Clem closer to success- the ball formed under him and bounced him up far higher than he could physically jump on his own, but he hadn't been able to get a grip on the branch. He was bouncing up again and grasping the bough a half-second later, his legs swinging underneath him as the levitation ball disappeared. Looking at him, Crystal couldn't help but be reminded of that 'hang in there, baby,' poster with the kitten that she had seen in her guidance counselor's office. "Third time's the charm!" Clem said as he pulled himself up.
"Way to go, Clem!" Crystal yelled as he carefully maneuvered himself into a sitting position. The knothole that the squirrels had come out of was a couple feet above where he sat, closer to the limb above him than the one he was currently on. He pulled himself up a level, the branch shaking rather worryingly under his weight.
"H-Hey! Wow!" Clem said, his tone not at all frightened in spite of the branch's lack of stability. "Ha-ha, wouldn't it be something if this branch just snapped and I fell and broke my neck?" He looked down, and Crystal didn't need to be a telepath to know that he was picturing that very event in his mind. "Ha-ha, everyone would wonder what the heck I was doing up in this tree to begin with!"
"Clem, no! Don't talk like that!" Crystal cried, panicking at the thought of Clem leaving her alone in this world. "You can't break your neck without me!"
"Well, get up here then, silly!" Clem replied, right before he poked his head into the knothole to assess its contents.
Crystal wanted to. She really did! But for some reason she just couldn't call her levitation bubble. She couldn't rally any of her positivity; that strange anxiety she'd been experiencing for the past few minutes was apparently warding all of her good feelings off. Crystal stared down at her feet, willing the ball to appear under them. A small yellow lizard crawled over her shoes, and she watched as it hurried down to the path that had tempted her earlier.
"There's a lot of stuff in here," Clem said, his voice muffled by the bark. "Hey, I think that's your scrunchie!"
He said something else but Crystal was already walking away, her steps slow and heavy as she started down the trail. This wasn't what she wanted to be doing- she wanted to be with Clem, wanted to at least be there to cheer on his efforts to find the acorn if she couldn't make it onto the tree. But she kept moving forward- it was like she had a hook in her brain, and there was nothing she could to stop herself from being reeled in by whatever force had put it there.
Trees bordered both sides of the track, sturdy looking oaks and maples. Sunlight filtered through the branches, speckling the ground with dots of light. Unlike the trees in the rest of the forest that had seemed like they could swallow her up, these trees made her feel safe, as though she couldn't possibly lose her way if she kept herself between them.
She couldn't see the creek from where she walked, but she could hear its waters, the noise a pleasant accompaniment to the branches above her rustling with the light breeze. The speed of her steps picked up, her gait now no longer a reluctant trod. The lizard that had crawled over her shoe was resting on a flat rock just off to the side of the trail. As she passed, it seemed to nod its approval, almost like it was proud of her decision to come down to this section of the forest.
Gradually, her unease faded until all that remained of it was her slightly elevated heart rate. The sights, sounds and the sweet scent of honeysuckle in the air were near enough to quell most of Crystal's fears about what lay waiting for her at the end of this path. And Crystal had always found comfort in being guided, in being told what to do and where to go, whether that be by her best friend in the whole world, or the strange presence that lived in this forest.
She began to see where the path ended after a few minutes of walking; a small strip of land surrounded on three sides by the creek. Three trees grew on the left side of the strip, and for some reason Crystal was immediately reminded of gravestones upon seeing them. The thought sent of shiver of fear through her, and it occurred to her then that this was her last chance to turn back. She stopped in her tracks and tried to force herself to turn around and retreat. Clem's probably worried about me, she thought, this being the only argument that had any chance of convincing her body to go where she wanted it to. And what if those squirrels come back? He might need my help!
Compelling as that reasoning was, it stood little chance against the pull of the thing that stood alongside those trees. He needs you. The words had not been spoken, nor had they been transmitted to her telepathically. Her brain again, doing that thing it did whenever it had to convince her to do something she didn't want to do. Go to him, it said, its disembodied voice vaguely resembling that of her mother's.
There was no way that Crystal could possibly refuse such a directive, so she continued onward, wondering who 'he' was as she moved to where he presumably waited.
Any relief that Crystal had had from her anxiety evaporated the moment she stepped onto the jut of land that made up the path's end. No grass grew here, only the three trees that had somehow managed to thrive on the stream's rocky embankment. They loomed over her eerily, their misshapen trunks curving inward in a way that gave Crystal the creeps. She averted her eyes from them, focusing her gaze instead on the creek. It was clear and shallow, not being more than a foot deep at most. Minnows darted this way and that, swimming around aimlessly. They seemed to be avoiding a specific section of the creek, Crystal noted after a second of observation. There was a space in the stream where the water moved strangely, as though there were some big, invisible rock obstructing its flow.
Or a body. Crystal shuddered, wondering where the macabre thought had come from. The left side of her forehead began to throb, though not painfully- it felt more like there was a pressure being put on it. Crystal brought a hand to her head and began rubbing it as she watched the stream run its course around the invisible object. The space was about five feet long, a little longer than Clem was tall. A vision of her best friend face down in the water came to her mind unbidden, and the image was so horrible that Crystal gasped and turned away from the stream.
And then she shrieked, frightened by the man she discovered standing behind her.
The man's eyes widened and he appeared almost as shocked to see her as she had been to see him. He held his hands up to assure her that he meant no harm. "Ah, pardon," he greeted, his accent thick and unfamiliar, "didn't mean to startle you, Miss."
His voice was higher pitched than his appearance had implied. Crystal dared a glance at the man's face, noticing his round cheeks and the beginnings of a scraggly mustache above his mouth. She quickly realized that he was not a man at all, but a boy, one probably around the same age as Mikhail Bulgakov. She relaxed a little, a bit more trusting of someone close to her own age than an adult. "Um, hi," she began, unsure of what to say and still a bit shaken by sudden arrival behind her. "You, uh…sorry I screamed," she said, making an attempt at a friendly smile. "I didn't hear you come up."
The boy frowned and slipped his hand under his hat to scratch his head. Crystal thought she spotted a dark spot on his temple, but that may have just been a trick of the light. "But I didn't walk up. I've been standing here for a while and you…wait." He cut himself off and began scanning the area around him, confusion seeping into his features. "What…what season is this?"
"It's summer," Crystal replied, starting to feel a little confused herself. Wasn't it obvious? Whispering Rock had a pretty mild climate, but surely the foliage around him would have given away what time of year it was. Maybe his brain plays tricks on him too, Crystal thought. Well if that was the case, than his brain must have been one heck of a jokester! He was clad in heavy, dark furs from head to toe, not at all an outfit for summer. "Aren't you hot?" she asked. He must be sweating, even under the shade of all these trees.
The question only baffled him further, and a silence fell between them as he puzzled over the answer. Crystal began to fidget, uncomfortable by how strange this conversation was and the throbbing in her head. Maybe she should change the subject. "I'm Crystal," she said, offering her hand for him to shake.
He stared at her hand but didn't take it. Crystal let if fall meekly to her side. The action seemed to pull him out of his confusion long enough for him to make a hurried, somewhat embarrassed response. "Jean-Paul Bottineau," he said, tipping his hat to her (and giving her another glimpse of that weird mark). "Forgive me, Miss. I seem to be a bit out of sorts." He gave her a quick once over, tilting his head to the side as he took in her attire. "Miss Crystal…" he muttered, his accent making her name sound almost foreign. "That's an unusual name. Are you from the village?"
Village? What village? "No, I'm from the camp."
"The camp?" The boy's eyebrows shot up in disbelief. "What camp? The only camp that I know of is ours and I have never seen you before in my life." He said something sharply in a language that Crystal couldn't understand. "What is going on?" he asked, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. "It's all so fuzzy…my head…"
"Um…" he seemed more distressed now than ever, which had definitely not been Crystal's intention. She wanted to help him, but she had no idea how. Clem would have known how to handle this, but Clem wasn't here, and a glance past Jean-Paul at the path revealed that he wasn't about to show up anytime soon. Crystal supposed that she'd have to figure this one out on her own. "What's the last thing you remember?" she asked.
Jean-Paul paused, closing his eyes as he went over his memories. "My brothers and I came up from Fort Nisqually to trade with the villagers here, maybe do some trapping. We're fur traders." He screwed his eyes shut tighter as he struggled to recall just how he had wound up in the middle of the forest. "There was this girl. Real pretty. Had blue eyes like yours, Miss." Crystal blushed at this, but nodded for him to go on. "I was showing her my lucky coin," he continued, digging into one of his coat pockets. "We've all got one, my brothers and I," he explained as he searched. "Three Spanish Galleons, passed down from Bottineau to Bottineau." Frustration edged into his voice as he switched to his other pocket. "My ancestors were pirates and- oh!" He hissed angrily, pulling his empty hand out of his pocket. "One of them damn crows snatched it right out of my hand and flew off with it!"
"Oh my God!" Crystal gasped, sympathetic to Jean-Paul's plight. The crows at camp were notorious thieves, even more likely to steal your valuables than the squirrels or Bobby Zilch.
"I chased the bird out here," he recollected, pointing up at the branches. "I hit him with a rock but…" He lowered his arm down until his finger was level with the creek. "The coin fell into the creek."
Crystal followed the line of Jean-Paul's finger, squinting at the water. There was something lodged into the streambed, something small and round. "I think I see it!" Crystal said, stepping closer to get a better look. "It's still there!"
"Yes, I can see it there too, Miss Crystal." He started forward, but stopped halfway, as though unable to complete the motion. "The last thing I remember is climbing down those rocks to retrieve it." A pained expression came over his face. "But… how did I come to be standing right here, then?" He sighed and removed his hat, staring down at it like it could tell him what was happening. "I can't make any sense of it!" he said, slapping his hat against his thigh.
Crystal's words froze in her mouth, the blood draining from her face. There, right on his forehead, was the most horrific looking bruise she'd ever seen- a large, near-black blotch the size of her fist on the left side of his head, chunks of dried blood caking the strands of his short black hair. Just seeing such an injury made Crystal's own head ache in sympathy. "Are you okay?" she asked, her panicked voice loud enough to echo throughout the trees. She felt foolish for asking such a question- of course he wasn't okay! At the very least he must have had a concussion!
He didn't seem as alarmed by it as he really should have, merely shaking his head somberly and putting his hat back on his head. She was grateful that he did, as his hat covered the bruise right up. "Oh, Miss, I suppose I'm alright." At this, Crystal made a choked sound (because he certainly was not alright!) but he didn't notice. "I'll feel better when I have my coin back." He lifted his leg up, then put it back down (his foot, bizarrely enough, made no noise when it touched the ground). "I can't…I can't move, Miss," he said, repeating his previous action and receiving the same results. He looked up at her, desperation and fear in his features. "I'm stuck in this spot." His voice was barely above a whisper. "I don't understand…why can't I move?"
He couldn't move? Was it because of his injury? Crystal considered telling Jean-Paul about it, as it seemed like he wasn't aware that he even had one. She rejected the idea, not wanting to upset him further. "I'll run and get help. My friend's not far-"
"No!" The word, shouted loudly (though there was no echo, how strange!) stopped Crystal in her tracks. "Please don't go, Miss!"He looked at her imploringly, on the verge of tears. "If you leave I…please don't leave, Miss Crystal."
Crystal bit her lip, conflicted. He clearly needed medical attention that she couldn't provide, but he seemed so frightened and sad that she couldn't bring herself to go. "What do you want me to do?" she asked, glancing past him nervously at the path.
"I just need you to stay here, with me. Just for a little while," Jean-Paul answered, his eyes making contact with hers. A chill went down her spine- his eyes were so cold and so dark, almost…lifeless. "If you leave, I'll never see that coin again." Crystal took a step back, her knees trembling, as though she couldn't stand up to his gaze. "I can't explain it, but I feel like…I need you. You, Miss Crystal." He looked away, at the stream. "Just give me some time…I'll get myself right, don't you worry."
The words 'I need you' seemed to trigger something within Crystal and she found herself volunteering to get the coin for Jean-Paul . A look of hopefulness crossed Jean-Paul's face, and his eyes, while still quite cold-looking, seemed a bit less scary. "Awful kind of you of you to offer, Miss," he said, smiling gratefully. "But I wouldn't want to put you to any trouble."
"It's no trouble!" she said, and it wasn't- she would just have to be careful going down the slope that lead to the stream.
"Wait! Don't go on the rocks, Miss!" He swiped forward to grab her arm, but missed. The intense fear in his expression and in his tone was enough to keep her from going further. "Dangerous on those rocks. Slippery." A shudder ran through his entire body. "Please don't go down there. You're offer is kind, but I can figure this out myself."
Crystal doubted that he would do any better on those rocks than she had, especially with his injury. He was right- those rocks were awfully damp looking and she had already fallen once today. She'd have to get the coin without going into the creek and there was only one way she could think of to do that. Was her telekinesis strong enough to reach that far out? Maybe, maybe not, but what else could she do? Jean-Paul really wanted his coin, and she was the only one who could help him. She had to at least try. "I can get it without going on the rocks," she said, speaking with more confidence than she felt, before turning towards the creek and walking to the edge of the embankment.
She though she heard him question her but she was already too busy focusing her telekinesis on the coin to answer. A wave of dizziness crashed over her, her knees buckling as she fought back the nausea that had come with it. The left side of her temple began to throb even harder, pulsing in the same way it would whenever she had a headache. Oh boy, this was probably going to hurt.
"Miss? What's wrong?"
Crystal steadied herself as the dizziness receded. "I'm fine!" she said, massaging her head. "Just…give me a moment." Oh God, what if she couldn't do this? She'd managed to use telekinesis before, and while she hadn't been that good at it, using it had never made her feel this bad. Her brain felt so funny, like it did whenever she tried to do too many things at once. But she was only doing one thing, wasn't she?
No. Crystal couldn't let this deter her. Clem hadn't given up when he had failed at making his levitation ball manifest the first time, so she wasn't going to quit here either! And if it turned out to be too much for her meager abilities? Well, at least she would die trying to make somebody's day better!
She touched two fingers to her forehead and put everything she had into lifting that coin out of the water with her telekinetic hand. It was small, an object that she could have easily bent over and picked up without thinking twice had it been on the ground in front of her. With her rarely used telekinesis, she may as well have been trying to pull that old bathysphere out of Lake Oblongata. The pulse in her head became stronger, and she felt liquid dripping out of her nose.
Distressing as those sensations were, she couldn't stop now, not even if her legs were trembling so hard that she could barely keep herself upright. The coin was rising up from the stream bed, slowly and shakily emerging out of the water. Crystal gritted her teeth, ignoring the unpleasant slickness of the blood running over her lips. If she lost focus now, she would drop the coin, and there was no way that she'd be able to pick it up again at this point.
The coin was a far distance away once out of the water, and Crystal wasn't sure how much longer she could maintain her hold on it. Maybe it would be smarter to just bring it over as fast as she could. She extended her arm out and then pulled it back quickly, the coin traveling in time with her physical movements. It sailed over her head, too fast for her weary body to reach up and catch. Woozily, she looked back, turning just in time to see Jean-Paul catch his coin, his mouth open in astonishment.
She smiled, giving him a thumbs up as her body pitched forward. "There you go," she said, before everything went dark.
"Crystal! Wake-up!"
The sudden shaking of her body and the sound of her name being called prompted Crystal to open her eyes. When her vision came into focus she saw Clem above her, his eyes wide with panic. "Clem…" she croaked, licking her dry lips. Ew, her mouth tasted all gross and coppery. "You didn't break your neck."
He gave her a weak smile in response, sagging with relief. "C'mon Crystal," he said, brushing as strand of hair off of her sweaty forehead. "You know I can't die without you."
She managed a small laugh at that, despite the dull ache in her head and the exhaustion in her limbs. "Easy now," Clem said as she tried to sit up. "You passed out," he explained, putting his hand on her back to keep her steady. "I'm gonna try to contact one of the counselors to come get us, so don't strain yourself." He winced as he looked at her face. "Jeez, what happened? Why was your nose bleeding?"
Bleeding? Crystal touched the space above nose, her fingers coming away red and sticky. What had she been doing to make such a mess of herself? She couldn't remember- the last few minutes were so foggy. "I was getting something…" But what? And why?
"You were holding this when I found you," Clem said, opening his palm up to show her a grimy little coin. "Does it look familiar?"
Crystal blinked, her eyelids heavy. "I pulled that out of the creek," she recalled, taking the coin from Clem. The years had tarnished the coin's luster and damaged the face of the monarch stamped on it to the point where he was unrecognizable.
"I think it's one of the scavenger hunt items," Clem said, not sounding all that enthused. "It's…awesome that you found it, don't get me wrong!" He looked back towards where he had come, likely hoping to see one of the counselors walking up the trail to help them. There was nobody, so he sighed. "I just wish you hadn't pushed yourself so hard."
"Sorry," Crystal said quietly, feeling bad for worrying her friend so much. It still felt like she was forgetting something important. Using telekinesis on her own was not something she would normally do, so why had she done so in this case?
"Don't be sorry!" Clem said quickly. "You still did something really cool!" He looked her over again, his eyes fixed on her forehead. "I think you'll be okay once we get back." He put a finger to the left side of his head. "You'll have a bruise here for awhile, but I don't think it's anything serious."
Wait. Bruise. The coin. The creek. It all came flooding back to her in that instant. "Jean-Paul!" She struggled to her feet, frantically searching for the boy. She stood, but crumpled a second later. Luckily Clem was there to keep her from falling to the ground. "I've got your coin!"
"Crystal, what are you talking about?" Clem asked as he clutched her tightly.
"There was a boy here," she said, staring at the space where she had last seen him. "This coin is his." She looked all around, not finding a single trace of Jean-Paul Bottineau anywhere.
Clem put his hands on her shoulders and turned her gently to face him. "There's nobody here, Crystal," he said softly. "You were alone when I found you."
Crystal shook her head, not willing to believe that that could be true, not when he had been so vivid, not when she could still hear the way he had said her name. "He was here," she insisted, holding the coin up for Clem to see. "He needed my help to get this." She paused to catch her breath. "Maybe he left to find help after I fainted."
"There's only one way out of here," Clem pointed out, inclining his head back towards the trail. "I would have run into him."
She had no way of arguing with that, but she still couldn't bring herself to write Jean-Paul off as yet another trick that her brain had played on her. "Maybe he…went off the path?" It sounded stupid, even to her.
"Ah, maybe," Clem said, although both of them knew that he was just placating her. "I can't get in contact with anybody from here. Let's try to get back to the main trail and see if I have better luck there. Can you walk that far?"
Crystal nodded, and they slowly set off, her leaning heavily on him. She looked back one last time, half-hoping that she'd see Jean-Paul standing there.
He wasn't there, of course- it was just those three trees and the creek. The waters flowed faster now, the invisible object that had been blocking it having vanished.