“This way,” Sam said, pushing through the thick bushes as he lead the group down a trodden dirt path, “We’re almost there.”

Sunlight dappled on the ground like white kaleidoscope patterns. It was still sunny, but under the cover of the canopy, the air was chill, and June shivered in her cotton hoodie.

Everything had the smell of rotting leaves.

The whole place was giving her the creeps, and it was evident in the others as well, Lewis creased his eyes, Eden ran her fingers through her hair over and over, and rubbed her bare arms in the cold. The only one who wasn’t bothered was Samuel, who seemed to know this place like the back of his hand. There was a small smile on his pale face as he bounded briskly over tree roots and browning leaves, a vitality to his expression that he had not had in the town. It was like something about the place charged him.

Eden bent over and gently nudged a strange mushroom with the heel of her boots.

“Don’t touch those.” Samuel snapped immediately, his eyes still focused squarely on the path ahead, “They’re poisonous.”

Creepy.

Suddenly, Sam stopped dead. He paused, brown eyes wide, and bent down to pluck a blue mushroom from the ground. The trees rustled, almost in a protest, maybe in greeting.

“We’re here.” He proclaimed softly. A look of wild pride painted his face, a crazy Christopher Columbus on his newfoundland.

June looked around, they were standing in a clearing of trees, where the grass was thick and high, the trees so thick on every side it was impossible to see through them. Blue mushrooms like the ones Samuel had plucked dotted the ground.

“This is where my brother was taken.”

Eden and Lewis glanced at each other,wide eyed. June stepped backwards a few steps. Samuel didn’t notice, he seemed possessed. This couldn’t be the same person who raced for shotgun and beamed as he stuck his hand outside the window in summer breeze. She could say that this Samuel was like a ghost, but that was a lie. Ghosts were meek impressions of what was once. Right now, he was bigger than he had ever been, a strange power washed over his eyes, vibrant and maddening. Was this normal for him?

“Um, Sammy-?” Eden whispered gently, hesitantly placing her hand on his shoulder “Are you okay?”

Samuel turned, suddenly calm again. He smiled a little, the madness drained from his eyes.

“Yeah. Sorry,” he laughed nervously, “I’m not sure what came over me for a second.”

He slung his backpack off his freckled arms and set it down on the ground.

“So, anyway, this is what I wanted to investigate.”

He pulled a ratty leather bound notebook from it, and flipped through the thick creamy pages. It was big, June thought, much bigger than the little pocket sized one Lewis carried, and much rattier too. Like it had been carried everywhere, used over and over for years. In a spare glance, June caught a glimpse of the first note, which contained one line.

“This book belongs to Toby Rutherford.”

She gulped. Sam may be the opposite of a ghost, but Toby wasn’t. He wasn’t here, but as June darted eyes over the clearing, she saw that glimpses of him were everywhere. Wherever her eyes went there was images of him lost in the woods. As she looked down to Sam she saw his gentle handwritten notes spread on the grassy ground. Toby Rutherford was haunting them here, and she suspected Sam wanted him to.

“Ah, here it is!” he spread open a page where a drawing of the mushrooms around them was scrawled in charcoal. “This is apparently a fungi called the Entoloma hochstetteri. Also, I practised pronouncing that for almost a week, so I think I deserve a round of applause.”

Eden gave him a sarcastic “bravo,encore” which was followed by a mock bow.

“Why is it important though,?” asked Lewis, frowning,” It’s a mushroom.”

‘Ah, yes, but, the Entoloma hochstetteri happens to have a strange feature other than its colour.” Sam drew himself up now and grinned with the pleasure of knowledge, “You see, this thing only grows in New Zealand and India.”

He stood and spread his arms open, turning his head side to side.

“And as you can see, this is clearly not New Zealand. Or India.”

“So it’s an invasive weed.”

He shook his head.

“As it just happens, this forest has many of New Zealand’s species. That tree with the yellow flowers?” he pointed to patch of bright ochre saplings, “Not from here. The bird song we hear on the way here? Nothing native. And what country just happens to be on the exact other side of the world?”

“Spain?” offered Eden, deadpan, arms folded.

“What are you suggesting?” June asked.

“I don’t know if you’ll believe me,” he started. He paused, thinking, as if he was considering whether or not to disclose this information to the others, “But I know it’s true. This forest has something supernatural about it. I don’t understand it quite yet, but I know there are things that live here that ought not to. I’ve seen them.”

Everyone was silent. It seemed plausible. The forest was incredibly creepy, something about it wasn’t logical. Everything here felt ethereal. Everyone was thinking about it, but the word magic, the idea of supernaturalism seemed too blatant, too convenient to explain everything.

Finally, Eden spoke up.

“Prove it.”

“There’s no way I can, I just told you.” insisted Sam, “I just. I just know it is.”

Eden walked paced slowly around the clearing now, arms still squarely folded at her chest.

“I don’t believe in, no offense Sam, hocus pocus shit. Like, that’s just freaky.” she frowned at the ground, “There’s no way. Sam, come on, there’s no way.”

“Maybe it’s haunted-”

“I said there’s no way! How could- How-” she turned her face suddenly upwards, and yelled out to the canopy, “I’m not afraid of ghost bullshit!”

Suddenly, as if a hurricane had brewed in that split second, the trees roared, green leaves whirled like rain to the ground as the wind wailed. They all ducked, the wind pushing against them like hands. Only Eden still stood, face to the sky, frowning.

“If you’re magic,” she cried, her voice perfectly conditioned to piss off, “Do something magical!”

“Eden,don’t-”

“Are you insane-?”

“Come on! Do something!”

Behind them, a tree burst into flames, flickering and bright. Samuel screamed as it bent and fell to the ground in a great bonfire. The flames were hot as anything, June could feel it on her face, but despite the wind and the grass, it didn’t appear to be spreading. It just burned on and on in columns of heat and light, fueling itself with some energy no one could see.

“Eden!” June hissed, fighting the hurricane of whipped wind to step closer to her, “You’re gonna get us killed!”

But Eden was not listening. She was shouting the sky, her arms outstretched, wicked as the fire itself.

“This all you got, huh?” she laughed.

The wind roared again, and the fire whirled up into the air in hissing ribbons of smoke. Slowly they weaved together, orange and yellow and red, to form the shape of a person that flickered taller than the treetops. A figure made completely of the flames. The body was flickering and blinding to look at, and it’s features were hard to make out, but as June blinked at it in hot terror and shock, she swore that it was smiling.

“How about this?’ the figure spoke. It’s voice was female, and rasping and crackling like wood burning, “Is this enough?”

Eden stared down into the fiery figure’s face, her own glare stone cold.

“You’re not a ghost.” she shouted, “You’re-”

The figure laughed, a shrill whistle over the chaos of the fire and wind. It curved a slim, beautiful hand under it’s chin and grinned, wide and malicious as a cheshire cat.

“Ghost? Don’t even try it. I’m thousand times more powerful than some poltergeist, darling.” It coiled closer to Eden, bending so they were face to face. As their eyes met, it curled a single, smoking finger to Eden’s cheek.

”Don’t worry darling. You’ll get used to it. I sense you’ll be coming here many times in the future. Eden, right?’

June saw Eden shift, a touch of fear trickling into her eyes.

“Yeah, that’s me. What’s it to you?”

“What’s it to me?” that shrill laugh again, “Oh darling, we’re connected! The same, you and me.”

“I’m not-”

“Don’t you feel it - I am you, and you are me. Only you exist in flesh. I am above that. I am fire.”

“You’re wrong. I-”

“I could kill you, right now, right here!” the figure smiled and furled around itself in glee, “Only, why would I do that? I think we can be good friends. You and me, you could be eyes in ears in places where I don’t have them.”

“What,” Eden breathed, “What if I say no.”

“Oh I’m sure you’ll want to be, dear. The position comes with very nice privileges.”

“Like what?”

“Like,” Fire bent down and brushed it’s finger gently across Eden’s forehead. Eden shuddered, but didn’t appear to be hurt. “That.”

Now Eden’s composure slackened, her arms dropping to her sides, her eyes glassy. June had no idea what was happening behind them, but she knew Eden did not lose her steel like that.

Not unless something life changing had just happened.

“I gave you a gift.” Fire continued, “Now you repay me. If I tell you to seek something, you find it, I tell you to go somewhere, you go. Understand?”

Eden nodded slowly, speechless, extending her hands outwards. Still wide eyed, she looked down now and stared at her palms in awe. In a sudden rush of heat, they burst into orange yellow flames, scorching the fringes of her hair. Sam screamed, Lewis jumped. June’s mouth just about dropped to the ground.

And then, as suddenly as they had appeared, the fire dissipated into smoke. Eden’s hands, her face, her hair were unburnt. Untouched. Her face was full of surprise- But not a touch hurt.

“Excellent! Neat little party trick, fire magic,” Fire smirked, “Of course, it’s just a fraction of what I am capable of, so it’s nothing really. It’s yours to keep for as long as you want it. Mm, wonderful. You’ll be a good seer for me, hm?”

Eden was shocked into silence. In the lack of response, Fire turned around and faced the other three.

“Now you three, we’ve waited long enough,us patrons. Sixteen years, actually. We’ll find you soon. And when we do,” it cackled high pitched as a whistle, “You can have what she has.”

It smiled one last time.

“Until next time, kids.” With a mock salute, it slowly began to curl into a wisp of smoke, like a phoenix shrinking into its embers, the fire around the tree slowly dying.

“Wait!” cried Sam. In a sudden burst of courage he rushed towards it, arms flailing.

“Are you the thing that took my brother? Do you know where he is?”

Fire, as she died into harmless embers, for once looked taken aback. She paused, and just before her last lights flickered back into the ash, she replied.

“No. I didn’t touch Toby, that was- Was a dear friend of mine. As to where he is, I’m afraid he’s nowhere you can find him now.”

With that, it disappeared.

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Hellooo! Thanks to the few readers so far for checking my story out. Tell me how I'm doing in the comments! :)