“Willow! I want to go home!” Ivy cried. She fumbled around with her hands until she found the space to wrap them around Willow’s arm but she shrieked away when she realized how much of Ivan’s blood was on her still. Willow ripped her arm away and gave Ivy a look, the same look a parent would give to a child.

  Willow closed her eyes and took a deep breath in. “Ivy… we can’t go back. Not yet. Ivan told us the alter is causing all of this. If we don’t destroy it then we can’t leave.” Her words were coming from a deep place, a special reserve of hope she was still holding desperately onto.

  Willow knelt down and pulled Ivy in. She wrapped her arms around her. While this is what Ivy really wanted she couldn’t take it, not with Willow being soaked in blood. “What even is an alter?” Ivy asked pushing Willow away.

  “I’m not to sure… I think I remember reading it in a book. It’s a big piece of rock that’s really important.” Willow said seeming not phased at Ivy’s cold treatment. Willow stood up and started to walk away knowing Ivy will be quick to follow behind.

  They both were still navigating through the maze of root walls, the forest had made for them. Only making it a mile from where Ivan had died. Willow was confident with taking the lead since she knew Ivy was too broken up and too young to know where to go. An invisible pull on her heart was guiding Willow, telling her which turns to take.

  “How do you hope to break something like that with those small arms?” Ivy’s voice began to morph. It was like she hadn’t drank anything for a week, twisting her words into a low growl that didn’t stop even when she had stopped talking.

  Willow’s foot froze in the air. She turned slowly to see Ivy. “What… what did you just say?” Willow wasn’t sure if Ivy was going to transform before her eyes or have another demon puppeteering her like it had done with Ivan.

  But to Willow’s surprise Ivy looked normal. In fact she was holding Willow’s hand, Willow couldn’t remember when that had happened since Ivy was pushing her away last time. “I said, how can we break an alter? It sounds tough. I think we might need a tool or something.” Ivy said, her smile seemed to stretch from ear to ear.

  Willow could swear Ivy’s eyes turned black for a few seconds. “Yeah… we need something to help us.” Willow said uncomfortably shifting around trying to free her hand from Ivy. Even with it being covered in blood and being slippery Ivy had a solid grip that wouldn’t let Willow’s hand go.

  “Oh I know! There’s tools in the barn! They’re old but they should work, right?” Ivy was suddenly chipper, like a new ray of hope shined on her. Willow looked up at the sky, hoping it was just her imagination. Hoping that another hand wouldn’t come down and steal her last friend away.

  “Don’t you remember? Ivan’s dad cleared that old barn out. We can circle back to the house and look through the rubble but I don’t know.” Willow’s words were more distant. It was like the more time she spent with Ivy the more they became strangers. Ivy seemed confused but just smiled it away.

  “Get back here!” The words ripped through the woods cutting through the walls of roots. Willow and Ivy didn’t need to see the face of who was yelling to know it was Stein. Willow’s breathing began to pick up immediately.

  “Run!” Ivy screamed. Her steady hand grabbed Willow’s as she lead the way seeming to know exactly which way the pull on Willow’s heart was. Willow wouldn’t say it but Ivy was grabbing her hand so hard she could swear it would break at any moment as an invisible evil spread onto Willow.

  “It’s this way to the barn!” Ivy took a sharp turn which lead to the first long passage way of the maze that seemed to stretch for miles only being interrupted by settling clouds that the red masses above had forced out of the sky.

  They began to run down the long corridor, fueled by the ringing of Stein firing his gun indiscriminately and his constantly incoherent yelling. “Wait… I know this place. There should be a spot just up ahead!” Willow said increasing her pace and began to lead Ivy as they took a sharp turn off of the long path.

  There was a big tree somewhere in this forest, one that Willow remembered fondly. It was a spot that her and Ivan would sneak off to. It was there when Ivan first opened up about his feelings to Willow and it was there that Willow had said her love was something she couldn’t curse anyone with.

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  “What do you mean? The barn is the other way!” Ivy’s words twisted and grew deep but Willow didn’t let that get to her. She knew where they were again and she knew that she could find some peace by seeing her special spot in the forest. Willow was now being guided by a new pull on her heart, one that had a more gentle hold.

  As they made more turns, away from the intended route, Stein’s voice faded until it was just a muffle.

  The big pine tree came into view, the other trees around it were lying toppled over almost making a clearing where it was quiet. The red moss was seeping into this oasis from under the root walls that seemed to be offering some shelter.

  “It’s still here.” Willow’s voice range with a upbeat tone, almost as if she could relax here. Ivy silently pulled on Willow’s hand in protest but Willow was to lost in the memories that were once lost came slowly back to her.

  As Willow silently led Ivy around the tree a big burrow leading under the tree came into view, a brown tarp draped above it. The big pine tree seemingly had been untouched by the red moss and its effects. “I have a stash here. I can get changed out of these dirty cloths and then we can wait here until help comes, ok?” Willow let go of Ivy and walked to the burrow and ripped the tarp off revealing the tree was hollow and dead. There were cardboard boxes that had some first aid supplies and a few trash bags that held cloths and some food supplies as well.

  Willow walked into the tree and put the tarp back up as she began to change leaving Ivy who was staring blankly at one of the root walls. “When the fighting got to bad I would come here and wait it out. It didn’t take Ivan long to follow me here one time and find it. That’s when he put extra supplies out here for me.” Willow said, her hand resting against some carving on the inside of the tree.

  “There’s some more cloths in here Ivy. Would you like to change? They might be a little big but they’ll be cleaner than what you got on.” Willow asked aimlessly in the air as she got her new cloths on. After hearing no response Willow poked her head out to see Ivy still standing at the edge of the clearing, her face pressed against the wall of roots.

  Willow made sure her outfit was on correctly before stepping out. “Ivy? Are you ok?” Willow was hesitant to get too close since she could see Ivy’s arms, that were wrapped around herself, were shaking.

  “I just really don’t like it here. Can we go back please?” Ivy said slowly turning to Willow, tears covering her face. Ivy was scratching at her arms leaving trails of red marks from her nails.

  “I told you we can’t go back yet, we have to get to the alter and then we can ok?” Willow went back to the tree and pulled a sweater out of one of the bags, she thought if Ivy covered up more it would help her nerves.

  “I don’t want to go back home. I want to go back into the forest.” Ivy kept scratching which lead to the skin being torn slightly.

  “Ivy, stop! Put this on and just relax for a minute ok? I think you just need some rest.” Willow stomped towards Ivy and pulled her hand away from her arm.

  “The forest. It wants me to go back.” Ivy said as she started to walk back towards the entrance they had came through, she didn’t seem phased by her new cloths.

  Before Willow could stop her a massive hand emerged from the entrance, wrapping around the roots as it pulled the rest of the body in. Willow instantly recognized the hand as the same one that took Ivan away.

  Willow sprinted towards Ivy, grabbing her arm and pulling her into the big pine tree hoping they could just hide from this thing. The ground shock with each step the thing took as it started to walk around in the clearing.

  “Not again…” Willow whispered over and over as she held Ivy close. Her eyes were shut tightly so she couldn’t see that Ivy was not phased by this. Ivy just stood there, watching through a space in between the tarp and trunk.

  “Stop right there!” Stein’s voice became clear before four gun shots launched Willow’s eye wide open again. Ivy had vanished from within the tree and the tarp door was being held in the air by an invisible force.

  From where Willow was she could see Ivy walking calmly towards the demon and Stein on the other side, reloading his gun. “Ivy! Get back here!” Willow screamed through her hands but it was like she didn’t speak at all.

  “I don’t think this tool will help us right now. We need more power in this void.” Stein’s words weren’t frantic like they were before, it was like someone else was talking.

  “Yes, the influence hasn’t fully spread to this area. Sacrifice yourself.” Ivy pointed at Stein, speaking in such a familiar tone you would think they were the same person now. The demon let out a soft, low laughed that made Willow’s bones rattle. The demon reached down and swatted at Ivy, planning to take away just it had done to Ivan. But its hand passed through her like she was mist, leaving only specks of red dots on its hand where they would’ve made contact.

  Just when Ivy gave the order Stein raised his, now loaded, gun to his head digging the barrel slightly into his temple. Willow knew she should look away but she couldn’t. Without a single show of emotion Stein pulled the trigger a fine red mist erupted from the open wound on the other side of his head. At first Willow believed it to be blood but when the mist kept rising and fell down like snow flakes she knew it was something entirely different, it was the red moss. Stein’s body dropped to the ground, folding over itself like someone had removed all of his bones.

  The demon looked up at the red snow and marveled at it as it landed on its skin matching the specks Ivy had left on it until its skin was mostly red. “The influence is back.” Ivy’s words rang with more emotion and excitement.

  Ivy raised her hand so that it blocked her view completely of the demon and within seconds the demon let out a horrible scream that caused Willow’s ears to bleed. The red moss spread to cover the rest of the demons skin as it tried desperately to scrape it off like it was an infestation of ants but it couldn’t do a thing. Once the red moss had covered it entirely it then expanded like it was a big transparent ballon that had a red tint to it revealing the still screaming demon inside but not a sound made it out. Then within seconds the demons chest burst open sending blood everywhere and out crawled replicas of Stein and Ivy out of its wound but they were much taller. The would be ballon quickly raised into the sky floating perfectly still just above the tree line. It was like watching piranhas devouring a meal before it was still.

  Willow watched in horror until she remembered Ivy. Her eyes shot down and found Ivy was standing just feet away from her now. “Destroy the alter, now.” Ivy said before her body broke down into red mist and was blown away leaving Willow alone only with her thoughts. She knew if she didn’t listen she would be next but she wondered how long was her friend not really there.