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Original Poster
#1 Old 7th Oct 2008 at 7:45 PM
Ksnyatin Point | Updated 01/10
Ksnyatin Point isn't a real horror story. It's rather drama with horror elements, but I decided to submit it in horror anyway...
It was originally posted on my LJ , but, since I really love getting feedback, I thought that I should post it on S2C also, so... Let's begin. :nyah:


KSNYATIN POINT

Prologue


Ksnyatin Point. Not a best place for a young man to live, if you ask me. Especially now, in a few past years, when taxes had dramatically rised and most of the inhabitants were forced to sell their houses and move into cheap, small and trashy flats. "Why don't they leave this edge of the world and move the hell out of here?", you might ask.


Statistics say that an average age of a human in Ksnyatin is 55, while everywhere else it's 28. Most of the townies are elders. They are too old to work, to move out, to do anything. They were born there and they want to stay there, die here and be buried there and since their funerals are near at hand, they just keep waiting.
Abandoned houses stay empty.

Time goes slow in this place, and you can almost feel it physically. People seem to age slower here, like my granpa. We visit him once a year, at Christmas. Every Christmas he's the same. Same raven hair. Same skin. Same voice. Same mind. Like he wouldn't age at all.
It seems like some divine rules just don't exist in this place.
Time goes so slow and monotonic here, that a few decades ago the city hall's clock stopped and no one ever was able to fix it.


Nobody visits this town and I can't see the reason why anyone should. We don't even have a hotel.
Well, we do have a Hostel, but it's not a hostel. Well, it is, but if you wanted to stay here, you couldn't find a free room - they're all occupied by the locals, who can't afford an apartment. Bums. Runaways. Freaks. Madmen.
It doesn't have any other name, except "Hostel", because it's the only one anyway.
When I was little, my mom wouldn't let me to go near it and I had to take a longer way to school, which took 15 minutes longer to walk.

I think that Hostel fully portrays Ksnyatin Point itself.



But the worst are the woods. Forests.
To build this town, many trees were cut down and burned, but now, after a few hundreds of years had passed, forests are returning to their old lands, moving nearer and nearer, deeper and deeper into the town. I wouldn't be surprised if one morning I woke up and found a forest where our garden used to be before.


Or if the trees blocked the roads completely and we couldn't leave the town. And the government had to send hundreds of helicopters to rescue us.
Or if the trees started to grow in a main street and they grew so tightly that people wouldn't be able to breathe and everyone would have to die.
Cutting them down is a waste of time, they grow back too fast.



There are dozens of empty houses in the forests - people move out when they realize that the forests had come too near, this is why the main street is getting more and more populated. My mom often says that once the forests will have reached the center, on the last safe hectar of the ground there will be built a 1000 storeys high house and everyone will move to it. But it's construction will be too weak and once the wind will blow, it will collapse. And my mom laughs then.



No one wants to live in those woods, that's pretty obvious, and the only ones who do are as odd as the woods themselves. I don't know either the forests attract those people or was it those forests who made them strange.
There definitely is something in those woods. I don't know what it is or is it someone or does it have a name, but I can feel it sometimes at night - an angst. An opposite to the town's peaceful and monotonic life.
It's only children who believe in pure feelings, adults usually say that nothing is pure and everything has a spot of another color on it. But this angst is pure, worse than any other angst, because it doesn't have a fo..

- Lucia!
I jumped, terrified.
- I am going to pick up Eve, will be back in about a hour.
- OK, mum.

[CENTER]

That's definitely something that I should mention.


Eve, Evangeline, is my seven year old couisin, who is going to live with us for a while (it's always "for a while!").
Eve is a daughter of my mom's youngest sister. Granpa had three daughters and the youngster had always been his favourite. Strangely enough, she never went to college, she never attended any events, she barely left the house at all, because her father wanted it this way. Even more strange is the fact that Marika never protested, like there was some kind of secret agreement between them.
Nobody knew who was Eve's father. Marika never married or was spotted with a boyfriend. She gave birth at the age of seventeen and I wonder is she herself knew.


Eve's coming to our house because she's going to start school this September and our house is closerto it than granpa's, which isdeep in the Woods.


When Eve is there, I am going to pick up some flowers from our garden and leave them in her room, because new places can be scary sometimes. That's the room in which my sister would have lived is she was born.
I wish I was younger and could play those games with Eve, games that only children play, games of pirates, games of fairies, dragons and knights, games of pain and death and we wouldn't feel pain and guilt ourselves, because only children know how to, and nothing else would matter.


Oh, she's there, I have to go.

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Original Poster
#2 Old 10th Oct 2008 at 7:45 PM
Default Chapter 1, Part 1: Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood
Once upon a time

"...one day, her mother told her: "your poor grandma is ill. Go visit her and see how is she doing, but be careful, don't get lost in the woods!".
Little Red Riding Hood took some cookies with her and left immediately.

As she was walking through the woods, she saw a flower, a truly beautiful flower, because she grew from a drop of Cinderella's blood.


While Little Red Riding Hood was picking flowers, she met a handsome Wolf, who asked her where was she going. After being told, he said that he's going to the same direction and offered to bring cookies to grandma's: "..you would have more time for picking those flowers!".
She happilly agreed, poor child.



When Little Riding Hood finally came to her grandmother's house, she found Wolf asleep in her grandmother's chair and an empty plate in front of him.

She was just standing there shocked, watching the scene, when a woodcutter stormed through her and killed the wolf - she wasn't the first Little Red Riding Hood whose grandmother he had killed.

And they all lived happilly ever after.''





- Lucia?
- Yes, darling?
- What about the wolf? Did he also lived happily ever after?
- Are you kidding me? Of course not, what's dead - stays dead! Like the wolf, the grandmother and Cinderella..
- Even the grandmother?
- What do you think - do you think they had to cut wolf's stomach and glue her together from billion pieces? Don't be gross, goodnight, Eve.
Scholar
#3 Old 10th Oct 2008 at 8:56 PM
This is really interesting! I'm intrigued!
Lab Assistant
#4 Old 10th Oct 2008 at 9:25 PM
this is interesting...a bit confusng but your pictures are well done and good writing
Original Poster
#5 Old 11th Oct 2008 at 11:27 AM
Thanks for your positive comments :bow2:
Original Poster
#6 Old 11th Oct 2008 at 11:47 AM
Default Chapter 1, Part 2: The walk with a wolf
The walk with a Wolf
September the 2nd


It's only her second day in school, and she's already disappeared. She doesn't know Ksnyatin Point well, she has spent most of her life in the nature, she's just too naive. We shouldn't have let her to go alone. She had probably picked the shorter way, the one which goes by Hostel and something must've happened there, and maybe her body will also be found in a dumpster, just like that girl's two years ago.
It's only the second time when she went to the town on her own, and it already took her.


I could have picked her up from school. Now I can see that it was more important than... more important than anything I did today. Mom used to always pick me up, always. She's called police and they're looking for Eve, but the policeman who talked to us seemed to think that she simply ran away and will be back tonight or tomorrow, but I know that she did not.


Mother tried calling granpa, but there's something wrong with his phone line. Eve might be at his place, so I am going to his house to see if she is.
_ _ _ _


You have to pass a bridge, a mill, a bridge again, then the third bridge and, finally, you should take a turn to the left and then you should see my grandfather's house.

I had passed two bridges and a mill, and then rode and rode for what seemed like an hour, but didn't see the third bridge, as it had disappeared, and then I took a turn to the left, only to realize that I was riding in circles. I was stuck in an "O" shaped road with no connecting roads, and it was way past midnight.
Probably the woods had blocked the right way and the third bridge - and then I realized that it have been those woods that took Eve, not the people, and it wasn't a soothing thing to realize in a situation like this.


- Who are you?!
- I am Wolf.
- You don't look a lot like a wolf.
- Well, you don't look like a Riding Hood either, you look like you are looking for trouble. What happened, is your bike broken?


- No, I.. I just got lost.
- Lost? In the middle of the town? You are three minutes away from the Town Hall. Just go straight this way - ...
- I.. I did, but..
- If you're not feeling alright, I could bring you home on my motorbike and come back later for your bike. I have some free space in my garage.
- Thanks, I would really appreciate it..


- If you want to ever see your bike again, call me tomorrow,- he told me his number and I wrote it down. - Wolfman.
- Sorry?
- Wolfman. That's me, Jarreth Wolfman.
- Oh.

I went to the house without even saying "thanks" or telling him my name - this days' events were tiring me.


When I was climbing the stairs to the second floor, for a second I thought that maybe I will see Eve peacefully asleep in her bed, but I didn't.


How ironic. Red Riding Hood has just been saved by the wolf. Though Little Red Riding Hood is still lost, and maybe even eaten, and I wonder if the word little is what makes the difference.
If I would've created Little Red Riding Hood, the girl would become a werewolf, because she wouldn't have been innocent enough to be eaten by Wolf and would have bitten him first - I think that the wolf symbolizes primal emotions and love is definitely one of them.
In my version of the tale, Little Red Riding Hood wouldn't be strong enough to overcome her primal emotions.

Tomorrow is Sunday. The church. In a town with no cheer the church for many people is the only source of cheer, because it's building doesn't belong to this town - it belongs to God, even if in Ksnyatin Point god is in the sky and not in hearts.


When I fell asleep, I had a dream about the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood. This time I was Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf was real. I don't remember much of it, only the beginning and the ending. It started with a question:
"Who are you?!"
"The wolf".

This time it didn't have a happy ending and I woke up screaming.
Original Poster
#7 Old 11th Oct 2008 at 12:05 PM
Default Chapter 1, Part 3: Town with no cheer
When next morning I woke up, she still wasn't at home.
When my mother rented a car and went to visit my grandfather, she didn't find Eve there.
Eve wasn't with us when we ate dinner in a complete silence.


She came home at 16:00 and said that she took a 30 minutes walk in the woods, as if nothing have had happened - she didn't realise that she was gone for a day and 30 minutes, not 30 minutes.


She said that when she was walking by the Hostel, she saw an interesting looking house through the woods and wanted to go inside of it, then heard the music and tried to follow it, but then the music stopped and she headed home. When asked, what kind of music it was, she told that it sounded like the rocks, the trees, the beetles and everything and everyone else around started to sing a song from somewhere very deep inside of them.
Doctors confirmed that she doesn't have any mental ilnesses and considered that her brain was probably trying to block some kind of shock she'd experienced.
Police went to see the path which Eve took, but they found nothing suspicious there.


It's weird.
You know, sometimes, when life gets too dull, what one week ago used to happen often, I just fly somewhere else. I fly to my tiny house in an enchanted forest, a forest, which is bright and always full of laughter, which doesn't make people disappear and which doesn't have a bit of anger and urge to kill, where I can hide from everything and anything. And sometimes, when I talk to you, you might think that I'm there with you, but I'm not.
What happened to Eve, was both similar and completely opposite - she thought that she was there, but she wasn't.

I would give up everyting I own if I could could have a stay inside of her head for a minute, I wonder what she saw and what she heard that night, because it is definitely not something that everyone gets a chance to see and hear.

***



- Hello?
- Hi, do you want your bike back or not? A whole week has passed.
- Oh, I've totally forgotten about it, I... Where did you get my number?
- Found it on a phone book, and, before you ask, I know your name from the newspapers, your cousin is all they write about nowadays.
- Yeah? Um, I haven't seen a single arti.. when can I pick up my bike?
- Today, 6 o'clock, in front of Hostel?
- Hostel? Why?
- Well, I live there, and..

On the night we met he mentioned that we were just near his home. It means that we must've been somewhere near Eve that night. In the same forest.
Woods.
Wolves.

I think that now is the time when I should tell you more about the Hostel and why is it so dreaded.
Ten years ago it was a typical hostel. Of course, it was already full of tramps and no one else would stay there, but it was like any other in other means.
Police and ambulance would have to drive there almost every night, because small mischiefs would happen often, like someone getting drunk to death , windows being smashed, small amounts of money being stolen, overdue rent, fires.. There was a bar in a lobby, small fights used to happen there, too. Though nothing really horrible havent't ever happened.


After one of the elders had died, a new inhabitant moved in. His surname was Frank and he used to live in a forest before, but his house burned down by an accident, at least it is what everyone was being told.
He almost never left his room, but when he moved in, things had changed in Hostel . Someone would get thrown out of the window, strangled with a guitar string or mysteriously disappear. Crimes went more and more harsh and culmination was reached two years ago, when a little girl was killed near Hostel - I've already mentioned this event, her body was found in a dumpster. It was the first time when an completely innocent passer-by was killed.
It happened in a middle of they day and probably was a murder for fun - the girl hadn't been robbed or raped.


There wouldn't be any reason to associate Mr. Frank with all those crimes, if he himself wouldn't have disappeared on exactly the same time when that girl got killed - just like Eve had disappeared, only he was never seen again.

Things became more peaceful in Hostel after his disappearance, except one thing.
There are some people who have spotted Luise, the little girl, walking on the streets - even if she's dead, it looks that she's never left Ksnyatin Point.

However, Hostel is still dreaded, as if it was the building itself who is guilty of all these things and the.. the state that Luise is in, and sometimes, when you look at it with a corner of an eye, you can clearly see that it really is.


- Hey, Lu, are you still with me?
- Oh, yeah, sorry. See you at 6th o'clock. And thanks for the last Friday's ride.

***

Another shock was waiting for me when I stepped out of the house.
That tree.
It wasn't there before.

I knew that it had to happen, as it happens to every house in Ksnyatin Point sooner or later, but I didn't expect it to happen so soon. I imagined it differently. The forest didn't look any darker or more evil, the wasn't any signs of it happening - usually people see some kind of signs or visions, and until now I hadn't thought that Eve's disappearance could have been a threat for us to leave the house.
I thought that one day I would wake up, look through my window and see a dark, creepy forest. I didn't expect them to come one by one.

***



Scholar
#8 Old 11th Oct 2008 at 1:31 PM
I am loving this! I love the way you write, it's so mysterious...
Instructor
#9 Old 11th Oct 2008 at 4:27 PM
this is really good. you write well. I can't wait to find out what happens next.
Original Poster
#10 Old 11th Oct 2008 at 6:46 PM
Thanks a lot.

Actually, I am often dissatisfied with my writing style, because English isn't my native language and it is really hard to write in it sometimes..
Original Poster
#11 Old 11th Oct 2008 at 7:08 PM
Default Chapter 2, Part 1: Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland
Long long ago


Alice sat with her sister in a forest. Her sister was getting married next week, she was writing something in her diary and Alice was starting to get bored, when she saw a giant rabbit running into the woods. She got up and followed him.


When a rabbit jumped into his hole, Alice jumped after him. After falling for a long time, she realised that she was standing in an endless corridor with many doors.



Alice tried opening a few of them, and she saw amazing things, but she couldn't get through any of the doors - something was blocking her way.
Alice took a look around a halway and noticed something that she hadn't noticed before - a golden box of chocolates. She hesitated for a moment, then ate one of them.


She then realised that she had become a different person.
Alice picked one of the door and walked through it, only to realise that there was a dead-end of the labyrinth. There she found another box of chocolates, a heart-shaped box this time, and she ate one of them again, as she didn't know what else to do.



Alice started to feel like she was loosing her identity, as she had become someone else once more.
She walked back to the corridor and met the rabbit himself, who mistaked her for his maid and sent her to pick a book from his house in a forest. Alice opened the door she was told and found a place which didn't look like a forest at all, but there was a house, so she walked in.



The house looked exactly how you would expect a rabbit's house to look and Alice found the book soon.


Alice went outside with a book and found herself in a middle of nowhere...



***

I closed a book, went back to my room and saw the view which I least expected to see - I knew that the forest was getting closer, but I've never thought that it could get so close.

Original Poster
#12 Old 11th Oct 2008 at 7:48 PM
Default Chapter 2, Part 2: "Hey Jude"
"Hey Jude"
September the 10th



Mom didn't show any sign of emotion when she saw my room. She simply told me that I can sleep in Eve's room if I don't feel comfortable in mine.
- Mom, can't you see...
- Of course I can, there's climbing ivy in your room. What do you expect me to do? This has been happening...
- Does it seem normal to you?
- Haven't you seen grass growing through the concrete? We live near the forest and...
- But...
BANG.


She left and I thought that there's no point in arguing with her, also, I had a date with Jareth at 18:00 and I was almost late.

Mom's just used to being the right one. Her word always has to be the last. In her days she was the most popular girl in Ksnyatin, the most beautiful one, with her slightly curly hair and smooth pale skin, even at that phase when she wore her mother's make up, which absolutely wasn't suitable for her age. I guess that this was the reason for me growing up without a father - since there were so many potential dads running around, she just couldn't pick one..
The town was more alive at her times, now there even isn't a place in which you could dance your youth away.



Well, she's still one of the most beautiful women in Ksnyatin, and it is not always pleasurable, because every teenager at some point wants to be the most beautiful and the best and it is a real disgrace to be overshadowed by someone who's 20 years older than you and who's your mother, to be "the daughter of her" and not simply Lucia. Sometimes I feel like I have no identity, because whatever I do, my mother can do that better, even if she's never told this loud.

***

Jareth was already waiting when I reached Hostel.


- Hi.
- Are you in a hurry? We could go to my room and have something to drink, or..
- No, I.. Yes, I actually want to ask you something.

I was thinking about my mother so hard that I didn't know what ecxactly I wanted to ask. I wanted some answers about Hostel and those woods and that night and so many other things, but...



I felt stupid when I realised that the stairwell of Hostel was just a.. typical stairwell and that Jareth's room was a typical room of a guy in his early twenties or whatever age he was. I expected something else, as it was that dreaded haunted hostel.


- So, you've told that you wanted to ask me something. Why don't you, instead of just standing there?
- Well... that night when Eve had disappeared. I just thought that she must've been somewhere near us. Well, and.. do you know where exactly is that house that she saw?
- Sure I do. It's just 2 minutes walk away from there.
- Haven't you noticed anything strange that night? I mean... Hostel doesn't have a good reputation, and I.. maybe..


- No, I didn't notice anything, what should I've noticed?

- The place in which we met. Shortest way to the city center goes by that house and.. dunno, something unusual.
- Oh yes, I think that we've passed by that house, but it's not easily noticable from the road.


I was starting to feel foolishly. What did I expect? Did I expect him to to tell that he'd passed by an alien ship that night or that he drugged Eve, took her to the forest and did something to her?


Jareth laughed the way like he could hear what I was thinking.
- Whatever you wanted me to see, I hadn't seen it. I was driving from a party, we do always gather in those forests on Fridays. Listen, from what I've heard in the news, it looks like your little cousin has had some kind of - dunno - seizure. She'd recently moved to your house, hadn't she? That's a lot stress for a child. Do you have any real reasons to think otherwise? Things aren't always the way you want them to be, you know...
- No, I don't. I'm sorry.


-How long have you been living there?
- So that's what makes me to look so suspicious? Well, it's almost 2 years.
2 years. Luise. The little girl who.. and Mr. Frank, who'd disappeared. We're probably in his room.
I shuddered because of this thought.
- I don't want to move out, I'm used to Hostel. I will when I'll have a family, because children need space and women need some cleanness.
"I'm used to Hostel". In this situation it sounded creepy, like Hostel could crawl into it's inhabitant's mind and make them..

Something interrupted my mind. The Beatles. Hey Jude. Someone was playing Hey Jude on a guitar. It's my favorite song.


Jareth laughed. "He laughs a lot", I thought.
- Oh, and there's this guy living just below me, he keeps playing The Beatles all day long. I doubt if he sleeps, probably not, because he's just always playing and he always plays a right song, a song you want to hear. I tend to think that he's just a spirit of The Beatles from another dimension and exists only for me, sleeps when I sleep - God had created him for me, that's his special sign for me - "I am there and if I can play you the song you want , then I can hear you".


- Wanna go out tomorrow's night?
Is there a place in this forgotten hole where you could go out to?
- Where to?
- There's this pub, "The Hole"...

***


When I came home, I could hear Mom talking to someone in her room, but I didn't think that it could be important and went to sleep.
I should've thought.

Field Researcher
#13 Old 11th Oct 2008 at 10:45 PM
Oh, but, no... I want to read more! This is so interesting. Uuuuh, I hope to see an update soon...!

"Euphobia- Fear of hearing good news."
Doctor: Good news - you are completely healthy!
Patient: NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! [collapses and dies of chok]

http://www.iduniq.com - your own, personal unique ID - join the wave; I'm #3013 :D
Scholar
#14 Old 11th Oct 2008 at 11:05 PM
Another great update! I keep wondering what is going on...
Original Poster
#15 Old 12th Oct 2008 at 10:32 AM
Default Chapter 2, Part 3
I have been updating very often, but this was only because Chapter 2 was already finished and all I had to do was convert images from png to jpg. Chapter 3 is half finished - you should see 1 and 2 soon, but the 3rd part will appear after a week or so. (:
Also, thanks for your comments!


The awakening
September 11th



Jareth was a decent dancer. I could't believe that only yesterday I was telling someone that Ksnyatin is dull and there isn't a place in which you could hang out, dance your nights away and do other thinhs like that. I guess it was me who was the dull one.


I heard the music,

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know,


then I looked up to Jarreth and suddendly something in my head rotated. Out of nowhere, the knowledge came to me. The Hostel, Jareth, the woods and Eve had somehow joined and suddendly last week's events started to make more sense. I've never felt so relaxed.
And then I heard Jareth telling me something:
- Hey, "The Hole" is closing, it's 4:00 in the morning. Are you going to the after party with us?
- After party? Where?
- In our place, by the river in a forest, I've already mentioned you last night. My flat is near it, we could go there afterwards..
- Sure, let's go...


Things were becoming more and more blurred and meaningless, and then..
- "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?",- asked someone...



..darkness.


***

September 12th


I woke up with a taste of bitter in my mouth. The sun was setting down. I must'd been drugged, I had no memory of how I got home or anything else that happened after we drove to the forest, and, most importantly, I couldn't remember a bit of what was I thinking when that Alice song was playing in The Hole and I didn't know if I had really understood something or was it only my imagination and there was nothing to understand...

Scholar
#16 Old 13th Oct 2008 at 12:02 PM
Another great update! This is really fascinating!
#17 Old 13th Oct 2008 at 5:29 PM
This story is really captivating....!!!!!! I'm so surprised that I didn't notice it any earlier......its just awesome!!!!
Original Poster
#18 Old 14th Oct 2008 at 7:33 PM
Default Chapter 3, Part 1 : Hansel and Gretel
Hansel and Gretel
Date unknown

Once upon a time, a very poor woodcutter lived in a forest. He had a teenage daughter, Gretel, and his daughter had a fiancé, Hansel. Sometimes, they hadn't enough money to buy even food, so the woodcutter told his daughter and Hansel to leave.

They did.


They kept walking by railway tracks, because they had nowhere else to go. It was cold, the sun was setting and Gretel started to cry.


"Don't cry, please trust me", told Hansel - he knew that they had to keep walking and just sitting there crying won't help. And he was right.


When they came over a cozy looking house, the blizzard had just began. Hansel and Gretel didn't have any warm clothes, so they decided to go inside, whoever lived there.


They found a handsome man inside, he seemed really welcome and agreed to let them stay for a one night.


He leaded them to the bedroom.
Naive Hansel went inside first and he never came out of that room, poor man, because the stranger closed the door and locked them.


"You're all mine now, pretty lady", told he Gretel.

***
Five years had passed and Gretel became an adult.


Well, things went pretty simple from this point - she fell in love with that stranger (who wasn't a stranger to her anymore) and they decided to get rid of Hansel (actually, it was her idea).


Gretel was pretty upset and she regretted it a lot at first, but later they just... lived happily ever after.


The moral? Well, love doesn't last forever, especially if you're in love with a teenage girl.
Original Poster
#19 Old 14th Oct 2008 at 7:44 PM
Default Chapter 3, Part 2
September 13th, Tuesday

- Lucia, Lucia!

- Lucia, wake up, it's urgent!

My mother's voice dragged me out of my dream. My dream wasn't really pleasant. I was with Jarreth and we were going somewhere by railway tracks in the dark, dressed in those strange ancient clothes. We came upon a cozy looking house and then I woke up... I need to talk to him about yesterday. I am sure that I was drugged. Even if I wasn't,

- Lucia, we're moving out, please get up and help me with these boxes!


Is that my room?

***
September 14th, Wednesday

Then I felt a sense of terror for a second, because.. you know, in one of Emir Kusturica's movies, one of the characters said that even if you can see war coming closer and closer, it always comes by a surprise, and, at some point, those trees are really similar to the war.
And you can't do anything to stop them coming, as you are too small to stop the war.


For a moment I thought that we were going to leave Ksnyatin Point forever and ever. "New York", I thought, "that would be cool". "Or Paris, I would like to see Louvre". And I felt sad. Doesn't matter how many times I've dreamed about leaving Ksnyatin, when I was thinking that I really am, I didn't want to do that anymore. Not because I liked living there, bet because I was afraid to, or because of some reasons that I didn't clearly understood myself.
Actually, Ksnyatin can be a peaceful place to live, if you obey its rules and don't ask too many questions. This town is frozen. If you feel tired from action and living, this might be a place for you, but I guess that Ksnyatin is just too frozen...


However, we didn't leave Ksnyatin, we just moved into an apartment, like many people did before us.
I didn't want to do that, though I know that we didn't have a choice. Our house was big and bright and I used to have my own room - now I have to share with Eve.
We moved out too fast. This flat is not ours, it still belongs to somebody else. It has somebody else's posters and writings on its walls. And the scariest thing is that these posters are exactly the same as I would hang on my walls - The Beatles, David Bowie, Patrick Wolf... This music is my music. It almost seems like the person who lived there before us was me. That's what makes this room the most uncomfortable place in this world, at least for me.


We spent the last night in our old house in a room which used to be a living room, and we had to sleep on the couches, because the rest of a house had became a jungle.

Somebody had bought our house. I wonder who and why would buy a house in Ksnyatin, especially a house in a state like that. But there's someone who does and I'm sure that it is the same person, because, well, all those abandoned houses in the forests were bought by someone - someone buys them and just.. does nothing with them. Why would anyone do that?



I thought of how our house looked when we moved out. It looked so naturally, like it was abandoned a few decades ago.
Maybe it was that man with whom my mom was talking when I came back home from Jarreth's place who bought - ...
Jarreth.
I have to call him, we have to talk.

***
September 16th, Friday


And I called him, but no one answered.
Nor in the morning. He wasn't at home the next evening, also.
I tried to imagine how does his empty room on the last floor of Hostel look like. It looked weird. With Jarreth in it, the room belonged to him, and without him, it belonged to Hostel and looked hollow.



Maybe I should visit him?
The idea of going to Hostel scared me, even if I'd already been there and knew that there's nothing REAL to be afraid of. But, in Ksnyatin, one of the rules is to listen to your sixth sense, and it was telling me to stay away from Hostel. Where else could Jarreth be?
Hole, for sure.



My intuition was right - I found a rabbit in his hole.

- Hi, Jarreth.
- Oh, where've you been? I tried calling you, but your house's phone line seems to be down.
- We've moved out.
- We were a little worried, since it was obvious that you had too much to drink last evening and almost passed out. So why did you move out?
- You know, I feel ashamed of what happened, because I can't remember almost anything and.. this was just not me, do you know the feeling?
- I really doubt that I do, because whatever you did, it was done by you.

Enough of this nonsense, I have to go straight to the point.

- Can you answer me honestly now?
- Do you think that I'm a liar?
- What was in my drink that night? Did someone put... well, something in it?


- What are you talking about? An umbrella?
- A what? What's that supposed to mean?
- Well, you head a little pink umbrella in your drink, I mean...

That's just ridiculous.
Jarreth giggled again and kept talking, but I wasn't listening. He acted like all this was casual and completely innocent. Maybe I really drank too much alcohol and there was nothing else behind it... But no, it can't be, because, even if I'm under-age, I know how being drunk seems like... Probably we all know a lot more than we are supposed to, don't we?
Also, the most important events of this month are all related to those woods. It used to be different before, it's like by occupying our housethe had also occupied our lives.

- ...and William took you home, - finished Jarreth.
- Who's William?
"Though does that make any difference", I thought to myself.
Jarreth took a sip from his glass.
- Him,- and he pointed to a guy sitting just behind him.



- You look definitely better than you did on that night,- his voice was bored.
- Well, thanks.

Of course I do.
And then my cellphone rang. It was my mom, she asked me to come home and help her with tidying our new apartment (which currently looked like there were orgies held for the last 10 years).
So. What useful did I learn from my talk with Jarreth? Nothing, absolutely nothing.

- I gotta go, see you, Jarreth.
- So where do you live now? - for some reason, he obviously didn't want to let me leave.
- Just near the library, listen, I really gotta go...


William woke up from his thoughts, his voice was bouncy now.

- Oh, really? I will accompany you, I need some books for my research from the library.
***


- You must think that I'm incapable of getting home alone.
- I don't, though you really looked like you'd opened the doors of perception that night.
- Doors of what?
How does he know? Or was it simply a joke?
- Of per-cep-tion. It's William Blake, don't you know his poetry?
"Are you William Blake?" "Yes, I am. Do you know my poetry?", echoed in my head. Where've I heard that?
- No, I don't.
A short silence fell between us.
- Talking about the last night... For a one moment, I got this really weird feeling. Like I'd really opened the doors of perception. And I didn't drink that much, actually... I really don't know how to ask that, but...
- I know what do you want to ask.
- You do?

I started to rain heavily and we hid under the roof of a house.


- If anyone put something in your drink, it could've been only Jarreth himself.
- Why do you think so?
I felt angry at William because I liked Jarreth. But he might've told the truth, because... what do I know about Jarreth? Nothing, basically.
I was probably thinking loud because William answered my question:
- That's the point. He's a really good friend of mine, but I have to admit that the guy is quite extreme. You can never know what to expect of him. If you built a wall in front of him, he wouldn't waste his precious time to go around it - he would go straight through it, like a ghost, and I believe that he could really do that, because... Jarreth is really determined. A good actor, also.
- Where did you meet him?
- We both belong to a local biker club. Though we are involved in some other activities with this club, too.
- What kind of activities?
- Club wouldn't be a club, if any outsider would know what's going on, would it?
- I guess so..

Suddenly I felt like everyone was playing mind games with me.


- Also, did you know that Jarreth is not from Ksnyatin Point, actually?
- What do you mean, not from Ksnyatin?
- He moved there two years ago, so he's still a stranger. Two years is not enough to settle down in Ksnyatin. Though twenty years is not enough either.
- That's a... quite a weird choice.
- Yeah, I must agree with you there.

He moved in there after Mr. Frank had disappeared. He lives in his room.
Of course, I can't be sure if these two things are related, this might be a coincidence, but... doesn't every single event look like a coincidence, if you don't look deep?

Ksnyatin is way too small to accommodate coincidences. Everything has a purpose there.
***

Oh, and one more thing. We're going to visit my grandfather and Eve's mother on Monday - that was a big surprise for me, because we never visit them, only at Christmas.

Scholar
#20 Old 14th Oct 2008 at 8:27 PM
Intriguing... I like you you twist the two stories together.

This is the best story I've read in ages!
Instructor
#21 Old 15th Oct 2008 at 1:23 PM
wow this is good. somehow I get the feeling that her dreams and what's going on with these guys are related somehow.
Original Poster
#22 Old 16th Oct 2008 at 11:22 AM
Thanks a lot (:

And bopashu2 - exactly, those dreams have a reason to be there.
Original Poster
#23 Old 20th Oct 2008 at 11:19 PM
Default Chapter 3, Part 3: Dreamlike discoveries
September 17th, Saturday


It wasn't a noise what woke me up, it was a lack of sound.
Overwhelming silence. The town was sleeping.
I stretched my legs and glanced at a clock on my bedside table. 2:24 AM. Four more hours to sleep...


- Eve?
I suddendly realized that her bed was empty. At first I thought that she has simply gone to the bathroom, but the apartment was empty and quiet, she wasn't at home at all. Mom was working night shift. Oh no, not again. I touched Eve's pillow, and it was cold, ice cold - obviously it has been a while since she woke up and went.. somewhere.
Then I looked through a window and saw something that made my sleepiness completely disappear.

Eve was outside. In the street.

I didn't want to shout - it was night, after all, so I quickly got dressed and ran outside, to the place where she stood only a minute ago, but Eve wasn't there anymore. She was a few hundred meters away from me, running to the forest.

- Eve, wait!- I shouted, but she didn't show any reaction and I ran after her, afraid of the thought of Eve walking alone in those woods.
The weather was unbearably cold. And Eve's dress was even thinner than my clothes.


I was wondering what could she be thinking. Maybe Jarreth was right after all and Eve was, well, sleepwalking, maybe she just loses control of herself sometimes and doesn't understand what is she doing. Or maybe she leaves us on a purpose, maybe she's really trying to run away, but something stopped her the first time - what, then? Actually, I have no reasons, except my intuition, to not believe this version, but not everything can be understood by rational mind, especially there, in Ksnyatin. But it's not the best time for thoughts like that, isn't it?
- Eve?!
The forest was getting thicker and thicker and I lost her soon, but kept running to the same direction, just in case I found a trace of her...
And, finally, I found a trace - her footprints in wet sand where she crossed a stream. I shivered when I saw a statue of a bird. Birds. In many mythologies, they were a connection between our world and the afterlife. Water was also a connection.
Forest is an unusual place for a statue.




***


What is this place? I've never heard that there's a gypsy camp in Ksnyatin, and I thought I knew a lot...
*Crack*


- Who's there?!

No answer. Silence, complete silence, not a single movement, like everything and everyone was... dead? I haven't heard a single sound since I crossed that stream, only my own footsteps and this crack. Maybe it was only an animal. Of course it was an animal. This camp is abandoned and no one lives there. But there lights are turned on...
This just isn't going to lead anywhere, I should go home and wait for her to come back, otherwise I might get lost, fall down and get hurt, or even worse... I really should go home now.



Oh no, looks like I am not alone in t his forest after all.
- Who's there?
- It's just me, again.
- Jarreth?!
What's he doing there in the middle of the night?
- Calm down, it's just me.
- Was it you who was hiding from me in that.. gypsy camp?
- I don't think so, I was jus riding home when I heard somebody screaming and ran to check... Was it you? And, wait a bit, there's a gypsy camp in Ksnyatin?- he sounded surprised.
What am I doing there in the middle of the night?
- I didn't hear anybody screaming, - I was shivering.
- Well, maybe it was only my imagination, you can hear really strange things at night, - he smiled and it was relieving.
Run, Lucia. He's a Wolf, after all, was shouting another half of myself.
- Jarreth, Eve is somewhere in this forest. I woke up, didn't find her in her bed and followed her there, could we... I... I don't know what to do.
- I will look for her after we will get you out of there, you don't look well. Though I can't promise anything...
Stay with him, Lucia.


We were walking for a few minutes when I realized something.
- It's weird. I saw this place in my dream last night. These railway tracks. We were going somewhere by these railway tracks.
Jareth laughed for the first time this night:
- My grandfather used to say that there are only three kinds of dreams...
- Nightmares, aand?...
- Nnnope,- he laughed again. - There are prophetic dreams, dreams which are opposite to your future and dreams which simply doesn't have anything to do with your life. When they're being dreamed, they don't belong to any of these groups yet - it's your job to make them pophetic, misleading or absurd.


Jarreth stopped walking. We were standing by the stream.
- I think that we can separate there, you home is near, isn't it?

Then happened something that none of us could control anymore.*


"Lucia, Lucia, Eve's somewhere in this endless forest, it's dark, it's cold and those woods are full of secrets and wolves, what are you doing", I thought, but somehow I knew that there's nothing to worry about, that she'll come home till the dawn and our life will be the same, like nothing had happened - and that the wild wolves won't bite her.
***




I am the '"who"' when you call '"who's there?"',
I am the wind blowing through your hair.

(from Tim Burton's movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas")


* - they're supposed to be making out. This was really hard to do, because none of the adult/teen romantic relationship hacks work for me and I'm aware of the fact that this pic turned out a bit... awkward.
Field Researcher
#24 Old 21st Oct 2008 at 8:46 AM
Oh, wonderful! I just love how mysterious it is. I wish there were a thousand updates for me to read - but for now I'm content with that one, it was really good. Keep up the amazing work!

"Euphobia- Fear of hearing good news."
Doctor: Good news - you are completely healthy!
Patient: NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! [collapses and dies of chok]

http://www.iduniq.com - your own, personal unique ID - join the wave; I'm #3013 :D
Field Researcher
#25 Old 26th Oct 2008 at 6:43 PM
I like this story alot. Good work and great screen shots. Love some of the lots.

Hugs

Be true to yourself, only your opinion of yourself truly counts.

Darkie
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