Of Stones and Stars by donteatpoop PG

Chapter 3: Skipping stones

In the morning I woke before the alarm sounded, much like the day before. I sat up in bed, turned the alarm clock off and stretched for a bit before getting to my feet.

I felt wide awake and took a quick shower. When I returned to my room I dressed and loaded my pockets up; a couple of pens, the key to the house, and my wallet. I padded my pockets a few times because I felt like I was missing something. Then I realized what it was, and grabbed the blue stone from beneath my pillow.

I walked downstairs to the smell of coffee brewing and quickly made myself breakfast. After eating a bowl of cereal, I rinsed out the bowl in the sink and put on my shoes. With my backpack on my shoulders, I wished my mom well and walked out the door.

I left for school the same as I had the day before, except that this time I didn’t walk to school at all. I started out heading in the direction of school, but my feet apparently had another destination in mind. Where I should have cut up a side street, I kept walking.

Though my feet were doing the walking, something else was guiding me. It was the same as yesterday when I had felt something tugging at me during my walk home. Yesterday I had been walking home and found myself blocks out of my way. I had been baffled then.

This morning, however, I allowed the pulls and tugs to control my destination. I gave into the internal urges that were attempting to guide me. It took me a while to realize what was doing it, but eventually I came to realize what it was; the strange cold blue stone in my pocket. There was somewhere I had to go, something I had to do; I knew this at once as though it had spoken to me, but of course it hadn’t.

I remembered the dreams of the previous two nights then, and everything came back to me. They had dominated my slumbering mind, every dream I had had in the last two nights were centered around that mysterious blue stone. It was sentient. One would think I would have been terrified when I came to this realization, but at the time it seemed like the most natural conclusion. I was not in control that morning, and I was perfectly fine with this.

The walk was a lengthy one, much more walking than what I normally do in a day. At one point I estimated that I could already have walked to school and home twice, and onward still I walked up the lonely streets. Occasionally a car passed me, but for the most part I was the only soul out there.

I passed silently through the neighborhoods on my walk, quiet like the morning dew. As the cars and utility vehicles drove past I had the impression that they didn’t even take note of me; I was a shadow, a ghost, a figment of imagination.

I began thinking of myself no longer as a person at all, but as a spirit that drifted along on its route. The naked human eye could not see me, but I was there; moving along at a moderate pace along the path to my destination. Whatever that destination was…

At some point during my wild imagining I was startled from my fantasies to find myself standing at the entrance to a local park that was seldom used. I’d only visited the place once or twice in my youth and hadn’t been there in years. But there I was, staring at the place and feeling the same rising sense of reluctance to be there that I had felt so long ago.

I looked around, seeking an escape route as though I had just been caged. I wanted to be anywhere but where I was at that moment. My mounting apprehension did nothing to deter the tugs and pulls at my soul which urged me to step forward and enter the virtually abandoned park.

I tried to resist, but the urge was too strong. Eventually I succumbed to its wishes and followed the tugs at my soul. My steps were reluctant but submissive and I made what might otherwise have been a relatively short journey into a lengthy trek.

The swings hung limply from their chains, swaying ever so slightly in the light breeze. The slide was covered with leaves and bird droppings, and I wondered how long it had been since a child had slid down the length of it. Paint chipped away at the seesaw, and the marry-go-round tilted at an odd angle as though it was bent at the base.

This was not a loving and friendly park.

Behind the rusted swings, cat-shit filled sandboxes, and long abandoned monkey bars there was a small but thick patch of wood. I remembered little about the park from my short and rare visits there, but I remembered this little woodland well.

I’d never actually entered the wood, but I remember staring into it while considering whether I should stay and play there. Something about that cluster of trees and brush was utterly terrifying. It was the reason I didn’t visit the park. I also suspect that it was the reason that no one else visited the place either; the chill from the bad trees did not make for a comfortable place to play.

Something was off about those woods, there was an eminent sense of foreboding about the place. I stopped walking and just stared into the dark depths of the trees. It was dark in there, even in the morning sunlight; the shadows ruled the area.

As I stood there, fear resisting the tugs and pulls at my soul, I realized that it was more than just the twisted and gnarled trees of the area that caused the unease. There was something more to it than that. Possibly whatever it was, was also responsible for the malformed trees and the depths of the darkness.

The cold from my pocket tried to comfort me, numbing away my sense of fear with the chill that pulsated from it. I wouldn’t say I was scared, necessarily, just... Okay, I was scared. Maybe terrified is a better word for it. This was no ordinary patch of trees, mind you. Something evil lurked within their shade.

It began to calm me, and I soon lost that deer stuck in headlights feeling. I couldn’t quite shake the terror, but I was able to override my fears and start to take a few cautious steps forward.

It seemed to speak to me, soothingly, comforting my fears like a mother holding her child in the night. It didn’t speak, not in words anyway; it communicated by emotions. I was encouraging me to keep moving, celebrating my courage, and assuring me that it would guide and protect me.

Behind these feelings that it was trying to emit, however; I sensed something else. Somewhere beneath the surface of its calm was a mounting anticipation. It was both fearful and excited, but it was doing its best to hide this from me.

Despite my better judgment, I continued to move my feet forward; slowly drawing more and more near to the terrifying grove of trees. Eventually I had reached the edge and stepped in. The shade engulfed me like a blanket of night. Outside this little grove it was daylight, but within it was the darkest of starless and moonless midnights.


Following the guidance of the blue stone, I made my way pas the gnarled and twisted trees, the branched raking at me like the claws of terrible monsters. To say that I was frightened would be an understatement because I was so much more than just frightened. I was shaking, and not just externally; my very soul shook with terror as I made my way slowly into the depths of the wooded cluster of trees.

The stone tried to calm me, tried to offer me comfort and reassurance, but everything it whispered rang false in my ears. Regardless, I pressed on; following the path that was laid before me by the blue stone.

It lead me to the heart of the wood, so deeply immersed in the trees that I could no longer see the light of day behind me. A cold sweat started to seep from my pores and my heart felt like it was trying to burst through my chest. My legs were week, my hands wouldn’t stop trembling, and my stomach had that weightless feeling in it that it gets when mom speeds over a dip in the road. I was nervous.

I wasn’t really watching where I was going and my foot caught on something. I fell hard to the ground, the root still holding my foot in place. There was a resounding thud when I hit the ground, and I struggled for a bit to recapture my breath. There were several moments where I thought I was going to die out there, among the bad trees where no one would ever find me.

After several moments of panic, I was able to breathe again. I lay there reveling in the functionality of my lungs, and I started to almost feel comfortable. But there was still something overwhelmingly frightening about this place. When I turned my head to the side I came to realize what it was.

Had I been less scared I am sure that I would have screamed, but as it was the scream caught in my throat and I laid there with my mouth open just staring at what sat a few inches from my face.

Barely noticeable beneath the leaves and twigs was another stone; this one black. A dark light (if that even makes sense) pulsated from within it, just like the blue.

Without meaning to, I reached out for the stone. It all seemed to happen to someone else, my hand brushed away the dead leaves and twigs. I tried unsuccessfully to pull my hand away; tried to get up and run away, but I didn’t seem to be in control of my body any more.

My fingers grabbed the smooth black stone and I was filled with a sudden pain that coursed through my body. I screamed that time, screamed so loud that I ran out of breath and had to breathe in to scream again. The pain was intense, the worst feeling I have ever had; and it reached every part of my body from head to toe and inside to out.

I eventually slipped into unconsciousness from it all, but not before I experienced a minute or so of constant sharp pains.

I began to dream. There were two stars in the sky now, one blue and one black, looking like a glowing hole in the sky.

The blue star offered steeled my nerves while the black star frightened me; it was a strange balance and I was calmly terrified.

They began speaking of their secrets again, the blue spoke of the secrets that I was becoming more and more familiar with while the black stepped in with the secrets that I don’t think anyone would want to know. They were dark and terrible secrets; secrets that had to remain secrets; secrets that I wouldn’t dare share anyway.

The dream seemed to last forever. My mind began to overload with information until the point where I was certain that I could not take another secret.

That’s when I woke up.

**************************************

When I first opened my eyes I didn’t remember where I was. I was just staring up at the branches on high that blocked out the sun, marveling over how peaceful I was in that moment.

And then things started to come back to me. I remembered the terrifying journey through the park and into the wood. I sat up and laughed a little in embarrassment over the ridiculous apprehension I had felt. There was nothing to be afraid of; it was just a thick little patch of trees.

I rose to my feet and dusted myself off a bit. I slipped the stones into my pocket where they alternately pulsated their auras into my body. The blue gave off its cold and the black gave off pain. The pain was not unbearable nor even uncomfortable, but it was intensely painful; just as the cold from the blue stone was intensely cold but not unbearable. It was like my body sought out the pain and the cold, and fed off of these; as though without the cold and without the pain, the body would have died. It was a part of me now, and it felt as though it always had been.

I brushed myself off and walked calmly out of the wood, exiting in the same direction from which I had entered. I know it sounds crazy, but it seemed to me at the time, that as I exited the grove of trees the woods breathed a sigh of relief.

Stepping out of the woods I was met by sunlight that was too bright. Clearly I had been among the trees for far too long.

I shielded my eyes and made my way over to the crooked merry-go-round and sat down. I took a deep breath and took out the stones. I stared into the familiar depths of the blue one for a long while before returning it to my pocket. Then, I began to examine my newest stone.

It was the darkest, deepest, blackest shade of black that I had ever come across. Looking at it, I realized that any other shades of black that I saw would be nothing but grey to me. There was a pulsation of black light that seemed to shine from it, much like the blue that came from the other stone. Maybe light is the wrong word… It was dark, or anti-light… I’m not really sure how to explain it, but the word “shine” doesn’t do it justice. It seemed to emanate from the stone, a black energy of sorts.

It was inspiring to look upon; its presence was both painful and enticing. It hurt to hold but there was no way I was letting go. It had an immeasurable depth to it that I became fixated upon. I just sat there staring into it, mesmerized.

It was just like when I had found the blue stone, except darker.

I’m not entirely sure how long I sat there, but much time had passed before I stood up and placed the stone back into my pocket. My knees cracked when I stood and I began making my way home.

The walk home seemed far longer than the walk to the park. Eventually I reached the house and opened the door. My mother practically jumped upon me when I walked through the door.

“Why weren’t you at school today?” she asked.

“I-“ Man, how did I explain that? I walked to a park that I never went to before, and found a black stone in the wooded area. Oh, I didn’t want to go, but the blue stone made me… That wasn’t going to work.

“Save it,” she said. “I don’t want to hear any excuses. You go straight up to your room and don’t step a foot out of there until you’ve spoken with your father.”

I let out a sigh that she mistook for frustration. “Don’t give me that,” she said; “You did this to yourself.”

At least I wouldn’t have to explain anything to her. And by the time my father got home I would hopefully have come up with a decent story. I would be punished, that much was certain, but in the end it didn’t matter. I had the black stone now. It complimented the blue stone nicely.

I lay down on my bed and stared at my ceiling trying to piece together fragments of a reasonable story. I felt another presence in my mind, a darker and more sinister presence; it began showing me what looked like a film of moments of my life that had never happened. It was giving me the story to tell my father. Apparently the new stone was familiar with deceit, and based on the story it had given me; it was good at it.

*****************************

When my father came home I spun a series of lies about a girl at school whom I had been crushing on and that had said she was interested in me, but I saw her making out with some other guy when I arrived to school. I told him that I was devastated and I just kind of walked off. I admitted that I was wrong for doing so, and that I probably overreacted, but I was extremely saddened over the event and needed to get away.

I told him about the park I went to and told him that I had hung out there all day. It might have helped that I cried a little as I explained everything to him, but he told me that everything was going to be okay. He gave me a speech about girls and how my heart was going to be broken many times before I found the right woman, and then he told me not to worry about any punishment; that he would talk to mom and get rid of the grounding.

The lies came out like the truth, and he bought everything as though he had personally witnessed the events I had described. We hugged and he left me to my room. It was entirely too easy.

I probably should have felt guilty afterwards, but I didn’t. I was elated.

My mother didn’t quite agree to let me go without punishment, but she only grounded me to my room for the night. And let’s face it; confinement in my room was far from unbearable; I had television, video games, books, cards, dice, and some old toys if I really got bored. Besides that, one night was far better than I could have hoped for if I hadn’t had the assistance of the black rock. That I wouldn’t have needed the lies if not for the black rock hadn’t occurred to me.

The rest of the evening passed along well enough, I ate dinner and returned to my room where I served out the rest of my sentence in relative peace. Eventually I got into bed, placed the stones beneath my pillow, and slept.

**********************************

They came to me in my dreams, much as they had done previously, and much as I had expected. They spoke more of their secrets, the blue star (for they were always stars in the dream world) whispering to me in its cold and soothing voice, the black stone speaking in its deep and gravelly voice.

There were other stones, they had said; three others to be exact. They needed to be reunited, and they promised me the world. I know a lot of people use that expression, “promised the world”, but I mean that quite literally. The world was to be mine. Everything that breathed would be under my command and worship, everything that grew would be mine to do with as I pleased.

To say that the offer was enticing would be an understatement. That was the night I had committed myself to their cause. I would do their bidding. I would locate the other stones and reunite the fallen stars.

I asked what had happened to them, how had they been separated in the first place? But the moment I asked, two of went silent and would speak no more. Soon they forced me out of the dream and I returned momentarily to conscious.

It was startling to awaken like that, struggling to stay in the dream but being shoved out. It was similar to being aboard a ship in the middle of the ocean and being dumped over the side; it felt like certain doom.

A cold sweat formed over my body and I shivered a bit as I tried to catch my breath. I don’t know how long it took me to fall back asleep, but the first rays of dawn were starting to peek through my window as I returned to my slumber.

The dreams during my second period of rest were strangely somber; the stars were there in the sky, and they spoke to me, but they seemed very reserved and cold as they spoke to me. It was as though I were an intruder in my own head. But speak to me they did, and for the next couple of hours they filled me in on what I needed to know.

The time to act would come, but it had not come yet. I had but to wait for the moment; and they would tell me when that moment was. For the time being, I was to go about my daily routines as normal and wait for the moment to come.