Emma and the Minotaur (11 page)

“Yes, that’s right,” Emma said. “I didn’t think about it then but that’s what they looked like. The minotaur is scary, Mrs Milligan.”

“Yes, he is. Do you know the story, Emma?”

“I do. But he’s supposed to be in a labyrinth,” she said.

Jake’s eyes lit up. “Maybe he is,” he said. “It would explain a lot. You said it was like the forest was moving.”

“Uh huh,” she said.

When they arrived at Saint Martin’s bus station, Mrs Milligan went inside to use the facilities.

“Why did the tree send you to the hospital?” Jake said. “That’s weird.”

“I think it’s because you were there,” Emma said. “The faun said that it would take me where I needed to go. Yesterday was the worst day, Jake. I got three strikes and detention. It started when you didn’t show up at school. I thought you’d gone missing.”

“But why would it send you to me?”

“I think because you’re special to me,” Emma said.

“Oh, I…”

“Because you’re my friend, I mean,” she said and punched him. “I just needed to know you were safe.”

“Okay, okay,” he said. “Listen, I want to come with you when you go to the forest. This faun person might know about my dad.”

Emma nodded. “Yeah, for sure. But I have to go talk to my dad first and straighten things out and he might kill me. But after that we will go.”

Mrs Milligan insisted that they would ride the bus with her all the way to her stop. They did so and then they walked her right up to her front door. After a brief introduction, Mr Wilkins invited them in but she declined.

“Thank you,” Mrs Milligan said. “But we really should get on home. It’s been a rough couple of days.”

Off they went back down the street. As soon as they were out of sight, Mr Wilkins pulled Emma inside and shut the door. He looked tired, and his eyes were red, as though he hadn’t slept.

“Dad, I’m sorry—” Emma began.

“Are you tired? Do you need rest?”

“No, not really,” she said. “It doesn’t feel like a whole night went by.”

“Well, it didn’t for you,” he said. “Go change, Emma. We’re going to the forest.”

“I don’t understand,” she said.

“I know. I’ll explain on the way.”

She went to her room and changed into clean clothes.

Soon, they were outside. She walked alongside her father, holding the flute that she had been given.

“Where's Will?” she said.

“He’s at school. It’s Wednesday. You’ve already missed much of it today.”

She nodded.

“So you met Domino,” he said. “Yes, I know him and that’s how I knew that you’d disappeared somewhere. He came to me in the night and told me. I’ve known him for a long time, Emma. There are some things I’ve kept from you and I’m sorry. I guess it’s time you found out.”

Emma nodded again and neither of them said any more until they reached the forest.

“He told you to come and that he would find you, correct?”

“Yes, Dad.”

“Okay, come on.”

They walked into the forest and Mr Wilkins set a leisurely pace. The air was still cool from the rain of the night before. The forest didn’t seem as frightening now as it had in the darkness and Emma thought that maybe she wouldn’t be too scared of the faun, especially with her father next to her.

Mr Wilkins spoke as they walked.

“Do you know why Lucy was there last night? It wasn’t to tell on you, Emma. She did tell me all about your search but it was because her parents have gone missing too. She was looking for your help, Emma. The girl likes you and seems to think you are well capable of helping.”

“Oh,” Emma said.

“Yes, you should apologize to her.”

“I will, Dad.”

She noticed that three small birds seemed to be following them by flying from branch to branch and keeping pace. They were chirping and she thought that it sounded as though they were saying “Emma! Emma! Emma!” in their tinny bird voices.

“Emma…” Mr Wilkins said and then a faraway look came over his features. He gazed into the forest as though searching for someone, but then he sighed and turned to the girl.

“Emma,” he began again. “You’re special. It may seem crazy that here I am marching my daughter into the forest toward a mythical creature but it’s because, though I’ve tried to protect you from this, to keep you from this world, it seems that it’s now too late. That there—” He pointed at the flute that Emma was holding. “I’m told that everyone knows about you now because word has spread since you heard the music of the tree. And there are those who would mean you harm.”

“I don’t understand, Dad.”

“I know,” he said. “It’s all very complicated. Domino will explain it to you. The point I was getting to is that there are dark things in the night that are interested in you because you’re special.”

“Why am I special?”

“Again, it’s complicated, Emma, and I don’t think I can tell you right now. Domino will help. But the reason I’m bringing you to him is because you are. He has been trying to convince me for a very long time of this and I’ve refused and refused but now I have no choice. But I’ve made him promise me that he will only teach you how to defend yourself and that’s it. I don’t want him getting any big ideas in your head or putting you into any danger.”

Ahead of them they saw the faun. He was leaning against a tree and he was playing the flute that he carried. Mr Wilkins stopped where they were and he waved to him. Domino took his flute from his lips and raised his arm in the air for a brief instant.

“Go ahead, Emma,” her father said. “He will not teach you unless you go alone.”

“Alone?” Emma said, and her voice quivered. “Dad, I’m scared.”

“I know.” He put a hand on her shoulder for a moment then leaned down and hugged her close. He kissed her forehead and then stood up and went back the way they had come.

Emma took nervous steps up to where the faun was standing. He watched her make her slow way to him.

When she arrived before him, he made a face that looked like an attempt at a smile but his strange features turned it into something frightening.

“I’m glad you came,” he said. “Do you know why you’re here?”

“Not really,” she said nervously. “I don’t understand any of it.”

Domino nodded.

“Emma,” he said. “We need you to save the world.”

8

The Missing

It was almost dark and the rain had stopped.

Aaron Humphries arrived at the security office and bid goodnight to the daytime security guard. After he pet Oliver, he went to the desk, sat down, and signed his name on the security log.

Aaron did not like working nights. He didn’t understand why it was that the Paigely Builders construction site needed a guard there at all times, even when no one was working. The reason for the security was that some workers had gone missing but if there were no workers to guard, then why did he have to work through the night? He figured that it had to do with company policies thought up by management types.

The security guard opened one of the desk drawers and pulled out a long, hefty flashlight. He took a piece of gum and put it in his mouth. With a sigh, he left the portable security office and began his first round of the night. Oliver walked along by his side. The usual round took him first around the perimeter of the construction site along the edge of the forest and then past the main entrance on Lockhart Road.

He was somewhere near the centre of the site when he saw a light inside one of the half-completed houses and headed toward it. The exterior of the house was all exposed plywood. There were rough steps in front of the door and he climbed these and went inside.

When he entered, two men looked up from their work. Aaron recognized them as the insulators Bill and Joel. Those two often worked later than the rest and Aaron was familiar with them.

“Boys,” he said.

“Hey, Aaron,” Bill said. He stopped what he was doing and walked over to him. Joel stayed on the ground where he was working but he waved to Aaron.

“How are you guys doing?”

Bill shrugged. “Well enough, considering,” he said. “Still not used to not having Andrew around. Sometimes I still expect to see him working when I turn a corner.”

“Have you found a replacement yet?”

“No,” he said. “No one yet. This is a good town. Lots of employment. No one wants to work here.”

Aaron motioned to Bill and they walked toward the entrance of the house. He lowered his voice to a whisper as they looked out into the night.

“How’s Joel doing?”

“Oh, you can imagine,” said Bill. “He plays it off like it doesn’t bother him as much as it does but I can tell. He’s been in bad shape.”

“Can’t say I blame him. Vanished just like that, didn’t he?”

“Didn’t leave a trace.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Joel said from where he crouched. He stood up and joined them.

“We were just wondering about that Steven Marks,” Bill said. “You ever talk to him?”

Joel shook his head.

“Me neither,” Bill said. “He was a—what did he do again?”

“Heavy machinery,” Aaron said. “I read up on him a little bit when I came here and also on… uh, your friend.”

“That’s funny,” Bill said. “He was an older guy, wasn’t he?”

“Yeah, he was.”

Joel sat down on the steps and pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. He took one out of the pack and lit it with a cheap plastic lighter.

“Those things will kill you, man,” Aaron said.

Joel nodded sadly. “I know,” he said.

“I used to smoke,” Aaron continued. “Try chewing gum instead. Worked for me.”

A silence followed and then Aaron told them that he had to get back to his rounds. He walked around Joel and down the steps to where Oliver waited. The dog stood up and followed him deeper into the construction site.

Aaron hadn’t walked twenty paces when the soft sound of music drifted to him in the night air. Oliver perked up.

“It’s alright, Ollie,” Aaron said to him and leaned down to pet him.

They walked together briskly until they passed the boundaries of the site and entered the forest. Aaron paused just inside the cover of the trees, feeling that he had forgotten something, that maybe he should’ve called someone before venturing in after a mysterious music. There was an idle thought in the back of his mind as well, a detail about Andrew Milligan’s story that he couldn’t put his finger on. He thought that Bill and Joel could probably tell him what he had forgotten since they had been the man’s friends. He turned to go back but, as if his thoughts had summoned them, he saw the two insulation installers walking up the gentle slope toward him and the forest.

They arrived beside him. Bill was a little out of breath.

“The music,” Bill said in between pulls of air. “It’s Andrew’s music.”

“What are we waiting for?” Joel said. “Come on.”

Aaron shook his head. Something was wrong but he couldn’t think clearly. The music was filling his head and drowning his thoughts. He tried to argue but he couldn’t think of the right words to say. When Joel led the way into the forest, there was nothing he could do but follow.

The night snuck up on them and the darkness that surrounded them was a deep kind of darkness that seemed to shut out the rest of the world. Aaron had his flashlight, and it was all the light that they had with which to illuminate their path, but they found the going easy. Aaron thought that it was as though an orchestra was hidden somewhere deep behind the trees and it was guiding them along the way.

It didn’t take long for them to reach a clearing. There was a tree in the middle of it, an imposing, great monument, dark and frightening. Its branches were like fingers that reached out toward them.

“We should leave,” Aaron said. “This is wrong. I need to report this. Yeah. That’s what we should’ve done in the first place.”

“You’re right,” Bill said.

“Where’s Ollie?” Aaron said. The dog was no longer with them.

“Who?” said Joel.

There was thunder somewhere inside the forest. It hadn’t come from far away and the booming footsteps that followed didn’t take long to reach them. Before any of them could react, a monster emerged from the darkness of the trees.

Bill gasped.

The beast was tall, eight feet or more, and heavy with bulging muscles. Its head was that of a bull, its nostrils flared in anger, and its eyes glowed red with fire. The creature’s horns were long and black and ended in sharp points. Its body was an exaggeration of a man, impossibly large and full of power. In place of feet, the monster’s legs had great hooves on their ends.

Aaron tried to yell the word “run,” but before he could speak, the monster was upon them. It was impossibly fast, so fast that it almost seemed like it had transported in front of them. Aaron jumped back and landed hard on the ground. He watched as Bill and Joel were snatched up like dolls. He saw the men kick and punch at the beast as they tried to escape its grasp. The monster’s hands were big enough hold Bill upside down by his thigh. There was pain on Bill’s face as he struggled.