Attic, part 17

To Jenny it seemed like hours since they had left the little clearing, although there was no way to know for sure. As they went further into the forest, the light seemed to dim. They had tried making small talk near the start of their journey, but it seemed that all conversations petered out within moments. It was as though the forest itself was willing them to silence.

She could barely make out Josh just ahead of her — she realized she was now following him as much by sound as by sight, as he pushed aside branches and leaves to make his way. Every once in a while she would try moving off to the side, to push into a different direction, just to see what would happen. And inevitably she would find that the forest was completely impenetrable in any other direction. At any given moment only one heading was passable — whichever one Josh happened to be using. She wouldn’t have been surprised to discover that the path went only one way. If they tried to double back, she thought, they might very well find that the place where they had just walked was now nothing but a solid thicket of trees.

At some point she realized it was getting lighter. At first she had thought it was her imagination, but now the changing light was unmistakable. She felt a mixture of relief and trepidation when Josh at last led them to the edge of the forest. She followed him through a gap between two trees, and then suddenly they were in the open air. She could hear Mr. Symarian, the demon still perched on his shoulder, come up out of the forest behind them. But it was hard to focus on that — she and Josh were both preoccupied with looking up.

The sky, stretching out above them, was a magnificent shade of green.

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