Cheesman Chronicles

Twenty long minutes of quick walking separated the two girls from the small river which caused Penelope so much fear. Its flowing ripples had finally dampened away, leaving them back alone with their thoughts of finding their lost friend Harry. They continued to head towards his calling voice, following the winding dirt path as the only ‘safe’ way through this strange catacomb. They called out to him, urging him to stay where he was so they could reach him, but his voice kept getting further away, still anxiously crying out to them.

Their long winding journey had been exhausting. It was hard to tell how long they had been gone. An hour? A day? The two finally stopped to lean against a large tree by the side of the path, resting for a moment. Penelope wheezed hard as she drew in what little breaths she could, her lungs not as strong as her friend. It was incredible how far Harry had run. He’d only been gone a few minutes before they had left. Why was he so far away?

Penelope mind turned on her, insinuating it was her fault. She was by far the slowest of the three friends, instead relying on her parents for help which always arrived when she needed it. Their resources and power helped her through her homework, her exercise, and her life. Now she was separated from them all, that small protection she was always given didn’t seem so protective. If only they had told an adult what had happened, maybe they could be helping them find Harry.

She looked back to Alice, her friend already recovered from their long walking. Alice had begun to climb up the trunk next to them to peer around, trying to discover where their friend had gone to. She sighed and slid down, shaking her head in disappointment.

“I still can’t see him,” she said. “It’s like he’s disappeared of the face of the Earth.”

“But he must be here!” Penelope cried. “We can still hear him, he can’t be that far away. Why doesn’t he listen to us when we tell him to stay still?”

Penelope called out again, urging Harry to wait for them so they could help. When he called back, it sounded as far away as ever. She grumbled, sliding her back down the old tree.

“Why can’t he just stay still?” she pleaded again.

“He’s always been this this, hasn’t he,” Alice said, sliding back down from the tree. “Remember last year when we went on excursion to the museum and he kept going ahead of the group? He wanted to see the dinosaurs so bad. Especially the stegosaurus. The one with the weird back thing. Why did he like that so much?”

Penelope chuckled, recalling it very clearly. It took the combined strength of the two of them to hold him back from running through the Egypt room. She remembered the tour guide smiling at them as they watched the three friends supporting each other in their strange and unique way. They told them just to wait, as it would be the final part of their trip. Harry had been so excited when they finally made it. He kept telling them all sorts of fun facts about it, pointing out the scales and tail and head as if they were the greatest thing ever.

She lowered her head, her smile fading ever so slightly. If she didn’t go after him now, he would never be able to tell them dinosaur facts again. Alice stood up from her break and began to pace, finger to her chin like her mother did when she was thinking.

“We’re doing something wrong,” she said to Penelope. “We keep running after him, but we don’t get any closer. This place is a kind of weird maze. If we keep trying to follow his voice or this path we will never catch up to him.”

“Then what do you think?” Penelope asked. “We just leave the track? Run after him through the bushes and hope for the best?”

“No, not that,” Alice said. “This place… it’s weird. When you were in the river, it was going really fast. Faster than I had. Because I was confident. I knew what to do when crossing it.”

Penelope nodded, though wasn’t exactly sure where it was going.

“But you were scared. You don’t like water. And then suddenly, the water was really fast. So maybe that’s what’s happening to Harry. He always wants to help us, but we never help him. Not usually, anyway. Now he’s all alone, and he can’t be sure we’re following him.”

“So you think that the forest is showing us our fears?” Penelope said. She shrugged, the childlike logic making sense to her. “I get it. So how do we catch up to him them? We’ve yelled out to him already, but he keeps running away.”

As if on cue, they heard another ‘Help’ in the distance. It was getting further away, sounding like a far away conversation in a classroom.

“How are we supposed to get to him?”

“We stop following the path.”

Penelope stood back, staring at her friend like she was crazy.

“Not follow the path? Are you mad? The path is what’s keeping us safe. It’s keeping us from getting lost. The rope we’re carrying isn’t going to last much longer so unless we keep to the track we will never be able to find out way home.”

“That’s what I mean though! If we keep holding our fears, we will never get away from here. And we have to let them go. I was scared of the river and it got worse. If we go into the forest scared, it will scare us back.”

Alice looked out into the dark forests ahead of her. The shadows covered it in blankets, twisting every normal thing into a hideous shape from their nightmares. Branches became gnarled arms, bushes became hairy monsters, the sticks and leaves on the ground were the fallen remains of some dead creature.

The whole forest suddenly felt less like an exciting adventure and more like a desperate imprisonment.

Penelope gripped onto the trees around her for comfort. Her breathing increased, her eyes widened as if looking for the next terrifying thing ahead of them. She closed them tight, gripping the tree so tight her knuckles turned white.

“Penelope?” Alice asked. “Are you alright?”

“No…” she whispered. “It’s scary.”

“I know it’s scary,” her friend said back in a whisper. “I’m scared too. But we can get through it together. We can face it. I know we can. What do you say?”

Penelope dared to open her eyes and saw her friend looking right back into them. Alice was holding out an open hand, inviting her to take it. She paused as her mind raced. She trusted her. She trusted her friend more than anything. But the forest was scarier, more terrifying than anything she had seen before, and she had seen a lot.

Alice was not as lucky as her. Penelope got all the big presents for her birthday and Christmas, when Alice barely got anything for either of them. Her parents weren’t as well off as hers, they certainly struggled to keep her in school. Penelope made sure she had enough food for both of them before going to school so her friend wouldn’t be hungry at lunch. All that hardship and pain must have made her fearless. Or at the very least, resilient enough to keep going.

Not like her. Not like Privileged Penelope.

Yet when she saw Alice hold out her hand, Penelope knew she believed in her as well. She could take on these fears as well and make it through the forest, just like her friend had always done. As long as they worked together.

Penelope took hold of her hand and smiled.

“Then let’s go into the woods.”

Penelope held onto her tight and they departed into the forest. Alice began to hum a song she had heard on the radio earlier to herself, keeping her mind calm and focused on something other than where she was right now. The annoyingly catchy tune had been in her mind all day, having it plague her even when playing tag earlier. Penelope heard and began to sing along with her, trying to keep her own fears controlled and still.

The further they went in and the more of the song they sang, the lighter everything became. The skeletal hands of twigs returned to fallen branches, the leaves returning to their soft carpet-like pattern. Each area of the underground forest appeared less frightening and more natural. The roof brightened the ground, revealing the scary things from earlier were harmless creatures, ones that would have fallen through the same holes they saw earlier.

A few rabbits hopped by, birds chirped around them, and Penelope even saw a deer. Their trek eased out, their fears gradually subsiding.

Yet they saw some strange things as well. Animals and beasts which looked closer to fantasy than real life. A horse with the body of a human rode by in the distance, calling out for a hunt. A tall cow-headed man trudged past them, carrying a large hammer, each of it’s steps rumbling the ground around it. Penelope swore she saw a unicorn prance by, it’s horn sparkling under the slowly setting light.

The girls hid from each of these strange entities. None got close to them, focused more on their own tasks or adventures or hunts. Though they didn’t want to risk being out in the open if they saw the two of them. The weapons and natural armour these creatures had was enough to kill them easily.

“Do you think they got Harry?” Penelope whispered to Alice.

“I don’t know,” Alice answered honestly. “I think we would have heard something if they did. A call, a scream, something. Right now they just seem to be going around as usual.”

Penelope nodded, gripping tighter onto Alice’s hand. The words reassured her, but only just.

Soon, they heard Harry’s voice get closer and closer. He was still frightened, his yells loud and terrified as they approached. The two of them walked faster. They weren’t sure if something would happen if they called out again. If they’d lose him, or if the forest would get scarier again, or if they wouldn’t even hear it.

Worst of all, they wondered if someone else could hear them.

Harry’s called, louder now than they had ever been, suddenly silenced. Penelope looked back to Alice, her eyes filled with fear.

“What happened to him?” she asked, voice shaking.

“I don’t know,” Alice said. “But we have to find out.”

She gripped Penelope’s hand and they sped forward, trees cutting their faces as if to slow them down before they could catch up to their friend. Shadows increased as the sky darkened, night gradually setting in to make their already strange environment much more terrifying. Their breathing sped as their small lungs worked to catch up to where Harry was.

They weren’t fearless now, but they were more confident than ever.

Finally, they breached an open clearing. It was by far the most beautiful area of the entire underground forest they had ever been in. A bright ray of setting sunlight shone down on the still lake, tiny lily pads adding splashes of green. The grass was soft and fresh, neatly trimmed as if by a mower. Roses and flowers spread around them like stars in the sky, lighting the space with colour and beauty.

On the far end of the plain, Harry stood next to a large creature of a kind the children had only seen in fairytales. The kind of thing that the Ancient Greeks told stories of. The kind of thing that stopped them dead in their tracks as they stared up at it.

The Sphinx looked up to them with a cat-like smile, nodding to the two of them.

“You must be his friends,” it said. It’s voice was neither male nor female. It had no accent, no known timbre, no signs of emotion. Yet it was equally smoothing and relaxing, like a parents lulling a child to bed.

It raised itself from the ground, standing tall next to the little boy.

“Leave.” It demanded. “Now.”

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To be continued…

Previous part here: Part Two