In that reassuring inner darkness, he felt for himself and found the familiar comfort of breath. In and out. The smell of the forest and the dry paper crunch of leaves underfoot. With his eyes closed, nothing had changed. He could always retreat there. In the blink of an eye, he could retreat there.
She stopped at the edge of a clearing. Not far ahead, Green saw a circle of squat yellow cabins. Off to the left, partially concealed by another police vehicle, a line of crime scene tape swayed and fluttered in the wind.
He stepped up beside his teacher.
“How are you acclimating, Mr. Green?”
“Not great, but I’m still here.”
He thought Valentina nodded. It was hard to tell.
“Understand that it is not that they can’t see us. It is that they don’t want to on a cellular level. We have, essentially, become cryptids. I have a great deal of experience studying odd and hidden things and even I deeply dislike looking at you in your current state.”
He felt the bile rising in his throat as he tried to watch her speak, so he closed his eyes again.
“We will move unaccosted. Often, people will even unconsciously answer direct questions in order to be rid of us. They won’t remember the questions because we are currently damaging to their hold on reality and their mental immune system rejects us. We are not,however, immune to stray bullets or the attention of aggressive cryptids, but I have contingency plans.”
Valentina patted the rotten log at her side with a spectral hand.
She turned and left the tree line. Green followed, wondering how frequently his new teacher had needed to worry about stray bullets or deadly cryptids.
A cruiser and a white van were the only vehicles at the scene. Beyond an oblong ring of yellow police tape strung from tree to tree around the nearest cabin’s fire ring, two deputies were standing by the hood of the cruiser, looking off into the woods. The deputies, a man with a shaved head and a woman with a ponytail, looked unhappy. A gaunt young man in blue scrubs was walking away from the pair, scowling.
Shaved Head was holstering his weapon as Green and Valentina approached. Green saw the moment both cops heard their footsteps. Their heads swung toward the sound. Apologies and explanations raced to Green’s lips, but the cops made a face like they had bitten into a lemon and looked away.
Valentina spoke in a voice that seemed entirely too loud to Green.
“Observe and listen.”
If the deputies heard her, they made no sign. They continued their conversation.
“It doesn’t matter,” Ponytail said. “Say you saw a black bear and wanted to scare it off.”
Shaved Head grunted.
“Itdoesmatter. I think they’ll like that story about as much as Kevin did. Hell.”
He looked to the man in scrubs who had returned to the boxy white van.
“He’s just pissed because he almost shit his pants,” Ponytail said.
“Yeah. Well, me too.”
Shaved Head looked off at the tree line.
“Alright. I guess it might have been a bear. Never discharged myweapon before on the job. Didn’t even think about it. It just happened. Felt like something was coming at me.”
“Look, you just leave when that last body leaves. Should be soon. I’ll drive you down to your cruiser.”
It was surreal.
Green and Valentina stood fifteen feet off from the officers, loitering in broad daylight, eavesdropping on the police. It was like walking onstage during a play, all the actors pretending not to notice.
It was stranger still when Valentina spoke. She wasn’t even bothering to whisper.
“Look around. If we are separated, we will meet back where we exited the woods.”
Green agreed before realizing he had no idea where they exited the woods or what he was supposed to look for.
