The Apparition (IC): It Begins

"My name is Sage," Sage said, introducing herself. "What's your name?"

She ducked under a branch and off the path. The birches were dense here, so unless someone looked very hard, they would not see the two girls walking in the woods. Sage breathed out a sigh of relief- she did not want to be followed.

"My name is Emily." She said, as she ducked beneath the branches of the trees. These trees were really difficult to dodge through. Although it was made to allow more movement than others, Emily's dress seemed to actively attempt to become entangled in the branches. She tugged part of it from another clump of twigs that it had snagged on. "My dress keeps getting tangled in all this brush. I'm seriously considering dressing like some of those weird girls who wear shorter skirts. I know it's not very modest, but they can probably walk through the woods without having to worry about fabric getting stuck on brambles."

Suddenly something jumped out from the bushes in front of Emily and Sage as they were walking... Zander.

A tall boy wearing some sort of black jacket with a deep black hood stood in their way. He was very tall for a fifteen-year-old and was incredibly bony and skinny. He didn't look hostile towards them, but certainly eerie with his pale skin and pale blue eyes that almost looked gray. He carried in one of his hands a sheet of paper with a triangular symbol printed on it. He quickly tore it in half and stuck it in his pocket.

"Hello" he said to the two girls whom he had never seen before. He made a confused expression as he had never seen them in these parts of the woods before.

Emily jumped, but when she saw it was a boy her age, or a few years older, she scowled and put her hands on her hips. The stranger was pale, but it didn't frighten her very much, considering that Emily herself was pale enough to resemble a vampire, especially in contrast to her simple black dress. He ripped up the symbol, but not fast enough to prevent her from recognizing it. "Okay, then, I guess I wasn't imagining footsteps, then." She said. She did not return his hello, and stared at him tensely.

Zander began to tense for a moment, he felt something... a feeling in the air that he didn't like. It seemed to be radiating from Emily. He said nothing, but saw a orange-like glow coming from her sleeve and returned a glance to her. "Who are you? I've not seen many girls around these parts of the woods" he said, quite confused. "Is there an emergency?"

Emily subconsciously put a hand to her sleeve where the symbol was, and quickly withdrew it, not wanting to give away what she had hidden there. "we girls can take care of ourselves, thank you for your concern. And yes, there is a bit of an emergency in town. Ever wonder what a police raid was like? Don't go over there, because I think the mayor has lost his mind, along with half the population. Now random people are being shot in the streets, if they are even suspected of being insane. We are trying to avoid the commotion, and they tried to arrest me for having a panic attack earlier this morning." The way Emily spoke now, she didn't look very prone to having a panic attack. In fact, she just looked annoyed.

"I meant no offense" Zander said raising his palm. "Usually the only people I see back here are farmers or hunters, scarcely even that. Along with a few children absentmindedly walking back in here and talking to the tree and the winds" he said. Then he took note on the police raid, he knew what this meant, but he did not speak the true meaning. "Well, I know what will keep them away from you" he proposed.

Emily frowned, "We are not damsels in distress, sir. We have reason the believe that this strip of woods will deter the police." It was getting annoying. She didn't like this guy, he was too unusual. It was unnerving, and she wanted him gone. She had a bad feeling, and she wasn't sure what it regarded. She would have to be careful not to say the wrong thing, in case this stranger was the whole problem.

Sage kept quiet, examining Zander suspiciously. She didn't like strange people being so near her house, and it was downright unusual to find them in the woods. She too had seen him tear up the paper with the triangular sign on it, the orange glow fading away.

That was something.

She threw a look at Emily, but still said nothing. She was shy like that, preffering to be left alone. This did not help her burning desire to know why this boy was wandering her strip of woods.

She broke through her wall of shyness.

"I have never seen you in this part of the woods before either," she snapped. "You're spying on us."

Zander rolled his eyes. "I'm not saying that. You look like you can manage yourselves fine. But it won't be long before Leeth sends the police into the woods to find escaping citizens. I've met him before and he's not right, like, at all. But there's something that the police will not go around and will stay away from. I can teach you how to do it. It's rather easy" he said glancing over his shoulder to make sure no police were in the area. "And from my observations, that's really the only thing keeping them away from me. I'm considered insane, partly because I am prone to seizures and I sometimes think I hear voices"

Zander looked over at Sage. "I'm sorry if I intruded, but things are getting pretty bad in the town. The woods are my home and this is the only place I can go and be right now..."

Alan was close enough to hear the conversation, although he could make out only a few words each sentence. But he now knew that the two people in the bushes were known as Sage and Emily, and the man they were speaking to was known as Zander.

Alan turned and walked the other direction, but stopped once more when he realized that the bushes to his right were still rustling. He turned again still, walking along the edge of the woods.

Whatever was in those bushes, we was sure that they were following him.

Emily frowned, "Well, then, I guess we're in the same boat, then, considering they probably put in a report about me, too. I'm seriously thinking it's the mayor that needs to be thrown into a padded cell, not me." She said. It was pretty sad, really. Innocent people could wind up alongside truly disturbed loonies in the asylum. Emily did not want to be one of them.

Zander pushed aside his offer, thinking it too early to ask of it. "Indeed" he said. "Leeth is the most insane of this town. In fact he could be compared with crazy people all over the world. I'm just trying to get away..." he added.
A shout was heard a distance away. The fog was only thickening and Zander seemed to get more nervous by the second. These were dangerous times. "They'll probably be coming soon. I have an underground safe room in my house, would you like to come?"

Emily looked over at Sage, "It's your call, I'm fine, either way, but I won't speak for both of us." Emily was at heart more of a follower than a leader. It was Sage who was leading the group, so it was ultimately her decision whether or not they should go to her house, or to the safe house. A faint breeze brushed past, and Emily shivered. Was she imagining it, or was someone breathing down her neck? She looked over her shoulder, but didn't see anything. Things just kept getting weirder.

Sage was curious, and a bit suspicious. This Zander fellow had an interesting aura- she was intrigued, but cautious. She remembered the old addage, "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" and made a descision.

"...Lead us to this safe house," she said in a low tone. "But if I see one thing I don't like, I'm going home."

(forgive me for the minor god-modding)

"There's no need to worry" Zander reassured them. "Come along, we must hurry before the police find us" he said, leading them down a path. They began walking some ways, deep into the eerie woods that became stuffed with fog. The limbs of the trees gently swayed back and forth in the breeze and stones and pebbles on the ground ran along with the winds. After a while, they came along a clearing with a large house in the middle of it and a pond just behind it. Zander opened the door, and gestured for them to come inside.

Several officers tussled a few men in the same police uniforms and a few townspeople, eventually forcing them to sit on their knees in town square. Leeth stepped out of the doors of Town Hall, he did not look happy.

"We searched all of the homes. These are the only people we found who had traces of believing in the legends, and we found the runaway officers you wanted" said the captain of the police force. Leeth nodded. "Thank you."

"But sir, the asylums are completely full now. There's no more room left for them"
"Easy solution" Leeth said as he pulled a long pistol from a holster along his belt and shot each person on their knees in the head... one by one...

"Clean this up" he said as the last of them were dead. The officers cleaned up the bodies and luckily everyone had gone inside, into hiding so no one would have seen the incident. "Mr. Mayor, we also have reports of three missing children and one missing adult. We haven't checked the woods yet."

"Then go find them! Search high and low for them! Don't stop until I have them here!"