5- The Path to the Three Fountains

The heavy wooden door closed shut behind James, as he, Evelyn, and Leon stood now in front of the castle. Leon cranked his neck exaggeratedly in both directions and released a deep sigh of relief. When he was finished with the dramatics, he pulled his wand from his pocket and stared up at the clouds.

“What are you doing?” Evelyn asked.

“We need a cloud, don’t we?”

“No?” Evelyn shook her head as she walked away.

“There is no need to walk.” Leon insisted and pointed his wand towards the sky.

“The fountains aren’t far away. Have you already grown so lazy you’re unable to walk? I already told you they’ll be covered by the tree tops anyway, if you used your head you’d understand that it’s much more efficient to walk.” She had already grown considerably further apart from Leon and James, her voice had begun to grow distant.

“The biggest mistake either of us have ever made was deciding to go in that damned castle,” Leon said through clenched teeth and began to follow her onto a narrow wooded path.

“She’s not that bad.” James smirked.

“Not that bad, you say.” Leon scoffed. “If I remember correctly it was you who advised against going into the castle:”

“But now that we did, we have a way out. You were right.”

“No you were right, James. We never should have gone inside. And who knows if this is truly the way out? What gives her words merit? And what if this is only a sinister plan to lure us and have us killed when we least expect it? We'd best stay vigilant.” He tightened his grip around the wand.

“You sound ridiculous,” James said. Evelyn- who was now only directly in front of them- cackled and looked back at them, flashing a wide grin.

“He’s right.”

Leon grumbled a slew of incoherent words that James could only register as some sort of frustrated complaint.

“How will it work?” James asked. “The fountains, I mean.”

“Each fountain has a pool that will take you to a different place. One of the fountains is a portal back to your world.”

“So this isn’t my… world?” He wondered if he sounded as insane as the words felt before he spoke them.

“No, this is something entirely different.” She looked around the sky as if she were able to see the borders that encapsulated them. “That shouldn’t matter much soon anyway though, you'll be back to your world in no time.”

Memories came rushing back to him of before he got off the train and ended up wherever here was. How long has it been since then? It couldn’t have been more than a week.

“Don’t look so down, it probably wouldn’t be smart to stay here forever,” Leon said, and gave him a nod as if he understood James.

“You fool, I doubt he wants to stay,” Evelyn said, and ducked under one of the branches that jutted out into the narrow path they walked.

“We were sharing a moment!” He snapped back. “I’ve known him much longer than you have.” Leon’s face distorted into a grimace when he hadn’t cared to avoid the branch and it slammed into his stomach.

“What magician can’t even handle a branch?” She teased.

“Shut it!” Leon waved the wand at the branch violently and just as suddenly the branch snapped off the tree and withered away until it had completely devolved into ash.

They continued down the narrow path mostly unbothered, for short periods Leon would try and make conversation with James, which would result in bickering between him and Evelyn, but eventually they found the path became wider.

“Wait.” Evelyn raised her hand to stop the men beside her.

“What is it?” James asked. He already knew what it was, as every time he found himself surrounded by the quiet atmosphere, he knew what came next.

“You better have that wand ready.” She muttered to Leon.

“It is, if only Charles actually existed it would be nice to have some help around here.”

“He is real just... busy,” Leon couldn't give any snarky comeback before the leaves of a nearby bush were rustled, and out came the same woman whom he had seen before. Another silence surrounded them, and the woman had looked between James, Leon and Evelyn, and after what seemed like an hour to James but was really only a moment, she tilted her head back and shrieked.

The violent scream echoed throughout the forest, James had no choice but to cover his ears with both his hands and close his eyes as hard as he could.

James.

Another woman’s voice called out again.

Who are you and what do you want? He didn’t know what responding would do. He wasn’t looking for a response back anyway, his tone thick with an anger he wasn't much aware of.

We can help you, James. She responded. His head suddenly began to ache much worse than it had at any point recently, though he didn’t know whether that was due to the woman’s shriek or this recent voice he had begun to hear- and yes, he did know how crazy that sounded.

“James, we kind of need you to stay focused right now.” Leon pulled James's hand away from his ear.

Slowly he forced his eyes open and looked around him, once again they were surrounded and oncoming footsteps suggested more than the four around them would soon come. The three others looked just like the woman in white in front of him, all of their clothes were stained brown with dirt and green with grass in some places, and all of them wore the same melancholic expressions and used both hands and feet to stand.

One by one, the four that surrounded them stood up completely until they were standing on their own two feet just as James did. Flickers of something James saw to be a baton appeared in one of the man’s hands, another one had some sort of pair of handcuffs, but the items seemed to disappear just as quickly as they appeared, like the objects themselves weren’t meant to be there.

Five more faces, all standing upright, appeared around them, a few of them wearing tactical helmets- which also disappeared in an instant, revealing their faces and bringing them to the same white attire as everyone else.

“What do we do?” Leon looked towards him.

Nine people, James counted. Three were in front of them, two on each side, and two behind them. What could he do? Leon wasn’t weak at all, he knew that much from the limited time he spent with him. Evelyn told grand stories of herself but wouldn’t they have already been killed by her for walking into her home unannounced, or at least beaten. He couldn’t take the risk, and what was that about the helmets or batons, and them standing upright? There was too much for a James.

“We need to run.”

“Back to my castle then?” Evelyn asked and James nodded.

“Okay,” Leon said with a deep breath, and swung his wand at the air before the two men behind them. Instantly they were sent off into the sea of trees and branches where they can no longer be seen. And immediately after, Leon James and Evelyn took off running.

The group of people in white sprinted after them and proved to be much quicker. Leon was tackled first, by a man who was the same height as James, and another quickly joined him and grabbed hold of his wand.

“Don’t think!” Evelyn shouted and grabbed his wrist, running away and leading him down the narrow path. “Go first.” She said breathlessly, James tried to argue but Evelyn placed her hand on his back and pushed him forward, falling in line behind him.

James ran ahead, trying his hardest to stop thinking about Leon. A twinge of guilt flashed through his core, as he knew he was at fault for getting him caught and had no idea what would happen to him. Or what would happen to himself, should he be caught?

Which was a reality that seemed more and more likely as time passed. Evelyn grunted as she was torn away from behind James and tackled to the ground.

James stopped in his tracks and turned around to see the woman in white leap over the apprehended Evelyn, holding a pair of handcuffs.

Two men stepped behind him, something he hadn’t even worried about before due to the narrowness of the path, and each one laid a hand on James' arms.

James flailed his arms but showed he was weaker than the two men holding him, and the woman began to approach closer. She inched closer to one of his wrists, and James’ heart began to beat faster.

Everything was going wrong, from the moment he had gotten on the subway that night to this point now and a euphoric-like ringing began to resonate throughout the center of his chest. James had no choice but to close his eyes as he was drowned by warmth, he couldn’t tell what was happening but no longer felt the men that gripped his arms. The ringing itself died down quickly after, and James felt the cool dirt pressed against his knees.

His eyes felt heavier, along with the rest of his body. So heavy. But when he opened them there was no longer anyone in white.

Leon shook out one of his arms and walked over to Evelyn, helping her back on her feet.

“About time.” She flashed a relieved smile at James.

Questions flooded his mind but none of the potential answers to those were enough to keep him awake, his eyes gently shut and he could feel his body falling forward, and be caught by Evelyn and Leon.