“Glitter, really!?” Valerie exclaims loudly the moment she comes out of the trees into a small patchy clearing at the edge of the suburbs. "I don't even like glitter! Urgh!" She frustratedly swipes a sleeved hand across the outside of her motorcycle. It knocks off a bunch of sparkly dust from off the side of the fiery pink motorcycle,  which casts a shiny cloud as it twinkles to the ground. 

The bike is half under a dark green tarp and tucked away behind some trees, out of sight from anywhere except right here. It's a thick motor bike,  but still sleek and small enough to fit in a concealed space. The wheels look thick and durable, and there's a big can of fuel bungee corded to the side.  This seems to be her main source of transport.  

"Woah, wow! What kind of bike is this?" I ask her,  coming around to the side of it as she pulls the backpack off and sets it on the now exposed leather seating. 

"A Royal Enfield Himalayan! It's got a 411cc single cylinder engine and runs about 60 miles to the gallon! " The girl excitedly tells me, looking very self satisfied and confident in herself.  Good for her, good for her. The look fits her well. 

"Yeah, no,  I don't know what any of that means." I blink awkwardly at her.  "It sounds cool tho."

Her smirk dies instantly.  "Just get on. My spot is only about twenty minutes from here, going north."

"Sure thing!" I step over to the side of the bike and attempt to straddle it, but promptly fall off and into the mud like an idiot.  "Ouff!"

"Hey, hey, Woah! You're supposed to sit your ass on the seat, not the grass!" She exclaims, setting the backpack down the rest of the way down and scrambling over to help me up. "Oh, hey, that rhymes!" She giggles too herself before giving me a hand. "Here, I've got you. You're supposed to do it like this."

Her arms tuck beneath mine and help me up,  guiding me to sit on it properly without losing my balance.  She also seems to be about an inch or two taller than me,  but not really by much.  How she manages that as a girl when I'm an average height guy is beyond me. "Thanks, I guess." I deadpan,  feeling embarrassed but not wanting to show it. 

"You guess? Really? Come on, show me some more appreciation here." She says, giggling but waiting for my response.

"Whatever." I roll my eyes.  "Thank you Valerie."

"That's a good mutt! Now, let's get the fuck outta here!" She slides into her seat in an instant.  "Unfortunately I've only got one helmet with me right now, so you're gonna have to deal with the wind and sound sitting on the back there!" Her foot primes into place as she pulls the big black biker helmet off the handlebars and slips it on her head. But the visor is still up so I can see her eyes.

"What about my head!? Isn't this dangerous!?" I ask her, nervously. 

"Oh, be braver than that! This is perfectly fine, trust me. I've only crashed like maybe four times in the last three months, anyway!" Valerie responds, kicking the bike into gear after the ignition of a loudly roaring motor engine. 

"Four times!?!"

"Hold on!" She steps on the gas, and the motorcycle bursts into life. 

I scream and bear hug her as tightly as I can.  This is terrifying!! 

The bike rips through the mud, sputtering in place for a few little moments before blasting off through the trees,  skidding past them across wet mossy ground. The smell of the burning fuel mixing with the smell of the displaced earth overwhelms me.

But it's  not quite as disorienting as the roar of the engine I'm right on top of, and the feeling of the icy cold wind cutting across my face. Everything is shaking and it's hard to handle!!!

The bike bounces up and down off of exposed tree roots and rocks and stumps and all this other stuff until finally breaching the edge of the forest with a dramatic final jump! Before landing and skidding across the asphalt of a small back road. I almost expect us to lose balance and go tumbling when the back tire skids like that, but the bike stays upright and we just keep going! Speeding down the road at record pace! The sight is too scary to bear so I slam my eyes tight shut and try to block everything out!


“Ahhhh!!!!!!!!” I've never done something like this before!!

“Hahahaha!!!” Valerie laughs excitedly and loudly at my scream. “This is your first time riding!?” She shouts over the sound of the engine and rushing air.

“Yes!!!!!”

She laughs again, bobbing and weaving the weight of the bike back and forth to bank around each turn. My stomach churns and sloshes to each turn of the bike. Oouugh I might throw up. 

But luckily I'm able to hold it in for long enough that the turns and rough asphalt start to level out, letting me thankfully regain a bit of stability. Enough to stop my stomach from trying to eject itself from my body at speeds rivaling the motorcycle.  The ground seems to feel more bumpy than it did just a moment ago,  like we're riding on straight up dirt roads now instead of backcountry urban streets. 

"You can open up your eyes, now!" Valerie calls to me, somehow knowing I was keeping them plastered shut this whole time.  The light cracks in from beneath my trembling eyes. Everything is so green and orange. 

It must be six or seven PM now,  as where the sun breaches the heavy gray clouds,  it's just above the horizon line and casting off a deep orange through pittering rain. Little falling Stars that capture the rays of orange light and carry them to the dirt floor. The air is cold and windy but the girl I'm clinging onto keeps me warm. 

And all the way around us, are fields on fields of long reedy grass. Maybe corn stalks that haven't grown yet,  or wheat before it turns tan,  but either way, we're surrounded on all sides by beautiful Oregon farmland. There are hills in the distance that we're heading to, and the air smells of petrichor and fresh grasses.

The feeling of speed has changed now, from anxiety inducing terror to pure adrenaline with nothing more than a change of scenery. Wow, my moods can change fast!

"Like what you see?" Valerie Valentine asks out to me as she revs the engine a little further.  My mouth is split wide into a grin. 

"Hahaha!! Yes!!!!!"

"You'll like what you see next even more!" Valerie revs the engine a little harder and carries us up the next hill so fast, we come flying off the top ridge of it and catch half a second of air time before landing again and taking off! While in the air for just a single moment, I felt like I was flying! 

We come soaring out above new fields,  this time it's of flowers.  So many rows and rows of flowers all lined up next to each other, being battered by the rainfall but highlighted by the orange evening sun. The view is incredible, and my grip on Valerie tightens as I lean in to tell her something. 

"GO FASTER!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Ahhhahahahaa! Now that's the spirit! Hold on!" Valerie immediately increases her speed tenfold. We must have been going at seventy miles an hour at one point! Blasting across the dirt ground and over little potholes so fast I don't even have a chance to feel them! This is incredible and it makes my ears ring with excitement. I need to feel more of this lovely feeling!

My legs start to curl in,  placing my shoes flat against the seat.

"S- w- hey!!! Sit the fuck down! You’ll fall! " Valerie screams at me as I make my way into a standing position,  praying that she holds her balance on the bike straight up for me.  Though with the adrenaline-filled blood coursing through my veins,  even if I flew off and hit the ground, I hardly imagined that I could die or even be injured at all. 

I feel fucking invincible. Nothing bad will ever happen to me again. 

…

…

…

After maybe five or six more minutes of riding, and long after I've sat back down,  we ended up reentering a forested patch of land on the side of one of the larger distant hills.  Way out in fuck-all middle of nowhere countryside. The fir trees are beautiful out here, with their many green needles and sticky sappy pine cones. 

"We're coming up on the spot now!" Valerie calls out as she pulls off towards the side of a small hill.  It's got a rocky patch near where we're headed, and when we reach it, Valerie shuts the engine of the bike off and hops off.  I try to follow soon after but my ears are still ringing loud and clear after the headrush that ride was. It takes me a moment to steady enough to hop off as well. My vision swims a little as I hit the ground, but soon enough the feeling starts to fade from my system. Draining out of my shoes and into the ground, all swallowed up. Draining the adrenalin and energy with it, fading me back to a steady zero. Grounded.

“This is the place?” I ask Valerie, steading myself for a moment on the side of the bike as the last of it goes. Valerie nods and heaves the backpack off the back of the bike, clearly straining more than usual to pick it up. She only gets it a few inches up before setting it down again, looking befuddled.  “Hey, do you need help with that?” I step over next to her.

“No, no. Of course not.” She tries again but sets it down. “The hell? Its… no way…”

“What, what's wrong?” 

“Try to pick this thing up.” She responds with, and I step over to try.  

My hands wrap under the straps of the bag and attempt to lift, just to find that the thing weighs easily three or four times more than it did just a minute ago. I can't even get the thing off the back even an inch. It's way too heavy.  “Woah… what the fuck? Did you fill this thing with bowling balls?” 

“I know, right? Weird huh. Help me get this to the campsite.” She says,  sliding the bag off the leather and letting it fall heavily to the ground.  Beneath a nearby gray rock,  Valerie retrieves another tarp. This one is a different color, though, to match the surroundings better.  She drapes it over the rest of the bike and beckons me over to help carry the bag, which I promptly do.  The two of us stand on either side, both taking up half the weight to be able to lift it.  Though even with our combined strength, it's still a struggle to carry at all. “Just-!” Valerie starts, but she's too focused on the weight for a moment to finish her thoughts. She shifts her feet a little bit, and I match her stance. It helps distribute the weight a little more easily. “Just over the ridge, at the back! You'll see it!” She shouts, struggling not to drop the thing on my feet.  

I struggle not to drop it on hers, either. Every second we're holding it,  it seems to get heavier and heavier.  I'm straining far too much to manage a response,  so I just grit my teeth and nod as we take slow,  lumbering steps towards the edge of the rock patch, where there seems to be a dropoff far hidden from view.  Coming up to the edge and looking over,  I can see that below is a small cliffside drop of about fifteen feet.  And at the very base is a small encampment. With the main point building off a fallen tree, a hugely tall sequoia tree that fell and collapsed against the side of the stone hill. But seemingly not fully dead, as the wood has started to melt against the rocks and form wooden veins in between them. More like accidentally spilled.
 

Just a little bit further of a look and I can see the rest of the camp. It honestly looks stellar with how hidden it is here. Its all straight, tied, nailed in, and tucked away into a secluded spot far from view. Down deep into a random area that formed just here. A small outcove in an otherwise tightly wooded underscape b

“Just drop it off to the side! There's nothing important in there right now!” She says and I promptly let go.  The bag falls hard and heavy the few feet down it is,  and hits the side of a rock with a heavy smack. The sound of stone on stone, the boulder cracks from the impact of the bag.  Shattering in half instantly.  Woah.  Weird. 

“Alright, I'm gonna go make sure my bike is in the right spot. There's a rope tied off to the side to help you get down.  It should be pretty easy,  the rocks are all fairly stable here.” Valerie tells me and motions towards a rope tied thrice around some rock.  “You should be fine to get down.  And hey, even if you fall, the drop isn't very far.” She says and puts her hand on my shoulder, smirking.  “Good luck.” Then she turns and walks away. 

Great.  Now what? Really, just climb down the rock wall? Fine.  I guess I will.  

I step over to the side of the cliff and inspect the rope carefully,  picking it up and giving it a few sturdy tugs with my weight to make sure it's truly steady.  It holds just fine,  so I carefully start to step down onto the rocks in the cliff wall.  There's plenty of flat stones to step onto without losing any footing,  so the climb down does end up being pretty easy.  It only takes like thirty seconds. 

My feet splat onto the muddy ground below, and I find myself at the entrance of the tarp hung tent.  The inexplicably heavy backpack is sitting in a little pile of stone rubble just beside the door. ‘Door’ being a loose fitting term for an opening between two sheets of tarp,  tied shut with a little hitch knot.  Sitting just above the entrance is a little wooden sign painted with the words “Snales House” and accompanied with a little painting of a bright green shelled snail.  A… snale? How silly. 

Leaving the bag for now,  I push open the entrance to the tarp tent and find myself looking into a fairly large encampment. It's dark inside here,  but from what I can make out as my eyes adjust,  it's a fairly nice place.  The floor is covered by a third and final tarp,  with a little rolled out mat at the front of the entrance for rubbing off the mud on my shoes.  I politely scrub them off on the welcome mat before pressing in further. 

The first thing I see is a camp stove packed up tightly around a few small tanks of fuel and a hand lantern right next to it. Set near the door next to where I came in from.  But much further in and it's too dark to see.  A wall of dark that obscures the back half of the, admittedly fairly large enclosure. Most of the light is blocked by the tarp walls Though I can make out the edges of a bright pink sleeping bag and mat towards the very back. Brightly colored  enough to barely see in the dark. But not much else is visible beyond that.

A moment later the girl comes in just behind me, slightly squeezing past me to reach the lantern.  She reaches it and clicks a small button on the side a few times before screwing a little black dial that turns the brightness and heat of the lamp up.  The encampment fills with soft orange light, and the fshhh sound of a gas powered lantern. 

“Here,  this should help warm up our hands.  Brrrhhhh, it's freezing out there.” Valerie says to me,  taking one of her jittery hands and wrapping it around the glass of the lamp. 

I don't really notice this though,  because I'm quickly enamored by the contents of the tent. It's genuinely a large space inside, with all the necessities for good camping.  A tucked away camp stove and fuel, of course,  but there's also plenty of other things as well. For example, the back of the enclosure doesn't have a fourth wall, and is instead just the cliff face of the rock wall that we climbed down to get here.  Set up on the natural shelves are things like a coffee maker,  a big water bottle, some flowers, and some various other things I don't spend too much time looking over, because something else catches my eyes next. A second large hiking backpack sitting next to the brightly colored sleeping bag. The big backpack, seemingly the one that Valerie leaves behind when she's out and about,  has a little mesh pocket on the front of it that's carrying something plastic and reflective.  

Valerie is saying something about the cold again but I hardly notice. I've begun to absentmindedly wander over to the backpack and pick through the pocket to pull out…. Are these needles!?

“Valerie!” I shout,  surprised at the little plastic bag of hypodermic needles in my hands.  “Are these needles!? Don't tell me you're a heroin user! Valerie!” I turn to face her,  scowling angrily. “I refuse to be friends with a fucking heroin user,  Valerie. If this is what you've turned to, you need help!”

The slightly blushing, surprised look on her face is enough to confirm my suspicion. I've caught her in something she didn't want me to see. 

Valerie quickly sets the lamp down into a safe place and  snatches the bag out of my hands. I barely feel it leave my fingers. They might be a little numb?  “Put that down,  you dumbass!” She yells in my face,  visibly surprised at my sudden change of behavior. “You'll poke yourself and get tinnitus!”

Tinnitus? Really?

Val stuffs the baggie back into the mesh pouch. She's careful not to accidentally uncork any of the used needles. “God.  It's not even for heroin, anyway. Though it's not like I wouldn't kill for something like that right about now. Stuck with you.” She mumbles under her breath, not looking very impressed. 

“Hey! Are you calling me annoying!” I whine but she just raises her eyebrows at me. “If not for Narcotics, then what are they for, anyway!?” 

“It's for medicine.” She grumbles at me.   “It's for my fucking medicine.  Medicine that I might be running out of soon anyway. Jesus, mind your fucking business why don't you?” 

“Oh. Um. I'm sorry.” I say stiffly.  “I shouldn't have assumed.”

“No,  you really shouldn't have.  Now get off that. You're standing on my blanket.” She gestures towards my shoes and I awkwardly take a step to the right.  Her hands then wrap around herself and she rubs her arms up and down for a minute. “Seriously though. It's fucking cold. How are you handling this? You're covered in rain water and you stood up on the back of the bike for a few minutes at least,  aren't you cold?” She asks me, and it's like I'm suddenly smacked in the face.  My whole body goes rigid at once as a large hole is seemingly gouged straight through me. Right through the ribs,  right where my heart should be, and all the ‘heat’ in my body is sucked out all at once. 

Or, I notice that I've actually been freezing cold this entire time. 

My body is freezing. My skin hurts and my bones are shaking from the cold. All the cold hits me at once.  I hadn't even noticed.  My fingers are completely numb! I was so focused on everything else,  I kinda forgot how to feel. And now having noticed it,  it all hits me at once in the most teeth chilling cold spike I've ever experienced.

My body locks up and I go rigid.  My fucking organs hurt I'm so cold. 

“Hey, hey are you okay?” Valerie asks me, noticing my sudden mood change. 

“Yes, um. I'm actually very cold, yes.” I say awkwardly. When did I possibly get this cold!? Or how come I didn’t even notice!

“You can borrow one of the blankets there to wrap around yourself, but you’re definitely still helping me get the bag inside.” Val gestures towards her sleeping bag and I reluctantly detach my frozen arms from my body to pick one up. It's hot pink and fluffy. Dang, this girl has a lot of pink things. It must be her favorite color or something. 

“Thanks.” I say fairly dryly. The blanket wraps around me and helps keep my dwindling heat in. My soggy cold clothes press against my soggy cold skin, making me feel soggy. And cold.

“Come help me get the bag inside now, I don't think I can pull it in on my own. Its getting dark out so I'm taking the lantern, too.” Valerie picks up the light source,  pushes the tend open, and heads outside. I hear her stomp through the mud for a moment before I break my spell and follow after her, taking one last look over my shoulder on my way out. The tent has already gotten super dark,  but somehow I still notice something interesting set up on the rocks at the back.  Looks like a bunch of carved figurines, almost,  but I’ll have to look at them later, as the tent flaps shut right in front of me and block out my view.  Huh.

Then, a girlish whine comes from behind me. If I was already distracted, then this broke my spell the most.  “Eeeeeh! My favorite riding bag!  Already!?” 

I spin around on my heels to face her immediately. The area is lit up nice and bright against the quickly darkening night sky by the lantern that was set just nearby.  “What, what happened!?” 

“My bag! Awhuh!!! It's ruined!” She whines. “Look!” And points at the bag. 

“Woah,  what the fuck!?” My voice reacts first upon seeing the bag.  Then my brain catches up a moment later, still frosty from the cold. “Are those… veins?”   Shooting out from holes in the bottom and sides of the bag,  are all these little gray nerves.  Stone protrusions the size and shape of human veins,  reaching out towards the wet muddy ground beneath. A few of them have started to reach the earth too, where they seemingly start to dig into the ground, anchoring the bag. “What is this thing!?”

“He’s becoming a seed.” Valerie says, as though it's clarifying.

“A seed!? For what!?”

“A seed for a『Stone Tree.』Look, just open up the bag for yourself.” 

“There's no way I'm touching that!” I roil in disgust. “Whatever process makes a human into a ‘『Stone Tree』’ I don't want that getting on me! Today does not feel like a good day to end up becoming a tree!”

Valerie laughs loudly. “Hah! You'll have no problems with that so long as you have an intact soul! Unlucky for this guy, he's going straight to hell!” 

I cross my arms in confusion, pulling the blanket further around my arms.  “What's that supposed to mean, exactly?”

“Here,  just look,  I'll do it.” Valerie bends down and struggles with the zipper of the bag for a moment before opening it. “See? Isn't that fucked up lookin!”

The twisted gray face of the dead man can be seen just inside.  Shrouded a bit in the darknes of the bag but visible nonetheless.  His skin all shrank and dry like a raisin,  stuck sickly to his bones and drained of all fluid and life.  Then twisted even further, almost beyond recognition into what looks like a knot in a tree.  Like his face warped into just looking like a pattern happening to resemble a face, rather than having originally been the other way around. Nearly unrecognizable and quickly developing a barklike wooden pattern on the outside.  Shifting and morphing slowly into a trunk for a tree made of stone. “What the fuuuuck…. What's happening to him?”

Valerie slowly takes her hands away from the bag and straightens out.  She's standing up straight now with her hands on her hips and her face a steely cold serious.  She looks like she's about to lecture me,  so I'm sure to pay absolute attention. “Remember the markings on his back?” She asks me and I nod. I watch her take a deep breath before starting.  “Those were sigils. Sigils are essentially a magical pseudo alphabet. You know how alphabetical letters normally string together to form words? And words chain together to make sentences that convey information? Sigils do something similar, chaining together to form something grander. But this time,  instead of specific information,  sigils convey a certain kind of intention.”

“Intention?” I ask her, questioningly.

“Yes, intention. The sigils individually are totally meaningless, but as a whole they have a kind of… directing energy to them.  Less of what they say, and more of what they intend to do.”

“Intend to do with what, exactly?” I ask her, astoundedly.

“Soul energy!” She says and smiles like this is totally mundane for her. “Turns out it is actually the mind, body and soul that make up a human being! Your body attaches you to this world, your mind is how you exist, and your soul… That's your life force. The energy that makes you alive. It's the difference between being a purposeless pile of meat and a living breathing human being. It acts almost as some kind of ethereal tether or something. Drawing from this kind of outside energy. An invisible battery that exists somewhere else.  An energy supply that doesn't come from anywhere physical.   I never really learned where it comes from exactly, but the point of the matter is that everyone has a certain kind of energy unique to them, and this energy can be transformed into various different shapes through things like sigils or stands. Sigils themselves are all unique as well, as none of them really have an exact meaning. They work through devoting a bit of your soul’s energy into their creation, and the shape of the sigil that comes out reflects a part of you through this transaction. That's why they're meaningless alone, but together they do things.”

I sit with that for a moment, parsing through the things she had just told me. “So, what, magic is real or something?” I ask, surprisingly deadpan. It's hardly out of the realm of possibility, considering how my days have been.

“I guess so.” She shrugs noncommittally. “It's really hard to explain, and to be honest with you, my family didn't get very far in their research of it before we were…” She trails off. “You know…”

“Yeah, I- yeah. I get it.” I say back to her so she doesn’t have to finish. “So why would they do this then? Why would they go through the effort of turning a corpse into a tree? And could you really explain what you meant by hell…”

“Oh, well, you see. The thing about Rokakaka trees is that they take a lot of nutrients to bear fruit. So many nutrients in fact, that they end up stripping the earth anywhere near where they’re planted of every last drop of life, growing and growing until either they’re stopped or harvested. They’re crop destroyers, ecosystem killers, that suck dry everything in miles if they aren't stopped first. And that's all just to have a few measly fruit spawn out of it. But that's not even all. It takes a whole entire soul to be able to make one of these trees in the first place.” She says, going and pointing at the bag. “That's what the sigils are meant to do. They inform the soul on what to do with its energy, and in this case the directions are for after-death.  Thus denying the dead of ever resting, as the latent energy he had left after you … … … didn’t go anywhere nice, it instead is making him into this. Its a tactic the Horsemen tend to use to starve out any areas they’ve been killed in, as a last ditch effort to fuck people over. It's Martyrdom. These markings are only left on their most loyal followers.”

“God, that's horrible! What kind of sick person do you have to be to agree to something like that? That’s like agreeing to become a nuclear bomb! What's even the point of growing these fruits anyway if they cause such destructive 『Famine?』” I ask her, not noticing the signature subtle rumbling in the air when certain innocuous words are mentioned.  Such destruction doesn't seem like it makes any sense.

“Well, 『Rokakaka』fruit aren't just any fruit. Spawned with the energy of a human soul, and every drop of life force in the area, Rokakaka fruit actually carry a sort of exchange power in them. As in, eating them, you can trade something for something else. It's not really that specific, honestly. It can be anything from trading a leg for an arm, or even someone else's life for yours. But the exchange is always equal in value. Which seems to be the most important part about them, and why they’re often sought after. The cost is so high, but what they can offer in exchange can be priceless. ” She explains further before stepping away from the bag and towards the tent. “Come on, we need to burn this before it starts digging in.”

“Oh!” Im snapped out of my stupor. “Of course! What do we need?”

“Something that burns, and I’ve got just the thing. I’ll be gone for a moment.”

Valerie ventures into the tented area again for a minute, leaving me outside to inspect the body. Peering into the back, I look over the strange markings on his warped, twisted up back. Circles in circles in triangles and squares. As expected, none of it means anything at all to me, and I have no idea how they’re doing what they’re doing with his soul. Though the longer I stare at them, the more a message starts to come clearer and clearer. Like my mind is slowly working out an equation. I don’t know how or where I'm getting this knowledge from, but somewhere in me says that the meaning of the symbols is one simple gesture. ‘Out.’ 

…

“..y! Hey! Are you gonna take this or what?” There's a slap on my shoulder and a bottle being thrust towards me. Something glass with a caramel colored liquid. The cap seems to be freshly taken off.

“O-oh! Yeah! Uh, what do I do with this, exactly?” I ask, taking the bottle of…

“It's Whiskey.” She supplies. “You can have a drink of it if you want.  It's also flammable.” Oh, obviously.

“Definitely no thank you to the first part.” I say, tipping the bottle over and splashing some onto the shredded backpack. The liquid spills over the corpse and slightly soaks into the surface of the odd organic material. The rest of the backpack is soaked with a decent splash of alcohol as well. Being a bit careless with it, almost a quarter of the bottle comes out before I stop and tip it back. “My mom says it's bad to drink and that it's bad for the brain. Said that it's something that makes good people act up. Good and caring people. So she made me promise never to drink till I'm twenty one, and I think I'll be keeping that promise tonight.” I turn the bottle over and pour another quarter out. Glug glug. Wow, bitch move much?

“Heyy hey not all of it!” She warns in a whiny tone. “That's one of the last bottles I have!”

“Here, then you can have it! Assuming you’re even old enough to even have this stuff in the first place!” I shove the bottle back into her hands completely inconsiderately, not knowing how lucky I am that she hasn’t knocked me upside the head for wasting so much of something so expensive. If she were just a bit meaner of a girl, and I was a bit less oblivious, she’d have done it already. Thankfully, she hasn’t, instead just looking pleased to be handed back the bottle.

The blonde takes the bottle and downs it back past her lips, cleaning most of the rest of it out in one go.“Ahhh~” She exhales deeply, clearing her mouth of the burning vapors. “I’m totally old enough for this. I'm like, twenty five or something.” She says, smiling confidently but with eyes that dart off to the side, easily betraying the fact that she is lying. Her smile turns into a telltale giggle when she breaks character. Then, she puts her hand on her stomach and makes a different sort of face. “Ouhh… that was a lot more than I was expecting but damn, I was committed. Gotta get the bad feelings out somehow….” Valerie groans.  The bottle is in fact quite large, and Valerie must have drunk five or more shots worth of liquid in one go. Easily seven and a half ounces at least! Looked like she wanted to finish the rest too but just couldn't. “But don’t you worry, I’m totally immune to this stuff anyway.” She says, somehow coming across more seriously this time. Like she actually means it.

“Twenty five or something!?” I cross my arms frustratedly. “I’m starting to think you’re a bad influence on me.”

Valerie laughs after that, giggling at the artificial feeling of warmth already pooling in her stomach.  “Oh I’m a much worse influence than you think, precious little thing. You’ll see what I mean by that in just thirty minutes.” She says in a mocking tone of voice. “But your mom is right, hardcore stuff like this isn't for the immature like you~ So you won’t be getting any of the rest of it. Don't want your poor little brain getting all hurt!”

“That's fine! I am SO fine with that!” I stamp my foot into the mud. “If that makes me a little baby then so what! I’m just looking after my health! Where will you be in thirty years, huh! Dead, probably!” I whine at her, stamping my foot and feeling uptight. Grr! How dare she talk down to me!

Valerie just grins at me and laughs, not even responding to my ridiculous comment. She turns and goes to stash the alcohol back away into her tent. Hiding it in some place out of where I can find it, I assume. But it takes her quite some time to come back out. A really, really long time, actually.  I stand there waiting, blanket wrapped around my arms for at least five minutes before I frustratedly sigh and go take a peek into the enclosure.

Pushing open the tarp quietly, I find her standing there, back facing me. She doesn’t make any moves indicating that she’s noticed me entering, so I just spend a moment looking over her. Her hair is beautiful. A little messy from being out in the wilderness, but brightly radiant blonde. Bright enough to light up the room. A light in the dark, indicative of her strength as well. The kind of brightness that I sincerely doubt could ever fade. “Hey, Valerie? What are you up to?”

“Oh, sorry. I got distracted.” She says, turning around to face me. She's holding something small in her hands and looking at it with a forlorn face before slowly drawing her eyes up to me. Her mood has changed, that much is apparent right off the bat. Gone was her smile and jovial demeanor, another kind of expression has befallen her. Desolation.  The small item in her hands happens to be a little bic lighter. One of those ones you’d see at the checkout of a gas station.    “You wouldn’t happen to have another lighter, do you?”  Her eyes have a look in them, silently pleading that I would.

“No, I don’t. I don’t  usually carry those on me..” I take a closer look at the lighter in her hands. It shows a little grotto of gnomes on it with a cheap looking decal. Mushrooms, grass, and gnomes. At the very top is a little decal of the star sign Aries. I wonder what it means. I guess she was born in March or April. “Is this one important?”

Her frown goes slim and she shakes her hands. “No, this- its- the- Its just the last lighter I have- ” she chokes on her words, struggling to get them out before swallowing. “It's no matter. It just happens to be the last lighter I have. We need to burn this either way. Come on.” She comes towards me and pushes me out of the way forcefully by my shoulder. I take it and let her by. She storms out of the encampment and back outside into the quickly darkening outdoors.

Alone again for just a moment, I actually surveyed the back of the encampment, looking for what I missed last time. And what I find are six or seven carved wooden figures set up in rows on rocks at the furthest back area. Set up in a little display. And they’re all gnomes. Hand carved gnomes. One with a mushroom for a hat, several with pointed cones, and a couple with crowns. Two apparently female gnomes are also set up next to each other, both in matching wedding gowns. They’re set up in such a way that they appear to be kissing. This charming little scene immediately brings me a slight smile. She sure likes gnomes.

…

Back outside I see Valerie standing above the backpack. Her previous sorrowful expression  has been wiped clean from her face and replaced with a serious scowl. She’s white knuckle gripping that lighter like it will run away from her if she lets it go.

“Hey, Valerie?” I call out to her. She grumbles but doesn’t turn to face me, still eyeballing back and forth between the lighter and the alcohol drenched backpack. “What month were you born in?”

“June.” She says back starkly, crouching down to flick the orange edges of the lighter flame to the corner of the backpack. The edges of the canvas bag instantly go up in flames. Valerie takes a step back and straightens herself out, stuffing the lighter back in her backpack. There's a little circle of rocks set up around the backpack that I didn't quite notice before, but it's helping to keep the sudden fire contained. Though the whole setup looks to be a little bit closer to the tent than it should be. “Alright! Now just you wait for this!”

“What exactly am I waiting-” The orange flames of the backpack vinyl come in contact with the alcohol soaked, spongey stone corpse and instantly turn a much much much brighter shade of fire. Somewhere between magenta and violet, the flames burst into life and ferocity several times the strength they were just before. The entire area lights up bright as day and a wave of palpable energy sweeps through the air. A humming and vibrating noise beneath the sound of the roaring fire. It bounces around in the caverns of my lungs and makes me feel like my body is vibrating from the inside out. 

The feeling instantly makes my blood run cold and my body go rigid.  It feels like I've just had a spotlight shined down from some ethereal place and pointed straight at me.  Like everything at once is looking at me. Not just Valerie,  but nature too. And God. Like I've just been thrust onto an invisible stage in front of an invisible crowd and they're all chanting the same question.  ‘Are you even really there?’ The hollow feeling inside of me grows and grows and grows and eats all of my organs inside of it.  Vibrating vibrating this energy through me like a shell.  I feel like just skin. Just a layer of skin. Everything else is gone and empty. I feel like a container, an empty vessel.  Vibrating vibrating. I feel like the opposite of alive.  There's a foreign pressure building inside of me threatening to-

“WOOOOOOOOO YEAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! DO YOU FEEL THAT, JORDAN! YEAH!!! I FEEL ALIVE!” Valerie starts shouting and pumping her fists.  My vision is swimming with sudden nausea but from what I can see,  she looks positively glowing.  There's this crazy smile on her face and she looks like she's just ready to pop with positivity.  It doesn't make any sense to me.  “Do you feel that,  Jojo! Don't you feel alive!! That's all the leftover energy from his soul burning up at once! Flowing through the air and resonating with ours! It's a fucking power booster battery! Burning up all at once!” She shouts,  suddenly breaking into a sprint towards me because she just can't sit still any longer. She leaps over the flaming pile still burning bright and high,  and lands right next to me to start shouting in my ear again. No no no! Please dont touch me right now! Please don't! She puts her hand on my back and takes a deep breath in, ready to shout something in her excitement. 

But the moment she does, my senses spill over and everything I was holding back comes barreling out at once. 

I keel over and throw up on her shoes, feeling my body go icy cold once again.

“Oh,  shit!” Valerie exclaims,  trying to take a step back to just barely avoid my spew. She takes a few steps backwards and avoids getting any on her but it's as though all the alcohol she drank hits her at once. Because she trips and falls backwards. Slipping in the mud and the darkness,  falling over faster than I can stop throwing up or reach out to stop her. Because she goes straight backwards onto the flaming backpack, immediately falling on top of the still burning thing. The flames roar up and engulf the girl nearly instantly, shrouding her entire jacket into bright magenta flames as she shrieks in terror.

Without even thinking, still dazed from the overwhelming sense of hollowness and sudden losing of my lunch, my finger twitches imperceptibly and my fighting will reacts in an instant. Not so much as a thought of direction towards her,  or even an emotional pull, no.  She reacts all on her own. Far far far far faster than she ever has before, for anything. Faster than my reaction time. Faster even than my vision.  I don't even see the blur of gray as a feeling of flowing wind cuts across my whole body. There's a resulting enormous crack-boom of sound energy as 『Rosegold』 slams through the air,  dragging a wall of wind behind her that tears across the muddy ground and kicks a torrent of mud, water, and soggy rotted leaves up in a wave all at once. The single frame flash of gray vanishes the instant she appears, leaving only the enormous rushing wall of energy to splash over Valerie in a veritable tidal wave of muddy water and leaves. It crashes over her and blows the flames out so fast,  I wouldn't have even known what had happened if it weren't for the fact that I could sense my previously hiding 『Stand』 be summoned from my body. Though she didn't stay out for even long enough to catch a glimpse.  Somehow, that upset me more than anything.

And I mean absolutely fuming. Something boiling and hot. It mixes with the pain in my stomach and ribs from just throwing everything up again.

She's been refusing to see me for so long now! I can call her and call her and she won't listen! Oh but now? Now when the pretty girl needs our help she can sweep in and show off? God!

And Valerie!!!! I wanted her to not touch me so badly but she just had to come over and fucking slap me! I can’t believe this!

“Ahhhh!!!! Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!! Ahhhh ahhhhh!!!! Ahhh… ah… oh, fuck.” Valerie screams before she calms down, having realized that she's not actually on fire.  Flailing, she rolls over and off of the now extinguished backpack,  coughing up muddy water and rotting leaves that blew into her mouth from the shockwave. Her clothes are drenched and covered in mud but overall unburned. Same with the rest of her. The flames, though bright, were extinguished in nearly an instant. Leaving her overall unharmed. She pushes her fingers through the mud and attempts to stand up. She seems extra wobbly though. Getting to her feet, her head looks like it's swimming. Valerie attempts to wobble over to me, pale and nervous. “What the hell was all that, JoJo? Was that your stand? Why were you throwing up…”

She's asking me questions, but it's like I'm not even hearing them.

I spit the last bit of acid from the inside of my mouth and clear my throat angrily. “What was that? What was that!?!” I stand up straight and look her in the eyes. Her eyes widen and she takes an involuntary step back. “How about you tell me what the fuck YOU were doing! You fucking drunkard! Running around open fire like that and leaping over shit! And you came up and SLAPPED me! What the hell is wrong with you, Valerie! Can’t keep your head on straight? Gotta drink it all away, do you!? God!” I stamp my foot into the mud and turn my back around, no longer facing her. “Rosegold!!!!!” I shout, viscously summoning my stand with all my effort. Nobody comes. “Rosegold!!!!!! ROSEGOLD!!” I shout and shout again, feeling more and more angry. “ROSEGOLD! SHOW YOURSELF RIGHT FUCKING NOW!” But no one comes. The forest is empty here. All except for the swaying of the trees. 

I hate being ignored.

“Woah, woah woah! Calm down, JoJo! What's wrong with you? Are you having some kind of episode?” 

“Me calm down!?!? Do you even know how reckless you were being!?! Are you even fuckin awaaaaaaare of your surroundings!?!?!?” I shout, turning around in a fury. The look on her horrified face is enough to put ice in my veins, though. Stopping me in my tracks almost instantly. Valerie looks terrified of the way I've been screaming at her and the moment I notice,  guilt rolls away inside of me. “Shit uh… you're right.  I'm sorry.  I'll try to calm down. But it's on you for being a drunkard. You wouldn't have fallen if it weren't for how much you've been pounding down.” I feel like this is true,  too. 

Valerie levels herself out for a second.  Standing back and taking a deep breath through her nose, and out her mouth.  “Ehhhh you know what…” She starts to slur, her eyes starting to dilate. What she drank IS actually starting to hit now. “I think it's your turn.” Then she smirks at me and does finger guns.

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

And then it hits me.

The entire world is spinning.

“Pow pow~” She shoots her finger guns and a wave of fuzzy warmth washes over my body. The cold October wind fades into the background and I suddenly feel so… Good? All my anxiety, all my sorrow, all my stress just washes out of me like alcohol on the wound. My confidence feels raised and I suddenly feel fantastic.  

“There~” Valerie coos as she looks over me with this lopsided smirk. “All better n-now, huh ?” She slurs. 

And suddenly, God, it's just so funny! I start laughing like mad. All the frustration and cold is gone.  My cheeks feel warm and so does the rest of my body.  A particular numb fuzzy warmth that pools in my tummy and radiates out of the rest of me. “What, hahaha,  what is thisss?” I find myself trying to ask her, but it comes out in a jumbled mess.  My tongue doesn't wanna respond right!

“Alcohoooooool~!!!” Valerie whoops. She's got this bright smile on her face and wow is she an angel? She might be an angel, this is crazy hahaha! What is happening! “And youuuu didn't even have to drink a drop of it yourself!” She hollers. “Cuz this is my stand! The,  the… hey, what are you doing!? Hahaha!!” This is her stands doing!

She caught me standing and spinning around in place.  My head sloshes with each rotation and the feeling is just so funny!! “I'm spimmning!!!!” I try to yell at her my explanation but end up losing my balance and falling over flat onto my back “Oufh!” The ground somehow still feels fuzzy and slightly warmed with the same heat pooled in my lower tummy.  

Valerie bursts into cackling laughter at my antics. “Gahahhh! Look at you! You’re in the mud now too!” She points at me and laughs. “You t-” She hiccups. “T-totally deserved that, too! hahahaaa!”

I scoff and cross my arms, feeling my shirt sink into the mud. The mud feels warm. And soft! “You! Are! A! Bully! That's what you are, Valerieeee. You are a bully!” Yeah, she is! 

Valerie doubles over and almost falls back down herself, laughing at my patheticness before staggering back upright. “You are a real hoot Jojo! A real hoot!”

“Ugh…” The air feels kindof weird around me,  almost like it's water.  My hands wade through it as I reach out toward the blonde. “What,  this owl hour? Please help me up…. I can't… everything so spinny…” I rub over my eyes with my palms and try to unmix my mixture. “I feel so much better now though.” I mumble out with a quiet voice.  And it's true. This state has got me so much smoother. More leveled out emotionally into something a lot less spikey. But a lot more slurryyy. 

She hobbies over to me,  struggling to contain herself. “Gahaha owl hour ahaha!” Valerie laughs and reaches down towards me. “S-sorry I did this without asking but damn I needed to drink so bad~” She admits a little honestly. “I was gonna die if I didn't.” 

My hand reaches out for hers and misses. Then it swings back around towards hers again and misses.  “Wha- ha?” I mumble out.

Valerie giggles and takes another step towards me.  “Oopsies.” Now she's actually close enough to grab my hand as I'm swinging it. 

The world lurches as I'm pulled free of the sticky mud.  My whole backside is covered in leaves and thoroughly saturated with mud. It takes my eyeballs a few long seconds to quit doing somersaults in my head before I'm able to keep my balance upright.  

And oh GOD I'm covered in shit!!!! “Valerieee!!!!” I whine as I straighten myself out, taking note of the physical swaying of the trees.  Not just the appearance but the trees themselves are moving. “Whadmm I gonna do nowwwwww?? I'm cover-” I hiccupped. “I'm covered in mud!!!! My moms gonna kill meeeeee” I lose my balance a little but reach out and grab onto Valerie like a zombie. “You have to heeeelp. I can't go home like this!” I start shaking her around by the shoulders but she just starts laughing at me girlishly. 

“I'll help you I'll help you! Just ahaga stop shaking me!” 

I let go of her and step back, nearly falling over into the side of the tent.  “Ohmsorry.”

She shrugs. 

“What is this anyway… this is your Stand? Where is she?” I ask Valerie, only to get a raised eyebrow response. 

“She?” Valerie asks me back. “She who?”

“Bless you.” I mumble back to her and she cackles. “I mean your Stand, where is your Stand?”

“Ohhhhhh. No, it's not one that I can summon actually.  I think it lives in my blood.  It eats up all the drugs I take and puts them out on the world, basically.  All while giving me nooooo negative side effects! That means no hangovers for this girl!” She pumps her fists in the air.  “And no hangovers for you either.  But I'll essplain it more later.  We should go inside first and dry off again.”

“That is good idea!” I agree with her happily.  Wow! I feel really good!! “Whatsit called again?”

“What? Oh,  my stand?”

I nod and she smirks at me. It looks a lot like her confidence has been raised once again too. So many ups and downs today but right now? Right now we could take on anything.

“ My stand’s name is『Centrifuge.』 ”

End Of Chapter Eight. 

← To Be Continued.