In the heart of the woods

Sky looked at the forest and shivered. It was dark today, as it had been for the last few days. Everything in this world was turning dark, and that scared Sky. This had once been a happy place. This had been the only happy place. She looked over at Toki, who threw her long reddish brown hair over her shoulder. Toki was never afraid which seemed unfair. True, Toki had to worry about everything, but she didn't have to fear things like death. As long as Sky lived Toki would too.

"You know what you have to do." Toki said, leaning her thin frame against her bow. "This whole world is being tainted. Everything is going to darkness. You know what you must do to stop it."

"Go into the heart of the forest." Sky answered, wrapping her warm fur blanket around herself even tighter. "Where I have never dared to go........ You can not ask that of me."

"You must face what you fear, or become it." Toki answered, her voice cold. "The taint spreads, and does not disappear. You can not heal what has already been ruined, but you must face it or it will destroy you." Sky turned and looked at Toki with her blue eyes. For the first time in years she looked into her invisible friends eyes. Toki gasped and threw hands over her face, falling to the ground, crying aloud in pain. "What are you trying to do, blind me?" Toki asked rubbing her eyes.

Sky shrugged, and looked down at her hand. Toki's knife had appeared in her hand. She held it up to the light, and felt a power she had not felt for ages. Toki trembled, and Sky shook herself.

"I can not go in there without you inside me Toki." Sky said sadly, stepping nearer to Toki. "You know this. You knew it since the first day I created you. "

"It doesn't have to be that way." Toki answered, regaining her composure. "I am a part of you, and thus I may enter with you. But I am also separate from you, and thus can scout ahead and call warning. If you take me back, I will loose myself. Even if you create me again I will not be Toki, I will be some other girl. Please, let me come as I am." For a moment Sky thought of it, then sighed.

"I can not be as I have been in there Toki, but I will not take you in completely. Give me your hand, so that I may gain the strength to stand." Toki nodded sadly and handed over her arm, which Sky grabbed quickly. Toki screamed and grew smaller in form. Her bow broke and fell to the ground. Sky released Toki and she fell to the ground, holding her arm as though it burned. Sky turned away, and looked into the woods. After a few minutes Toki stood up and looked down at her broken bow. She closed her eyes and it reformed. It was no where as beautiful as it had been before, and slightly shorter but it would do. It glinted still and the string twanged in the breeze, as though demanding death.

Without saying a word Sky started off into the woods. The further her and Toki got inside, the more compacted became the woods. Toki frittered here and there, checking now ahead, then behind. A few time things came out of the dark, reaching for Sky, but Toki attacked them all, tearing them to pieces. That was when the voices started. At first in a whisper, then a yell, and then an avalanche of sound they burst forth on Sky and Toki. All the insecurities that Sky had could be found in those voices, which called her a whore and said she was stupid. Soon Sky was laying on the ground, her hands over her ears, desperately trying to drawn out the voices. Toki reached down and picked her up, carrying her smoothly threw the woods. The voices could not harm Toki, and soon they seemed to give up and faded away.

Sky was able to walk, and they traveled farther into the woods until they finally reached the heart. There they found a large glass wall that neither Toki nor Sky could penetrate.

"So it has all been in vain after all." Sky whispered, sitting down on the grass. "Here we are with no way to go on." Toki shook her head and touched her hand to the glass again.

"There must be some way threw." She said kicking at the glass. "It would not be here in this dream if there were no way threw." Sky just shook her head and laid her head down. She felt tired and decided she wanted some sleep. Toki sat on the grass next to her and mumbled over and over again to herself. "There must be some way threw." And then she knew what this was. Closing her eyes she hugged it, and felt there in its center a beating. Smiling she opened her eyes and turned to Sky.

"You were wrong." She said, shaking Sky away. "The reason we can't get threw it is because WE don't have to. This is the center. This is the heart. This is where the taint lives." Sky nodded, understanding and then she too closed her eyes. She closed her eyes and look back the way they'd come, and there he was. The man who haunted her life. The man who had haunted her life since she was little.

He was a fat Mexican man, with a big pot bellied tommy. His eyes were big and black and they had dark rings under them. Though Sky was too far away to smell, she knew his breath smelt of beer and sweat. His eyes where locked on her. They dragged at her, ripping and tearing at her. Undressing her soul and displaying it for all the world to see. Sky shivered, and felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked over, and there Toki stood. Sky smiled, and touched Toki's hand. Toki made to go forward, but Sky grabbed Toki, and motioned no.

"I have to do this.... on my own." She said. Toki throwned, but shook her head in accent. Because this was the second chance Sky had never gotten. For this she could had to have her innocence, and her fear or it would mean nothing, and he would win. She held her chin high and walked forward, toward the man of her nightmares. As she walked forward her body shrank, and once again she accepted her six year old form. She walked forward, and the woods dissolved around her and turned instead into the dark walls of a room.

Sky was looking at a TV. There was candy on it but that wasn't what she was watching right now. There where girls on the TV, doing things to each other. It repulsed Sky, and interested her all at once. She looked to the side and saw the man in the doorway. (This is his house.) A voice in her head said. (This is his TV and this is what he likes to watch.) Sky turned from the man and looked back at the TV. The man walked behind her and stood there, watching her watch the TV. (This is how it happened before.) He grabbed her hand and dragged her to the bed, and she sat down, still looking at the TV. (This is where you need to make the change. But you won't because you liked it. Thats the real you.... a whore who didn't want to say no. You weren't really afraid.)

Sky shook her head, and looked up at the man. He looked at the TV, and slowly moved his hand to her thigh. (This is the Taint that seeps into your soul......) He moved his hand higher on her leg, and Sky did something she couldn't do the day it actually happened. Sky grabbed his hand and bit into it as hard as she could. The man, who had been so complacent before yelled out in pain and hit her. She fell on the ground, but rolled to her feet and reached for the door. The man grabbed for her, but she was out and gone. The hall she ran into suddenly flared, as though made of lightning and Sky stumbled, falling down in front of Toki in the woods. She lay there, on the snow covered ground crying. Toki bent down and ran her fingers threw Sky's hair, embracing her.

"Its ok baby." She said in a soft, almost musical voice. "Its ok now, you did it."