Icy from being held against something so cold, they hardly felt like his own, but by the time he saw twin gashes running across his palms and the crust of dried blood, his heart dashed into gallop, as if it were trying to run from this place as fast as possible.

Adam’s breath wheezed when recognition stepped in. Fighting for air, he looked up, all the way to the top of the cliff above the Devil’s Rock he and Emil had stumbled upon on Kupala Night. The sky was a dusky gray, already touched by sunlight yet still drained of color.

With a sense of deja vu, he saw shadowy figures around him, candles, and an empty basket on the unnaturally smooth upper surface of the boulder. The tree crowns high above spun like a carousel, and he had no recollection of getting here, nor would he be able to find his way back to the parsonage.

The answer was so obvious, yet he didn’t want to accept it.

He’d been possessed again. Only this time he had no idea what horrible, outrageous, or immoral things he’d done while under the demon’s influence.

He screamed out when soft wool touched his arm, but when he spun his head, ready to fight, he was baffled rather than terrified.

Filip Koterski, the forest ranger, covered Adam’s naked body with a thick blanket. “It’s okay, you’re safe,” he said.

“H-huh?” Adam uttered, so thoroughly shaken he couldn’t make himself get up, though panic was sinking its claws into him already.

Had the devil made him sleep with Koterski and didn’t even leave him with a recollection of it?

“How did I get here?” he asked, wrapping himself in the blanket nevertheless. His feet were ice cold, and all he wanted was to sneak into Emil’s warm bed… but that would never happen, because there was one thing he could recall about last night for certain—Emil’s home had burnt down.

The ranger smiled as if finding Adam naked in the woods with his hands cut was nothing out of the ordinary. “You returned.”

Adam uttered a sharp laugh. And wrapped himself with the blanket even more tightly. His gaze drifted to his own blood on the rock, and he stood as the birches around him sang a soft tune. “So you saw me sleepwalking? I know one shouldn’t wake people up in that kind of situation, but you took that quite far…”

Koterski’s face revealed nothing, but his eyes shone with fascination and glee that sent unpleasant shivers down Adam’s back. “I’m sorry. You looked very much at peace. I only saw you when you entered this area and followed, because it was unusual.”

“So you assumed I make a habit of walking around naked?” Adam tried to make it sound like a joke, but his heart thudded like crazy when he noticed the content expression on Koterski’s face. The black hole in his memory had him terrified.

“I guess I was curious.” Koterski shrugged. “But you’re the one who cut your hands and marked the Devil’s Rock. What should I make of that, Father?”

Adam’s knees weakened, and he looked back at Koterski, who turned from a parishioner like any other into a snake that could sink its venomous fangs into his flesh at any moment. “I can’t recall any of that. I sleepwalked, remember?”

The rapid thud of hooves sent Adam’s senses into panic, and he stepped closer to the altar, spinning around just in time to see Emil walking into the grove through the very same passage they’d used four months ago. Ghostly pale, dressed in the pajama pants Father Marek had given him last night and an open jacket, he stared at the two of them with his mouth open.

“What’s going on? Adam? Are you okay?”

Adam’s entire body itched to step away from Koterski and closer to Emil, but even in his confused state, he knew it might suggest the nature of their relationship, so he stayed put, wrapped tightly in the woolen cocoon. “I don’t know,” he said, following Emil’s gaze to the blood stains on the rock. They were shaped like his hands.

Emil stalled for only half a second before charging at Koterski like the wild north wind. He knocked the ranger to the ground with a hard punch before Koterski could have covered his face.

“What did you do to him?” Emil yelled, and tried to pin Koterski down, but this time his opponent was ready and grappled with Emil, snarling like a rabid dog.

“I found him! Gave him a blanket! What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Adam snapped out of his stupor and grabbed Emil’s arm so hastily the blanket almost fell off his shoulders. “It’s true. I must have sleepwalked.”

Emil’s nostrils flared, and his green gaze darted between Adam and the forest ranger. “And why would he be walking around the forest at night with a blanket? One so nice at that,” he said, indicating the fine weave of the thing. “Jinx broke out of Mr. Giza’s stable and stormed to the parsonage as if he were having flashbacks of the fire. I saw that you weren’t there, but he was so agitated that I mounted him. And he brought me here.”

Tags: K.A. Merikan Folk Lore Paranormal
Source: readsnovelonline.net