Chapter Nine: The Magic Treehouse

The sunlight came down gently, filtering through the leaves and turning a pleasant shade of green. I rubbed my aching head and sat up, my mind’s eye foggy for a moment.

All at once, my memories sharpened and I remembered last night. “I saw him!” I shouted out, not knowing if anyone else was awake, just wanting to tell the world. “I saw that stalker guy up close. Not very well, since it was dark, but I saw him.”

Then I opened by eyes and saw Kaliyan and Felix staring at me. Skylar was, politely, refraining from staring, but I caught him sneaking dubious glances at me from time to time.

“What?!” Kaliyan finally exclaimed. “You’re out like a light until basically right now, while we clean up all of the stuff that you said you’d clean up last night, and now you’re talking about the mysterious stalker guy like you actually saw him? Are you crazy?”

Skylar gave me an apologetic glance. What happened? he asked, sounding genuinely curious. What did he do? Did he hurt you?

I grimaced. “He touched each of us on the foreheads,” I remembered, “except Felix. I stayed up because I had a feeling that something was going to happen, and he knew somehow that I was awake, by touching my wrist, so he pressure-pointed me and I passed out.”

Skylar nodded like he understood, but Kaliyan cut in with a biting, “I'm so sure. Now get up so that maybe we can find that stupid treehouse today. We’ve got to be close.” She wasn’t usually this snippy, and I wondered briefly what was wrong with her before getting to my feet.

“I actually did pack the stuff last night,” I said. “That guy probably took it all out again or something. Anyway, you want proof? Here’s the bruise from when he knocked me out.” I lifted up my hair, which grew to the bottom of my shoulder blades, to reveal a black and blue bruise, ringed with a sickly green, on my neck—right on the pressure point.

Kaliyan frowned and leaned over, touching the bruise so lightly that I wasn’t sure she’d touched it at all. “Looks pretty bad,” she said, “so you didn’t do it. No one in their right mind would hurt themselves that badly, especially on a pressure point.” She shrugged. “Anyway, let’s go.”

So we went, and must have walked for hours before we ended up at the same tree we’d stayed the night at—Felix had marked it with an “X” at its foot.

“Great,” the usually-silent Felix whined, “so we walked in a stupid circle.”

I sighed and sat down, my whole body aching from all the trekking up and down hills, leaning back against the tree. “I think I speak for the whole group when I say that today has majorly, majorly sucked,” I said wearily. “And what if this tree is the tree? Someone climb up and check, ‘cause I’m bushed.”

Felix nodded and quickly scaled the tree, reaching the top in a matter of about a minute, although the tree was extremely tall. “Yeah, this is it!” I heard him shout from the top. “Or, at least, there’s a house thing up here. I dunno if anyone’s home.”

So Kaliyan and I, being smarter than the average bear, went around to the back of the tree and found a very thin, yet usable, spiral staircase that we hadn’t noticed before. Skylar made his cautious way ahead of us, while we walked behind, and at long last we reached the wooden platform high above, where Felix was waiting impatiently, tapping his foot.

“Took you long enough,” he said, grinned impishly, then ran off into the grand-looking house to our right, clicking his heels midway to show off.

I rolled my eyes, then followed him into the house, knocking loudly before crossing the threshold into what looked like your average home—you never would have guessed that it was a few hundred feet off the forest floor.

“Excuse me?” I called; the sound echoed back to me. “Um, excuse me, Doctor Kingston? Are you home? We’ve got a…um…patient here!” Suddenly there was a groan from the room to my left, and I rushed in to find…nothing.

The room was completely empty, save for a few chairs, which were tipped sideways, and a painting on the wall. The painting depicted a lycan transforming from human to wolf and back again, and it was done in so much detail that I was sure that the artist had witnessed a transformation.

“What’s up?” I heard from the hallway as Kaliyan walked into the room, taking in its disheveled appearance with one quick sweep. “Looks like a struggle or something.”

“Yeah, it does,” I answered, “but we can’t be sure of anything yet. Let’s check out more of the treehouse, and then make a decision…we shouldn’t jump to any conclusions.”

Kaliyan nodded firmly, and we both made our way out of the small room and into the hallway, checking each and every room. The first room was by far the most disheveled, but they were all a bit upturned—and all extremely empty; there could be no doubt about that.

“Well,” Kaliyan started uncertainly after we’d checked our sixth room or so, “he’s definitely not here, but where the heck could he be?”

I shrugged. “I’ve got absolutely no idea,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant although my palms were beginning to moisten considerably. I was admittedly a little nervous about the whereabouts of Doctor Kingston, and was wondering the exact same thing.

There was a padding sound, then Skylar came into the room, his pink tongue lolling out of his mouth as he said, Well, what’s the worst thing that it could be?

“He could’ve been kidnapped or something,” Kaliyan suggested.

“Maybe he was murdered,” I guessed.

“Um, or maybe he was just out to lunch,” Felix’s voice called from the doorway. We all turned to look at him, and I immediately noticed the sign he held in his hands. It was written in neat cursive, and I read it as quickly as I could.

“Out to lunch—be back around 1pm. Thanks, Dr. Kingston. P.S., please wait in the study,” Felix quoted, and I groaned; of course it would be something as simple as that, when we were all worried about his being abducted. “Well, that’s solved. What time is it?”

“I don’t know,” Kaliyan answered.

Smirking a little, I added, “It’s not like anyone thought to bring a watch.”



We spent a long, long while waiting in what we supposed was the study; the first room we’d walked into. Skylar and I were both studying the transformation pictures with great raptness, while Kaliyan was staring off into space and Felix was fidgeting around, looking impatient.

Finally, the sound of boots on a ladder reached our ears, and without delay all eyes were riveted on the small trapdoor that it led to. A few moments later, a brunette head popped through, and was followed by a set of broad shoulders, then a body, then a pair of long, thin legs.

The man, who I assumed was Dr. Kingston, turned around and headed into the study, his eyes cutting straight to Skylar. They stared at each other for a while before Dr. Kingston sighed and arched an eyebrow, his hazel blue eyes sparkling in the artificial light. “So,” he said, his tone business-like but curious, “you are the lycan, am I right?”

Skylar nodded his canine head, and I replied for him, trying to sound as professional as Kingston. “Yes, he’s the lycan, and he has a bit of a problem. You see, he’s stuck in that form; he hasn’t been human for weeks now, and we’re afraid that it may be permanent.”

I cleared my throat, then continued. “We went to the library and researched some things, finally finding your name and location. So we came to the forest, hoping to meet you and find some answers about what’s going on, and…well, here we are.”

Doctor Kingston smiled genially. “And I’m very glad you’re here, Miss…?” He tapered off, leaving the sentence open for me to supply my name.

“Emily,” I interjected, “and these are Kaliyan, Felix, and Skylar.”

A curt nod was my only response. This man’s emotions change pretty quickly, I thought to myself. That’s pretty odd.

“Anyhow,” Dr. Kingston said a while later, “I am Doctor Kingston, and…well, I suppose that I’ll be assisting Skylar back to his human form.” He sighed wearily, looking extremely careworn all of a sudden, and stood up. “You will be staying in the rooms in the back; please follow me.”

And follow him we did, making our way to the back of the treehouse, where Dr. Kingston directed Kaliyan and I to one room, and Felix to another, telling Skylar that he’d be staying in a third room, made especially for ‘frozen’ lycans, which was on the other side of our room.

We all thanked the doctor and headed into our rooms. Kaliyan nearly liquefied when she saw the two twin-sized beds, and sank into one immediately. I took my time, though, unpacking my meager belongings and taking in the room, which was simple but satisfying.

The walls were painted a very pale powder blue, and the furniture—a bureau, a bookcase, and two small side tables, not to mention the beds—was wooden and white, the bedding a pleasant Columbia blue, with a few splashes of cobalt here and there.

When I’d finally finished unloading my backpack, I settled into my bed, and took great pleasure in its gentle support, not nearly as hard as the sleeping bag I’d been sleeping in for the past few days. I fell asleep without noticing at all.