Damien and Teddy picked their way over the uneven terrain of the woods. Teddy's mind remained firmly on the wolf, and as such he was a little disoriented. Damien, who didn't know his own way, would give Teddy a harsh nudge to kick him back into action whenever he got too distracted.

It bothered Teddy a little bit but he held it in because if Damien hadn't scared the wolf away from him, he might have been in much worse shape than just a cut on the back of his head.

The old trees stretched high into the sky blocking out all but a few blades of dappled sunlight. In the air there was dust that sparkled in and out of view as they traversed. Everything about the scene was perfect. Almost everything, that is.

"Are we there yet?" Damien whined. Despite being far more physically fit than Teddy Damien was not used to walking as much as Teddy was, and felt exhausted.

"No." Teddy answered. Following that, the conversation fizzled. "So... how was Julie?" Teddy attempted.

"My break's almost over and she probably thinks I've ditched her, thanks to you."

The boy fell silent, mumbling a small apology. Teddy wanted to say that Damien could have spent the day with Julie if he hadn't forgotten to get her flowers, but figured it was better left unsaid. As much as Damien occasionally bothered him, Teddy longed to talk with the man like friends. Somehow Damien always found some way to turn it into an argument.

"We must have seen a million pine trees," Damien said after a moment of silence.

"Maple trees," Teddy corrected, before realizing that might appear rude. "I think..."

"That's what I said."

As Damien entered yet another rant, Teddy looked back once again. He wasn't quite sure what he was hoping to see. If there'd been a wolf following them he certainly would have heard it, and yet his mind insisted he look back every few strides.

Damien seemed pretty certain that Teddy was imagining the wolf, but Teddy tried to remain resolute. He didn't want to believe his mind was weak enough to fall to the foolishness of not even being able to distinguish reality from a day-dream, but nothing else made sense.

Animals couldn't move that fast. They couldn't flee that quietly.

Something, a very large something, told Teddy that it was real. That he'd felt the breath on his cheeks, and smelled the earthen scent of a wild being.

"I just don't see why you have to tag along with my friends to Candle-Fest, and you can't just go on your own," Damien complained. "It's like havin' my kid brother come along for everything I do."

Teddy said nothing but his heart sank. He always feared being unwanted and Damien was flat out telling him he wasn't wanted. But Teddy wanted to go to the festival, desperately. He'd wanted to go every year as long as he could remember, and just never had anyone to take him before.

"This is my one chance to move to the next level with Julie and..."

"I promise I won't get in the way of you and Julie."

"You better not," Damien spat. He appeared to think better of it and calmed himself down. "Anyway, it's cool of you to help me with this... the flowers I mean."

"Of course," Teddy blocked his small smile by pushing forward. Damien had a way of being cruel to him, but Teddy still always sought his approval and was glad to be asked for help.

"You can hang out with Toby tonight... since I'll be busy with Julie."

Teddy nodded wordlessly. Toby was Damien's best friend's younger brother and he and Teddy often got lumped together when Damien and Jack wanted them out of the way. Teddy was the same age as Damien, so he didn't like being relegated to the status of Jack's brother who was two years younger than them, but he preferred that over being unable to go at all.

He didn't need Damien or his friends. He didn't want them. And yet, Fr. Charles couldn't trust him to do the simplest of things--- he had to send some meathead to do it for him.

A mindless task does not require a mindless escort, he thought to himself before frowning and muttering a small apology under his breath. It was a rude thing even to think, and he didn't mean it. Damien wasn't without his good points, even if he often vexed Teddy.

"We're almost out," Teddy explained. He could tell they were close to being out of the woods just by the pattern of the trees and the way the salty scent of sea air was beginning to permeate the more grounded wooden aromas.

Sure enough just between the trees up ahead he could make out a sparkling canvas of cerulean blue blinking back at him. It was the Merrimack river, a short stretch of water that opened up on one side to the small and peaceful bay and on the other to the powerful and unruly Atlantic Ocean.

The rustling of leaves was replaced by the bells of the town church and a fog horn off a distant ship, all underscored by the gentle sound of the waves that lulled the boys to sleep every night.

Teddy passed the final layer of trees and emerged onto the grassy edge of the stone cliff that bordered the woods on one side. On the bay there were two layers of cliffs, the lower cliffs were where Belford Bay, a small town Teddy called home, was located, the upper contained a mostly untouched forest with only a few solid foot trails. Towards the western side the cliffs softened out gradually into rolling green hills and the trees petered out being replaced by small farms.

That path could be traveled more easily on foot, but Damien had to get back to work and Teddy needed to get back home, so it was better to go to the edge of the cliffs and down a dilapidated old staircase painted a faded turquoise that would lead them between the bakery and the inn right to the center of town.

Mr. McDermott, a kind Baker that had snuck Teddy sweets during Mass when he was a child, maintained the stairs, repairing them if a good storm knocked them out--- but they hadn't needed to be replaced for a few years and were a little worse for wear. Teddy used the stairs whenever he was in a bind or needed to make a quick entrance, and Mr. McDermott didn't mind at all.

"See, told you I knew where I was goin'." Damien lied as they reached the staircase.

From their vantage point they could see nearly the entire town. It was as if they were giants looking over the rooftops. Belford Bay was characterized by brightly colored buildings and homes populated mostly along one main street. In the center of the village was the tallest work of architecture, the white steeple of the colonial style church which jutted into the sky like a beacon.

Along the water Teddy could just make out the boardwalk and the pier where many of the residents kept their little fishing boats. At one point the bay may have been a busier shipping center, but at present it was nothing more than a fishery.

A group of seagulls passed overhead squawking as they did and shaking Teddy from his thoughts. He sped up his pace and left the forest in his footsteps.

"Hey— wait up!" Damien clumsily followed behind him, far less familiar with the terrain. Most people in the town didn't bother going out into the woods, but to Teddy it was second nature. The boys jogged down the staircase, Teddy's footsteps quiet as a mouse, Damien's as a bull.

The end of the staircase led out to a small alley with Main Street right on the other side. The alley was filled with the scent of the baker's famous apple pies, as it wafted out of his open windows. It was the first sign that the festival was coming, but not the last.

When they emerged onto the street Teddy could see that banners made of little multicolored triangular flags had been strung up between the buildings as well as edison style fairy lights. It wasn't dark yet, but Teddy could imagine that the lights would look marvelous in the evening. Beneath the windows of all the shops were displays of unlit candles depicting different fanciful scenes.

The candle display beneath Mr. McDermott's Bakery window showed the story of Shoemaker Martin, one Teddy knew very well. All the figures and the window piece were fashioned out of wax and had a wick at the top which would be lit during the festival later.

"You walk too fast." Damian burst from behind Teddy, making it onto the street after the boy. Teddy didn't disagree, but he waited until Damien was once again at his side.

"Sorry," He mumbled. The two boys walked slowly down the street. Teddy had no strong desire to see Fr. Charles and hear that the man was disappointed, and Damien had no strong desire to get back to work. The general store was usually empty anyway, so it was alright if he was a few minutes late. "If you want to go see Julie, I can go back on my own."

"My break's already over, besides I promised Fr. Charles that I'd get you back to him."

"I'm sure he'll understand, I'll just tell him you had to go."

"Yeah, well my dad won't so I'll just go back with you," Damien explained. "They're gonna blame me for this."

"They don't know you sent me out. They just think I went on my own."

"Until you blab to Fr. Charles and I get in trouble."

"I'm not going to say anything to Fr. Charles," Teddy explained with a small frown.

"You're not?" Damien paused. "Why?"

"Because if Fr. Charles finds out that you sent me out into the woods alone, he won't trust you to bring me to Candle-Fest."

"Oh." Damien frowned. "Will Fr. Charles let you go? Won't you get in trouble?"

"I... I don't know, but it's a better shot than otherwise," Teddy shrugged. Fr. Charles could be strict, but if the man got upset at Damien then Teddy could never do anything with Damien again. If it was just Teddy's fault then it would blow over. "I can handle Fr. Charles."

"You better."

Teddy frowned, looking away from Damien and back towards the rest of the street. The town had only one small street that held all the shops, town center buildings, and the lone restaurant, a water-side pub. From Main Street there were a few tributaries but nearly all led to small houses and farms, aside from the one that connected to a larger road that led out to the next town over where the big box stores and the throughway entrance was.

Candle-fest was one of the only large events with a focus on Belford's younger population and Teddy usually didn't even get to go to that. Once in a fit of summer boredom he elected to walk from one end to another and found he could do it in less than twenty minutes. The few shops on Main Street included Mr. Murphy's General Shoppe, Mrs. Lombardi's barber shop, Mr. McDermott's bakery, and Mr. Sullivan's bait shop. Each building was painted a different bright and cheery color and had an apartment style upper room where many of the owners' families lived.

"What kind of display did you dad do this year?" Teddy asked as they passed a bookstore with a candle sculpture of Mother Goose and goslings sitting around.

"I think it's meant to be the Prodigal Son. You know how he is..." Damien shrugged. "Takes this really seriously. I've been helping him in all my spare time, which is why it was so important that I got to hang out with Julie today."

"Well..." Teddy dodged away from the obvious jab at his incompetence. "I'm sure it looks great."

"Yeah... this whole festival is stupid, I don't understand why you want to go so badly. I go every year and it's always no fun. It'd be better if they let us drink."

Teddy responded nothing to that. He couldn't imagine a small town festival that provided reckless minors like Damien with alcohol. Whatever Damien said, Teddy knew the boy must be looking forward to it even if he denied it. Otherwise he wouldn't have worried about having flowers for Julie.

Across from the side where most of the buildings sat was mostly open making the sparkling water able to be seen from the center of the street. The village itself was also built into another set of cliffs and a boardwalk had been built in hopes of curtailing water splashing up onto the exposed street and icing over. Still during the bigger storms, Teddy could remember the fierce water splashing high above the boardwalk and splashing regardless.

"Think we'll have a storm that rips out the boardwalk like last year? Your dad and Mr. Sullivan spent months working to rebuild," Teddy attempted.

"I hope not. I had to help with that and it was a colossal waste of time.

The boardwalk, when functional, also served as a marina and docks where sailors could keep their boats in the water. When the weather turned cold Mr. Sullivan, Mr. McDermott, and Mr. Murphy would go out there and drag the extended pieces back in, hoping to preserve them another year.

"Hey," Damien pulled at Teddy's shoulder like a small child. "Could you.. Just don't tell anyone about me gettin' lost in the woods."

"I'd never."

"You better not."

They were walking down the center of the street because rarely anybody drove their cars in the town center— mostly they just left them parked half-hazardously by store fronts. As they moved them came across a frazzled looking Mr. McDermott in a little jog coming from the general store.

"Mr. McDermott, are you alright?" Teddy called out to the man. Damien rolled his eyes but said nothing.

"Oh Teddy you're back! I was so nervous when I heard you were missing! Are you alright?"

"I am," Teddy replied. "I just lost track of time... Nobody needed to worry. What's got you so stressed?"

"Oh nothing... I.. I uh just had to run to the shop. I needed more vanilla for the pies." The man explained pleasantly. "Oh... and Damien. How are you, boy?" Mr. McDermott's enthusiasm faded from his face instantly. "Your father seemed like he

"Sure." Damien gruffed.

"Fr. Charles has some, I could grab it for you?" Teddy looked back towards the church as he said it, revealing the gash in the back of his head and the dried blood on his neck.

"Teddy! Your head!" Mr. McDermott rushed forward to inspect the cut. "Did happen out in the forest? Damien, were you there?"

"No." Damien grumbled.

"Christ, Teddy— that's a pretty deep cut... What happened? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine... I just... I think I fell."

"You fell? And hit your head?" Mr. McDermott looked with disbelief. "Oh Teddy.... You've... you've got to be more careful. We all still need you around."

"Of course."

"And you." Mr. McDermott turned to Damien. "What on earth are you going to tell Fr. Charles?"

"How should I know, I wasn't there!" Damien exclaimed.

"Well you better think of nothing, seeing as how this all sits on your shoulders."

"What do you mean?" Damien's face turned to anger.

"Means I don't believe Teddy just got up and ran off into the woods without being coerced by somebody." Mr. McDermott shot back.

Damien stood dumbfounded and embarrassed.

"It's really all okay. It's just a scrape, I'm.. I'm sure Fr. Charles won't even care... we should be going."

"You better. He was already about to blow a gasket."

"Thank you, Mr. McDermott... Have a nice day!" Teddy called after the man. He nodded to them both before disappearing into his little blue bakery.

"I hate that man," Damien made a dirty look once Mr. McDermott was out of ear shot. "He's so fake."

"I go out by myself all the time," Teddy frowned. "It's like everyone in this town looks at me and sees a baby."

Damien shuffled his feet for a moment saying nothing. His head was down, but when he looked up his face had a guilty edge to it.

"Does it hurt?" He asked.

"I told you, I'm fine," Teddy assured.

Teddy and Damien began walking again, this time a little faster. The church, St. Thomas Moore, was situated on the more populated side of the street directly in the center of the town. Like most other colonial communities it was built up on top of the hill giving it a slightly foreboding appearance and necessitated the use of a set of stone stairs and a few breaks in the grass where years of children too impatient to ascend single-file had carved their own way into the earth, leaving an indent of dry dirt in their wake.

Teddy had often longed to slide down the makeshift pathway when he was running late or just in need of a release of energy, but Fr. Charles had said "Keep your head high, and walk tall and with grace." Grace was a funny thing for a child to try to understand, but Teddy often repeated that to himself when the going got tough. Sometimes it was easier to put on a brave face than to be brave.

The outside of the building had four large white columns and a porch that ran across the front with wrought iron guardrails. Hanging from the ceiling above the white door was a flickering old gas lantern that Fr. Charles refused to switch out for an electric model. The walls of the church were a simple red brick that created the main rectangle of the sanctuary. At the back it jutted out into a slight hexagonal shape with stained glass windows that housed the altar. The columns rose up to a romanesque triangular white roof bearing the crest of the church. The gable of the roof was a black shingle pattern interrupted only for the white tower which displayed a large clock the elderly villagers still used to keep time. In a village as small as Belford, the gong of the church bell could be heard from anywhere within the borders.

The tower was topped with a belfry to house the bell, a lantern or windowed section with a light inside to help people find the church from far away, and finally a tall spire completed with a brass cross. Fr. Charles had insisted Teddy be well versed in the original universal language, architecture. Those components together made up what was called a steeple. The tower, aided by the hill, was the single tallest structure in the entirety of the village .

Directly across the street was a brick Victorian building which served as the town hall and carried out all of the court and civil functions of the town. It was Victorian, and opposed to Colonial because it was much newer than the church. Still, the newer building complemented the old, having been done in the same brick and also bearing white trim and black gables. It had a squat appearance and sat directly level with the street, needing no staircase to access it.

It didn't have its own clock or bell, it didn't need to. Everyone ran on the bell that sounded in the church steeple.

Teddy and Damien jogged up the stairs until they were level with the church. Fr. Charles was usually in the rectory— or the house where Catholic priests lived. Teddy, he, and Sr. Matilda all lived there together. It was a bit of a strange arrangement because nuns usually lived in their own separate convents, but since Sr. Matilda was the only sister left in town; the convent was turned into a homeless shelter and she moved into the rectory.

Damien followed Teddy through the church yard up to a two story rectangular yellow sided building with white trim and windows containing many small panes of glass, dubbed the rectory. On the front it had a traditional wooden porch painted white, and three dormers across the black roof.

As Teddy and Damien made it to the first step of the porch. The screen door slammed open to reveal Fr. Charles with a concerned look on his face. He was shouting back to Sr. Matilda as he left.

"Then I'll go out by myself and—" Fr. Charles stopped once his eyes landed on the two boys, both caught red-handed on the porch. "Teddy? Oh... I was worried sick. What on earth were you doing out in the forest alone?"

"I–" Teddy began.

"You promised Sr. Matilda, you'd help her organize the coats at the shelter at noon— it's half past two now! What happened?"

"I... I forgot. I'm sorry." Teddy's face turned to shock and guilt. When he'd promised Damien he'd go out it had completely slipped his mind that he'd promised to be somewhere else too.

"You forgot? Did you also forget that I told you never to go into the forest alone?"

"No," Teddy hung his head in shame. He hadn't forgotten that, nor had he stopped going for walks in the forest when he could get away even after Fr. Charles forbade him. It was his one act of disobedience, but he couldn't give up his special place.

"There's all kinds of wild animals out there! Vicious dangerous creatures!" The man continued. "What if you'd seen a bear? What about that? What would you have done if you'd seen a bear?"

Teddy kept his mouth shut knowing better than to state that there were no bears in the forest even though it was the truth. Damien stood beside the boy, awkwardly shuffling and waiting to be addressed.

"I don't make rules for the sake of things Teddy. I'm trying to protect you, don't you understand that?" Fr. Charles ranted. "What if you'd gotten lost? What if we hadn't had Damien to go out and find you?"

"I could never get lost in the woods."

"Pride is the deadliest of sins." Fr. Charles frowned. "Overconfidence is precisely how people end up running a muck and making foolish decisions."

"Yes, Sir."

"You'd better be awfully grateful to Damien for always keeping an eye on you. It was very good of him to offer to go out and find you for us. You had everybody worried sick. Say thank you to Damien, for finding you."

Damien's face paled slightly at the fact that Fr. Charles revealed that it had been he who had offered to find Teddy, rather than him being sent out. Teddy looked to the uncomfortable boy next to him with something between frustration at Fr. Charles lack of trust, and true gratitude that Damien had elected himself for the task of finding him.

"Thank you, Damien."

"Yes, thank you Damien. Thank you for bringing Teddy home. Did you not think of anything Teddy? Did you not think of all the people your leaving would upset? Your father ought to be proud—" Fr. Charles paused, noticing the red splotch on the green fabric of Damien's apron. "Is that blood on your apron?" Fr. Charles' eyes widened.

"I tripped and fell... Damien just helped me and got some on his hands."

Teddy's head had stopped bleeding so he no longer needed the handkerchief, which he had clutched in his palm. He slowly opened his fist, reluctantly showing the bloody fabric to Teddy.

"Where? Where did you get hurt?"

Teddy sighed and turned around to demonstrate the cut on the back of his head. He was sure it looked awful, covered in dried blood and dirt from the forest floor, but he didn't have the time to clean it off properly.

"Oh!" Fr. Charles's face looked as if he was about to erupt into a fit of anger. "Damien, go on home. Thank you again... Teddy, go inside right this instant!" Fr. Charles swung the screen door open for Teddy who had gone red with embarrassment at his own behavior and at Fr. Charles' behavior in front of Damien. "Say goodbye to Damien."

"Goodbye, Damien."

"Lord, what are we going to do with you? Running out like—" Fr. Charles' voice continued as he followed Teddy into the house. Damien was left in confusion on the porch of the house with his own guilt suffocating him.