Silent Treatment

by David James

‘And the others?’

  Now Emily was clearly feeling uncomfortable, but he needed to push her.

  In a clearly distressed voice she said ‘Some of them, well, I don’t think they have the best interests of the children at heart anymore.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I think some of them are afraid of the children and might want to do them harm.’

  Ben was disturbed by this and began to wonder what might be about to happen if some of these people felt like that, he began to feel more uneasy. He changed the subject.

  ‘What was he like then, the man in charge?’

  Emily seemed to be carefully choosing her words. ‘He had a reputation that we all knew about. I mean, what he had done before. Maybe he had a lot on his mind, but he wasn't very communicative. At least not to most of us. Just a chosen few.’

  Ben decided to up the stakes a little. ‘Did he mention his daughter?’

  ‘Sarah? Yes he did, he used to talk about her to the children. We didn’t all think that was wise at the time.’

  ‘What did he say to the children about Sarah?’

  ‘He talked about her childhood. I think he was drawing inspiration from it.’

  ‘Did he go into details?’ said Ben.

  The other torches were getting nearer now, he didn’t have much time left.

  ‘He talked about her upbringing, the problems that she had when she was younger. How they overcame them together. I think it was supposed to reassure the children that he understood them.’

  ‘And at the end? I mean the monsters, whose idea was that?’ said Ben.

  Emily stopped walking, turned and held the torch so close to their faces that Ben could feel its heat and it began to get uncomfortable, but he could now clearly see Emily's face, and he wasn’t going to pull away.

  ‘Oh, that was his idea.’

  Ben was shocked, he had thought he had read in his journal that he said it was the researchers idea; he just went along with the idea.

  ‘His idea?’ he said. He could feel the heat on his face now, it was almost unbearable, but he wanted to hear what she had to say.

  ‘Oh yes, I think he had tried it before. With Sarah.’

  Ahead of them the torches had begun to form into some sort of a circle and Emily said quietly ‘We need to go now.’

  For a second he thought that she was suggesting that they both go away from this place. If they ran as fast as they could they would be in the forest in a matter of minutes. But before he could say anything she turned away from him and headed towards the collection of lights. He decided to stay close to her, she seemed his only point of contact with some form of relative normality.

  As they got closer to the light from the torches he began to see more detail.

  And then he wished he hadn’t.

  As they got nearer, the light highlighted the facial features of some of the people. They appeared hideous and malformed in the torchlight. Ben felt as if he had stumbled across some terrifying cult or there had been some sort of horrendous accident here. But as he looked closer he could see that some of them were wearing costumes. It was hard to tell in this light what they had made them from, but whatever it was gave their bodies a sort of shapeless form, they almost seemed to be gliding across the ground as they moved. The horrific masks they wore had a de-humanising effect on them. In this light they looked almost supernatural.

  And he realised that he had seen something similar. And it had been in Sarah’s house as he had watched horrified on the surveillance monitor.

  ‘They are the ones who want to continue the experiment,’ said Emily, moving her head close to his.

  ‘They think that if the children see them and triumph over them, then their demons will be gone. And the experiment will have been successful,’ said Emily.

  Maybe it might just work, he thought. In this deranged world everything and nothing seemed possible to Ben.

  As he looked at the terrifying spectacle, they were almost unrecognisable as people. And then he had an alarming moment of realisation.

  Is this what all this was for? To make sure that none of them were recognisable. In case something went wrong? After all, they were all aware of the prevalence of cameras around the village.

  As Ben’s eyes became accustomed to the torchlight, he could see that some of them were dressed normally. They looked entirely normal in fact, apart from the fact that they were wearing masks and seemed to be carrying some sort of improvised weapons.

  Emily seemed to follow his gaze and said ‘Those are the ones that think the children are evil.’

  ‘And what are they going to do?’ said Ben.

  Emily said even more quietly ‘I don’t know, that’s what scares me.’

  Before Ben could question her any further, the torches started moving around until they began to form a horizontal line in the darkness. It looked almost like a military manoeuvre. Emily moved forwards to join the line and Ben knew he had this moment to decide, this moment to run and get help. But he would be abandoning Sarah and he would be abandoning the story. Perhaps if he followed them, he may be able to stop anything bad happening. He wondered exactly what he could do and exactly what bad might happen.

  He followed Emily and joined the line with a growing feeling of trepidation.

  Sarah was sat in the front room. She felt like a proud parent as the children stood before her. The children were barely recognisable as children now. Their faces were adorned with what she assumed was some form of paint. It was streaked across their cheeks in such a way that it made them look almost ghoulish; the darkness around their eyes made their eyes appear sunken and glowing. Nathan’s cheeks were highlighted in white and the shape of his face appeared to be almost skeletal. Emily’s previous cheery face had been transformed, it was as if she was a different person now from the child at the institute.

  Emily held out a mask the children must have made for her.

  In contrast it was much plainer than their faces were. But its stark, expressionless face was in its own way equally terrifying. It was dehumanising and afforded total immunity to the wearer.

  Sarah stood up, she slid the mask over her face and with it all trace of the old Sarah Stevens vanished and she was back in her childhood. Back with her father. Back in the room behind the studded panels of the door; and the monsters needed to be vanquished again. Her treatment needed to be completed.

  Sarah was so proud of the children. It would be the culmination of all her father’s work. After tonight, no one would ever criticise him again. She would have completed the treatment; for them all.

  And this time it would be different. This time there would be no return for them.

  Chapter Seventy Four

  The torchlight procession now began to move along in front of Ben. In the darkness, with just the torches spluttering and piercing the darkness, Ben felt as if he could be anywhere in the world at the moment and at any point in time. He felt as if he could be in the middle ages, about to storm some citadel or about to drive a malignant force out of the village. Nothing seemed real anymore.

  In attempting to create a 'normal' village atmosphere they had created one that was as far from normal as you could get.

  And yet, here he was, going along with it. His moment to try and stop the madness had passed. The best he could hope to do was minimise the damage.

  Or maybe he was being too pessimistic. Maybe he should embrace what was happening. Maybe it would all work out for the best. What if it actually worked?

  He had a knot in his stomach, which was to be expected, but what he hadn't expected was another feeling. And it was a feeling that terrified him.

  Excitement.

  He was almost looking forward to this. And on so many levels he knew this was wrong. Was any story really worth all of this?

  The person in front of him started moving and he started walking behind them in the procession.

  As they made their way through the tree canopy, the darkness now total, B
en found himself struggling to keep up with the others. He supposed that in all their time out here they had become adept at finding their way around the forest.

  He looked behind him and realised that he was the last in line. Even Emily seemed to have deserted him. In amongst all these people he felt surprisingly alone.

  He could still see the torches spluttering ahead, but their light was becoming more distant now. He tried to hurry along, but each time he did so he tripped and had to steady himself, and each time he fell further and further behind.

  And then he heard it.

  A scream.

  He presumed it was some sort of animal, and it was coming from ahead. The more he looked the more he could see that the carefully arranged line of torches was now being torn apart and was becoming more dispersed. He started walking more quickly now and he was no more than twenty feet away from the lights. As he stumbled forward he could see that another torch was suddenly extinguished. The dark greedily filling the void.

  And there was another scream ahead and it was much louder and sounded unlike any animal he had ever heard before.

  And then suddenly a face appeared out of the darkness. The remnants of their torch spluttering to an end. Their expression in the dying light would live with him for the rest of his life as they fled past him and into the darkness.

  It was as if they were too scared to scream.

  The torches were now whirling nearer and neared him until he realised that he was now in the middle of the melee. The lights seemed to be taking part in some sort of deathly dance. The bright torch lights confused his eyes as they suddenly lunged out of the darkness and he found himself having to dodge out of the way.

  He was trapped in the middle of a storm of light and darkness. Punctuated by the sound of inhuman screams.

  And then a horrific looking face appeared straight in front of him. It looked barely human. He watched as it crumpled to the floor in front of him, the torch light dying as it fell. And behind it were two figures with torches and they were infinitely more terrifyingly adorned than the other ones and he knew he was now in real trouble. He recognised the costumes he had seen on the surveillance camera. He was standing in front of the children.

  Nathan and Emily looked across at each other, their eyes appeared to be glowing in the darkness, and they began to advance on him with menacing purpose. He had seen Nathan’s expression before at the house, but this was far worse, and he knew that Nathan resented Ben’s presence here. He was just unsure how far he would go to remove Ben from the village and from Sarah’s life. He feared that Nathan would now feel that here in the darkness and in this village, there were no limits for him.

  He wanted to run but his feet seemed to be planted in the ground. He could see the ghastly, contorted shape of their faces and their glowering eyes which seemed to be holding him in their control. It was as if they were burrowing into his brain.

  He couldn’t force himself to move. He braced himself for the inevitable pain.

  And then there was the sound of a commotion behind them and Nathan turned quickly to see what it was.

  And that was Ben’s chance. He slumped forward as if he had been released from a spell.

  He managed to force himself to turn and run. But he was running from them into a whirlwind of light and twisting bodies. And he had no idea where he was running to, only what he was running from.

  He ran forward waving his hands out in front of him. He caught some soft flesh in his hand but dare not look at what it was. He received several blows as he pushed his way blindly forward, but he didn’t care, he only thought of what he was running away from. Whatever was behind him must be worse than what was in front of him, he only needed to conjure up the image of the children to remind him.

  And now it was seemingly getting darker and as he slowed his running slightly he plucked up the courage to glance behind him.

  He realised that he no longer seemed to be in the middle of the action and the darkness was less punctuated by light here.

  He stood looking back at the carnage behind him, there were still torches wheeling and dying in the dark. But there was no light following him. Surely even the children couldn’t see in the dark?

  He half smiled at his own paranoia; turned around and the smile drained from his face. There in front of him was a figure with a hideous visage. In comparison to the other masks it seemingly had no features at all; it dehumanised the wearer which made it almost worse. And he realised he had seen it before. He had seen it on the cameras.

  ‘Sarah?’ he said tentatively.

  They stood looking directly at one another. He focused on the eyes projecting from behind the hideous mask.

  And then he felt the sharp pain in his head and he crumpled to the floor. The last thing he saw was Sarah’s face as she lifted the mask and it was a face he didn’t recognise any longer.

  Chapter Seventy Five

  Ben had no idea how long he was unconscious for. But as he came round he could see that it was still not light. But it was mercifully quiet.

  He sat up with a jolt as he remembered the last thing he had seen before he lost consciousness. He was glad to be waking up at all.

  As his eyes began to focus he could see in the very distance the sight of torches in the gloom and if he concentrated hard he could just hear voices. But it was all too far away.

  He could stumble across to try and find them, but he couldn’t be sure exactly who they were. If they were the children and Sarah he had no idea what reception he would get. If it was the researchers, then he still had no idea how they would greet him.

  Or he could go and get help.

  He chose the latter.

  He stood up and began walking as quickly as he could.

  And then he started running. Expecting at any moment for someone to shout or come running after him.

  But no one did.

  He ran until there was no light near him and there was no sound except his own heavy breathing. He was trying to run in the vague direction of the entrance to the village, but the welcome cover that the darkness gave him made it difficult to tell exactly where he was. Ahead he thought he could see the shape of the large building that contained the monitors. He headed towards it, all the while looking to see if there were any lights following him. But around him everything was reassuringly dark.

  He could now see the building no more than ten feet away. He stopped running and turned and looked back over the village. There were still the faint signs of torches way over the other side, but ahead of him seemed quiet. He began tentatively walking along the main road.

  He felt exposed here, but at the same time he reasoned that he would be able to see if anyone emerged to pursue him from the woodland surrounding the village.

  He walked past the restaurant and post office on the right and was soon approaching the bus stop.

  So far so good.

  He began to walk more briskly and soon he reached the entrance to the woods where he had first seen the village.

  He turned around briefly to look back at the village.

  It all seemed surprisingly calm. The lights in the distance flickered briefly and as he watched they suddenly all disappeared. He wondered what horrors the darkness was concealing.

  He knew he had to go and get help, he felt powerless on his own. Gathering up the remainder of his courage he turned and headed into the woods.

  After a few moments, he reasoned that it would be safe to use the light from his phone. It offered a pitiful light compared to the torch he had been carrying earlier, but it would have to do.

  It was probably only his state of mind, but the trees that bobbed and weaved into sight in the weak light seemed more threatening than before. His senses were heightened to such an extent that every slight noise or movement seemed like a threat.

  He shuffled and lurched his way forward, moving as quickly as he could. He tried to put out of his mind the scenes he had left behind. He consoled himself with the thought that he
was doing the right thing. He had to get help. He had to bring an end to this madness. He was already wondering exactly what he would tell the world to get their help. Whichever way he formulated what he was going to say about what had happened, he sounded like a raving madman.

  He half walked, half stumbled along for what felt like an age. He would take a wrong turn and then try to remember the way from before. It had all felt easier last time he had come along the path. Time seemed to pass differently in the forest and he couldn’t really tell how long he had been going, but felt he must be close to the edge of the forest by now.

  The wind had picked up and the trees were moving around alarmingly. The wind whistled and seemed to call to him. The woods seemed to be passing judgement on his cowardice.

  'It's the only way!' he shouted at the forest. Half expecting a reply.

  And then he heard it. Though he couldn’t have could he?

  'Leave here.'

  He shook his head. He had spent too much time in the village.

  He started to try and run.

  He managed a few steps and pitched forward, grabbing at a tree trunk to stop falling.

  'Leave me alone!' He shouted.

  The wind picked up in response as he stumbled onwards.

  He could see ahead that there was a straight piece of path. He remembered this from before. If he could just manage to keep moving, he knew it got easier.

  He tried covering his ears and walking. But the voices continued.

  'Run away Ben. You don’t belong here. She doesn’t want you here.'

  He took his useless hands from his ears and started to run again. Managed a few more steps then stumbled forward again. He hit the ground hard.

  He stood up and started forward again.

  His eyes were bleary and his vision was like looking through a steamed up pane of glass. Which is why he ignored what he was seeing ahead of him. Just a trick of his depleted eyesight. But as he wiped his eyes partly clear, he could still see it.

  He slowed down to try and focus and as he did so he could see the light ahead of him.