by Power, Max
His behavior became increasingly erratic and Mrs. Lowly began to become more and more uncomfortable with her decision to take him in. In the beginning, he had told her that he only planned to stay for a couple of weeks. But the weeks turned to months and Abel was slowly but surely becoming a permanent fixture.
Then one evening out of the blue, he had a visitor. The man who called to Mrs. Lowly’s door wore a collar as Abel did, but was altogether more reverential. He was as neat as neat could be. He sported a crisply ironed shirt, clean white collar with a razor sharp pleat in the trousers that he wore, meeting glisteningly polished shoes on his feet. He was polite, smiling and handsomely middle aged. Mrs. Lowly found herself quite the giggling teenager in his presence, which was in truth altogether inappropriate but she couldn’t help herself. He introduced himself as Reverend Tomasz Kinder in a wonderfully clipped soft foreign accent and asked if she would be so good as to tell him where he might look for Abel. Although she didn’t generally approve of foreigners, there was something delightfully polished and refined about the Reverend Kinder that completely won her over.
Abel was out. She was embarrassed to point the gentleman to the pub, a man such as this but, he drew her out and she almost apologetically suggested that Abel might be found there. The elegant Reverend Kinder thanked her most kindly and bid her ‘Adieu’ and she watched him walk off towards the Black Hound with a little inappropriate flutter in her heart.
Tomasz Kinder found Abel, sitting at the bar holding court and when he saw his ‘old friend’ walk into the room, Abel’s face changed. It was palpable. Everyone noticed and although the new foreign sounding friend of Abel’s smiled when he took his hand, it was clear for all to see, that Abel was not happy to see him.
“Come! Let us talk,” he rudely insisted as though Abel’s company was of no importance. Strangely Abel obeyed and they went and sat in the corner away from everyone else. They sat there talking quietly for about five minutes or rather, Tomasz talked and Abel listened. All the while, Abel grew a darker and darker veil across his face. To most in the bar that day, Abel was although highly entertaining, an object of derision. Even so, there was not one among them that did not feel a little sorry for him without quite knowing why, as they watched him with his ‘old friend’ in the corner. He seemed somewhat chastened. After a while, the two men got up and left. Neither acknowledged the watching barflies as they disappeared into the night.
Abel did not return home that night, or the next night and when he didn’t, Mrs. Lowly became very worried. He had never stayed out for two consecutive nights. Embarrassed, she asked about the village to see if anyone had seen him. No one had. When he failed to turn in on the third night she couldn’t help herself. Joan Lowly crossed herself as though seeking forgiveness in advance and turned the key in Abel Gloom’s door.
At first glance nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He was as promised, extremely neat. The room was perfect. The bed was made and there was nothing on show, save an old well-thumbed bible on his bedside locker. She smiled, pleased that he was as she had expected, as he had promised, a neat clean living man. When she opened his wardrobe, there was nothing there to surprise her either. Hanging inside, were three shirts, all black and three pairs of black pants. There was an old pair of black shoes on the floor of the wardrobe but nothing else.
Joan turned to his drawers, all the while her discomfort grew fearing that she was acting wholly inappropriately as she slid the top one open. Inside were several pairs of black socks and clean underwear. She quickly closed the drawer and opened the second followed by the third, all the while her disappointment at herself growing, knowing there was nothing to be found. Joan stood up straight and walked across the small room. She looked out the window and down at the street below. Where could he be?
Mrs. Lowly decided that she would give him one more night before calling the police, but as she turned to leave, she noticed the corner of his small suitcase poking out from under the end of his bed. She glanced out through the window once more, this time furtively in case Abel might be coming up the street. He wasn’t. She looked at the case, but it only took her a moment to justify having a peek inside. After all, he could be dead for all she knew.
Quickly now, afraid that it would be at this precise moment that the Reverend would decide to return and catch her, Joan Lowly slid the case out from under the bed and without hesitation flipped the two catches open. She raised the lid, and looked inside.
At first there seemed nothing unusual. There was a navy sweater on top, which she removed and this revealed a small brown leather valise. Joan looked over her shoulder and then she took the leather case in her hands and slowly unzipped it. It fell open on her lap and its contents spilled onto the floor. She almost screamed.
In front of her, scattered all around her, were horrors of an unspeakable nature. They were photographs, dozens and dozens of photographs. Some were innocent enough. There were pictures of Reverend Gloom standing surrounded by smiling black faces, clearly from his time on the missions. There was a picture of Abel Gloom standing shoulder to shoulder with his friend the reverend Tomasz Kinder and another clergy man that she didn’t obviously recognise. There were other pictures of a similar type there also, but for the most part the rest of the photographs were of an entirely different nature.
Joan Lowly gasped out loud. She placed a hand over her mouth. She wanted to be sick. A sound behind her made her look up. To her horror, it was Abel. It was as though he had been waiting for that moment to catch her snooping. But her snooping was no longer the issue. The fact was, that he had returned home and that he was standing directly behind her, staring at the depravity scattered about Mrs. Lowly’s lap. His face completely drained of blood. Neither one of them could speak. For an interminable moment they simply stared at each other, Abel’s mouth gaping open, Joan with her hand clasped tightly over hers, a tear forming in the corner of her eye.
“I can explain.” he began, instantly knowing that he couldn’t and filling with panic and rage. Mrs. Lowly didn’t want the kind of things she saw in those vile pictures explained. They were unexplainable. They were vile unholy acts of despicable evil, captured on film for posterity and they could never be explained away. She took her hand away from her mouth and a silence filled the room.
The silence was stifling. It seemed that no car drove by outside, no bird sang, no children played in the street, no wind blew. The silence crowded in on them and squeezed and squeezed until they could take no more. Joan Lowly raised her hands to her head and clutched her hair. She opened her mouth and broke the silence with a scream that could be heard by half the village of Cranby.
She screamed and Abel watched her. She screamed and Abel’s ears hurt and his head filled with her scream and he turned and ran. She screamed and screamed until the neighbours came and Reverend Gloom ran. He ran and ran, as fast as his old legs would carry him. Abel ran without direction, without intention. He ran up towards Darkly Wood. He ran away from the scream. He ran away from the misinterpretation. He ran away from the explanation that he could never give. Abel Gloom ran and ran until he could run no more and collapsed in a heavy heap, away from the screams and the hate that would follow, deep inside Darkly Wood.
Joan Lowly called the police. She showed them the pictures and told them all she knew of Abel Gloom. The police searched for him. Someone said that they had seen him enter the Wood and a dog handler was called but he seemed elusive, certainly at first. However Abel had not tried to hide his tracks and the dogs eventually found his scent. For some reason, the deeper into the Wood they went the harder it was for them to keep on his scent, but find it they did, follow it they did.
At first it was a scent, but then there was the blood which made it easier. There was lots of blood and once they found the blood, they didn’t have to follow the trail very far. Abel was found, almost impossibly entangled in a vicious thorn bush with his naked torso cut to shreds. He appeared to have cut both of his wrists and whatever lif
e he had held onto, was long departed. It was a shocking sight. It seemed a strange way and a strange place to die. But after they found what they found in his little suit case, nothing seemed strange.
His legacy lived long in Cranby. Mrs. Lowly soon after followed her husband to the grave, the shame of having sheltered such a deviant was too much for her heart to bear. Those who held court at the bar recounted his stories and his vileness and all of them would say that they never trusted him anyway.
What was lost in the gossip, shock and horror, what was never written about by the hordes of tabloid journalists who invaded Cranby to feast on the story of depravity that they found there, was the truth.
Darkly Wood had found its latest victim, but he wasn’t the monster that filled the front pages for days after his body was found. Anything but, once again the dark Wood had taken an innocent. The Reverend Abel Gloom was indeed crazy. He was certifiably crazy, but the reason he had lost his mind was not because of his perversions. Abel was not you see, perverse. Abel was a good man, a kind man. He was a man who loved to tell stories and the children that he spoke so fondly of, loved to hear him tell his stories. The children of Nguro, the mission where he worked for three years particularly loved his stories. He loved the children of Nguro.
So when Reverend Tomasz Kinder came to him in Nguro with a confession of sorts, he thought that the whole world had gone mad. Tomasz Kinder told Abel of his unholy desires. He told Abel that he had acted upon them. He showed Abel the photographs. Abel could have reported him. He could have ignored him. He could even have tried to understand council and forgive him. But he couldn’t. He simply could not bring himself to offer council or forgiveness to such a terrible monster. Instead, Abel calmly took the long silver letter opener that had been a present to him from Bishop Crown and he punched it into Tomasz’s chest. He held it there and watched the shock register on Tomasz’s face. For a terrible moment, he took great pleasure in the thought that he had killed a monster, but it was only a moment.
Tomasz collapsed and Abel panicked. He gathered up the photographs, the witness to what Tomasz had done and left Tomasz to die. Tomasz survived but no thanks to Abel. The next day, while doctors tried to save Tomasz Kinder, Abel Gloom left Nguro never to return. Tomasz knew what he had done; the church knew what he had done. Abel knew what he had done, but the police never found out that it was he who had stabbed his fellow missionary. A church cloak of silence protected them both equally.
For month’s afterwards, Abel carried those photographs with him and looked at each and every despicable one daily. He tortured himself by staring at the images of those he had loved being destroyed. Abel blamed himself for not knowing, for not seeing what had been going on before his very eyes. He had tried to kill Tomasz in a moment of sheer rage and that was yet another thing for Abel to feel responsible for, despite what Tomasz had done. So he looked at those awful pictures in penance and prayed daily for a forgiveness that would never come to give him peace and he slowly went insane. The guilt and the grief were too much for him to handle.
When Tomasz tracked him to Cranby, he could not believe it. What he came looking for was even more unbelievable. Tomasz Kinder came looking for the photographs in exchange for his continued silence about what Abel had done to him. Tomasz told him, that if he didn’t return the photographs then he would go to the police.
When his former friend softly explained what he wanted as they sat in the corner of the Black Hound, Abel could see the evil in his eyes. Tomasz Kinder would never feel remorse or guilt for his sins. Instead, he took pleasure in the torture he inflicted on innocents. He would take pleasure in knowing how much Abel would suffer, knowing what he had done and not being in a position to do anything about it. So Abel took him for a walk that night, up to Darkly Wood and when they found Abel’s body three days later, none of them knew that had they looked just a little deeper, they would have found a second body that day. The body was that of Tomasz Kinder. His manhood mutilated, his throat cut from ear to ear.
CHAPTER NINE – WOODY
Daisy was gone before Benjamin could move. She just took off and vanished around one of the big chestnut trees. One minute she was there, the next she had shown Benjamin a clean pair of heels. Daisy had a way of acting impulsively which was something Benjamin needed to get used to quickly. There was nothing he could do but follow. Rounding the tree, he expected to see her running just up ahead of him, but she was nowhere to be seen. He stopped dead on the spot, frantically looking into the darkening wood, shocked by her speedy disappearance. Daisy was gone, or so it seemed. A groan just off to his left told him otherwise. Benjamin had not expected to find her lying on the ground.
Daisy had run so fast after the mysterious boy that she had snagged her foot on a tree root and went flying head over heels into the thick forest carpet of ferns and grass. The ground was so densely covered with fern in particular, that she was swallowed out of sight instantly. So she remained momentarily invisible, at least until she groaned and moved. Benjamin hurried to help Daisy to her feet. Her face was slightly scratched but otherwise Daisy was unhurt.
“Stupid idiot!” she declared and Benjamin knew she was referring to herself.
“You ok?” he asked and she gave him a look that negated her need to actually say ‘stupid question.’
“Did you see him?” Daisy had regained her composure quickly and searched the surrounding Wood with her eyes hoping to spot the mysterious strange young boy.
“Who, I didn’t see anyone else?” Benjamin asked his own question before answering hers.
“There was a boy, I saw him on the hill here on the day I arrived in Cranby.”
She talked fast and sounded very excitable.
“It was a bit creepy really, but I saw him again just now. He walked into the Wood just here!”
Daisy spread her arms and turned in a circle to show Benjamin that she meant he had literally been where she was standing now. Benjamin looked around, but he still could not see anyone else in the Wood. As far as he could make out, they were completely alone.
“Sorry Daisy May but I didn’t see anyone. What’s so odd about a boy walking in the meadow anyway? Why did you chase after him like that?”
They were valid questions.
“Don’t know?” She answered him and she really didn’t know. “There’s just something...”
Daisy stopped mid-sentence as though something had caught her attention and stepped one pace back. She was staring deeper into the Wood directly behind Benjamin, over his shoulder. He caught her look and in response Benjamin spun around but saw nothing. He looked back at Daisy and she pointed at seemingly nothing, somewhere in the distance.
“There!” she simply declared, indicating a spot where for a moment, the barest of a hint of a moment really, she had once again caught a glimpse of the boy.
“He’s in here! I saw him again. What on earth is he up to?”
Benjamin looked around again, but still he couldn’t see anyone. He looked at Daisy somewhat bemused and then back into the Wood again. It seemed silly that she was so interested in a boy wandering in the forest, but he could see that she was troubled, so he did what he could to play along.
“Hello!”
Benjamin shouted, cupping his hands over his mouth and calling in the direction of the invisible boy.
“Hello there!”
No sound came back and still there was no sign of the mystery boy. He cupped his hand to his ears as if listening for a reply.
“What’s his name?” Benjamin asked and Daisy gave him another irritated look.
“How should I know? I’ve never met him!” She thought he was winding her up now.
“We will have to give him a name.”
Benjamin was already running potential names through his mind. He was smiling broadly and she knew he wasn’t taking her seriously.
“Why?” Daisy thought it was a stupid idea, and felt sure he was joking but Benjamin was already cupping his hands around his m
outh and calling again,
“Woody! Hey Woody! Over here!”
He had already christened the mysterious boy.
Daisy slapped his arm with the back of her hand.
“Don’t be so stupid!”
He looked down at her and smiled. She looked annoyed as Benjamin reached across and took a huge leaf from the top of her head. For a moment though, it was just like he was trying to distract her from her quest. They exchanged smiles, but then Daisy whacked him playfully once more.
“Come on, let’s follow him. I have to know who he is.”
Benjamin still didn’t understand her fascination with the boy and when he asked her to explain, she told him in more detail about the first time she saw him and how she found the book. She felt the two events were connected. Her curiosity made a little more sense to him, but Benjamin hadn’t actually seen the boy himself, so he didn’t have the same level of interest in finding him as Daisy did. His interest in Daisy May on the other hand, was quite strong and it was incentive enough for him to agree to try and help her find the boy. Before they moved however, Benjamin did offer a word of caution.
“What about the book and all the stories about this place?”
Daisy hadn’t really thought about the stories until he mentioned them and now that he did, she hesitated.
“What? You’re afraid?” She asked Benjamin the question, but in part it was directed at her own fears. She was a little apprehensive about wandering about in the Wood.
“Me …. Afraid of little old Woody?” He laughed but Daisy stopped his laughter.
“No.” She said simply. “But are you not a little afraid of going into Darkly Wood?” She smiled teasingly but was taken aback by his response.
