by Power, Max
“Daisyee Mayeeeh” he softly whispered remembering who gave him the scars.
There was another noise outside and Woody knew that he had to act fast. He stripped off all of his clothes, mopping the blood soaked floor with them before tossing them out of the window after Lionel. Once more he caught sight of his reflection except this time; he didn’t look at his face. It was his body that drew him back to the mirror. It was completely covered in scars. His face looked bad, but this was on another level altogether. Some were old and vicious looking. They must have been accompanied by tremendous pain and trauma when they were inflicted, but Woody didn’t remember any of them. Others were more recent and were red and raw and angry looking. He touched one particularly fresh one and flinched when it hurt. How peculiar, he thought. Woody could not recall feeling such pain before. But the pain focused him once again. Woody had come here for a reason. He had unfinished business.
With all the stealth of a woodland predator, Woody crept to the door of the bathroom and pulled it slightly ajar to peek out. The air felt warm and the lighting in the hallway was set low. Most people were sleeping. A noise at the end of the corridor made him shrink back. When he peeked again, he saw the back of the night nurse disappear through the main doors as she left the ward.
Silently he slipped out into the hall. He was crouched and bent and twisted, completely naked. What a sight he would have made had anyone been able to see him. Woody lifted his chin and sniffed the air. The scent he sought was a now familiar one and it was there in the air, strong and close-by. Woody stiffened and sniffed again. There was another familiar smell. Another old friend was here, but first things first. His prey was chosen, his sights were set. He moved like a soft breeze, swift and silent wafting along the corridor unseen and unheard.
When he stopped he was at the door of a private room. There were many smells in this place, but the one strong smell that he sought was behind the door where he waited. He pushed gently but nothing happened. Woody looked down at the handle and grabbed it, wrapping his long spiny sharp nailed fingers around it. Another old memory seemed to tell him just what to do. When he pressed down, the door gave way and he hesitated for just a moment.
He looked up and down along the corridor. There was an occasional cough and a persistent snore came from the main body of the ward but otherwise there was nothing. Woody pressed his shoulder to the door and it opened silently and effortlessly. The room was dimly lit by a small lamp near the window. The curtains were open to the night and Woody closed the door behind him.
Creeping now at a snail’s pace, Woody drew close to the bed and his heart beat fast in his chest. Gently, silently he climbed onto the bed and straddled his prey. The only sound was that of his sleeping victim and Woody carefully pulled the covers down to get one clear last look.
“Wasssssheeeeeeesh” He hiss-whispered and Benjamin opened his eyes.
FORTY SEVEN - CREEPING
Daisy more shuffled than walked to the door of her room. Walking was harder than she had expected. She was weaker than she realised. When Daisy opened the door into the corridor, all was quiet. She stepped all the way outside the door and looked along its length. This was a stupid idea! Even if Benjamin was in the hospital, he could be almost anywhere. Maybe she should wait until the morning. She considered the idea. But then who would believe her, who would help her? She did, as Daisy May always did. She acted on instinct.
At the end of the hall, she could see there was a desk. The desk was piled high with files and there was a bright light shining down on them from a desk lamp. Everywhere else was dimly lit. She assumed it was the nurses’ station, but for some reason there was no one there. Daisy had no idea about the layout of the hospital. She didn’t know if it was a big hospital or a small hospital. There could have been one hundred wards to check for all she knew and she couldn’t possibly wander around the hospital in the middle of the night without someone noticing.
Then again, Daisy figured that she had been, for all intents and purposes, in a coma and logically if Benjamin was in a coma then there was a good chance that he might be treated in the same part of the hospital. It was an accurate assumption. Monica Ward had Twenty seven patients. There were four separate dormitory type public rooms each containing six patients. Most were there for conditions relating to problems with their heart or lungs. Most were old. The other three patients in that particular ward were kept in single rooms. One was Daisy May, the second was an older man recovering from heart surgery and the third unknown to Daisy, was the one she was looking for.
The dormitory rooms were all down one side of the corridor and the single rooms on the other, interspersed with rooms of varying practical functions. There were of course the bathrooms, male and female, a store room, a medicine storage facility, a family room for visitors and small kitchen for nurses to make a cup of tea.
Daisy May’s room was the nearest one to the nurses station. Right beside her room on the same side, were the toilets. She made her way down the corridor passing the open dorms on the far side as she went. There were dim lights inside but as far as she could tell, no one was awake. The only sounds were those of sleeping patients. Daisy passed the toilets and then the store room. Eventually she came to the first single room. It was a tense moment for Daisy. Carefully, she placed her hand on the door handle and cast a furtive look back toward the nurses’ station. There was still no sign of the nurse. Slowly she opened the door and peeped inside. An old man lay fast asleep, propped up in his bed, a machine beeping in the corner. Daisy didn’t know whether to be disappointed or relieved.
As she turned to leave, a noise at the end of the corridor startled her and she let the door close against her back. She remained hidden in the recess of the doorway, squeezing herself against it and peering back along the corridor to the nurses’ station. The nurse had returned. Daisy froze. If she moved then surely she would be spotted. A loud noise startled her and Daisy almost jumped. It was the telephone on the nurse’s desk. The cranky faced nurse picked it up immediately and spoke softly. Daisy couldn’t make out what she was saying but after a few moments she asked the person on the other end of the phone to hold on and she stood up and turned her back on Daisy to open a filing cabinet behind her.
As she rummaged in the cabinet, Daisy considered scurrying back to her room. It was too far to run and Daisy wasn’t feeling great. She would surely be caught. Daisy cast a glance to her right and there was one more room left on her side of the corridor. It was the nearest room to where she stood. The only other alternative was to slip back into the old man’s room and that wasn’t really Daisy’s idea of an option. Fortune favours the brave she thought and she slipped forward and along the corridor silently to the next door. As soon as she reached it, Daisy pressed her body into the gap hiding her body from view along the corridor. She made it just in time as the nurse returned to the phone on her desk.
Daisy pulled down on the handle and opened the door as little as possible before squeezing through the opening into the room and closing the door behind her. She breathed a huge sigh of relief. The room was almost exactly the same as hers, a bed, a locker beside it, another by the window with a small lamp offering minimal light and a chair beside the bed for visitors. The curtains had been left open. But none of that mattered. All she wanted to know was if Benjamin was in the bed. It seemed such a stupid idea to her now, as she stepped quietly across the floor to stand by the bed.
Daisy May looked at the peach blankets that were pulled up high over the sleeping patients face. All she could see in the dim light was a slight shock of hair peeping out over the top. It seemed strange that a nurse would so cover a patient’s face, if that patient were in a coma. It seemed very odd and immediately Daisy thought of turning on her heels. What if she was wrong? What if she pulled back the covers only to find a stranger lying there? They might scream! Then another thought struck her. What if it wasn’t a person? What if it was a corpse?
“What am I doing?” she whispered s
oftly.
Daisy looked over her shoulder at the door. Last chance, she thought, and seriously considered just turning back. Then she looked at the rise and fall of the person’s chest in the bed. It was slow and rhythmic. Well at least it wasn’t a dead body. She could hear the person breathe ever so softly. Whoever it was beneath that layer of blankets, they were fast asleep. She had come this far. Just a peak! What harm could it do? The urge was overwhelming. She simply couldn’t resist.
Stranding right up against the side of the bed, Daisy May reached her arm across and grabbed the tip of the exposed sheet with her left hand. She looked to the heavens and closed her eyes for just a moment before carrying on. Then, as though trying to lift a flower by its petals without breaking them, Daisy May pulled back the covers.
The moment she had pulled them down enough to reveal the secret that lay beneath, Daisy May let go of the sheet and snapped her hand back over her mouth to stifle her own scream. She knew that face. Daisy May took a step backwards, her hands still clamped over her mouth. She gasped.
“Oh my God!”
As though she hadn’t been shocked enough, the familiar eyes on the familiar face opened and a voice that she would never forget spoke in a whisper to her,
“Aren’t you going to say it?”
He smiled.
“Go on,” he urged, “Say it...Oh my, what big eyes you have!”
FORTY EIGHT – REVEALED
Once Daisy got over the initial fright, she really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She covered her mouth with her hand, stunned. Daisy stared at Benjamin, literally the boy of her dreams and again wondered if she should pinch herself.
“Benjamin?” she spoke his name softly, her hand still over her mouth.
Benjamin shifted uneasily in the bed and pulled the covers tight to his neck as though he was freezing cold. He looked very pale, but then again, he always looked pale.
“Do you think it’s cold in here?” he asked.
But Daisy ignored his question. She had more important questions.
“You’re alive?”
It was a statement and a question and it was filled with excitement, bewilderment and fear.
“Of course I’m alive.” Benjamin answered and half-smiled.
Daisy had taken a step back with the fright of seeing him beneath the covers but now, she moved close to the bed again and looked at his face. It hadn’t changed. It was Benjamin. Her dream was not a dream? So everything was real she thought? But.. It didn’t make sense.
“You’re awake?”
The moment she that thought it as always, she said it. He looked exactly the same as always and despite the fact that she had gone looking for him, actually finding him in the hospital was freaking her out.
“Of course I’m awake...” He announced almost indignantly. “…and all the better for seeing you.”
Once more, he did the big bad wolf impression. Daisy laughed. It broke the moment and she felt something strange stir inside her. Daisy felt happy. She had felt real and painful grief when she thought that she lost him in the Wood. Even after she woke up, Daisy had felt an emptiness that pained her terribly. Seeing him again, regardless of how confused it made her feel, also brought her joy.
“Enough with the little Red Riding Hood jokes!” Daisy smiled as she answered.
She so wanted to hug and kiss him, to jump onto the bed and throw her arms around him but something stopped her. He was different somehow. And then he did something that made her blood go cold. Benjamin reached out and beckoned for her to come sit with him but just as she was about to do just that, the tiniest of things stopped her. Daisy didn’t do as he asked.
“Come sit with me.” He had said.
It wasn’t the words he spoke that made her stop. Nor was it the friendly gesture that he made. No. It was the hand with which he made that gesture. Daisy could not help herself and she wrapped her hand around her mouth once more in utter disbelief. Again she took a step backwards. Benjamin looked at her, he seemed surprised and then he grimaced as he noticed his filthy, long nailed hand.
“Ah!” He said simply. “I should have remembered that.”
Then he pulled back the covers a bit more, revealing his torso. Benjamin was scarred horribly and the sight of it shocked Daisy. She took another step back, stunned into silence. Benjamin sat fully upright in the bed and smiled. He looked pale and his lips were drawn and they were a dark, dark red.
“Don’t be afraid.” He spoke with Benjamin’s soft voice, but Daisy felt she was talking to someone else.
“Who are you?” she asked and considered making a run for it.
Benjamin caught her door-ward glance and swung his hand out sharply, pointing at the door. The big heavy visitors chair clipped Daisy’s hip as it whizzed past her just as though Benjamin had pushed it hard. It stopped, propped up against the door blocking her exit. Benjamin lowered his arm and looked at Daisy. Her joy abandoned, Daisy felt the cold hand of terror seize control, but she asked again,
“Who are you?” Her voice showed no hint of the fear inside.
“I’m Benjamin Blood.” He proudly told her.
“No, I am...really!” he continued as if she had said ‘no you’re not!’
But she didn’t say a word. Daisy just stared at him in disbelief. Benjamin had a little chirp in his voice.
“Of course, I’m not JUST Benjamin Blood.” He told her emphasizing the word ‘JUST’ for effect.
“But you knew that already, didn’t you?”
He smiled at Daisy and when she didn’t respond he carried on.
“I’m Abel Gloom.” Benjamin smiled his broadest smile.
“I’m Philagrea Mancuso, Libby Love, Jo-Jo Couchet, John Blood, Hattie Grey and Elaine Mortimer.”
He paused again, watching the shock register on Daisy’s face.
“I’m Bobby Bunker. I’m Terrence Darkly.”
“No!”
Daisy gasped, cutting him off, unable to listen to what he was saying, to what it meant.
“No?” He asked her. “Fair enough! Who would you like me to be? Benjamin?”
His face contorted and his skin paled. Then he made a spine chilling suggestion. Benjamin’s voice hissed the name.
“Woodyeeeee?”
Daisy stepped back again, but it was more of a jump really. She stared at the boy she loved, dreamt of, imagined, adored and in that look, in that instant he was gone. In his place was the boy beast of Darkly Wood.
Woody snapped and hissed at her from the bed and Daisy ran to the door. She grabbed the chair and pulled with all of her might, but it would not move. Woody sat back calmly in the bed and watched her struggle.
“Perhaps you’d like to scream? Go on scream for help. Scream your lungs out?”
Woody raised his hands theatrically in the air as he spoke. The suggestion surprised Daisy. But why not? They weren’t in the Wood any more. She could scream and help would come. Daisy opened her mouth and screamed. She screamed with all her might at the top of her lungs, but no sound came out. She tried again and when no sound came, Daisy clasped her hands to her throat in disbelief. Woody was sitting cross legged in a pair of Benjamin’s striped Pajama bottoms and he wiggled his fingers at her. Somehow he was controlling her voice. He laughed.
“Poor Daisyee Mayee.” He mocked her and laughed before flicking out his wrist in her direction.
She felt a push as though he had struck her in the chest and she fell backwards into the chair against the door. She couldn’t move.
Woody leapt to his feet. He sprang cat like almost. He stood perfectly still for a moment or two and then he walked up close to her. There was anger in his eyes, but more than that, there was disdain. It was written all over his face from the curl in his lip to the wrinkle in his nose.
“Do you want to know who I am?” He asked her.
It was a rhetorical question if ever there was one, for Daisy couldn’t talk. So he answered his own question.
“I am everyone I have
ever touched- everyone!”
It was a proud declaration.
“I am Benjamin Blood alright,” and then he leaned in close.
So close she could smell his vile breath and although she didn’t know who the next name he mentioned was, Woody finished with,
“I am even Lionel Goja,” and he let his horrible long purple tongue fall out between his yellow teeth before very slowly licking her face.
She didn’t know who Lionel Goja was, but she knew of the rest. As Woody spoke, a hint, the barest flicker of a likeness swept across his eyes and Daisy May could see each of the people that Woody referred to, reflected in his face.
“Hisssssssssssssssssssssss!”
It was a twisted vile pleased sound and it turned her stomach. His tongue was wet and coarse and it left a foul smelling residue of saliva on her cheek. Daisy closed her eyes and almost choked on the stench as he ran that purple vileness over her skin. After he had licked Daisy, he pulled his face back, just a few inches and waited until she re-opened her eyes. When she did, he smiled.
But then, Woody stepped back and started to pace back and forth across the floor in front of the helpless Daisy. He was considering what to do next, although Daisy didn’t know that. This place was bad for him; he could feel it in his bones. It made him weak. Soon it would be day light again and he wanted to be back in Darkly Wood with his precious prize by then. But something was stopping him. He didn’t know what it was. Then, from out of nowhere as always and just when he could do with a moment to think, it started.
Thump, Thump, Thump.
‘No!’ He thought, ‘not now!’ Thump, Thump, Thump. It was back. Woody knew the warning signs. He had delayed too long, procrastinated, watched waited, indulged his curiosity, let vanity delay his destiny. Thump, Thump, Thump, it was coming and he had to act.
Daisy saw him clutch his head, but more importantly she saw his furtive glance towards the window. What was he looking at? There was nothing there? Or was there? She watched him pace back and forth, more anxious now and squeezing hard on his temples as though to drown out some horrible noise, or deaden some nagging pain. But then she heard it. The sound that Daisy heard was not the same one as Woody heard, but it was equally significant. It was the softest, faintest of sounds, but it made everything make sense. Somewhere outside in the hospital grounds, the earliest of early birds had recognised the signs. Dawn was arriving. There was as yet no clue in the sky, but some early, early bird had been awoken by its internal clock and had issued its first few chirps to begin the dawn chorus. Woody hadn’t heard it. He was distracted. But it was clear to her now, that the furtive glances he had shot towards the window were to check for the coming morning.
