by Power, Max
He feared the day. Woody was a creature of the night, a beast more at home in the shadows. Daisy remembered him in the Wood and thought of all of the tales. He rarely if ever left Darkly Wood. When he had chased them, it was imperative that he caught them before they reached the full brightness of the day beyond the Wood’s fringe. It was clear that the forest was his realm and once he left it, Woody needed the comfort of the dark. In the day he wouldn’t be safe. Perhaps he wouldn’t survive for long, or perhaps it was something else. It gave her an idea. She was pinned to the chair and her voice was silenced, but perhaps, just perhaps there was something she could do.
Daisy tried to move her fingers and found that she could. She drummed them on the arm of the chair frantically, trying to get Woody’s attention. She opened her mouth and screamed her silent scream in the hope that he could hear it. Woody surprised her when he let go of his head and spun around to face her. He gave her a puzzled look and she stopped silently screaming. She stopped drumming her fingers.
“Have something to say have we?” he asked her, his curiosity peaked once more.
The thumping in his head was still there, but Daisy had distracted him and after all, she was the reason that he had come all this way. He considered the idea of letting her speak.
“Promise to be a good girl?”
His question was asked through gritted teeth as he tried to push the pain in his head to one side. She nodded vigorously to show that she would be. Woody stepped right up to her again.
“If you scream...”
He opened his hand palm facing up and hooked one of his long sharp nails under her chin. It was very sharp and made a pin prick, drawing blood. Daisy felt the trickle of warm blood run down her neck.
“I won’t scream.”
Daisy answered and was surprised to hear her own voice. For the barest of moments she considered screaming. But deep down, she knew that would be a fatal mistake. Woody released his finger tip hold and stepped away just one pace, before sitting down on his hunkers on the floor at her feet. He looked up at her waiting. His appearance was an odd combination of sorts. He seemed half Benjamin, half Woody as though stuck somewhere in between. Daisy didn’t want to give away what she had in mind. She needed to engage him in conversation and to keep him distracted, without him realising what she was up to.
“Where’s Benjamin?” She decided to ask as her first foray.
Woody chuckled and smiled a Benjamin smile. Then he made a kissy-lipped face, teasing her. She knew he was being mean.
“You’re not Benjamin” she insisted softly.
“Of course I’m Benjamin.” Woody demanded in response.
“Weren’t you listening, Can you not see? I told you, I’m lots of people.”
He wiggled uncomfortably on the floor and then softly banged the right side of his head with the palm of his hand. Something was bothering him. Daisy couldn’t hear the pounding that was creeping back in, but she felt that something was bothering him for sure. He rocked back and forth on his hunkers.
“How can that be?” She asked him gently.
“How can you be so many people?”
“What is it you think I do?” He sounded angry, annoyed at her ignorance. “All those people, all those years...MY Work!”
He thumped his chest proudly to emphasise the point, then immediately began rubbing his temples to relieve what Daisy surmised to be a bad headache.
“I did all of that, every last one was down to me!”
There was a new tone to his voice that frightened her, but Daisy knew that she had to be strong. Woody rose and stood up once again. He loomed over the helpless Daisy in her chair.
“All that time! You wouldn’t believe how long it was, how long it felt.”
He looked almost sad when he reminisced.
“Mostly I was alone. For years at a time I was alone.”
Woody rubbed his face as if he was trying to erase a bad memory.
“You wouldn’t understand.”
He waived the back of his hands at her dismissively.
“Why me?”
Daisy asked simply and cast a secret glance at the window. There was almost a hint of morning sky trying hard to sneak out past the darkness, but it was there, just barely.
“WHY YOU!”
Woody sounded bewildered by the stupidity of the question.
“Why not you? Why anyone? Bah!”
He dismissed her with his ‘Bah’ turning his back on her, grasping his temples, becoming more like Woody by the second. Daisy didn’t care. Her chief concern was to distract him from the light creeping in over the top of the night. If she had to anger him to do that, then she would have to risk it.
“Liar!” She accused him and Woody spun around.
His eyes were red and filled with fury. She couldn’t know the pain that was beginning to obsess him. THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, it went and the sound was telling Woody to waste no more time. But this girl…this stupid girl.
“What do you know? Just shut up! I DO NOT LIE!”
He lunged forward and grabbed the arms of the chair pushing his face in front of Daisy’s.
“I don’t need to lie.”
He sucked in a deep breath and then expelled it with spit as he hissed venomously at her
“Wassshhhheeeeeeeechhh!”
Daisy May craned her neck back, but stared him in the eye.
“You don’t know?” She smirked. “Do you?”
She allowed a note of sarcasm to creep into her voice, just enough she hoped, to rile Woody, to bait him, to keep him engaged. Her smarmy smirky smile and the way that she showed him no respect, caught hold of Woody. The hackles raised on the back of his neck. He should just finish her now and be done with it. He had waited long enough. Woody strained beneath his skin, Benjamin disappeared completely and he sucked back his lips to reveal the full fury of his fangs. He growled and clenched his hands tight on the arms of the chair and then he literally snapped a vicious snap with his jaws, just millimeters from her face. The thumping in his head rescinded momentarily as he inhaled her scent, the beast once more about to be unleashed.
But in that moment, it was Daisy May who showed who had the real strength. It was Daisy May who showed courage in the face of terror. It was Daisy May who stood up and was counted in circumstances that would have crushed lesser beings. Unflinching in the face of death, she smiled once again and repeated in a calm, almost chuckling voice,
“You don’t know…Do you?”
CHAPTER FORTY NINE – SACRIFICE
Woody’s anger had never spiked so high. His rage was barely manageable. Normally, he would have torn this little arrogant upstart of a girl to shreds. But he couldn’t. It was such a simple thing. Such a stupid simple thing, yet it stopped him dead in his tracks. He couldn’t let her win! She couldn’t leave this world having bested him. NO ONE bested Woody. That was why he had come all this way. He had left the Wood so that he could finish what he had started. That she could think he was so inferior, as not to know, was unthinkable!
He grabbed her by the shoulders and with a mighty show of strength, he sprang back and sideways across the room with Daisy in his grasp. His claws grabbed her arms tightly and dug in deep. They were long and they were sharp. So sharp that they drew blood from her biceps and when she landed on the bed, Woody was astride her, still holding her arms, still hurting her. There was a wild, savage rage in his eyes and in his ferocious effort to grab Daisy and pin her down; he had bitten his own horrible purple lip. Woody’s blood dripped onto her cheek, but Daisy didn’t flinch, even though every fiber of her brain screamed for her to do just that.
Astride her now, Woody, panted heavily. His face was just inches from hers and his rancid breath almost made her gag. Inside, her heart raced and threatened to jump out of her chest. She had never been so afraid in her short life. Daisy had faced Woody’s rage before, but he seemed somehow more desperate now. Still, on the outside she managed to maintain the appearance of calm.
For his part, Woody’s rage was tinged with confusion. This was new to him. His feelings were mixed up. Never before, or at least that he could remember, did anyone challenge him in this way. Sure, he had been physically challenged, but this was entirely different. Physical challenges were nothing. Others were always weaker. Woody was supremely confident in his own strength. This was an altogether different challenge. Why he felt compelled to make her understand and believe what he said was beyond him, but that was what he felt. As he stared into her eyes, there was no sign of even a glint of fear, though he looked for it and as he did Daisy May spoke. Despite her disadvantage, although he was sure that she must be terrified of his anger, Daisy somehow spoke softly, kindly.
“Benjamin.”
It was only one word to begin with, just his name, but there was something in her voice. It touched him. Woody pulled back a little and looked at her with a peculiar stare.
“It’s alright Benjamin, I understand.”
Her voice was soft and sweet and filled with tenderness. Woody released his grip on her arms and sat upright, still astride her, utterly confused, the ‘thump, thump, thump in the background of his brain not helping any.
“Waasseeeeeeeeechhh!” He hissed so softly, but this time, almost questioningly. For in that moment, he was again lost for words
The girl was confusing him. She reached up slowly and placed her open hand on his cheek. For a moment he was about to recoil, but the tenderness of her touch brought back a vague and pleasant memory. She held her hand there and smiled and it was so warm and so nice. Woody closed his eyes for just a second and laid his face on her hand.
“It’s OK Benjamin, you can tell me” she invited and Woody now part Benjamin again, opened his eyes and looked at her.
She seemed changed, now that he looked through different eyes. She seemed pretty. He didn’t know what to do. All he knew was that right at that precise moment; he didn’t want to hurt Daisy May. Softness filled him. Something else began to sink in and although he had no idea what the feeling was, it was shame.
Woody swung his leg away and over, to dismount the trapped girl and positioned himself by her side with his back to her. He sat, almost shame-headedly facing the door and behind him, Daisy May propped herself up on one elbow. She glanced at the window and saw paleness behind the dark clouds as morning threatened to make a full appearance. She needed Woody to focus on her so she gently touched his elbow. Woody half turned his back once more to the window and looked at Daisy May.
Now as he looked at her, she appeared even more beautiful than he had remembered. The thumping in his head had subsided but his chest ached. For her part, when he turned to her, Daisy May saw Benjamin again. He still had a mixed up, contorted body that belonged to the woodland creature, but his face, that was beautiful to her. It was not something she had expected. She was completely taken back.
“I...” he began, “...I loved you...I think”
The words were spoken with such sincerity and filled with sadness and Daisy May saw Benjamin again. The contrast couldn’t be more striking and Daisy May knew it was the boy she loved that she was speaking to now.
“I loved you,” she answered, then surprising herself, she corrected what she said by changing the tense.
“Love you.”
Daisy May reached out and took his hand. It was cold and gnarled and filthy and it should have reminded her of the creature of the forest but it didn’t. She knew it was Benjamin’s hand.
“Tell me please.”
Her question was unqualified, but Benjamin knew what she meant. She squeezed his hand and a very lonely, baby tear gathered in the corner of Benjamin’s right eye. Daisy May’s heart filled with a terrible pain, knowing this was the creature that had tormented her in the forest, yet this was also the boy who was her first love. Her heart felt like it might break. No one had ever told her that love could be like this. Love was supposed to be special. Love was supposed to be beautiful. Love was supposed to make you happy.
But it wasn’t only Daisy May that felt the pain. Benjamin as he was now, felt his chest tighten even more. Woody had shrunk away, leaving the boy who loved the girl. Love, he was re-learning, can be a painful thing. Benjamin took a deep breath and swallowed.
“I’m not who you think I am,” he began. “I never was.”
There he paused, expecting the Daisy May he suddenly remembered, to interrupt him as she had a tendency to do. But the girl remained silent. She stayed quiet and hung on his every word.
“There was a Benjamin,” he continued, “all of the people in the stories, they pretty much all existed in near enough the same form as you read or heard.”
Again he paused, waiting for a question and when it didn’t come, he carried on.
“Darkly Wood is more than a place Daisy May. It has a more important function and represents far more than I can ever explain.”
His voice quivered. The tear that threatened to escape, finally rolled down his cheek and against his will, a half snaffled sob, sucked against his breath. Daisy May sat upright and wrapped her arm around Benjamin to comfort him. As she did so, Daisy could feel his creaking, thin frame. This was not the beast that wanted to savage her, to tear her asunder, to rip her to shreds. This was Benjamin and he was fragile, so fragile, she felt he might break if she squeezed too hard. Once more she touched his cheek, to turn his face upwards, to look her in the eye. When she placed her hand on his face, what she felt shocked her. His skin felt like tissue paper. But she showed him no sign of her horror. Daisy didn’t pull her hand away in recoiled disgust. She held it there.
Benjamin’s eyes were huge. They were wide-eyed child eyes. They were deep brown dark tunnels that showed the way to a broken soul. They were sadness complete. Without knowing why, forgetting all that had happened and all that was planned, Daisy May was lost in the moment and she leaned forward and kissed him. His lips felt cold and dry, but they were Benjamin’s lips not the lips of a monster. Daisy May pressed her lips to his and held his face, now with both hands and her eyes closed to keep hold of the moment in her memory, to shield her from the truth. It was her turn to cry. But hers was not a solitary shy tear. Tears flowed freely in a river, across her cheek, running along the line of her nose, over her lips, a salty mix to their kiss. Her tears were silent and true, as was her kiss.
Daisy’s lips in contrast to Benjamin’s were warm and soft and full lipped. Her kiss reached past his mouth, down his throat which ached with sadness and they wrapped around his heart, squeezing it tight. He had never before felt anything like this and his sorrow and regret knew no bounds. It was that feeling of regret that allowed him, forced him to pull away. He looked at her with fear in his eyes.
“I would have killed you,” he announced quite plainly. “I would have killed you without another thought.”
He tried to lower his head but Daisy stopped him, still holding his face in her hands.
“No you wouldn’t.” It was her gentle but insistent answer.
“I would have.” Benjamin let another tear fall free, but Daisy May would have none of it.
“You wouldn’t because you didn’t.”
It was such a simple statement of fact and whatever it meant to Benjamin, Daisy May knew it to be the truth.
“Look at me.”
She squeezed his face gently.
“If you wanted to, if you were compelled to, then why am I still alive? How come, of all the people that died in that Wood, I am still here? How come you have travelled all this way to see me, away from the sanctuary of the forest?”
Her questions made sense somehow, but they also confused him.
“I don’t know?” Benjamin answered and for the first time since they were in Darkly Wood, he coughed.
It was a sickly weak cough and as Daisy looked closely at the boy she loved, she could see that he was faltering. Panic overtook her; she pulled his body close to hers and wrapped her arms around him, throwing a glance to the window. It was morning already! OH my God,
she thought, I have done this!
“Benjamin, Benjamin!”
She felt him slump against her and Daisy May pulled him back away from her to look at him. His eyes were closed.
“Benjamin!” She urged him to respond, but he fell back across the bed.
“NO!” she declared, “Benjamin, wake up!” But he didn’t respond.
Daisy jumped from the bed and ran to the window. It was a desperate and useless attempt to save him, but she drew the curtains as though she could somehow protect him from the new day. But in the end she knew that it was not just the light. Her love was killing him. Daisy scrambled back to his side and took his face in her hands once more,
“Please Benjamin, Don’t go! I love you!”
Her words of pleading seemed lost in the air. She kissed him and he coughed the faintest of coughs and he opened his eyes. Benjamin took a long slow intake of breath before he spoke.
“It’s too late.”
His declaration was a dagger to her heart. Daisy couldn’t speak. She could barely move.
“It’s OK,” she tried to convince him “everything will be fine.”
“No it won’t.” His response was emphatic. “It’s not OK!”
Daisy stared at Benjamin and was lost for words. Her heart ached. Tears filled her head again and a lump closed her throat. The pain was unbearable. She lay beside him and wrapped her arms around him. He was so cold. Daisy grabbed the blankets, pulled them up and wrapped them both up together to keep him warm.
