by Otaro Maijo
Even after she floated up among the branches, she continued to say it. “Hejdanatt, Hejdanatt…” But when her arms and legs had been torn away, her torso ripped in two, her neck spun violently and her head twisted off, she at last fell silent.
The head sailed away to the center of the forest, and the rest of her, having fallen to the ground, reformed itself—two arms, two legs, hips, and torso—to follow. But I was quicker; I fell upon the pieces and held them fast.
I’d realized I wouldn’t be able to get out of the forest. It had let us hope we could escape, only to draw us back in. There was no reason to think it would ever let me out. So I gave up. I would go to look for Olle instead; I owed that much to my dear brother.
But where to find him? It seemed logical that he would be where the bodies of the others had gone, where the severed pieces had gathered to rejoin the flying heads and torsos.
I jumped on Hejdanatt’s back, where it floated between her arms and legs. It was a ghastly place to sit, with blood oozing from the severed neck and arms and waist, but I had no other options. My own legs could never keep up with her head, but as I knew all too well, these pieces of her body would move through the forest with amazing speed.
Clutching my gruesome mount, I sped deep into the heart of the forest. The green grew darker and darker until it was almost pitch black, until the forest itself became an impenetrable shadow. The limbs of the fir trees were piled up above me, and all trace of the sky and sunlight had vanished. There were no animals, no birds or insects, nor even any plants other than the firs—these trees that seemed to have such a seething hatred for children. There were no more voices here, no sound at all.
How deep could the forest be? How far was I going? Outside, the sun would be shining, the day still warm, but around me all was darkness. I could no longer distinguish one tree from another. Hejdanatt’s headless body seemed to know the way though.
But then as we rushed on through the forest, the silence was broken, the patter of Hejdanatt’s hands and feet turning into a new song.
The last one, the last, but you get the best!
You’ll suffer the most, hurt more than the rest!
More pain and more sorrow, more suffering and sting,
But slowly, so slowly, you’ll die—that’s the thing!
The last one, the last, the last one to go!
But what is your name? I’m anxious to know!
So tell me, do tell me, and then if you will,
I’ll wait just a moment, be slow to the kill!
And even the pain—I may make it less.
But still in the end, you’ll die like the rest.
I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you, the last one to go!
I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you, though ever so slow!
Your legs and your arms and your head I’ll pluck out.
Your guts will come tumbling, will pour from the spout!
So slowly, so slowly, I’ll watch as you perish!
Laughing and dancing—the moment I’ll cherish!
So pleasant! So painful! I’ll watch as you die!
So die, die, die, die, die, die, DIE!
With my hands holding tight to Hejdanatt’s shoulders, I couldn’t cover my ears. I thought about trying to block out the song with my own voice, but I had no idea what would come out of my mouth. I could only clench my teeth and listen.
For a long time, Hejdanatt’s body ran straight ahead, deeper into the forest, but then it abruptly began to veer off, making a long, gradual curve to the right. Eventually I realized that Hejdanatt—or what was left of her—was making clockwise circuits. One lap…two. And still she ran on. Three, then four laps, but as we were beginning the fifth, I began to see that the circle was slowly shrinking in diameter. The trees we had passed on the inside the last time around were now moving past us on the outside. The body was tracing a great vortex—but what was waiting for me at the center?
I squinted toward the spot where our spiral was converging, where my ride would end, but it was still a good way off, and I couldn’t see for the trees. Hejdanatt’s footsteps—and handsteps—were repeating the same word over and over now.
Die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die!
The circles were growing tighter and faster, and so at last I jumped from the headless back. I hit the ground and rolled for a few yards until I struck a tree trunk. The blow sent a wave of pain through my shoulder, but I couldn’t cry out, couldn’t even groan.
Ignoring my injury as best I could, I scrambled to my feet and began walking toward the center of the dark spiral Hejdanatt’s body had been tracing. It was so murky that I couldn’t even see to avoid the fir branches, which struck me in the face again and again, but I soon learned to move slowly, holding both hands out in front of me.
Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!
Hejdanatt’s racing steps—and the song with them—passed behind me and receded to the far side of the circle. I ignored them and walked on.
Every time my foot tread on a dried branch or struck a root, my heart skipped a beat. I had the terrible feeling I might be stepping on Nulla or Inte, Adju or Nej, whose bodies had flown here to the heart of the forest. If that happened, I was sure I wouldn’t be able to keep myself from screaming or from begging forgiveness from the body of my dead friend. But just as surely, if I did, my voice would turn into my own name and I would suffer that slow, painful death that the song of Hejdanatt’s footsteps had promised.
My whole body was trembling, but I kept on my course to the center of the spiral. I knew somehow that I had to see whatever it was that I would find there; and, too, I was all but certain I would find Olle, most likely in the same state as the others—arms and legs and even head ripped from his body. The prospect was frightening, and I was sure I’d scream—and immediately suffer a fate like Olle’s or perhaps still worse.
But what did it matter? I’d come here to find him, and if I could just manage to do that, then I didn’t care what happened afterwards.
Suddenly I was brought up short. What was that? In the distance, among all the enormous fir trees, in exactly the spot for which I was heading, I could make out a more slender tree that appeared to be moving in an odd fashion. The limbs were swaying back and forth, up and down, quite at random, while the trunk twisted around and around.
But I quickly realized it wasn’t a fir tree at all.
It was so dark that I couldn’t be sure until I was very close, but it clearly was not a tree. It looked like a person—a very oddly shaped person. Or perhaps “person” wasn’t the right word. It had a single torso, from which a great many arms were growing, and both the torso and the legs below were extremely long and thin. It appeared as though the legs had been cobbled together by taking the severed sections of many different legs and stacking them one on top of the other; and the torso, too, consisted of lots of trunks and hips piled together to achieve this great length, this one elongated body.
The body and arms resembled an enormous, upright, disgusting centipede, but when you added the long legs it took on human form. What’s more, there was a head on top of all this.
But when I looked up at it, I nearly fainted before I could even scream. The head, like the rest of the creature, consisted of many different heads all mashed together, each one with a face looking out, and on each face was a different expression.
My body froze with terror.
Surely this must be the Monster of the Forest. And yet its body appeared to have been made from the bodies of my friends.
My horror came from this realization, the knowledge that Nulla and Inte and Adju and Nej were somewhere in there, that their heads were all part of the monster’s head—and perhaps most of all from the thought that I was now willing to join them as well. I somehow instantly felt it would be easier to become a part of the monster than i
t was to remain out here, alone and terrified.
But that wasn’t true! Surely Nulla and the others hadn’t gone happily to their fate. As my eyes wandered from one face to another, I could see that nearly all of them were twisted with pain. The monster must have taken the children into its body and was now slowly killing them. Slowly, painfully, gradually killing them.
No! I couldn’t let it catch me! I made a decision: I would bring the monster down instead. I would save those children—my friends!—suffering there inside.
But how? I was just a young girl with no weapons. Not to mention the fact that I was petrified with fear, almost unable to breathe. What could I possibly do?
I hadn’t the faintest idea.
My own impotence made we want to cry. Everyone in the village and at school had always told me how steady and reliable I was—and I’d even come to think of myself that way. But here in this forest, face to face with this monster, I had come to realize that I was just a child like the others, foolish and powerless and destined to die.
Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!
Hejdanatt’s body passed behind me again. It wouldn’t be long before it reached the monster and Hejdanatt, too, would join the others. But as I watched her pass, I suddenly heard a voice behind me.
“Kerstin!”
Someone was calling my name.
“Kerstin!”
I turned to look at the monster and saw Hejdanatt’s pale face there in the midst of the others. The lines of blood had dried on her cheeks, and she was staring straight at me.
“Kerstin!”
I wanted to call back, to tell her I was here, but I was too frightened.
“Kerstin! Get on my body!” she cried.
I hesitated. Why did she want me to get back on? And how could I? She was running too fast.
But she called again. “Kerstin! Get on!” And this time it was just as her body was passing me.
Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!
It was impossible—my arms and legs were frozen with fear.
“Don’t give up, Kerstin!”
Another voice was calling. I looked back at the monster and could see Nulla’s face right near Hejdanatt’s.
“Kerstin! Get on Hejdanatt’s body!” Inte was there too.
“Kerstin!” “Kerstin!” Adju and Nej as well.
“Now!”
So I did what I’d thought was impossible: I jumped on her back as it charged by.
Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!
I clung on desperately to keep from being thrown as we raced at breakneck speed, my eyes fixed on the monster at the center of our ever-tightening circles. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. My dear, dear friends were there, inside that hateful beast, and the body of my sweet Hejdanatt would soon be part of it too.
At the end of a few more laps, we finally arrived at the monster’s feet. I had no idea what would happen now, but I steeled myself as I clung to Hejdanatt’s back.
“Come!”
Hejdanatt’s voice was calling from above. And with that, her body jumped onto the monster’s leg and began clambering up. I was doing my best to stay on, but without a head there was little to cling to and I felt myself slipping off.
“Hold on, Kerstin!” Hejdanatt’s head called.
I wrapped my arms around her waist and held on for dear life. When we had climbed to the monster’s body, a great many hands came reaching toward me. I wanted to cry out, but just as one hand was about to grab me another one appeared to fend it off.
“Don’t worry, Kerstin! I’ll protect you!” It was Inte’s voice, and it must have been his hand that had defended me just now.
“I will too!” This was Nulla, calling from above, and this time when another hand reached out to take hold of me, there were two hands to brush it away. With their help, Hejdanatt’s body was able to reach the top of the monster’s torso. When we had climbed above the spot where Nulla’s and Inte’s hands were attached, we came to Adju’s and Nej’s, and they helped us in the same way.
Thank you, Adju! Thank you, Nej!
I still had no idea what I was going to do, but I was somehow sure I was doing what I had to do. I knew, of course, because my dear friends thought it was important enough to be helping me like this.
Dodging the last of the grasping arms, Hejdanatt’s body leapt up and held fast to the enormous head. Then, using the children’s mouths and nostrils as finger- and toeholds, it continued to climb.
“Kerstin, thank you!”
“Just a little farther, Kerstin!”
“Kerstin!”
“Kerstin!”
As I clung to Hejdanatt’s back, we passed very near her face, as well as Nulla’s, Inte’s, Adju’s, and Nej’s, but as I leaned over to give each of them a kiss, we reached the top of the monster’s head.
Though the view from this height was dizzying, when I looked up, the branches of the evil trees still loomed high over us and the canopy of the forest was far above.
But what should I do now? How was I going to bring down the monster?
“Kerstin!”
This time it was a new voice, a familiar voice! I climbed off of Hejdanatt’s back and stood on top of the head. At my feet was Olle’s face! My dear brother!
“Olle!” I was about to cry out, but I held my tongue.
“Don’t cry, Kerstin! You mustn’t cry!”
But how can I not? I wanted to ask him.
Olle’s pain and suffering were written on his face. It was hard to believe that it was the same Olle, the boy who was always so quick to laugh, who always had a joke at the ready.
“Kerstin, you have to get inside the monster’s head now,” he said, though I had no idea what that could mean or how I would accomplish it. “Quickly, get inside the head and swallow the monster!”
Inside? Swallow the monster? If I got inside its head, wouldn’t that mean it was eating me rather than the other way around? I stood there crying and shaking my head in confusion until Olle spoke up again.
“Don’t worry, Kerstin,” he said. “When you get into his head, you’ll be able to swallow him up.”
It still made no sense. How was I going to eat this monster?
“Kerstin!”
I needed desperately to ask how to do what he was asking, but I knew just as well that I had to keep quiet. What a horrible fate for a girl like me to be unable to speak!
But at last I got control of myself, wiped away my tears, and mouthed my question to Olle’s face.
How?
“Like this!” he said, and then he opened his mouth as wide as he could. At almost the same instant, Hejdanatt’s body, which had been waiting behind me, jumped up and pressed my head down into Olle’s gaping mouth.
His face, lodged there at the very top of the monster’s head, ate me up and swallowed me down.
Round-and-Round Devil
I’m starved. 7-Eleven’s a long way off. La di da di da da da…
“Hey, old woman, got anything to eat?”
«Hungry? I’ll make you something.»
“Make me something?—I’m hungry now!”
«Patience, patience. Let’s see what we have.»
“Well, be quick about it! I’ll beat the shit out of you if you dawdle around, fucking old woman.”
«Patience, patience…»
“So where is it?”
«I’m afraid we’re out of rice.»
“Who gives a fuck what we’re out of! Where’s my grub?”
«I’m sorry, but you…»
“Don’t call me ‘you’! It’s ‘Mr. Hideo,’ bitch.”
«I’m sorry, Mr. Hideo.»
“Are you making fun of me?” I’ll post it on Voice of Heaven, bitch! “You’re a fucking housew
ife! It’s your job to make my dinner!”
Who needs people who can’t pull their weight? I’ll turn you into an animal—like the parents turned into pigs in Spirited Away. My mom, the fat pig.
And she clams up the minute I say anything—now that’s just fucked. Fucking annoying’s what she is! Can’t stand all her tiptoeing around. Die, you fat pig!
“Hey, you! Get your ass moving or I’ll kill you. All you do is stuff your face, then there’s nothing for me, nothing for Mr. Hideo to eat!”
«I’m so sorry.»
“Shit! So go out and get something! Curry—that’s what I want, nice and spicy. If you’re not back in ten seconds, I’ll take it out of your hide. I’ll beat the crap out of you, an extra socko for every second over ten.”
«No, please.»
“No whining! On your mark, get set, go!”
«Wait…»
“One, two…”
Get busy, you fucking pig! Or fuck off and die! Better yet, get me some curry and then fuck off and die!
“Five, six…”
Useless fucking pig!
“Nine, ten!”
One ass-kicking coming right up! La di da di DA!
Whoa! Ashtray landed right back o’ the bitch’s head! Ash and shit everywhere! Least it got her out the fuckin’ door. Bitch don’t even know she’s a woman anymore. Fuckin’ worst-case scenario! Regular fucking Cinderella. Something fucked about that: “My mom’s Cinderella.” Fucking crazy, that is.
And I’m still hungry as hell.
A true royal bitch pain. Must at least be some cup ramen round here somewhere.
Fuck me! Not one! Fucking unbelievable! Something weirdly fucked about a house doesn’t have even one fucking cup ramen. Fucking unbelievable.
Curry? Maybe I should’ve told her to get something else.
Cup noodles! Shit, now I want cup noodles! Still…curry…? Probably better for you anyway.
But shit I’m hungry!
Shit, I’m so fucking hungry I’d eat any fuckin’ thing at this point.
Ping!
Better check Voice of Heaven.
La di da di da di da di la di da di da di da. La di shit-for-brains di da di da di da.
