by Park, J. R.
Aimee ran towards him and jumped on his back. Linking her arms around his chest and clasping her hands together she arched backwards, trying to topple his balance and pull him over. King stumbled as he failed to find a steady footing and fell, taken by the force of the Special Constable.
Aimee landed in the darkness, but felt King slide from her grip, seemingly dissolving in her clutches. She caught her breath as she got to her feet and looked for her comrades. All around her was nothing but black. The dim illumination of the skylight had disappeared leaving a consuming darkness so impenetrable she could no longer see the unconscious bodies of Kal or Maja.
King’s voice floated through the air. ‘Where am I, Special Constable Forrest?’ he taunted Aimee, his face unseen in the inky shadows. ‘Where are you? Things looking a little different?’
‘Where are you, you fucker? Where’s Kayleigh?’ she demanded, shouting in the direction of the voice. ‘What have you done with my friends?’
A sound of laughter crept in her ears, sending chills through her body. There was something familiar about the sound, something frightening. The last time she heard that laughter was this morning when she’d shared a joke with her colleague on the beat. She’d told a joke, an awful one at that, but she knew the policeman she admired had a taste for truly terrible punchlines. His laughter had been a thrill to her then, now it was awful and out of place.
A smile flashed through the darkness. The closer it grew the clearer it became until she could see the detail of a cracked tooth.
‘You killed me, Forrest,’ the voice of PC Andy Osborne spat from the mouth. An ashen white face, distorted with death and splashed with blood, looked at her with angry, sunken eyes. ‘You let me die. You let them all die.’
Firelight softly licked at the darkness, revealing the outline of a row of headstones. Between the graves, worms writhed on the ground, creating a moving carpet of flesh that slithered in the shadows.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Aimee meekly protested, terrified of the view before her.
He smiled with a measured cruelty as he took hold of her wrists. His grin widened, growing in size until the skin at the corners of his mouth began to tear. The rips through his flesh continued, spreading across his face like a cracking piece of china, shredding his features into strips of skin that unravelled before Aimee’s startled eyes.
His head collapsed into a mess of fleshy strands that blew on an unseen breeze like the tentacles from some underwater nightmare. Blood flew into the air as his body continued to undo, splashing onto Aimee’s hands and burning cold, the instant it made contact.
She pulled away from his grip and watched what was left of her deceased colleague unwind; eventually collapsing at her feet in a whirl of human entrails, leaving nothing more than a pile of clothes and tendrils of flesh.
Stepping back in disgust she looked down at her hands as the blood burnt a chilling cold, deep into her fingers. Horrified, she watched as her palms slowly faded from view. Her arms were next as they too began to lose their visibility, the blackness creeping across her body.
As it spread to her chest she felt a pressure begin to crush her ribs, forcing the air from her lungs. She fought for breath as she wrestled with the darkness, trying to fight it as it spread across her body.
A hand caught her collar and pulled Aimee backwards, freeing her from the grip of the shadows. Landing hard on the floor she was relieved to be back under the murky glow of the skylight, her arms and hands visible once more, and the freezing pain dissipating.
A flash of gold caught her attention and she saw her saviour, Kal, stood half in the shadows cast by the elevated walkway. He seemed to be struggling with an attacker, someone unseen. The darkness danced strangely on his body, like it was writhing with its own will, wrapping itself around the brave monk-like figure like a living oil slick.
Kal wailed in agony and turned to Aimee, holding his hand out to her. Aimee tried to get to her feet but was stopped by Maja who knelt beside her.
‘You can’t help him now,’ the young woman in the headdress warned. ‘Their world is one of cruelty and madness. I pity what visions he made you endure.’
Stunned at the sight she was witnessing, Aimee watched as Kal was pulled into the dark. The shadows engulfed him completely, stifling his screams amid the crunch of snapping bone. He forced himself out from the black for a moment, his face swelling and twisted whilst tusk-like teeth forced their way through his cheeks. Kal unleashed a bestial cry before being swamped once more by the darkness. Blood poured from the black where he once stood and flooded the floor that surrounded the shocked Special Constable.
‘What was that?’ Aimee asked.
‘Each of the Dark Guard has a unique way in which their powers manifest. King controls matter and minds. He created that hell spawn you fought earlier, the one that killed your colleague. It looks like he was trying a similar trick with Kal.
‘Some twist senses, some can mimic other’s form, cast illusions or show brutish strength and durability. Did you see watch Cross die at the hands of Sanay, then appear before him? Their powers are varied, but all of them are deadly,’ Maja said, her eyes transfixed on the darkness in front of them.
King stepped back into the half-light, his footsteps splashing in the blood that soaked the floor. A grin spread across his face, growing underneath his uncovered eyes that, now exposed, looked like two large, black holes, filling his face from nose to temple. Aimee shuddered to look at them; like twin pits of evil. He circled the two women that crouched on the floor in the centre of the building, his words echoing in the vast expanse.
‘This has been a very troubling day,’ he sneered. ‘But your friend tasted good. Will you be the same?’
Maja charged at him with her weapon held high. The two collided, staff to fist; both held their ground.
‘Your kind talk a lot don’t you?’ Maja mocked as she swung again.
King blocked the attack to his side but was defenceless against the second as she swept the staff under him, taking his legs out and knocking him to the floor. Thrusting her weapon downwards, she drove its end into his stomach, tearing through his shirt and piercing his flesh. King howled with agony whilst his assailant called out a sentence of incomprehensible sounds.
A draught began to sweep through the old bus depot, building in force the louder and longer Maja chanted.
His head throbbed from the incantation, but gritting his teeth through the pain that gripped his body, King took hold of the staff that impaled him and, with both hands, snapped the weapon in two. Maja dived out of his reach as he stood up, still with half the staff protruding from his stomach. He threw the other half. Its end, sharp from the break, sliced into Maja’s side as she tried unsuccessfully to avoid his aim. She fell on her hands and knees, clutching her wound and groaning in pain. King staggered towards her as blood spurted in torrents from his injured body. His limbs twitched in jerky, violent movements as he drew closer.
A figure appeared at the edge of the room, a girl, briefly emerging from the darkness, before disappearing again.
‘Kayleigh!’ Aimee called out to the face she recognised.
King stood over Maja, her back to him, and watched as she clutched the bloody hole in her side. He said nothing, but wobbled precariously on his feet as he observed her suffering. Aimee ran towards them but was unable to stop King as he fell forward onto the robed woman. The broken staff that protruded from his stomach drove into Maja’s back, tearing through her torso and forced through her body by the weight of the man in the light grey suit. The two collapsed together on the floor and rolled onto their sides like a pair of post-coital lovers. Maja looked towards Aimee and gripped the end of the staff, trying in vain to pull herself free from the broken pole that speared both her and King. She felt his faint breath on her ear, but as his breathing slowly faded, King’s limbs buckled and twisted. His bones cracked and tendons snapped as his arms and legs curled in on themselves with the manner of a dying insect, wrappin
g around Maja as she struggled to hold on to life.
‘Maja,’ Aimee cried as she ran to her.
The wounded woman held out her hand and gripped Aimee’s. Her robes were stained black in the dim light as her own blood seeped up the patterned fabric.
‘Get the girl,’ Maja whispered in a voice that gurgled from internal bleeding. ‘Don’t let them possess the key.’
‘I don’t understand. What’s in the case? What’s so important it’s worth all this?’ Aimee held the dying woman’s face as her neck grew limp; Maja’s fading strength unable to support the weight of her own head.
‘Go to Kayleigh, you don’t have a second to lose,’ Maja forced the words from her lips. ‘She’s in danger and so is the world. Do not let the Dark Guard take the key, Aimee. The Stygian must not invoke the Calling. Go now!’ demanded Maja with an urgency, laboured through her weakened state, before the last of her strength deserted her.
A gale blew across the entwined, lifeless pair as Forrest stroked Maja’s soft, white cheek. She was so young, so beautiful. It was such a waste. A tragic waste.
The soft padding of feet caught Aimee’s attention as she lifted her head. At the end of the room she saw a girl run out from the darkness with a panicked expression.
‘Kayleigh!’ Aimee called out, but the girl did not hear her.
Looking around with wild eyes, as if lost, Kayleigh turned and ran back into the darkness, disappearing as quickly as she came.
Another figure appeared. Her eyes were hidden by sunglasses and her blonde hair tied back into a pony tail. She laughed as she stepped into view.
Aimee recognised the evil, bloodthirsty grin.
It was Cross.
‘You want the girl?’ Cross called out. ‘You want Kayleigh? She’s here, with me. In the darkness.’
Walking backwards she retraced her steps, all the time keeping her gaze fixed on Forrest as she melted into the shadows.
Her voice floated through the disused depot.
‘Well, Special Constable Forrest. Come get her.’
Grappling through the darkness, octopus-like tendrils weakly grasped at Kayleigh. Unable to hold her as she pushed past their slimy grip, they provided enough resistance to slow her down; turning her passage through the gloomy shadows into a struggle.
It was too dark to make out the source of these half-seen tentacles, but to Kayleigh this was a blessing she was thankful for. She’d run into the building and tried to hide in a corner of the long abandoned bus depot, hoping to lose her pursuers in the murky surroundings, but quickly she’d lost her way. The room seemed to grow, the further she walked, and the light had faded until the walls were lost, somewhere in the darkness.
Little could be seen, but Kayleigh felt things moving in the dark, not just those things that touched her skin, but the strange presence of others. She sensed the air was full of feeling, an atmosphere that teemed with anticipation; a desire, waiting to be pulled from the edge of existence and made real.
The sound of crunching underfoot gradually drifted into earshot, getting louder and more defined with every step she took. The darkness lifted, and as it did so she made out a floor scattered with leaves. The autumnal yellows and browns glowed in the evening light that twinkled with a glorious red as the sun began its descent.
Looking around she discovered she was surrounded by tall trees in every direction that cast long, looming shadows in the twilight. The writhing tentacles had retreated but their presence could still be felt, squirming behind the trees as they gently wrapped their slimy appendages around the trunks in a grotesque mockery of ivy.
Cautiously, Kayleigh crept through the wood, her attention caught by flinching shadows and glimmering lights.
A vine shuffled on the tree it grew from, reacting to the passing presence of the confused girl. Twelve green buds opened instantaneously, revealing delicate blooms of fingernail sized beauty. Their purple and blue petals were vibrant in the fading light and as Kayleigh stopped to look on them she realised they were looking back. Within the centre of each flower was a single eye, almost human in design; their pupils moving up and down as they studied their human onlooker.
Strange as this sight was, Kayleigh was not scared. Unsettled as she undoubtedly felt, any feelings of actual fright were vanquished by an unknown sense of familiarity. Her mind, clouded by the surreal surroundings, was unable to recall the source of her feelings.
‘Confused?’ Cross’s voice cut through her thoughts.
Turning round, Kayleigh saw the sadistic smile of her pursuer appear in view as she walked out from behind a tree. Cross smiled at Kayleigh and disappeared again, walking behind the next trunk.
‘Do you know where you are?’ Cross asked, her question rich with contempt.
Her voice came from behind Kayleigh, making the girl turn and watch the image of the blonde haired killer emerge from behind another tree, far away from the place she’d disappeared from view. In and out of sight she walked, circling and stalking the teenager; appearing from behind seemingly random trees with no earthly logic to the path she was able to take.
‘I want that key, Kayleigh,’ Cross made every statement sound like a threat. ‘I want that pendant.’
‘Who are you people?’ Kayleigh cried. ‘What’s going on? Where am I?’
‘Oh, don’t you recognise this place?’ Cross spoke with a patronising tone. ‘You were here only last night. How could you forget a land of such disturbing beauty?’
‘You murdered my friends!’ Kayleigh screamed into the forest.
‘They had their time, and they will be forgotten,’ Cross’s tone changed to one of sincerity. ‘Let me help you. I can help you make peace with the world inside. The key in your hand is more than a piece of jewellery. It was no accident you have it, Kayleigh. It felt your pain, your anguish, and it was attracted to them. It is feeding off your dread.’
Kayleigh eyed the object in her hand, but didn’t respond to the words of her friend’s killer.
‘Look to your left,’ Cross continued. ‘In the clearing. Tell me what you see.’
Looking over her shoulder she caught the sight of a pure white stallion, glowing gold as it reflected the glorious rays of the setting sun. Calmly it swished its tail as it grazed on the grass below its feet. Raising its head into view, Kayleigh saw a singular, large horn, centred between its serene, black eyes that glistened like pearls.
It peacefully shook its mane and continued to feed whilst Kayleigh looked on, dumbfounded.
‘This is how it was,’ Cross commented, not waiting for a reply. ‘This is how it should be.’
Kayleigh’s heart began to melt as the sadness subsided.
‘Give me the key, Kayleigh,’ Cross asked, gently.
‘But it doesn’t want you,’ frustration bubbled behind the young woman’s eyes.
Looking back towards the unicorn she marvelled at its beauty, trying to find some reassurance in its vision. This was her protector, her friend. The apparition in her dreams that gave her the strength she carried throughout each day. Last night it had turned on her, its eyes full of hatred, and charged. The beautiful and majestic horn had speared Kayleigh, stabbing her chest and puncturing her lungs.
‘When did you wake up, Kayleigh?’ Cross asked, as though reading her thoughts. ‘Did you feel it pierce your heart? Did you feel yourself die?’
Kayleigh staggered backwards, recognising her words as they echoed Knight’s; her colleague they’d held prisoner.
‘Did you ever wake up?’ Cross continued. ‘Or have you pulled us all in? Is this your nightmare?’
Bloodied fingers clawed out from the carpet of dead leaves and gripped the toes of Kayleigh’s Converse trainers. Horrified she pulled back and watched as a head rose from the undergrowth. Rotting eyes stared up at her as the creature’s neck flapped open, spilling dark, red blood from a ragged wound. Through the blood and dirt that smeared its face, Kayleigh recognised the decomposing features.
‘Help us…’ came the
pathetic rasp of Sam as his broken body crawled through the mud.
In disgust, Kayleigh stepped backwards, tripping on a rock. As she landed on the ground, leaves fell away, revealing the rock to be something much more horrific.
‘Plea-se… Kay-leigh…’ came the disjointed words that filtered through the long grass, emanating from Eleanor’s severed head.
‘Kay…leigh…’ another familiar voice whispered through the wood.
In a panic she got to her feet, looking around for Ollie.
‘Kay. . . leigh…’ it came again, the sound just behind her left shoulder.
She turned and screamed. On a tree trunk, nailed to the bark, was the remnants of Ollie’s face, dismembered like an unmade jigsaw. The wood was stained dark with the dripping blood, whilst the skinned pieces moved as he called out to her. His beard rippled on his chin and his eyes followed the frightened girl as she moved.
Kayleigh ran from the decomposing fragments of her friends, but stumbled on the forest floor as the plants reached out and caught her legs, tripping her.
As she got back to her feet she turned to find the clawing corpse of Sam had disappeared, along with the putrid pieces of Eleanor and Ollie. Their nightmarish presence had vanished from view, but this did little to ease Kayleigh’s crumbling mind.
‘You want this?’ Kayleigh held up the silver object as tears streamed down her face. She pivoted on the spot a few times to allow the hidden Cross to get a good look at the key she held aloft. ‘Come get it, you bitch!’
Cross’s laugh echoed between the trees as the wind began to scream with the voices of a hundred tormented tongues.
The cacophony was suddenly silenced by the sound of a horse angrily snorting.
The sound gripped Kayleigh’s soul and as she looked back to the clearing she found the unicorn was gone.
