She stepped down onto the concrete, every nerve on fire. Every muscle waiting, dreading what was to come. She listened, but the cellar was deadly quiet. One more step and she saw the altar, on it the decomposing Aldona sat cross-legged and motionless. The once beautiful woman looked three weeks dead. Her hair was shedding, and great clumps were piled on the floor beside her. Her skin was slouching from her body, running down her face, leaving deep gashes beneath. She moved her grotesque head, and looked at Doris, her eyes bulging in their sockets. She shimmered, and metamorphosed into a huge snake. The head of the snake slithered towards Doris. It was the size of the desk, eyes holding Doris’s, willing her down into the cellar. She continued, mesmerized by the beast before her.
The head met Doris at the bottom of the steps. For a second, she was back in her nightmare, imagining this huge snake as it stalked her dreams. Paralyzed by fear, she knew she was going into shock. “No,” she screamed. This was not the time for hysterics. Jenny was all that mattered.
The snake moved back at her shout, but rushed forward, weaving in front of her. Its green and black scales oozed a gunk that left little splashes on the concrete. A pink tongue flicked from between parted lips, constantly tasting the air before it. Doris looked into its eyes. She could see the eyes of Aldona behind this new appearance. She could see the Celtic marks that ran down its undulating body. The tattoo on her chest throbbed, and an idea popped into her mind. Closing her eyes, she pleaded that this was not mad.
She tore open her blouse, and exposed her tattoo to the snake. “Let me pass, oh Great One. I worship you,” she said the words, her voice quivering as she bent her head low in supplication.
The snake reared back. Doris closed her eyes, expecting it to strike forward, and devour her. Nothing. She peeked out, looking up. The snake had drawn back, its pink tongue tasting the air. She cringed, but again nothing. Doris sidestepped, and walked past the snake. It did not move, just followed her with its eyes, its forked tongue continually flicking in and out, in and out.
She spotted Robert on the other side of the small room. He faced away from her, his hand raised, and he was unaware of her presence. His back was bare, marked by scratches from the concrete, and from Rosie’s earlier attack. She could see glimpses of Jenny behind him, tied to a post as she had been.
Doris pulled her blouse together, and hurried towards Robert. She saw him raise his hand. Saw the flash of the blade as it caught the light. Jenny screamed, the terror on her face all too apparent. At least her noise would mask Doris’s approach, allowing her the element of surprise.
What should she do? She was not strong enough to fight him. She closed her eyes, and bit back tears as she spotted the two bodies on the floor. Simon and Alex lay bloodied and still. She kept moving. They would recover. She hoped so anyway, but for now she had to keep moving. She heard a tick, tick, tick, of claws behind her, was it the hell-bat?
Robert raised the blade, pulling it back to strike at Jenny.
“No,” Doris screamed, what was behind her was forgotten, as she watched the knife dance towards Jenny.
Robert turned. Looking her straight in the eyes, he laughed. “You’re too late Doris.” Turning back, he flashed the knife in front of Jenny’s eyes, enjoying her last few seconds of terror. Lowering the blade, he pulled the horn from his waistband and prepared. The blade glided towards her throat, ready for a smooth cut that would sever down to the bone in one fluid movement.
Jenny was fighting as hard as she could, but tied tight and exhausted, she could not avoid the blade.
He took a breath, and closed his eyes to savor the moment. Doris rushed towards him, but she knew it was too late. She would not close the gap in time. Jenny tossed her head side to side against the post, but each time the blade came closer. Roberts’s eyes shone with victory and delight. The knife inched towards her, and Jenny froze, her eyes deep pools of despair; there was no escape.
An autumn brown smudge of pure muscle leaped from behind Doris. Rosie hit Robert square in the chest, snarling and snapping at his face. The impact knocked him backward onto the floor.
The dog launched for his throat, finding the previous wounds, and tearing them open with her teeth. Robert had lost the knife in the fall. He searched for it with his right hand, whilst fighting off the crazy dog with his left. He could feel his bare back on the concrete, scraping chunks out of his skin with the force of the dog. He could feel her hot breath, inches from his face, her jaws snapping at his neck.
He saw the knife, and reached out to grab it. She gripped his arm, biting in deep, severing blood vessels and tendons. The arm began to go numb, and he felt her claws scratching into his chest, ripping away chunks of flesh. He rose up his knees, and pushed them into the dog’s flanks. Grunting with the effort he managed to kick her off him. She landed hard, and he tried to rise, but she leaped at him and knocked him to the ground with the force of a charging bull.
He pulled his knees back, and locked his feet against her back legs. She slipped slightly, but continued her ferocious attack, feverish growls, rising from deep within her throat. He was losing strength. He tried a spell. “Duratus, freeze.” Nothing happened. Stunned, he wondered if his power had finally gone. Then he saw it, the small velvet pouch that swung from her collar, a protection spell to ward off his magic, for some reason the little talismans worked on animals, but not people. He grabbed for the pouch but his arm was caught by her savage teeth, shaken and pushed back to the floor. Screaming in rage and pain, he brought his knees up again. This time he managed to get them under the dog, throwing her to one side.
He grabbed the knife before she could recover, and launch another attack. She rolled away, whining as she hit the floor, but quickly regained her feet, and headed back for him. “No Rosie, wait,” Jenny screamed, seeing the knife Robert had hidden in his right hand.
Rosie halted. Uncertain, she kept her eyes on Robert, but obeyed her mistress. She stood, panting heavily, and watched as the man approached Jenny.
He laughed at the dog, shaking himself, feeling his throat and damaged arm. He walked back to Jenny. “How sweet you would give up your own life for the dogs.” He stood before Jenny, his chest badly scratched, and blood pouring from the wound in his throat.
He raised the knife. “Oh, this is going to feel so good,” he said as he poised ready to slash at Jenny’s throat. The blade seemed to catch the light as it lowered towards her.
Doris stepped out from behind the post with a huge book. Using all her strength, she launched the two-inch tome between Robert and his victim. The blade hit the volume, and sliced through it almost to the other side. Jenny moved sideways, and away from the enraged man. Doris had loosened the belt, freeing her as Rosie had made her attack.
Robert shook the book, and tried to remove the blade, and as he did so Rosie grabbed his left hand. She dug in her haunches, and pulled with all her weight, forcing him to let go of the knife. It dropped to the floor, still buried in the book. Doris ran forward, and threw the book with the sacrificial knife still embedded in it into the waiting pit.
The snake god shrieked with anger as the sacrifice was foiled. She rushed forward, her coils scraping across the dusty concrete. Her eyes bore into Doris, and held her paralyzed in their gaze. She reared above the terrified woman, spitting at her face. Doris closed her eyes, and waited. She knew she was dead, but that was all right because Jenny was safe. She waited, and felt relaxed. She was resigned to her fate. The worry and fear gone, it was over at last.
Hot breath from the snake caressed her skin. Her own breath ached in her chest, and she could smell the putrefaction that came from the snake. Then it was gone. In her mind she saw it pulling back for the final strike, and she opened her eyes, a scream lodged in her throat, but the snake turned before disappearing down the hole after the knife.
Rosie had hold of Roberts’s left hand, and was hauling him, bit by bit, away from Jenny. He tried with all his might to pull the hand free. The wrist was coated in blood fro
m a deep wound and was slippery, but the bull-type jaws of the boxer were locked on, and would not budge. He tried punching and kicking her, but she was just out of reach. He was almost a comic character, dragged inexorably backward as he fought for his life. Like a child having a paddy, he waved his limbs and shrieked.
Leaning back on her haunches, Rosie bounced him away from Jenny. Her tiger stripped muscles rippled with the effort as she gradually moved his bulk.
Robert ceased his flapping, and dug his heels into the floor. It was all he could do to prevent the dog from pulling him forward. He continued to hurl spells at the animal as she pulled him forward. “Stop, freeze, die.” Nothing worked. The pouch swung from her collar and teased him. Excruciatingly close, yet just out of his reach. His bottom lip protruded, and the image of the spoilt child was increased, but Robert would not go easily.
He twisted 180 degrees to his left in one sudden movement, and nearly pulled himself free. He gained a little ground, inching the dog towards him. Could he reach the pouch? No. He leaned back again, the dog’s muscles bunched with the strain. Blood mixed with spittle, and flew from her jaws as she shook her broad boxer head to gain a firmer hold.
Jenny watched as he inched the dog away from her. Moving sideways, she had less power, and Robert was going for a bar that nestled against the edges of the seal. “Rosie, back,” Jenny shouted, and the dog dropped its head and dug in her claws, her neck muscles bunched, and her hindquarters seemed to hop, but she went backward and pulled his hand with her.
Desperation skittered across his face, and for a second he looked as if he would sit down, defeated, and refuse to play. He allowed the dog to pull him, and the sudden change loosened her grip. Like a flash, he leaned his full weight into the pull and crossed his right hand over to reach the bar.
Rosie reset her bite, and the battle was even. Triumph lit up his eyes, and he put his full weight into the pull.
“Rosie, release,” Jenny said from behind him. Robert smiled, thinking she was afraid of the bar.
The dog let go instantly. Robert’s own momentum flung him backward. Joy crossed his face as he circled his arms, trying desperately to regain his balance. He believed he had made it, that Jenny was letting him go. Backward he fell, still waving his arms, still desperate for balance. Backward towards the pit, and his smug look changed to one of terror. He tried to throw himself forwards, but it was too late. Spiraling his arms, and with a petulant look on his face he sailed over the edge and disappeared into the pit.
His screams echoed deep down into the bowels of the earth for almost a full minute, gradually getting weaker and weaker until eventually fading to nothing.
Jenny and Doris rushed over to the unconscious men. Would they survive? Does immortal really mean immortal? Rosie ran to her mistress, her gait uneven, her face tattered and covered in blood. She pushed her bloodied jowls into Jenny’s arms, and the two friends pressed close, gaining comfort from touch and life.
They watched Doris bend over Alex, feeling for a pulse, her face sad as she failed to find one. She sat beside him, her back to the pit.
Jenny tried to shout a warning as the green and red snake burst up out of the seal heading for Doris. But it was too late, the snake rushed past her.
Doris turned and saw the goddess. She had betrayed her trust, and must now pay the price. She waited, expecting the worst. Aldona reared up in front of her, towering above her, and then slid back so her head was eye to eye with the shivering woman.
“You betrayed me.” Her voice was a hiss, but still understandable.
“I’m sorry.”
A hand appeared from her side. She reached down her glistening body, and scooped a handful of red gore and offered it to Doris.
Doris did nothing, unsure what was expected.
“Take this. Feed half to each of the two men. They will heal very quickly.”
Doris held out her hand. “Why?”
“They are beloved acolytes of my sister. She requested this favor.” The snake turned, looked back, “Would you like to know what will happen to the wormy man?”
Doris looked at Jenny. They nodded. “Yes.”
“He wanted to know how to kill an immortal. The only way is to throw them into one of my pits. It is a sacred hole, imbued with magic that reaches all the way to my dimension. Once there, they live forever in torment. I will feed on his body, keeping him alive for as long as I desire, and that will be a very long time. He will burn and writhe in agony, for that is the choice he made.” The snake winked at Doris. The slow movement chilled her blood, and then it turned and slithered back down the hole.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Jenny and Doris fed the two men the gore from Aldona, uncertain if they were doing good or harm. The thick black goo had slid down their throats like some living creature, but it worked, and enabled the girls to get the men up the steps and into bed.
Between them, they had also managed to provide some sheep's blood, allowing the men to heal at an even faster rate.
Rosie had been to the vets, and would make a complete recovery despite a few stitches. She was curled up at Jenny’s feet next to Simon’s bed as they watched him sleep. His hair was growing back, and his face was almost fully recovered. Jenny reached down feeling his face it was hot, almost feverish, she sighed before turning and leaving the room, Rosie followed her mistress.
* * *
It was two full days before Simon and Alex regained consciousness, and were able to come downstairs. They found the two women, sat together in the conservatory, Rosie curled up on the sofa, her kind head nestled on Jenny’s lap.
Simon entered first, his eyes uncertain. “We have some explaining to do.”
Jenny leaped up and hugged him, closing her eyes she felt his strong body against hers. She opened her eyes, and saw her dad. Pulling away from Simon, she hugged him too. Tears ran down her cheeks as she pulled him close. “It is so good to see you two alive.” She stopped, unsure she pushed Alex away, and returned to the sofa. The distance between them said it all.
The two men shared a look, shame was written on both faces as they began to explain as much as they could.
Simon went first, pulling up a chair he sat looking directly at Jenny, his face red despite the pallor from his injury, his eyes were tormented as the words seemed to catch in his throat.
“Cherry my daughter had cancer. The sacrifice was not right but she begged me, and it was a kind of blessing. It was the one way I had to release her from her pain, it was her decision that I gain years from the waste of her life.” Tears were falling down his face, over the few remaining scars from the acid burns to land on the floor beside him.
Jenny nodded her own face shiny with tears. “Never again?” she asked.
“Never again.” He nodded. “I promise.”
Her father pulled up another chair, he looked more scared that she would reject him than he had been when fighting. He swallowed, and made his confession. “I sacrificed my son Thomas, he had killed two women that I know of, and had beaten many more.” He paused to watch for her reaction.
Her face was blank, emotionless; she nodded for him to continue.
“I regret the fact that I did not prevent him killing, more than I regret his sacrifice. At the time I was not noble, I was a junkie hooked on magic, it was Helen, your mum who healed me. Jenny she forgave me, can you?”
Jenny dropped her head into her hands, and let the tears come, both men had genuine explanations, but it was hard to forgive. She remembered the maniac face of Robert, the feel of the knife pressed against her throat. She had known she was dead, was sure he would sacrifice her. But would Robert have sat with his daughter years down the road, making a logical explanation of why he killed her.
“Stop it,” she shouted more to herself than to the two men.
Doris reached out and took her hand. Jenny grabbed it squeezing it tight before saying, “I forgive both of you, the circumstances were extreme, but you need to know the temptation will
become stronger to repeat the act the closer you come to death.”
Alex smiled, “I don’t need to worry, your thirtieth birthday has passed, and I’m too old to raise another child to thirty, even if I could go through the ritual again.”
Simon stood. “Look, I ordered a work gang, the pit is being sealed up and filled, never again I swear.”
* * *
The friends all descended to the cellar, except Rosie, who was left cuddled up in the conservatory. Going back down those stairs was an emotional journey for all of them.
Simon relived his daughters sacrifice, remembered the surge of energy, the joy and the sorrow. He remembered the sight of Jenny, her fear as she was tied to the same post his daughter had gone to willingly.
Alex thought about Robert, how he allowed the fiend into his life, and how he had killed his lovely Helen. Tears burnt his eyes, and her face was in his mind as he stepped into the cellar. He could never return to Raseby Manor, the house had been left to Jenny, and was to be sold. None of them, wanted to spend another night in it. Their memories were spoiled by the horrors that had happened there. He was to stay at Simon’s for a while, a new identity would be made for him, and eventually he would find a place of his own, but without Helen he longed for death, knowing they would then meet again.
Flee Page 27
