by Steven Evans
Without warning, she made a fist, clenching it and slowly releasing it, then, once again clenching it, and…WHAM! Her hand ripped through Mr. Harte’s chest and revealed his still beating heart. Every beat sent blood spurting into the crowd. Pulling her arm back through the cavity now gashed open in his chest; Willow held his heart high in the air, proudly showing the people her new trophy. Mr. Harte slowly touched the chasm that had just been trenched through his chest, and as his mind finally understood the situation, he collapsed in a lifeless mound of flesh.
Her tactics were convincing enough, but her next move drove her point home. The still beating heart, slowly losing its purpose, began to wither in her grasp. Holding it above her head, she swayed under the sticky drops of red raining down on her head and covering her face. The people, already used to her methods, never flinched at the awesome power displayed by Willow.
“You all should pay heed to Mr. Harte’s grand folly. Do not let his mistakes also become your judgment. Mr. Harte paid the ultimate price for his dissention. His lust for power, even after these centuries past, brought the sickness to us, and this same fate awaits all who submit to his doctrine. As far as this outsider is concerned: he is mine! If anyone harms one hair on his beautiful head, my vengeance will be swift, and, oh yes, your suffering will delight me to no end. Do I need to repeat myself, or have you all received the message? I would love for Mr. Harte to have a companion on his final journey. Hahaha!”
Willow gracefully danced like a ballerina as she made her way back to the door. She turned sharply and stared indignantly at the people still frozen by fear.
“Mark my words, if he bleeds, if he so much as receives a splinter, one of you will leave this place. For each drop of blood that falls from his precious veins, one of you will surrender your existence, and I won’t be as merciful as I was with Mr. Harte!”
Her exit was sudden and as flawless as her entrance.
Chapter Fourteen
Memories
Willow was gone. After a few disoriented moments, the people regained their senses. They just continued the meeting like nothing had happened. I stood there in disbelief; I had witnessed Willow’s unbiased wrath, but no one else seemed to care.
How could they be so indifferent to Mr. Harte’s demise? He was a member of their community, and yet they pretended as though he had never existed. After spending lifetimes together, he was just gone! I knelt over the spot where he had fallen, but there was no evidence that his last breath had ever been expelled there. The floor revealed no signs that his blood was spilled and drained lazily onto it.
I grabbed Adder’s arm, “Did you see her?”
His brow furled as he pulled away, “See who?”
“You know…” I waved my arms in the air, “the darkness…the evil…the sickness that is Willow!”
He was noticeably agitated by my response. He lowered his voice, “Son, you know these people have it in for you. Why would you give them another excuse to run you out of town?”
“Damn it, Adder! She was here! She touched every person in this place. She murdered Mr. Harte!”
“You finally did it, didn’t ya? You went and lost your mind! Who is this Willow that you claim killed someone, and this Mr. Harte…who is that?”
I stepped back and looked at him quizzically. His body language said that he believed what he was saying. But how was that possible? I turned and studied the faces of everyone who still remained in their seats, and they all appeared blissfully ignorant of the events that had taken place.
Adder laid his hand on my shoulder, and his genuine look of concern felt real as he asked, “Son, are ya ok? You’re not looking so well!”
“Adder, you really don’t remember anything? I mean, you told everyone that you were the original elder, and that I should be executed immediately. How can you just forget that?”
“Son, I never said such a thing as that!” Maybe you should go home and get some rest. I suggest if you have any of the good stuff hidden somewhere that you break it out. You really don’t look too good, Son.”
I pushed my way to the back row where Gertrude was still sitting with her ghastly group of minions and screamed, “Gertrude, you…you must’ve seen her! She stared straight into your eyes as she came down the aisles!”
She gave me a ‘matter of fact’ look, “Mister, your stories may have been a big deal in the big city, but here in our community, they make you look crazy.”
“Crazy! I look crazy? Wha…wait. Explain these freakishly discolored things sitting beside you, then!”
“Mister…” Her expression grew cold, “here, in the civilized world, we don’t make fun of the sick! We treat them with a little common decency, and I hope you’ll give them that same courtesy!”
Confusion was eating at my reasoning skills and clogging my thoughts, “But, but… how ca-” I cut myself off when I noticed someone.
Mr. Allen tried sneaking past me in the hopes I didn’t confront him, but it was hard to miss such a drama queen when the entire room was held in captive silence.
“Mr. Allen, please say you know what I’m talking about!”
His eyes told me ‘go to Hell’ as he spoke, “Even if I did, you really don’t believe I would utter one word in support of your wild exaggerations, do you!” A moment after he ran out, he stuck his bony neck back inside the doorway and said, “You don’t belong here, but for some reason, as much as I want to see you strung up in the center of town, after hearing your sorrowful pleas of agony resonating through the serene countryside and witnessing justice at its finest, I’m compelled to just leave it alone. Strange… why would I feel that way?”
I screamed, “Because Willow is your master, and she controls all of you!”
I was about to come unglued and just explode on these silly ass people, but somehow, from the corner of my eye, I saw James waving from outside. So, I gave in and surrendered to the insanity as I walked discouraged from the courthouse.
“Mister, hurry up! Come with me! I can’t talk with them watching.”
“James, I’m not in any mood for games. If you have something to say, just come out with it already.”
He grabbed my hand and was tugging with all his might.
“Please, come with me! I can’t do this around them. Please, mister!”
So, I followed him into the dark mysterious alleys where he truly seemed to feel more at home, where I knew that he was comfortable being himself without all the prying eyes and ears interfering with his honesty.
He weaved his way in and out of the alleys as if he was hunting the exit to a labyrinth. After he reached his destination, he turned, looking completely horrified.
“Mister, please, I beg of you, do not attempt to figure out what happened tonight. These people aren’t lying to you when they say they don’t know what you’re talking about. It may have been only minutes before, but Willow blocked their memories. She won’t allow them to remember! If you pressure them for answers, if you continue to push them to remember, you will only lead them to their ends. Willow will exact her revenge the very second she feels they have a clue as to what took place.”
“James, how am I supposed to forget it or pretend it didn’t happen? Why would she leave my memory intact but no one else’s?”
The longer we stood there, the more fidgety he became. He knelt and wiped his hand on the ground, bringing up a handful of dust.
“Listen well, because I won’t repeat myself, and I’ll never talk of this again! We are all food for the soul! She needs us, but she won’t allow that to get in the way of the pleasure she derives from our energy. I told you before that none of this is real. Well, this town and the people in it, a long time ago, became overwhelmed with what they call the sickness. In reality, it was only fear and ignorance that led to our problems. You see, the threat of witches had crippled even the most religious and educated of the community. We were once a peace-loving community that only dreamed of being able to live how we wanted and to worship how w
e wanted. We were driven away by society, because our ways were strange to them and, therefore, deemed unacceptable. When we found this land, we made it our own. Even though we were closed off from the rest of the world, its prejudices soon caught up to us.”
“James, you’re losing me here! Either make your point or leave me alone!”
“I’m trying! Shut up! Anyway, the threat of these Satan-loving women infiltrated our community. Hysteria soon followed, as mistrust became the normal reaction. Who knows if there were any real witches? But belief is a wicked thing when misguided.”
“This is where things go awry. Adder wasn’t able to find an acceptable solution, so Mr. Harte was appointed as his successor. Now Mr. Harte had his own way of doing things. He had no patience for trivial issues; no, he never believed in such superstitions as witches, but his people did, and they implored him to restore peace to their hearts by any means necessary. As deeply religious people normally do, we resorted to a blanket policy of violence. They wanted to find salvation from the plight they were caught up in, and Mr. Harte had the answer. Yes, his methods were extreme, but they proved to be highly effective in silencing the masses. He decreed that all persons accused, suspected, or even thought to have ever been in contact with someone, who was known to be a witch, would be put through trials to either absolve their souls or forever damn them. The people were, at first, less than happy about his tactics, but they soon came around. They even began to enjoy the spectacle, and it quickly became a town gathering type of event.”
I was pacing back and forth, cracking my knuckles and trying to decide if I was gonna keep listening to this lame ass story.
“James!” I yelled. “What the Hell are you trying to say?”
His eyes were twitching nonstop, and, as a result of a nervous tick, he’d already pulled a bald spot over his right ear. When he put both hands on my shoulders and forcefully shook me, I wasn’t prepared for the strength in his grasp, and I found myself unable to pull away.
“Mister, we did unspeakable things to innocent women. Willow…Katherine…was one of them! She was no witch! At least, she wasn’t before that final night. We made her what she became!
“James, I already know this! I’ve seen the love this community holds for its people first hand. She’s taken me to that night and forced me to watch as the flesh melted from her body. The whole time, she never cried out for forgiveness or begged for mercy. When given a chance to repent and admit her sins, she merely cursed the town and everyone in it. I know this!”
“You think you know the story, but her death was centuries ago. Our deaths were centuries ago! How are we still here?”
“James, I can’t answer that.”
“Yes, you can! Your daughter demanded that you find the secret behind the mark. Well, here it is.”
Shocked to hear him say those words, I threw my hand up in his face, “How the Hell do you know what my daughter told me! What else do you know?”
“Mister, I know it all! I’m sacrificing myself by telling you what I know, but I believe you’re the one to end her reign of terror. She’s satisfied her vengeance many times over, but her appetite for serving agony is insatiable. She can’t stop now! We are all food for the soul! You are the key. If she can convert you, she will have fulfilled her end of the bargain she made with the darkness. You are the last of the bloodline that escaped the day of her death. With you still alive, there’s a chance she can be stopped. The mark she branded you with only serves as a tracking device. It connects you to her. It can’t be erased or washed away, but your soul can be cleared and saved.”
My rage was filling the air, and I could no longer contain it. I made a quick leg sweep, and James found himself laid flat out on the ground. He was staring into my eyes, which had grown as cold and vengeful as Willow’s, and I was sitting on his waist with one hand firmly around his neck, continuously applying pressure. I paid no attention to the gagging or the drool that he was spitting at me. I just held him there, intent on getting the full story.
“Ok, so I’m the last, right? Then why does she need you people?”
“Yes, you are the last, and she needs us, because…” His knuckles were turning white as he tried feverishly to ease my grip on his throat, but his attempts were to no avail. “…we are all food for the soul.”
“Wait! Are you saying that the souls of the people in this town have kept her alive for centuries?”
Intrigued by what his answer might be, I eased my grip so I could hear him clearly.
“Now you’re getting it. Remember what I said about the storms? How when they end, someone will have unmistakably gone missing without a trace? How everyone in town always believed the storms chose a certain victim? That’s how Willow covered her tracks. It’s how the childish fairytales of supernatural powers hidden within the storms began. She’s able to block memories, so her exploits were forgotten as soon as they happened. We are the food for her soul! As long as we are here, trapped in this make-believe existence, she’ll always have a power source.”
“James, do you hear yourself talking? Do you know how completely insane you sound? She feeds on your souls! Does she need a bib?”
My bullshit meter was hitting max capacity, and I was ready to let it boil over.
“Mister…” James squeaked. “Please, you have to believe me. Hey, wait, I know! I can prove it.”
I stood up, threw my hands in the air, and shrugged my shoulders. “Well, I’ve ridden this crazy train through every stop so far, so I may as well see where the ride ends! How can you prove it, James?”
A big shit-eating grin pierced his lips, “You know those odd-looking people sitting by Gertrude at the town meeting debacle?”
“It’s an image forever burned in my retinas, James. Who could forget those freaks?”
“They aren’t freaks! They’re newbies, or I guess I should say, they’re the next in line for Willow’s main course. She doesn’t just finish them off quick like she did Mr. Harte. Sometimes she gets off by playing with her food and dragging out their deaths. She wants them to suffer and feel her pain. She wants to see the betrayal reflecting in their eyes as she siphons the last bit of energy from their soul. That’s why you only saw them at the meeting.”
“That actually makes a little sense. If what you’re saying is true, how in the world am I gonna stop her?”
“I’m afraid that’s where you’re on your own, Mister!”
“Oh great, tease me with a way out, only to slam the door in my face as I’m turning the knob. How do you know all this?”
“Mister, my freedom and privileges end with knowledge and answers. I can’t do more than talk. Actions are out of my realm of possibilities. She won’t allow me to help other than that.”
“Well, don’t stop now! Give me everything you got that might help me stop her.”
“I’m sorry. I’ve told you everything I know. Katherine’s betrayal, Willow’s birth, the town’s purgatory, and how you’re mixed up in this miserable mess. There’s nothing more to tell.”
“James, why are you helping me? Why have you tried to help me all along? What do you mean my ancestors escaped? How? Why are you helping me when you know what she’ll do to you? What’s in it for you?”
He bowed his head, closed his eyes, and simply whispered, “Peace!”
With that, he stepped into the shadows, and the darkness consumed him. I slid my hands in my pockets and lazily headed home.
Chapter Fifteen
Calm in the Storm
I woke up to a pounding head, and my chest felt like it had just been cracked open for heart surgery. Even after a decent night’s sleep, I was still exhausted. Maybe I had reached my breaking point on stress, or maybe I just couldn’t process all the bullshit. Regardless, there was no room in my head for any more information. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to find the answers-- at least, not in the few short minutes I’d had last night.
I was given answers, yet nothing has been solved. Food for the soul, what di
d that even mean? Newbies? I didn’t care for Mr. Harte, but no one deserved a death that horrifying. Finally, James had opened up, but had he actually said anything of use?
I traveled aimlessly from one room to the next all day. My mind was constantly rethinking everything, but I could find no explanation for it. Had I discovered the truth to the mark, or was I being brainwashed? James could be working with her. He did have special privileges that no one else had. Why would Willow allow his constant interference and not end him like she had Mr. Harte? Was that what was going on? Was Willow using him as a distraction to keep me off balance and confused? I was always second guessing myself and everything around me.
As night gently made its descent, I found myself walking out onto the porch. I was gazing into the sky, searching for something but not knowing what I was looking for. My eyes were dissecting the entire yard in a grid pattern. Just then, the weeping willow came to life as the winds made its limbs dance in the breeze.
The spring, performing an intricate ballet as ripples formed and gently floated towards the shore, parted in the middle. The woman appeared, and as she neared the bank, she smiled at me.
“You can’t save me!”
“I know, I know!”
“You can’t…”
Tired of being fed the same lines, I screamed, “Yeah, I can’t save you or anyone else! I know!”
She sashayed through the air like she was one with it. When she came to stand right in front of me, I saw that her lips looked moist, and I noticed that she was puckering. She came closer to my face. Her eyes slowly and peacefully closed, and our lips touched. They were so tender and soft; I didn’t want it to end! Once again, I wanted her! I needed her! I must have her again!
