by J A Campbell
"I wished for you."
Henry dropped his head into his hands. He gave a strangled animal-like sob and raked his fingers through his hair. Another curdled cry echoed through the world. Alice sniffed the air and gagged. It was the stench of rotten meat and burning and sulphur and, something metallic… blood. She ran her hand over the gritty floor and through the bars. Henry's shoulders rose up around his neck and he whimpered into his hands. Alice sighed and looked around her. Far beyond the blood river, spiky shadow people hurled axes at the rock.
Alice shifted as the floor tore into her skin through her skirts. She glanced down and her mouth dropped open. Resting by her feet was the tinderbox, as grubby and as simple as it had always been. She grasped it in both hands and kissed it.
"You." The voice boomed through her ears, as if it came from inside her. The creature loomed outside the cage, hunched and crumple-faced. His mouth was slack, betraying one lone tooth, as sharp and shining as a knife. "Where did you come from?"
Alice glanced at Henry, who had dropped his hands in his lap. He shook his head, but said nothing.
"I died," Alice said, enveloping the tinderbox in her dress and smoothing out the fabric. She straightened her shoulders and tipped up her nose. "I'm dead. I belong here."
"You're new. I ain't seen you before." The creature sniffed at the bars. "You don't smell dead to me neither."
"Well I can assure you that I'm as dead as a doornail." Alice stretched her lips as much as she could. "So you may resume your duties and leave me be."
The creature sniffed again, his snout convulsing at the bars.
"I'll see about you," he muttered.
Alice watched him lumber away. The fear ached in her belly and she suddenly realised she wasn't breathing. She looked toward Henry. He shook his head.
"They know. They will be back," he said. "Don't fool yourself into thinking that you've outsmarted them. Hellish beasts have brains enough to woo man into damnation after all."
"Don't worry." Alice smiled. "I have a plan."
Henry bowed his head and said nothing. For the first time since his death, Alice truly saw him. A trickle of blood ran from the top of his head, down the back of his ear, and over his neck. His skin was yellow and puckered like a rotten apple and his uniform, once a muddy green, was thick with sooty slime. He was deathly thin, so thin that his skin sucked at his bones and his eyeballs bulged out of their sockets. How she longed to reach out and hold him, to feed him, to love him, just like before.
A bell began to clang over the hills, and tiny shadow creatures scuttled from their crevices, up and over the mountain tops. Behind them, something squawked. Alice jumped, turning in time to see a winged beast swoop past their cages, its face mangled with fear.
"Did you see–" She glanced to Henry, but his white face said enough.
"They're coming," he muttered, slinking backward, his hands scuffing against the ground. He hit the back bars of the cage and curled his arms around himself, burying his head tightly between his legs.
Alice turned her head back to the hills. She fancied that she could hear a thudding, heavy and deliberate, from the other side. The sky above the mountains seemed to blacken, and the river seemed to lurch with an overflow of blood. Alice squinted. In the water, lumps trundled downhill, smacking into rocks, rolling over and over with the tide.
"There are bodies in the river." Her voice was low, too low for Henry to hear, but she was saying it for her own benefit more than anything. The words alone brought a flood of bile to her throat. She retched and dropped her head into her hands, sniffing as the tears flowed down her cheeks. All the while, the thudding grew heavier, and the world around it more and more silent.
"Who," the voice was deep, like the rumbling of a thunderstorm, "are you?" Alice didn't dare to raise her head. "If you do not wish to speak, we are not averse to cutting out your tongue." Every consonant was enunciated, every word relished.
Alice swallowed and looked up. The view took her by surprise. The hideous creature she had expected to own the voice was, in fact, a man, handsome and suited in the latest fashions, carrying an ivory-tipped cane. His eyes were a sparkling blue, his hair full, his chin sturdy and shaved close to the skin. His lips lifted as she surveyed him.
"My name is Alice," she said, puckering her mouth closed at the end of the sentence.
"Well Alice," said the man, pushing both hands onto his cane handle and leaning against it, "What brings you to our humble abode? Business or pleasure?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Why are you here?" He bared his teeth slightly. "I don't recall being made aware of your presence before this very moment, which leads me to believe that you are not meant to be here."
"Oh, yes sir, I am." Her voice was quick and her tongue stumbled over the words.
"Do you know who I am?" Alice shook her head and bit her lip. "I am Lucifer, the light of this land, the thief of life, the bringer of retribution. This is my world and you are in it without my consent. That is a problem for me, and, you will find, a problem for you also." He turned to the creature looming behind him. "What shall we do to solve our little problem?"
"She ain't dead." The creature grunted, his one tooth dripping with saliva.
"No, she most certainly isn't," Lucifer said, propping a finger on his chin, "She's fresh as a flower, as lively as a child. We can't have that, it simply wouldn't do." He narrowed his eyes at Alice. "You must understand my dilemma."
In the next cage, Henry began to sob. His chest convulsed and he let out a string of stuttered gasps for air, clasping his hands over his ears. His damp hair snaked across his face.
"Deal with that, will you?" Lucifer nodded toward him. The creature chuckled and lumbered around the cage, his hand opening and closing, his green and grubby fingernails scratching against his palm. Alice watched dumbly as he reached Henry's crumpled body. He extended one finger upwards to examine it, then, grinning, he reached it out toward the back of Henry's neck and sliced it across his skin. Henry screamed, his hands jerking toward his throat as the creature peeled back his skin and pulled it away. Henry scrambled forward and his skin came away like a bloody banana peel, drooping over his back. The muscle beneath it was red and blotchy.
"Stop it!" Alice jumped at the bars, her hands pounding against them. Lucifer held up his hand and the creature's face fell. He returned to his master, his shoulders slumped forward.
"We don't care for snivelling here," Lucifer said, stepping toward the cage. He reached a hand through the bars and stroked a finger over Alice's cheek. "We have no pity, there is no charity. We take rather than give, lust rather than love. We do things differently here." Alice pulled away from his touch and he groaned. "I had thought that you might be of some use to me. Obviously you are trouble, and not the good kind." He clicked his fingers and the creature grinned. "Kill her."
"Henry," Alice strained against the bars, extending her arm as far as she could. Henry was slumped, face down on the floor, whimpering. Two pools of blood gathered at either side of his body, and his skin fell down his back in a rumpled mess. Alice's fingers scraped against his head; they came away red. The creature circled the cages, grinning.
"Come 'ere," he muttered, "I ain't gonna 'urt ya, I promise." He started to laugh, his laughter soon convulsing into strangled screeching. Alice scrambled away from the bars, her eyes on Henry.
"Do it quickly." Lucifer held a thumb and forefinger to his brow. "I don't have all day to deal with this sort of disturbance."
"I'm tryin', Boss." The creature's smile dropped and his mouth thinned in determination. He clasped his hands shut and began to pound at the bars, cantering back and forth. "Come 'ere you." He swiped his arm into the cage and it slammed against the floor as Alice dodged back, "I said come 'ere."
"Henry!" Alice cried, "Henry, please." She grasped at his hair; strands of it came away in her hands and fluttered to the floor like feathers. He groaned and rolled his head from side to side, covering his face in a thin layer
of dust. "We need to go, Henry. I need to take you with me." Alice reached beneath her skirts and pulled out the tinderbox. It seemed brighter than before. She opened it. Henry's skin shuddered out of the corner of her eye. She took a deep breath, held it and scraped the flint against the fire steel. The tinder burst into flames and her hand was filled with light.
"What is that?" Lucifer strode forward, clasping his hands around the bars. He pushed his head to the wall of the cage, so that his face was framed with bones. "What is that?" The ground began to rumble. The hills behind them thundered and shook. The bloody river gushed, its load barrelling from the top to the bottom of the hill in fresh, frothy waves. The fire that licked the mountains stuttered, its flames rising up, then falling, until it was nothing but a steady glow of embers. The world fell dark around them. The creature squeaked. The only light was the fluttering of the tinderbox in Alice's hand.
"Give that to me." Lucifer's hand appeared, lit up by the tinderbox. Alice snatched it backward and he disappeared into the darkness.
"Master," the creature stuttered, "I feel something–"
"Shut up, you fool!"
Alice lifted the box toward the creature's voice. Standing just beyond the bars of the cage were the three dogs, the first with eyes the size of saucers, the second with eyes the size of dishes and the third, with eyes the size of wheels. They wore no ribbons and no scrolls, they simply stared at her expectantly, jaws dripping, eyes wide.
"What are these beasts doing in my kingdom?" Lucifer stepped forward and made to grab the first dog's scruff. It turned and snapped at him, its face rumpling in ferocity. Lucifer stumbled back. "Deal with these mutts," he said, turning to the creature.
"But sir, I dunno what to do with 'em. They ain't Hell creatures, they ain't bound."
"Just deal with them."
"But sir–"
The third dog began to growl, his mouth trembling with the force of it. He stretched his neck toward the creature and sniffed. The creature yelped and raced to cower behind Lucifer.
"Get these things out of my kingdom." Lucifer bared his teeth and turned toward Alice. His face bobbed, light flitting across his features like a jack-o'-lantern. "If you don't, you will be sorry that you ever had the audacity not to die."
Alice held the light up to the dogs' glowing faces.
"Please grant me one last wish." She glanced to Henry's curled up and barely moving body. "Please take my husband and me home, to our true home, where we belong."
The first dog dropped his head to the side, as if thinking. The second dog blinked at her. The third dog sniffed at the air between him and the flaming tinder.
"I forbid you to leave my land." Lucifer snatched at the tinderbox through the bars, missing by an inch. "That man is my property. I won him fair and square through sin. I refuse to let my prize wander through my gates. I forbid it."
"Master…?" The creature tugged at Lucifer's jacket.
"What?" Lucifer turned, hitting his paws away. He glanced at the third dog and stumbled backward. The dog's eyes were burning like fire. The second dog's eyes shone like ice. The first dog's eyes glinted like metal. In unison, all three dogs turned and bounded away, heading for the hills. As they ran, the light rose, the fire licking at the mountain tops once more. The glow of the tinderbox began to fade the further the dogs went, and Alice's heart began to plummet.
"As you can see," Lucifer said, straightening himself up, "I am the lord and master of this kingdom. My word is law. My will is done."
The creature nodded, his dopey smile reattaching itself to his lips once more. He swayed forward, splaying his blood-tipped fingers. Alice fell back. To her side, Henry muttered something under his breath. His head swayed, his eyes blindly searching for her. She reached out a hand and laid it next to his face, before his eyes. His mouth hardened and he jerked one hand forward with a grunt, laying it flat beside hers. Alice whimpered and clasped it, holding him as tightly as she could. The creature continued to patrol.
A howl echoed over the hills. The creature jumped as something crashed, rattling the ground. Far away, someone screamed, followed by another and another.
"See about that." Lucifer nodded.
"But sir–"
"Go see about that." Lucifer's tone was hard. "I will deal with these insects." The creature paused for a second, and then lolloped off like an ape, his razor-clawed paws scraping at the ground by his sides. "Now," Lucifer smiled at Alice, "you think that you can wander into my world and follow your own rules, don't you? Well I must correct you, my dear. My kingdom, my rules." Over the mountain, metal squealed and fell. The blood river became a trickle, barely a red tinge on the black hill.
"Please, just please let us go."
"Never!" Lucifer pulled a blade from his pocket and dropped his cane to the ground; dust puffed up around it like ghosts. "I will not be made a fool of. I will not be disobeyed. Most of all, I will not be stolen from. Your husband is mine. His soul is mine. His torment is mine. Soon yours will be, too." He fingered the knife handle lovingly. Alice peered at it. Screaming skulls jutted out from the base, clawing at their faces, mouths stretched open in agony.
"Please–" Alice pushed herself further away from him, forcing the bony bars into her skin.
"Let me tell you something." Lucifer lifted the blade to his face. Gently, he slid his tongue down the metal, and then he began to polish it against his jacket. "Pleading will not get you anywhere. The only beings that have a chance in life are the very good and the very bad, the saintly and the demonic. All other life is punished just for being. It's a fact. Mediocrity is a crime. You, my dear, will be mine, whether that pleases you or not." He stepped forward, brandishing the glistening blade. Alice took a deep breath and scrunched her eyes shut.
Lucifer's footsteps were heavy against the dusty ground. Far behind him, the world was rattling and crying and falling, masked only by a line of thick fire. Henry's grip on her hand grew tighter with every second, but felt cold, so cold. It had struck Alice that he might be dying a new death, a permanent one, but no; she wouldn't think of it, she mustn't. Lucifer began to clatter the knife against the bars as if it were a xylophone, forward and backward. Alice could feel his eyes upon her as his pace grew frenzied, back and forth, back and forth, then nothing. She scrunched her free hand into a fist, ready for the pain of death and the ache of life again, but there was nothing.
Alice pressed her lips together, sucking in icy air through her nose, and then opened her eyes. Nothing. Lucifer no longer stood before her. She turned toward the fiery mountain and squinted. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she thought she could make out a lumpy figure with four legs and a hugely hunched back, galloping up the hill toward the flames. As it neared the fire, it became clearer. A dog, though which one she couldn't be sure, was carrying Lucifer on his back. They trundled upwards until, at the last moment, the dog dug his paws into the ground. His hind legs left the ground, his buttocks rising up into the air and Lucifer flew, his arms flailing, his voice trailing down the mountainside, straight into the fire.
The bones around them clattered to the ground. Alice glanced at Henry, who slowly lifted his head.
"You saved us," he croaked, his hand squeezing hers.
"Not quite yet." Alice smiled. "We need to leave. Can you walk?"
"I can try."
Alice got to her feet, careful to snatch up the tinderbox. She pushed it into her bosom and heaved Henry up to stand beside her. On the hillside, something began to plummet downward, its mass gathering speed as it neared the bottom. Alice's jaw fell as the dog raced toward them. The dog with eyes the size of wheels ground to a stop and stood before them, panting. Alice reached a hand out to him and the dog nudged it with his head.
"I think we have a friend." Alice smiled.
Henry looked wary, but followed as Alice tossed her skirts over the dog's inky back. When they were both seated, the dog turned his head as if to speak, his eyes glowing with warmth. Alice wrapped her arms around his neck and
cried out as he began to trot at half the pace of before. Henry clutched her tightly all the way, not saying a word, but noting with great pleasure, that with each step they took out of Hell, he felt his skin button itself back together and his bloody scalp dry and flake.
As they rose over the top of the mountain, the flames flickered and crackled into embers. The gnarled gates of Hell lay on the ground before them, trampled by beasts and creatures. Lucifer's kingdom was empty, but for them and the charred skeletons that jutted out of the ash. As they stepped over the threshold, the darkness of the world greeted them like an old friend, enfolding them in its chilly, star-splattered blackness. Even with the shrieks of demons and the groans of the damned circling the air like ravens, Alice and Henry hugged each other tightly, and thanked God that they were home.
* * *
The Tinderbox has been my favorite fairytale ever since it was read to me as a child. I decided to alter the original dynamic, by making the person materialized by the tinderbox someone needed and loved, rather than simply desired. I wanted to show that if you want something badly enough and if you try hard enough, you will be ok, (as long as you have a magic tinder box and some canine friends).
~Tilly Boscott
Clara and the Coon
by
M. K. Boise
Clara Humbert Rupershire lived in a hole the size of a teapot. This was nothing to fret about since she was the height of a quarter. Not made of metal of course, but instead, despite her stature, made of flesh and blood−hundreds of little veins thinner than thread and a beating heart the breadth of a pinprick. If you have the capacity to imagine proportions, for there are some who have a great aptitude with measurements in abstraction, then this was very spacious living indeed.
It was three stories deep into the earth with wooden twigs for scaffolding and feathered floors−a material plucked from the geese outside who roamed the grounds of her home. It also was filled with hand-made furniture that hugged Clara's tiny frame. Her favorite was a rocking chair with the seat of a button and a back of a match box, and two bent bobby pins for legs that curved. She used a plastic bottle cap for a sink and bath, and a folded bit of ribbon for a bed. She had but one window in her house located at the top, which served as a door as well. It was a glass pane the shape of a rectangle and came from a pair of glasses discarded by a regular-sized human named Beenard. He had dropped them a few meters from Clara's home and could not find them because he was rather drunk that evening and clumsy even when he wasn't.
