by R.J. Adams
Five
“What the hell was that?” Toby screams at me as we reach a safe distance to be able to stop and catch our breaths.
“I don’t know,” I pant trying to get some air, “is it near?”
He looks back, “No, I think we outrun it for now, look, I just met you and this is all a little weird for me, do you mind telling me what the hell is going on and what the fuck that thing was.”
“Like I said I don’t know,” I repeat, “look, I know you just met me so I’m not going to go into detail too much, but that thing, whatever it is has been chasing me since I was little, that’s all I know okay.”
“You got to give me something more than that Willow because I don’t know if what I saw was real, I mean, creeping blackness and echoing voices, it’s not fucking normal.”
He’s right, it’s not normal and I can see how freaked out he is by all of this. “You should leave; it would be safer for you if you left.”
“Not until you tell me what the hell it is that’s after you.”
“I don’t know what is after me,” I shout to him, “ I don’t know what to tell you but if I tell you what I am here for you are going to think I’m crazy. Look, I’m used to being on my own so just leave okay; at least that way then you won’t get hurt.”
He sits down on a pile of leaves as the stars and moon shining down on us, it’s cold and damp and I’m starting to think he isn’t going anywhere, “look, maybe I can help you.”
“I doubt anyone can help me, what I thought was real doesn’t seem to be what it was at all.” The orphanage is what they said it would be. But I saw them all yesterday, I hugged Charlotte, and the children were playing before I left to go to the store. Margaret cooked breakfast, what the hell has happened; did I pass out for longer than I thought?
“What date is it today?”
“Umm, it’s October fifteenth, why what does that have to do with it?”
How is that possible, if it’s October fifteenth then all this only happened yesterday, “No, that’s not possible.”
Toby stands and comes to me, he looks at me sincerely, “I can see something is troubling you, please tell me maybe I can help.”
“I don’t know how to tell you, it’s going to sound crazy,” I’m even wondering if I’m crazy.
“Try me,” he smiles, “but I would suggest we keep walking and talking because I don’t fancy being caught up by black Casper.”
I giggle slightly and agree, god knows how close the darkness is or even if we have managed to outrun it, “I don’t know where to even start.”
“Well you could try the beginning, that usually helps,” he smirks at me.
He almost makes me laugh again, such a cheeky chap, “Well, I guess then the first thing I should start with is I grew up here.”
“Where here, the orphanage?” he looks backwards to see nothing but night and woods. “Cool, creepy but cool.”
“Yeah, it’s sounds strange,” even to me, “but yesterday I was here. I went shopping for the children and I came back. I saw a man who seems to be appearing a lot more lately and it never dawned on me until now,” well earlier before Toby pulled up to offer me a lift, “I’ve seen him before, I don’t know what’s happening or why he seems to be there. But yesterday, I came home and the darkness that has plagued me all my life was after me. I woke in the middle of the night and I know it sounds crazy, I followed a bright light. At first I thought I was dreaming but then something said I was awake. I went into the woods and I can’t describe to you what I saw. I came back and Doreen, she was here, she was speaking to me.”
His eyes widen as he listens to my crazy story, “you were there, at the orphanage,” I nod, “you know no-one has lived there for year’s right?”
“That maybe what it seems to you and clearly to other people but I was living there yesterday. I know it sounds absolutely nuts, even I doubt myself. But last night, I was told I had to leave, I don’t know why but when I went to say goodbye Doreen she....” the flashbacks pop in my head of her swinging body hanging with that rope around her neck, no! How can this be?
“What, what did you see?” Toby asks snapping me out of my scary flashback.
“Umm, Doreen, she....she had hung herself, I was so scared. The darkness, it was there right behind me so I ran but it chased me. I could feel it, its touch, its coldness. I just kept wanting it to be over, to be away from it all and then the next thing is I’m waking up in the field and your father was there.”
I see the apprehension in his eyes, I don’t blame him as it’s one hell of a story.
“Willow, I want to believe you, but after what I just seen, how could anyone be living there and as for children, they were all removed after the death of the owners, surely you read the papers right?”
“But to me, she only died yesterday and I lived at the orphanage where no-one came and visited, I never saw a newspaper and....” I stop suddenly as I realise we have been walking around in circles. We have passed the same clearing in the trees several times.
“What, what is it?” Toby grips my hand as he looks around fearful of why I have stopped.
“Haven’t you notice we have been walking in round in circles this whole time?”
He looks around, “I hadn’t noticed, but now that you....wait, what is that?”
I look over to where he is pointing and there creeping towards us is a dark shadow that flows easily between the trees.
We step back slowly watching as it appears to simply crawl towards us, flowing as if this thing, this darkness is coming right for us, I grab Toby swing him round, “Run,” I yell.
We run deeper into the woods as the darkness turns into a large black figure. Its arms reach out as if trying to grab me. Toby’s hand grips mine tightly as we look ahead, trying to outrun the figure that is drawing closer to us.
“Willow!” The scary voice echoes through the trees, “we need you, we all need you.”
Who the fuck needs me, why do I keep hearing those words. I keep running and running until finally we reach a main road. Thank god we are out of the woods. I look back and the dark figure cannot be seen.
“You saw that right, I didn’t imagine it, you saw it too yes,” I panic for my own sanity.
“Yes,” Toby trembles, “I saw it, I don’t know what I saw but I fucking saw it.”
I catch my breath, “come on let’s keep walking. I know where we have to go.” Pulling the locket out from my pocket I look at the address I was told to go and see, “do you know where this is?”
Toby looks and then looks back at me, “yes, that’s the old parish church just outside of Bushrill. How are going to get there without the car, should we go back?”
He turns to walk back through the woods but I grab him, “No, I’m not going back through there, it isn’t safe. We should just keep walking.”
I don’t know who this man is or how he is going to be able to help me but he is the only clue I have, I have to go see him, what other choice do I have?
“It’s going to take us ages to walk there by foot; we should try and find some way to get my car back.” Toby pushes but I refuse to go back there until I have some answers.
I want to be there we need to get there. I think long and hard and wish to be there without having to go back for the car, too scared to face whatever it is lurking in the woods waiting to get me.
Toby screams and I close my eyes gripping hold of him, when I open them I am outside a closed down church.
“How the fuck, what the, how did we get here,” he panics looking around.
I look around just as puzzled as he is, did I bring us here? I wished for it and now here we are, but I don’t remember how we got here. Yet again my mind draws a complete blank as to what has just happened.
He looks at me, “what are you?” he mumbles. I see the unease in his eyes as he looks at me, like I’m some sort of evil being.
“It’s hard to explain,” I’m not even sure of it myself, “if you want
to leave I completely understand, this is dark and twisted and I don’t expect you stay around.”
“No,” he sighs, “I don’t want to leave you especially when you may be in danger. It’s just,” he runs his hands through his hair seemingly unsure of me or of what is happening, “I don’t know if what I saw is real, I don’t know how we got here and I don’t know if this is all because of you. But I feel like you need help and my mother always said to help a girl if she needs it, never walk away from someone who may be in danger.”
His mother and father were so kind to me that I believe him, he seems like a genuine soul, kind just the way he was brought up to be.
“Look, I don’t know myself but I do know something is after me and this guy Alfie is the only clue I have. I thought of him and wanted to be here and the next thing I know, poof, we’re here.”
“Just like that,” he shrugs.
“Just like that, come on, let’s go find him. Maybe he can help me.”
We walk passed the closed down church and through the small street that leads to a dead end and a small path hidden at the bottom. Following the path through the trees and over the stream of water, there on the other side, covered in over-grown bushes is a small cottage type house.
“Hey look at that,” I point, “it’s the only house around here that has the drapes drawn so I guess this is it.” I take Toby’s hand and we walk towards the quiet house.
There are no birds, no sounds from the outside and the house seems so quiet I begin to wonder if it’s empty. The porch has leaves everywhere and newspapers that have never been picked up, I knock the door gently, “hello?”
“This house looks just as abandoned as the others, I mean all the papers are still on the porch and no offence but it looks like Michael Myers’s house,” Toby whispers, “maybe we should just leave.”
“I can’t leave and no offence but I doubt Michael Myers is living here so stop being such a baby, look, we’ll just wait and knock and if he don’t come out then I don’t know we’ll....” I am distracted by the front door opening by itself.
“Now that is fucking creepy,” he steps back, “look, I’m all for mystery and stuff but a door that opens by itself? Nah, that’s just insane to go in there, you never know what is lurking in there, I’ve seen enough movies to know never go in the abandoned creepy house.”
I roll my eyes and put my foot through the door and look around, “my god you are such a sissy, I told you could leave and you still can if you want to but I have to do this.”
He grips my arm and stands closely behind me. We both enter the house, it looks nothing as you would expect from looking at the outside and it actually looks lived in. “Hello?” I call out. Toby is still behind me walking closely, it almost makes me laugh and I thought the women were meant to be the scared ones.
“Willow, is that you I hear?” A croaky old voice calls out; I walk further into the sitting room and see an old man sat in his chair.
“Yes, my name is Willow,” I edge closer to him and see that the man is blind, “I was sent here by....”
“By your mother, I knew you would find me eventually, please come sit.” Toby and I sit on the sofa directly opposite him, “Don’t worry Toby,” the old man smiles, “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Toby’s mouth almost hits the floor. “How do you know it was me?” I ask curious as he cannot see me, “and how do you know Toby.”
“I don’t,” the old man slumps in his chair, “I’m sure you have worked out that I am Alfie and it is I who you have come to for answers of the things that have been happening to you.”
I’ve haven’t said a word to him as to why I am here and I find it strange he knows that without me saying a word about it. “I saw something and I knew I had to come here....”
“The darkness,” he cuts me off, “the darkness that has been after you your whole life.”
“What is it? Sometimes it seems like large black evil clouds and then sometimes in the form of a person, why do I see these things?”
“You’re not the only one,” Toby coughs awkwardly; I roll my eyes at him.
“The darkness you see comes to you because of who you are Willow; you bear the mark of the Warlock on your hand.”
I look at the burnt or tattooed mark on my hand. It’s always been there, I cannot remember a time when it wasn’t. “The mark of the what?” I mumble to him staring at my palm.
“The mark of the Warlock, you were born with great magic inside you; very powerful dark magic that comes from your father.”
Dark magic? “I don’t understand, I thought I was abandoned as a baby, how can I have this magic and what father?”
“Because it is who you are Willow; of course you have a father my lovely girl that is why you have the magic and you were not abandoned, your mother tried to hide you and gave you to an orphanage in hopes your father would not be able to find you. Your father is the Warlock Lord, the holder of all dark magic and you are his progeny,” Alfie shuffles in his chair and blind as he may be, I feel he is looking directly at me. “Your mother fell in love with a man unbeknown to her who he really was.”
“So my mother was normal? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?” I interrupt him.
“No,” he looks forward as if recalling a memory, “you’re mother was magical too, a beautiful magic being that your father corrupted for some time, she sided with him on most things but the goodness in her realised his intentions were not as good as they first appeared. She withdrew from him, she saw how evil your father was and she didn’t like it, but by then it was too late, she was already pregnant for you and he knew about it. She felt trapped and she didn’t want you to be born into their circle.”
“So she gave me up?” I mumble running my fingers over my palm.
“No,” he sighs, “your mother loved you very much. She placed you somewhere she believed you were safe. Your father found out you had gone not long after your birth and she was on the run for a long time, the Warlock Society chased her down and now she is trapped, she put a spell on herself so they couldn’t get any information out of her about your whereabouts. She is trapped in Oreneeras.”
I look up confused as to what he is saying, “Oreneeras? What the hell is that?”
“It’s the place known as the in-between,” he murmurs.
“In-between what?”
“In-between life and death, a place a magical being can go before they die or when they die. The dark figure you see, the darkness that has haunted you for so long, it is the dark magic that runs through your blood, the magic of your father, he and his men have found you.”
“If this is all true when why do I not remember anything since before I was around six years old, if I had been at the orphanage since I was born then surely I would remember?”
Alfie glares at me with his solid white colour blind eyes, he cannot see me but I know those white eyes are looking right at me, “because your mother didn’t want you found, she placed a spell on you so that you could not use any magic, so that you could not be traced, she would visit you and show you spells. But then you did things no-one expected,” he reaches out to touch me, “you are more powerful than she thought and her spells became ineffective and I see you have been using magic all your life.”
How the hell have I been using magic? I have never cast a spell, if that’s what you call them, I don’t even know how? “I don’t think so, I think you have the wrong girl, I think maybe I am just caught up in a whole world of crazy or possibly I am insane, I don’t believe any this.”
“You don’t?” Alfie smirks, “tell me about the orphanage you claim was there yesterday and today doesn’t exist.”
How does he know that? “It was there, I know it was because I saw them, I sat and ate with the children, argued with Doreen and I went shopping and came home so how do you know that?”
“What you saw was a creation of your own imagination, created by magic to fulfil your loneliness. That orphanage has been closed
for many, many years.”
My own imagination, I imagined those people? No, no that’s not possible!
