Dark Winter: Trilogy

by Hennessy, John

  Beth kissed her grandmother on the cheek, and in her head, her thoughts were clear.

  “Yeah Gran, you were right. I am going to a funeral.”

  Terrors Down Below

  By the time I had seen the drop, it was far too late. They say it is the fright from falling, not the fall itself, that can kill you. I wasn’t sure how far I had fallen, but I had landed awkwardly on my back. I didn’t know if I could get up. But I could see the light ahead of me, and could hear Troy’s voice in the distance.

  “Romilly, tell me you’re okay.”

  I couldn’t answer. I think it must be from the shock. The shock of falling, the shock of realising I survived it, the shock of thinking I am paralysed. The shock of realising it looked impossible to get out of here.

  “Romilly! Say something. I can’t see you!”

  That’s the weird thing. I didn’t see the drop. The deadfall seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, and I know that the haunted part of Gorswood Forest was limited to the East. More or less. I wasn’t counting the ghosts that hovered around Rosewinter. I had made it my business to stay away from that place.

  Out of some sort of misplaced duty to my Nan, I felt I should have checked by the wood-cabin more often, but I simply had not done so.

  Losing my parents on my sixteenth birthday. That was very hard to deal with, and not something any child should have to face.

  I realised that the bequeathal of the Mirror of Souls had been a test for me. Could I survive it, could I deal with the aftermath of it, that sort of thing.

  If Toril Withers knew of my plight, I’d bet she would know a spell to get me out of here. But right now, all I was trying to do was keep my sanity. Had I imagined it all? Was that Troy up there, really?

  “Stay there, Rom,” he said needlessly. “I’ll be back.”

  I turned over my watch. The clock-face had cracked due to the fall, but as I put it close to my ear, the mechanism was still making a satisfying tick-tock sound. One hour passed. Then another. A third. Whether I had imagined it or not, I didn’t think anyone, let alone Troy, would be rescuing me.

  The pit was getting colder, much colder. I started to shiver, and rubbed my hands together to try and stay warm. I had grazed my head, and my blood felt clammy. Droplets of snow fell on me from on high. I had been very silly to go into the woods on my own.

  I wanted to stand, but my back still hurt too much to make an attempt.

  Must stay positive. I will find a way out of this. I kept telling myself, over and over.

  The Demon spoke from within. ‘I don’t see any point in doing that, Romilly.’

  Ahead of me was a clearing. A light shone down on a rock. Then, somebody was there. A woman. She was standing with her back to me. She turned to look at me, balanced on one leg, then smiled as she kicked off.

  To my horror I realised she had a noose around her neck, and she grinned at me whilst I heard her neck snap.

  I stifled a scream, as if that mattered down here, and threw myself to the ground. I could not help but bite my fingernails. Disgusting habit, and I didn’t do it that often, but this was really one of those times.

  A few minutes later, the light shone again. I didn’t look, but I could hear the woman’s neck snapping, again, again and again. I was beginning to lose count, when I heard something else. A familiar voice.

  “Time for a diary entry, Romilly.”

  I shot up from my fetal like position. I spun on my heels so fast that I winced as my lower back shrilled an extreme disapproval with me.

  I knew who the voice belonged to. But that was impossible. It could not be.

  “Yes, Romilly, I’d be thinking you’d be looking to make a diary entry right about now.”

  The figure moved towards me. I strained my neck to see what I needed to see.

  Clasping my diary to his chest, Don Curie was standing in front of me.

  I rubbed my eyes and when I opened them again, he was still standing there.

  “You look….disappointed to see me Romilly. Well, I can’t say I feel the same way. I’m delighted to see you again.”

  I stood, frozen to the spot. It was nothing to do with the worsening weather conditions. I could still hear the woman’s neck cracking. Where the hell was Troy? Why was no-one looking for me?

  “The last time you and I talked, Romilly, I told you I was a rat, though I doubt a rat could climb out of here. Very difficult. Too slippy, too high. No. Wouldn’t work.”

  I stayed silent. This had to be some kind of trick by the Demon. Talking to….whatever this was, would be feeding the Demon’s sick agenda. I would not succumb to that.

  “Cat got your tongue, Romilly?” said Curie. “Dear oh dear, I had said the very same to Beth back in the good old days. No matter, I have all your words here, and my-oh-my, do they make for interesting reading. Do they indeed.”

  I felt okay about that. If this was a hallucination, I knew what was in the diary anyway. There was nothing to scare me. I sat down, and hugged my knees together, trying to stay warm. Troy would be back soon.

  Crack. A little later, another crack. It was repeating itself, over and over again.

  “Annoying, isn’t it?” said Curie. “Could make someone go mad, something like that. The pity is, that rope isn’t long enough for you to climb up. Yes, yes, a pity.”

  God, didn’t he love the sound of his own voice.

  “Alright Romilly, you don’t want to talk. I’d like to lighten the mood, if I may. Care to hear a little joke?”

  I was shivering with the cold. I had read somewhere that the body shivers in order to bring heat into the system, which, if this continued much longer, I would be looking at mild hypothermia. Come on, Troy.

  “Well,” continued Curie, “There was this man, and he had a bit too much to drink one night. He wandered into Gorswood Cemetery, and well, you’ll like this bit, it’s funny…he fell into one of the newly dug graves! He was in the hole, just like you are now, and had a moment of clarity.

  He realised, even in his drunken state, that there was no getting out of there. An hour passed. Maybe two or three. Then, a noise. He thought that someone was working the graveyard shift, and was going to rescue him after all. But alas! No. It was another drunk, who fell into the exact same hole.”

  As strange as it seems, the voice of Curie was keeping me alive. There was something to focus on.

  “The first drunk said ‘You’ll never get out of here.’ But the other drunk did!”

  He waited for the image to sink in. I had enough of his gibberish and grabbed at the diary. Curie turned away, revealing his exposed skull. “Oh, no no no….” said Curie, “though I can see why you would want it back. Let’s face it Romilly, there’s only really one person who can get you out of here, and she’s not exactly your favourite person is she? At least….not according to what you’ve written here. ‘Never underestimate the hate one girl can have for another.’ Tut. Tut.”

  If it were possible, Curie was even more annoying dead, than he ever was alive. He was not being fair. I wrote this long before Toril did…what she did for us. I would never hate her. Not now. I was a foolish little girl back then. Curie wouldn’t understand that.

  I wanted to remove the gloves from my hands, but they were shaking violently as it was, and wouldn’t be able to strike this ghost, vision, hallucination of Curie, or whatever it was.

  “From the Diary of Romilly Winter, September 4th,” said Curie, mocking my voice. “It’s school tomorrow. I won’t be able to enjoy it though. We have two music lessons in the afternoon, so I can be with Troy. But I have to get through the morning with Toril Withers and Jacinta Crow burning looks into the back of my head. Maybe I’m being unfair to Toril. She has only ever been nice to me. But that’s just it. She’s nice to everyone. I didn’t think I would become one of those girls who hates other girls, but I do. I hate her. God, I hate her. Of course she’s nice to me. She’s nice to everyone. She’s got Troy. She’s got her parents. She’s got everything I hav
en’t.”

  Curie clapped the diary shut. “Deary me, we are full of all kinds of angst, aren’t we? You should have done what your Nan said, Romilly, and asked him out. He could have only said no, couldn’t he? So the one who is bequeathed the all conquering Mirror of Souls is an angsty teenage girl. I’d have been much smarter. I would have given the Mirror to the golden girl. Secretly, you’d love to be Toril, wouldn’t you Romilly? You’d love to know what that’s like. She may be misguided, and full of herself, but she is fearless. Why….she had a go at me, and Dana Cullen. She didn’t hide under the bed-sheets when Alix Andrews tried to get the Mirror did she? Fearless. Good girl, that Toril. I underestimated her, really I did.”

  “I didn’t hide!” I screamed. “Don’t you dare speak about my Nan!” Okay, I know I shouldn’t have spoke to him, but this was messing with my head. Lashing out was the only way I knew how to deal with this.

  “Whatever else one might say about Toril Withers, a coward she is not.”

  “I’m not a coward!”

  “Yes, you are, Romilly. You have spent how many hours down here now? How many? What’s happening up there, to Toril, to Beth? You are just thinking about yourself. Once again.”

  “I’m not,” but I knew there was some truth in what he was saying. I could not help but cry.

  “Toril Withers would not let anyone see her cry. You are making me have a new found respect for her. I should have made an ally of her, instead of an enemy. She managed to even use the Mirror of Souls whilst its owner – you – of all people, are still alive! Yes, yes, Toril is great. She is The One.”

  “Enough!” I screamed and ran at him. But I was flying through nothingness. I had tried to hit him with a flying side-kick and he simply disappeared from view, laughing at me with a wicked snorting sound.

  “Oh Romilly,” mocked Curie, “You are way too much fun. Didn’t your Nan tell you how corporeal you are? Well, I am not.”

  I picked myself up off the floor. As with all my kung fu training, even if I was hurting, like when I fell down the pit, doing something fighting related helped me forget the pain. But Curie…this version of him, couldn’t be hurt by me. I would have to be a rat, like him, to know how to beat him. Or, I could use the Mirror of Souls, assuming that something like Curie possessed one.

  Outside of me, Curie mocked me, and inside, the Demon did the same.

  Give it up, Romilly. You know how this ends. You will die down here, and Toril will claim the Mirror. Curie can terrorise you even more after you’re dead, did you know that? As for me, I’ll go find Beth and play with her for a while. Remember what you did to Alix? Would you like me to show you what that’s like?

  Before I had any time to answer, the Demon lifted me up in the air, and threw me backwards to the eastern side of the pit. I cried out as my back slammed into it, and Curie wore a bemused look on his face. The Demon released me about four feet from the ground. I landed on my stomach, and just about managed to lift my head high enough so it would avoid the full impact. I grazed my chin, and I had aggravated my fingers in the fall. The hand had never fully healed properly since I broke two of my digits on Curie’s face, back when we were in Redwood.

  I had to concede that there probably was no way out of the pit. I didn’t know if Curie was really there, but my Nan had said I had the ability to see ghosts. My stomach growled with pain as the Demon made cuts inside of me. My back felt like it was covered in lacerations from the impact with the pit.

  Curie stood over me, and kicked me in the stomach, rolling me onto my back.

  “You should have let me rip your eyes out when you had the chance, Romilly. If I had, you would not have live to see such times as you are suffering now. So many pangs of regret in your diary, aren’t there? Here, where you say ‘Nan, you bet on the wrong girl.’ I do believe that is the most truthful thing you’ve ever wrote in your life.”

  I was on the point of giving up. The Demon was right, there was no way out of this pit. Even if I could climb up, the Demon would hack me down. I could no longer keep it at bay. And I had the ghost of Curie mocking me. Either he was corporeal of a kind, or it was the Demon who kicked me in my stomach. But kicking girls in the stomach was a trademark of Curie’s.

  I didn’t had the energy to counter Curie’s mocking words, and I really started to believe I was going to die down here, in the pit, with Curie’s constants barbs, the Demon’s internal cuts, with only the girl who was repeatedly hanging herself for company.

  Why was no-one looking for me? Had I imagined all that with Troy? It certainly seemed possible. Where was Beth? Surely she would look me up, right? As for Toril, perhaps she had other things on her mind. She would not be looking for me now, because I didn’t possess the Mirror. I’m really going to die down here.

  Curie cupped a wizened old hand on my throat, and squeezed firmly. It wasn’t possible to feel more nauseous in my stomach, or more pain in my body, or more sorrow in my heart. Curie burned through me with his eyes - that is to say, through his one good eye.

  “I wouldn’t die if I were you, Romilly, not down here, not with all these horrors surrounding you. If you want any motivation to get out of here, think about the fun you and I can have for all eternity.”

  Troy had been wrong. He hadn’t been able to shut-Curie-the-hell-up.

  A beeping sound. Curie looked around excitedly when he heard the sound of my phone going off. It had fell out when the Demon threw me around the pit. Curie released his grip and sure enough, found my phone. A name he knew all too well flashed up on it.

  “Well, Romilly, it seems someone does care about you after all. I’d love to see her again. After all, I do have some unfinished business with Bethany O’Neill.”

  Her name escaped my lips slowly. I don’t know why, here in the depths of this pit, that I could imagine Beth rescuing me. Curie assured me that Beth, Troy, Toril….no-one would be coming to save me.

  Curie knelt down beside me, as I edged myself forward with my fingers. “You believe you can get out of here, because you believe that you exist. What if I were to tell you that everything you believe, is not true, Romilly? You are not the saviour of the world. You are not meant to be with Troy Jackson. You are not meant to have the Mirror of Souls. You are already dead. On this Earth, you do not exist.”

  “I do. I do exist. I am real.” I forced the words out of my mouth. Anything to stop him talking and contradicting me.

  “You only exist if I allow it. If the Circle allows it. If Diabhal allows it. Other than that, you, personally, do not exist. Say it.”

  “No.”

  My defiance was followed by a sensation of feeling hollowed out from the inside. Curie had pulled his leg back like a footballer taking a penalty, and had buried his foot in my chest. I rolled about in pain.

  “It is very simple, Romilly. If you do not exist, the pain stops automatically. Only Diabhal has the power to say if you exist or not. In terms that even your simple brain can understand, I exist, you do not. Say it.”

  But I could not say those words. My Nan would turn in her grave if I did. My parents would have died for nothing. Toril and Beth…..somewhere, out there, needed me to survive this. Turning back to me, he kept kicking me in the stomach until I could barely remain conscious.

  I could see something that helped me focus my thoughts, which wavered like a moth around a flame. A crescent moon. I could make it out. Definitely. Not a half-moon or a full moon. I could see what it was, and it gave me hope.

  Curie saw what I was looking at too. “You know, Romilly, if I had some silver on me, I would shine it on the full moon right there. Brings you good luck, which right now, you’re in dire need of. Would you happen to have ten pence on you?”

  I stayed silent, but he could read me as easily as my diary.

  “Unless of course, you don’t believe that is a full moon. Then…then I suppose the only luck you could have would be bad. Now what is it? A full moon, a crescent moon or a half-moon? Your answer. Now.”

&n
bsp; Another kick to my stomach as I remained silent. The pain confirmed I exist.

  “It is a crescent moon,” I said, slowly.

  The next moment, he boots me so hard in the face that my neck snaps back like a jack-in-the-box. There’s a deafening ring in my ears. The world turns white.

  Absolution and Retribution

  It had been a long time since Beth had visited a church. St Joseph’s Church was just a five-minute walk away, and although they locked the churches these days, Beth hoped she could get inside, if only to clear her head about a few things.

  The church was over a hundred-and-fifty years old, and stood imposingly above Beth, who, thanks to her boots, was a little taller than her 5’7” frame today. She needed her confidence boosted. In the blistering snow, she slipped off the glove from her left hand, and checked underneath her scarf to see if it was still there.