“I can tell you a little something about it. It’s a choice. I believe you know what I mean, because Dana told you when she met you. You won’t be able to save them all in the time you’re given. You have to make a choice. Whatever happens to whoever remains, after your decision has been made, remember Toril…it is not your fault. You are not to blame.”
So the Circle was forcing her to make a choice. She would have to be rational about that choice. Lunabelle’s words, well meaning though they were, did not give Toril much to work with. Still, Toril remained polite despite the circumstances in which she found herself.
“Thank you, Lunabelle. I’ll be alright.”
Lunabelle hugged Toril, and said, “I hope next time things are different. For all of us. Good luck, Toril.” She then left the room and didn’t look back.
Toril squinted her eyes and could make out three ropes suspended from the ceiling.
Three nooses.
The one on the left was her mother. In the middle, Beth. I was to the right. The three of us stood on small, square tables. Toril raced towards the nearest one, the one I was in, in fact, but it was the table under her mother’s feet that gave way first.
Like Toril, her mother was petite, and her feet would not reach the ground. As the rope dug hard into her neck, the tables under Beth and myself shattered. Our feet could almost touch the ground, but our necks would be snapped slowly.
Toril fought to release her mother first. It was instinct, you might say, and soon, she was free. Beth cried out as the rope tightened around her long neck, but Toril was fast, and though Beth began coughing and seemed unable to stop, Toril sensed she would be alright.
I was left swinging in the rope. My neck had already snapped clean, and my head lopped to the right at an extreme angle. Toril fought to steady her grief, telling herself over and over again that this was a test, and was in no way the real thing.
The images of her mother and Beth disappeared. My image remained, and the body they had given me, with my insides hanging out, bloodied eyes, complete with bruises and lacerations given to me by Curie and the Demon, left Toril with an enduring image.
Toril tried to recall the words Lunabelle had said.
“Whatever happens to whoever remains, after your decision has been made, remember Toril…it is not your fault. You are not to blame.”
But she did feel to blame. But if I could have told Toril, I would have said you made the only decision you could. Mum first. That’s a given. Beth’s closer to you than I am. I’m just a complication for you.
Toril sank to the floor with her head in her hands. She kept looking at me swinging slowly, until all movement halted.
“Don’t feel bad, Toril,” said Denzel’s voice. He wasn’t in the room, but he was in the room, nonetheless. “I’m gonna show you why you made the right decision.”
The screen at the back of the room illuminated. Images formed, and at first, Toril could make out the image of her mother embracing Beth. Just when had Beth visited her mother?
Another image formed. More disconcerting. Far more upsetting. Toril could see Troy and me, kissing. Troy and me, in bed. She tore her eyes away from watching the rest.
“Why have you shown me this?” screamed Toril. She didn’t know whom she was addressing.
“Because the next time you see Romilly Winter, you won’t be confused. And if anyone tries to stop you, strike them down dead. If you don’t, they’ll do it to you.”
Toril kicked the door open and found herself in Gorswood Forest. East Gorswood Forest, to be precise. The old cemetery lay directly in front of her. The ice had melted in the pond ahead of her, and graves…so many graves she could see.
So this was no test. This was real. Denzel, the Circle, or both had decided Toril’s choice for her. In reality, they never harboured any intention to let Toril choose for herself. Her mother and Beth lay waiting for her. She wasn’t to know it, but for their sakes Toril would have to make it in time.
As she walked slowly, the screeches of the Zeryths hanging in the air punctuated her sensitive hearing. One sentence stayed with her the most. Did they really want her to strike someone down? Kill them?
If you don’t, they’ll do it to you. They will do it to you.
Demons at the Lake
The Circle didn’t want Toril to be attacked by a Zeryth, or possessed by a Demon. They wanted her to do things with a clear head. Of course, the seed had already been planted. It was just a matter of time before Toril cracked. She would be the last one to break. All hell would break loose once Toril was no longer able to hold it together. Then, the Circle would win.
Toril could sense her mother, but she could also sense the suffocating stench of the dead. The deserted-by-anyone-who-has-any-common-sense East Gorswood cemetery was infamous. Mystical. Terrifying.
Yet here she was. Toril was prepared to wade through the lake rather than levitate to the burial ground. She wanted to put it off for as long as humanly possible.
Signs of spring were all around her. Lilies in the lake, some flowers that had grown too tall flopped forward, their petals soaked by the water, which lay still. Very still. Toril had already sank to her knees, and as she waded forward, it wasn’t that far to go in front of her, but she believed the water would get much deeper before she could emerge safely.
As she walked on, she felt the ground beneath her soften. She peered down below, only to see her walking on a dead body, the skin and hair still clinging to the corpse. Her heart pounded in her chest, her blood pressure raised, but she had to keep on going.
She felt her footing give way as she continued her laboured progress, and though she couldn’t hear it, a muffled sound of bones cracking escaped from the lake. She couldn’t hear, because of the ringing in her ears. It was as if the entities at the Circle wanted her to progress, they wanted her to reach the other side of the lake.
Suddenly, her footing gave way, and Toril sank beneath the surface. The water did not taste salty, like on the beaches of Weston-super-mare. It tasted of mouldy wallpaper, dried mud, and flesh that had been altered by the seasons and by time. As Toril resurfaced, a shard of bone with blood clinging to it lodged itself into her hair.
She hurriedly brushed it away with her fingers, but could not hide her disgust.
It was then that Toril saw them. Two figures ahead of her. She knew from her studies who they were. The Erinyes were all out to stop her saving her mother and Beth.
Toril was looking around for the third demon, but it was too late. As she lunged for the lake side and relative safety of a sure surface, the third Erinyes sank her claws into Toril’s back. Toril wrenched herself free, but the skin on her back flapped like a plastic bag billowing in the wind, and she wondered how badly she had been hurt.
Furious with herself for being caught off-guard, she raised her wand and fired a wide beam against the two demons in front of her. To her surprise they deflected the beam back at her, but she ducked, and the third Erinyes behind her exploded instantaneously. Toril had no time to catch her breath as the other two vanished before her eyes. She had no doubt they would be back.
The Circle were giving her directions to find her mother and Beth, but why? It wasn’t like Denzel to be helpful to Toril in any way, whilst Lunabelle seemed rather disillusioned as to where everything was going. She wanted to do all she could to help Toril, but accepted that things were going to play out, how they were going to play out. She only hoped she would see her again.
Toril fell forward on the grass. She felt she was experiencing an out-of-body experience, the kind of which made you feel like your body was near death. It was extremely disorientating for her, but she attempted to keep a grip on reality. She reached out for a nearby tree and placed her hand on it, which felt real enough.
A mass of graves lay directly ahead. Toril knew that if anything happened to her mother, she would find some way to return to the Circle, and once there, she would kill Denzel. She wasn’t a killer, but she could see now why her m
other warned her against going anywhere near the place.
It was changing her. Inside, an uncomfortable thought emerged. It takes people like you, to make people like me. She didn’t want the experience to change her. How much of the real Toril would be left, once all these tests were over?
The Circle was turning her into something she was not. Toril wondered how she looked, having been locked in a coffin and having waded through a lake of dead bodies to arrive at even more dead bodies.
“I must look like hell,” thought Toril, but she pressed on regardless. “A girl has to be practical.”
Even though the battle with the Erinyes had been difficult, she doubted she had seen the last of them. Still…where to look? As if to provide some sort of answer, the clouds parted in front of the moon, which was a crescent moon.
“Cute,” thought Toril, but it was akin to a lightning beacon, because part of the light shone directly between two graves. The earth had been freshly covered over, but there was no mistaking the names on the headstones.
HERE LIES TORI-SUZANNE WITHERS, A WITCH OF FEW POWERS AND A PERSON OF NO IMPORTANCE.
Now on the other stone.
HERE LIES BETHANY O’NEILL. BORN TO A BASTARD FATHER AND A WHORE MOTHER.
Toril tried to take the image in, but she had to act. Feeling paralysed by the overwhelming stench of death, her balance wavered. She ordered herself to calm down and get a grip on things. Finally, she pointed her wand at the earth, summoning it to leave the man-made hole in the ground.
The wand’s power was extreme, and the soil cleared into the air in seconds. She repeated her efforts with Beth’s grave, and suddenly, she could see clearly into the hole. She needed to get into it, but this was the worst part. Just forcing the lid open with her wand didn’t seem right. And who knew if her mother really was in there? What if some other demon was in there? What if the Erinyes had returned?
No more what ifs, thought Toril, and prised the lid upwards.
***
Inside the coffin, predictably, horrifying and surreal, lay the body of her mother. Her hands were turned up. She had dug her nails into the soft cushioning that supported the lid. The rims of her eyes were reddened, and she looked old, much older than she normally did. Tori-Suzanne Withers looked like she had been petrified to death.
Toril slumped down beside the coffin and wept. “I’m too late. I’m too late!” she cried. After an age, she pulled herself up and forced herself to look at her mother. She gave her a kiss on the forehead, just as she had done when her grandma had died seven years earlier. Her skin was cold, clammy, wizened. Not at all like her mother’s usually smooth, warm and plump skin.
“Perhaps Beth is still alive,” mumbled Toril listlessly. She gently closed the lid over, and would settle the soil later. Of all the cemeteries she would force herself to visit in the future, East Gorswood would be the last.
Toril jumped down into the second grave, but felt much less purpose about this one. With her mother gone, rescuing Beth seemed rather pointless, even if she could free her from this hell. Whatever Beth had done in her life, she did not deserve this, much less what the stone had inscribed on it.
Her body was cold, but there was life. Her cheeks had retained some warmth, and yet her breathing seemed to have stopped, but it was hard to tell exactly when. Toril wanted to use her wand to re-start her heart, but if that element still resided within, Toril did not want it feeding on her power, even if it meant Beth could live.
Being the practical person she had always been, Toril attempted CPR, and purposely pushed down on Beth’s chest with regular intervals. Then, she closed over her mouth and breathed into Beth, who coughed up at the first attempt.
Beth’s eyes could not believe what they were seeing, nor could she barely speak. Toril was relieved to see her alive, more than she thought she would. She felt horrible for what she did the last time she saw her.
“Do you know how long you’ve been in there? Were you with my mum when it happened? Did they bring you here?”
“It’s so typical of you Toril, interrogating someone who has been brought back from the dead,” wheezed Beth. “Your mother and I were going to destroy Dana, She wanted to do it for you. I was having nightmares.”
“We both were,” said Toril.
Beth’s full voice returned as she could see behind Toril what was coming. In the pale moonlight, the figure looked like a creature of the undead. Beth’s reaction was all the motivation Toril needed, who turned around and lunged at the creature.
Toril struck her down, then recoiled in horror at what she had done. She thought she had left her mother cold in the grave below, but somehow, she had managed to crawl out.
The blow was superficial, as Toril’s fist had connected with her mother’s jawbone. But as she lay amongst the sodden mud, her features were returning to normal, and she looked much more like her old self.
“I suppose that’s for not letting you have the wand,” said Tori-Suzanne. “It’s great to see you, my love.”
Toril ran to her mother, giving her an uncharacteristic hug. “I thought I’d lost you. I thought you were dead. The Circle gave me a choice-”.
“Shh, now Toril. We will have our day with the Circle. I’m not through with them yet.”
Toril pressed her mother and Beth for answers, but Tori-Suzanne dismissed her, saying there wasn’t enough time, and that they were going to continue with their mission to destroy Dana. Toril protested, and said that if they were determined to do this, that she would be coming along.
Her mother said no, and it was the kind of no that Toril knew she used on occasion herself.
“If you won’t let me go, what must I do? If I have saved you and Beth, that means Romilly is dead. The choice I made, I have to live with.”
“No, Toril. It means that whether she is dead or alive, you need to check on her. Do what the Circle expects you to do. That’s the only way to defeat them.”
“I don’t know what they expect me to do!”
“You’ve read that Book of theirs. You and I know what they expect you to do.”
“I can’t do that!! I won’t!”
“You can, and you will. Whoever’s fate it is to fall, they should know that they didn’t die in vain. This thing is much bigger than any one person, Toril. Now go!”
Tori-Suzanne kissed her daughter on the cheek, and grabbed Beth by the hand. Beth went to kiss Toril on the cheek, but Toril pushed her back.
“What? I was just-”
“I know. But when I do it to you, you’ll know. Can I just say sorry, in advance?”
“Toril, what are you on about? Susie, what is she going on about?”
Tori-Suzanne ordered her daughter on with her mission to find me, regardless of the state I was in. As Toril disappeared into the night sky, away from the hateful cemetery, Tori-Suzanne and Beth headed ever deeper into East Gorswood.
“Come on now Beth. We’ve got a blonde-haired bitch to kill.”
The Twelfth Doll
A stunned, disorientated Alix found himself back in Gorswood. The flames he had passed through seemed not to affect humans, but the zombie-girls had been incinerated instantly. He elected not to concentrate on that, and instead, pursue the Dana dolls as the Zeryth had instructed him.
She had given him a few pointers. Several of the dolls were in Don Curie’s residence. Getting to East Gorswood, now that was the challenge. But if the evil was up for a fight, then it was possible for Alix to gain passage through the woods.
It seemed the passage through the void had led him to the outskirts of Gorswood Cemetery. The Eastern part of the woods lay far away, some five miles by his reckoning. He had a vague recollection of how he ended up in the void in the first place, but taking me on was not the reason the Zerythra had assisted him.
They wanted to be free to exist as much as he did. When he ended up in the void, he thought his life was all but over. When he saw Troy, perhaps a way to escape would have presented itself. He never thought he
would be grateful to the demons.
He could hear the Zeryth talking with him. Do not thank us just yet. You face a great challenge, and you will need to be at your strongest in order to stop her. Because she will try and stop you. And if she stops you, she kills you. That’s what she does. That’s all Dana does.
Alix ran and kept on running. He wanted to find Troy, me – anyone, who would resemble a familiar face. He hoped that the busybodies in Gorswood would not recognise him. Time had no meaning in the void. He had no idea how long he had been in there. I hadn’t meant to kill him, and that single thought is all that saved him. Our actions may be strong, perhaps our thoughts are even stronger.
He avoided the place where it all happened for him, giving Rosewinter a wide berth. As he ran, the trees became more dense, the undergrowth more difficult to navigate, and finally, he knew he was at the point where the west side of the forest turned into the east.
Dark Winter: Trilogy Page 58
