The dolls. They contained the life force of Dana Cullen. There were known to be thirteen in existence. The Zeryths knew where twelve of them were, it was the thirteenth that had evaded them. Perhaps one of them had possessed it on the other side of the void. But memories of such things were suppressed in that nether world.
Nevertheless, you must find them. Alix could make out a very clear instruction in his head.
A branch tripped him up, and as he fell forward, a large overhanging branch broke from the tree, and hurtled towards him. He managed to roll out of the way, and brushed the leaves that clung to his clothes away. He thought it would be good luck.
He wasn’t entirely sure where Redwood was, but it would not be like the Zeryths to send him there without some form of guidance. The forest, especially the area in which he now found himself, was little more than a deathtrap, and if he did not keep going, he had no doubt the evil that lay within the forest would kill him. Strange, that he felt grateful to the awful, terrifying zombie-girls. They had given him a reprieve. In truth, he had no idea why he forced himself into Rosewinter, even less reason why he had tried to take the Mirror. All those details seemed rather hazy now.
So many trees. Tall ones, short ones, wide ones. Then there were the ones that weren’t trees at all, just a dense growth that obstructed his path. It was like a maze, but one where every route attempted was shut off, and there was no chance of reaching the destination. This is how it had always been. East Gorswood either let you in, or spat you out. Once it let you in, it had no intention of ever letting you go.
Alix wished the Zeryths had given him some kind of weapon, anything that would have helped cut through this undergrowth. On the outside, they could literally breeze their way through the forest, but in that void, they seemed as helpless as he did. Would he swap places with one of them right now? He was not sure.
The only saving grace was that it was warming up, though here in the forest, the chill one experiences when dealing with ghosts was all around Alix. There must be hundreds of them, thought Alix.
Finally, there was a clearing. A dilapidated wood-cabin lay up ahead. Alix had arrived at Redwood, and the final resting-place of the Dana dolls. Here, finally, she could be destroyed.
***
Alix was a keen hunter and trapper, and he smiled as traps he could have constructed himself appeared all around him. It was as if the place meant to trap its prey, without the owner of the house having to do all the dirty work. Still, the traps were a little too obvious to Alix. Or perhaps it was the case that the winter snow that had would have kept them from sight, just a few days ago, had melted, and the traps could now be easily avoided. He doubted animals thought like that, but these traps were bigger. They were meant to trap humans. Of this, he had no doubt at all.
The door to Redwood opened all too easily. Inside, the place was a disaster zone, and looked like it had been uninhabited for some time. How long, he could only guess at. But he could feel the old cabin’s power. It had controlled him when he forced his way into Rosewinter. Even now, he could not remember what came over him. He just knew he had to have the Mirror, and that was all.
Deciding not to be distracted with any more bothersome thoughts, he pushed on through the rooms. The stench of death hung heavy in the air. The moose heads, long departed from their owners, had been frozen with the stark winters that Gorswood was used to, but as the temperature had warmed somewhat, they had started to reek once more. One of the moose heads was in a bad state of decomposition, an eye socket had collapsed, showing a bloody black hole in its place, and the creatures mouth leaned to one side, exposing its blackened, rotten teeth.
Then he could see a table. It had thick leather straps around the head and base of its surface, and seemed to serve only one purpose – to hold someone down. Not wanting it to be him, he pressed on.
The dolls could only be in one place, he knew that. A place where only the most foolhardy would dare to go. Scattering them around the place might have seemed the smartest thing to do, but keeping them in one place – a place where level headed and reasonable people would do well to steer clear of – perhaps that was even smarter. Alix had no idea if it was Dana’s design in her after-death, or someone else’s. To the Zerythra that resided in the void, they were now counting on him to destroy the dolls. Destroy the dolls, you destroy Dana. Could it really be that simple?
Redwood was much bigger than it looked on the outside, but it was the outside he needed to go to first. Breaking into a small run, Alix left the door as he came in, and found what he was looking for on the ground outside.
Using his hands to uncover the leaves that had gathered over the seasons, there was a latch that he was able to pull. It was stiff, but it moved as Alix’s strong arms forced it upwards. The heavy door clanged shut as the stench of evil that emanated from it hit Alix and forced him back. He didn’t believe Dana’s body was down there. He believed there was something down there far worse than a seventy-year-old rotting corpse.
It could have been a cellar, or a basement. How anyone could not smell the pungent scent for miles was beyond Alix. Fighting extreme nausea, he covered his mouth with one hand, but found he had to use the other as well.
With the steps underneath him creaking at his weight, he reluctantly used a hand to steady his descent. Without light, it was difficult to see the bottom. That’s when the stairs gave in, and he crashed through to the floor below.
He could feel them crawling over his mouth. Spiders, he thought. One of them probed his nose with one of its eight legs. He spat back, and sat up with a start. Yes, there was a lot of insects in this place. But ahead, he could make out a shelf with doll-like shapes on them. The shelf below contained food, Alix thought. On closer inspection, he could see a brain, a liver, and other human body parts.
Putting aside his disgust and keeping his focus on his mission, he surveyed the dolls and counted them. Ten of them in all. Some were missing. Someone had to have possession of at least one doll. Another possibly was buried with Dana’s body. As for the thirteenth doll, he wondered where could it be. If they could not be found, then the whole exercise was a waste of time. Or was it? He was free of the void, and he believed that away from Gorswood Forest, he would be safe. There was no way they would make him go back.
“Yeah,” he said, stepping back and shaking his fist in victory. “You black-haired bitches can’t make me do anything!”
“How about blonde-haired bitches, Alix?” said a voice behind him.
Suddenly, the dusty floor around him filled with blood. A serrated blade stuck out from his stomach. As he looked down in disbelief, the knife was withdrawn.
She spun him around and pushed him into the shelf where the dolls stood. Dana walked slowly towards him. Alix could not stand, and he clutched his stomach in a bid to halt the flow of blood.
“You can die slowly, or quickly. But you will tell me how you got here.”
“Fuck you! You can fucking die, you fucking bitch.”
“Dear me. So much anger. So much hate. Let me make it better.” Dana shook her head, and knelt next to Alix. “Would you like to see a little magic trick?”
Her white dress was dirty, off-white in colour. For all the world, it looked like a death shroud. As she knelt, blood pooled around her knees, turning the hem of her dress an unpalatable shade of red.
“Watch.”
Dana took the blade to her own throat, cutting so deep that Alix thought her head might come off. As blood poured down her chest, she kept her eyes fixed on him, and smiled through bloodied teeth.
Alix covered his face in horror, but she placed a cold hand around his wrist. He was a rugby player, she was an eleven-year-old girl. But she pulled his hand away from his face like she was swatting a fly.
“That’s very rude of you Alix. Now here’s the trick.” She motioned his hand towards her neck, and forced his fingers so far inside that he could touch her severed windpipe.
“Pretty cool, don’t you think so
Alix?”
He started to mumble incoherently. “Save your energy, Alix. I can fill in the details. Someone, or something sent you here to collect the dolls, the essence of me, and have yourself a little blonde bonfire. I bet it was one of the Zeryths too! No matter, on the outside, we control them. They do our bidding. So the whole enterprise was pointless, you see?”
No answer was forthcoming from Alix. He had lost a lot of blood.
“Cat got your tongue Alix?” snarled Dana. “Fine. I’ll speak in a way you do understand. I’ll have your fucking head.”
Dana ripped his neck apart, and sank her teeth in, the fangs cutting through his back. Over the next ten minutes, she savaged his body.
In the deepest, darkest part of East Gorswood, nobody heard the final screams of Alix Andrews.
Burn, Witch, Burn
Beth and Tori-Suzanne could see a clearing in front of them. Redwood lay ahead. Beth had been there before, and had hated the whole experience.
“Susie, I don’t like this. We should have all stayed together,” said Beth.
“Negative,” said Tori-Suzanne, sounding much like her daughter. “If there’s any chance we could be overwhelmed, it’s better we keep apart. You still have the doll, don’t you?”
Beth confirmed that she did with a simple nod of her head. With Toril, surely they would have been unstoppable. Now, she wasn’t so sure, and yet Tori-Suzanne was convinced this was the right thing to do. Beth wanted to remind her that everyone seems to end up dead around Dana.
“You’re awfully quiet, Beth,” said Tori-Suzanne.
“I feel a bit anxious, that’s all.”
“Let’s go over the plan again, then you’ll feel less anxious.”
Beth listened intently as Tori-Suzanne explained what she was going to do. The plan seemed implausible, but Tori-Suzanne detailed it with such conviction, it was hard not to get caught up in it all.
Knowing how spirits are attached to places where they died, it was a strong supposition that any meddling with Dana’s body would result in pulling her spirit towards them. Also, as Dana had become a ghost filled with vengeance and hatred, that placating the spirit would be impossible.
Tori-Suzanne had tried to use her powers whilst in that grave and found she had been rendered useless. Curie, or the powers he had been endowed with, had been able to suppress those powers.
In Redwood, Tori-Suzanne hoped that those same powers would stop Dana.
“Because he fought her here before,” said Tori-Suzanne. “He’s had plenty of time to figure out how to stop witches, and anyone else who would oppose him, for that matter. So when she attacks me, you know what you’ve got to do.”
Beth nodded again, but none-too convincingly.
“Let’s go through it again, Beth. One last time. When she attacks me-”
“I’ll be in the next room, standing over her corpse. First, I drench her body in holy water. Second, as she rises, I put a holy communion wafer on her forehead. Third, I drive a stake through her heart-”
Beth paused. “I’m just being honest. I don’t know if I can do all that. I am weak. You were all right about me. I’m a terrible person.”
Tori-Suzanne shook Beth gently by her shoulders. “No, you’re not. You’re a great person. And right now, you’re my favourite person in the whole world. I may not believe in the things you do, Beth. But if you believe in it, you’ve got to do this. Courage and faith now, come on. Courage and faith. So you stake her, and when you do, stake her good. It will weaken her, and then, I’ll be able to disarm her. Don’t come out until I call you, because she’ll still have energy. I won’t let her stop you from executing the plan. No matter what. You were good at rounders at school, right Beth? You can catch?”
“Oh yes, I can do that.”
“Make sure that when I disarm her, you catch her knife. Don’t drop it, whatever you do, or she’ll take her chance to kill you right then and there, before returning to kill me. Go back to the coffin, and slash her neck so deep that her head comes off. Don’t have any emotion on this.”
“What happens then?”
“Hopefully, she’ll be at peace. But who knows, Beth? Maybe only your God knows what will happen.”
“Okay, Susie.”
Beth knew if it had been Toril that Susie had been addressing, that there would have been no need to labour the point. She would have been cool, meticulous and efficient. There would be little chance of a Round Three with Dana.
“I’m….scared.”
“Me too,” said Tori-Suzanne, “but a little fear has always kept me taking life head on. Have faith now, child.”
As they approached the door, the house of Diabhal seemed to relish the fight. It opened without Tori-Suzanne having to try the lock. Inside, the room lit itself with an eerie light, and though Tori-Suzanne could hear Beth’s breathing, her heart seemingly trying to burst through her chest, she motioned to her to go to the next room.
“May the road rise up before you,” offered Tori-Suzanne.
“And m-may the wind rise behind your back,” said Beth, who stammered nervously.
“Beth?”
“Y-yes?”
“One more thing. Kill that fucking bitch.”
Tori-Suzanne drew her wand and waited. The power felt good, felt right. It would not be long now.
***
Next door, Beth chose to ignore the larger of the two coffins and proceeded directly to the smaller white coffin, which had imitation gold handles, three of them on either side of the casket.
She wanted to turn the coffin over, and not look into the face of the girl who had murdered none in life, but so many in death.
Even though she knew of her monstrous deeds, she felt some pity for Dana. But Tori-Suzanne had instructed her not to be emotional about this. Dana had been killed in vicious circumstances, and her fight against Diabhal meant that even the Devil himself could not control her.
Dana would be very emotional once Beth started her work.
Beth set her bag containing the doll on a table near to, but not quite by the coffin. If Dana wanted to get to it, she would have to deal with Beth’s array of weapons. Holding a bottle of holy water, given to her by her grandmother, she prised the coffin lid open. The casket creaked angrily, but with effort, began to shift upwards, until Beth could get both hands underneath the lid and heave it open.
What she saw inside shocked her. Dana’s body was unspoiled, and virtually intact. The last time she saw a body like that was when she went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes with her grandmother, and saw Saint Bernadette’s unspoiled body in France.
At that moment, Dana’s eyes opened. “But I am not a saint, am I Beth? And when this is over, neither will you be. You’ve got to become what I am. A killer. Do you want to play?”
Beth hands shook like Redwood was experiencing an earthquake.
“Burn, witch, burn.”
Beth ripped the top of the water off the bottle and hurled it towards the gaping hole in Dana’s stomach. The contents spilt over Dana’s dress, and her skin, which had been so pure, burned as if Beth had thrown acid on her. Next, Beth gritted her teeth and placed a Holy Communion wafer onto Dana’s head, which burned as if it had been branded.
Finally, she grabbed the doll, threw it to the floor, and poured another bottle of holy water over it. Dana shrieked, and threw her burning arms towards Beth, who recoiled backwards. She stumbled and fell on the floor, as the seventy-year-old corpse moved itself towards her.
“Susie! Susie!! Help!”
Beth could hear nothing next door. But the flames that had surrounded Dana’s body, licked at the dry wooden floor of Diabhal Takh, setting it ablaze.
The turn of events had failed to curtail Dana’s penchant for wickedness. “Oh Beth. If I’m going to burn, you’re going to burn with me.”
***
In the next room, Tori-Suzanne spun around slowly, turning in a circle. Where was Dana’s spirit? It seemed like Beth had done good. Tori-Suzanne could sme
ll the scent of burning flesh. So Dana’s body was finally rotting. Tori-Suzanne wanted to save Beth, but she had to deal with Dana’s spirit first. It wasn’t like old blondie to waste time looking for a kill.
“I believe you’re looking for this,” said Dana, who slashed Tori-Suzanne with her serrated blade. Fortunately, she had moved just in time to avoid a fatal blow, but it had been her wand arm that had been attacked.
As Dana stood over Tori-Suzanne, who was clutching her bleeding arm, she said, “I’m surprised you didn’t use the oil of the dillfern on yourself. Tell me, did Toril get it all?”
“Yes, she did,” replied Tori-Suzanne, “and you’re going to get it all too.”
Dark Winter: Trilogy Page 59
