Ashley didn’t speak for a moment. She shook her head. Eventually, she said, “I think I’ll just accept the trouble, thank you very much.”
“Fine, I’ll go on my own. After last night’s weirdness, we can’t just ignore this. You saw those symbols on the floor. You said you pulled a piece of bone from my hand. Something isn’t right here, Ash. It’s almost supernatural. Maybe the woman was calling out to us last night, pleading for help.”
Ashley snickered at him unkindly. “This isn’t one of your stupid fantasy books, Jude. Are you trying to say that woman was some kind of ghost?”
“I don’t know – really, I don’t – but I’m going back to the farmhouse to find some answers. I can’t forget about this, Ash, not knowing there’s a chance a woman might need our help. But I understand if you don’t want to come. You’re probably right about it being a bad idea. The problem is, I can’t think of a better one.”
Jude walked away, but Ashley grabbed him and stopped him. “You’re crazy, do you know that? Fuck’s sake, this is so dumb.”
“You coming or not?”
Ashley sighed. “One down, two down, but you best not get me killed.”
“If there are any witches or psychopaths in Devil’s Ditch,” he said, “then all we have to do is run faster than them. Simple.”
“No. All I have to do is run faster than you.”
The two of them laughed, but they soon fell silent. They barely said a single word as they headed back towards Devil’s Ditch.
Chapter Nine
Ash still couldn’t believe she was doing this. Yesterday had been one of the weirdest, freakiest days of her life. Now she was preparing to do the whole thing over again. To make matters even more bizarre, Jude was the one being brave. She was following him like a lost puppy.
“What do we do if she’s still there?” Ashley asked as they cut through the bushes, moving deeper into the woods. “Those chains were right through her hands. We should have brought tools.”
Jude glanced over his shoulder at her. “We’re not going to do anything. I have my phone, so I’ll take a picture as proof. Then, one of us can stay behind while the other gets help.”
“You want one of us to stay at that creepy farmhouse on our own? Fuck, Jude, I don’t know.”
“I’ll stay,” he said. “You can get help.”
It was a sunny morning, but things rapidly grew darker as the trees increased in number and their canopies thickened. It was also a little chilly despite the sunshine, and the ground felt damp underfoot. All the same, it was nice to be alone with Jude and away from her parents. They would probably be giving her a lecture right about now if she were at home. When her dad realised she’d snuck out, he was going to blow a fuse.
I’m already grounded. What else can he do to me?
Maybe I don’t want to find out.
They reached the part of the woods where Ricky and Lily had chased them yesterday. Ashley traced her index finger along the wound on her cheek and pictured it all over again. The cut had scabbed over. Hopefully, it wouldn’t leave a scar. The memory was enough to make her clench her fists. She wanted to punch Lily’s freckle-covered face.
I really hate that crazy-haired bitch.
“Okay,” Jude said, pointing, “let’s cut through here.”
They pushed their way through some more bushes. Ashley tried not to snag her clothes. The baggy black T-shirt was one of her favourites. It had no design on it except for the shape of a white hand throwing devil horns. Jude was wearing a T-shirt, too, except it was far more colourful, with white, green and red stripes running in a thin pattern. He looked like an ice cream lolly.
When they reached the top of the slope that led down into Devil’s Ditch, they stood beside each other with their hands on their hips, staring towards the bottom. Jude let out a whistle. “Still can’t believe we fell all the way down.”
“Actually, you pushed me.”
“I did it to save you. Pretty heroic if you ask me.”
She gave him a light tap on the arm. “The warrior princess is grateful. Now, how are we going to get back down there? I want it to be a lot less painful than last time.”
Jude nodded. “I agree. I think the best way to get down is on our stomachs. The more of our bodies touching the ground, the better grip we’ll have.”
“You’ve thought about this, huh?”
“A little bit. Just get down on your belly and you’ll be fine. I’ll go first.”
Ashley stood there and watched while Jude got on his knees and swivelled onto his belly. He scooted backwards over the crest of the slope and flattened himself against the mud. He looked up at her and smiled. “See? It’s fine.”
With a sigh, Ashley got down beside him, and the two of them shimmied down the slope on their bellies like a pair of demented worms. Once again, she couldn’t believe what she was doing. It was absurd. They were searching for a naked woman in the woods.
A woman who might be a ghost or a witch. A woman who might have put a worm in my sandwich last night and screwed with my laptop. Although, why would she do that if she needed help? Couldn’t she have asked us in a nice way?
Halfway down the slope, she had to stop and tug at her T-shirt. It had ridden up so high that her bra was exposed. She glanced over at Jude, blushing, but he wasn’t looking. In fact, he never looked at her that way. They were like brother and sister. Yet, for a moment, she was embarrassed by the thought of him seeing her underwear.
They reached the bottom of the slope relatively easily, which proved Jude’s methods correct. He stood up in front of her with a smug grin on his face. “Easy-peasy,” he said.
Ashley pulled at her T-shirt and brushed leaves and twigs off of her. When she realised how muddy she had got, she swore. “Dammit. This is one of my best tops.”
“It’ll wash clean. Big picture, Ash. Do you remember the way?”
She thought about yesterday’s events – remembered looking up at Ricky and Lily from the bottom of the slope – then followed her memory until she recalled which way she and Jude had gone. She pointed. “We went that way.”
Jude frowned and looked back and forth. “You sure? I thought we went over there.”
Ashley was sure. In fact, she could remember every minute of yesterday with perfect clarity. “We definitely walked that way. Trust me.”
“I do.” Jude headed in the direction she was pointing. Ashley followed.
They walked for a few minutes, and suddenly the woods seemed unfamiliar. Ashley wondered whether she might have got it wrong. She expected Jude to chide her for getting them lost, but then she spotted something she recognised.
NO TRESPASSING.
Moss and dirt obscured a majority of the sign, but there was no doubt it was the same one they’d seen yesterday. It meant the farmhouse was near.
Ashley found the gap in the bushes where they had pushed through and pulled the branches aside. She waited for Jude to make his way through.
This is his noble quest. Let him be the one to go first.
Inch by inch, the two of them made their way through the bushes. They reached the clearing on the other side and looked around. Ashley almost expected the farmhouse to be gone, but there it was, just as before, crumbling brick and a missing roof. The weeds and vines still filled every gap, and the entire building was cast in shadow.
Ashley froze in place, unable to move.
What the hell am I doing back here?
Jude was a few steps ahead, but when he realised she wasn’t following, he stopped and looked back at her. “It’s okay,” he said. “We can do this. Everything is going to be fine. One down, two down, right?”
“One down, two down.” Ashley took a tentative step forward and got herself moving. She caught up with Jude, and the two of them approached the farmhouse together. The clearing was silent, no birds in the trees and certainly no screaming naked women. There was, however, a dead squirrel – the same one Jude had stepped on yesterday. It was oddly comforting – a confirmation
that events had happened as they remembered them.
Jude moved through the clearing until he reached the uneven steps that led inside the farmhouse. He waited for her to join him and then took the first step. Ashley waited for him to go inside and hurried in behind him. As with everything else so far, it was exactly the same as before. The stone-floored room was empty aside from the old fireplace, and the door at the other end was still open as they’d left it. It was hard to see inside the next room without getting closer, but Ashley noticed shadows moving back and forth in the doorway.
Jude wasted no time. He marched forward, hands swinging at his sides. Ashley had never seen him so determined before, yet she also sensed a tension in him. She needed to be ready in case his bravery ran out.
The shadows in the next room continued to move.
Ashley hurried to keep up with Jude. They reached the doorway to the next room and both saw the woman. Both of them gasped. The woman gawked at them, bright green eyes wide and disbelieving.
Wait, weren’t her eyes blue?
Jude stammered. “Sh-She’s here. I knew it! How did… How did the police not find her?”
Ashley was speechless. She looked into the woman’s eyes, and they stared at each other for several moments. Then she looked away and her eyes fell upon something else.
What the fuck?
Dead animals littered the room. Small species, like rats, birds, and squirrels. All of them were torn open, their insides exposed. The smell in the room was unbearable.
“We’re here to help you,” said Jude. “We’re sorry we left you yesterday. You must’ve been so—”
The woman lunged forward, yanking at her chains, which were still attached through her ankles and hands. The bonds tugged at her flesh and caused the wounds to bleed. She bit at the air, jaws snapping closed over and over. She seemed intent on attacking Jude, hissing at him like she hated him.
“What’s wrong with her?” said Jude, backing away. “Why doesn’t she understand we want to help her?”
Ashley grabbed him and moved him back into the other room. “I think it’s you. You’re a man. She’s afraid of you. I think… I think I need to stay with her while you go get help.”
“I’m not leaving you here, Ash. Something’s wrong about all this.”
“Yeah, no fucking shit. Look, take a picture of her and get the fuck out of here. Call the police, and this time drag their useless arses here yourself. I want a big fat apology from PC Riaz.”
Jude managed a slight chuckle despite the bloodcurdling screams coming from the next room. He glanced back through the doorway at the woman. With a nod, he said, “Okay. You sure you’re going to be okay here? There are dead animals everywhere. So many of them… Where did they even—”
Ashley cut him off. “None of this makes sense, so let’s not waste time trying to find answers. Just go, all right? Before I chicken out.”
Jude pulled his phone out of his pocket and held it sideways to take a snap of the woman. She started yanking on her chains and trying to get free. Like a zombie, her mouth snapped at the air constantly. If not for her vibrant green eyes, she could’ve been mistaken for a reanimated corpse.
I swear her eyes were blue.
“Hold on,” said Jude, fiddling with his phone. “I want one with the flash on.”
Ashley waited patiently. Jude’s hands shook as he messed with his phone, and he was clearly panicking as he tried to take the picture. Eventually, he got the settings right and took it.
There was a blinding flash.
Ashley gasped and staggered back.
The woman stopped screaming and growled.
Jude looked at Ashley. “What? What’s wrong?”
“N-Nothing. Just get going. It’s fine. Go.”
Jude went to look at his phone to see the picture he had taken, but when Ashley shouted at him, he put it in his pocket and hurried out of the farmhouse. Then he was gone.
Ashley was alone.
She tried to make sense of what she had seen when the camera had flashed. Her mind could have been playing tricks on her, but if not…
For a split second, almost too fast for her brain to register, she had seen the room change. In the blinding light of the LED flash, the room had altered. The symbol-covered floors had turned to flesh, and the walls wept blood. The woman had changed, too, her hair changing from blonde to brown and her bright green eyes turning as black as oil. There had also been somebody else in the room – a silently screaming man. It had to have been her imagination.
It couldn’t have been real.
But would I really imagine something as fucked up as that?
Ashley realised she was shaking. She clenched her fists and tried to get a handle on her fear. She resisted the urge to pee.
“Help me,” said a fragile voice.
Ashley turned to face the other room. The woman peered at her with pleading eyes, which were once again green. She was now sobbing and trembling, with snot all over her face. “H-Help me,” she said again. “Please.”
It was hard to know what was real anymore. Ashley felt lightheaded. This place, this farmhouse, was more than it appeared.
She took a tentative step forward. “Hi. W-What’s your name?”
The woman stared at the cracked floor, then back up at Ashley. For a moment, it seemed like she didn’t know the answer. “M-My name is Rose. Rose.”
Ashley took another step forward, stopping at the edge of the painted triangle on the ground. “Hello, Rose. My name’s Ashley. My friend’s name is Jude. He’s gone to get help. How… How did you end up here, Rose?”
Once again, the woman seemed unsure of the answer. As she trembled, flakes of mud and leaves peeled from her naked body. She clutched at the locket around her neck and swallowed. “I-I don’t remember. It’s all so… muddy. My mind… It has withered. I beg of you, please do not hurt me further.”
“No. No way. Nobody’s going to hurt you, Rose. You’re going to be okay.”
“Will you free me from my bonds? These chains, they bite me so terribly that the pain is now part of me. I do not remember a time without it.”
Ashley felt sick. There was so much blood in the room, so many dead animals…
“How long have you been here, Rose?”
“Time long enough to know these four walls intimately. The one who put me here is vile, a wretched abomination. This I know, yet their identity escapes me. Please, take me from this place.”
There was something odd about the way Rose spoke. She spoke politely, using words that didn’t quite sound right. It was like listening to someone quote Shakespeare. Also, since Jude had left, the woman no longer seemed to be so afraid. She sat calmly on the backs of her heels, almost seeming to smile at Ashley.
“I need to escape this place, Ashley. Please, take me away.”
“We just need to wait for help to arrive, okay?”
“You must release me. Liberate me from this bondage.”
“I can’t. There’s no way that I can cut your chains. They’re made of…” She went to say steel, but that didn’t seem right.
They’re more like stone, or…
Bone.
“You need to escape, too,” said Rose.
Ashley wasn’t sure what she meant, so she shook her head and frowned. “Sorry?”
“You need to escape, Ashley. I am not the only one in need of rescue.”
A panic washed over her as she wondered what the woman meant. Was the sicko out here in the woods with them? Was she in danger?
Of course I am.
The sicko must have to come back to the farmhouse regularly to feed the woman and check on her. Maybe that’s what Rose was warning her about.
I need to get out of here.
No. I need to wait for Jude to come back with help. That was what we agreed.
Ashley cleared her throat. “I need to escape from what?”
The woman looked at her with an expression of pity. “Your chains.”
“W
hat chains?”
“The ones that bind all women. The ones that stifle us and imprison us and force us to obey. You are strong, Ashley, I see that. A strong woman like you deserves to be free. You should fear no man.”
The only man in Ashley’s life, aside from Jude, who barely counted, was her dad, but it was true she feared him in certain ways. She feared his anger and also his disappointment. She also loved him; loved the man who cuddled her every time she had scraped a knee or got a paper cut. Her dad worked hard to keep her fed and healthy. There was a time when he’d even made her laugh. She feared her dad, sure, but not as much as she loved him.
Ashley shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re going to be okay, Rose, okay? Just… relax.”
The woman lifted her arms, raising the chains that were attached to her bloody palms. “My time to rest is ending. I beg you to release me. Quickly, before my torment begins anew. Take my hands and free me.”
“I don’t know what you want me to do. Jude has gone to get help. We need to wait. Please, Rose, just… wait with me.”
The woman shook her head and sighed. “Trouble comes. You have missed your chance to avoid it.”
Ashley didn’t reply. Every time she did, the woman said something even more bizarre. She may well have lost the plot.
I think I’m losing the plot too.
Come on, Jude. Please don’t be long.
Chapter Ten
Jude made it back to Devil’s Ditch in less than five minutes, but he stopped at the bottom to catch his breath. Never had he run so fast, and a molten blade was now digging into his ribs. As much as he had wanted to see the woman again, to prove that he wasn’t crazy, he was now deeply disturbed. She’d tried to attack him.
She tried to bite me.
It made sense that she would be afraid of him for being a man, if it was indeed a man who had put her in chains, but it still upset him that anybody might see him as a threat. He’d never hurt anybody in his entire life.
Hopefully, the woman would eventually recover enough to learn that he and Ashley had rescued her. It felt wrong to want credit for being a hero, but the thought of it, he had to admit, made him excited. In his fantasies, however, rescuing innocent women had always been a lot less frightening.
Witch: A Horror Novel (The Cursed Manuscripts) Page 7