With one wave of the leader's flaming torch, both the march and the chanting ceased without falter. The congregation stood there motionless like statues, as if they had been turned to stone. The forest around them fell silent as well, leaving only the sound of breathing coming from the curious teenagers who were hidden behind the bough of a nearby tree.
The red shrouded figure turned to face directly towards Sam and Alice's hiding place, slowly lowering their hood to reveal the outline of a woman's face beneath. The space in between was filled with a white, featureless mask, with no details other than the black, empty holes that made up the eyes. Long, dark curls framed the edges, flowing over the woman's shoulders. She seemed to bark a command in some form of ancient tongue that only her followers understood, as they too turned to stare blankly at the teens with similar expressionless masks.
Alice wanted to flee, but found herself unable to move. Her limbs were heavy and her feet felt as though they were stuck in quicksand that was starting to swallow her whole. Sam seemed to be in the same predicament too, either standing his ground or frozen altogether as the robed strangers all stepped forward in unison.
“We sense your taint, vile girl.”
The woman in red addressed Alice directly, her voice as cold and vacant as her mask.
“You have corrupted this boy. This once innocent child.”
They all stepped forward once more.
“Your aura is putrid and full of decay.”
Another step forward. With every advance they moved to surround the defenseless teenagers, forming a circle to entrap them and block off any escape routes. Not that either of them had managed to regain muscle control.
“You tried to follow us. To look upon our private rituals.”
They all stepped forward again, closing in further and tightening the noose. Alice could feel her adrenaline pumping, but it didn't seem to reach her legs that were still refusing to budge. The woman in red broke rank, seemingly gliding over the dirt floor as she came in for a closer examination. Her white mask was only a few inches from the girl's face when she next spoke.
“You have the stench of destiny about you… Perhaps it is not too late.”
Alice tried to speak up, but her voice was as unresponsive as the rest of the body. She noticed that Sam was trembling under the strain of whatever spell had been cast upon them. An expanding wet patch made its way from his crotch down to the leg of his pants, as the contents of his bladder were involuntarily released.
The woman took a few steps backwards, raising both arms into the air before turning her face upwards to look at the heavens. Her voice boomed.
“There will soon be a time where you will have to make a choice. Will you take the difficult path and resist the beast? Or will you choose the easy way out and give in to its every whim?”
Her right arm extended downwards, as the left kept the torch burning high, with the skeletal fingers of her hand pointing right at Alice's numb face.
“Only you can walk the path of redemption, child. No-one else can guide you along the way.”
Yelling something else in their strange dialect, all the bright flames of the torches around them were extinguished and the witches vanished without a trace, leaving Alice and Sam alone in the pitch black of the night while their eyes tried to adjust.
It was a few moments before the pair regained their movement, not speaking a word until they were completely sure that they were alone again.
“What the hell was that, Alice? What did they mean? I lost control…”
Sam was subtly trying to cover the wet area of his pants, hoping that she hadn't noticed what had happened.
“They were witches, I think. The witches of the woods.” Alice said in a slight daze. “I don't know what they meant… But I have a dreadful feeling that we won't like it when we find out.”
**********
Alice couldn't get the red witch’s words out of her head. She wondered what the woman had meant by the 'putrid stench of destiny’. The fact that she could even have such a thing as a destiny terrified her to no end. And what was that about a choice she had to make? How would she know what the choice was or when to make it? Magical centered beings always had to be cryptic for some stupid reason. It was as if it was in their nature to act that way.
As for Sam, his nightmares only continued to worsen after they met the witches of the woods. There were countless sleepless nights as he became too scared to close his eyes for even a second. He would only be able to sleep once he was so exhausted it was physically impossible to stay awake.
Sam told Alice that he wouldn't go back to Wortham Manor ever again and that if she wanted to return, she would have to do it without his companionship. She had begun to notice his tiredness, but he told her that it was due to stress at school. With no reason to doubt him, Alice accepted his answer and let him go about his business as normal. If only she had realised how badly he was afflicted. Perhaps she could have saved him from his own fate.
**********
“The impossibly tall man is coming! Run, Sam! Run for your life and don't look back!”
It was unbearably hot. A scorching kind of heat that sapped moisture from the body and left skin burnt red. The sun was high in the sky, leaving little shade anywhere outside the tree cover of the woodlands. The wise were seeking shelter indoors, within the air conditioned confines of their houses. The rest were trying to make the most of the heatwave.
Alice blinked, rubbing her eyes as they struggled to see in the blinding light of day. Her hair was completely saturated with sweat that trickled down her neck and back. It was an unpleasant feeling that left her feeling exhausted and thirsty. Her muscles ached, begging for the rest and relaxation they sorely craved, and yet she knew that she was still at least a half hours walk from home.
Realising that her travelling companion was missing, Alice took a look around her immediate surroundings to catch sight of Sam, wherever he may be. She was standing mere inches from a small ravine. Beyond it, the familiar sight of a rotten tree stump and between its roots, a hole that sank deep into the ground itself. Someone had taken the time to arrange smooth pebbles around its edge, as if to make its outline stand out against the darkened earth.
That ancient place, deep in the woods. Alice had been there before and knew it all too well. It was the lair of the impossibly tall man, and yet there was no sense of evil. The ground no longer seemed to suffer, as if it was free from the corruption of his lingering touch. Perhaps he had moved on, allowing nature to return as he left the place for good.
As Alice drew near to the hole’s entrance, she could hear the groans of a living being in torment. It wasn't until she was close enough to peer into its depths that she saw the source of the sounds.
The hole itself was only a few feet deep, not the bottomless pit that she had previously seen and at its base lay the crumpled body of a teenage boy. Battered, bruised and bloody.
“Sam! No!” Alice gasped.
His body shifted, with groans of pain signifying that he was definitely in distress.
“Stay there! I'll go get help, just don't move!”
“Do you know what happened?”
Olivia had sat Alice down in the waiting room at the hospital as Simon was off talking with the doctor who had been working on Sam's series of tests. Around them, other patients and their families awaited news as nurses rushed around on their daily rounds.
Sam's mom had been speaking in a serious, parental tone that caused Alice to go on the defensive.
“No… I found him like that. I don't know how he got hurt! Is he going to be okay?”
Olivia sighed.
“He’s seriously injured, but the doctors say he’ll pull through. You managed to get help just in time.”
The answer eased Alice's nerves a little. If Sam was going to pull through, then everything was going to be fine. Olivia on the other hand wasn't so convinced. Her concern for her son's well being meant she was on a crusade for the truth,
but Alice wasn't sure what that was exactly.
“Alice… There were scratch marks on his face and defensive wounds on his arms. You… Had blood under your nails… Did you get into a fight? Did you mean to hurt him?”
Looking down at her hands, Alice noticed red specks beneath the surface of her nails. It was then that she started to doubt herself.
“No! I'd never…”
Olivia placed her hand on Alice's knee.
“It's okay. We're just trying to work out what happened. You're sure you don't remember anything?”
Alice shook her head, even though she wasn't sure if her answers were even the right ones any more.
“No. I just found him in the hole… Maybe it was the impossibly tall man?”
Pulling her hand away from Alice's knee, Olivia frowned in disappointment.
“This isn't a game, Alice. Sam could have died!”
“I'm sorry. I just… I don't know what happened to him.”
Maybe the impossibly tall man didn't exist, but Sam had seen it hadn't he? What if it wasn't real at all and she was the real monster that stalked the woods? Maybe her vivid imagination had turned her into one of the beasts from her dreams. Alice muttered to herself under her breath.
“I'm so sorry, Sam. Please be okay... I need you.”
It took a while for Sam to fully recover. His own memories of what happened that day were a blur, most likely due to the severe dehydration he had suffered from. He remembered falling backwards down the hole, but had no recollection of being assaulted at all. If Alice had attacked him, he certainly didn't recall. She was just glad that her friend was alive and drastically cut back on her trips into the woods.
Alice thought that if she stayed away, then Sam would be less likely to follow her and get himself hurt or worse. It was her responsibility to keep him safe, as she had promised herself as much back on that hot day in the hospital. She didn't want anyone else to suffer because of her, especially her best and only friend.
**********
Sam often had bad dreams. Almost every night, images of the past would come to haunt him. He told himself that they would cease given time, but just like his memories they refused to fade. As he descended into the depths of his mind, ghostly images shimmered into view.
Wortham manor, the derelict house high upon the hill. Haunted by its history, left decomposing and forgotten. The witch cult in the woods, with their masks that left Sam feeling as empty as their deadpan faces. They stared into his very soul, digging deep to expose his weaknesses and he was unable to break away. They had full control of him as if their spell was never broken.
Sam's heart beat like a drum and the visions in his mind changed with the rhythm. The first time he saw Alice. His Alice. The reason for everything in his life and the cause of these nightmares. He knew he was lonely before her, but he had no other memory of the time before. Had the memories been replaced with more recent ones or had he simply not existed before? Perhaps he too was another figment of Alice's imagination brought to life. No, that couldn't be the truth. He felt so alive and his feelings for her were far too real.
Glimpses of Sam's childhood with Alice flashed by at disorientating speeds. All their adventures together. Woodland sprites, a werewolf, ghosts and one that stood high above all others. The impossibly tall man was where it really began, but in his dreams the horrific face was replaced with that of Alice. Her teeth glistening with blood within her snarling mouth, her eyes predatory and full of primal rage. She chased him through endless rows of trees, talon like claws hungry for flesh. Just when she was about to leap in for the kill, a blinding flash dragged him somewhere else.
Classrooms, children playing, a ringing bell. It was school. A place that was all too familiar. Alice was the model student and her teachers enjoyed having her in their classes, even if none of the other students appreciated her. She was extremely bright and had always surpassed all expectations, achieving high grades in every subject.
Sam on the other hand did not fair so well. He was a below average pupil, not excelling at any of the tasks set before him. Not that great with numbers, he also had terrible handwriting and a terribly short attention span which caused more than a few issues with his own teachers. He was close to failing or even being held back a year until Alice helped him study after school. Under her guidance, he began to pull back his grades within a few weeks. She was always so good to him… So why did a part of him sometimes want to recoil in fear?
The images began to slow and everything faded to black, consumed by dark clouds. All that could be heard was the rhythm of his heart, accompanied by the steady crescendo of breathing. Wait… Something else through the fog… Screaming. Not his own, but that of Alice. The shadows lit up with bright streaks of reds, oranges and yellows. They flickered and burnt away the shroud of darkness. Fire!
Alice stood there, a lighter in her hand, surrounded by cleansing flames that she had caused. Sam hadn’t dreamt of this before, it was something new. The stench of charred meat infected his lungs as Alice screamed louder, mouth open wide like a banshee with swirling black holes for eyes. Ahead, silhouettes of small humanoids huddled together as she turned to tower over them. As tall as a tree, she was swaying from side to side as she hummed softly, wide grin spreading across her pale white face.
The scene changed yet again, fires calming as walls rose from the ground on every side, forming a wooden cage. It was his prison. The same place he ended up night after night. It was cramped, uncomfortable and always the same as he left it. He knew there was no way out, as he had tried so many times before. The claustrophobic atmosphere that was enough to make even the sturdiest human feel sick to the stomach. Slumping down in the corner, he closed his eyes and began to hum the same unnerving tune as Alice.
The single, buzzing light bulb that lit the room began to flicker as the power faltered and soon the room was once again engulfed in darkness. New migraine inducing images played out like a badly directed movie or some sort of twisted game. More poorly cut snippets of scenes that had occurred in recent years. All of them were things that had happened since he started to lose his mind. He wondered if the torment would ever end on its own or if he would have to finish it himself. It wasn’t the first time that he had thought about committing suicide, but every time he did he would picture Alice’s face and make a vow to endure the suffering for as long as he could bear it.
Sam awoke with a start, his pajamas damp with a cold sweat. From the ache of his jaw he could tell he had been grinding his teeth in his sleep again. He sat up, arms tightly wrapped around his pillow like it was some form of security blanket or stuffed toy. Peering over at his door, he wondered to himself if he should check to see if Alice was okay, but decided against it.
Still in pain from his trip to the hospital, Sam had promised his parents that he would rest until he had recovered. He could wait until the morning to see Alice, as there was no real or obvious danger present at that time. He took a series of deep breaths, relaxing his body as he tried to forget his dream. Perhaps the nightmare was over… At least for for now.
Chapter Four: Change never was easy.
It was the night of the senior prom and Alice had reluctantly agreed to attend with Sam, with the idea that they were just going as friends. She didn't really want to go at all and had encouraged him to ask some of the other girls at school, but he was insistent that they should go together. Thinking nothing of it, Alice accepted as she had no clue that his feelings for her had changed over the years, or that they had progressed to a level where he had fallen head over heels for her.
The two of them had stayed in separate rooms for the past couple of years after Simon and Olivia had cleared out space in what used to be a storage room, converting it into a small bedroom. They had let Alice decorate it herself, with a small budget for second hand furniture and cheap upholstery. It wasn't much, but it was all they could afford and she loved having her own space again. It was her own little sanctuary outside of the woods
.
Sam however missed having Alice sleep in the next bed over from him, but learned to accept the change over time. He had to admit to himself that he was getting overly attached and that the new living situation was for the best, but he still longed to be physically close to her. For him, asking Alice to be his prom date was a last ditch attempt to get their relationship back on track. He finally had enough of just being friends, believing that they could be so much more. They had been through a lot and were clearly meant to be together. Some might call it destiny.
It was early evening and Alice was in the upstairs bathroom with Olivia who was helping her make the final preparations for prom night. It reminded Alice a little of when her own mother, Martha, would help her get ready for school and it left her with a yearning for days long gone. She wished that her mom could be there now, smiling with an inner warmth and kindness just like she always had.
Martha had always told Alice that she was God's gift to her and even though she never believed that herself, it always brought her peace. Alice wished to be with her parents once more, but had to keep living her life with the goal of making them proud wherever they were now.
"You look absolutely gorgeous, Alice."
Olivia rested her hands on Alice's shoulders, squeezing just a little as her eyes were tearing up.
"Your mother would have been so proud."
For just a second Alice wondered if she had been thinking out loud, but decided that Olivia's words were merely a coincidence. She looked back at the woman through her reflection in the mirror, flashing a polite and thankful smile.
Within that same reflection she could see a girl, almost eighteen years of age, staring back at her. The girl was almost identical to her in every way, except that she was pretty. Hair tied up in a bun and just the right amount of makeup, but not so much as to appear too trashy.
The Beast Inside Page 6