Blackrift Gate

by Parijat Mukherjee

  “Oh dear. Not in the kitchen!”Marie cried out.”Get out of here. Go in the latrine or outside!”

  Allissi was not getting up easily and was giddy, so Marie helped her out. “You are sick. It must have been the cheese giving you nightmares and indigestion. Go to the room and drink water.” Marie said.

  Suddenly Allissi cried out in horror, as a slushing sound came from the kitchen behind her. Turning around, Marie found Kendall throwing some waste water from a large pot into the drain, also washing away the vomit that was churning there. He looked at Allissi and Marie like an idiot.

  All the staff were looking at them.

  “That is enough.”Marie dragged Allissi out of the kitchen and took her to her room.

  “Sleep here. Change your clothes, and then you can use my bed. But if you vomit there I will kill you.”Marie said.

  “Yes, ma’am. Thank you ma’am.”Allissi said.”I am so sorry!”

  “Why did you cry out like that.”Marie said.

  “Why, for the sound, ma’am!”Allissi said meekly.

  “The sound of what?”Marie said.

  “The water…it sounded like …Yig!”Allissi gasped, as sense of fear riddled her skinny little face.

  “Yig makes sound like water?”Marie asked, raising her eyebrows.

  “Yes..”Allissi visibly paled.

  “Nonsense. Come to the breakfast when bell rings. Rest now.”Marie said as she took her leave.

  As Marie left, Allissi slowly sat on the floor. And then lied down in a fetal position, with her foot end towards the door. It was even more scary now, that she was alone. She did not even know what to make of her dreams. She did not remember everything clearly either except the dread. She sighed. Maybe it was all her sickness that has troubled her since her childhood. She fiddled with the wooden charm she had since she remembered anything. Maybe it was given to her by her mother. Maybe she gave it to protect her, which means she used to love her. Maybe she was still alive, somewhere. She daydreamed again, which she sometimes used to do when she was alone in the streets and had got nothing to eat. She was again dozing, where she had a dream of being chased by something horrible through the mansion, and then suddenly something woke her up.

  She felt she was not alone. The door towards her foot end was opening. She drenched in a wave of dread. She could hear something coming in through the door, but she had no power to look at it.

  She clasped the wooden charm in her hand, and clenched her teeth in a fearful grimace.

  “You okay, child?”Marie asked.

  “Wha?”She got up suddenly and saw Marie was in.

  “Lord left for Berkshire. We are going to have some breakfast. Next meal will be late, and your stomach must be empty, so come and eat something. We still have a lot of work to do, and master will be back by evening.”

  “Thank you, ma’am.”Allissi said, blaming her awkward thoughts for the embarrassment. She was probably thinking too much.

  She followed Marie to the dining hall of servants. The guards had just left, and left a more than usual mess behind. The servants grumbled and made their place. Marie was among the servers. After everyone got their ration, Marie sat down with Allissi with her plate. She was nibbling on the bread slowly, and dipping some of it in the barley gruel each of them had gotten.

  There was leftover soup from before, prepared for the guards who would not have a meal before reaching Berkshire. Other servants savored it, but Allissi was visibly cringing as the soup was being slurped and slushed on the bowls.

  Marie eyed her weird behavior. “Just eat. You will feel better.”She said. Allissi nodded.

  After the meal, she indeed felt a bit better.

  Marie took off the plates and went on to do the dishes, telling Allissi to come help her when she feels better or take the day off if she is really that sick. Then Marie left, and Allissi kept looking at her direction again like she had seen an angel. With a grateful smile she decided that she will join Marie as soon as possible.

  As Allissi was going to their room through the kitchen, she heard a gruff voice calling out:”Abram! Abram! Where are you idiot?”

  It was Mr. Kendall, the head cook. He noticed Allissi.

  “Kid you saw Abram anywhere?”Kendall asked, working on a huge cut of beef and a lot of spices.

  “No, Sire. Not seen Mister Abram today.”Allissi said, very careful not to mess up anything in front of the man who runs the kitchen.

  “Must have gotten drunk and snoring in the stables.”He groaned and passed a small pitcher to Allissi.”You kid, you go and fetch me some wine for the sauce I am making.”

  Allissi did not object, as she knew the Kendall was the all in all man in the kitchen, and it was certainly not her place to complain. She took the pitcher and went to the celler. The lamp was on a table beside the entrance, which was left open, down a small flight of stairs from the north end of the corridor beside the kitchen.

  Allissi’s stomach turned as she approached the dark opening. Still, she held onto her courage and went ahead. ‘The darkness here is really deep, thankfully the lamp is here.’ she thought. Generally it was the servants and maids with a taste of liquor who came here to get the beverages, and usually they loved it since trips to the cellar had its perks. For the same reason, they never thought too much about the darkness and the shadows that the lamp cast on the great barrels, thickening the dark gaps between them. Enough to scare a frail child to her death!

  The wine barrels were at the end. She came down there, and filled the pitcher. It was at that moment she heard it. A slushing sound… splashing sound. Some liquid falling on the stone surface. Repeatedly, like it is thrashing, washing on the shore that was just beyond the wall. A wave of unspeakable dread passed over Allissi, and she turned towards the source, despite her desparate unwillingness. In the faint light of the lamp she saw…

  A hand. Sticking out from the joints of the passage. It was not moving, and the end of its fingures were bluish. There was a copper ring, cutting tightly on the bloated finger, with an engraving “A”. Mr Abram’s ring. He had shown this ring to many others before, saying that this was a ring given to him by a holy man. The slushing sound was heard again. This time, even more closer. From a different side.

  Allissi screamed her lungs out, and ran out from the cellar. She did not do it knowingly, but she had grasped the pitcher tightly in her hand as she stormed into the kitchen. The head cook pried open the pitcher from her, and asked:”What is it, kid?”

  Allissi was delirious. Nobody could understand what had happened to her as what she was speaking could not be understood. Finally she was let go, and Marie was called in. She took her to the room, while she was frantically kicking and screaming.

  “Probably afraid of the dark.”The head cook said.”I sent two men to see if there was something there, but they could not find anything. It was my mistake sending that weakling in there, Too dark and cold without a drop of brandy in this morning.”

  He sipped from a small brass flask on his belt, and put it back in. Then started working in a relaxed manner.

  Marie went to check on Allissi once. She was sitting in the corner of the room, clutching the wooden charm. She was sobbing, and looking vacantly in the air with a horrified expression.

  “What is the matter, would you tell me, Allissi?”Marie came upto her and asked softly.”Why are you so afraid?”

  “The..the…”Dread reeked from Allissi’s face. “The crack on the wall! I saw!”

  “What crack? What wall?”

  “In the cellar!”Allissi gasped and her lips trembled, as she was having a hard time not clenching her jaw. Marie gave her some water, holding her cheeks rather hardly. Allissi gulped down some water with some difficultly.

  “What about it?”Marie asked softly.

  “Mister Abrams! He is dead.”Allissi gasped.”I saw his arm.”

  “What nonsense?”Marie said scornfully.”I did not come here to hear this. I got a lot of work. I am going!”

&nb
sp; She got up and went towards the door, but Allissi grabbed the hem of her dress.

  “Please do not go, ma’am!”Allissi begged.”It is real! It is real ma’am!”

  “What is real?”Marie tried in vain to get her dress released from her little hands without tearing it.

  “Yig!”

  “That Yig again?”Marie sighed.”What is an Yig?”

  “I do not know really ma’am.”Allissi looked down.”It is a monster! It can not be seen. But it is horrible! I saw this in the dreams!”

  “Those are dreams, kid!”Marie said.”Nightmares. They are not real.”

  “But now I know that it is real!”Allissi cried.”Ma’am! Please do not stay here. We have to leave. We all have to leave.”

  “That is madness! We have so much work to do! We can not leave without Lord’s permission.”Marie said.”Sire Loudy is not here too. We can not possibly leave the mansion without the masters knowing it!”

  “But ma’am! The Yig!”

  “Pray that it goes away, that is what you should do.”Marie yawned.”Now I have to go. I am already late. You rest today, but you owe me a rest day later.”

  “But ma’am!”

  “Shut it. If I hear about the Yig once more you shall see I am more fearsome than Yig, whatever that is.”Marie chuckled, and broke off a bit of stale bread on her bedside, went out chewing on it.

  Allissi closed the door after her, and knelt beside the bed, praying, and sometimes looking at the filmsy lock that held the door.

  Marie kept working throughout the day, and could not find any time till lunch.

  Then she went to take Allissi from her room and went to the dining hall of the servants. The table was laid, and another group of servants were quickly distributing the food. However….

  Not everyone was there. Kendall squinted and looked around. About five familiar faces were not there.

  “Tell them to talk with me when you see them.”Kendall said and began eating himself.

  Allissi paled and whispered:”Ma’am!”

  Marie was not too comfortable either, though she was not giving the outlandish fear of Allissi any thought.

  “Shush! Let’s eat now.”

  Allissi finished her food looking around, scared.

  Kendall noticed it.”What is the matter with the kid with you, Marie?”

  “Oh it is just a bit sick, Mister Kendall.”Marie smiled, a bit embarrassed. ”She got nightmares, you see.”

  “Oh. Give her a drop of strong mead at bedtime and it will be better.”Kendall drank from the flask.

  Marie exclaimed at the profound wisdom. It was actually a good solution. She planned to try it tonight.

  “Now where did that Jordy go?”Groaned Derry, one of the servants who was serving the food to the rest. Now that others were done getting their fill of food, they planned to sit themselves. Derry was holding a bottle of ale that they were planning to share, and was watching two plates of food.

  “He went to urinate I recon.”A servant said.

  “He went for a while.”Derry caressed the bottle and looked at everyone gobbling the food, cursing Jordy in his mind for his laziness.

  “Jordy must have a-gone to look for Gretchen, a-thinking she is smooching up with Turner.”Said another servant; mocking Derry. Gretchen and Turner both were missing at lunch.

  “Well then Jordy can have stale bread and water. I am having my fill.”Derry thunked the plates and the bottle on the table and began finishing his meal.

  Allissi looked anxiously towards the door.

  “Ma’am!”She whispered.

  “Shush!”Marie said.”You go and rest after this. I will handle things today. Just pray to the saints and Lord Christ and things will be fine.”

  After lunch, Marie took Allissi to the room and went back to work. She planned to hold this benevolence of hers on Allissi when she will be better, and take a leave on a day of village fair. She seldom gets a holiday.

  Allissi sat down on the floor and thought. She has been seeing a lot of things in her dreams lately. It was nothing new. She often saw things in her dreams. Some used to come true later, though most were often bogus stuff that never turned out to be true. She certainly wished these recent nightmares were bogus too, but the dread was too real. And that hand. She closed her eyes tight and held her head with her scrawny hands and bony fingers. She wished if she could just forget these. And that name, Yig.

  But she could not. Not with what was happening. She could possibly slip away now, but she can not do that with all these people at risk. Specially ma’am Marie. She had been the best person she had known in her life. She might be wholly wrong about the thing she fears, but she could not chance it.

  She thought deeper, hugging her knees. She had mostly focused on the fear and dread that she felt from her dreams, but there were also imagery, things that were in the past; or future? She could not tell. She searched for a way to escape, to stop the thing that was sometimes making her gasp for breath, such was the intensity of fear that was stirred from her attempt at rummaging through those memories. She did not even know why she was fearing the name so much until she went into the cellar and….no. Not now. She could not afford to remember what she saw at the cellar now. She tried to think more, but could not. Tired from all this thinking and stress, she dozed off to sleep.

  Allissi was woken by a distraught Marie.

  Allissi did not expect her to be afraid. It has not been too long since she had slept. Marie was actually visibly worried.

  “Al..Allissi?”She said with dried lips.

  “What is it Ma’am?”Allissi asked in a trembling voice.

  “You were saying something about that thing last time?”She said, with a hard attempted smile.

  “Yes, ma’am?”Allissi tried hard to wish that she hears it was all a dream.

  “I think we should gather around and talk.”Marie said.”People are going missing here. More people.”

  “Let us escape from here, ma’am!”Allissi begged.”Please!”

  “We will have to talk with Mister Kendall first.”Marie said.”He sent me from the kitchen to get you.”

  “Let us go then, ma’am.”Allissi hurried to the door, pulling Marie with her, clasping her arm so that she can not go away. In the other hand, she clasped the wooden charm on her neck.

  “You see, it is probably nothing; or an elaborated prank, but Mister Kendall is not feeling good about this.”Marie said.”Maybe it was some demons doing after all, so we may need to talk with the church.”

  “Yes, ma’am. But now let us all escape.”Allissi said, walking as fast as possible while looking here and these.

  “What are you looking for?”Marie said.”You said that Yig can not be seen, is not it? Not that it exists, but still?”

  “There are signs, ma’am!”Allissi said, looking fearfully behind their back.”Plus there is the sound.”

  “What kind of sound?”Marie uncomfortably looked around.

  “Sounds like water, ma’am. Like the sea.”Allissi said.

  They reached kitchen. Many other staff were there but not as many as there should have been. Almost half of the staff were missing.

  Mister Kendall cleared his throat, and said”So this is all of us?”

  “Yes, Mr Kendall, I am afraid.”Derry said.”I did not see Jordy after he left at lunch.”

  “So, we would have to find them. Else when lord would return, he would ask me what happened to them.”Kendall said.”You all go and search the mansion once thoroughly. They can not vanish in thin air!”

  “The Yig took them Sire!” A thin voice squeaked.

  “Shush! Allissi!”Marie said.

  “What did what?”Kendall looked at the insolent brat who seemed to make a silly joke at a grave time. However, she did not seem like she was joking. Instead it seemed like she was about to pee herself.

  “What did you say, kid?”

  “She has been saying most impossible things after she had some nightmares, Sire. Please do not p
ay attention to that now.”

  “But it is real! We must get away now till we can!”Allissi said.”Before the Yig takes us too!”

  “What is an Yig?”Kendall said, annoyed.

  “It is some fanciful thought of this child, Mister Kendall.”Marie said.

  “It may not be, sire.”Said a servant from the side of kitchen in a trembling voice. He was from the local village, and recently hired by Sir Houston. It was Dominik.

  “What do you mean, Dominik?”

  “There was a lore of this place sire, a legend of old days.”Dominik, the local servant said.”I never believed it, and still do not sire! I am a Chirstian, as you all know. It is a silly legend. But I know the name.”

  “Out with it.”Kendall said, as others all turned their eyes to Dominik.

  “It went like this, when the world was not formed, and the sun and moon were not yet created, and God’s spirit roamed over the old water that was older than time; deep in the water slept and crawled, swam and slithered many things. Abyssal things, horrid, unholy things that did not love God’s light. As the world of man was formed, sire; the world that was blessed by God and encased by the firmament of sky, this world was safely separated from that world that which was always there; and that which exists beyond the heaven and hell, and that which shall still exist when the angels shall come down from the heavens blowing their trumpets, signing the end times and judgement days…That world is still present to this very day, just out of the view of ours.”

  “Dominik, we have people whom we can not find. We can hear these old wives blasphemous tales later when we are in a better mood and have enough mead…and certainly away from Mister Loudy.”Kendall said. ”What does it have to do with now?”

  “Yes sire! I am coming to that.”He said.”You see, our world was created over that Old Water, and there are some places where the barrier is weak. Sometimes those Old things in the Old Water can pass to ours, and cause troubles.”

  “Demons you mean to say?”Kendall drew cross on himself immediately. “Should we talk with the church then to help us?”

  “Nay, sire. The Old things from that water are not demons. They are Older than the world and the angels.”Dominik said.” I do not know what they are. I never trusted these stories myself, but I heard here somewhere near the Blackrift village there was a site in olden days where the barrier was weak; and in older days when the Holy teachings had not yet arrived, an Old thing from the Old water had come through. It took many souls, sire, nourished its roots in the old water; but it was sealed by some shamans and druids of those days.”Then, taking a breath, he added. “It’s name was Yig.”