His body was trapped against the tree, but he had to get free. Km and the others didn’t stand a chance against it, he didn’t stand a chance, but at least he’d just start shooting and hope for the best. They were still thinking of Roger, arrest, trial, rights. Not just trying to kill the evil thing.
He had to get free and get back to the house, he started to struggle against the vines of the tree. He was almost glad he was a bit fat. It was hard work keeping him up, and he realized without the creature, the tree was just a tree, it couldn’t move or tighten its hold. He started to pull his hands and wriggle his body. Both hands and both legs were tied and around his mouth and face. He could feel the vines near his face, but he was a cop, he knew a rope was a bad way to tie someone. He struggled with his wrist, if he could free his left hand, he could free his pocket knife and get loose.
He moved it back and forth creating more room, it slowly gave, he pushed it up and down against the vines, it hurt his hand, and he pulled it back. They were rough and sharp, he could feel pain from one of them, that was good, he pushed his hand hard it to and winced in pain. The skin tore, and blood started to run from his wrist. He felt it soak the vines and then slowly, with a lot of pain pulled his hand free.
The slippery blood all over it, a long cut on his wrist, He reached behind his body and drew out his little knife. It was a small fishing one attached to his compass. He got it free and started to work on the others on his face and then his hands.
It took an age but slowly the blunt little knife cut through the vines on his face and hand, as his next hand came free, he could feel himself falling forward. He cried out as his body fell forward, Feet still tied, half a meter off the ground.
He held his arms in front of him, and he was almost glad that he landed face first on the dead body of his poor friend Rick. The knife was still in his hand and thankfully not in his own neck or somewhere else vital. He pulled his feet free from the broken vines and pushing off ricks body, stood up.
It looked so bad up close. His face had been pressed against his ragged neck wound, where it had sent its wooden fingers to rip the flesh and bled him like cattle.
Jim stood and checked himself, his body hurt, his hand ached and bled a little, his ankle on the left felt a bit strained, but if he’d hit the dirt that way, he would have a broken neck. He looked at into the forest, in the direction of the house, it was about a km and would take him, around 20 minutes, the demon seemed to run through the forest much faster than that. He looked down at the body of Rick again, he wondered if he should do something, but now the vines, were growing through his body, they were spreading like a dark virulent cancer. He didn’t know what to do.
‘I’ll get him, or die trying, more likely but at least I have a chance’ he said to Rick, he wished he could do more, but he couldn’t leave those kids and Kim alone a second longer.
His drew his gun and checked it, good solid police issue, automatic. Ten in the clip, one in the barrel. He didn’t know the words to exorcise a demon, so he’d just have to try and put a round into its head and see if that did the job.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Vicky followed Kim as she crept from room to room of the scary old house. The only light was coming from her torch as she shined it into each empty room and kept going. She had her gun out but didn’t say much. Bree had said they’d be safer alone, but she had no intention of leaving that gun. They went out the back of the room, to the kitchen, leaving Liam’s body, alone, dead on the floor, a sheet they had found, placed over him, was the only burial he’d get until tomorrow. There was no one in the kitchen, and it opened to a door that led outside, then back around to a small hall and stairs.
She’d assumed the Italians would be hiding upstairs, probably in their own bedroom. It was some useless human instinct when threatened or in danger, to have your stuff around. Like somehow it was better to get murdered in a room full of your dirty clothes than the kitchen. Still, they saw the snakes and ran, not stayed, to tried to help anyone else. She stood there like a moron as Liam was killed, but at least she stood there.
‘We should go outside, just you and me, hide in the trees, he will search these rooms, he can’t search the entire forest’ Bree said.
Bree was acting strange and say weird stuff, but clearly, she thought something else was going on. The situation was beyond insane, it made no sense. And not like ‘why is he trying to kill us? he’s a crazy hick who loves to rape and torture girls! Oh’.
It didn’t make sense in that the animals were killing people, how did that happen, a chemical, what chemical? And why did they attack then stop and leave? Those snakes came in and went straight for Liam and then, looked at them on the couch. Heads raised, ready to strike, it was like something was holding them back from attacking. That thing in the window, it wasn’t Roger, it didn’t look like a someone at all, more like a something, but she couldn’t let herself think like that.
Vicky looked outside. It was dark, he was out there, but Bree was right, he’ be back in this house, he’d be searching room to room for them. Was one female cop with a shaking gun hand and a terrified look on her face really going to stop him, if he was the danger, her mind couldn’t even come up with something else.
‘Bree’s right’ Vicky said.
She saw Kim was about to go upstairs, ‘we’re safer outside, hiding in the forest or trees’ she said.
Kim looked at her and seemed to try and think, her minds was running a mile a minute ‘you two should go, ‘I have to find them and try to protect them’ she said.
She turned and started to creep up the stair, she didn’t need to stay and protect her and Bree, no go and protect the ones who ran off and left you in the snake room.
She looked at Bree in the dark. ‘no torches, no candles, we just hold hands and walk out into the dark until we think we're safe’ she said.
‘sounds smart’ Bree said, ‘but let’s get some food, it’ll like 12 only, and we don’t want to be starving.’
Vicky laughed, ‘we’ll get a blanket, some wine and have a picnic’ she said, but it was smart, she was already hungry and she planned to stay out there till it’s was light enough to find a road and start walking down it.
They rummaged around a few draws, and she found a shopping bag, she and Bree loaded it with what was out, some bread and biscuits and even found some wine. ‘no crisps, he’ll hear us!’
It was so silly and surreal. They took their shopping bag, weapons and crept to the back door, she was glad to be getting out and glad she was a smoker. She’d crept out many a night. She opened the door quietly, and they were out.
The moonlight was low, and they waited a few moments for their eyes to adjust. ‘Can you see anything?’ Vicky asked.
‘I think there is a barbed wire fence, much further back past the shed, but there are trees near the fence.’
She knew how far it was, she took Brees, hand, and they started to walk in the dark. She counted the number steps. One, two, three. She was feeling safer and safer every step she took away from the house. She looked around in the dark, anyone could be there, watching them, they could have walked right into him. But a torch would have been seen for ages. They were around ten meters from the house and past the shed, she heard a sound behind, a loud cracking, Bree stepped on a branch or twig.
‘Shit sorry’ she said.
They turned and looked at the house. In a second story window she saw Kim, going into a room, she could see the torch and see that the room was empty, she did a sweep of it and then closed the door again.
‘That was the Italians room, wasn’t it’ Bree said.
‘I think so’ Vicky said back,
‘what are their names?’ Bree asked.
‘Antonio and Claire’ she said.
‘good to know.’
As she said the words, the Italians came. Claire was hiding under the bed and boy was in the closet, now they stood at the window and seemed to be whispering to each other.
‘Wh
y hide from her?’ Bree asked.
‘Maybe they don’t trust her either. They were only a meter from the trees and found them by hand. Vicky sat down and turned, she was still looking at the house and could see as Kim was searching still going to different rooms.
‘At least we can see if anyone else arrives, when the cops all get here we could go back’ she said.
Vicky thought it was safe and rolled herself a smoke, no one would notice a little ash mark, it would look like a firefly, and she was dying for one, hopefully not literally she thought to herself.
‘Can you roll in the dark’ Bree said.
‘Of course, just sit in front of me, so there is no light’ she said.
She looked at Bree, they had been through a lot, she liked new friend, but she knew something, she kept hinting at it, but she needed to face what was really happening.
‘I think you need to tell me what’s really happening’ Vicky said.
She didn’t roll her smoke, as she looked, the room the Italians were in the glass suddenly smashed and screaming filled the night.
Chapter Thirty-Three
He stood in the front room of their wooden house and looked at the body of the one they had called Liam, it wouldn’t do at all. It had been covered by a sheet and taking it off, he looked at the destroyed thing. Snakes had been a bad idea, funny and fitting but bad. The poison had eaten his body. He knew brown snakes had a neurotoxin that ate the brain tissue. He looked at the body and blood dripped from his nose and ears. The eyes themselves were white and dead. If he changed him, he would be blind and stupid. A creature worth nothing. He almost yelled at himself for his idiocy. He had to stop with this petty revenge, he was beyond it now, he had one task, that was to make more like him.
He knew from the memories of them all, humans were now a plague, that spends across the world and he was perhaps the only of his kind left to bring order back to the grove. His grove had simply grown, it was now the entire planet. He needed help, and he would take them back alive if he had to, or break their necks himself and drag them back, with fresh blood still in their veins.
He sensed the house, he could hear someone walking around, trying to sneak and be quiet and failing, He saw the flashes of light up there, the female policeman, Kimberly, Kim. He knew the other two would have run back to their rooms. He would take the couple, he needed two, to make up for his mistake, he could drag two back and start work on them. By the time the police came in the morning, they would face an army of his kind, and they would plant them in the ground and start to cleanse this dirty world.
Walking through to the kitchen he could smell Bree and her servant, they had fled outside, alone, that was good, the snakes had almost had them too. They were hard beasts to control, he’d had to them work to get them to attack and then he had to hold the back. He left them and turned up the hallway, he could understand something clearly, at last, the cop had gone past the room of the couple, but he knew they were n there. They locked the door after she left. The should have run to her.
He crept back down and out the door, looking he saw Bree and Vicky were a fair way, walking slowly in the dark. Almost at the trees, they didn’t see him. Going to the wall of the house, he climbed up the planks, until he was outside of the glass window and pressed close.
He could hear them, whispering in their language, he knew it not, but they sounded scared and suspicious. They should have trusted that women and her gun.
They sat on the bed, and he heard she was crying, soon the pain would stop. They had been sinners on the farm like they all had, but now it didn’t even matter, he knew all of them were sinners, they lived a life of defilement every day. He just hadn’t read their crimes yet.
Placing his hand on the glass window, He waited until they looked up. He saw her eyes, wet and red, scared. She started to scream, and he leaped into the room. The glass of the window broke as he launched himself into the room, He landed on top of the girl, and she fell to the floor, with his body on her. Now the man started to scream as well.
The boy had run at him, before, he could even see what he was. In his hand, he had a knife. He brought it down as hard as he could. It flew in the dark, flashing. A massive kitchen knife and it went straight at his heart. The metal blade was sharp, but it did nothing. It hit his wooden chest, sunk in just a little and then stopped. He was shoved back a little from the force.
Now the boy looked up, both hands on the blade. His eyes wide with fear. He reached out with his hands a took him around the throat. He lifted the boy off the ground and started to choke the life out of him. It was easy, they were weak. He wanted to dig his fingers in and rip his throat out, but he would save all that precious blood for the home tree. The boy kicked and struggled, his face losing color, he shoved him hard against the wall as he choked. He twisted his neck hard, and it cracked loudly. He dropped his body to the ground and turned around.
The girl was crouched on the floor. She was huddled and held something in her hands, it was a pendant, she was wearing it around her neck. He thought of Brees memories and knew what it was, mother Mary, a saint. She called for protection, from her goddess, but it did nothing. He almost wanted to feel something but didn’t.
At the door, someone was banging and shouting, Kimberly, and her gun, she was trying to get in. He had to be quick. Walking to the girl, he simply raised his huge rooted foot and brought it down on her. It smashed her raised arm and her to the ground. He stamped on her head and neck and heard them pop and crush, as her body was forced to the floor. She cried out once and died as well, her body and neck were broken. That was easy too.
The door started to break, and he knew in moments she would be inside. He turned and grabbed the boy by the ankle, he took her and pulled them both close. He lay them over a shoulder each. He turned and leaped out of the window.
Chapter Thirty-Four
She’d never seen a ghost, she thought people who saw auras and asked constantly about your star signs, and then thought they had some awesome insight into who you were as a person we’re idiots. So, she stood in the darkness, her unlit cigarette in her mouth and stared like a zombie at what was unfolding before. Her brain couldn’t process it, but a feeling washed over her. She was scared, not just fear for her safety, that was there, but something much worse. She was witnessing pure evil in action.
The window of the Italians room smashed from the outside, something and it looked like a very tall person leaped in through the window. It was hard to see inside the room, but she heard a brief struggle, a pop of a human neck and bones. Then she saw something leap out of the window.
It landed in a patch of moon light and even though it was a good ten meters away, she could see it wasn’t human, it was a creature, and it had the two bodies of the dead or passed out Italians on its shoulder. It was unhurt by its leap, looked left and right and then stalked off with its prize. It looked like an evil Santa with presents for itself.
Bree was looking at it as well, but her reaction was much different, she didn’t seem scared, more resigned. Soon it was gone, and the heard the door breaking in, a flash light was in the room. Kim came to the smashed window and shined her torch out of it, looking around. Vicky just thought she was lucky she hadn’t gotten in sooner or there would have been three bodies it was carrying off.
She forced herself to talk and to think, Bree clearly knew what it was or had seen it before, all her comments, ‘he won’t hurt us,' ‘we’re safer alone’ she wanted to know why what was this thing and what was her friend’s connection to it.
She looked at Bree and realized she was holding her hand.
‘what the fuck was that?’ Vicky asked.
‘It doesn’t really have a name in English, but sometimes people call them Spriggans’ she said.
Spriggans, she knew, they were meant to be tall female nature spirits, she’d seen her boyfriend burning with a fire spell in Skyrim. She remembered him saying something about how annoying they were. The thing here was some unreal
creature, but it was real, what else was real, were vampires, werewolves, were their monsters, now she had to worry about this, she didn’t trust people as it was now they had serial killers and killer trees.
‘You've seen it before? Vicky managed.
‘I have, but you don’t have to be scared Vicky, it won’t hurt us, it's just doing what it was created for, it’s protecting its grove, it only goes after the ones who hurt nature ‘she said.
‘Everyone hurts nature, it’s the way people are, you knew about this? Did it kill Nick? The guy who went missing?’ she said.
‘Most likely, he cut down that big tree remember, the Germans killed that Scorpion, Liam a snake and the rest of them, many little things’ she said.
Vicky thought of all she’d done. Plants, she’d ripped out plenty, no creatures, but that was just because she’d not seen any when alone. She’d gotten Liam to kill a red back in her room, she hated spiders.
‘He came to visit me, and I saw into its mind, Vicky, he’s not evil, he’s just been alone for a very long time and doesn’t think of human life as worth anything more than the life of an insect or a plant’ she said.
‘And you believe this too, you’re happy for it to kill everyone else if it doesn’t kill us?’ she asked.
‘it’s extreme, but surely you see the planet is sick, we need to change’ Bree responded.
‘why won’t it hurt us? Vicky asked.
‘The wristband I gave you protects you from it, but don’t hurt any animals or creatures near it, it’s only protection if you do little things, when he came to me, he tested me, I think it might test you before it accepts you.’ She said.
‘Accepts me for what? Vicky asked.
Spriggan: Dark horror fantasy Page 11