Darkly Wood II

by Power, Max

  “Let’s go Mum.”

  The word Mum now flowed freely from her lips with a surprising comfort and ease. But Daisy didn’t move. She couldn’t take her eyes off Benjamin. Rose had a grip on her mother’s shoulders but she was firm and didn’t budge.

  “Benjamin, it’s me, Daisy May.”

  Her voice was louder now, unafraid and to her daughter’s dismay, she took another step forward and the beast she called Benjamin, replicated her movement. Rose looked at him and her lips parted in jaw dropping amazement. The vile gnashing monster looked like a young boy of about sixteen. He was transformed almost completely. There were still elements of the beast about him, his ragged torn clothes barely covered him, but he was a fine looking lad, sweet almost but with just a touch of menace. He stood straight for the first time and spoke in a soft clear voice this time.

  “Daisy?”

  Daisy stepped forward one more pace and Rose clung to her arm, now transfixed by the boy before them.

  “Is it really you?” He looked so terribly sad and confused and Daisy gifted him a beautiful smile. She was old now, but knew she Benjamin could recognise her.

  “It has been such long time Benjamin.” She held out her hand.

  The beast, who once was Charlie Colson, had manoeuvred to close in on them now that they both were distracted by Benjamin. He was just a few yards off Rose’s shoulder and was getting ready to pounce. He had no use for the words that filled the air. The other creature was gone now; he was alone again in the wood. Memory was never important even in the short term. This was a creature with one intention and one desire and his desire was sitting up ready to be knocked down. He felt a hiss rise as the thumping sound in his head intensified. Somehow his beastly instinct suppressed his hiss. He had the advantage now and he was ready to pounce, there was no need to spoil that advantage by giving his position away. They only had to turn to see him but he moved silently and slow.

  Benjamin stepped forward again just one more step and Daisy followed suit. Rose couldn’t believe what was happening and she stepped forward also, now clinging to her mother’s trailing arm. They were just a few feet apart and the transformation from beast to boy was almost complete.

  Rose knew the story from what her mother had told her to some extent. She knew the name Benjamin and it was incredible to see that her mother’s most fantastic imagining was real. She wouldn’t have believed it had she not seen it for herself, but now she looked at Benjamin and all she saw was beauty. He was a most handsome boy and she could imagine her younger mother falling in love with those beautiful, soulful eyes. He was almost perfect and she thought that even Holly would fall for those eyes and that thought brought her back to herself.

  She spun around suddenly aware that caught up in the moment as she was, she had forgotten Holly. When she turned, Rose didn’t expect to see the other creature so close. Her movement was the trigger for him to strike and he sprang from his crouched position like a wild cat. It was the most perfect, predatory strike. Everything timed to perfection. This was a beast of the wild, perfectly honed and fine-tuned for destruction. As he sprung, his claws extended, his lips curled back exposing rows of sharp angry teeth and the blow that struck him on the side of the head was a complete surprise.

  He spun off to the side and tumbled into the undergrowth, reeling from the force of the blow. Holly stepped forward with a thick, now broken, fallen tree branch in her hand. She tossed it to one side, grabbed Rose and pulled her close. The sudden violent assault had an impact on Benjamin. He ducked back, his features changing slightly, his lips turning purple and he crouched and hissed in their direction. Holly and Rose held onto each other. Only Daisy remained unafraid. She knew this was her Benjamin. It had been a lifetime in the making this moment and she couldn’t let it go.

  But the other boy beast though felled, wasn’t down and out. He regained his composure and straightened himself. Leaning back, he raised his chin to the sky and let out a blood-curdling screech.

  “Wassseeeech!”

  It was an horrific, screeching, hissing noise that had a massive impact on Benjamin. He crouched even lower, his features once more transforming as he paled and twisted, his hair looked suddenly thin and wispy again and he curled back his lips to reveal a mouth full of vicious teeth. He stood tall again, whipped his head back and returned the call.

  “Wassseeeech!”

  The scream reverberated around the forest. Both creatures stood now, maybe ten yards apart, mirror images of each other once more. They screeched again, this time in perfect unison, like a wolf pack baying for blood.

  Daisy May, came to her senses. She had been momentarily transported to the memory of her first true love, but she now recalled the dark side of what had happened to her in this wood all those years ago. It was instant and it came with the sound of that familiar screech. Benjamin transformed in a few moments and Daisy May Coppertop reacted and changed in those same few moments. The romantic memory was usurped by her recollection of the fear and the danger that came with that horrible sound. She knew that the boy she loved her had loved her back but the beast that had stalked her knew no mercy.

  The three of them stood side by side, facing the creatures. Daisy knew what was coming next and she knew they had no chance but to run. She glanced over her shoulder, looking for an escape route. It was her intention to do whatever it took now to save her daughter and granddaughter. If that meant she had to sacrifice herself then so be it.

  “We have to run.”

  Her instruction was clear and they really didn’t need telling. In turn they all looked about; trying desperately to see which way might lead them out. But Darkly Wood was playing its merry tricks on them. Every path appeared closed off. Daisy knew it didn’t matter. She knew the secrets of this place better than anyone.

  “When I say run, you must run.”

  “There’s no way out!” Holly voiced what Rose was thinking. Daisy looked over their shoulder.

  “Do you see those two big trees side by side?” She indicated with her head, all the time keeping her eye on the creatures that had now stopped screeching and were beginning to move closer.

  “We can’t get out there. There’s no way through.” Rose was right, it looked like a dense wall of hawthorn, but Daisy understood the illusion of Darkly Wood, far clearer than ever now. Something stirred in her. Daisy touched her shoulder where the creature had struck her. The bleeding had stopped but it still hurt. The injury was just another reminder of the danger they were in.

  “You have to trust me. When I say go, we run straight for those trees and we will find a way through. You must believe me.”

  Rose looked at her mother’s face. She felt like a child again. It was all she had now, her blind faith in her mother, so she nodded. They really had no options anyway. The creatures’ hissing drew their attention once more and the three girls held hands for a moment, a perfect line of defiance looking left and right.

  Daisy gently squeezed and then let go of Rose’s hand and Rose did the same in turn with Holly. They were ready.

  “RUN!”

  CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT – THE DEMISE OF CATHECUS FLINCHER

  Some people have their uses. It is an expression Wormhold was fond of once upon a time. But in having their uses they also at some point, outgrow their usefulness. Cathecus Flincher struggled with each day of his life from the moment his family were returned safely to him. He had his use as far as Wormhold was concerned and he felt used.

  There was not a single day of happiness left in him, after he had done the deal with who he believed to be the devil himself. That’s certainly how he felt. True to his word Wormhold remained unseen, but he would leave instructions for headstones as promised and they would vanish in the night as Wormhold had also advised.

  It was not too regular, often many months passed and there would be nothing. One time the space opened up before him, two years without a word or sign and it was a brief period towards then end of those two years when Cathecus th
ought foolishly, that perhaps he might be free at last if not of his conscience, at least of Wormhold. But it was not to be and once again he received instruction to make the next headstone.

  It drove him to the edge of insanity and he grew old much faster than he should have. His wife Caroline knew nothing of the deal he had made and she tried to make him happy. When they recovered from their malaise, she had questioned her husband but he insisted that she never ask him about what had happened. He was a good man of fine character but his instance frightened her a little. Cathecus was not for turning on the matter. However it did not stop her from noticing how much her husband had changed and it did not stop her from trying to help him.

  “Cathecus, would you not come to church with us this Sunday.” It was her weekly request, only every gently asked never forced, always hoping to bring her husband back to God in the hope it might bring a smile back to his laboured face.

  “I’ll not go to church with you Caroline my love.” It was always the same reply and while he called her “my love” and she knew he did in fact love her, Cathecus no longer showed her affection. It was though he had shied away from all that was good in the world, afraid as he was that it would be snatched away from him again at any moment. How real his fear was, no one could possibly imagine except for Cathecus himself.

  Time passed slowly for Cathecus Flincher. He had killed the good doctor and that rankled with his conscience. His children and his wife were taken away and given back by Wormhold and while he should have been thrilled to have them in his life after almost losing them, strangely he began to resent them, blaming them in the back of his mind for enslaving him to Wormhold. He knew it was not their fault, but over time he became more and more detached from those who loved him the most.

  Caroline died at the age of forty five. It was sudden. No one expected it and she simply passed in her sleep from an unknown underlying heart condition. The children grew and moved away, leaving Cathecus to his solitude and work. As he grew older, the work gradually became too much for him. The stone became unmanageable and he struggled with his arthritis and aging back.

  When Wormhold came to see him for the last time, they both knew that their relationship was at an end. The years had been unkind to Cathecus, but Wormhold seemed the same beneath his thick woollen scarf and tatty top hat. It was as though the years since their last meeting had never existed.

  Cathecus was sitting by the window at the small wooden table where once he shared loving cups of tea with his wife. How different a life that seemed? When he looked out through the window as he sipped his mug of hot tea, he noticed Wormhold standing by the gate. Cathecus continued to drink his tea. He was too old and tired to get up, a sad lonely man with nothing to lose and it suddenly struck him that perhaps he should have stopped doing Wormhold’s work a long time ago.

  The truth of the matter was that as the years passed, Cathecus earned less and less from his normal business. He was unable to fulfil orders in the time required and Wormhold had left him increasingly extended periods of time to complete his headstones. Money appeared where he had left the stones for collection and before he knew it, Wormhold was not so much his only client but his benefactor. His dependence was a creeping sneaky thing, but with no one to care for but himself and hell awaiting him at the end of his miserable life, Cathecus did his absentee master’s bidding and chose not to think too much about it.

  Wormhold bestrode the doorway like a colossus. He stepped inside and closed it behind him and sat opposite his minion. For some time they sat quietly together until Wormhold, eventually broke the silence.

  “AAAH tea. I miss tea.”

  He seemed to covet the very steam from the cup that Cathecus held between his two hands.

  “I’ll pour you a cup.”

  As Cathecus lowered his cup to reach for the pot beside him, Wormhold held up his hand.

  “No, I miss it for a reason Cathecus.”

  They spoke as though they were old friends. In a strange way they were. Then Wormhold did something that he seldom did and he reached up took off his top hat and then unravelled the big thick constant scarf from around his face and neck.

  The top of his head was almost completely bald, but there were wispy strands of slightly ginger and brown hair extending to great length, disappearing beneath the thick collar of his heavy top coat. Cathecus sipped on his tea unmoved by what he saw when Wormhold took off his scarf. Most men would have flinched, recoiled or turned away. Cathecus just sipped on his tea.

  Wormhold smiled and it was an abomination. From beneath his crooked nose, extending right across his lower face, there was a corruption of mangled raw flesh. His cheeks were shredded and Cathecus could see his tongue through large gaps in his face. There were no lips, only exposed, rotten jagged teeth and his chin was split as though someone had cleaved it with an axe. Something other than his tongue appeared to be moving inside, but it was impossible to tell, such was the horror of the disfiguration.

  “See?” Wormhold chuckled slightly. “Sadly, tea is off the menu for me, in this life anyway. Such a shame as it is one of those delights one tends to miss most when one is excluded from participating in its pleasure.”

  “Why are you here? You said we would not see each other again.” Cathecus had no time for pleasantries about tea or anything else.

  “Ah, I forgot how you were such a straight talker Cathecus. That agreement was for as long as we were in business together.” He looked straight at Cathecus, waiting for a reaction. Cathecus took another sip of his tea.

  “We were never in business together.” The thought sickened him, but as he spoke the words, he knew that what Wormhold had said was indeed true.

  “Well, call it what you like my friend; our business has now come to an end… which brings me to why I am here. You would like me to get to the point surely? I am right am I not Cathecus? Say my piece and then leave you alone. Keep it clean, absolve you of your debt and clear your conscience?” He looked away and stared out through the window. In profile, Cathecus swore he could see something dark and slimy crawling in Wormhold’s mouth. He looked straight at Cathecus.

  “You look old my friend.”

  “I am old.”

  “Such a plain speaker.” Wormhold coughed a little as he spoke and a fine spray landed on the table. “But then again, that is something I always admired in you.” He coughed again, but this time he covered his mouth with his gloved hand. Cathecus noticed for the first time that even through the dirty white glove, Wormhold’s hands appeared all lumpy and disfigured.

  “I’ve asked a lot of you Cathecus Flincher, more than most I know, but I have given you a kindness in return like I would no other, for you have been useful to me.”

  Cathecus finished his tea and placed the mug on the table.

  “You were never kind. You took away all that I knew to be good, my wife, my children, my livelihood even my God. You left me a shell of a slave, forced to do your will, exposed to poverty without your benevolence…” He almost spat the last word in satirical anger. “All these years I have made your gravestones. Name after name, all unfamiliar to me, none of them making any sense, but I did it for you because I had no choice. At first I feared for my family but by the time they were gone from me, I did it for myself.” He lowered his head in shame and then looked back up straight at Wormhold.

  “I am ashamed of all that I have done, especially that I did any of it out of my own desperation and need to survive. I have no idea what evil you are doing but I know it is indeed some kind of evil. I am partly responsible no doubt and if you say it has come to an end then I am glad of it.”

  Cathecus was breathing heavily, panting almost as his ire rose, but there was something else, he felt tightness in his chest. He was finding it hard to breathe.

  “Shall I explain it to you Cathecus Flincher? Should I reveal to my indentured slave all that I am to this world? A lowly man of no importance, shall I tell thee?”

  Cathecus rose to his feet, an
gry and still struggling to breathe.

  “I don’t want to know what it is that I am guilty of!” He was spiting hate and wanted to go outside. He needed air. “That I am guilty of something is bad enough, to make me complicit in something more vile than I have imagined is more than I need to be, so GET OUT and leave me be.”

  He roared at Wormhold and tried to make his way around the table to physically grapple with and throw out the man he blamed for all of his life’s misery. But as he rounded the table, the pain in his chest became intolerable and he clasped at his shirt, tumbling to the floor. It was over for him, he knew it. Lying on the stone floor of his kitchen, he looked up and saw the legs that belonged to Wormhold, still sitting at the table, now looking down at him. He didn’t move.

  “You were the provider of a service that is all Cathecus Flincher. Don’t imagine you were of any greater importance. You will go to a place beyond this one now and there you will discover that the God you abandoned has long since abandoned the likes of you and me.”

  He stood up, placed his hat back onto the top of his head and wrapped his scarf about his face as Cathecus asked a question that had long hung in the air.

  “Who are you?”

  Wormhold let the question Cathecus wheezed out hang in the air for a few moments before replying.

  “Who am I? Is that really the right question? Now what am I? Where am I? Maybe even, when am I? These are the questions you should ask. Sadly my dear friend, you should have asked them a long time ago.”

  He placed his foot on Cathecus Flincher’s neck. It was heavy and Cathecus could feel the growing pressure. He was already struggling with the savage pain in his chest as his heart began to give way. Wormhold blocked his airway.