by Power, Max
Beneath the kitchen was a secret cellar. Sitting on the floor, tied to a central post sat a half-naked young man by the name of Absinthe O’Reilly. He was given the name by his drunken abusive father much to his mother’s distress and it was always a source of amusement to those around him as he grew up. But Absinthe was a good man and he had become a priest. Even in the Church, Absinthe proved himself to be a good man, perhaps a better man than most. He worked with the poor, the needy and anyone who needed help could come to Absinthe. He truly was a man of God. He travelled the world doing God’s work wherever there was war or famine or where in his eyes, people needed him most.
Absinthe took a vow of poverty for real. He carried no coin ever and somehow survived at all times on the charity of other kind people. His only misfortune was to arrive in Cranby late one Saturday evening and that the first person he met was Druzle Leek. Druzle seemed to recognise a man of great goodness and need so he invited him to dinner. He fed Absinthe and offered him a bed for the night which Absinthe promised to pay for, by keeping the kind stranger in his prayers.
That he awoke stripped to the waste, tied to a pole and gagged was a terrible shock. It was dark, the little cellar illuminated only by a candle. When he tried to call out, Druzle appeared from the shadows. He wore a pair of old dungarees with nothing underneath. Even his feet were bare. Absinthe had no idea why this stranger might take him as his prisoner and he tried to reason with him through the gag around his mouth. It was useless. Druzle pulled up a three-legged stool and sat immediately in front of Absinthe.
“Last night you reminded me of the foolishness people like you peddle.” He began softly, looking directly into his captive’s eyes.
“Good cannot exist without evil and the Devil is proof that God must exist. Is that the way it goes?”
Absinthe tried to speak but the mumblings only resulted in Druzle raising his hand in a gesture to silence him.
“Let me not waste your time. I’m bored you see. I’ve been waiting around for quite some time for a friend of mine and well, what is it they say, the Devil makes work for idle hands?”
He stood up, walked into the shadows and returned to the light holding a hunting knife in his right hand.
“You will be my distraction. It will be a folly really but I shall convince you before we part, that there is no God.” He smiled and placed the blade beneath Absinthe’s chin, forcing his head up to look at his face.
“No God, only evil. God wouldn’t allow what I’m going to do to you. I will introduce you to the ancient arts. You will discover levels of torture long since forgotten or abandoned for being too cruel. I will take my time and I will enjoy myself, but I really don’t want to give you false hope. That would really be too cruel, don’t you think?”
He grabbed Absinthe by the hair and yanked his head back forcefully and whispered to him.
“There is no hope my friend. You will surely die in this place, but not before I make you understand that there is no God. I am in no hurry and you are a man of great faith, that’s what I found attractive about you. But of course that just means this may take some time.”
What happened over the course of the next few days occurred purely for one reason and one reason only. It brought pleasure to Druzle Leek. He was a cruel man, a cold man, someone who had no morals, no limits and no fear. He had time to kill like he told Absinthe and poor Absinthe had never imagined that someone like Druzle could even exist. It turns out that people were right to be suspicious of Mr. Leek.
On the day that Holly Coppertop and Charlie Callous Colson headed up to Darkly Wood, a pair of eyes watched them approach from the fringes of the forest. When Rose and Daisy went in search of them, again Druzle was there, watching from the shadows. So it was no coincidence that when Holly Coppertop came running out of Darkly Wood, Druzle Leek, watched from the place just out of her eye-line.
He watched her run exhausted into the open, free at last of her tormentors. Druzle tilted his head in curiosity as he saw her dilemma unfold. She screamed for her mother, desperate to see her come running out from the wood and to know that she was safe. He saw her consider the possibility of running back to help her mother and he knew that no person in their right mind would return to face what she had run from. Bravery was one thing, but that would be madness. Still he couldn’t help but admire the fact that she considered it at least.
He expected to see her flag, to wane and she did when she heard the terrible sounds from the forest. Just out of sight, just beyond her reach, Rose Coppertop had met her destiny and Magne was fighting a battle of heroic proportions to determine his own fate. The screams and beastly screeches were terrifying. Just as Druzle thought she would turn away from the wood and run for her life, he recognised something that surprised him.
It was a small thing, barely a movement, more a slight change in her physical attitude. Little Holly Coppertop stopped being afraid. He saw it in that tiniest of affectations, a look on her face and he knew he would have to act. He couldn’t allow her to go back into Darkly Wood.
For her part, Holly had gone through a range of emotions in a matter of seconds. The relief of breaking free of Darkly Wood went hand in hand with the huge hit of awful unexplainable darkness as the adrenalin ran out. She was exhausted from the chase, her fear had drained her and when she realised that she had left her mother behind, she was overwhelmed with guilt and anxiety.
Her first instinct was to run back to her mother, to help her, to save her, but fear is a powerful force and in a millisecond she was going through all the justifications that might exonerate her from her feelings of cowardice. Rose would appear at any moment. Holly had only escaped. It was unfair for her to be expected to run back in. Rose would catch up at any moment. She wouldn’t want Holly to go back. Rose would appear …just a few more seconds. Holly was too exhausted to go back, what could she do anyway she was just a girl really? It was all there and she called out to her mother, as though that might somehow help and alleviate the guilt of not turning back.
But when Holly finally got her second wind, her speed of thought brought something else to the fore. She had her grandmother’s spirit and it felt wrong and unnatural to simply do nothing. Brave is defined by what we do when we are called upon to act in the face of adversity. Our actions free us from fear or our inactions constrain us. Holly changed from one moment to the next, not because she was unafraid but because she was brave like her grandmother. It was less a process of thought, more a realisation that she would act.
It was at that precise moment that a voice called out to her. The sound was such a shock, another voice in the moment when she most needed help and reassurance that Holly literally jumped. She spun around to see a strange looking man running towards her and calling to her, beckoning Holly to come to him.
Whatever it was, whatever instinct or natural reaction caused her to run to him, she allowed herself to be guided by it. Although she wanted to be considered a grown woman, in truth Holly was still a child. She had found herself in an impossible situation, facing a terrifying ordeal, an unmanageable dilemma, still evolving beyond the tree line and here was a grown-up ready to take away the stress of the awful decision she had just about made.
She ran to him as though he was someone she knew and he wrapped his arms around her. Holly felt safe and comforted in an instant.
“Come we must go…quickly.”
He withdrew from the embrace, grabbed her hand and tried to pull her in the direction of Cranby. But Holly stood firm. She looked back at the wood. Holly couldn’t leave her mother and just in that very moment as if to highlight her need to turn back, she heard a terrible blood-curdling scream that she knew came from Rose. She tried to release herself from the strange man’s grip but he held her hand tightly and stood firm. He yanked her quite roughly.
“Come girl…we must go now before it is too late.”
Holly heard the strange accent for the first time and looked at Druzle Leek. He was an odd looking man and it struc
k her as peculiar that he should just happen to be there, in that very spot at that very moment. How did he know that they had to run? What had he seen? How could he have seen anything standing out here beyond the place from whence she had come? Something was definitely not right and she jerked her hand to free herself. Druzle still held firm.
He yanked back with such force, that Holly stumbled forward and fell into his arms. He twisted her arm behind her back and wrapped his free arm around her. Druzle smiled, his face just inches from her confused and frightened face. Without saying a word, he bent his knees, lowered his grip around her body and then stood straight again. Her legs came off the ground and he turned away from the wood carrying Holly Coppertop in his arms. Holly tried to struggle but he had such a tight grip on her that she couldn’t move.
She felt dizzy. The world began to swim before her eyes and she felt nauseous. Holly wanted to scream, to call out and to fight off her carrier but she was too weak. She felt the haze of unconsciousness begin to envelope her and she looked back to the wood one last time.
There was no more noise, no screaming or terrible sounds of violence. Whatever had happened to Magne and Rose had happened, and Holly knew now that it was too late to save her mother. Her sense of helplessness increased and her eyes began to close. But as they did, when she later tried to recall that moment, Holly believed she could see many pairs of eyes staring at her from just beyond the line of trees. Darkly Wood it seemed was watching her.
CHAPTER SIXTY – GOING HOME
Daisy May Coppertop never believed that she would be truly free of Darkly Wood. Once she had escaped it as a young girl, the wood became her obsession. Drawn back to it again, she felt sure there was a reason, something that connected her to that place beyond simple coincidence. She had no idea just how connected she truly was to that place on the hill overlooking the village of Cranby.
When she opened her eyes, the horror that lay by her side was too much to bear. There, lying in the straw was her dead baby. It seemed impossible for she had only ever had one child and Rose was now a grown woman. But the baby by her side belonged to her she knew that much. She felt a strange array of emotions. Anger mostly, but there were others.
Daisy felt a terrible pain, it was the pain of loss seasoned with guilt and in that moment she remembered how her baby had died. She had suffocated her own child and when she heard the familiar voice that snapped her out of her deep thoughts, Daisy remembered why.
“Maybe now it is beginning to feel a little familiar eh?”
Daisy sat up and looked at him. It was freezing cold.
“Why? It was a question born of despair.
He laughed loud and long and paced up and down before her.
“Still you ask the wrong questions girl. Look at me. Do you hate me?”
It was a strange question. Of course she hated Wormhold, but even as that thought crossed her mind, Daisy considered that perhaps it was something else she felt for him. He could see it cross her mind.
“Perhaps hate is too strong a word.” He walked to her and bent down to offer her his hand. Daisy looked for her baby but it was gone. Was some kind of madness taking her over? He wiggled his fingers and urged her again.
“Come now, I have more to show you.”
Daisy took Wormhold’s hand and the strangest feeling came over her. She felt calm, relaxed almost. The missing baby was no longer a concern and her sorrow had lifted, all with the touch of his hand. When she stood in front of Wormhold, Daisy felt a little light headed. She looked up at him. Wormhold was very handsome. He was tall and broad and looked like he could carry her world on his shoulders. There was no need to be afraid anymore. He was smiling at her and she smiled back as though she was a shy teenager. It was just like when she had felt Benjamin touch her arm for the first time and she blushed.
“You know I’ve been waiting a long time to find you again.” Wormhold slipped his arm around her narrow waist and pulled her close. He smelled of tulips. “Every time you go away, a little piece of me dies.”
He bent down and kissed her forehead and Daisy was intoxicated by him. In that moment he was her everything. The power he wielded over her was not even something she could see. Daisy closed her eyes and leaned into him, placing her hand and her face against his chest. She felt safe there. Daisy May Coppertop felt something that she had not felt since she was a small child. It was like she was cuddled into her dear departed father Archie. There she had always felt the safest, cradled in his arms, nestled against his chest inhaling his familiar scent.
But it was that thought as she stood there cradled in Wormhold’s arms with her eyes closed that sparked something else. It was the smell. As she near drifted away thinking of her father, she realised that while she felt the comfort of her father’s embrace, the smell was all wrong. While at first she smelled of tulips, the air began to change. From sweet, it turned sour and then she could smell a strangely familiar scent. It was decay.
Daisy opened her eyes. Her cheek was still pressed to Wormhold’s chest, but the fresh, clean suit of clothes he wore had turned old, frayed and faded. She pulled away and looked up to be greeted by the familiar scarf covered lower face. She could see little between his old top hat and scarf, but what she did see revealed an aged face. Lines stretched out from eyes that somehow still sparkled and she pushed away.
Daisy May Coppertop was no longer in the barn with Wormhold. They were back in Darkly Wood and her head was overwhelmed by a rush of thoughts. That sound returned, a loud thump…thump…thumping noise and she couldn’t stand it. Daisy clasped her hands over her ears but it didn’t stop. She looked at Wormhold and all the images of the last day raced through her mind. She saw it all and much more. None of it made sense and all of it made sense. Wormhold placed his hands over her hands and the thumping lessened.
“What’s going on?”
Daisy felt her head clear, the sound faded and she looked at Wormhold in a whole new light. Wormhold took her hands and lowered them to her side. He watched her change before his eyes, not in the physical sense but he knew she was starting to see past the cloud of her life. He turned Daisy around, holding her shoulders. They were back in the centre of Darkly Wood alright. All around the headstones stood hither and tither about the place and he took her by the hand.
“Walk with me.”
He took her hand and led Daisy May away from the heart of the place, away from the centre. She followed his lead, holding his hand and it felt safe. Darkly Wood no longer felt strange or frightening, it felt comforting and familiar.
Wormhold suddenly felt the pull from her hand and she veered off to their left.
“This way.”
They were only two simple words but in saying them, Wormhold knew they had crossed a line. She was leading him now. Wormhold realised that she was remembering at last. He smiled. Daisy May Coppertop had finally come home.
CHAPTER SIXTY ONE – CROSSING OVER
Enlightenment never comes easy. There is always a price. Daisy May Coppertop had come to Darkly Wood as a girl and discovered a foreboding forest full of danger, mystery and confusion. Now as a grandmother, she stood at the wood’s edge, a very different woman. Everything had changed.
“You love me don’t you?” She didn’t look at Wormhold. He stood behind her, just a few paces back and he bowed his head. There was no answer to her question. She looked out from the cover of the trees near the edge of the wood, down upon the village of Cranby. The sun shone on that place in the freshness of the new morning and Daisy smiled as happy memories flooded back.
“Why do you still love me?”
Again Wormhold remained silent, but Daisy was insistent and she turned to face him.
“Are you a foolish boy? Is it just your stupidity? You are surely stupid are you not?”
It had been a long time since anyone spoke to Wormhold in such a fashion but in that place, in that moment he had to keep his anger under control. It was not an easy thing for a creature used to so much power.<
br />
“You are weak.”
She strode right up to him and poked him in the chest and he coughed. The single cough set off a small fit of coughing and she laughed as he tried to control his breathing.
“What did I ever see in you?”
It dawned on Wormhold that he had got it wrong. His obsession had blinded him. He controlled himself and wheezed a reply.
“I should never have brought you back here.”
“No you shouldn’t.” Daisy had her reply snapped back at Wormhold the second he finished speaking. “But I’m here now. Perhaps there is no need for a creature such as you. What good is a snivelling, coughing wretch with no power?”
Her words were too much for Wormhold. He raised his hand with every intention of smacking her across the face, but he couldn’t. His arm remained fixed, frozen above his head and he looked up at his own useless appendage.
“You didn’t bring me back did you?”
He looked at Daisy and replied in what was to her, a most pathetic manner.
“I did…I brought you back…I love you…you know I only ever wanted to be with you…”
Daisy watched him drop to his knees, his hand still raised and unmoving above his head. He tried to fight it but she was in his head now, controlling his every move.
“I know who I am now. I know I belong here. What I don’t know is why I left? How has all of this been kept from me for so long? This is not your doing Wormhold. I remember you, your sweet nothings and your rampant ravings. You are nothing to me. You never were.”
She paced in a circle around Wormhold.
“You pursued me, chased me through time and made my life misery, took all the goodness for revenge and I don’t know how you managed it. Look at you now. You cannot control me. You can barely control yourself. How did you do it? What trickery did you employ? I find myself asking all of these questions and I know there can be only one answer.”