by Scott Toney
Silent Farewell
Carn had waited patiently for hours, rowing with this naive boy as anxiousness grew inside him. His plan had worked perfectly. The boy was leading him to the forbidden woods. He felt the ring on his forehead burning with life. Soon he would slit Thomas’s throat and take the fruit of the land for himself.
“I can feel it in the air. We’re here,” Thomas said. “We’ll dock on this bank. Help me row us to the root of that tree.” The boy pointed as Carn brought his oar up, dipping it in the murky river and churning water back.
As Thomas tied the small vessel’s rope to the tree root Carn went for his blade, and could not move. His muscles were no longer his own. It was as if he were a visitor in his own body. A hissing noise came from the bank.
“Wait here,” Thomas instructed him as the boy grabbed onto another root and pulled himself out of the boat, rocking it as he left. “I will return soon.”
Carn could look at him but could not respond as Thomas trudged into the woods, disappearing in the thick foliage. Fear grew in him.
“These are not your landssss,” a hissing voice came from an oil black snake that slithered down the nearby tree and over its root. The serpent coiled across from him on the boat. “You asssspire to thingss which are forbidden to you. The garden isss not yoursss.” Slowly, the serpent transformed into a man with crimson skin and horns rising from the flesh of his skull. “You thought to defy me.” A smirk spread across the red man’s face. “You should not defy your massster.”
Carn knew there was no escape. This man he had served for so long had put a spell on his body. Why had he thought to try? With eternal life, I could have rivaled him.
Mists wove about the crimson-skinned man’s outstretched hand and a bone dagger materialized in the man’s palm. The man clasped it, and then thrust its blade through the bottom of the boat’s hull. As the crimson-skinned man withdrew the blade, water began flooding up through the hole it had made.
“Thisss isss your end.” The being gave a devious grin. “I will sssee you in the nether world.” As the words hissed from its mouth it transformed back into the oily snake it had begun as and slithered over the boat’s side into the river. Carn could hear the river move over the creature’s slithering form as it entered the water.
He watched helplessly as river water slowly filled the boat and started seeping into his boots and pants until rising over his waist. It was chill to the touch and he saw small water bugs swimming over to him, biting at his skin.
Soon the boat tipped to the side. His body tumbled away from it and they both continued to sink into the murky river. He was still paralyzed, but could feel himself drowning. He could feel the air pulsing out of him and the water gurgling in. The black serpent coiled around his body as the dark river bottom overtook his sight and his mind was erased clean of all it had once been.
42