"Police were out looking for a small girl who run off into the woods and they called it in. Got the address wrong and sent us up the wrong path; you're lucky we saw the burning treetops from the hill over there and we could get our portable pumps in at the river or you'll be looking at a massive hole in your woods come morning. Now go up there, the police are waiting to talk to everyone."
The firefighters moved on chasing the remaining fire by going down to where the altar from the Akelarre site waited. I moved off in the direction indicated but the pressure from Xanthic's hands upon my shoulders both reassured me that I was still here and kept me still so I was still here.
"Not that way, this way." Xanthic said.
I was shuffled forward and off down a path previously camouflaged from the forest coverings of trees, leaves and scrub by its liberal covering of scrub, leaves and trees some of which grew straight up through the centre of the path that looked more rodent run than large mammal foraging route. The burnt ashes that formed the branch off the main thoroughfare laid thick upon the heavy foliage but here and there disturbed piles spilled their ember ladened loads across the path and a few feet up it.
"Mary went this way," Xanthic added indicating the disturbed piles. "come on."
It was a squeeze but I got through with a hip wiggle and a hop, Xanthic walked through without restriction as if he were in a grand hallway. After that he ran and I kept up as well as I could. Judging that Mary would make her escape as fleetly as possible I knew we would be faster without any outside assistance. Even so I ran, not to keep up with my employer but to get to the woman first and demand the answers I so dearly craved while she was in a position to answer because if she didn't she wouldn't be speaking to anyone for a long time and my fists would need to be buried deep in ice for relief.
Nothing runs straight in the country especially routes stripped out by animals whose first priority is not to get eaten by the wide variety of teeth and clawed filled creatures whose first priority are to eat the aforementioned animals; so I was more than relieved to see it open up as it approached the river, obviously a lot more animals used this way to drink. At the point the path met the well established corridor of constantly dried and dampened mud was a hunched figure that appeared to be either contemplating their reflection in the coal black water as dark as the river Styx or considering diving into it. I knew it wasn't Mary for it had a bright pink coat with pink fur trim surrounding the hood and cuffs, the hair colour was wrong even through the changing shades to grey and back and this one was less than half Mary's height.
Xanthic was upon the figure first, he had been using all the trees I had bumped unceremoniously into to his advantage by pushing off on them with his hands each time getting a boost of speed or a rapid change of direction. He startled the slim character who, only by the quick grasp of Xanthic's hand on the hood of the coat, nearly fell into the water which rippled and lapped against the bank near their feet. I arrived at a trot to find a one-sided interrogation being carried out which put pressure on the recipient in a most unreasonably awkward fashion. I had to step in to break this up or it could end unpleasantly.
"Why do you look like a crocodile?" continued the flow of questioning. "a black crocodile with wings? Are you a dragon and do you eat princesses? I'm a princess, at least Dad says so, he says Samantha is his princess but she’s not a princess anymore. Did you eat her? What do princesses taste like Mr crocodile? I like jam sandwiches and fish-fingers. Not together I like a bowl of fish-fingers and a plate of jam sandwiches. Strawberry or raspberry or red jam. Red jam is best not like yellow sticky jam called marmalade. Red jam goes pink with the butter, not pink pink but more pinky pink but it tastes like yummy in my tummy and sticks to my teeth." There was a moment of silence when a set of small children's teeth were exposed and displayed proudly. The child would have continued, but my arrival and subsequent need to refill my lungs which were making a protest saying with a tight hot pain that they will go on a work to rule strike if I didn't stop to fill them with fresh air. She turned her attention to me.
"You're the rainbow girl who sings of Samantha in her head. Have you come hide and seeking her too? She hide and seeks in the woods when she is at home. I have chocolate buttons."
"This is a waste of time. Take this child to the police, to those men or simply abandon it to its fate but I'm catching that witch and I've lost her scent. Bloody nose full of soot, I can't smell anything other but soot and damn ash. Don't look at me like that." he said after spinning to look up and down the bank reminding me of a toddler who throws their whole body into checking roads before crossing for oncoming cars, for signs of escaping hag. "If she gets away we'll lose our best source of information on what's going on and whom sits higher up on the food chain."
I replied without thinking. "I'll get this one to safety but you catch her and make her pay for what she has done. She fooled me into wanting to be like her and all those poor girls were too; they deserve some justice on this it can't just end."
"It won't. Now those I serve have knowledge of this she will be hunted by more than I, much worse than I will ever be and if they get to her first they aren't the sorts who will ask questions before they pass judgment. I am her best chance to live to see the sunrise, I hope she realises that. Besides there are things I want to ask her before the police catch up with us and escort her to somewhere she'll never harm anyone again."
“You can't hand her over to the police." I balked. "How could we explain to them what’s happened here, it'll be laughed out of court or she'll get everyone on her side and find away out of it maybe even looking like the innocent party, you know how much influence she has over people. Those men in the pub fell over each other to buy her a drink and be by her side while the girls were worshiping the ground she walked on."
"Not the local old bill, guards sent by Old Bill who are a little more rigid in their attitude towards……... justice. Lore men not lawmen. I’ve no time to stand here talking I'll see you back at the house as soon as I can." and with that he heeled it away leaving scarcely a mark in the mud.
"Right you." I said addressing the child. "I'm Valentine and I'll get you to somewhere safe I promise. What's your name?"
"April." came the reply, "But I don't want to go anywhere I have to find Samantha to stop Mum crying. She's hide and seeking, she's really good at it."
"She's not hiding, April." I said not knowing how I was going to finish the sentence, "She's gone away somewhere far away."
"No she hasn't, she always plays hide and seek with me. She just can't see me with your rainbow covering us up." April held onto my hand with a suspiciously sticky one of her own, I hoped it was remnants of the smutty ash and nothing more 'organic'. I let myself be led by the hand for a distance as it was in the direction I intended to lead us out of the forest towards the blue flashing lights visible a short walk away as I didn't want to bump into any wandering police officers dragging a screaming child, especially one that has been reported missing. Wrong impressions could easily be thought and premature conclusions leapt too.
Xanthic's aura-sonus had all but faded to be replaced by the noises of a forest after dark. From the sounds of it, it was extremely busy here and although I could hear them all around me I could not see a single animal like standing in Waterloo station with all the echoing sound of commuters and travellers all around but seeing no one. Not one frog on the water, not a single owl in a tree, not a single insect in the undergrowth, nothing: Apart from Mary stood in the middle of the path looking extremely pissed off.
She appeared out of the moonlight, unmoving and unseen until I was almost dragged into her by April. April was as surprised as I and pushed deep into my legs as if trying to burrow into them, I was unstable through the action of pushing on both my legs and stepping back to balance saved me from receiving a vicious slap across my face.
“You bitch!" Mary shrieked through bloodied gums filled with yellowing teeth. She was gaunt and hunched over, showing the age of a w
oman twice hers but I remembered the transformation back at Melody's shack when her energies were drained. Then information stored randomly within my struggling sleep deprived brain smashed together illuminating me with inspirational light. The old witch, that was what the pitiful creatures trapped in the Medway and the crying harpies from the carpark squat had said, it was the old witch and what was that conversation between the witches about not being family.....The OLD witch, the OLD witch.
"You call me a bitch? This from a hag who bleeds the youth out of those who look up to her and abandons her daughter to live alone in the woods." I found my bravery and stood up to her Here in the dark under the impossible white moon which radiated light down onto me I finally stepped out from the shadows of a following child to understanding who I am in the light.
"And now you think yourself my equal do you, you sprat of a girl. You are no witch." the reply came with the dry breath of one who needs it through the aged lips of one who knew they didn't have many left.
"You call me that as if it is a bad thing. If you are a witch then I certainly do not want to be one. You are nothing but a leech, you take all and sit upon the talents of others. I pity you old woman trying to remain young. You have nothing, are nothing, just a scab over a wound of your creation."
"You have ruined everything just like my deficient daughter who couldn't see what we could all have. But now you won't have anything." Mary moved forward and snatched at April taking her from my arms and holding her out over the water so she was struggling to stand upright over the disappearing river bank; just one tiptoed foot remained on the ground and the other kicked uselessly in thin air. Below the surface washed with large ripples as if the fish expected a visitor.
"I have given so much, fulfilled the dreams of all my girls and the Universal She who is our Mother was filling me with her majestic powers and promised me her secrets as a reward for increasing her worshipers."
"Let the kid go, she is innocent in this." I tried to grab at April but Mary pulled the child behind her. A shoe dropped into the turbulent waters which stilled as if oil had been poured over them. April gave a sharp cry and got her feet back on the ground but her legs weren't long enough to stand comfortably. "You sent those girls to their deaths and you know it. They were chained up and experimented on and now they are all dead. You gave them up just like you just did with Gemma and the others. All they wanted to do was be wanted and to feel supported and you took everything away."
"You lie child just like your Master. He is steeped in death and distrust; he has taught you well just like a dog." Mary seemed to consider her position and continued, "And bad dogs need to be put down.
Mary threw April away and she landed in a heap on the ground and arced her hands together placing her fingers in a wide circle and through her throat produced a rumbling sound which pushed the air through her fingers as a focal point. A blast of light shot forwards towards me and I was blinded seeing only exploding stars before my eyes. Mary readied herself for another assault, I could hear her throating more sounds and I braced myself for whatever was coming.
The hairs on the back of my neck were stood to attention, static electricity crackled through me, it channelled from somewhere deep internally, through the passageways of my soul reverberating as they built in intensity until they escaped and circulated around me like swooping birds that gathered speed until a very physical shield separated my from the greater world. My hands came up with fingers bending of their own volition into a series of geometric shapes. At the point of the fourth a spark ignited the charged ions and a flashed igniting and dying in half a heartbeat that illuminated the river with a pulse of expanding starlight that knocked all of us off our equilibrium leaving me on my now damp behind.
"Wow, magic." said April somewhere beyond where my ruined night vision could see.
"And it will be the last you both see." called Mary, I could make out the knife in her hand as she pushed herself up and towards me. At this range with anger behind it any blade, even a fussy over worked one, can be dangerous to a sitting duck target. April saw it too and the plucky child propelled herself forwards into the back of Mary who recovered well for a woman displaying the ravages of time upon her body. She slashed down with the blade and it made contact with April who screamed. Blood tainted the air with iron and salt.
"You first, then the brat." the knife in Mary's hand raised as she spoke, I tried to grab at her wrist before it could be lowered, I failed to take it but I dislodged the knife and it fell to the floor burying the blade up to the hilt in the soft mud. I hard shoe kicked me in the shin and I fell to my knee twisting my ankle as I crashed palms down onto the bank. Mary grabbed at April and took a step away.
"I will have my youth and power. This streak of a child will make me beautiful again whether she wants to or not." but if she was to say more Mary didn't enjoy the opportunity. A wave brought forth from the cold waters a green skinned horror with two out stretched scaled arms and a head with a protruding mouth full of needle fish like teeth gurgled defiantly as it landed wetly on the witch baring her back onto the ground.
"April stay back, get away." I screamed regaining my feet, the toes of my shoes bit into the soft mud which slowed my movements to get between this thing and the child, I arrived at a lurch into the space but due to my faltering it was more horizontal and less of my initial instinct to snatch up April and effect an efficient egress.
April scream a high pitched "No!" in a highly agitated state, wide eyed and open mouthed as I tried to push her away. I had my body between her and the creature now but I couldn't see what was happening behind me but the wet slapping sounds highlighted with an accompaniment of grunts and snarls made me glad of silver linings. Where was Xanthic? Off chasing shadows or running through the daisies by moonlight.
Then the situation deteriorated with any control I thought I had evaporating like a misting of oil over a hot manifold, with just as combustive results.
April moved past me in the wrong direction and I rolled about to prevent her being exposed to any more danger than I could allow - I would make a terrible babysitter based on my current history. The scaled river woman, for she was a woman now I could see her in the light was pushing herself up on her arms raising her head and hissing straight at us, her legs, fused together by tight binding skin ended with a horizontal sail of semi-transparent skin with ribs of bone slightly curved. There was fins sprouting from her hips like a handkerchief from a suited gentleman's breast pocket and the curve of her chest was enhanced by the swells breasts as scaled as the rest of her. Her eyes were completely black and large and forward facing within her human-ish head. Webbed hands tipped with small black barbs finished the image and pushed one word straight into the forefront of my brain. Predator.
Like a skinny sickly green walrus it moved ungainly towards me leaving the inactive body of Mary discarded in the muck. It snarled and gargled as it slapped its hands down to drag its form forward, it wasn't quick on land, that much was obvious even to someone like me who, owing to growing up in towns and cities has so little knowledge of animals I actually screamed when, on a rare away-day trip from the children's home to the countryside, saw a flock of sheep in a field; God, I thought they were only the size of cats as that’s what they looked like on the TV. April stepped closer towards it with her hand held out palm facing towards the glistening thing. It drew close and raised its own arm placing it palm to palm gently against April's pink skin.
I watched on not daring to breathe. Whatever the influence or power the child had over the beast I didn't want to disturb it unduly which was wasted as Xanthic charged at us delivering a mighty thwack on the ground with his staff by way of a distraction as he hollered in a language that although undecipherable in any human tongue I knew if it could would be classified as offensive language. The river monster flapped as it turned and dove into the water, the body of Mary disappearing with a crashing surge or water next to it. The waters were momentarily infused with life, rising and
falling with enthusiastic ripples before cessation of activity and stillness once more returning a semblance of normality.
"Well," said my employer resting his weight onto the upright staff, reaching down and pulling me up. "You really messed that one up didn't you." Then he snatched up April who looked like she was about to jump into the river.
03:25
I was sat in an over stuffed armchair stuffing a third slice of a farmhouse made Victoria sponge into my mouth. There was too much noise generated by numerous generations of April's family with as many relatives from the peripheral sphere that could fit into the house at the edge of the village where April called home. Outside but fighting to get in were friends, friendly villages, hangers on, junior reporters sent out by more superiors who didn't want to get out of bed before the coffee shops start making chai lattes and one family liaison officer who was wondering what she was to do now the child had been found safe and well.
I was being hailed the local hero by everyone who shared even the faintest scent of a chromosome with April, who all now wanted to shake my hand, kiss me or in the case of a comb-over uncle, squeeze my still moist behind. Xanthic had explained it all to the police when we emerged from the forest carrying April who had fallen asleep in his arms. He, the landowner, had been alerted to danger by the orange glow over his maintained forest and after waking his niece had gone out to investigate and no Officer I did not think to call 999 because I wasn't thinking correctly believing it was just a poacher's fire out of control and not a forest fire and once he saw a group of young girls dancing around in the woods, no Officer they were not naked, bumped into a friendly firefighter who said a child had disappeared into the night last seen coming this way. Knowing the forests paths like the back of his hand, oh where did that mole come from under that knuckle? And diverted my attention to the river path because that is where all the young lovers and star gazers walk. But it was Valentine, my niece who had found the lost infant under a low sloping tree and attracted my attention and here we are Officer, one small child all present and accounted for a little muddy and very tired but no harm done and that’s all I know about the series of events that happened on my land this night and no I don't want to press charges of either trespass or vandalism on any of the local girls nor April as kids will be kids after all Officer and my what a fantastic job you have done this evening solving all the occult nastiness the papers have been going on about this past week and finding a missing person, you'll be Sergeant for sure after I've spoken to my very good friend the Chief Constable next time I see him in the Lodge or on the golf course.
Diary Of An Occult Resolution Assistant Page 35