by Rey S Morfin
To my surprise, it gave way on my first attempt. In front of us was an empty hallway, but we could hear footsteps fast approaching. Anna and I hid in the crevices at the side of the room, waiting for Stephen to arrive in front of us before we pounced. I searched for the fire inside of me, readying it.
‘Hello?’ Stephen’s father called out as he came into the room. ‘Who’s there?’
Anna and I looked at one another with wide eyes - the interruption of Stephen Winterbourne Snr had not been factored into our calculations. Neither of us moved for a moment, neither of us particularly keen to hurt - or scare - an elderly man.
Anna gulped before jumping out at him, wielding the knife. Her hands shook as she prodded it gently into the man’s chest.
‘Where is he? Where’s your son?’ she asked, her voice trembling.
‘He’s… he’s…,’ the old man stuttered. I reached within myself for the Sight, hoping that the glowing eyes would scare him into answering.
‘He’s…,’ the man continued, ‘he’s… there.’ The man, shaking, reached his arm up to point behind us.
As I turned, I saw a blur of thick black smoke - before I took a heavy blow to my temple.
When I awoke, I was tied to a chair, seemingly in another room of the mansion. I struggled to pull my head up, groggy, and I looked around. To my right, Anna, too, was tied to a chair, and slowly coming to.
‘Hello, you two,’ Stephen began.
I looked forwards, and as my vision began to sharpen, I could see him standing over us.
‘So, I’m utterly intrigued as to what your plan was. I am - and I mean this sincerely, not simply to gloat - completely dumbfounded. I know you two aren’t simple. Or at least, I know, Anna, you aren’t. The jury is still out on you, Rey, I’m afraid.’
I tried to swear at Stephen, but the exclamation came out as no more than a mumble.
‘Give it a moment, Rey. Your speech will come back to you. I haven’t done any permanent damage to you - yet.’ He added this last word with a smirk.
My vision slowly returned to normal, and I felt my faculty to speak return to me.
‘We’re here to…’
‘To stop me? Yes, I assumed that much. May I ask how you think it’s going so far? Perhaps on a scale of one to ten?’
‘Fuck off,’ I responded.
‘Yes, Rey, very good. Perhaps Anna will be more eloquent.’
Stephen walked over to us, and grabbed Anna by her hair, forcing her head upwards.
‘Anna? Are you with us yet?’
She groaned as she slowly returned to the conscious world. Anna pulled her head away from him as soon as she realised who was touching her, before howling with pain as some of her hair was ripped from her head.
‘Anna, my dear,’ Stephen continued, ‘I was just asking your friend here… Friend? Is that the correct term? Or are you perhaps closer?’
Stephen looked next to me.
‘You’ll get no judgement from me, Rey. I know your partner wasn’t entirely loyal herself.’
I said nothing. It was over. He’d won - and he’d won so easily. He could say whatever he liked. With no chance of beating him, my only remaining purpose had been taken from me. I was defeated.
It was Anna, instead, who roared with anger. She screamed as she pulled at the ropes which held her to the chair - but to no avail.
‘Forgive me, I’m going off on a tangent, aren’t I? To circle back: Anna, I was just asking Rey here what you two had hoped to achieve. It almost seems as though your plan was to simply march in here and… what, kill me?’
He paused for a moment.
‘Me?’ he shouted, repeating himself. ‘It’s ridiculous that you think you even had a chance. You, a woman, and Rey… Well, perhaps if he had any control over the Root, he might have posed a threat, but as he so rudely declined my offer to guide him…’
Stephen walked off to a corner of the room, retrieving Anna’s knife from a table.
‘And then, there was this. A knife? Were you being serious with this?’
Anna screamed as Stephen threw the knife at her, only for it to wedge itself in the floor next to her right foot. Anna continued to fight against her restraints.
‘All in all, then, I’d say: bad plan. Terrible plan. One out of ten. Rotten. Zero stars. But then… you were never going to hurt me, let’s face it. The good guy always wins, you know how it goes.’
Anna, in her struggle, tipped over to the side, causing her to fall to the floor with a crash which shattered the chair into pieces. Wriggling free, she immediately jumped for the knife which stuck from the floor next to her and wrestled it free.
In retaliation, Stephen released his Shadow, which walked straight into Anna and took command of her body as Elizabeth’s Shadow had done to me. He clapped excitedly.
‘We’re going to have some fun, then!’
Anna - now exuding smoke from her body as the Shadow controlled her form - snarled as her right arm began twisting towards her, pointing the knife in her direction. Anna groaned as she fought the Shadow, slowing the movement of her own arm.
It was no use. The Shadow was stronger. Anna screamed as the Shadow made her press the knife into her cheek, gently at first, not breaking the skin - and then, beginning to dig, cutting a deep gash into her face. Blood trickled down her cheek, landing on the wooden floor with a light splash.
Behind me, I heard the door slam open.
Stephen turned to face it and his face turned to shock.
I heard the person behind me charge forwards, towards Stephen. As they came into my field of vision, I recognised Sarah, who was tearing towards Stephen as she yelled. In her hands, she wielded a rifle that was significantly too large for her to properly handle. She pointed it at Stephen.
‘No you don’t,’ he shouted at her. His Shadow released Anna, letting her drop to the floor, and rushed towards Sarah, tackling her.
Stephen walked over to them, picking up the rifle that had fallen from Sarah’s grip, beginning to study it.
As Stephen’s shadow held Sarah to the ground and began to beat her, I saw Laura. Laura: laying still, lifeless - exactly how Sarah was going to be in a matter of seconds.
The anger returned to me, and the Root took over.
Without roaring with anger, without yelling from deep concentration, without any noise whatsoever, I released my Shadow from my body.
‘An air rifle?’ Stephen exclaimed, looking at Sarah with disbelief, ‘You come in here with an-’
I urged my Shadow into Stephen’s body, taking possession of him. His own Shadow turned to look at him - and I could almost perceive the fear on its demonic face.
As Stephen’s Shadow jumped back towards his body, I raised Stephen’s arms to his head and twisted it with all my strength. The Shadow disappeared in mid-jump as Stephen’s body fell to the ground, lifeless.
Anna, still bleeding, hobbled over to Sarah.
‘Sarah?’ she moaned, ‘Are you ok? Sarah?’
I didn’t hear Sarah’s response, but instead stood still, eyes closed, letting the Root completely consume me.
It gave me another purpose.
21
Loose Ends
Anna and Sarah watched with disbelief as I walked silently from the room. My body moved on its own accord, requiring no mental input from me. I didn’t fight it; I knew that what I was to do next was both right and just. I was the universe’s vessel, dealing harm to those who had harmed others. I was an instrument of good.
My legs took me down that godforsaken path through the woods. I had taken this path when I’d found Laura. I’d taken it with Anna when we dealt with her father’s remains. I’d taken it, on Art’s instruction, the first time I’d met Elizabeth. It was then that she used the Root to poison my mind, when she pushed me to attack Robert, when she told me about the people - the children - she had killed.
‘The voices, the voices! The souls that scream at me from inside my mind!’
I took this path
one last time to exact the universe’s will on Elizabeth, perhaps the most iniquitous of anyone who lived in these parts. I went without fear, knowing that no harm would come to me - because I was now acting as a mechanism of fate. I felt the depth of the power burning inside of me.
‘The Outsider! Here at last! Steeping in the power of the Root, no idea what’s ahead of him!’
Elizabeth had been right about this at the time, but she’d failed to seen what was to come. Back then, I had indeed no idea what was ahead of me: Robert, Stephen, the Shadow manifest. Now, however, the future was as clear as day.
‘You’ll have all of them. All the voices of those you kill.’
She had been wrong, there, again. Robert was silent. Stephen was silent. Neither of my victims had a voice. There were only two; mine, and that intangible scream that insisted I right the wrongs of Redbury.
The house stood tall in front of me. This time, the door was not ajar. There was no elderly woman waiting for on the porch. I was, at last, unexpected. She couldn’t see me this time, not in the way that she’d seen me coming before.
I took one last look at the house, standing tall amongst the trees. I would never know its origin - but now, it hardly mattered.
There was no need for me to dig deep to harness the power that the Root afforded. It inhabited every atom of my being. In an instant, I summoned the flames, a roaring inferno tearing around me. With barely a flick of the wrist, I urged them towards Elizabeth’s home.
The fire encompassed the property, creeping up the walls and licking at the windows. It was an impressive bonfire - a tribute to my power. It didn’t take long for the inhabitant to take notice.
Elizabeth screamed from inside the walls - an ear-piercing screech which echoed amongst the trees. It was too late for her to escape, and far too late for her to fight.
The screeches built louder, until eventually the Witch bombed out of the property, herself too covered in flames. She made it several metres before crumbling to the ground, the pain overcoming her, rendering her powerless to move.
Slowly I approached, stopping inches from her out-stretched hand.
‘Ok, Elizabeth,’ I told her, ‘You’ve had your life. Now it’s time.’
She didn’t respond, unable to. I watched the remaining life leave her body.
This task, too, was done.
I quelled the fire on the property for fear that it would spread to the woods, drawing unwanted attention.
With Stephen and Elizabeth gone, the darkness in Redbury was erased - I had done my duty, fulfilled my purpose. All of this - Laura’s death, the blood on my hands, my missions completed - all led to one final question: what next?
‘Go home,’ the other voice in my head commanded, ‘Get rested. There is still so much to do.’
The voice was almost beginning to sound familiar, but I cast the thought aside - it was right, I did need to rest. There would be time for such questions later. As commanded, I started walking, and left the woods of Redbury one final time.
22
Blame
After everything that had happened, we couldn’t tell Joyce the truth. Or, at least… we couldn’t tell her the truth without implicating her in a number of crimes, including her ex-partner’s death. We couldn’t have her knowing anything when the police began their investigation. With Laura missing, and the inevitable discovery of Stephen’s apparent suicide, it was only a matter of time. Fortunately, nobody had yet noticed that Robert was also missing, and I suspected that it would be a while before anyone did.
Without ever saying the words “Laura won’t be coming back”, we made it as clear as we could to Joyce. We told her ‘We’ll always be here if you need us,’ and ‘We’re both just a phone call away,’ and other such euphemisms. We weren’t lying, all of this was true, it just wasn’t the whole truth.
I think, after all we had been through, neither Rey nor I would have been able to deliver the news. Not well, at least. Both of us were coming to terms with our own actions. Sure, we had done everything out of goodness, but this definitely didn’t mean everything we had done was good.
I thought about Stephen Winterbourne Senior’s terrified eyes as I threatened him. I swallowed the guilt, burying it deep. I thought about how he was going to feel when he found what was left of his son, and I concealed that pain too. There was going to have to be a lot compartmentalisation in the months to come if I was to move on from all of this.
The mental and the emotional scars were just some of my souvenirs from my latest visit to my hometown; I would have physical scars too. Under my instruction, Sarah had stitched my cheek up as best she could. It was already healing well under her handiwork (that girl continued to surprise), but I supposed it was maybe inevitable that there would be a scar. I wasn’t yet sure how I felt about it. It certainly wasn’t ideal, but maybe there would be a charm to it. Maybe it would lend me some personality. I tried to keep an open mind, tell myself that I didn’t need to be worried about it when there was so much else to worry about.
When I was convinced that Joyce was as happy as she was ever going to be in this situation, I said my goodbyes. I told her that I’d be down to visit again soon. I said that I could be with her whenever she needed, that I was sure Olive would be here a lot as well. Nothing I said could truly fix the situation, but I hoped that these reassurances could help, at least in the tiniest of amounts.
I was desperate to leave Redbury. If I didn’t hate my hometown already, I definitely did after this trip. However, seeing Joyce in the state that she was in reminded me that there was someone else I needed to see before I left town. Rebecca Myerscough was also owed the truth.
I knocked on Rebecca’s front door and she immediately opened it.
‘Oh,’ I started, ‘Were you expecting me?’
‘I was watching. Down the street. I was watching from my window.’
‘Oh, right. Ok,’ I replied, not pressing that at all. ‘Can I come in?’
Rebecca moved aside and showed me through to the living room. She gestured for me to sit, and I did so. Rebecca pulled an armchair up close to me, sitting in it.
‘You’re alive, then.’
I knew better at this point than to be taken aback.
‘Yes.’
Rebecca looked at me expectantly.
‘I… there’s…,’ I began, not knowing how to continue.
Rebecca, sensing my hesitation, prompted me. ‘Have you come to tell me something?’
‘Yes,’ I replied, ‘I have.’
‘And it has to do with William?’
‘Yes. I… I’ve found out some things, over the last few days here. Some of it sheds some light on what happened to your son.’
Rebecca sat back in her chair, exhaled deeply.
‘Are you ok?’ I asked. ‘I don’t need to tell you, not if you don’t want to know. I just thought you’d want the option.’
‘No. No, it’s not that. It’s just that I was starting to think that this day would never come.’
Rebecca was calm, almost sullen.
‘What do you mean?’ I asked.
‘I mean: I never thought I’d find out the truth. I thought I was going to die not knowing what happened to my son.’
‘Being completely honest, Rebecca, don’t know if I can answer everything, but I think I’ve pieced together a lot of it.
Rebecca smiled weakly at me. ‘At this point, I’ll take anything I can get.’
I nodded. ‘Ok. There is one thing I ask.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Would you… keep an open mind about the stuff I’m telling you? Some of it may seem a little strange, but I really am telling the truth.’
‘With what happened to Will in those last few days… if what you tell me isn’t strange, then I don’t know if I’d believe you.’
I gave Rebecca a soft smile. ‘Thank you.’
I paused, not knowing where would be the best place to start.
‘When you’re ready,’ Rebecc
a said. Looking up at her face, I realise that she wasn’t being sarcastic, but sincere.
I took a breath and began. ‘So, I guess the best place to start would be the eyes.’
There was not yet a look of shock on Rebecca face; she knew this was coming.
‘I’ve seen the eyes again. Not just on my friend’s dog, but on a person.’
Rebecca’s eyes widened slightly.
‘It’s a side effect of overconsumption of a plant. One that grows around here. There’s people around town who smoke it - recreationally. But, depending on how much you have, it can have more substantial effects than the release of chemicals, or whatever, in the brain.’
The woman opposite me nodded.
‘I don’t quite understand how it got into the foxes, but I assume it has something to do with the connection that William used to share with them. Did he used to…’
‘Yes. William used to smoke,’ she began, then paused for a moment. ‘I always thought it was harmless. Cannabis, at most.’
‘I don’t think it was, unfortunately. Was he a big smoker?’
‘Yes. Used to be pretty much all he did. Sat in his room, smoking. Put a towel up against the bottom of the floor. Like I didn’t know.’
Rebecca almost smiled at the memory. She floated in it for a moment before the crushing weight of reality once again returned to her shoulders.
‘It was never common knowledge, Annie.’
‘What wasn’t, sorry?’
‘Will… when he… when he died, he had those eyes too.’
‘They were red, you mean?’
Rebecca nodded in answer.
‘It’s what I thought then. In which case… I think I can explain the fire, also.’
The woman sat forward and gulped, mustering herself up for the truth.
‘Go on,’ she instructed.
‘This bit is why I asked you to keep an open mind.’
‘It’s ok, Annie. Tell me. I need to know.’
‘These side effects, they’re not quite as simple as just the eyes. There’s more. I’ve seen…’