23 June 2012
Chapter 7 - The Curse
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Thick, glistening crimson blood swept out across the floor, tendrils creeping forwards, filling the red star around the two half-naked boys huddled in the centre.
The star symbol held the sacrificed cow's blood somehow, yet the circle at the centre stayed empty.
Mickey's stomach churned at the sight of the cow's carcass strewn, bleeding, on the floor. He struggled to swallow the rising vomit in his throat. His brain didn't even register the words that Derek's father said as he lifted the boys from the circle.
Derek was visibly shaken yet looked at Mickey with concerned, guilty eyes as Mr Jenkins, the local doctor, cleaned them up and dressed them again.
"I'm sorry to do that to you, boys," Derek's father, John, said with stony eyes. He was a large man, Mickey often felt intimidated by his rough voice and heavy words.
"Did you feel it?" John looked each boy in turn, "Did you feel how close it got to you? We had to act quickly... Else you would've ended up like Billie." He shook his head.
Mickey gulped, "The - the g-girl who died here...?"
John nodded, turning from the boys for a moment to gesture the towns people to leave the room.
"I didn't ever want you boys mixed up in this," He said, a glimmer of softness passing across his face, "Especially you, Derek."
"The town is cursed, this cave is cursed, it seeps out into the air - a sort of darkness that is felt, not seen..." John said, eyes unfocused, "Forty years ago it rose up with a young lad, he and his girl had come here - watched the sunset and the like. Romantic, once," the big man shivered.
Mickey and Derek exchanged glances, both wishing they'd just stayed at home.
"The couple, stupid, love-sick, married too young. Still came up here, sat at the cave mouth on the ledge. Not their fault that the cave poisoned them, not their fault it seeped into their bones.
They lost child after child, a sickness took the wife bad - made her suffer for years before tipping her into her early grave. Sent the lad mad with loss, he had promised her such a sweet life you know, supposed to be full of sunsets, children, families, love... right up to old age. But nah, they got sucked into the curse, it took 'em, the shadows... The whispers. The poisoned air...
The lad took a shot gun out at the wife's funeral, turned on the whole town before takin' his own life over his girl's fresh grave."
John looked down at the pale faces of the boys, suddenly remembering their youth, he shook his head again and placed a heavy hand on each of the boy's shoulder, "I wish I didn't have to tell you this, kids, but it can't be helped now you're here."
Derek had a look of strange fascination on his face but Mickey felt his eyes water, he wrung his hands on his shirt and looked down at the ground. But John hadn't finished.
"The town rebuilt itself, after a couple o' years, but the curse never left. It caught others that strayed here, it's all in the papers if you know wha' you're looking at.
Some people just disappeared, others just went mad and got sent away. Recently it's got worse, making people turn on others, burn down buildings... They all turn on themselves eventually.
Last year it took Billie, we tried to stop it, but it already had too firm a grip on her. Weeks, it took, before we knew, she slashed her Gran with a knife the night before she died..." He paused for a moment, "Sorry, I shouldn't have said that."
John scratched the stubble on his chin, face looking weary, heavy. The boys looked up at their elder, shaken, scared and pale.
"We tried to save Billie like we'd saved others before, like we saved you two tonight... But we were too late, it already had her, no number of sacrifices could appease the curse, nothing could bring her back...
That's why you have to know this, Derek, Mickey," He looked from one to the other. John felt his heart sink a little, knowing how much he was frightening the children, yet there was no other choice. "We need you to be prepared, to know what's coming, because our rituals aren't working like they used to, the curse is... Hungry... Growing... Trying to rise further - it's coming for all of us."
#Brokenpromises - following on from @smellyfingers, @sjw, @misslittleDHP
Broken Promises • Opuss № I