Short Story - Oct/Nov 2021
Gone - Part 2
Gone - Part 2
After Caleb lost his job due to Covid-19, he moved with his wife Bianca and daughter Caylin into a remote house surrounded by a mysterious forest. The tension between family members quickly rose and Caylin felt deserted by her parents. After her father came home drunk one night and argued with her mother, Caylin fled into the woods in search of escape with her imaginary friends. But in the dark night, the charming atmosphere of the forest turned into a nightmare as she stumbled onto a puzzling man claiming to know a secret room where real-life fairies live. He manipulates her into going with him.Cold silenc
e cut the air and the only choir heard was the melancholy voices of the wind.“Then let us go,” his words broke the silence. Caylin anchored her feet to the ground, bound in uncertainty.
“Now,” he spoke louder. But she stepped back, tugging her wrist from his tentacle fingers.
As he let her go, his knees sunk down as if shackled to the ground. He screamed piercingly, and his tears watered the ground. Digging his long nails into his pale forehead, the man lifted his head towards Caylin.
“My mum and dad left me when I was little like you. I play alone,” he sniffed, “with the fairies at night… Please don’t run away. I am lonely.”
Caylin’s heart sunk. Slowly she stepped closer, offering her hand. “I am sorry your parents hurt you. I want to see the fairies, but then I have to go back home afterwards.”
As her soft hands touched his cracked, dry hands, he felt a quiver of excitement. Walking off into the unknown wilderness the man tugged her closer, releasing deep breaths as his hunger was finally being satisfied.
Bianca had had enough of his infuriating hardheartedness. Moreover, Caleb was drunk and arguing with a drunk man was as pointless as talking to a tree. She rolled over, facing the window as her eyes searched into the dark forest for a glimmer of hope.
“You only think about yourself Bianca… don’t ignore me! Bianca?... Bianca, I need you…,” Caleb said, but his words meant nothing to her.
“Are you excited?” the man asked as he opened a hidden latch covered in a carpet of green clubmoss. Caylin simply smiled.
Candle lights illuminated the chamber below. Some flames burned brightly and vividly, and others merely flickered and quivered. As Caylin climbed down a great staircase, the man glared at her from behind.
The chamber was a mystifying wonderland. Wall paintings and creeper plants perfectly complemented the tiny space. But the table painted with psychedelic patterns caught her eye the most.
“Sit down,” the man insisted after securely locking his hideaway. But as the light revealed the man’s dirty, disfigured face, fear dug its claws into her guts.
Cautiously he went closer.
“I wish I lived in a big house like you, where I can shower. Please, don’t be scared. I am a human being too. And I love fairies, just like you…”
She eased up.
Offered a wooden cup filled with water, Caylin felt free from the world of pain, and chatted to the man who understood the damage of parental warfare. Here was someone who seemed to care and provide relief.
Caleb woke up with an excruciating pounding in his head the next morning. He staggered down the stairs clinging to the broken banister and returned with two cups of coffee – one for Bianca and one for Caylin.
But Caylin was gone.
“Stay here, little one. I shall make some food for us. And afterwards you can meet the fairies.”
As Caylin sat alone the patterns on the table fascinated her. It was decorated with trees, tessellations, spirals and waves, ranging from lilac, orange, green and blue to pink. But staring at patterns soon became tedious. Reassured that the man was out of sight, Caylin explored the chamber in search of the real fairies.
She followed a dim light through long corridors surrounded with sandy walls and dust hanging in the air. Caylin walked boldly, feeling no anxiety as the rush of adventure pumped through her veins. Upon entering a tiny room, she hesitated. Animal skins hanging from the ceiling threw sinister shadows on the sandy floor and the stench of death assailed her nostrils. Curious, she held her breath and explored around. The metal table in the middle drew her eyes. Tiny spiders scattered over perfectly placed knives, scissors, needles and scalpels as she examined the equipment.
She gasped.
Slowly Caylin walked deeper into the room and froze terrified. Five lifeless children sat propped up. Branches protruded from their backs in the form of fairy wings. Dried blood caked their bodies. In front of each corpse lay metal plates filled with burnt squirrels.
Caylin jumped around, but there he was, standing behind her, staring her dead in the eyes with a big grin plastered on his face: “I see you found the fairies. Aren’t they the prettiest friends one could have?”
To be continued…
Sareez Basson
