章 4: Weddings and Doses
I eventually gave up trying to talk to the strange woman. I was unnerved then. I felt I had wandered into something I was unprepared for, but foolishly, I convinced myself that there must have been someone else who could help me.
The decrepit house loomed menacingly against the backdrop of black trees, yet still, I felt no inclination to turn and flee. An off-kilter melody resonated from inside the house. I deduced that the other guests must have been dancing inside. As I moved to open the front door, I felt a solid weight bracing it closed.
Dumbly, I backed away and then moved around the side of the house. I quickly discovered an open window. Every other part of the house was consumed by the trees. Absent any other options, I leapt through the window and landed in an enormous dining room. It was adorned with streamers and filthy decorations, yet there were no guests.
Except for one.
Sitting at the end of a long table, a man in a dirty blazer sat beside an old radio that was blaring rag-time music. He stared ahead vacantly, his eyes listless and unfocused. Before I could open my mouth, he violently slammed his head down onto the table, and then without a word, he sat back up and continued staring ahead.
I studied him intently, anticipating an attack, yet he never moved from the chair. I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could utter a word, he repeated his odd gesticulation. Slowly, I approached him as he beat his head against the table, again and again. I reached out and turned the music off.
"We....have....been....waiting....for....you."
He rasped each word as he drove his skull into the wood. I backed away in shock until I felt cool air upon my neck. I turned and found a door that led into what appeared to be a shadowed grove. The trees that rose up were so close together that their shadows danced as my torch chased them away.
Then, from out of the blackness, a twirling girl in a pure, white dress spun towards me. Before I could react, a second girl appeared. They pirouetted endlessly, despite my having ended the music not a moment ago.
"Dance with me," they each sang softly. "Dance with me."
I think it was then that I realized how fucked I was. I remember thinking that I was going to die then and there. They had well and truly lost their minds. All of them. I ducked back into the house, only to find the groom had left his chair. The dining room was empty.
I darted back to the window from whence I'd come, but to my horror, I found it covered in dusty, rotted wood. It was as if it had always been barricaded. I considered for a moment that I was already dead, or that I had gone insane. I was on the verge of insanity when I heard it. A heavy crash just beyond the blocked dining room door. A gurgling roar shook the walls, as a thin veil of dust rained down from the ceiling.
"We've...be...en waiting for y...ou!!!"
A boom shattered the door as though it were made of glass. Shards of wood sprayed like blood across the room. Sunlight flooded through the now cleared doorway, but it was quickly blotted out by a massive, shuddering silhouette. I lifted my torch, and felt my mouth dry at what I saw.
A monster charged at me. Something scarcely recognizable as once human. It lurched forward, galloping on its arms and legs like that of a horse. It wore a dress of white, yet nearly to its base, the material was stained with red. There was no head; the torso of what I asssumed was the girl who I had seen dancing in the courtyard had now been split vertically to her waist. The bone and sinew of her ruined body formed a row of serrated teeth that gnashed horribly. It was almost exactly like the man at the Doctor's house.
With a pulsing roar, the thing came at me, smashing the furniture between us into splinters. I screamed, and then with all that I still had, I ran around it. I did not look back. I did not stop. Through the barn and through the field, I sprinted until at last I saw my safehouse looming in the distance. I vowed there and then to never accept another invitation in these cursed woods.
.
After another day of scrounging, I had collected enough mushrooms for a full dose. As I filled my syringe, I remember salivating like some kind of dog in a Pavlovian experiment. Then, everything went dark. I woke up soon after, yet my head was clouded and my vision narrow.
I felt I was dreaming, but after all I had seen, nothing could be known for certain. I stood and saw that I was in the middle of a stagnant bog. I felt a weight in my pocket, and discovered that I had a flashlight. As I traced the beam around me, a faint glimmer several yards away caught my eye. I approached, and found a shiny stone. I picked it up, but before I could pocket it, my flashlight pointed out another stone, this time, about six feet away.
Then, a faint voice called to me. It told me to follow. I ignored the stones, feeling a compulsion to obey the voice. Yet, the further I walked, the further the voice seemed to lead me. My only direction were the shining stones; every time I found one, another would glisten at me from the dark water ahead.
Further and further through the swamp I trudged. I began to weaken. Just as I felt sure that I would collapse and drown in the stinking water, a bright light bled through the veil of shadow. I quickened my pace, until I found myself beneath a lamp that stood in the middle of a large clearing. Curious, I thought. There was no electrical source, yet there it stood, buzzing with power and shining like a star in the night sky.
Without knowing why, I reached up to the pull string, and clicked it on.
I came to regret that decision.
The clearing became a ocean of naked bodies. Hundreds of people laying on the ground as far as I could see. At first, I thought them dead, yet as my eyes adjusted to the inconceivable, I saw that they stirred with disquieted sleep. I stood there for many moments, uncertain of what I should do. Finally, I looked back to the lamp, and pulled the string again. The bodies vanished. Instead, I saw another shiny stone, with a bed not far beyond it.
Without fully understanding why, I knew that I had to lie down on it.
So, I did.
I awoke in a wash of sweat, my lungs heaving yet drained of air. It took me nearly an hour to compose myself, but finally, my pulse began to stabilize. The trader was standing over me. When I glanced up to him, he extended his hand. His glove was stained with an unknown black substance, but at the time, I paid it no mind. I took his hand and rose to my feet. After trading a few, simple essentials, I inhaled deeply and left the hideout of the Dry Meadow for the final time.
My objective was clear: I must meet the Wolf in the Silent Forest. He was my only lead for answers, my only link to the Doctor. He seemed the only soul that had not utterly lost his mind in Darkwood. Ironic, I thought, that a being so implausible would be one of the only things that made sense in such a place. Following my map, I made my way towards the darkest region of the Meadow.
Even in the morning sun, the light seemed to die upon the backdrop of the thickening wall of trees that led towards the Forest. I felt a curious sense of dread as I passed through the initial trees. They stood singular and poignant, like beacons of forewarning to some danger that was yet to be ascertained. Then, they grew closer, intimate in their oppressive numbers. The canopy had consumed the sun, and I soon was forced to walk by lamplight.
Fortunately, I did not have to stumble through darkness long.
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