“It’s time. She’s going under,” my mom’s friend Zoe said. I hallucinated feverishly, my head resting on her lap.
My friend Bella sat on the far end of the sofa, massaging my feet. “Seems Soleil’s conjuring up a monster. Can she handle it?”
They spoke as if I wasn’t there. I opened my mouth, but Zoe’s bitter herbal concoction paralyzed my tongue. Why had I agreed to this?
“Put on some music, Bells.” Zoe’s voice rose like wind through trembling twigs.
The room soon filled with soaring drums as Zoe’s breathing exercise conjured a storm within me.
Zoe touched my cheek. “Don’t fight it, honey. Here, another sip.”
After I drank it all, tears dripping into the earthy liquid, everything around me melted into a haze.
The furniture by the sea-green walls drifted toward me, engulfed in flames. The room was on fire.
“Zoe?” I screamed when burning smoke filled my lungs.
I shut my eyes, wanting to disappear, but the hearth called, its red-hot glowing flames demanding attention.
“Look at us!” They moved to the rhythm of Zoe’s breath, leaping and twirling as if they might burst from the hearth at any moment.
“Ready?” they taunted.
The flames came close, then retreated, and again.
“Zoe, tell them to leave!” But Zoe’s lips curled into a twisted smile, encouraging the demons to heat up the game.
Bella’s grip on my legs was iron. I was trapped in this cabin, in the middle of nowhere, with no way out.
The chuckles of the fire devils grew into a chorus of crackling and gurgling laughter. “Silly girl, it’s just begun…”
There was no time to reflect as the fire receded, leaving behind an arctic cold.
Desolation settled into my bones as I became aware of my surroundings—a sealed steel box without a crack to let in fresh air. I knew I didn’t have long.
“Zoe! Bella!” I banged my fists against the wall, crying over the muffled sound.
Frantic, I searched the place for weak spots. When I found none, I looked within myself. “Wake up! It’s just a dream,” I whispered, determined not to die.
A snarling sound answered as a hideous dog-like creature appeared.
Before I could shield my eyes, he lurched forward, its mud-brown fur littered with tangles and scabs. Mucus dripped from his nostrils, bloodshot eyes all over me.
I winced, letting out a howl as the creature bared its teeth in a condescending smile. He carefully placed one paw in front of the other and paced around me, sniffing, searching.
“Are you just scared or immensely sad?” he mocked, “Oh dear, crying is childish.”
I groaned as I recognized Grandma Patricia’s voice.
“No tears!” he screeched, sharp as an icicle. He lifted his upper lip, rotting fangs shimmering in the dusky glow of the container.
I crouched closer to the wall as he prepared for the kill.
But his taunting continued. “You were better off without your mother.” He pulled his floppy ears straight, snot strings dripped to the floor.
My legs gave in when his piercing gaze landed on my chest. He was wielding knives with his eyes.
Stab. Stab.
He straightened his whiskers. “Swallowed a fire demon?”
Coughing at the foul odor coming from his muzzle, I curled into a ball.
He came closer until I could feel his fur prickle my neck. I surrendered, folding my arms over my stomach.
“Pathetic. So willing to throw yourself at the wolves.”
“What do you want from me?” I whispered.
The beast with Grandma Patricia’s voice laughed. “Hmm. Let me think…”
A thick, musky silence fell, sucking the oxygen from the room.
“Easy,” he finally said, muttering. “I wish to tear you to pieces while you scream in pain. It will come to that, eventually.”
His nails scratched the floor. “We can play first, fight later.”
I didn’t protest, just lay still, resigned to the torture.
“What a pity. Father a coward, mom a whore…”
His words dug a hole in my soul. Whore? With an unfamiliar strength, I jumped back to my feet. “What happened to my mom?”
When I stared straight at him, he started to hum.
“Rock a bye baby, on the tree top,
When the wind blows the cradle will rock.
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby, cradle and all.”
Memories surfaced; my mom singing over the crib, dad cradling me back and forth.
A voice reverberated off the steel walls. “You’ll win this dogfight. Easy.”
Dad…
As I tensed my muscles, the shapeshifting trickster read my mind.
“We should have a little talk,” he said, squinting his metallic-green eyes.
I didn’t blink. “Tell me the truth. After that…I don’t care to die.”
Grandma Patricia now appeared in full, shrieking and wailing. “Don’t blame me. When that cop harassed you mom, what could I have done?”
“Harassed? What cop?” I screamed. But when Grandma Patricia looked at me a certain way, the truth hit.
They killed my mom. Her illness was a lie…
The beast morphed back into himself, creeping a few inches closer, hackles raised.
“You smell like hell, old mutt.” My whole body trembled. “You are nothing to me.”
This inflamed him so much that he leaped forward, rose on its hind legs, its snout touching my forehead. I gagged at the sulphuric smell when he aimed for my neck.
Now or never. I summoned all my life-force. I grabbed his head and pulled it down, kicking him wherever I could.
With each blow and each furious scream, the monster shrunk a little more, until it was gone.
Be gone, bastard! I cried. As I collapsed onto the floor, my surroundings changed back into Conner’s cabin at breakneck speed, as if I’d never been away.
The scent of sage and the sound of crackling embers drew me back to reality.
“You made it, Soleil,” Zoe whispered in my ear, wiping the sweat off my face. “You broke free from the web of deceit. Now, healing is yours.”
Really nice attention grabbing story! I’m excited about discovering the whole story.
I hope soon. The book is in the queue for editing 🙂