The Madness Within ✓

XXIII.

„I don't think it's safe for you to stay here during the ceremony," Chris said as we returned back to the house.

„It's not safe for me to stay in the village, either. This is the only place where I can stay, I just won't come out of the house during it," I responded and looked down at my two feet, stopping by the front door. Chris stopped as well and turned to look at me. There was silence for a moment, then Chris sighed.

„Are you sure?"

„Yes." I nodded and looked up at him. It was clear that he was worried about me. Especially after what we saw outside just a while ago, I'm not surprised. But I don't really have a choice. Who knows what they'd do to me in the village. I'll just have to hope that whatever happens at night will leave me alone. Grandma said that I should stay in the house during it, and I'm sure that she'd tell me to leave if it wouldn't leave me alone here.

„Don't worry, I'll be fine," I responded and smiled at Chris, to which he smiled back and nodded. I was afraid, of course I was. But after seeing my grandma, seeing her turned into that.. thing. I want to know more. I want to see if I can help her. I want to change all this. I know I can't do it alone, but maybe with at least one person by my side, I have a bigger chance to find out more and do something about this.

„Let's go to the living room, we can discuss the note we saw in the attic. We'll check out the rest of the attic later, we should just rest for now," I said and led Chris to the living room.

„I'll make you some tea," I added before leaving the living room and going to the kitchen.

After I finished making tea for Chris and I, we both sat down and began discussing the strange note that we found.

„Those who do not obey them shall be punished. Them as in the creatures, I'm assuming," Chris thought out loud, then looked at me. I nodded and took a sip out of the cup, then placed the cup down and nodded once more.

„Yes. It sounds like it might be a message from the villagers, maybe? Do the villagers have to listen to their orders or something? Or is it the other way round..?" I mumbled the last sentence and frowned.

„What do you mean?" Chris asked, leaning closer to me.

„Maybe the villagers are the ones under control here. Though that makes less sense. The villagers created statues of these things, they have to be listening to the orders of the creatures."

„But why?" Chris asked, both me and himself. Then there was silence.

„Maybe they.. helped them with something. Or threatened them. I'm not sure," I responded and sighed, taking another sip from the cup.

After we weren't able to think of anything else, we finished drinking our tea and Chris decided that it's time to go back to the village.

„Please, be careful tonight. Okay?" he pleaded with a serious look on his face, to which I nodded and smiled.

„Don't worry. I'll lock all the doors and windows."

After that, Chris left and I was left with my own thoughts. Now that I was alone, I definitely felt more afraid that I did when Chris was around. I started to doubt if I'll really be safe, but now I had no other choice but to pull through it.
I went around the whole house and checked if all the windows were closed and locked. Once I was sure that everything was locked, I locked the front door and returned to my room. I sighed, looked out of the window and just hoped that I'll be alright tonight.

•

I couldn't fall asleep that night.

I mean, who would even fall asleep in this situation. A certain ceremony was meant to happen at night in the place where you live and you don't even know what's going to happen. It would leave just about anyone anxious.

I lied down in bed and closed my eyes, trying to fall asleep. Yet instead of actually falling asleep, all I did was listen to the clock on the wall tick away each second, reminding me that midnight is getting closer. I was definitely tired, but my thoughts were stronger and managed to keep me up. I couldn't stop thinking about it. What's going to happen? What should I expect?
At that moment I wished that I wasn't alone. I didn't want anyone else to go through this, but being here alone was a million times scarier.

Or maybe I should've gone to the village after all. Sure, it's possible that the villagers would either try to kick me out from the village or maybe even murder me, but it would probably be safer than staying here. At least I would have Chris by my side there.

Speaking of Chris.. How come he's allowed in the village? I mean, yeah, it's true that he's probably been living there for a while now, but he himself claims that he doesn't know anything about whatever's happening here. I don't know either, which is probably why I'm not allowed to stay in the village for too long. They hate me because I know nothing. But what about Chris?

What if he's lying to me?

My thoughts quickly got interrupted by a loud sound that came from outside. I shot up from my bed and looked out of the window, but saw nothing. I heard the sound again, this time louder. It sounded like a foghorn. After the sound stopped again, I heard loud yelling in the distance. No.. that wasn't yelling. Was it screaming? Crying? It didn't sound human. Were those animals?
Whatever was making that sound, it was a blood curdling sound.

The cries wouldn't stop. Each one was louder and more painful. And there wasn't only one, there were multiple. Multiple screams and cries for help full of pain. Whatever it was, it sounded like it was dying. Like it was being skinned alive by something. It wasn't normal.

The sounds sent a chill down my spine. Each second they were getting closer and closer, more screaming kept coming while other screams calmed down after a while. But each time it was closer to me. Closer to the house.
I heard the foghorn again. Suddenly, a loud thumping sound came from the distance. It was also getting closer to me along with the never ending screams. Something was coming. And whatever it was, it wasn't good.

I froze in place, not knowing what to do. Should I run? Should I stay here? Or maybe I should go hide somewhere?

I saw something moving in the distance, passing by the trees. There wasn't only one thing, there were multiple. There were many. It was like a herd of wild animals. Except the closer it got, the faster I realized that those weren't animals.

It was them. The creatures that looked like my grandma.

They were running towards the house. The screams of animals followed them. They were all covered in blood. But they ran so fast, I couldn't see anything else. The closer they got, the faster I felt my heart beat. Are they going to kill me? Oh god, what do I do?

Once they were near the house, I hid under the window and shut my eyes, hoping that they'll avoid the house and just leave. Maybe they're just passing by. Please, let that be what's actually happening.

Since I wasn't able to see much like this, I simply listened. The screams were now really close to my house, I could hear them clearly. They were the sounds of wild animals dying. The creatures were killing them all. They probably didn't let even a single thing here live. They demolished anything they came across.
After what felt like forever, the thumping and the screaming was now becoming more distant. They were finally leaving. They didn't kill me. I'm okay.

After they were further away, I heard the foghorn one last time. The screaming slowly became distant and all there was left afterwards was silence. I opened my eyes and looked around myself, then looked out of the window. Instead of seeing the forest outside, what I saw in front of me was a window covered in blood. I couldn't see anything, just blood.

I gasped and took a few steps back. Once I was near the bed, I slowly sat down and covered my face with my hands. And I cried. I don't know what just happened, but this has to be a dream. This can't be real. Please.

I cried for a moment afterwards and eventually drifted off to sleep.