A dark fairy tale about traps, lures and falling for shadows.
When you see an eldritch dark horror made of shadows by the side of an old cursed trail that no one dares to go, you expect it to be less charming as it tries to trick you with deceitful...
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Art by James Fenner (@JMFenner91 on Twitter)
It was all gone, in the blink of an eye.
"Where the hell is he? Where did he go?!" The boss shouted. He looked enraged but his voice trembled a little, betraying him.
"I- I don't know!" The kid replied, looking confused. "He was there a second ago!"
"He's run off with the treasure! That's what he did!" The Boss spat out angrily. "He got the whole damn gold for himself and sneaked out of here when no one was looking! The bastard! Traitor! That's what I get for hiring a bunch of conniving liars!"
"I-I don't understand..." The boy murmured, transfixed. "There was too much gold in that pile... He couldn't have carried all that by himself... He didn't even have enough time to put everything in the bags! B-but... it's all gone... H-how?"
The boss didn't seem to be listening to the boy's ramblings, as he was inconsolably upset for being cheated out of all that treasure.
"If I get my hands on that thieving bastard, I'll fucking murder him!" He kept shouting curses and profanities at the sky while the boy kept mumbling to himself, trying to make sense of everything.
"And the old man's head... it has disappeared too. The gold... Brutt's body... B-boss..." The boy called out, voice faltering with fear. "I don't think Zuck's run away. I t-think he's dead. Like all the others." The boy said but his boss wasn't listening to a word he was saying, too lost in his fit of rage to pay attention to anything else. "Boss, you need to listen. We are in danger. Boss." The boy kept trying to get his attention, each time more urgent and incisive in his pleas. "BOSS! PLEASE! YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO ME!"
"WHAT?!" The Boss snapped, turning back to face the boy. "What the fuck do you want?!"
"I know what happened!" The boy said, eyes big as two saucepans. "I-I think she's killed them. She's killed them all." The boy pointed somewhere at our backs.
He turned slowly. An old woman stood by the edges of the forest, staring at us with a scary fixed grin and evil reflecting in her dark round eyes.
She was completely naked, her grayish hair so disheveled and long that it reached the floor. She didn't move or attempted to speak to us, she just... stood there.
Watching. And grinning.
Like a maniac.
"Who the fuck is that?" The Boss asked quietly, all rage drained from his voice, as the color was from his face. "And what the fuck happened to her?"
He was talking about all the blood covering the woman's body, a dark, slick liquid, dripping down her gnarly hands.
"It's not hers." The boy replied in a whisper.
"What?" The boss asked, confused.
"The blood. There's no wounds on her. Look." The boy pointed. "It's not her blood. It's someone else's. It's... Zuck's blood. And Bezz and Brutt's."
The woman began to laugh as soon as the boy's revelation left his mouth. It was a maleficent cackle that made shivers run up the spine, unnerving and gritting, it reached our ears like nails dragging on a chalkboard.
The storm that had been quietly brewing over our heads returned with the howling wind in its trail. The old woman kept laughing, over and over again, until it became unbearable to hear. She pointed a crooked finger towards the Boss, still cackling as her silver hair thrashed against the wind. Lightning struck on cue, right behind her, on top of a tall tree in the background.
We all jumped, startled and scared, but that was the last straw for the Boss, the last drop on a very long and stressful night, and then... he finally lost it.
"You filthy witch! You killed my friends!" He accused, angrily. "Why are you standing there, laughing like a damn maniac? You think you're gonna kill me too, is that it?! And you really think I'm just going to let you?" He shouted, foam spitting from his mouth. And then he launched at her, but the old witch still wouldn't move. She remained there, cackling like a crazy lunatic, waiting for him at the edge of the woods.
The Boss ran over and tackled her to the ground with force, then straddled her and started choking the woman with his bare hands. She trashed and tossed underneath him, clawing at his hands, trying to make him let go, but he wouldn't stop, his hands squeezing tighter around her neck, fingers digging into her flesh, harder and harder, until she gave one last spasm and stopped moving altogether.
The kid inched closer to me, watching the scene horrified. "D-did he... is she... d-dead?" He whispered to me, afraid that his voice might attract danger to himself. I could barely hear him over the howling wind, but I didn't dare to open my mouth to respond.
"Boss? Are you alright?" He risked asking, a little bit louder this time.
The boss was hunched over the woman with his back to us, hands still around her neck, gasping for air, and shoulders shaking from all the exertion.
"B-boss?" The boy tried again, inching cautiously towards them, but before he could get too close, the boss turned to face him.
Only it wasn't the boss's face turning to face us, it was the old woman's face, still with the malicious grin on her manic old face. The boss's real body lay limp on the ground, choked to death, tongue rolling out and eyes bugging out of their sockets, staring unblinkingly at the night sky.
"Fuck!!" The boy cried out, stumbling back and away from them.
The old woman rose slowly from the ground, leaving the limp body behind, and stopped again at the edge of the woods to stare at the boy, the manic smile gone now and her face turned into a cold mask devoid of any emotion and humanity.
I remembered that look, it was the same one I'd seen on him, the first time he tried to lure me into the forest. Erebus had used all of his tricks tonight... The innocent and frail young woman with the helpless act and the translucent dress ripped to shreds, the violent appeal of loud moans and screams... the enticing pile of treasure playing into their insatiable greed and giving the promise of richness beyond their dreams, and lastly, the belligerent scorn of a weak old woman, easy to overtake and to kill over.
Now... there was only one man standing... Only one soul left for him to lure past the forest's edge.
"She killed them all. She's going to kill us too. We are all going to die here." The kid muttered horrified, thoughts jumbled and racing, muddled by crippling fear as he staggered towards me. "What are we going to do?" He asked, turning to me. "Why aren't you doing something? Why aren't you scared?" He shouted in panic. "Say something! Do something!!"
I stood up slowly and stared at him, mouth agape but no words coming out. The boy turned to the old woman but she wasn't there anymore. In her place stood the noble figure I was so used to seeing during all my passages down this trail. The same intimidating regal man with dark hair and starlit eyes, wearing his impressive mantle made of shadows and darkness.
