Jay was extremely uncomfortable in his skin. He didn't plan to walk back to the Harrow House, but he still found himself back at the well they passed earliar.
He hadn't been looking up anyway.
The soft voice spoke to him. "You, too, need meat?"
Jay kept his arms to his side and barely acknowledged Mary's Sister.
"I can see it on your neck now. Flesh used for all its worth."
He stopped and glared at her gory form. "So what?" he asked.
"I can give you advice." Her tone was eager. She liked to talk.
Jay hadn't felt any different from looking at her. He didn't respond or move.
Mary's Sister let him listen how he wanted. "Those spots on your neck look like mould. If you don't fix it, it'll spread to your good skin and fall off in pieces."
He bit his lip. Feeling the itch go deeper than his skin. The wind blew his greasy hair out of place.
"Come here," She told him, gesturing shakily with her gaunt hand.
The wind got stronger. Jay sighed and reluctantly approached her.
The well was mossy and covered in weeds. its stones crumbled and strewn around the grass. Mary's Sister had a head riddled with bugs and weeds hanging into the pit. One day it would separate from the rest and fall down the well.
"See the bugs?" she asked. Her "body" crawled with them. "You can give them the old pieces, but you will need to find new ones."
"Where?" He looked around half-heartedly.
"Come closer."
Jay hesitantly crouched down, furrowing his brow. Mary's Sister reached for him and he slowly held out his hand.
"You need to get used to picking flesh off a body."
He reached into the rotting pile of meat that fed her. She was a parasite, but he was too dead to catch it. He wrapped his fingers around something bloody and pulled out a chunk of dead animal.
He knew she was watching him, even if her eyes didn't work.
"Find anything useful?"
Jay peeled at the bloody lump with his nails. Returning the meat to the pile.
Inside was a handful of small snapped bones. They were beaten up. His concentration broke and he tossed them aside angrily.
"No." He stood back up. "I'm not like you!"
"Kill a fresh one."
"You don't know what's wrong with me!"
There was a sharp bout of silence and then Jay huffed and marched off.
His breathing was deeper in his distress. He realised he should have also been disgusted, rubbing his fingers together to feel the lumps of hair and congealed blood.
The rustling leaves weren't enough noise for him. He used to need the sound of cars to fall asleep. He used to be scared of the dark, too.
The cold air hurt his skin as his walk turned to a stumble. He cared less and less where he put his feet. It slowly felt better on his arms until he looked down and realised he'd been rubbing them with his dirty hands. The blood looked black in the darkness.
He stopped to look at the darkness. He might as well unfocus his eyes.
His neck still ached, his hand crept up and pulled his shirt collar away to reach a necklace he kept under it all. It had been bone dry for so long. His hand had almost dried completely and he snapped out of the moment.
Jay woke up on his side, warm and comfortable.
The sun shone through the leaves and onto his face, making him squint. When he tried to look away, he felt surprisingly sad. The ground was still uncomfortable around him, and the comfort he found on it wouldn't happen again.
His shirt was caught on something, and when he squirmed he felt lighter. His muscles felt relaxed. He had been lying with his arms above his head. When he pulled them in to lift himself he froze, feeling his necklace gripped tightly in his hand. it was wet and warm around it.
Jay looked at his right arm, which was elbow-deep in the carcass of a deer that was still oozing blood.
When he tried to sit up, he realised his stomach muscles had been disconnected. He had a large hole in his torso stuffed haphazardly with organs and spinal bones.
It was alarming, but something that felt strangely manageable. He held his skin as together as he could, getting himself to his knees and looking around.
On the other side of a pile of rocks was the pile of flesh called Mary's Sister. Baking in the sun and releasing a hot rot smell.
Jay tried to pull himself over to her, stumbling as he approached. "Did you see me do that last night?" He asked, narrowing his eyes.
"My vision isn't that good," She assured him. "Feel better?"
He tried to lean down and ended up falling next to her. Shifting to sit and assess the still gaping wound he was holding.
It hurt but felt more like work to do than something to die from. He went about tying muscles back together and pushing his shrivelled intestines back into place. It was embarrassing for him to sit next to her like this.
"Why do they call you Mary's Sister?" He mumbled.
She let out a gurgling breath. "The way I used to change hosts made people think I was some kind of demon." Her hand clicked its nails rhythmically on the stone. "I think the Mary they meant was Bloody Mary, but I have been called Mary myself... I had a thing for taking over blonde girls. I kept their bodies for so long they almost melted."
Jay looked her up and down while putting his dripping necklace back on. "Do you like it here?"
"No, I miss changing hosts, but Mrs Hive has her rules. I like the fresh meat they bring me."
He looked back to his skin. the edges of the wound were jagged from trying to pull them back together. It had gone numb.
It needed to be sewn shut, but he didn't want to show up at the house like this. Not after disappearing all night.
He took his hands away and defeatedly asked her, "Can you help me?"
"I've still got a bit of hair. You can have it if you can reach..."
Jay crawled over and reached into the well as far as he could, pushing his ribs into the crumbling rocks around it.
Her head had little skin left and was a mix of muscle and bone. Her wispy hair would have been waist-length and came off easily with chunks of scalp and mould. It was so little hair that she looked no different without it.
He tried to brush it off. Then he dug through the pile of flesh with her direction until he found a small sharp bone.
It was poorly done, but he pierced his skin and threaded the twisted hair through up and down the wound until he ran out of space and tied it off. It stayed together when he let go and stood up with caution and anxiety. Keeping one arm wrapped around his waist just in case.
"Good luck," Mary's Sister said.
He saw the deer carcass and dragged it over to her pile. She let out a pleased laugh.
It was way too sunny of a day to walk home covered in viscera. The birds were singing.
Jay crossed his arms and got ready to ignore questions and hide in his room until Kimber got back home.
She could be gone for days - her sense of time sucked.
YOU ARE READING
What Not To Do In The Valley
ParanormalThis is a small town. If your brother ate your mum, send them into the woods. If you want fried chicken, you'll have to put up with the hooded figures. If you want to leave cryptic messages in the woods, bribe Micheal. You don't get many options out...