The Weaver's Source

Chapter 21

 I sat on my straw bed, clutching my knees and staring at the grim stone wall opposite. I had come in here as soon as I entered the hut. Annis told me that there was food ready for me to eat and that I was to eat without her. She wouldn't be long, she had said, and was just going to punish Gerald for scaring me then send him home. Apparently he was notorious for playing pranks on strangers. After watching me enter, she dragged Gerald around the back of the hut and I had held his terrified gaze easily. She hadn't come back even though it had been well over an hour since.

My stomach growled horribly. I hadn't eaten. Gerald had worried me deeply. He told me Annis was feeding me herbs that made me forget and I wondered if they made me heartless too. Deep inside I knew something was wrong. My mind knew that I would've done something to help the child and left a long ago. I knew there was something important I was meant to be doing. I was looking for someone. I could remember that if I tried hard and pushed through the pain. I was still here though. I had forgotten what I was meant to be doing and forgotten where I had been before. And it worried me at how calm I was about it. No matter how much I told myself, I just couldn't feel fear or be scared of what it meant. I felt like I had been here all my life, that I was safe and at home. My deep thoughts told me otherwise. I wasn't safe here. Seeing Gerald so scared and me acting so out of character was pressing on me now.

I stood sharply and grabbed my pack. I had to find Gerald. I had to keep him safe. Something inside me stirred horribly. Memories tried to be seen and remembered but it hurt. All I felt was an awful tightening in my chest and a deep grief fill me. The urge to guard Gerald grew with it along with a desire to know what I had forgotten. I had to leave this place if I wanted to remember.

I pulled my hood up and hooked my sack over my shoulder. As I neared the front door, I hesitated. Every fibre in my body told me not to leave. A haze filled my mind and clouded my vision. I shook my head hard. I had to leave. Someone was waiting for me, I know there was. Staying here was not an option.

With shaking fingers, I grabbed the handle and wrenched it open. I quite literally jumped out of the house and breathed heavily as the throbbing in my head faded a little. I tightened my grip around my pack then, with nervous steps, walked around the hut. I wandered passed the open washroom and edged my way round the back. I stopped by the end of the wall and poked my head round. There was nothing but shrubs and weeds, still as the dead. My courage grew a little and I stepped out from my hiding place to observe the area. I wondered where she had gone. I swore I heard a door close earlier.

There was nothing I could find at first, just leaves, twigs and nettles that surrounded the bushes. It also didn't help that night had fallen some time ago and darkness now surrounded me, making my sight short. Eventually I began to feel the walls, groping at the wood and stone. If I found nothing here I would have to venture out in the woods because Annis wasn't in her home. It didn't appeal to me. Wandering around in the darkness in a wood I didn't know was not the wisest idea. But walking around the woods wasn't something I needed to consider when my boots scuffed against wood.

I stepped back and glanced down. There appeared to be a hidden door just beside the large shrub. I got onto my knees and felt around until my fingers found a thin ringed handle. I knelt there for a moment, staring down at the black ring I had grasped, wondering what was down here, before I lifted it open slowly.

It groaned a little and I was careful that the door didn't fall back and hit the wall behind it. A feeling in my gut told me I was to be cautious now. Very cautious. I stared at the stone steps that led underneath the hut. At first there was a devastating blackness but a thin light flickered at the end, chasing it away. Seeing that made me a little happier and smothered some of the growing dread. What sunk my heart though was the smell. The air that curled out of the stairwell was stained with putrid rotting flesh. It made my stomach churn and my throat to close up. I didn't want to find out what was the cause of that smell but I had no choice. Gerald was brought down here, I was certain he was.