Inside Evil

Chapter 16 - Part I

*Inside Evil and its sequels are available on Amazon, Kobo, B&N, Smashwords and iBooks*   

In the corner of her mind, Roberta heard a soft voice floating in the darkness. She found it hard to catch, until she realised that it was calling her name, over and over again. Sifting though the thick fog that flowed through her lethargic body, she looked up and saw that Sam was standing over her, his hands on her shoulders as if shaking Roberta to her senses. She found it hard to distinguish the outline of his face, and her inner conflict was showing physical signs now too so that her eyes quite literally couldn't focus on the thin angular frame above her.

As she slowly came to her senses, Roberta felt something jump onto her lap and looked down to see that Faithful was sitting on her leg, his white tail upright in the air like a flagpole, his little pink mouth mewing in her direction.

"Sam?"

"Hey Roo, how you doing?" Sam sat carefully on the couch next to her, leaving a warm hand on her shoulder. It made Roberta smile on the inside, though she wasn't sure whether the effort appeared on her face.

"Fuzzy. What time is it?"

"Three in the afternoon," Sam replied, his face looking nervously agitated. "Roo, I think I've worked the riddle out, not that it's much help."

Sam's words roused Roberta a little and she managed to sit up from her slumped position in an attempt to listen more carefully.

"If these gates of Gathin open, then it seems to be connected to the lunar cycle. Wherever this door is, you have to get through it eight days after the full moon takes place. A week after a full moon is seen, is the half moon, or, as many also know it, the quarter moon. It's from the perspectives don't you see? If you're looking at the moon from here, you'll see a flat circle with only half of its surface illuminated. But, if you look at the moon as a sphere, then what you're actually seeing is quarter of the moon's surface."

Roberta nodded in agreement, not really gripping on to the matter that Sam was so eager to make, nor seeing the relevance to finding the way into Gathin.

"It is said that when a half moon takes place, that is, when the moon is half light and half dark, there's equilibrium between different realms, allowing spirits to pass back and forth. Roberta, you have to pass through the door when this equilibrium exists otherwise you break the balance."

"I don't see how this is helping me," Roberta said with surprising snappiness. "It's all very well saying that I'll be able to enter, but if you don't know where this door is, then I don't know why you're bothering me."

"Roo, don't you see, we've been looking for quarter moon shapes, sickle shapes," Sam continued, undaunted by Roberta's hostility, "But, if the shape of a quarter moon is in fact a half moon, a semi circle shape..."

"Then the clearings in the wood when I went through the mirror were showing me the path," Roberta finished, her sudden interest in the conversation managing to momentarily vanquish all other thoughts from her head.

"Exactly. The riddle actually tells you exactly when you have to enter Gathin, and where you have to go," Sam said with a sense of achievement. "You have to enter on the eight night of the waning moon, and to find where to go, you have to follow the half moon path of clearings as shown to you when you went through the mirror."

"Only, I have no idea where the path starts Sam," Roberta replied as she realised the daunting task ahead of her. "Those woods are huge and apart from that one evening when I decided that it'd be fun to take a woodland walk and get scared half to death, I've never been in there. I've no idea where those semi circle clearings were."

"Well, you were going uphill right? That's gotta be of some help."

"Yeah, helpful when I find an uphill spot, but the mirror dropped me in the middle of nowhere, it could be miles into the wood for all we know."

"But it could be just metres," Sam quipped back with a smile. "Stop being so pessimistic Roo, bring back the pot smoking optimist that I knew in college."

"Do you really think that this precise moment is a good time to smoke some weed?" Roberta replied with a sarcastic smile as she felt her face flush with blood and began to feel alive again. "I do feel a bit better though. Wait, that evening when I saw that figure, I was moving uphill."

"See," Sam said excitedly, "There has to be something to this."

"I must've been close Sam, I must've. That horrible thing told me it wasn't time, to come back later." For the first time in weeks Roberta almost bounced to her feet. "We've got to explore those woods. If I can find just one of those clearings I'll know exactly where to go."

Roberta pushed the hair off her face, minding not to accidently scrape her fingers across her bruised and battered skin. "When's the half moon?"

"Tonight," Sam said, as he too got to his feet with a grave look upon his face.

"Are you joking?" Roberta said with astonishment as she realised just the toll that her foggy head had taken. She had no idea that her last week had passed by with such speed. "I'm finished Sam, there's just no way."

Sam reached forward and took Roberta by the face with his thin hands. "It's still early, we have until midnight at least. You can't give up, especially now that we have an idea of where to go."

With little hesitation Roberta and Sam hastened towards the door, pulling on coats, scarves and hats as they went. There was still snow on the ground outside and the plummeting temperatures indicated that further wintry weather was imminent. Behind Roberta, Faithful came scurrying along, his tail still upright whilst his blue eyes sparkled.

"You can't come," Roberta smiled as she leant down and patted his head. "You'll have to stay here and look after the others."

Faithful had other ideas however, and every time that Roberta tried to shut the door, he managed to block it, mewing and pleading to be cuddled.

"Oh for God's sake," Roberta snapped angrily pushing him back for the tenth time. "Why won't he realise he can't come!"

"Roo, bring him, we haven't got long before the sun sets," Sam said from several feet down the street. "We haven't got time for this."

*I will be posting one or two scenes a week as the story builds. However, if you can't wait that long, Inside Evil is available on Amazon, Kobo, B&N, Smashwords and iBooks.

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