Spirit Mary

Chapter 4, Bloodflower Forest

I feel the devil working within

I.

Mary gasped.

The stone floor beneath her feet had completely vanished. Her ankles now brushed against blades of overgrown grass. Large trees surrounded her, riddled by a thick fog that clouded the place. The smell of mud and rain invaded her nostrils.

"Jacob?" she yelled, searching for him amidst the haze. "Jacob, where are you?"

She trailed the path, peeking out of tree trunks and squinting beyond the horizon. A simple figure of him would be enough. She continued calling out for his name, hoping she would get a response. A word or a grunt. Anything.

The forest seemed to stretch on forever. Mary only walked in one direction--forward--but she went on for what seemed like hours without encountering anything at all. It was the same set of trees over and over again--the same fog, the same grass, the same smell. Her heart thumped faster, her mind just as hurried. She felt like stumbling--like falling--like giving up. Soon, her legs would break.

"Papa?! Mama?!"

It was Jacob's voice. Mary heard it from straight ahead.

"Jacob!" she shouted.

She felt like she had never run as fast before. Her feet crushed grass as she hurried. Her arms slashed against the wind. A cold breeze splashed on her face, blowing from beyond. Soon, she would find him. She would protect him.

Suddenly, she halted in her tracks. A five-year-old Jacob was slumped on a tree, cowering in fear. In front of him, a ghastly woman hovered a few inches above the ground. Her dark hair covered her face, her clothing drooping by her ankles, ripped, tattered, and ancient.

Mary shuddered. She swung the scepter forward and blasted the ghost into oblivion with a purple ray. The woman dissolved into bits of coal, her scream dying out.

She came to Jacob and threw her arms around him. "Oh, Jacob," she whispered, hugging him tighter. Tears ran down her cheeks. "Jacob, are you oka--"

Jacob's arms snapped off and rolled down the ground. Mary backed off in horror. Sitting with its back on the tree was a child-sized straw doll, staring at her with its dead button eyes.

II.

"I told you to leave him, Mary," Pandora's voice resonated all over the forest.

Mary's eyes passed from tree to tree in search of the voice's source. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't pierce the fog. "Jacob's my friend, Pandora!" she said. "I-I can't leave him behind!"

"I hate liars and disobedient people," Pandora retorted. Her tone stung. "You are both, Mary."

"Pandora," Mary exclaimed. She felt so frustrated that she thought her chest would explode. "Pandora, please listen to me. Jacob's my--"

A hand clutched her right leg and pulled, sending her toppling face-first. It continued dragging her, scraping her front on the forest's muddy soil, as she turned to face it.

A pitch black human torso jutted out of the ground, wailing at her with its toothless mouth. It swung at her with its other hand, armed with razor sharp claws.

"You reap what you deserve, Mary," Pandora spoke. "This is it."

Before she could be eviscerated, she jabbed the scepter forward and generated a blast that blinded her for a few seconds. The creature disintegrated and became one with the wind.