Returning to this curio shop where my nemesis lies in watery wait, I hesitate to walk any further. What has been seen cannot be reversed, and I hope that this appearance would lead to nothing more severe than me stepping on a lego with bare feet when I got home. Sometimes they led to something minor like that. Other times they did not.
The shelves where of beige metal poked with holes. The items where... mildly disturbing.
A skull shaped bottle of green glass and a hairnet of half deep cracks held a substance preserving flesh, loosely corked and foul odored. I had more than half a mind to leave but needed my curiosity to be quenched. A small mannequin with painted on symbols and rope hair. A rag doll pierced by unforgiving pins with rotund, rusted heads. A taxidermist's work was displayed around the corner. A jar with the heart of a chicken had a metal top with a preserved rooster's head firmly glued to it.
Turning the corner once more I collided with something cloaked. Matted fur poured out of its head. Or perhaps hair. A bead of sweat gathered on my brow. It was safe to assume that the air conditioning was no longer functional. I did not wish to "endure" more and pushed passed the figure to the exit. And then it pulled off it's hood.
A hideous old hag with warts and folds of fat, spotted and wrinkled. Her hair was damaged beyond repair. I assumed that her teeth where replaced by a yellowing wood before realizing that was the color of the teeth themselves.
With a voice that creaked like wooden floorboards being treaded on in the middle of the night, she gasped and cried;
"You will not leave this place!"
The last thing I needed was a cult invitation and I continued. I felt like the exit got farther and farther the more I was delayed. Than it disappeared altogether replaced with the interwoven threads of a rough brown bag. My protests where muffled by the thick pressing fabric. Something came crashing against my skull.
I had no thoughts in a world of tar black- just as attached to me and unpleasant as the color's name would suggest. At this moment my thoughts came to a halt.
YOU ARE READING
Damascus Steel
ParanormalA fantasy tale with subtle notes of horror, a concealed antagonist , and a predicament that must be solved at all costs. This is a story that takes you on a journey, one where dark and light mingle together like the black and white of a Damascus ste...
