A Small Town

Chapter Thirty\ Betrayed

"No!" 

The command was deafeningly loud and strangely hollow sounding. Sarah stopped and Bax whirled around. Behind them, a thick tangle of roots had burst through the cement floor in front of the locked door. At its heart was a twisting mass that seemed to open like a horrible wound. Then, as they watched, the tree thing grew until it was as tall as a man. A low-pitched moan seemed to issue from the opening that now topped the writhing wooden mass and then came the command again.

"No!"

Sarah took a hesitant step toward it, the bottle still raised over her head.

"You Chose me, not her! You promised..." She cried.

The things face was now becoming more defined, and after a moment Teddy was fully formed although he was now obviously not flesh and blood. His skin had the texture and colour of bark and when he spoke his voice still had a deep, hollow resonance.

"I promised you nothing," Teddy stated, flatly. "Now get out of the way!"

Lisa once again seemed to be mesmerized by the creature and sat behind Sarah unmoving.

Sarah dropped the bottle and took another step towards Teddy.

"No... I love you. I've always loved you... from the moment we met in the forest when I was just a little girl... and you promised I would be the one..." Tears were streaming down Sarah's face and she took another step holding out her arms as if to embrace the monster.

Teddy's jagged mouth turned upwards into a sneer and he laughed. "I don't need you anymore... you are nothing! Now get out of my way!"

Sarah took another step, she was less than a foot away from Teddy now and her face suddenly changed from utter despair to raging fury.

"BASTARD!" she screamed and lunged towards Teddy. The half man half tree thing simply smiled and swung aside leaving Sarah to stumble over its gnarled trunk and fall pathetically to her hands and knees. She stayed down for a moment stunned and then turned and began to get back up. Suddenly sharp thin roots shot up out of the floor, wrapping themselves around Sarah's legs and then driving down through her feet and back into the cement. She screamed as blood began to pool around her shoes and then toppled forward pinned to the ground.

Teddy stared down at her with an amused look on his disfigured face as she moaned in agony and pulled weakly at the roots in a vain attempt to get free.

Bax had watched the entire scene play out and now he seemed to come back to his senses. What was he doing just standing with his mouth agape? He had to do something. His eyes darted to the broken bottle Sarah had dropped, but what use would it be against Teddy? He turned the other way, the table was off to his left and resting on top of it was the oil lamp.

Teddy was turning away from Sarah now that she was no longer a threat to his plans. Bax knew he had to act. He leapt towards the table just as Teddy came around to face him, and grabbed the oil lamp.

Roots shot out of the floor missing his foot by less than an inch, and he swung the lamp over his head. His hand, slick with blood slid on the smooth metal and glass even as the heat of the lamp burned his hand. Bax threw the lamp at Teddy and watched in horror as it sailed in a crazy tumbling arc off to the left of the laughing creature and smashed in a gout of flaming oil on the bare floor.

Teddy laughed harder and then with great effort pull one root from the ground and stepped towards Bax who backed away scanning the room for another weapon. Teddy tried to take the next step but his first attempt to wrench the root of his left foot out of the cement failed. He turned agitatedly and tried again but he seemed to be stuck himself.

The burning oil from the smashed lamp slowly trickled across the floor spreading flames and now it was heading towards Teddy's rooted foot. He snarled and grabbed his leg with both hands trying to pull the root from the ground.

Bax skirted around him as he struggled and grabbed Lisa by the hand, she was barely conscious but when he pulled her she responded sluggishly and let him drag her around Teddy and to the door.

Teddy lunged at them, snarling as they passed just out of reach.

"Get back here you son of a whore! She's mine!" Teddy screamed, still struggling to get free.

"Fuck you!" Bax screamed back as he fumbled with the doors lock. Finally the lock popped open and Bax dragged Lisa back out into the tunnels, just as the fire reached Teddy's foot.

The fire seemed to flash across his wooden flesh, and Teddy let loose a deafening roar. Then in a spiralling mad rush of roots and branches, he burrowed back down into the floor. The speed of his retreat left behind a cloud of blue-black smoke and a curtain of red-hot embers sprayed around the cellar igniting the bone-dry wine racks and setting the room ablaze.

Bax slammed the door on the inferno and the two of them dashed back into the darkness, with no plan other than to escape the fire and the insane thing that called itself Teddy.