Shadowveil - The Forgotten

Chapter 11: Final Destination?

The black figure in the coffin stood silent and pointed at the oil painting as the picture started moving again. This time, the girl in the school uniform with the pink ribbon was walking through a forest in the light of a pale overhead moon. Two teenagers; a somewhat familiar boy and a girl caught up with her from farther down the forest gravel road.

"Hey, do you want to play hide and seek with us?" asked the girl coming up on the other from behind.

"Umm, o-okay. Sure," said the girl with the ribbon in a frail voice.

"So, do you usually come out here in the woods alone like a weirdo, or what?"

"What do you mean; like a weirdo?"

"You know, like the a tree hugger, a fucking freak of nature?" commented the boy with a mocking tone.

"Yeah, whatever! You want to play or not?"

"We sure do! Come on then! Or are you afraid, huh?" added the boy as the three of them went deeper into the forest along the gravel road. Patrick felt a deep sense of unease growing inside. The children came to a clearing in the woods after a short while. Judging by their body language, they decided to make the young girl in the school uniform be the first seeker.

"Of course you'll be the first to search, you little freak!" prompted the boy haughtily. "By the way, I heard your mother and father were bad people. Is that true?"

"Shut up! Do you want to play or not?!" the girl retorted angrily.

"You bitch," he said as tears welled up in the girl's eyes. "Tsk, whatever. Just start counting." The girl, still crying, turned around to face a large tree. Upon finishing her count, she looked up and started walking around, searching for the other two children. She searched for minutes, and every second was unbearable for both Patrick and Samantha to watch. Neither of the other two kids were anywhere to be found. The girl in the school uniform started to run around aimlessly in the huge forest, clinging to the hope that she hadn't been left all alone. Above the canopy of the dark forest, black rain clouds gathered and a torrential rain ensued. From out of the gloomy woodwork, a blurry shadow suddenly appeared, heading towards the girl.

The shadow gradually took shape and by the looks of it, it was a man. Patrick gasped when he recalled the wall outside of Classroom K. It was the same man as the one in the photo who was standing behind Linda Vasilios; their old homeroom teacher. Both spectators tried to look away, but a force stronger than their own wills made them bear witness to the events in the moving painting. Neither of them could even begin to describe the horror that ensued when the man came up to the young girl. They both started shaking and sobbing, unable to contain the terror that rose up from within as the atrocious scene played out before them.

*

Memories from his time in Cordale suddenly came flooding back to Patrick from the recesses of his mind. He saw himself as a teenager and how he and his friends were causing trouble for others in the neighborhoods of Cordale. He now vividly recalled what happened on that fateful night and how he and Samantha had tricked the other girl into the forest and left her there. She was never found and after two weeks or searching, everyone assumed she'd been murdered.

Patrick saw his parents arguing with child welfare services over his younger self's custody following the incident. He saw himself walking through the halls of a ward in what seemed to be a mental health institute. He saw how they settled on moving away from Cordale and promising to put him through expensive psychological rehabilitation as punishment for his senseless actions. His siblings had to leave all their friends behind and his parents were forced to suffer greatly because of him. His family was torn up by the roots and it was all his fault.

He never got past the trauma, and that in itself locked up the memories of his misdeeds as a defense mechanism to hide his guilt. That was the reason why he didn't remember Samantha or most of his youth for that matter, since he had pushed all of it down so deep in his mind; hoping it would disappear by itself. The horrors from that time now welled up from within as a stark reminder of his younger self's egotistical nature.

*

Both Patrick and Samantha were heartbroken by what they'd seen by the time the oil painting went black again, and Patrick even more so since he was the instigator. After a few moments of utter silence, the figure in the coffin spoke:

"Welcome to the darkest reaches," she said hauntingly. "Your lack of empathy resulted in what you see before you! Bear witness to the consequences of your actions." The entire wall on which the oil painting hung suddenly collapsed backwards with a loud thud, revealing another room beyond. At the farthest end of that room sat a man tied down to a chair. His head twitched back and forth and the screams he let out were more frightful than anything Patrick had ever heard. The man looked up and bared his deformed, lumpy face. Samantha screamed and embraced Patrick while sobbing uncontrollably. Patrick had the ominous feeling that they were next in line to be subjected to whatever horrors this world had in store for its victims. The bound man's screams suddenly stopped and he ceased his twitching. As if obsessed, he instead started to repeat the same words:

"It's gone! It's gone! It's gone! It's gone!"

"The sands of time will devour this corruption so things can be whole again," said the black figure and sent forth the giant creature towards the tied-down man. The sound of the monstrosity's metal heels scraping against the stone floor curdled Patrick's and Samantha's blood and further numbed their senses. They witnessed how the man in the chair was brutally dismembered by the creature in its now rampant state. After the deed was finally done, the grotesque entity took off into the infinite darkness of the black world beyond the fallen wall. The man's extremities lay scattered across the floor in the room.

"Wh-who are you and what will you do to us?" Samantha asked nervously between her tear-filled shudders.

"My name is Selina. Never forget what you have learned here, and never forget the truth of the life that is given to you. I have forsaken many things to bring you here, so please do not let my endeavors go to waste," urged the black-hued woman in the coffin. "Your misdeeds were grave and the consequences dire. But unlike the others I can see that you two have not continued down paths of devastation. You both still have a lot of growing to do so I shall give you a new chance." After her enigmatic statement, the shadowy woman stepped outside the coffin. As she came towards Patrick and Samantha, the blackness of her figure started emitting some orange pulse-like gleams. The young girl in the school uniform they'd seen in the painting came to her side and the two of them clasped each other's hands. In that moment, the black figure shed her darkness and changed into the woman in the blue dress whom Patrick had seen in the city twice before.

It was a truly surreal scene, and the pieces started to fall into place. It was never their intentions for that horrible outcome after they'd lured Selina into the forest all those years ago. But even so, what happened can never be undone. Their actions were inexcusable but Selina still found it in her heart to not only show them mercy but also to give them a second chance.

*

The warped siren from earlier suddenly resounded once more and both Patrick and Samantha covered their ears as the deafening vibrations assaulted their senses. The last thing they remembered before losing consciousness was seeing Selina disappearing into the classroom's perpetual darkness...