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excerptsfromunfinishednovels · 7 years ago

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Excerpts From Unfinished Novels #18: What Madness Begets

Genre: thriller/magical realism

Warnings: some violence, mentions of blood, strong language

Word Count: 3,107

Summary: Charlie’s spent months tracking down the creature that ruined her sister’s life, and tonight, she’s finally found it…

Excerpt is from the last chapter of the novel

“The lie leads to the archway; the archway leads to the darkness. The stake draws blood but does no harm, the trap is set, the battle is lost before it can begin.”

My sister’s words echo in my head, regardless of how hard I try to push them away and focus on watching the wall opposite me, upon which there is a crudely painted archway. It’s exactly where the old man said it would be, and looks exactly as he said it would, from the arrangement of stones that would never hold up in a real archway, down to the tiny faces carved on the stones, their expressions twisted and malicious.

I shift, trying to ease the ache in my neck, shoulders, and knees, and grimace at the feeling and smell of the rotting food underneath me. I’ve been sitting in this industrial bin for hours now, watching and waiting, going through each and every possible scenario that I might have to deal with once he appears.

Slobodan.

The thing that ruined my sister’s life, that took her away from me.

I stare at the archway once more, willing something to happen with all my mind. Nothing changes. If only I had been born with a useful power; the second sight, or telekinesis, something that would actually be useful in this situation. I realise that nothing’s going to happen anytime soon, so I use my stake to prop the lid up and sit back against the metal wall. My nose wrinkles as I peel a banana skin off my leg, and I take a moment to remind myself just why it is I’m doing this, why it is I’ve spent the last three months tracking down this monster, why I lied to my boss, my wife, my family. My eyes close and I let the memory of the last time I saw her play in my head.

I screeched to a halt in the car park, throwing the door open before I’d fully come to a halt. I wrenched the key out of the ignition and ran towards the front door of the psychiatric hospital, not caring about the absolute shit-show of a parking job I’d done, and whether or not I’d even closed the door let alone locked the car.

“DS Roberts, my sister Olivia was brought in a few days ago,” I blurted out as I ran up to the front desk.

“Let’s see, Olivia Roberts…ah yes,” the receptionist said after typing a few things into his computer. He read the information on the screen in front of him and then picked up a telephone receiver, saying, “Please wait here for Dr Edwards,” before he dialled a number.

I leaned against the desk, bending down until my forehead was resting on my hands. I could barely contain the anger and fear coursing through my system, and I had only paused for mere seconds when I pushed myself away and started pacing agitatedly in front of the desk, my hands clenching and unclenching over and over again.

“Hello Dr. Edwards? Olivia Roberts’ sister is here to see her…okay that’s great.”

The man hung up and smiled at me sympathetically before saying, “Dr Edwards will be out in a moment.”

I nodded curtly and continued pacing, not trusting myself to speak; I felt as though I would cry or scream if I opened my mouth. After a few moments a door to the side of the reception desk opened and a short, middle-aged woman with light brown skin walked through. She smiled at me, her green eyes kind, and held out her hand. I took it in mine and she shook my hand firmly, and spoke in a voice that sounded like too many years of cigarette use.

“Hello, I’m Dr Edwards, Olivia’s psychiatrist, uh…Miss?”

“DS.”

Her eyes gleamed with unbridled curiosity and she nodded slowly. “DS Roberts. I’m sorry to be rude, but can I ask why it is you’ve only just come in today?”

“I was on holiday with my wife,” I replied gruffly. “My parents are dead and Olivia and I have no other relatives. I just got the message this morning when we got in. How is she? Can I see her?”

Dr Edwards hesitated and then replied carefully, “Your sister is currently catatonic. When she was brought in she was in the middle of a psychotic breakdown; we had to sedate her at first, but since she’s come to she’s been non-responsive.”

“I assume you’ve had someone take a look inside her head?”

“Of course; several people in fact.” She hesitated again and I crossed my arms and said, “Well? What did you find? What caused her breakdown?”

“We don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? How can you not know?”

“DS Roberts, I have to be honest with you; it’s an absolute mess in there, we can’t make any sense of it. We’re going to try a combination of different drugs and continue to monitor the state of her mind to see if we can get things in order.”

I needed to see her, to see for myself how things were in her mind, to find out what had happened to her. I needed to see her NOW.

“Can I please see her? Now?”

“Of course; please follow me,” Dr Edwards said, gesturing towards the door she had previously come through. “Have you ever been in a psychiatric facility DS Roberts?” she asked as we walked through the door.

“No.”

“Well you should prepare yourself; the facility can be a little…distressing for first time visitors. Just know that everything you see in there is normal and our patients are being looked after and being the best treatment that they need in order to recover.”

I nodded, and steeled myself as the doctor swiped her key card and opened the door into the main part of the facility. I must have come at a good time because it was relatively quiet; we passed by one elderly man who was half-naked and mumbling to himself as he pressed his body against the wall, and heard some faint screaming coming from down the hall. The smell was the worst; the air was rife with the stench of unwashed bodies. We passed by a common room where a number of patients were sat around tables, some reading, some playing games, and some staring into space, before turning a corner, walking past a few doors and then entering a room where I saw Olivia curled up on her side on her bed, staring into space.

“Oliva…” I breathed, rushing to the bed.

I knelt down beside her and took her hand in mine, my other hand reaching out to stroke her cheek as I tried to look into her eyes. Even when I stared straight into them, they were dull and unresponsive. Olivia wasn’t there. I bit my lip, and glanced at Dr Edwards who was watching me, sympathy evident in her eyes.

“Would you mind giving me a moment with my sister? Alone?”

Dr Edwards pursed her lips and stared at me before she asked carefully. “DS…Can I ask what your power is? It must be powerful for you to have reached such a high rank.”

“Telekenesis,” I answered straight away, making sure to keep my face as open and honest as possible, whilst praying that the doctor wasn’t able to read thoughts from a distance.

She stared at me a while longer and I forced myself to meet her eyes and keep my gaze as steady as possible. I felt sweat starting to bead my hairline and fought every urge within me that was telling me to look away. Eventually she smiled and nodded.

“I will be in the common room checking on the other patients.”

I smiled and waited until she was out of the room before turning back to Olivia. I took her face in my hands, glanced one last time at the doorway, and then looked straight into her eyes as I concentrated and allowed my consciousness to slip into hers.

Dr Edwards had been right; her mind was a total mess, a hellish nightscape of screams, wails, constantly shifting and whirling colours and scenes, and pain – absolute and immense PAIN. I felt nauseous and off-balanced, like I was trapped on a never-ending tilt-a-whirl. I closed my eyes and tried to tune out the rolling sensation in my gut, the agonising wails in my ears and pushed my awareness out as I searched for the mind I knew better than any other, even my own.

“Olivia!” I screamed. “Olivia! Where are you?!”

Nothing. Just the shrieks and whirling and constant mental anguish. She was here somewhere, I could feel that much, but she was beyond reaching, trapped in whatever madness had been forced into her head. And I knew it was forced; the pain, the way it felt and tasted, it wasn’t Olivia’s, it was false, fabricated, and had been forced into her head. So I went after it, grabbed on to the feeling of it and followed it down to its roots, down to its source, where its signature would be. The image of a man popped up in front of me, and I heard a dark voice say, “Slobodan,” before my head near exploded as the madness turned and tried to overpower me.

I immediately pulled back into my own head with a gasp, and gave myself a moment to relish the feeling of being back in my own safe and sane space before looking again at my sister. She was still curled up, still dead-eyed…but those eyes were focused on me.

“Olivia?” I whispered, stroking her cheek. “Are you there? Can you hear me?”

Nothing.

“If you can hear me blink. Or squeeze my hand. Anything,” I said desperately, taking her hand once again.

Nothing.

I bowed my head, leaning my forehead against hers. “I know who did this to you Oliva,” I whispered fiercely. “I saw him. I heard his name. Slobodan. I’m going to find him, and I’m going to get him to fix you. And if he won’t, I’m going to kill him. I promise you, I will not leave you alone here like this.”

I pressed a kiss to her forehead, pulled back, stood up, turned to leave, and jumped when I felt a hand grab on to mine. I stared down in surprise at Olivia, who was still staring dully into space, even as her grip on my hand tightened. I opened my mouth, and jumped again when she started yelling.

“The lie leads to the archway; the archway leads to the darkness. The stake draws blood but does no harm, the trap is set, the battle is lost before it can begin.”

As soon as she had finished, her hand dropped and hung limply over the side of the bed. I stared at her, waiting for something else to happen, but she was fully catatonic again. A small sliver of fear crept up my spine and I shivered and swallowed tightly before pushing it aside and refocusing on the promise I had made her. I would find this man, and I would make him undo the damage he’d done.

The sudden sound of stones grinding together pulls me from my memories, and my eyes snap open in response. I shift and move as silently as possible into a crouched position so I can peer through the opening between the bin and its lid. My breath hitches and my eyes widen as I watch the painted archway come to life as it rises out of the wall, the bricks in between the arches pulling away to reveal pure darkness. Eventually the archway stops moving, the grinding sound fades away and I unconsciously hold my breath as I watch the darkness intensely. At first there is nothing, and then a sudden ripple in the space between the arches, as though the darkness was fluid. The ripple runs from the centre of the darkness to the edge, and as soon as it touches the stones of the archway, a man steps through it and into the alley.

He is tall and broad-shouldered, and is wearing an exquisitely tailored suit that flatters his large, soft body very well. He looks up and down the alley, a smug grin on his face as he pulls out a cigarette case and a lighter, and my gut clenches as I catch a glimpse of his yellow, cat-like eyes.

It’s him.

Every fibre of my being is screaming at me to jump out of the bin, to rush at him, stake him in the heart and be done with it but somehow, I resist. I need him. I need him to fix my sister, and then I can kill him and rid this world of his monstrous presence. I need to trap him first, and that means I need to take him by surprise. I watch him as he slowly smokes, clearly savouring every moment until he’s done. The cigarette drops to the ground and is crushed under the heel of his boot. He looks around once more, smirks at nothing and walks away from the archway; I slowly count to five in my head, take my stake in one hand, lift the lid with the other, and hop out of the bin. As I straighten, I look up and my heart immediately leaps into my throat as my eyes meet a pair of yellow cat-like ones.

Shit.

My grip on my stake tightens and I slowly move one foot backwards so I’m in a better stance to attack or defend myself when the time inevitably comes.

“Ah Charlie, how nice of you to finally join me,” he says, and I inwardly shudder at the sibilant, unnatural sound of his voice. “I was starting to think you’d never catch up with me, but I see that our mutual friend in Hertfordshire gave you all the help you needed.”

My lip curls at the mention of the word ‘mutual’ and my gaze flicks down towards the stake in my hand before returning to him. He laughs, the sound high and cruel, and smirks.

“Yes yes, the infamous weapon that can kill me. I’m afraid it won’t do you any good; I knew you wouldn’t actually come near me unless you thought you had an ace up your sleeve so I told the old man to give you the stake and tell you it was the only thing in the world that could destroy me.”

“I don’t believe you,” I spit out.

He laughs again and starts to walk towards me, his arms outstretched. “Then take your best shot.”

I hesitate, my mind and body at war with each other over what’s the best course of action to take. My body wins and I lunge forward with a savage yell and bury the stake in his heart. I step back and he blinks down at the wood protruding from his chest. Shock and horror quickly replace the triumph coursing through my system as he pulls the stake out of his chest and tosses it aside casually.

“There now, are you satisfied I was telling the truth?” he asks, the ever-infuriating grin on his face. “There’s nothing that can kill me, by the way,” he tells me, and then adds almost as an afterthought, “Well, nothing of this world.” He looks down, and ‘tsks’ when he spots the blood on his suit jacket. “Ugh, blood is so hard to get out of this material. Oh well.”

He shrugs and I grit my teeth, fighting the feeling of helplessness that’s washing over me. This isn’t supposed to be how it goes, this isn’t supposed to be what happens. I need a plan, I need a plan, I need a plan…

“You can think of a million different plans Charlie; none of them will work,” Slobodan says cheerfully. He takes out another cigarette, lights it, takes a drag, and then continues speaking. “Tell you what, how about we finish this once and for all?”

I gaze at him warily. “What do you propose?”

“A battle of the minds, winner takes all; if you win, I’ll restore your sister to full mental capacity, but if I win, I take all those delicious memories and emotions of yours just like I did to you sister. Agreed?”

He stretches a hand out towards me and I stare at it for a few moments before saying, “Agreed,” as I reach out and take his hand.

Immediately I feel my consciousness being sucked into his, and the world around us disappears, replaced by a red world full of fire, shadow monsters, and a cacophony of endless wails and groans. Slobodan’s consciousness spreads out around him, malevolent and bat-like. It is big, powerful; but I know that mine is stronger than that. I close my eyes and let my consciousness spread out, let it spread its wings and take to the sky before it descended onto his, ready to take him down. I remember the people I met along my search for Slobodan; the old woman whose tarot told me what Slobodan was before they predicted my downfall at his hands, the young child that only gave up his name after warning me of the doom I was facing, and the man who had told me exactly where I could find Slobodan and had fed me the lie about the stake before warning me to leave him and forget he ever existed. Well, I would prove them all wrong; I am more powerful than this monster, and I will make him fix my sister.

I realise my mistake all too late; while I’ve been mentally gloating over my impending victory, he’s been waiting patiently for me to get close enough before he springs his trap. As soon as my talons latch on to his form it grows one hundred-fold before converging on me, enveloping my consciousness in its blackness. I shriek and struggle against him, but I’m held fast in a tar-like substance, every piece of me stuck fast.

“Oh Charlie,” his voice croons patronizingly. “That you ever thought that your consciousness could overpower mine is…adorable…Tell your sister I said hello.”

I claw at him frantically, my shrieks hysterical, but he simply tightens his grip around me. My mind races, trying to think of something, anything that will help me get out of this situation, but before I can formulate so much as a coherent thought, his consciousness swallows mine and everything goes black.

If you enjoyed this week’s short story please like and reblog! If you have any comments or questions I’d love to hear from you! And if you know of anyone who you think would enjoy following my writing please send them my way! :)

Slán!

C.x

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