Chapter 18: Chain Letter by Stephen Simpson
“E’lisa, please walk faster, it is getting darker,” Lisa
says pleadingly, while looking at E’lisa.
They walk faster and soon they come to a fork in the road,
with a wooden arrow pointing towards the service delivery area.
Lisa chooses the opposite direction and after twenty minutes, Adèle says out of breath, “Lisa, you said thirty minutes there and back. We have now been walking for a long time, yet we are still not on our way back.”
“Adèle, I don't want to have to repeat myself, but you
started this. Now my mom is dead and there is a huge possibility my daughter of
fifteen might come to the same unfortunate end, so I suggest you take a deep
breath and carry on walking.”
E’lisa gasps loudly and realizing what she said, Lisa puts
her arm around E’lisa's shoulder, saying softly, “I didn't mean it that way -
don't worry, you will be okay!”
Adèle says nothing and staring ahead she continues walking.
The dirt road ends unexpectedly, and their surroundings are
getting darker and darker, mist swirling up from the ground as the fresh night
air cools the hot surface. The night creatures start to make their noises and
they all know nightfall is eminent.
“We should turn back now,” E’lisa says worriedly.
“No, we have come this far already,” Lisa replies adamantly.
“You don't know where you are going,” Adèle retaliates.
Lisa just looks at Adèle reproachfully. Adèle decides that
she would rather not say another word further. She has always thought that Lisa
is a bit on the edge and a hard-enough shove in the wrong direction could turn
her into a murderous monster.
“Come on, Mom,” E’lisa pleads.
“No, we'll go into the trees here and walk for another ten
minutes. If we don't find anything by then I promise, we will turn around. I
saw it on the map so it must be in this direction, I might have misjudged the
distance.”
They all walk into the densely, overgrown forest, between
the trees, mist swirling around their feet. Instantly it is night and silent,
not a sound.
“Should have brought a flashlight,” E’lisa grumbles.
Adèle suddenly produces a powerful light and shines it ahead
of them.
“Thank you Adèle, for thinking of something as mundane as a
flashlight, and I am sorry for my rude behaviour towards you, but I am sure you
understand.”
Adèle thinks to herself that she does not really understand,
but she is most surely not going to utter those words aloud, now would be a
good time not to say anything.
They carry on walking for another fifteen minutes.
“I think we are lost, Mom.”
“Almost there,” Lisa says assured.
“No, we are not. I am scared and the whole bottom of my
jeans is wet from wading through all this undergrowth. I am turning back.”
The glow of a fire from Lisa’s peripheral vision suddenly
brightens the darkness, as she hears Adèle yell simultaneously. Then she hears
a heavy thud - Adèle’s scream abruptly cut off.
Lisa looks back and sees that Adèle is gone. Looking down
towards the glow of the fire, she sees her lying on the ground below her.
She had fallen through a hole in the ground, a hole that
until very recently, only two seconds ago was overgrown.
A fire is burning in the centre of the hole in the ground.
The sparks of the fire are spiralling up towards Lisa and E’lisa.
A woman is sitting next to the fire, chanting a string of
incoherent words repeatedly, her eyes rolled back into her sockets, so that
they can only see the whites from up here.
She looks young, her face pale and her long black hair is
hanging lifelessly to her waist, covering her naked breasts. She stops chanting
abruptly and starts to shiver, her whole body convulsing, foam starts bubbling
from her mouth and then she is unexpectedly staring directly up at E’lisa.
E’lisa screams and steps backward, falling over a branch and
landing on her back.
Birds flutter up from between the trees in a deafening
cascade of beating wings.
Down in the hole, Adèle gets up fast, limping on her left
foot and looking up at Lisa and E’lisa, she screams, “Get me out of here!”
The woman next to the fire is however not interested in Adèle,
she does not move her eyes away from where E’lisa was just a moment ago.
The woman grins malevolently and then stand up. As if
floating she moves towards the sides of the hole in the ground swiftly, she
starts to climb up the roots embedded into the sides with unbelievable speed.
The woman climbs up over the edge of the opening, staring
keenly at E’lisa.
E’lisa screams fearfully from where she is just starting to
get to her feet.
The woman snarls viciously at Lisa, as Lisa steps in between
E’lisa and this woman. Lisa can feel spit spraying all over her face and she
grimaces inwardly.
The woman holds up a knife in her hand, the blade sharp and
pointing downwards, the moon glistens off the blade in a surge of a million
tiny lights.
Lisa looks up. She notices the full, heavy moon hanging in
the sky. She realizes in an instant that it has been full moon according to the
lunar calendar for the last twenty-four hours.
Lisa lifts her arms in reflex and then grabs onto the
woman's arm, the arm with the sharp knife. Lisa is amazed at the strength in
the woman's arms, if she is supposedly so incredibly old, how could she still
have such muscle power? They fight and Lisa is not as strong as this woman is.
Soon she knows this might have a vastly different end to the one she envisaged.
