WnW 2.19

“It’s fascinating.” A smile slowly crept onto the woman’s face as she spoke, “After all the time and effort spent ensuring that you wouldn’t find a connection, you’ve managed to create a phage.”

I felt something move inside my chest, organs shifting, like someone was rifling through the contents of a box. “Nell,” I gasped, clutching my chest. “Stop-”

“That isn’t me!” Nell said, her voice rising in pitch. I could feel her alarm.

“You’ve made some modifications already, I see,” the woman said. I felt my internals shift back to their original placements, Nell fixing things inside me. 

“Good control too. How did this happen…” the woman continued, looking at Nell thoughtfully. “When did this happen?”

Even though I had never met this person before, Nell was giving me an impression. Fear and isolation intermingled, leaving a sour taste in my mouth. There was a layer buried beneath that, one of loathing and resentment, but it felt suppressed. Nell was holding feelings at bay and I realized now that doing so was paralyzing.

The Tree creaked, the sound of tendons stretched, barely binding the shifting flesh beneath.

“Nell,” I said, glaring at the woman who looked perfectly in control. “I don’t know this person, but I can tell you have a long history with them. Regardless of what happened, right now, I need allies. I need you with me.”

Nell looked at me and a wave of conflicted feelings washed over me.

“You know what happens when you cling too tightly to connections, Nell,” the woman said coldly. “You can’t trust yourself, lest you lose control of your emotions. Don’t forget your past.”

Nell flinched at those words and I felt the echo of something truly large. Whatever Nell was holding back felt the wake of a massive whale passing underneath me.

The woman looked past us to the door. “It seems we have another uninvited guest. Come on in, Mr. Cathrow.”

My head snapped around to stare at the open doorway. There was no way, right?

Blackened feet took labored steps forward, cracks running along the legs like volcanic fissures. A corpse entered the room, somehow still standing. The scent of burnt flesh clashed with the stench of the Tree. Nothing remained of Aaron’s identifying features. The surface of his body was like spent firewood, coal black with deep chasms in the surface. I saw his eyes and it was like the fire now burned inside him, replacing his biology, veins turning to channels of smoldering sludge, his heart a glowing coal.

His mouth cracked open, sending a fracture up the sides of his face. His voice came out as a wheeze, every word forced out of unwilling lungs. “-sn’t it wonderful?”

“The signal is weak, Aaron,” the woman said. “You failed to keep your word.”

Aaron’s eyes were affixed on the Tree. “Where’s… Damascus?” he asked.

“Cleaning up your mess outside,” she replied. “We can’t have anyone alive to spill secrets to H.E.S.P.”

“-idn’t tell them anything.”

“We’re past the point of mutual trust, Mr. Cathrow. You are part of the mess to clean tonight, I’m afraid.”

Aaron was silent and rigidly still. Then suddenly he strode towards the Tree with purpose. The woman clucked her tongue and Aaron crashed to the ground mid-step. Her eyes slid over and the moment her gray eyes settled on me, I felt my insides being squeezed. It took everything I had just to suck in one more breath and speak quickly, “Nell.”

She looked at me, doubt written all over her face. 

“I didn’t fight my way through a horde of fanatics and a child abuser who refuses to die just to fail at the end. I am going back to Sillwood. I am making it out of here. And I would like you to come with me. We’re going to try something different. You understand, don’t you? That what our lives were before isn’t working for us.” I strained to push the last words out while my vision went fuzzy, “I can’t make any promises about what will happen other than this: It won’t be like before. So fight back.”

Nell’s hands balled into fists. I felt my hairs stand on end, like lightning was about to strike.

The woman pushed up her glasses and looked down coldly at Nell. “Please. You and I both know that you could never have a normal life. This is the only place for you.”

Nell’s face screwed up in rage. “Fuck that,” she uttered.

Roots exploded out of the ground around Nell’s captor, spraying dirt skyward. The roots writhed like snakes, lashing on to her limbs, restricting her. The woman’s eyes flashed with anger. “Idiot!” she cried out.

The roots began to loosen, falling to the ground in rotting pieces. “You’ll be hunted down and then you’ll be sorry you ever formed a connection when you watch him bleed out and get to feel his agony like it was your own-” she halted, eyes going wide as she looked over to where Aaron had been laying.

He was no longer there. Looking to the Tree, I saw that he had crawled over and laid his hand on the trunk.

The ground shook, dust pouring off of the stone walls. Red light flooded the room. The weight of the strange planets in the sky pressed down on my head. Something slammed into the side of my face, making me reel back. An arm. I watched in horror as more arms reached down to embrace Aaron, drawing him into the Tree. Stones began to topple down, kicking up plumes of dust. The already unstable ceiling was collapsing in on us.

I grabbed Nell’s hand and dragged her towards the only place where we’d be safe, under the branches of the Tree, where the arms were whipped up into a frenzy, waving madly. By the time I stopped in front of it, Aaron had been entirely subsumed. At the center of the trunk, a diamond shaped piece of blackened flesh bubbled. As the church fell to ruin, I watched as the flesh transformed just a few steps away from me. The blackened skin fell off, replaced with healthy pink tissue. The lumps that rose to the surface coalesced, and to my horror, formed into Aaron’s features.

The branches were growing, arms lengthening, hands no longer reaching for the sky, but reaching for us.

My armour returned and I fought off the grasping hands. One settled on my shoulder and as I seized it, I saw a mouth resting on the back. It mouthed a word. Boy. 

This time it was Nell who pulled me away. Her eyes wide and darting back and forth. Any hand that tried to get near us began to contort, flowers erupting from the skin as their joints cracked and went limp.

The pulses of anger were gone, the Tree’s purpose lost with this new rapid expansion. The features of the Tree grew hazy as we retreated through clouds of dust, picking our way through the fallen stones.

Nell doubled over, coughing. We were no longer able to see the waving limbs of the Tree, so I judged we had gone far enough.

Alarm shot through me as a shadow of a person appeared in the haze. I stood in front of Nell and extended my hand, ready to strike with my antlers. In the span of a second, the shadow moved faster than my eyes could track.

Pain wracked me and I pulled back, clutching my hand. Blood streaked tracks through the dust caked onto my palm. The fingers had been cut off cleanly, leaving only my thumb intact. I stuffed the hand between my legs, trying to stem the bleeding. I scanned our surroundings, trying to locate the threat.

We waited as the dust settled. Nell placed a hand on my shoulder, guiding me to face a certain direction.

The air cleared enough for us to see the woman in pajamas standing near the treeline, untouched by the collapsing rubble. Between us stood a strange humanoid shape. The figure had no features, its face was a smooth wavering surface that reflected light, like liquid metal. The light revealed strange rippling patterns on its chest that looked like spilled oil. Its limbs were molded into long blades, one which dripped with my blood.

Nell’s hatred towards the woman burned in my head like a torch.

“Is this a showdown between the wolves?” the woman asked, amused. “I don’t like your odds. Damascus has never lost a single drop of blood.” She faced the Tree. “Mmm. Aaron’s made a mess of the beacon,” she said. “This is a loss for us.”

Nell swayed, steadying herself on my shoulder. Her face was pale, drained. Her eyelids fluttered, struggling to stay open.

“What should I call you, wolf?”

I realized she was talking to me.

She kept talking, “I think this is a bridge you’ll come to regret crossing. Your fate is now tied to hers.”

“We’ll see,” I said tensely, watching the human weapon, who remained motionless.

I could hear the wail of emergency sirens, far in the distance. She glanced to the side. “H.E.S.P. is here. Just to be clear, don’t fight them. You would endanger Nell and we still have need of her.”

Flashlights waved through the trees and I heard the sound of boots crushing leaves and branches as they moved through the forest.

The pajama lady left, disappearing into the trees and the human weapon followed after her.

I felt the tension leave my body and my legs gave out. I sat down heavily on a square stone and Nell sat down next to me, barely awake.

Eventually, soldiers emerged from the trees, clad in black tactical combat gear. They wore gas masks and goggles that obscured their faces. Flashlight beams snapped on to us. “Don’t move!” one of them bellowed.

The soldiers fanned out in coordinated movements, guns trained at the Tree. None of them so much as batted an eye upon seeing the monstrosity.

A soldier ran up to us and bent down, wrapping their arms around me, pressing my face into the rough fabric of their vest. “You’re alive. Thank god.”

The voice was a familiar one.

“Mac?”

He just squeezed me tighter in response. Nearly delirious with relief, I said the first thing that came to my mind, “I hope I didn’t ruin the wedding.”