"What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more' ... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine."
-Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science
CHAPTER ONE
Wind sliced through red cloak like scissors through paper, cutting through tender skin exposed to the elements, a woollen dress the only defence against the ferocity of the oncoming storm. The trees howled, their yellowed leaves rustling angrily in the wind; plucked from their branches to strike at the girl as she marched onwards into the birch tree forest, bloodied basket resting against her waist.
'The devil has surely possessed me.' She thought with such grim depression on her face, her brows furrowed as the leaves crunched underneath her, an echo to her presence to the creature that lurked in such terrible, grim woods.
Night had long since descended and it was only through torch light that she was able to continue forward, a light that had long since been blown out, scorching her day cap frills; something she was less than happy about especially when she smelled burnt hair.
She paused at the fork in the road. She knew to turn right, but she hesitated. She could turn back, pretend that nothing had ever happened and that all was well in the world. Nobody would judge her for it, nobody would accuse her. Nobody had to know.
'No. There is no turning back.' She marched on.
The trees grew thicker and the space between them tighter. The only thing keeping her from being squashed was the path itself, and even the path was thinning; tree roots lifting the path and causing her to stumble. She did not waver; she did not know when the next red full moon would descend upon them, but she knew it would be too late by then.
The thunder rolled on, lightening cracking overhead; splitting the world into black and white. The creature did not show but she knew it to lurk in the woods just beyond her home. It was why folk never left their homes at night for he would walk among them as a human to trick and deceive. She almost crossed herself but stopped.
"Beast! I know you are out there!" She called out into the darkness.
The creature did not answer but she felt the forest shiver in anticipation. The creature was close, and the entire forest shook before him.
She searched wildly in the dark for his shadow.
"I have a deal to make with you!" She called out again. The shadows played tricks on her mind, twisting monsters into the trees, contorting disfigured souls into the branches that wailed silently for mercy they would never receive. The souls of the damned.
She felt it breathe down her neck and turned sharply, but there was no beast there. She heard him chuckle and grew irate, trying desperately to locate him in the darkness.
"And just what do you have to offer me?" It felt far away, and yet so terribly close. The baritone voice of the beast echoed with a child's glee and the tones of an old man. It was altogether disorientating for her.
"I offer work." The creature chuckled again. "Whatever you demand of me I shall fulfil for this favour."
"It has been some time since a human has not come to me with the intentions of burning down my forest." The beast was close to her ear, so much so she could almost feel its teeth against the shell. She could not hold back the shiver. "And just what is this favour you demand of me, Sarah Williams?"
She felt she could not breathe. A terrible, choking sensation wrapped itself around her neck, threatening to suffocate her. The turn her into a corpse if she tried to break free. She felt its skeletal fingers slowly wrap around her neck before she finally broke free.
"My father." She choked out, rubbing at her neck. "My father he was… he was executed. Wrongly so. I wish… I wish for him to be given his life back."
The beast tilted its head, great green eyes glinting in the darkness. She hesitated but removed the cloth from the basket. Her father's head of hair shone like silver in the darkness, his eyes glazed over and looking at nothing at all. She took the head out of the basket and offered it to the beast.
"Please… I won't struggle. Just please… bring him back. Let him live his life. You can take my life if you need it." The beast stared with unfeeling eyes, and she wished she could see his face and understand his thoughts if only for her peace of mind. The beast said nothing for a long time, the wind rustling the leaves overhead.
"Very well, Miss Williams. I shall give you your father's life renewed." She dared not grow excited for she did not know what he wanted in return. "And you shall come with me in three days' time. Those are three days to make amends with your family. Three days to say goodbye. Nothing more."
She woke the next morning to learn that she had gone three days back in time for it was February 2nd once more, and the snow was still falling firmly down upon the village. Within her time, her father had been falsely accused of murder and was promptly executed as she watched, but as she trailed down the stairs that morning she found no men at her household's door and that her father was at the kitchen table eating breakfast as though it were any other day.
It was such a beautiful sight she had to hold back tears.
"Sarah, dear, why are you just standing there?"
"Sorry, papa, I was just thinking is all." She was thinking about how glad she was to have him once more.
Aware of the wickedness they allowed to happen, Sarah was not nearly as content to go into the village as she usually was. She wondered how many of their kind words were nothing but wicked deceptions, and how they whispered about her family behind her back. How they only thought cruel things and threw cruel words at her father, toying with him and his death.
'Sadistic monsters.' She thought with a scowl as she drove a hard bargain for apples whereas she would normally comply and play by the rules. It was something that confused the fruit seller who had accused her father of theft before he was hung. 'I hope you are smited.'
The man that had been killed was the priest's son. There were rumours about the village that he was engaged in activities with men, but his father quickly silenced anyone with such words and thought Sarah tried to be kind she could not find it in herself to forgive murder; it did not matter how much of a fool the priest's son was.
'I bet it was his lover that killed him in the first place.' Perhaps it was blackmail, perhaps it was the threat of exposure that pushed him to do it, and there were certainly a number of individuals in the village that seemed more nervous than usual.
However, that was not her mystery to solve as she would be leaving them in due time. She would be stuck with the beast for the remainder of her life, or until he grew bored of her and disposed of her himself. It was a troublesome thought, but one she was beginning to accept.
She spent her three days being exceptionally pleasant to her family. Normally she was mean-spirited towards her younger brother for being the apple of her father's eye, but during those three days she played with him and told him many a story before bed; something that both relieved and confused her parents.
She even engaged in small talk with her step mother, as difficult as it was to do so with the pressures of her death, and her step mother's preference for frivolities, lurking over the horizon. Still, she did her best and in return she was treated more kindly than she ever had been in her entire life with the woman.
Then February 5th came. Like the night she had been with the beast, the winds were strong and fierce, and thunder rolled over the horizon. They were kept company by candlelight and the roaring of the fire place, though it was still too dark for needlework and Sarah had borrowed one of her father's books, trying to understand the words to the best of her ability. Many were foreign to her, but she was determined to be just as literate as her brother was expected to be regardless of the expectations set out before her.
There came a heavy knocking upon the door as thunder broke through the silence. Sarah knew, then, that her time had come. She had already packed her basket with cheese, bread, and apples, and had only her red cloak and gloves to put on before she was ready to go with the beast.
The knocking came again, and her step mother answered the door. A withered old man stood before her, shaking in the cold in ragged clothes.
"Please, missus, may I stay until the storm passes." Her step mother, who usually dismissed beggars at her street, must have felt a strangeness about the man for she stepped aside to let him in, setting down the lock as he entered the space. Sarah knew it to be the beast in disguise.
There was a tension to the air initially before the man drew out his pipe and began to tell tales. He was a better story teller than her, but she bitterly thought only slightly if only to save her ego. He weaved tales of a kingdom beyond the village that mined crystals and shone like a diamond in the daylight, glittering with all the colours of the rainbow when it rained ruled by a cruel king in pursuit of a queen.
Sarah said nothing as she slowly pulled on her gloves, remaining silently until the man ran out of tobacco for his pipe, the smoke fading into the air as he let out a sigh.
The outside world suddenly grew silent, and then Sarah realised that the fire had also ceased crackling. It was as though the entire world had simply stopped, and she were left in the space in between. The beast stood up, maintaining his guise of a simple elderly man.
"Come along, child. There is no time to waste."
"Will they know I am gone?"
"They will not. It will be as though you were never born." Nobody to mourn her, nobody to grieve for her loss. She would simply cease to be; and who was she if nobody knew who she was. "Hurry, child."
"Of course, master." The beast smirked, watching her as she pulled on her red cloak. She held back the desire to cry; crying would not help her here.
The journey was a cruel one. Through the birch wood forest, they went, leaves paralysed in mid air as time remained frozen, the terrible cold of the world biting through her like the gnashing of hungry dogs. She ended up staying close to the beast for he radiated heat like no other.
The journey continued through the birch wood forest to a large opening in the woods. Surrounded by red-topped mushrooms, she knew it to be a fae circle and stilled. The beast stepped forward without a second thought, offering a withered hand to her.
"This is the way forward."
"Do they not take offense to trespassing?"
"Only if you are not invited." She hesitated, slowly dragging her foot forward before she finally stepped through.
And stepped through into darkness.
Into darkness she fell.