APOV: Hi everyone! I had an itch to write a story. Please let me know if You guys like this so far. Tell me what direction you would like this to go. I welcome all ideas! The Minotaur will have a name :) Please let me know if it's boring and if you would like me to discontinue due to the lack of interest. Thank you!
My name is Orlando O. The letter O is for my long last name in which I will not say. So I simply say O. I'm a highly requested psychologist who works in the state of New Jersey. I know a very boring state. Nothing happens here. Nothing memorable anyway. I'm in my 30s and I live in the woods. It's actually very beautiful around my area and even more beautiful in the spring. All season are quite welcome though. I don't have a partner to call mine or even a respectable friend, except for my brother Eragon. No, I'm not a psycho or weird looking, I just like to keep to myself. See...once I've learned to enjoy solitude, the idea of being around people seemed to bore me and I feel that I don't need the company of another human being to bring me joy.
So my day was like any other. I washed my face and brushed my teeth. I put on the clothes that I had perfectly layered out on my bed and headed out to my car with my leather hand bag. I started the car and thus my boring adventure began.
"So, what brings you here today?" I asked from my cold seat. I ask everyone the same question when they walk through my door. Across from me sat a very young woman who seemed scared and wrapped her arms around her belly. Her hair was brown and wavy. Not a neat way, but in a messy toss that seemed as if she hadn't brushed her hair. Her eyes were noticeably tired and sunken in. She looked weak.
"I have done something terrible. Terrible isn't even the word, but because My mind and body is so exhausted I can't seem to find the words to describe what I have done," She wasn't crying, so she must not be that remorseful. Her voice was flat and sounded as if she really wasn't talking to me, but more like the walls in my office.
"What have you done that you feel was so terrible?" What could possibly be worse than murder?
"I'm apart of a cult. One that many don't know of." Again she sounded flat.
"Are you allowed to say the name of this cult?"
"No."
"Everything is confidential and everything that is said here won't leave this room," she put her head down.
"Minos."
"Is anyone in danger?"
"Everyone is in danger," Finally tears were forming in her eyes and she couldn't stop them from flowing. Her face didn't change expression.
"I'm afraid if I say too much I'll be killed," She hugged her stomach tighter.
"Is this cult out to get you?"
"They know everything. They watch my every move and there is nowhere for me to go,"
"Are you pregnant?" I had to ask. If she was in danger like she said she was, I would have to call the authorities to protect her and the life inside her.
She was hesitant to answer me. Could this baby be the reason she is afraid? She finally came up with the final words:
"...I was."
"Do you know who the father is?"
"Yes. It's what the cult wanted. It's what they've longed for," She bit her lip.
"Were you forced to join this cult?"
"My father did." She was strong in her words and she seemed confident all of sudden. "I loved my fellow members and I loved my leader! He was amazing until I saw what he truly was. I told my father wanted nothing to do with them, but he refused to listen to me. He forced me to be loyal to them. Everyone has been waiting for this moment for ages! Because I was starting to have doubts, I did something terrible." I was almost afraid to ask….
"Is the baby safe?" She couldn't look at me.
"Did you give the baby away?"
"I guess you could say that," Her hands were shaking. "After looking into my child's face….there was no way in hell I could raise it. I wrapped him up in a blanket and gave him away."
"Who did you give him too?"
"The woods."
"Isabelle….why would you put him in the woods? A baby can't survive in the woods! There probably is still time. You can go back there now and retrieve your child before he dies!" The lady began to laugh. She laughed as if this whole thing was a joke. Her laugh echoed down the hallway outside my office.
"Mr.O. He's no ordinary baby. He's not a baby at all, but a demon who came from the devil's nuts himself! And that's what I'm afraid off, I gave the Devil's child away and I know that I will be punished!" Could this woman be for real? I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Maybe she wasn't pregnant after all, but what if she was and she stupidly put the baby in the woods like she said. An innocent child. Either way I was tired of hearing all of this. I lost it at the Devil's nuts.
"Well that's enough for today. I'm hoping that I will see you sometime next week?" I was hoping I could to maybe make sense of all of this. If I could talk to her more she'd probably open up. "What time is comfortable for you Isabella?"
"You won't be seeing me again. I told you they'll come after me. I'm sorry," she calmly got up and walked out of my office without leaving me anymore information. She disappeared down the hallway before I could hop off my chair and look out my door. Why would a strange woman tell me this horrid story?
At the end of an 8 hr shift I packed my leather bag and cleaned my desk. The story of the strange woman was long gone from my head. I'm usually good at that since I've been doing this job for a good 6 years. Sometimes you just can't let things get to you.
I made my way to my car and made my drive home from work as usual. The long winding roads and the roads that had no lights were what I was accustomed too. It was dark and damp in the air. I can hear the crickets and the deathly quiet that came afterwards when I finally made it home. I can hear the breeze through the leaves as I walk to my doorstep. The footsteps coming from my feet were quiet and it was as if the whole woods became silent. You couldn't hear a single cricket and even the breeze didn't speak. It felt strange to me until suddenly….
"Mooaaaa…..moooaaaa," My ears were wide open! What am I hearing? Could it be? My body froze and something told me not to move. I listened once more. I heard it faintly in the distant.
"Moooooaaaaaa!" It was a strange call and one that I couldn't pinpoint. It sounded like a cow, but then sounded like a familiar baby's cry. I quickly ran inside and grabbed my shotgun and my LED headlamp. I placed the flashlight on my head and had my shotgun ready in my hands. I wasn't sure how far I'd be willing to venture into the woods...but the woman's story hit me like a train. It couldn't be. I followed the sound slowly listening for the cry.
"moaaa," the sound was appearing closer. Sweat dripped from my forehead and my shotgun felt slippery in my hands. I tried to keep my feet gentle with every footstep I made until I tripped over a root of a tree. My face landed in the dirt and my gun went off. The sound of the bullet rang through the air and birds fluttered through the trees. Sound of the cry erupted louder.
"H-...hello?" The cry stopped. I lifted myself off the ground and began to crawl until I reached the source of the sound. The cry's I heard sounded sorrowful and drained. Possibly from being out here for god knows how long. I pushed the leaves to the side while I rested my gun on the ground. With every leaf I removed, my heart beat was deafening. It was beating with such acceleration I thought I'd pass out.
And there it was….. wrapped up in a soft blanket. I withdrew the blanket from its face and my mouth dropped. The baby wasn't a baby at all, but a calf. The face of a newborn calf. The calf wasn't as big as a normal calf would be. Nor was it able to walk. The eyes were closed and the ears were flat forward against it's head. Who would abandon a calf out here in the woods?! I picked the little one up and carried him back to my doorstep. I can see it's nostrils flaring and I can feel it's warm breath. It's nose appeared dry and it's fur was tangled in dry blood. I felt bad for the poor thing. I brought it into the home and placed it in the bathroom. I could certainly take it a bath right? I removed the blanket all together and placed the blood soaked blanket in the sink. As I turned back around to take a good look at the calf, my heart skipped a beat. It had the hooves, tail, fur and head of a calf. The hands only had three fingers each, with the stomach and arms of a human baby. I thought maybe I had landed a little too hard on my face back in those wood. There's no way that I could possibly be staring at what looks like a crossbreed. It attempted to cry again, but was too weak.
I turned on the faucet to the bathtub and filled it with warm water and soap. I placed the thing inside the bathtub and began to scrub the blood off its fur. The fur was soft. Every part of this calf was soft and delicate. The hooves were a bit oversized and so was its ears. Once the ears were scrubbed from the stickiness, it joyfully popped from the side of its head and stuck out like a normals calf's ears would. I scrubbed inbetween each finger all the way down to its private regions. That is when I discovered that it was a he. I even scrubbed the long tail that he had. Once the little creature was washed and dried, I could notice the color of the fur better. It was a dark reddish color mixed with brown. The fur had dried into a fluffy curly texture. The fur was heavy at the head,chest, hooves, buttcheeks. It was light around the hands and stomach. Soft nonetheless.
I decided to warm some cows milk and see if the creature would enjoy it. I had at least one baby bottle lying around the house from when my brother's wife left her child's bottled milk here. I washed it out and once the milk was warm I picked the creature up with one arm and held it to my chest. I placed the nipple of the bottle to it's mouth in hopes it had enough strength to drink. After several moments the nose wrinkled and it began to suckle the bottle dry. It drank so fast that I knew one bottle of milk wouldn't be enough. It's eyelids finally opened and it's dark brown pupils stared into my soul tiredly…..then the calf burped.
What did I get myself into?