Cerise started to panic.
There was something in the room; something else was in the building with her. Was it the thing from outside? No, no way it could have gotten in here without her noticing – there was no way she was going to let…whatever it was be in here with her, no way…
So what was in here with her?
Carefully, silently, cautiously; Cerise knelt down, slowly, for the lamp at her foot. She needed to see exactly what it was she was dealing with.
Bringing the oil lamp up to eye level, she allowed the light to illuminate. Unlike the cold outside world, the warmth in her hand could reach out. Though it wasn't much, she could see exactly what she was getting herself into.
While the outside world was unknown to the young woman, she could see that she had found herself home to what she could assume was a small barn. Barn? No, it felt like more of a large tool shed. Moving her arms about, she started to scan the area, trying to figure out exactly what she was dealing with.
Like the homes earlier, the large tool shed was beginning to rot – years of neglect reflected on the contents that had been abandoned. Cerise took a step into the room.
Despite the age, it seemed like your typical shed. The garden tools in the small room lay about, broken and unusable for any kind of work. The chains that hung from the ceiling, rusted beyond use and would have probably have broken under any sort of pressure. As Cerise made herself closer and closer down into the small building, she could hear the disgusting sound as the rotted floor boards beneath her feet shift under her weight, just listening to the squishing sound it make started to churn her stomach.
Cerise made her way further and further into the small building, but stopped as her sensitive ears picked up on something – a buzzing noise.
Cerise was hearing what she assumed were flies, they had congregated into one side of the room. Looking over into the corner, she noticed of their buzzing; flying around over what seemed to be some kind of undistinguishable figure. She wanted to move closer, her curiosity told her to see what it was; but a piece of her told her to stay away or else.
Leaning her torso a bit forward, she sniffed the air. The air was stale, but there was a different smell the closer she moved to the flies. The part of her that told her to stay away won out in the end. Something she wasn't meant to see was over there; she took a few steps backward as she put out her hand behind her to prop herself against a wall.
But her hand hit something. Cerise turned to look at what it was she bumped into, it was a table. No, something was different. Upon closer inspection, it was something that didn't match that of the rest of the room.
It wasn't a work bench like the young woman was expecting, instead it was solid stone table. There was indeed a buzz saw, broken teeth, in the middle, dried up trails of what seemed to blood. On each corner, there were chains and shackles.
This table was used to hold something down, to cut into it.
It was like some kind of alter.
Cerise could feel her child doing flips in her stomach; she needed to get out of there - if not for her own sake, but for the sake of the child.
There was something written in the stone table.
"Unable to see clearly, it becomes blinded…"
Krack!
No, it couldn't be
Krack!
Cerise had checked every spot, every inch of the place. She saw nothing, not a living soul in the room beside her. She should have been alone.
Krack!
So where was it? Where was it hiding? If it had been in here the entire time, why didn't she see it?
Krack!
"It couldn't be." Cerise felt her heart leapt to her throat.
When searching through the world of light, there is always the one place a person never looks. Humans go where it's safe, a place where they can see. They never look into the one place where only darkness resides. There was one place where people would never dare to look, the one place they never see.
Slowly, Cerise lowered her gaze. She looked down, into the corner of her eye.
It's only natural that humans never want to look in the corner of their eyes; they never want to see the darkness that lies behind them.
Cerise's breath caught, she saw it. There it was, in the one place that she never dared to look.
Where the darkness had accumulated, where the light of the oil lamp never reached – there in the corner of the room, away from all sight, something started to stir. Now that it had been seen, it started to move.
Never moving her gaze, not daring to lose sight of the monster in the shadows – she shifted her body, slowly, to be facing whatever it was in the room. As she did, the creature hiding moved, shifting its body as if to stay in the shadows; away from the light, away from the sight of the world.
Slowly, Cerise lifted her lamp higher and took a step forward, never taking of eyes out of the corner. Inch by dreadful inch, the darkness started to disperse as she moved closer to it. Then she saw it.
It wasn't anything to be afraid of. It was a young pup, shaking in the corner – unthreatening, it shook under the gaze of Cerise. The closer she got, the more it tried to ball up into the corner, as if trying to get out of the sight of the light. The "kracking" noise seemed to be coming from it trying to push itself further and further into the corner of the room. It was cowering under the young woman's gaze. It was scared beyond belief.
Cerise let out a sigh of relief; it seemed that she was getting tensed up for no reason. The young wolf pup was more frightened of her then she was of it.
She lowered herself down to her knees, trying to be on the animal's eye level. Placing the lamp out to the side, she reached out her hands to show that she wasn't a threat. "Are you okay?" she smiled at the young cub, "Come here, I'll help."
But you should never get close to a cornered animal. All someone has to do is let their guard down just once.
Cerise fell to the ground, searing pain running down her arm. The creature in the corner had lunged out, lashing out at anyone that got near it. She now had three marks on her arm, blood dripping out. Cerise quickly reached out for the lamp; searching, trying to find the monster that attacked her. This time, as she saw it, it wasn't hiding.
The cub was now standing in the middle of the room, but now it was full grown – as if what the young girl had seen before wasn't a puppy, but a full grown adult compacting itself into a tight ball; like someone crushing a can.
But now, it stood there, fully fleshed out. It stood there, fully grown. Its piercing eyes focused on Cerise, as if its eyes were on that of someone that threatened its lively hood.
Its face and body was riddled with cuts, with scars cut deep into its face - its black fur contrasting to the red of its flesh and the white of its bone protruding from its body. It stood there, hurt and damaged; but it wasn't going to let Cerise out of the room.
The wolf let out a howl, Cerise had to cover her ears from the loud sickening boom of its voice.
It just dawned on her; this was the exact same howl that she heard from back in the village.
Then, without warming, it was gone, ran off into the darkness, away from the light of her lamp.
Cerise was panicking. Trying to ignore the pain in her arm, she started to frantically search the room with her lamp, to see where it was.
She saw it, another corner of the darkened room, but as quick as the light touched its fur, it was gone again. Cerise tried to pick up her body as quick as she could, still frantically trying to find the beast, before it was too late.
Again she saw it, but again it disappeared.
Cerise's heart was beating miles a minute.
There it was
And off into the darkness.
It was like every time that Cerise could get the creature in line of sight, it was gone again – as if trying to avoid her gaze. Only when it was ready to pounced.
And it pounced from the darkness, where Cerise's sight couldn't reach. It lashed out, swiping at her.
It was only by animal instinct that Cerise was able to dodge the beast, but once again it was gone off back into the darkness.
She grabbed her arm, all the moving around was not what was needed right now; she could feel the warm thick wetness as it slipped in between her finger tips. The pain ripping through her system, she had no time to use her lamp.
And the Wolf lunged at her again, this time it struck at her.
Cerise cried out in pain as her body was thrown into the wall - hitting it hard, despite the softness of its rotting wooden frame. It was as if just by its sheer force weight alone almost found a way for it to dislocate the young woman's shoulders. She could feel the warm wet trickle as blood started to trail down her arms. But she didn't have time to think on that.
She couldn't see it, but the beast was after her again; coming straight from the front. It leapt at her, her claws wanting to cleave off her head off her shoulders in one swoop.
Using what energy she could muster, Cerise threw her body to the side, causing her neck to be just out of reach of the beast – but its claws struck her back, claws digging down into her shoulder blades. Cerise screamed in pain as she hit something hard, something not bolted to the ground. The wolf returned to the darkness again, waiting for another attack.
Cerise tried to push herself back to her feet, but the pain in her back was not allowing herself to move. Her arms gave way as she fell back down to the ground, on top of something. She started to huff and puff in pain, her eyes looking out for the wolf that threatened her life. She needed to get out of there.
Then her ears picked up on something, there was buzzing in the air. It was the flies from earlier. Now, the noise was coming from directly above her. It dawned on her, where was she? What was she on top of?
Looking down, if it wasn't for the loss of blood, her face would have lost even more color. She was laying on top of a corpse, a corpse rid of any semblance of human features.
The flesh ripped off and eaten; torn apart, bit by bit. The skin peeled off, no way to identify the figure of who or what it used to be. From the way its arms were position, from the way its body seemed to be twisted in agony, it seemed like it was still alive when it was being feasted on.
Cerise wanted to expel the contents of her stomach at the slight imagery in her head - had there been anything in her stomach.
The worst part?
The corpse itself was too small to be that of an adult, or a teenager.
It was the remains of that of a small child.
The sound of claw marks scurrying across the floorboards brought Cerise's attention back to situation she was in. She couldn't worry about the dead body.
But now, there was nothing she could do. She lied there on the small figure, her arms wouldn't move. She couldn't pick herself up, her shoulder blades felt like they would tear themselves out of her flesh if she tried to force herself back onto her legs. She no longer had energy to move – to run away.
She heard the dread sound as the claws hit the ground; it was now running at her. It all went by fast; a flash of light from her oil lamp flashed its fang, a piercing light in the dreaded darkness. For that split moment, Cerise could sense that now it was done playing, done hunting. It was going for the kill. There was nothing she could do.
Miraculously, her body moved. In that moment before her death would come, her body moved – to cover the corpse beneath her. She didn't know why, why she was trying to use own body to protect something that was already dead. Just something in her told her to protect what little bit was left, what little bit of light that was left in that darkness.
She couldn't let the child become more hurt than she already was.
Clutching the body close to her body, she waited for the claws to cleave away at her life in one fail swoop.
DING!
It never came.
DING!
Death never came to Cerise.
DING!
She opened her eyes, curious to see exactly why her life hadn't ended.
DING!
Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, what she saw shocked her. There it was, the wolf was standing in front of her; looking at her, watching her. Just standing there watching.
Then it started to take a step back, back into the darkness.
DING!
Wait, it wasn't that Cerise's eyes had adjusted to the blackness of the room, it was as if the darkness was fading – receding back to whatever hell that it seeped from. The wolf itself, as if only able to sustain itself in the darkness' fold, followed suit – returning back into the corner from whence it came from.
DING!
Then suddenly, after all this time; all the pain, the blood loss, and the adrenaline finally hit Cerise. With a simple fade to black, her world turned to darkness.
…
…
"CERISE!"
"HONEY!"
…
…
With a cold shiver, Cerise's mind started to return from the world of darkness. Slowly, she opened her eyes to a white glow in the room, almost blinding. If it wasn't for the gray mist, or the deepest shadows, this would have been a beautiful way to waken up from a deep sleep.
She tried to push herself up off the ground; pain rocketed through her body, but more of stiffness than actual pain. It was as if body had grown accustomed the pain she had experienced the night before. Looking around the room, she was in shock.
She wasn't in the same room as she was when she lost consciousness.
Yes, she was still in a tool shed of sorts, but it was much smaller. There was no way that this was the same place she was in before. There wasn't any way she was able to move as much as she did the night before, there barely enough room for her – if she had stretched her arms out as far as she could, she would have touched both ends with ease.
Cerise's eyes went to the corner of the room, nothing – there was nothing there. Nothing was hiding away.
She looked beneath her, there was no body. Instead, she had apparently found herself sleeping on a bale of hay.
Then she looked at the other side of the room, instead of the stone table from before, now there was just a regular work table…old, broken, and rotten to a point of being unusable, but it was just a normal table.
"What happened?" Cerise asked, trying to get up.
But then all the pain came back, as if now was the time that her nervous system decided it was time to wake up as well. Just as soon as she tried to get back to her feet, she just fell back down.
It wasn't a dream, Cerise decided. What happened the night before really happened. Clutching her arm, trying to soothe the pain, she started to scan the room, trying to find something that could help.
Then something caught her eye, the one thing that was out of place in the room.
Underneath the work table was a box, a small white box. It had a red cross on the top of it from Cerise's perspective. Was it a first aid kit? Why was a first aid kit here?
Cerise had no time to think about it, her body wouldn't allow her the pleasure. She quickly flung out a leg, trying to reach the box with her foot.
On the first try, she was able to hook the handle.
Kicking it back to her, wincing in pain, she reached down to pick up the box. Shutting her eyes tightly, she opened the box, expecting something horrible to leap out, to lash out at her, something inside trying to kill her.
Nothing came.
Cerise opened her eyes, carefully taking a peak into the box. It was indeed a first aid it. There wasn't much in regards to a good recovery such as way to stitch herself up, or disinfect her wounds. But there were some essentials for a quick fix-me-up, though for the equivalent to barely fixing a dog's chew toy so it could play with it. Nothing perfect, but sustainable.
But what grabbed Cerise's attention was a bottle - a bottle with a blank label, and some kind of indistinguishable liquid inside. She was unsure of it from first glance, but she opened it. One sniff, and she wanted to throw it across the room, to rid of it with its putrid, rotten smell; but the pain in her body was telling her to not let go.
Shutting her eyes tightly, Cerise drank.
The thick glob that could have been described as a texture of the world's finest rotten fish overrode her senses, the metallic taste touching her tongue enough to regurgitate whatever it was that she had in her system.
As it filled it mouth with its rotten stench, she could feel as the tears started to flow from her eyes. But she didn't spit it out. It tasted like the foulest toilet.
Her body told her to never spit it out, something told her to swallow.
And she swallowed.
And she regretted every bit of it. The way it moved down was like that of a slug trying to force its way down into her stomach. So thick and so putrid, Cerise couldn't even breath. Her whole body was shaking, waiting as every ounce in the bottle washed away into her gullet.
The horrible experience finally passed. The next thing to happen was?
Nothing.
Nothing else happened.
Cerise was fine.
She blinked; eyes wide at the fact that – that the pain was gone; the stiffness of her body was at ease. If it was still for all the dried blood and claw marks on her body, she would have never been able to tell that she was even in pain.
She got up from the floor, energy had returned to her body – refreshed.
Cerise stood, box in hand. Looking into its content, she saw that there were some gauze bandages to use to wrap her wounds.
Placing the first aid-kit onto the tool table in front of her, carefully, she reached for her hood to remove it.
She started to take off her shirt.
Moments later, Cerise had hooked her hood back around her neck. The gauze bandage rolls applied to her body – wrapped down around her arm where the claw marks were, and then there were those that wrapped around her torso and shoulder's. Red spots were beginning to form where the bandages were pressed up against her opened wounds – everything was uncomfortable - but for now this was going to have to do.
Now the first aid kit was empty, there was nothing else left; As if just enough for a one time use – not even enough for a little extra.
Cerise looked at the empty box, "Why would this be here?" she questioned to herself. Out of all the odd things in this strange place, this was probably the oddest. For what seemed to be a world meant to go out of its way to kill her, it left her something to help her heal – sure, it was basically a shoddy patch job, but it was something.
"Was it that purple haird girl?" she questioned herself. Had the little girl with the red ribbon come by while she was out of it and dropped it off before she woke up? But why would she have done that for her? Perhaps there were others in this world, others like her and the purple haired girl. Perhaps Cerise wasn't alone after all.
A slight shiver ran down Cerise's spine. For the first time, she noticed the crystals formed in the air as she breathed. Now she was finally taking notice of the fact that it was cold, freezing even.
Temperature was extremely low.
Wait, where was she? She had run into the tool shed the night before because she was being chased in the pitch blackness. She had no sense of where she was, all she knew was that she ran forward into the darkness – because she had nowhere else to run.
But now?
Cerise turned to the door, she could see the easy white light flowing into the room thanks to the cracks and holes created by the years of neglect.
She could feel her heart race as she looked at the door. Now, there was only one place to go, Cerise only had one place to leave. There was only one entrance and one exit to the small building. She had to go back out there; to face whatever it was that was out there waiting for her.
She knelt down, reaching down for the oil lamp. No use for it right now, just opposite of the wolf mask, she hooked it onto the side of her waist.
She reached out for the door, silently, her heart beating miles a minutes. She opened the door.
And the cold, white light started to flood inside of the building. She took a step into the cold, wet snow outside.
