House on Foul's Legs

"Forgery!"

Pulling Sebastian up was harder than I thought. I lay with my stomach to the dirt, and my boots hooked onto some old tree roots. I stretched my hands out to him, my fingertips barely able to touch his. Barely able to hear myself, since my shoulders were hunched, covering my ears, I breathed, "Ok, one, two, three, JUMP!" I felt his clammy hands grab my wrists, and I tried to pull him up. My arms were trembling like hell; I grimaced, trying not to fall back into the hole.

As I pulled, I felt him gradually lifting up. We both grunted with effort, and my lungs were about to give way. My calf muscles were straining really hard, and my arms felt like they were about to break off. The position I held was greatly painful, and the strain gusted through my body like a powerful wind. Almost out of breath, I had to force myself to breathe, and my lungs and arteries felt almost completely wrung out of air. I opened my eyes for a moment and saw that Sebastian was almost up. He was leaning on his elbows, putting his left leg over the edge of the pit. He was still holding onto my wrists, using me as a support. I relaxed my entire body, leaned onto my elbows, and lay my head between my arms.

"I hope we never have to do that again." Sebastian breathed, as he plopped down on his back next to me.

"I hate gravity." I answered with a chuckle. His tired face shaped a small smile, and he closed his eyes, with his arms spread apart. I spread my elbows out and rested my cheek on my hands, watching him lay there and his chest go up and down with each, slow, deep breath. I closed my eyes as well, and found myself dozing off.

~meanwhile~

"So, you think you can just steal my job and pose as me? And not to mention this HORRID attempt at mimicking my architecture!" The short stump of an old hag rushed around the cabin, with a hunched back, and flailing arms. "Look at this forgery! Just look at it! On my way to the bingo game, yes I was, then… then… THIS!" She mock fainted, and continued rushing around, spurting gasps of criticism.

Angela had left my side, and tried to calm the old hag down. "Ma'am, I'm sorry if you feel offended…"

"Offended!" She yelled. "Missy, who do you think you are?" She threw her arms in a circle in front of Angela's face. "This is FORGERY! IDENTITY THEFT!"

As Angela attempted keeping the lady under control, I threw myself unto the wood floor and began to slice my wrist with a large splinter that I found on the floor. The spurts of blood sprayed all over my already tattered and torn clothes. After I had satisfied myself with the sharp shrewdness that spread through my hand, I held the splinter like a dagger in my hand. A sudden wave of paralyzing shock washed over every muscle in the entirety of my body. My airways created a painful wheeze, and I fell to the floor with a thud.

"Poor boy!" I heard the old lady purr. "You wait to eat him? You don't torture little boys like that! It breaks there spirit, yes it does!" That lady seemed to be quite insecure, having to agree with herself that way. I felt her shriveled, dry hand touch my hair, then draw back. "Aw, poor creature, you should throw this one back. He will die soon, anyways."

"Sorry, ma'am but this one is special. He has been that way before I got ahold of him, anyways." Angela tried to lift me up, but as soon as she made contact with my skin, it burned like the fire of hell. I screamed until my vocal chords completely gave way. Still unable to move, I whimpered like an infant. The old lady's sodden eyes slanted upward like Lady Natasha's did when she looked at me after the attack of J'ena Impossible. Except her eyes were a dull blue, like the older and wiser version of Lady Natasha's.

The lady reached out a shaking, shriveled hand and felt my forehead and began stroking my hair. Angela also started to stroke my hair, as well, but her hand felt as if someone was stroking my hair with multiple blades, cutting into my skull. I made a great effort to lift my arm up to stab Angela with my splinter, but it felt like some invisible force was weighing down onto my arm. With a struggle, managed to draw back my arm and I began to thrust the splinter forward. Angela caught my arm with her burning hand, and threw me across the room with a laugh. "Silly boy! My, you are cute, Ciel."

That seemed to set the old hag off. I could almost see steam pouring out of her ears. "Who do you think you are to throw a little boy like that, missy?" I clutched my arm that still throbbed from the impact and scrunched up my face. Soon, the throbbing had spread to my brain, and my vision was completely blurred. I began to see Sebastian running through woods with a wolf. With Lady Natasha. Tears sprung to my eyes as I realized that they were dead. The tugging at my heart strings returned. In my vision they were running and running, then falling and falling, while screaming and screaming. Snakes began to crawl across my vision, and I heard a voice calling out for help. I vaguely wondered who it belonged to. It couldn't have been me? I didn't know. I felt dead.

~In the Woods~

"Sebastian, wake up. I hear something." Suddenly, his eyes flashed open very quickly.

"Young master…" he breathed. "Young master is calling to me." he quickly jumped to his feet.

"Really? I think it sounds like, well, painful to my eardrums, ow." I covered my ears with my hands. I looked at Sebastian, but he didn't seem to be bothered by the scream. He pushed back the branches of a Weeping Willow, and we saw a smaller, bloodier version of Babayaga's cabin.

"This has angel written all over it." Sebastian preached, as the screaming got louder, and the smell became sickly sweet.