Chapter 9
Birth Of Corruption
With a little amused smirk on her face, Brie studied Sasha from head to toe, as if she was proud of the result. It had been such a long time since she had pulled a prank on somebody, since her thoughts and energy were with someone else during that time; someone who meant the entire world for her. It was tiring, but at the end of the day, she did it with all the love and care she had, it was always worth it. And she loved every moment of it. Pulling pranks and teasing hadn't jumped into her mind for once. But when she spotted the magenta-haired visitor in her garden, a twinkle had appeared in the corner of her eye as the urge to prank made an unexpected comeback. Brie had decided to lay down her duties for a short while and go back to her old habits. Of course she wasn't planning on harming the visitor with her prank; there was nothing funny about someone getting hurt. If she hadn't spotted her eating the magic berries, she would've never made the steppingstones in the lake disappear. The nymph was more than glad to see that she was still good at pulling pranks, even after all this time.
'So, what did you think of my little prank?' she asked. 'Did you get a good laugh from it?'
'Um, no. No, I did not.' Sasha replied whilst wringing the water out of her hair, her eyes shooting daggers at her. There was absolutely nothing hilarious about this, if you asked her. Her hair had gone from well-groomed locks to soaking wet, tangled wisps, the material of her wet clothes were uncomfortably sticking against her body and her ankle boots were filled with water. No, anyone could easily guess that this prank didn't give her a good laugh and shrug it off as a well-played prank. Brie immediately noticed that and the smirk disappeared from her face.
'Oh... I guess I went a little bit too far, huh?' the nymph said. 'Sorry if this upset you. I hope with this I can make it up to you. Try to hold still, this won't last for long.'
Exactly one second after Brie clapped her hands, it felt like Sasha was trapped in a relentless storm. An immensely strong gust of wind caught her by surprise, slamming against her like a wall, but it wasn't strong enough to knock her right off her feet. It wasn't coming from one direction, no, it was like it was coming from her left and right. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she wanted to open them just for a little bit to see if there was something to grab onto in case the wind would knock her over anyway, but the powerful, ear-deafening gust made this impossible. Faint, frantic rustling of the surrounding flowers and leafs could be heard during the howling of the wind. But just as sudden as the brief storm began, it stopped just like that. Still trying to comprehend what the flying hell just happened, Sasha blinked her eyes in surprise and looked around. Despite the strength of the wind, it surprisingly looked like the flora hadn't been affected for one bit. And then there was another thing that she immediately noticed; she had been completely dried off, from the top of her head to the tips of her ankle boots.
'What? But... how? How did you do that?' she asked.
'There's nothing a little bit of nature-related magic can't fix.' Brie replied with a smile. 'How are you feeling now?'
'Well, it feels like I have been shoved into a tornado, but... at least I'm dry. So you can say that I'm doing better, thanks for that.'
'Makes me glad to hear that. Again, I'm terribly sorry if I made you upset. That's absolutely not what I wa-'
The nymph abruptly stopped speaking when crying could be heard from the branches up in the giant tree. It was the kind of crying that Sasha could easily recognize; it was the bawling of a newborn baby. A few months ago before her relationship with her current ex went to hell and she was plunged into this surreal adventure, she had visited her friend of hers who had recently given birth to a baby girl. The father of the baby wasn't there in the apartment; the poor thing was the result of a drunken one-night stand in the toilets of a bar and the guy immediately made it perfectly clear that he didn't want to be a part of her life when Sasha's friend called him in her apartment's bathroom with a positive pregnancy test in her trembling hand. Sasha had to admit, the baby was a little cutie to look at, that was until she started to bawl like there was no tomorrow. It turned out she was just hungry, but Sasha swore to God that she had never heard a baby crying this loudly. Looking up at the tree, she frowned in curiosity. What the hell was a baby doing up there? But when she looked closely, she did see something. Up in one of the highest branches of the tree, she saw a large bird's nest, protected by light purple curtains that were attached to a branch above the one where the nest was built on. Fireflies slowly danced around the nest, as if they were guarding the crying infant or perhaps trying to comfort it. A slightly worried look could be seen on Brie's face.
'Oh... hold on just a moment!' she said before she hastily climbed up the tree with the agility of a cat. She climbed across the bark and used the thick branches to lift her herself with so much ease, it was almost creepy. Her movements reminded Sasha of a spider. The nymph was completely fixated on the nest, her eyes not glancing away once whilst she was climbing. She knew exactly what branches to reach to get herself to the nest. Sasha watched as she finally reached the nest, causing the little swarm of fireflies around to scatter and fly off into different directions. Brie hunched over and lifted up a bundle wrapped in a light blue sheet, covered in tiny twigs, earth and leafs; the bundle was large enough to make one automatically assume that it was indeed a baby.
'What's the matter, honey?' Brie asked with a soft, soothing voice as she gently rocked the crying infant in her arms. 'It's okay, your mother is here. I'm back, you see? I'm sorry I had to leave you alone for a moment, but I'm here now. Sweetie, listen to my voice, open your eyes...'
The volume of the bawling suddenly lessened, until it stopped. Perking her ears, Sasha heard a little giggle coming from the sheet. Brie smiled from ear to ear as she looked at the bundle in her arms with a look in her eyes that only a loving mother could produce.
'There there, it's alright... You were just getting lonely, weren't you? But don't you worry now. Everything is fine. I have to tell you something, sweetheart... we have a guest here! Yes, a guest! Wouldn't you love to meet her? Of course you would, huh? Of course you would! And I think she would be just as glad to meet you. Be polite, okay darling? Alright, here we go, don't be scared...'
Holding her baby tightly against her, the nymph began her descend down the tree, making sure the branches wouldn't touch the infant. The infant itself would occasionally make soft cooing noises, sounding like it was excited about meeting the magenta-haired visitor. Sasha was actually afraid that Brie would accidently drop it or her losing her balance, but miraculously this didn't happen and the nymph and her baby safely found their way back to the ground. She walked towards Sasha, beaming with pride.
'This is my son. His name is Oliver.' she said before showing her the infant.
Even though little Oliver had slightly pointed ears, tiny, blunt horns growing out the sides of his head (and barely visible to see in the thick, fluffy, dark brown hair) and green leafs sprouting out of his chubby wrists, Sasha had to admit; the infant looked, strangely enough, kind of adorable in his own kind of mysterious way. Small hooves could be seen pointing through the sheet he was wrapped in. The unusual-looking baby opened his large, light blue eyes, revealing his horizontal-shaped pupils. Upon seeing the visitor, Oliver smiled broadly and cooed, trying to grab one of Sasha's magenta locks. 'Look, he likes you already!' Brie giggled.
'Oh wow...' the magenta-haired woman said with a soft voice. 'I can easily guess who the father is.' Curling her mouth into an amused smile, she let out a chuckle; oh yes, it was more than obvious who it was.
'So I suppose you have already met my husband.' Brie replied whilst wiping off a tiny speck of earth from her son's reddened cheek. 'I hope he has been polite to you... well, I don't expect him not to be. Daniel is seriously the most well-mannered man I have ever known... and the most charming one.'
'Ah, so you must be his wife then.'
'Did he tell you about me?'
'Well yeah, he told me that he has a wife.'
Brie glanced down at Oliver with a dreamy look on her face. The baby looked back at her; upon seeing his mother's face, he cooed happily. 'He's just a few months old, but I can already see so much of Daniel in our son...' the nymph said. 'And I'm not talking about his hooves, horns or eyes, but...Oliver smiles exactly the way he does. He has that same twinkle in his right eye when he's happy. I wonder if he will be just as brilliant as his father when he grows up.'
'Maybe if he visits his study all the time, he could.' Sasha chuckled at the thought of the horned baby crawling across the floor of the study, eagerly looking around for anything he could get his little, chubby hands on. Eventually he would spot a certain book between all the other books in one of the crammed bookshelves, pluck it out with a bit of effort, open it and rip a page before a word could even be read. No, maybe it would be better if little Oliver would stay up in the big tree until he was old enough to not rip up books, for Daniel's sake.
'Who knows. I hope Daniel has some reading material that's easier for him to understand.' Right on that moment, one of the multi-colored fireflies gently landed on the tip of Oliver's nose, causing him to look cross-eyed; just before he could grab the enchanted insect, it had already taken off. 'Oh, I remember the first day I met Daniel so well...' Brie said, the dreamy look on her face not ever leaving. 'It was like it only happened yesterday... The weather was just right for my flowers, I could feel how content they were. If my flowers are happy, so am I. I had been taking care of them all morning. I was about to take a well-deserved nap up in the tree when I saw him. And let's just say that I wasn't really that thrilled with what he was doing at that moment; he was plucking some of my precious flowers. So yes, of course I went down and confronted him. I guess I spooked him, his eyes, oh, those beautiful blue eyes, they were widened with surprise. He needed the petals for a potion he was working on. He immediately apologized and he offered to make it up to me. That night, he cooked a wonderful dinner for just the both of us. I will be honest with you, there have been very rare times that I have been in the mansion, because I have always felt more home in this garden. All the flora here is connected to me. If I am healthy, my plants will be healthy. And vice versa, of course. But that night in the mansion had to be the best night of my life. I have seen how polite and kind Daniel actually is. We spend time together in his study after dinner, where he told me about his favorite books and lend them to me. And after that, we had such a romantic walk through my garden. I will never forget it, for as long as I live. I feel like such a fool for thinking he was just a big bore during all the years we have lived here. Our wedding happened only five years ago, it was absolutely perfect, it was just like I had imagined it. We have tried really hard, but since a few months... I'm happy to be able to finally call myself a mother.'
Damn, what a story... and such a sweet one as well. Who knew that Daniel could be such a romantic faun? And who knew that he would actually dig chicks with leafs on their bodies and earth-stained feet? Sasha almost sniggered at that thought, but she managed to hold it back. Brie looked so happy whilst she was recalling those precious memories, she had honestly never met a girl who looked so genuinely happy when mentioning her lover. This nymph loved him so much, you could clearly see that. It looked like motherhood was such a joy to her as well. Life in this strange mansion had been nothing more but good to Brie, while for Sasha... well, it felt like nothing more but some surreal dream she wished to wake up from. The magenta-haired woman stared at Oliver, who was still trying to grab the fireflies that slowly flew over his head. Even though this place was that baby's home, love, shelter and warmth were no problem.
There was no doubt that Oliver would grow up to be a happy child... and most likely have a much better childhood than she had, Sasha bitterly realized.
'You must be pretty lucky to have a husband like Daniel.' she said, actually meaning what she said; most men these days wouldn't be as caring and kind as this guy was, let alone willing to play an active role as a good father in his son's life.
'Oh yes, I couldn't wish for anyone better. I'm just wondering what he's been doing in his study lately though, he's been spending there an awful lot of time now that I think of it...'
There's no way Sasha could possibly spill the surprise the faun had in store for her, it would ruin everything. It was odd... usually she wouldn't bother to keep her mouth shut when it came to secrets or rumors about someone (most of which were downright cruel, but those rumors were the juiciest ones according to her Sasha's friends) she knew whenever she'd gossip with her friends, so what made her change her mind this time? The magenta-haired woman couldn't quite put a finger on it. She had seen the effort he had put in the crib for the baby and it wouldn't last long before it would be finished. What was the most likely reason of why he built it was because Daniel was worrying about the fact that Oliver was bound to become more energetic as he grew and thought the best way to avoid a nasty fall from the branch was to give his son a brand-new crib that was more safe and could be placed on the ground. Ha, that clever faun.
'I... think he will tell you soon enough.' Sasha replied. 'But don't worry though, I'm pretty sure you will rea-'
Sasha abruptly stopped talking when the nymph's smile suddenly dropped from her face. As if some kind of switch had been flipped inside her, all of the blood that was stored in Brie's pretty face drained away, giving her a ghostly pale look. Her eyes widened in horror. The shallow breathing kicked in, it was like her lungs were being squeezed into airless, fleshy pancakes. Sasha could feel her stomach sinking to her feet. What... what the hell was going on here?
'Brie... hey, are you okay?' she asked, immediately mentally slapping herself on the forehead afterwards. No, of course she wasn't okay, what kind of stupid question was that? She was convinced that even Oliver could feel like there was something really wrong here, judging by how he was looking at his mother. Just on that moment, the muscles in Brie's arms gave up on her. Just like she feared for, Sasha saw her arms losing grip on Oliver, who was slipping away more and more by the second. Oh dear God, no! Knowing what was going to come next, Sasha didn't hesitate to do something before the baby would be dropped onto his head; just before Oliver could fully slip away from his mother's numbed arms, the magenta-haired woman caught him just in time, which caused the infant to let out a loud whimper. The nymph's legs were next to give up on her. Falling on her knees, Brie hunched over and clenched her fists in the grass, attempting to catch some breath, but to little avail.
'T-The plants...' she wheezed, followed by a weak groan. 'They... they a-are in agony... Something evil... is... h-hurting them!' That last word was pushed out with a loud scream. Brie fell on her side as her body started to convulse heavily, making the suffering nymph scream at the top of her lungs in unimaginable pain. Good God, she sounded like she was being gutted alive; that thought made Sasha's stomach sink to her feet even faster. While holding a now whimpering Oliver against her, she knelt down next to Brie with a genuinely worried look on her face that was slowly about to turn into a frightened look. 'Here, let me get you up!' she said, about to touch Brie's shoulder before the nymph looked at her, her face formed into a mask of pain.
'No!' she exclaimed. 'I want you take my son and... and g-get the hell out of here! I'm begging you! Make sure Oliver will live!'
Strange crunching noises made Sasha look up... and when she looked around, she realized that she had found herself in yet another dire, horrifying situation that could most likely cost her life.
It was happening right in front of her eyes. All the life that had kept these flowers and trees beautiful and vivid for God who knows how many years, was suddenly being rapidly sucked out of them. The purple and blue petals of the flowers, of which the pointed petals had given them their unique, star-shaped form, shriveled and turned pitch-black, instantly robbed of their beauty and colors. A strange, thick, black liquid oozed from their centers, producing a repulsive stench, which quickly spread over the entire garden like a mist. This is how death must smell like, this was undoubtedly the stench of death. Black, shriveled leafs landed on the earth around Sasha. The flowers weren't the only ones being affected by this sudden corruption; the large tree that had once been Brie's and Oliver's safe haven was next. The dead leafs fell off in clumps, causing the branches, which were decaying away faster and faster by each second, to grow empty and hideous. Cracks grew in the rotten bark, allowing the same black liquid that had been flowing out of the flowers to escape and fuel the horrid stench that made it almost impossible to breath. Much to Sasha's growing horror, Oliver possibly had the hardest time to breathe from the three of them, since his whimpers were growing louder, his face grew red and he was practically clawing at his nose and mouth. There was no doubt about it; he had to get the hell out of here before the helpless infant would suffocate in this horrid death stench. Same went for Brie.
'Come on, get up!' Sasha said with a hint of rising panic in her voice. 'Let me he-'
'I t-told you to run!' the nymph replied with a hoarse voice whilst doing her best to get back up her feet. Some strength had returned to the muscles in her legs, but she was trembling all over and it was obvious that she was still suffering immensely. Sasha saw the lower arms of the nymph glowing with a faint green light, which was flickering. 'Go! I... I will fight this corruption off! Please get Oliver out of here! Don't look back, don't come back for me! Now go!'
Oh my God, she was serious about this... trying to convince her to come along with them would be pointless. So this is what a mother was willing to do to make sure about her child's survival; Sasha had to admit, she was stunned about that, but that only lasted for a second or two. The strong will to run like a bat out of hell with this baby in her arms kicked in at full force. The magenta-haired woman nodded, breathlessly said 'Okay, okay...' in a soft voice, turned around and began to run as fast as her legs allowed her to. She could feel Brie's eyes glancing at her until she was out of her sight. 'Goodbye, sweetheart...' the nymph whispered with tears running down her cheeks before facing back to the growing corruption; her fight had begun.
Her lungs were burning unbearably, her heart was pounding so rapidly in her throat that she thought it was going to explode. The horrible stench was the only odor she could smell, it completely filled up her nose. Everything was rotting and shriveling around her, everywhere she could hear slimy crunching noises; it were the death screams of the dying plants, Sasha thought. But she wasn't the only one who could feel the corruption that was killing this garden that had been so dreamy and beautiful a few moments ago. Oliver was crying at the top of his little lungs, barely overlapping the sounds of rot and decay. The hysterical crying of the infant and the crunching filled every spot inside Sasha's head, where only one thought could be found.
Run, damn it, run!
Sasha felt like she was thrown into the embodiment of one of the worst nightmares possible. This garden, that was a little strange but wonderful paradise in the middle of nowhere for as long as this mansion was standing, had turned into the Devil's backyard as soon as she started speaking to Brie. Was she still alive at this point or did the decaying garden already claim its first victim? That thought made a heavy chill run up Sasha's spine. She didn't want to, but she could already imagine the nymph collapsing to the ground before her body would wither with the rest of the flora, turning her into a rotten shell with that black liquid as her blood, trickling out of her empty eye sockets and mouth. Oh God, oh Jesus, they were going to be next if they would not escape in time! Sasha hoped that Brie had enough power left to fight off the corruption that was swallowing her domain whole, not only for Oliver's sake, but for Daniel's as well. But what if that corruption had already affected the mansion as well? She would see it when she would got out of here. No, 'when'was the wrong word here... 'if' was the correct one.
She continued to run for their dear lives, holding the bawling Oliver against her and shielding him with her arms from the now hostile environment. Much to her relief, Sasha saw the lake in the distance, that meant she was almost halfway there, thank God. The magenta-haired woman had no idea what had been lurking between the rotting flowers all this time, though... and they weren't planning on making her escape easier. From the corner of her right eye, she saw a long, pale, porcelain arm emerging from the decay and reaching out for her. Sasha loudly gasp (unintentionally inhaling the foul smell in the process, much to her disgust) and managed to duck away in time before the cold fingertips could touch her arm. As if it knew that it had missed its target, the porcelain arm retreated back into the bush of rotten flowers. That was a doll's arm, Sasha realized whilst chills appeared all over her arms. Oh God, she had to run faster! But this is as fast as her legs could go, which made her fear even more for her life. But that wasn't the only arm that would attempt to grab her; the closer Sasha ran towards the lake, more arms emerged from not only the flowers, but also from the trees and the ground, as if the dolls had been buried there all this time and finally found their opportunity to grab her and drag her and Oliver into the rot. There were so many arms, countless arms, and Sasha had no time to wonder whether they all belonged to one being or not. She had to duck and jump in order to stay out of their reach and almost tripped a couple of times, but thankfully managed to stay on her feet. This had to be a result of the corruption, it had to be, they were way too terrifying to have ever belonged in this former little paradise.
Just then, something brushed past Sasha's cheek, sending a heavy chill up her spine. Her horror was fueled by tenfold when she saw what had been flying past her. It was a little swarm of cracked baby doll heads with pale, tattered butterfly wings and empty eye sockets, their open mouths filled with razor sharp teeth that reminded her of razorblades. Oh God, no, not the winged seahorses and fireflies as well... Those teeth could've easily ripped a chunk of flesh from her face, Sasha realized. But she wasn't going to let these little, vicious, flying freak shows stop her, not for one second. The winged doll heads let out a shrill screech when she approached them as if they were preparing an attack, but Sasha swatted them away with one arm and didn't look back.
Finally she reached the lake, where the stench was heavier than ever. Taking a closer look, Sasha saw that the clear water was now replaced with the black ooze, which immediately explained the reason for the stronger stench. She absolutely didn't want to know what the hell was lurking in those depths now and wanted to cross it as fast as possible. Thank God the steppingstones were still there. Oliver hadn't stopped crying for one moment while she had been running. Sasha didn't hesitate for one second and began to cross over. She made sure her feet would touch the center of each steppingstone, not planning to slip this time; the magenta-haired woman was convinced that it was going to be the end of her and Oliver as soon as she would fall into the ooze.
'Come on Sasha, just a bit more, you can do it girl...' she whispered to herself, but she could barely hear her own voice over the sound of decay and Oliver's bawling.
But just as she put her foot on a twelfth steppingstone, something cold and hard grabbed her ankle, nearly causing her to lose her balance. Sasha looked down and saw that it was porcelain hand, the grip tightening so much that it hurt her ankle. A bald doll head with empty eye sockets, allowing the ooze to spill out in little waterfalls, slowly emerged from the black liquid and despite the fact that it had no eyes, it felt like it was staring at her. More doll heads slowly emerged at the surface, filling up the entire corrupted lake. Sasha loudly screamed in horror and kicked at the doll's head.
'Get the hell away from me!' she yelled. Luck seemed to be on her side for once as the doll's head shattered after only one kick. Shards of porcelain fell in the ooze and were immediately sucked in. Sasha continued her escape, rushing over the steppingstones whilst forcing herself not to look at the doll heads, feeling their empty gazes burning into her soul. It was a miracle that she didn't slip once before reaching the other side. The magenta-haired woman's legs started to feel heavy and her entire body was trembling with nothing more but pure adrenaline, but she knew that she had to keep going if she wanted to survive. It was just a bit more, she was almost there...
Rapid clacking of hooves against a hard surface could be heard behind her, followed by a large shadow flying over Sasha and a flurry of sandy blonde fur landing right in front of her with a heavy thud. Sasha could barely believe what she was seeing now, but somehow she managed to suppress a gasp. Right in front of her stood the biggest goat she had ever seen in her entire life, with shaggy, sandy blonde fur, thick curly horns and earth-stained hooves. An unconscious Brie was lying on his back; Sasha almost wanted to sigh in relief to see that the nymph was still in one piece, but she had no idea whether she was alive, indeed unconscious, or even worse, dead. The huge goat then slightly kneeled down, which gave Sasha the opportunity to look at his eyes. And when she saw them, she immediately knew who they belonged to.
'Daniel...?' she asked with a soft voice.
Much to her surprise, the animal actually nodded. Dear God... it was him! And judging from the fact that he knelt down for her, it looked like he wanted her to climb onto his back. Sasha didn't hesitate for one second to accept that offer. Holding Oliver (who seemed to have calmed down just a bit, as if he could sense his father's presence despite his new form) with one arm and using the other to hold onto a patch of fur as she climbed up, the magenta-haired woman managed to settle on Daniel's back. As soon as she set down, he took off with a dazzling speed, forcing her to grab into his fur with one hand to make sure she wouldn't slip off. Sasha squeezed her eyes shut while still firmly holding Oliver against her body, hoping for the love of God that they could make it back inside just in time.
She only opened her eyes when she heard Daniel's hooves clacking against a wooden floor and didn't smell the repulsive, suffocating odor of rot anymore. Her heart cringed so much in relief when she saw that they were back inside the mansion, it was just painful. As soon as her feet touched the floor after she allowed herself to slip off Daniel's back, she ran towards the open backdoor that revealed the wasteland of decay and slammed it shut with a loud bang.
