Apologies for taking so long with this long, long chapter. As many of you have guessed, Leonard makes his grand entrance and I can only hope I've done him justice. Thanks again for all the reviews.
Chapter 18: Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?
(Part 2- Life's little lessons)
There was a harsh screech as the girl pulled the chair away from the desk it resided under, its four spindly legs raking against the bare wooded floor.
Letting out a long sigh, she dumped her satchel on the desk as if the moth-eaten bag weighed two tonnes and collapse onto the chair. For a moment, she did nothing but stare at the ceiling, observing with a sad indifference how the patch of damp above her head had grown even larger, its rings of decay slowly tracing a large circle on the peeling paper.
'Be grateful you even have a ceiling over your head' a voice muttered from the depths of her mind.
Mentally scolding herself for even doubting her father's generosity, Claudia reached over to the desk lamp and clicked it on.
Nothing happened.
And she was far too tired to do anything about it. Any way, there was still enough of the pale, ghostly light filtering through her window for her to see what she was doing.
She had to do something, anything to take her mind off
Some horrible, loud internal groan erupted from her stomach and the girl finally was forced to admit that she was hungry. No, not just hungry. Ravenou
"Don't think about it…" She whispered to her self, trying not to think about food or the last time she ate. When was it, yesterday, the day before? Just the memory chewing on some tasteless morsel was enough to make the girl salivate like one of Pavlov's hounds. Sadly, her master hadn't deemed her worthy of feeding for a while. In her father's opinion, forcing her to starve like this was "Good for her character."
A shaky hand shot into the satchel, desperately clamping on to the first book it knocked into. Any thing to distract her from the relentless creature that hollered in her gut.
Maths.
With a mad desperation, she flicked through the books pages, searching for anything to provide a mild interlude from the constantly nagging hunger but to no avail. Her mind would only latch on to the words and numbers for a bare few seconds before it began to wonder or she was interrupted by another empty mew.
It was only when the metallic tang of blood tainted her tongue, she realised she'd been gnawing on it with a cannibalistic relentlessness.
'Just wait a little longer, he's never let you go much longer than this…' A random thought surfaced in Claudia's memory, snapping her out of the self-induced daze.
Knocking her chair aside, the girl leapt at the small bed that was just about the only other object to occupy the barren room.
"What is she…uh…you doing?" Jobe asked the woman next to him as her younger counter part moved to the top of the bed as the pair observed her apparently random actions, nothing more than silent ghosts viewing a summoned memory. He'd accepted that at this point, all laws of physics and logic had taken a trip out the window.
"A simple act of self preservation…" Was the riddle he got in return.
Somewhat cautiously, the girl peered down the narrow space between the wall and the metal rails that made up the ancient bed's frame, trying to decipher the dust and shadows that congregated there. A diluted grin formed on her lips as she spied her trophy, a faded packet of crackers.
"CLAUDIA!"
Her hand hovered over her meagre prize and an expression that plainly said, "oh fuck" even if the girl dared not utter the word itself (for blasphemy was a sin) flashed across her face.
Jobe swivelled and look from the door to the woman in black. The bestial voice that erupted from down stairs sounded loud enough to be on the other side of the bedroom door.
The girl paused, silently calculating if eating just one of the crackers was worth the risk of educing her father's wrath.
It was.
Claudia made a grab for the packet as her father roared again. She turned her head to the door as she pulled her arm back up, opening her mouth to tell him she'd be down in a second…
But she froze, and the words were never formed. Her arm was stuck.
"CLAUDIA!!" came the call again, whatever patience the voice had had was waning dangerously thin.
"Oh hell…" She muttered to herself, forgetting the damning consciences of uttering such a word as she tried to yank her arm free from the gap.
Icy fingers of desperation began to creep around her neck as the hurried thudding of heavy shoes ascending the stairs rapidly filled her ears, cutting her breath short.
She tried again but to no avail, all the while, the pinpricks of anxiety jabbing away at her temples grew in ferocity.
If he found her committing this act of defiance…well, the repetitions would be far from pleasant.
There was a rip as Claudia's sleeve split, snagging on some lose nail jutting from the bed frame as she tore her arm free. She fell back on the bed and barely had time to sit upright before the door to her room was violently thrown open. There was a resonating crack, like the splintering of bone as it hit the wall behind it with enough force to leave a dent in the plaster but that was the last of her worries at that moment.
"Who?" Jobe didn't dare take his eyes off the lean man who stood in the doorway, breathing heavily.
"Leonard Wolf, my father…"
There was some resemblance between the two but it was plain to see that Claudia hadn't inherited her laid back mentality from the man who currently looked as though he was about to decapitate the first living thing he saw.
Mercilessly pale eyes locked onto the girl sitting on the bed. The look of simmering furry was wiped clean from his sharply cut face, replaced by a mask void of expression that echoed his older daughter's somewhat.
"I called for you," He uttered in a low tone; the sound was flat and oddly calm after the previous display. Dangerously calm.
Jobe felt the skin on the back of his neck rise into a heap of goose bumps and shuddered. He had a dull precognition of the dark territory this scene may be about to explore…
Claudia suddenly became aware of just how heavily she'd been breathing as a look of suspicion crept into Leonard's eyes. She cut off abruptly and quickly looked down at the bed she sat on.
"What have you been doing?" The man asked as he began to walk with a slow deliberateness towards his daughter, the floorboards groaning under his soft footfall.
"Nothing…" Came the meek answer as Leonard's long shadow fell over her and she felt her mouth go dry as the sound of her own heart drummed away inside her head. Her eyes raced about in their sockets as she desperately tried to come up with an excuse.
Looking at the younger version of his antagonist, Jobe suddenly found himself thinking of Virgil and her child-like uncertainty. The way the girl shrank back under the unscrupulously frosty stare of her father reminded him of the overly submissive and fearful deposition of the warped human oddity he'd met what like an eternity ago.
"I was just"
CRACK
Jobe didn't even see the board like hand move as it flew across the child's face with uncensored force; silencing whatever alibi she was going to offer. The sheer effort and suddenness off the stinging blow sent the girl sprawling on the floor while Leonard's face maintained its expressionless quality.
"Oh my god" Jobe blurted out of shear shock. He made a move towards the man.
"Don't bother yourself, there's nothing you can do." His Claudia's voice rung dryly in his ears and the listless words stopped him in his tracks. He turned at looked at her, a look of lost confusion on his face.
The woman he had come to hate so much over such a short space of time slumped slowly down the wall she lent against, folding into a dejected heap.
"We are here only to watch. Anyway, there was never anything anyone could ever do…" She frowned, her face wearing a look of defeat, watching the events at the other side of the tiny, cramped room unfold.
Leonard moved to the spot where the girl lay, blinking dumbly in surprise. He crouched down next to her, not even bothering to look at the stunned child.
"Why do you lie to me Claudia?" the silver-haired man drawled sternly as he squatted by his floored daughter, massaging his red knuckles.
The girl pushed her self up and looked at the man, the look of board indifference was still on his face. Leonard's eyes flashed from his hand to the girl.
"I was only…" She really didn't mean to look at the bed but guilt and the simple fear of her father kept on drawing her eyes back to it, where all the incriminating evidence lay in all its glory, just waiting to be uncovered.
'Tick-tock when the tell tail heart'
She could practically hear the cogs that whirled away within his skull click into place as a thin scowl materialised upon his face. He rose back to his full height and cast her one last quizzical look before turning to the bed and prowling towards it, like some oversized beast of the night.
Jobe turned to his tormentor but she seemed lost in a world of her own. It was only later that the irony of that sentence struck him.
He turned back in time to see Leonard raise, the box of crackers clenched triumphantly in his hand.
"You were only what?" He echoed, "Gorging yourself like the insolent beast you are?" His child dropped her head to the floor as his voice cracked, fermenting anger worming its way into his words.
"WHY!" He spat. Claudia flinched.
"I…was just so hungry." She croaked, her voice nothing more than a whisper.
WHAMPThis time, Jobe saw the balled fist smack into the child's face, snapping her head back. The fist hovered in the air, as if debating weather or not to land another blow on the girl as she stood motionless, absorbing the abuse like a sponge.
"How dare you even think of disobeying me? Did I say you could eat?"
"no"
WHAMP"SILENCE!" The fist sailed back again and this time the crunch of soft cartilage was clearly audible.
"Haven't I explained the Sin's of man enough times to you for it to sink into what little brain you have? Or are you just so resistant to learning that you chose to disregard my words for your own entertainment?"
The girl dared not even breath, trying to ignore the stabbing pain that accompanied the stream of blood now running freely from her nose.
"ANSWER ME!!"
"I though…maybe…you had just forgotten"
"Are you questioning my intelligence?"
The girl's head shot up, her eye's wide with surprise. Realising she'd made a fatal error she steeped back from her simmering father who's lips were so tightly draw together, the very colour had faded from them.
"No II honestly d"
This time the hands locked around the collar of the girl's worn jumper. Leonard yanked the child viciously towards him, bringing his head down to her level until there where a bare few centimetres between the pair.
"Stop grovelling, you insolent bastard! You're nothing more than a mortifying embarrassment." He hissed, his voice like gas escaping from a rusty pipe at high pressure.
He pushed her away, sending Claudia tripping back into the wall.
Leonard sighed, rubbing his temples as if to release some great stress building up within his skull. He looked up at his daughter; the mask of unhealthy calmness was back on his face.
"Tell me Claudia, what is the sin of gluttony?" He folded his arms as his daughter looked up at him timidly.
"Eating when you do not need to…"
Leonard clapped his hands together, a flat and impotent sound.
"My lord, it knows something!" The mirth dropped instantly from his voice. "But such a simplistic explanation…well, it's all that can be expected of a degenerate such as yourself." He shook his head sadly, not noticing the muscle in Claudia's jaw twitch or the momentary glint of malice that flared in her eyes. But then she remembered her place and quenched the flames of hatred that had briefly burnt her heart.
"No, gluttony is so much more than simply over feeding yourself. It is that sick feeling of satisfaction that some twisted, atheistic souls achieve from gorging themselves to the point where even the though of movement is beyond them. To put it simply, it is nothing more than a masochistic desire, much like the root off all the sin's that coax us from the path to Paradise."
The grey man sighed again, hoping for once his words would sink in, but the girl merely stood there with her head bowed, probably not able to comprehend the meaning of his carefully explained words. He sneered at the spineless cretin that he'd been burdened with for all these years, silently wondering how a god-fearing man like himself had wound up with such a pitiful excuse of a human being as his offspring. He turned away and began to slowly pace around the room like some caged tiger, running his fingers through his slick and greasy strands of hair.
"It amazes me how much you disappoint me Claudia…I always hoped you could have amounted to something more than this." He spoke more to himself than the girl who watched him walk back and forth, waiting patiently for him to finally lash out again.
He stopped dead, his glacial eyes freezing on some distant point.
"I think it's about time we had another lesson." And with that ambiguous comment, he strode from the room, the sound of his shoes beating against the scuffed floorboards quickly fading away.
The girl looked as though she was about to be sick as she stood there, all alone in the centre of the dank room.
Well, for once she wasn't truly alone.
"What in the name in all that is holy is going on?!" Jobe exclaimed, wheeling round to the woman behind him.
She was still sat against the wall, her rigged composure seeming to have all but collapsed.
"My ongoing education. This must all seem so barbaric to you, must it not?"
Jobe avoided her gaze, and a nauseated look to rival the girl's began to tweak the muscles of his face.
"Yes…" Came the shallow reply. He forced himself to drag his reluctant eyes back on to the waxen woman again. "Why how could he do this too you?"
"Why? For the simple reason that he could. My father was something of a pivotal figure in this town. People learnt not to raise their eyebrows if they saw that 'backwards' child of his brandished with a bruise or two. As for how…" She paused a moment, silently contemplating the question. "He believed it to be necessary."
"Necessary? Beating and hurling abuse at you as if you were some verbal punch bag was necessary? How the hell did, no, could you're father justify doing that? For a man of 'God', he seems to have some pretty warped ethics."
Claudia let out a short laugh before looking face on at Jobe for the first time this whole escapade had started.
"I could never, not in my wildest dreams live up to his expectations. He was oblivious to any personal triumph of my own, only ever able to see my infinitive faults, so he took it on as his own personal pilgrimage to iron out each of these errors in my character in some attempt to perhaps redeem himself for bringing such a hopeless creature into this world."
"Why didn't you just run away?" Jobe couldn't help but feel a sickening wave of sympathy for the woman each time he looked at her that threatened to drown him.
She turned her empty eyes on to him and Jobe felt himself shudder as he saw what lay with in those melancholy pools; the woman was dead inside.
"I knew nothing but this town, Jobe, it was the world to the children of Silent Hill who shared my upbringing. Even when I grew older and learnt of it, I still did not leave. I couldn't."
Jobe cocked his head, silently yet softly pressing the interrogation.
"What, don't you think I know how people like you regard me? In your eyes, I'm some bizarre anomaly you wouldn't even want to try and comprehend due to my faith. I scare you. The modern world wouldn't accept me and that is why I have refrained from embracing it. To put it briefly, I had nowhere else to go."
There was a pause.
"Also, in some bizarre twisted way, I still loved him, as hard as that must be to believe."
Jobe continued to stare at her even as the sounds of Leonard's footfall returned, trying to sort out the emotions that raced through his head. How was he meant to sympathise after the prolonged hell she'd put him through, launching him from one insane nightmare to another? Thanks to her interference, everything he'd taken for granted had disappeared in a swirl of ashen fog and even if he came out of the whole mess alive with his sanity intact, there was no way he could ever see the world in the same pure light ever again.
Jobe left the thought hanging as Leonard made his re-entrance.
Gone was the air of weary irritation; in its place was a malicious grin that spanned from ear to ear. Jobe could practically bask in the self-righteousness that radiated from the man as he strode towards his daughter who seemed to shrink even further under his unforgiving observation. Her eyes flitted nervously from his face to the brown paper bag he carried in the crook of his arm.
With yet another sneer, Leonard threw the package at the girl and she caught the package clumsily.
"Open it" He crooned, his voice dripping with a hideously forced kindness.
The bemused girl pulled back the packaging. Her hands froze and she looked back up at her father, brows furrowed in a confused knot.
Jobe felt his stomach curdle when he saw the thick slice of raw meat lying in the girl's palms, unable to stop is mind echoing back to the dog's head that had come tumbling out of Virgil's fridge. He shut his eye's, trying to ignore the acidic flavour that had come crawling up his throat.
Leonard's smile grew even wider as he beamed painfully down at Claudia.
"Well, you said you were hungry." The warm tone in his voice instantly withered. "Eat."
She goggled at her father. He expected her to eat this? Claudia looked down at the chop lying across her hands, horribly aware of the capillary-thin rills of blood running between the creases of its vibrant crimson surface. A feeling similar to the one Jobe would experience eighteen years later in this exact spot began to creep over her.
"EAT!" He bellowed curtly, clipping the child across the ear. "Do you still dare to defy me even now?!"
At a snail's pace, Claudia lifted the slab of raw meat to her mouth, casting her father a final pleading look. He expressed no compassion.
She bit and did all she could not to be sick as she felt her stomach convulse at the metallic, coppery flavour that flooded her mouth. Even the rough, leathery texture was enough to make her spit it out.
A dry gag escaped from her clenched jaw's as she willed herself not to be sick right there and then;
That would do nothing but enforce the image her father regarded her with, as some weak subhuman entity, not even worth the air it wasted.
"Look at you" Leonard cawed, crossing his arms as he began to preach. "Nothing but some animal! Are you really so weak that you cannot stave of your petty hunger? Do you fold so easily to this sinful desire that you will eat raw flesh, like some savaging beast?" His face had begun to flush as his voice rose with each word, a manic glint flashed in his eyes. He was in full swing and there would be no stopping him now 'till the righteous message was out.
"You truly are of weak character. It is disgusting, nay, revolting to think something that revels in sinning as much as you can even dare to think they are worthy of crossing the threshold of Paradise…"
The sentence began to die and gradually silence began to reclaim the room as Leonard noticed how 'it' had stopped chewing.
"Swallow it" The quiet tone of his voice seemed a thousand times more terrifying than the uncontrollable rant. He glowered down at her, the cold, glassy eye's almost daring her not to do it.
She could she could do this…
NoAnother wave of nausea swept over her and Claudia made a more to spit it out.
"You even think of doing that, and I swear, I will make you eat that off the floor."
The girl caught herself, the muscles in her jaw jumping spasmodically.
"Stop procrastinating and just SWALLOW it!" His fist fell to his side, clenching so tightly that he felt his nails bite into his skin but he managed to hold back, despite how thin his patience was being drawn. It was just so tempting to lash out but he would contain himself for now, after all, he was above giving into his primal urges.
Claudia shut her eyes and swallowed the revolting mass, trying to force the raw bulk down her throat without regurgitating it.
"So, this is how willing you are to surrender your humanity, is it?" The girl stood in silence, shifting uncomfortably under his scolding.
"Yes"
"And it is gluttony that has driven you to this, isn't it? Now do you see the errors of your ways?"
She nodded forlornly.
"Good, now finish it."
And this time there was no resistance as the girl began to consume the meat mechanically, any shards of dignity left inside her at the beginning of the 'lesson' had shattered, disintegrating into nothing but dust.
"He did teach me much about this world, I'll give him that…" Jobe barely heard the words as he stared numbly at the spectacle before him. Sure, his father had beaten one or two things into him during his youth but that was nothing compared this…this torture. How anyone could behave like that was beyond him.
"Now do you see?" His Claudia's words once again invaded his thoughts.
"See what?"
"Why you must help me." He could hear the underlying tone of desperation in her voice.
Jobe sighed, closing his eyes to try and block out the sound of Leonard's egotistical voice as he degraded his daughter further.
"No…" He exhaled. "I don't understand why you're showing me this, I don't even understand what it is you are trying to do." He eyed her over his shoulder. "Do you have any idea how crazy you sound, you want to what? Recreate the world?"
"Yes, for the good of humanity…" She trailed off, licking her lips as she tried to organize her thoughts. "I have suffered, as you can see." She gestured towards the ongoing scene. "And it may only be a tiny, insignificant fraction compared to what is going on in this world but I have learnt from it. And it is enough to know no one should have to go through anything like this, be it slavery, famine or abuse due to the greed of others."
"Shit happens, it's part of life and there's nothing you can do about it." Jobe felt so cold saying it but it was true. "I'll agree with you that the way the world works is screwed up but we can't just wish it to go away 'cause it won't. It's all part of human nature."
"Wish?" Claudia raised an eyebrow. "Oh, what I, we are going to do will go far wishing. When God is finally returned to us, she will recreate this world, removing the harmful desires from the hearts of men. Then…" She shut her eyes, the tension building up in her voice instantly dissolved. "…The people of this earth will truly be able to coexist, living as one in Her eternal Paradise."
Jobe looked at her, torn between hatred and empathy.
'She really does believe she's going to do this, bring about the day of Judgement or what ever it is.'"II can't help you do this."
Her eyes snapped open.
"It just doesn't feel right." He paused, contemplating the effects his words were going to have on the fanatical woman. "If this 'God' wanted us to save us, if she though we really needed it, then wouldn't she have done it by now?"
The words faded, absorbed by the room as Leonard stormed past the pair as if they were no more than enthral shadows. Claudia looked past her father, a look of insult on her face.
"You of all people should know what a dire state this world is in"
"What are you talking about!?" Jobe felt his temper snap. "Why must you always speak in riddles!?" His hand's clamped down on her shoulders as Jobe's frustration bubbled. "Why, can't you tell me why I have to help you? You talk of me being judged, being worthy. WHY?? What have I done?" The last word escaped through clenched teeth.
"You still don't know?"
"KNOW WHAT!" The grip on her shoulders tightened but the woman didn't flinch.
"Then I'm afraid you still have much to learn…"
Jobe opened his mouth but blinked out of this existence like a candle before the slightest sound had a chance to escape.
Claudia stared momentarily at the empty space that the man once occupied before turning to her younger self. Doing this to him made her feel terrible but he would have to accept what he was before he would see. Perhaps it had been a mistake to let him go for so long with out knowing.
"Then again, ignorance is bliss…"
She crouched beside the child who had curled up on the floor in a foetal roll, staring at some distant spot in the distance.
"It's going to be fine" She muttered to the catatonic child. "You'll see…" With that, the world around Claudia collapsed, fading away to nothing and leaving the woman in the dark void of her mind.
All alone...
A/N: Thank god there isn't a 'prevention to cruelty towards fictional characters' agency.
Well for keeping you waiting for so long, there's more artwork up, including sketches of Parker and Claudia.
Squishy: What do you mean by original? Sorry to disappoint you but Father Parker won't be making an appearance for a while but Virgil should be making a return in a few chapters. Have fun with the inferno.
RandomNamelessSHPerson: Heh, thanks but I think she was right on some points. I never realised literature could encore people's wrath to such an extent.
Anyone looking for a good read should check out E.P.O'S recently finished fanfic before it sinks into the backlog of completed stories, as well as Mike N's and hauntedheadnc's refreshing piece.
On another note, I finished the 'Ave Maria' fic if anyone cared.
Thanks for reading.
