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Short Story by Jen [Me]
“Why are you afraid?”
A young girl’s voice chimed into many minds. It had a creepy tone, sounding very young, but never innocent. She would appear to a select few people in their sleep, people who most considered mentally instable.
“Oh it’s just your imagination running wild.”
The doctors would say in a reassuring tone, thinking that’s what it was. After a while wouldn’t they wonder why so many of their patients came to them about the same girl? All of them told the same story. Every story was about the girl, what she had told them, what she looked like. Oh, so much detail was put into the stories as to paint a picture, leading even the doctors to insanity.
In the beginning the girl would begin by introducing herself, having yet to show her face. This came in the darkest state of sleep. Every time she spoke to her ‘friends’, as she called them, she would begin the same way.
“My name…is Bella…”
She spoke in a sweet tone. Her voice always had some type of demented tone to it though.
“I was once beautiful…before that day…many centuries ago...”
Then, the person would fall into an abyss, landing in an old and tattered place currently known as Russia. Seeing through a bystander’s eyes was what the person would do, the girl’s voice no longer in their heads. The person would be dreaming, in a deep, trance light sleep state. One patient, Domanic, was put under her spell when he’d fallen into a coma due to his illness. From this state, many figured he was dead. Upon waking Domanic, didn’t remember anything. Not then.
Domanic looked down at the rags he then wore, pulling at them loosely, not understanding anything. ‘Am I dead?’ He thought, in his mind’s eye he seemed it. Domanic still housed his own, seven year old, body. He passed by a window, looking over himself. His black hair was shaggy and messy, he had dirt covering his sickly pale skin and the rags he wore were hideous. Domanic continued down the path that everyone else was going. They all seemed to be going to the same place, chatting about something going on in the center of town. Domanic weaved through people, dodging legs of those around him. Most of the people reeked and definitely had not bathed. The air seemed tainted by the wicked aroma. The smell was a disgusting mix of body odor, thick and heavy clouds for the rain that would begin to pour, and the huffing breaths of those around him; they all had golden brown colored teeth, obvious that they didn’t clean their mouths.
Domanic stopped just as the crowd did; trying not to dwell on what was around him. He pushed through and stood looking up at a wooden ‘stage’. A small child, about his own age was brought out. The little girl had black hair with crimson tips, her skin was pale. When the girl had stepped out Domanic starred at her wet cheeks, the rest of her face covered with a brown bag. She was crying. The crowed ‘boo-ed’ and made other rude noises. “Execute the witch!” A few voices called. Soon the whole crowd was synchronized, all but Domanic who stood silently watching the girl weep. He watched as the two men nudged her forcefully to move forward towards a wooden bench, stained crimson from others’ blood.
“Would you like to see the face of this witch before her death?” The executioner’s assistant asked. He wore rags just as Domanic did. Everyone was poor here. It was weird to him. The crowd silenced and gasped. “Yes! Show us the witch!” One man called and everyone was silent again. Even the sound of the bag on her head being removed was heard. The second the girl’s face was revealed the crowd was back to yelling. Domanic’s jaw dropped. She is just a kid like me…what makes her a witch? He starred with wide eyes as they tied the girl up and took a small blade. The man sliced down the girl’s limbs, blood immediately beading from the wounds. Her pale skin now had a thick, dark red colored, stripe from the bloodied wounds.
The girl didn’t cry out, her eyes were shut, the tears still falling. “Someone help her...” Domanic whispered. His sickness kept him frail. He hadn’t had the sicker part of him before, due to the girl wanting him to see her. Suddenly Domanic was swept upon with a weak feeling, every bone in his body ached, his throat stung and he could taste blood in his mouth. He fell back, a man catching him. “Hey kid. Watch it.” The man said coldly and set Domanic on a bench near the stage. Domanic watched as they cut the, already deep, wounds again. He starred with wide eyes. The men seemed mad and one took her left wrist. The man yanked the girl’s arm; the sound of tearing flesh filled the silent air. The girl had been sick and had been way to small and weak for her own good. The people holding her in the ‘prison’ didn’t feed her at all. Suddenly a cracking noise filled the air and the large man held a bloodied arm, the girl screamed out. The words weren’t English, the girl spoke German.
The girl’s eyes widened and she coughed, a large amount of blood spilling from her lips. Her eyes were stuck widened, glazed over, and she fell limply, the ropes holding her body up. “She could be fooling us!” A woman in the crowd called. “Cut off her other leg!” A man soon followed. The person grabbed a large blade and started to saw at the little girl’s leg, the second it was through the bone, he let the flesh and bone dangle. “Let the smell of her horrid blood spilled fill the air!” The man proclaimed and held up the blade, then with burgundy liquid dripping onto the floor of the stage.
Domanic eyed the man, wishing he had his strength to save her. Oh but there was more, the crowd needed to be more enthused. The man sewed the girl’s leg back sloppily just so it wouldn’t fall when he hung her up. He tied her to a tall pole. “And now everyone will see how we rid ourselves of witches!” The assistant called and tightened the ropes. He fell into an abyss of darkness again, sitting up again when his senses returned.
He looked around; the stars were out now, the moon high in the night sky. Domanic looked at the pole; a bird swallowed something and jumped up flying away and making a cawing noise. He starred at the bird a short while but then turned to look at the girl’s mangled body. There were small cuts all over from the animals crawling upon her. The girl’s eyes were gone, blood ran down her cheeks like tears, her leg was hanging on by only a little. Domanic’s eyes widened at the sight of it all and breathed in sharply, causing him to cough. Blood spilled from his own lips and he starred at his hands, the red blood was soon followed by clear drops, tears. The young Domanic cried for the girl.
“Do you now understand why I am what I came to be...Why I look the way I do…all because of one lie…?”
Domanic nodded, tears streaming from his dulled, glazed over blue eyes. He looked dead as well. Domanic was then in a black empty place for a long while, silently falling. One day he heard quiet sobbing and he awoke. One year later. Domanic had turned eight recently and too many times had the doctors nearly stopped the machines that kept his vegetable-like body alive. He opened his eyes slowly to see a thirteen year old Jordan crying on his hand. Domanic coughed, blood falling from his lips. The other boy looked up, his eyes red and swelled with tears. Domanic was lifted into a hug, his body limp and weak. He was extremely frail, nearly breakable. Jordan hugged the younger boy for a long time, still crying and saying things like, “I’m so glad you’re alright” and “We thought you were gone…”
Domanic was in the hospital for a while until he could walk again, his memories of Bella only came to him in his sleep when they ‘played’. He had gotten used to Bella and treated her like a normal person. For a while it was just in his dreams but then he started seeing her in the real world too. Domanic would talk to the girl; no one knew what was going on. He was sent to an insane asylum for a few months and, soon enough, Bella disappeared.
When Domanic was eighteen he grew ill again. Jordan had died in a car wreck and he was now nearly dying again. Fiero was there though, helping him through it all. Domanic was semi better after a while and could run around a little, as long as he didn’t over exert himself. He and Fiero got into a fight and Domanic lived on the street for a week. He finally decided that his life wasn’t worth living if Fiero wasn’t there and attempted suicide by running in front of a car. Sure enough, thanks to Dom’s rotten luck, Fiero was the one who drove the vehicle that hit him. For a few minutes after the car hit him he was conscious but hanging on by a thread. Once in the hospital though, Domanic’s heart stopped for a brief moment, the second time in the past few weeks. The first was during a coughing fit. Bella returned but didn’t do anything. She had to make sure it was the same boy. That he was the only one who cared, who she didn’t drive into such an incredible insanity rate that he was locked up. Yes. This was him. Now all she had to do was get in his mind again.
Domanic was back to consciousness and he and Fiero fought again. Bella had barely peeked into his mind and helped him with the braver side, slicing his throat with a blade. This didn’t kill the boy though. Domanic was getting better and was finally allowed to go home. He got to Fiero’s home and they lived there for a while, no longer in an apartment. The gang was getting together the time that Bella got in touch with Domanic again; of course at first he thought he was crazy. This journey would be fun. Bella is going to have a friend again.
Chilly Firefly · Thu Feb 15, 2007 @ 09:30pm · 0 Comments |
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