Ch. 10

“What happened!?” For a long length of time I had been petrified by Ferlo's sudden death. Twice in one trip I had witnessed horrifying seizures that will no doubt be imprinted in my memory for the rest of my life. An unfamiliar voice shattered into my moment of shock, jerking me back to the horror of Ferlo's death. Twisting my torso to see who it was, I was surprised how heavy my head felt as I tilted it back to look up. It was like a my hair was being pulled hard towards the ground. When my eyes connected with a human face, I realized how much I wanted to be alone. I didn't want to meet anyone else from this sinister village.

“He died.” My words were ugly and harsh. I coughed in an attempt to clear my throat from the ashes that seemed to be scratching it. I had to swallow several times in order to breath. The man, irritated by my answer, must have forgotten that I had endured the traumatic scene since he put his hands on his hips, turned his face away from me, and cursed. Now that my world was turned upside down, I didn't feel obliged to ask who he was, what was happening, or if there was any help for me. All forms of such proprieties were suddenly pointless to me. Men were no longer men. We were all flies in a spider's web, and worst of all, my punishment was self-inflicted. I was on my knees ready to take an ax blow to my neck which would have been an act of mercy, but all that hit me was a gentle kick from the man's foot.

“Get up. There are a group of gentlemen coming to meet you. Don't worry about the body, there's an empty grave already made for him with his headstone marking the spot. He came back to life before we could conduct a proper funeral for him.” He stopped to clear his throat, and then he cocked his head like a dog when it hears something. Sure enough, there were sounds of twigs snapping and hushed voices somewhere in the woods nearby. I didn't like the idea of an unplanned meeting with people I didn't know. In fact, I didn't even know they knew of my existence. Something about this whole village was bizarre, other than its visits from the devil. A sharp whistle from the man made me jump, and again his voice was raw and cold.

“Over here fellas. We're both here.” His eyes dropped to me on the ground. They lacked all sense of pity. All that was there was contempt. “You better get up and brush yourself off. You look like a mangy beast.” I decided to do as he said and got up to shake off all the dirt on my knees. Then I straightened my shirt and ran my fingers through my hair to comb it back. I almost spit in my hands to help my hair stick, but they still had Ferlo's blood smeared all over them. Mortified, I began to wiped them roughly down my pants to clean them off, but I unwittingly stained my pants with more blood. I hadn't noticed the red marks I had already rubbed on my knees.

“That'll do for now. The others will understand. We've seen plenty of blood to last us a lifetime or even more for those of us who are forsaken by Our Lord.” His sentence was meant more for himself than it was for him. It had concluded in a faded breath that was directed towards his chest as his chin had dropped down while he had been talking. I began to suspect that he had been a past player in Garuba, but I dared not ask him. Instead, I waited in anticipation for the other people who were emerging from behind the trees like some kind of primitive creatures of the woods. I could make out dark colors approaching the area where the man and myself stood near the prostrate body of Ferlo, which was oozing out blood slowly from the nose. The sheer idea that the man was unaffected by the twice dead man lying in a growing puddle of his own blood struck a nerve. They were immune to such mortality. The sight of Ferlo still had me hypnotized until I sensed more than two eyes staring at me. I peeled my own eyes away from the pale body upon the ground and was affronted by six stern and ghastly men silently gawking at me. I recognized Mr. Garris's face immediately and strangely enough, it calmed me a little. Since none of them made any attempt to speak, I thought I would address my host first.

“Mr. Garris, what is the meaning of all of this. I know none of these men, and yet not only do they know of me, but they know my whereabouts as well. I find it extremely uncomfortable that plans should be made around me without me having knowledge of it. I'm beginning to think that the hospitality demonstrated in this village is short of its meaning, but despite the want for such politeness, I have decided to leave on the morrow not because of poor manners, but because of the sinister spirits lingering about the place. Of course I mean no offense to you, yourself, Mr. Garris, but I have seen things-” I stopped to swallow down the lump in my throat. “I have seen some sort of apparition or demon, or perhaps it was the illusion of the sunlight, maybe I had a short moment of insanity, but whatever it was, it has scared me out of this village. I know longer wish to stay where I am not only unwanted, but where I am uncomfortable.”

My tirade was long, and, in my opinion, far less callous than it should have been. I scanned the twelve unblinking eyes that looked at me as if I was an excommunicated priest who had returned to publicly offer my soul up to my devil. The only set of eyes that stood out from the crowd was Mr. Garris, who had maintained that pitiful expression. His eyes worried me the most. I stared back at him, feeling that the rest of the men were all too intimidating for my taste. Their muteness only made the mood of the meeting far more edgy, but finally the man who had found me rubbed his chin, then turned to the rest of the group to address them in secretive way. He had said something in Latin, I presume, and the rest of the men nodded their heads in unison. Then I was spared some relief as the man turned back to me with a question.

“What exactly did you see this morning?”

“There were two things, I think. One of them seemed to have been carrying the other, but I'm not sure if the other was alive. I can't quite describe what the things looked like. All I had to go by was the sand that had stuck to their sweaty bodies, but from what I saw, they were not men and they were certainly not benign. The thing that was standing swung the other up into the air where it struck the church bell then crashed to the ground just below-” I paused in the middle of my story as I watched the man in the middle speak quietly to the man next to him. In an instant, the man he had been talking to broke from the crowd and ran back into the woods. The man who had been talking turned his face back to me and made a circular motion with his hand as an indication for me to continue. My voice was a bit more confused than before, but I managed to resume my story. “Well, it crashed, and then, oh yes, and then the boy- Ferlo's son- he screamed out and when I looked, he had a cross scratched into his head. Naturally I was terrified for him, but I admit when the boy told me what the thing had said to him, I was ready to race to the main gate.”

A few of the men had gasped when I mentioned the part about the boy repeating the creature's words. When I finished, all I could hear were Latin words being thrown all over the place. Everyone seemed to be talking, but no one was listening. The only person who didn't take part in the quick-paced conversations was Mr. Garris, who's expression had altered into one of compassion. For a second, I thought he might have started crying, but no tears came. He just continued to look at me as if my mother had recently passed away,

and I was unaware of it. I suddenly felt uneasy by his odd display of emotion and turned back to Ferlo's body. It was morbid that a dead man's corpse offered me more comfort than a look of deep sympathy. I ran my hand over my arm to rub away the goose pimples that had crept up. Only two of the men were talking now, and it seemed to be quite a heated argument, but it finally came to an end as the first man addressed me again. He looked at me with hard, unforgiving eyes.

“I don't know how to break this to you gently, so I will have to tell you straight. First, your words bring horrible news to all Gaskanians. As you know, we are the tortured people of the devil, and to hear that there are two devils can only mean that our punishment will be much more grievous. Secondly, it is a well known fact that whenever one is spoken to by the devil, that unfortunate person is next on the devil's list of victims. Sadly, Ferlo's son will be visited by the devil this very night. There is nothing we can do for him, despite our strong urges to protect him. Thirdly-”

The man was unable to continue as his argumentative opponent started shouting again. I couldn't focus on anything except his second point. I had no recollection of this small tidbit of information, and as I thought back to the moment when Ferlo's son told me what the creature had said, I remembered all too clearly that its words were directed towards me, not the boy. And if what this man was saying to me was true, then I was the next name on the list. I was the next player in Garuba. The devil was going to visit me that night, and the idea of staying in a desecrated church was no consolation.


© Mikal Minarich