The Cull

The darkness was never meant to be bartered with... One of the original "Writing Challenges" that introduced Leigh and myself to our writing styles. (I do not own the artwork)

The Cull

By Jeffrey Margavage

The silvery haze of the full moon cast an eerie sheen across the room as Elizabeth was awakened from her sleep. It was inevitable... she could feel it’s call even as she tried so desperately to cling to sleep, praying for the morning light to come. Her prayers were not to be answered this night… The chill night air danced among the silken curtains inside the open double doors to the parapet. Her nightgown offering little protection from the cold chill in the air, she could not even be certain that the chill did not come from within.

Slowly, inexorably she made her way across the room unerringly to the curtains flailing in the breeze. Once stepping beyond into the full night air she saw it. The wraith hovered and weaved before her as it so often did in her most dire nightmares. It’s voice a sinister hissing sound, “Elizabeth…” it called, “Know thee what brings me hence?” The specter's question well known to her. She feigned ignorance trying only to buy time for the sun to break, “No, specter, I know not the reason thou dost torment me so. Be it while I wake or more harshly as I slumber, thou hast shattered my very will, and yet I know not even the nature of thy visitations.”

“Come now, child,” the wraith hissed again in mocking tones, “To think me such a fool? Thou dost only arouse my ire at thy feeble attempts to dissuade me. Thou knowest full well thou art to be culled...the penultimate price for your dabblings into the forbidden lore.” It was true, and Elizabeth knew the price of her curiosity. The tome was given to her with the warning, “Tarry into the unknown and surely there will be a price” “Know this, Elizabeth, I know no measure of sympathy for thee… no bargain can further be struck. The Cull comes now, and with it, thy soul be forfeit,” the wraith circled her as it spoke.

Her eyes never losing sight of the full moon before her. Her blood had already begun to chill. “Torment me no more, specter, I accept thy judgment, take my soul if thou wilt,“ Elizabeth now fully resigned to her fate, stepped closer to the ledge, “May the Lord find reason in his infinite mercy to relieve me from my burden.” The wraith laughed a hissing wheezing sound wholly unpleasant to any whose ears it fell upon.

“Your own actions have aligned your savior to forsake thee, Elizabeth. Let the cull commence.” The specter reared up before her, it’s terrifying visage all the more terrifying for its purpose. “Thy first affront, thou didst conjure riches to adorn yourself in fineries, forsaking your fellow man. With no regard for the needy the destitute, nor the downtrodden. For this affront, I take thy beauty.” Elizabeth would have cried out had the specter not already shriveled her flesh so as to liken her countenance to dried leaves awash in the full moon’s glow. “Thy second affront, thou didst bespell a man for hopes of affection. In stealing from this man his free will, thou hast committed a most heinous sin. For this sin, I take from thee thy wicked heart.” Elizabeth felt herself die inside as the specter stole the life from her, now she truly was but a hollowed husk of the woman she once was. “For thy third and final affront, thou didst bring pain and suffering unto your rivals by way of curses and summoned tribulations to break the spirits of those who opposed thee. For this the cost is thy very soul,” and with that Elizabeth was truly dead, her corporeal form all that remained.

Frozen in time that husk remained upon the parapet for many years until the forces of nature tore her apart piece by withered piece. The specter returned still for many nights to further torment her with a false promise of redemption… even death would not bring peace to victims of the cull…