Chapter 3: The Black Lady

It was dark. Silent. He felt paralyzed. He felt Ambrielle in his hands. She was quiet and stiff too.

A soft cackling came to his ears. “Join me,” it said in a sweet deadly voice. He felt like a million ants were crawling over his skin.

The darkness lasted for another few heartbeats, and then the world crashed unto them again.

Ambrielle pushed away from him and stretched out in a soundless contortion of pain. He grabbed her and she collapsed into his arms. Something gave a growling squeal, the likes of which he had never heard before. Jay looked up to see a nightmare.

There was a horrid looking creature ripping at its head and face. It kept saying, “No. No. NO!” in a deep guttural voice. Its skin was black and leathery looking. White tattoos covered its exposed arms and neck. It had course, thick black hair that reached down its back. Its face was oval, with large cheeks, large pointed teeth, crazed yellow eyes and a squat, thick nose.

“S**t,” Jay said and fell back. Ambrielle falling with him like a dead weight.

“Oh, God,” someone else said. Jay looked quickly, trying to get a sense of what was going on.

Flashlights, blankets and the ouiji board were scattered all over the dell. The eerie blue mist all around the hill illuminated the oaks in dramatic shadows. No light touched the wall or anything within feet of it.

A tall man was standing across from them, staring with disgust at the orcish creature in front of Jay. He was dressed in a green traveling coat that flared at the hips and reached almost to the bottom of his boots, a pointed hat covered his hair and a large gold hoop earing hung heavily from his left ear. His face looked like George, aged about twenty years, and much leaner.

The monster turned to Jay with a look of fear and disgust. “Jay, help me,” it said in its deep guttural voice.

Someone screamed from behind him. The thing turned towards the scream, a feral look of joy flashed momentarily over its features, then it collapse to its knees and began weeping.

The scream came again. “HELP!” It was absolutely panicky. Jay looked in the direction of the scream. “HELP!” the tinkling female voice called again. Jay was high enough to see down the slope of the hill. The lights were still swirling around the base of the hill, illuminating everything in an otherworldly blue haze.

A woman of surprising beauty was running full tilt through the mist. She was tall, skinny and striking. She was holding one of her arms that flailed a little oddly as she ran. “HELP!” Something behind her roared. Jay looked behind her.

If there was a way to explain how scared one could be and not die, that would be close to the feeling Jay had. Behind her, came a lumbering brute of a creature. It was palid looking, massive and stood at least a foot or two higher than the female running through the fields. Shreds of clothing were hanging off its hide.

The woman screamed and fell. The nightmare was almost on top of her when there was a loud crack of thunder that made his ears ring. Jay ducked, trying to shield Ambrielle. There was a painful, unearthly roar.

“JAY! HELP HER,” someone was yelling at him. “I have her,” someone said as Ambrielle slipped out of his arms.

There was another crack of thunder right next to his ears that made him feel dizzy. “JAY!” This time the voice spurred him to action. Without really thinking, he scrambled to his feet and began running down the hill.

He drew his sword and untangled his shield. The beastly creature was staggering and the female had stumbled to her feet. She was trying to weave up the hill. The ugly brute behind her saw the movement and bellowed in satisfaction. Holding one of its shoulders, it reached for the tall woman.

This time, the thunder was a little less and he saw a bright flash of light. The ogre-like monster gave another animalistic roar of pain and rage as lighting and sparks bounced of it. The woman stumbled towards the peak. He passed her at a full run. Something was burning in his veins, compelling him forward. Blood thrummed in his temple and he felt eager to cut the thing. He let out a battle cry of his own as he swung the sword around. The beast saw to late what was happening. Jay ducked below its arms and brought the sword to bear on its knee. Thick, black blood squirted out. He ran past and turned to meet the coming blow.

The beast fell to one knee and howled as the injured knee hit the ground. Jay was able to get a good look as it struggled to stand. The thing was a sickly blue-peach color with thick folds of fat at its waste and arms and legs as thick as trees. Its face was bloated and filled with teeth and small, squalid looking eyes. It had a stink as of decaying flesh and plant matter. It was nauseating. He could see its tendons and muscles bulge as it tried to stand again and failed.

Out of some innate sense, he knew he had to fell the ogre quickly. Again, he rushed it, giving a feral yowl. The ogre turned towards the sound and swung its massive arm. Jay raised his shield, he knew he had done the wrong thing as the arm crashed into the shield and he was airborne.

He landed and felt the air leave his lungs. There was another crack of thunder, a cry of pain and the ground shook as it fell. Jay scrambled to his feet, grasping his chest, trying desperately to take in a breath. He was on his knees when he could breathe again.

The beast was almost fifteen feet away and trying to get to its feet. Jay pushed himself up and rushed. His sword sliced though the ogre’s left bicep and it crumpled to the ground, more thick black blood coming out. He turned on the spot and sliced through its side. There was blood, but he had only gotten its thick reserves of fat.

The thing gave out a scream and turned over, its useless left arm flailing out towards him. He caught it with his shield, but still stumbled back a little under the force of the impact.

Jay didn’t back down. Somehow he knew to step in and jab the thing in the throat. Blood began to squirt out all over the place as he yanked his sword out. His shield took the brunt of the stream as he backed away.

The ogre grabbed its neck and Jay watched it try to speak. He looked into the eyes and noticed they had the same blue that Ben’s had. They looked at him with fear, loathing and betrayal.

Jay looked away and then he dropped to his knees and threw up.

The beast gurgled and spit and didn’t stop moving. Jay didn’t look towards it. He couldn’t. Those eyes had looked too much like Ben’s.

“Jay!” Someone yelled at him. The monster gave a gurgling burp. “JAY!” The voice was louder. The ogre moved, gurgled again and then there was nothing.

He could hear someone running through the high grass. “JAY!” It was George. In a moment he was at his side. The sharp smell of ozone and singed hair came with him. “Jay!”

George leaned down and put his hands on Jay. Jay tried to shrug him off. “Ben,” was all he could say as he had his eyes closed and heaved again. George moved. “Oh, s**t,” George said. “Come on, get up. You have to come back.”

It was then that it hit him that he had left Ambrielle. “Ambrielle,” he croaked through his burning throat.

“Fine. Fine. You can’t stay here, it’s getting dark again.”

Jay stood up, realized he didn’t have his sword, picked it up and then wiped the thick black blood off in the grass. “Come on, Jay,” George said in a scared voice. There was a torn piece of fabric next to him and he picked it up, making sure the sword was clean before following George. Something would not let him leave it in an unusable state.

When they got back to the top of the hill, there was a fire going where the ouiji board had been set up. In a dark corner, something was curled up, crying and whimpering in an inhuman manner.

There were two figures lying next to the fire. One was tall, almost sickly thin, but looked in the picture of health with good muscle tone. She was passed out and Jay could see points of something sticking up through the straw colored, silken hair. Her face was drawn in pain as Mady did something to her right arm that was covered in wet and dry red blood.

Mady looked different, too. She still had the same golden hair, hazel eyes and dimples, but she looked in her early twenties now. Her blue robes looked to be heavier and she moved with a confidence around the wounded woman that spoke of a medical professional. He had never known her to even stomach blood before.

Next to them, Ambrielle lay, silent and sleeping. He rushed to her side. “Ambrielle, Ambrielle,” he said.

“She is sleeping, as far as I can tell,” Mady said in a tense voice. “I need some strong branches.

“Sure,” George said.

“Come on Jane,” she said in an angry voice. “God damn, oh,” Madeline’s voice took on a surprised tone. The change made Jay look up. Blue light was coming from Mady’s hands. The open wound on the tall woman’s arm began to close.

George knelt down besides her. “Mady, what…” Mady’s rapid shaking of her head stopped him. Jay was more shocked by the same blue light in her eyes and a circle on her forehead he had missed before. The beast in the shadows whimpered as though in pain. He couldn’t say for how long she leaned over the woman, but eventually the wound was closed and Mady slumped forward. George grabbed her before she fell on the lady.

“Ahhh,” Ambrielle said, stirring.

“Ambrielle, Ambrielle, are you ok,” Jay said in a concerned, scared voice, totally forgetting everything else.

Her eyes fluttered open and blinked a few times. His heart stopped. Something was different and he couldn’t figure out what. “Ambrielle,” he said in a concerned voice. She turned towards him and it took a moment for her eyes to focus. She smiled and he let out the breathe he had been holding.

She reached up and touched his cheek. “Hey, you,” she said in a tired voice.

He was so flooded with emotion, tears ran down his face. He didn’t really know why.

She groaned. “Help me up.”

He complied and put his hand on her back. The wings were still on her. He felt them move and thought they had just shifted. When she sat up though, he knew why she seemed different.

Her wings hadn’t shifted, they had moved.

Ambrielle looked at him and her face took on a concerned quality as her eye brows crinkled. “What?”

He shook his head. Everything was going too fast. He couldn’t say a word.

“Oh, Ambrielle,” Mady said from next to them. Her voice felt as awed and scared as he felt.

Ambrielle turned to her. “What? Am I hurt?” She started to feel herself and her wings spread a little further. Her eyes went wide, feathers brushed her arms and she stopped. She looked at Jay as her left hand reached over her shoulders. They touched the pure white feathers of her wings. Panic spread across her face.

She shot up and began tearing at them. “GETEMOFF! GETEMOFF!” She said in a panic. It was all Jay could do to restrain her. George and Mady did all they could to calm her.

Eventually she calmed down and sat, curled up upon herself.

“Where’s Matt and Ben,” Mady asked as Jay tried to comfort Ambrielle. She sounded scared and tired.

George’s voice was thick as he said, “I think… I think that thing… Ben.” He couldn’t say anything more. Mady looked terrified. “MATT! MATT!” she began to yell in a panicky voice.

From the shadows, a guttural voice said, “Here.”

Ambrielle jumped and looked frantically around for the source. Mady screamed. George stepped in front of her.

“Where?” Mady said in a frightened voice. George and Jay exchanged a look. They understood who was in the shadows.

“Don’t look at me,” the guttural voice said. “You should go, before I … I don’t want to be like that thing,” the shadows said, a clawed hand came into the light and pointed towards the base of the hill. Jay’s stomach churned again, but he kept down the bile.

Jay got up. He did not want to hurt anyone else, but he would protect Ambrielle no matter what.

“Matt,” George said in a tenuous voice. He seemed to be accepting the changes more readily than anyone else.

The shadow grunted in accent.

“Matt,” George said, raising his hand. “Please come where we can see you.” Jay reached over his shoulder for his sword.

“I am not a monster,” the shadow said.

“We know, but forgive us if we are scared.”

The shadow moved. It was very dark outside the ring of light from the fire. “I’m not a monster.”

“Matt, please,” Mady said.

The shadow still didn’t move. Mady stood up and took a tentative step towards the shadows. “Mady,” George hissed.

“It’s ok, he won’t hurt us,” Ambrielle said in a confident voice. Jay turned to look at her. She was standing now too. Tears were still streaming down her face and she was a little shaky, but her eyes and mouth were determined.

“Are you sure,” Jay asked her.

She nodded. She was radiant, even in her disheveled state. Leaves hung from her hair and wings from when he had to wrestle her. He trusted her. “Ok,” he said, but he didn’t take his hand off his sword. “Matt, it’s ok,” she told the shadow. Jay had a good idea what was going to step out.

“Don’t scream,” the shadow said. No one said anything else.

There was rustling and Matt stepped into the light. The same nightmarish creature he had seen before was standing in the light. Orc was all Jay could think of. Mady took in a sharp breath and George stood there stoned face and staring at it, ready for trouble. Ambrielle squeezed against him.

No one said a thing. They all just stared at each other.

“Wh-what happened,” Ambrielle spoke first. It seemed to break the tension.

Matt just shook his head. Mady collapsed to her knees. George wasn’t taking his eyes off Matt. “I don’t know,” Mady said.

“I do,” a sweet and deadly voice came from the shadows on the side of the clearing where the house stood. Jay’s skin crawled again. Everyone turned. Jay drew his sword. George whispered something and crackling, electric arcs danced between his fingers.

Sitting on top of the wall was a lady illuminated in a sickly white light. She was dark, black, with broad lips, beady eyes, frizzy black hair. She had a smile on her face that didn’t extend to her eyes.

There was an aura around her that made the trees by the edge of the wall start to wilt and the grass at the base of the wall was already black, dead and decaying. It gave a sweet, pungent smell.

“Oh my God,” George said when he had a good look at her. This time, her eyes did show joy.

“You remember, how touching.” The voice went through them all. It was all Jay could do not to rush her. Something told him that would be certain death. “I never forgot you sweet one.”

“George?” Mady asked in a tremulous voice. She sounded as scared as they all felt.

“Your not real,” he said in a voice that sounded more like a young child’s.

The black lady laughed. “Oh, maybe not in your world, but here,” she raised her hands and looked around at the night. “Here, sweet thing, I am quiet real.”

George let his hands fall and dropped to his knees, his hands in his face. “No. No. No.”

The cackle was more mirthful, more dangerous. “Oh, yes, sweet one. And who are your lovely friends.”

She looked around at each of them. None of them felt like they could move. The dead patch was spreading from her. It was now a good five feet or so from the wall. Matt was the closest to it, about fifteen feet away.

She turned to Mady first. Something in the back of his mind calculated that she went for the one furthest away. It made the hairs on his neck raise in alarm, but he didn’t know why.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. My, my dear. I think I will call you Desire. I can see what you want to do to my pet there.” Mady squeaked, but was still stuck to the same spot. “Really, my Desire. You could do better than that.” The black lady was shaking her head.

Next, she turned to the passed out figure next to Mady. The woman stirred. “Jane, is it. Elf. Interesting choice.” She looked at Jane with an intense stare. The death aura was still spreading and it was now a good eight feet or so from the base of the wall. The area directly touching the wall was beginning to bubble. Jay needed to move, but he couldn’t. The Lady sensed his struggle and turned to him with a sharp rebuke.

You don’t miss much, do you?

She stared at him. Jay felt like a cattle at auction being sized up for the best meat.

My, a Northman. A danger I was not expecting.

Let me go and I will show danger, he growled at her.

She stared at him and he felt like he was a fly to a spider. Such passion. The others look at me with fear. Only at me. You though, you see… things.

I see the death you spread, let us go or else, he said.

Her gaze turned more intense and her face grew dark. Kneel, slave. The last was a command that rocked him to his soul. He resisted and kept standing. KNEEL. It was compunction that he must obey. He refused and pain began to rack his body.

I will break you, she said to him.

“STOP!” a voice broke through the din.

The black Lady fell backwards as though she had been hit by an explosion.

“RUN!” It was Ambrielle.

“MATT!” Jay yelled. The black aura was almost at his feet. He turned to Jay with a look of supplication. “MATT!” Jay saw it happen in slow motion. Matt was looking at him, and then the dead grass reached his foot. He began to smoke at the point of contact and a howl unlike anything he had yet heard rent through the night. It was the dying scream of a soul. He couldn’t move.

“JAY! WE HAVE TO GO!” Ambrielle was yelling at him, trying to pull him away. The panic in her voice pulled him away from the plight of his best friend. The howl was going as though all the air he had ever breathed was coming out at once.

“George,” Mady said, trying to get him up. Jay grabbed him and pulled him to his feet. His face was contorted in some unseen nightmare. “Take him,” he said to Mady. “Go.” He said as she trembled and took his weight.

“Jane,” Ambrielle said.

Jay reached down and picked up the elf, which was supposedly Jane. She seemed very light for her size, but hard as a rock. “Go,” he motioned to Ambrielle.

“NO! YOU CAN”T LEAVE!” It was a terrifying voice, full of rage, pain and venom. It had the resonance of a high pitch flute and the grating feel of sand paper on glass.

“RUN!” He yelled at them all.

“Where,” Mady said in a panic.

He looked frantically around. He had no idea where the flashlights were or how they would see, but he spotted the drive they had followed in. “The road, go!”

They all lopped off toward the road. A wind similar to the one that had brought them there began to wipe up. Matt was still screaming a pain of utter despair. The air was taking on the smell of burnt flesh.

The squeaky voice of chalk on a board was screaming. “YOU ARE MINE! YOU CAN NOT ESCAPE!”

They were at the bottom of the hill when the blood curdling yell from Matt suddenly stopped. The clearing around the hill was beginning to flood again with the wispy, eerie blue fog.

“The woods, Go!” Ambrielle ran besides him. He kept Mady and George in front of them. The wind was starting to whip at their clothes, tugging towards the hill. There was a guttural cry of something. It sounded hungry and crazed.

They all stumbled towards the woods. “Go,” Ambrielle said this time.

“NO! YOU’RE MINE,” the voice echoed from the hill. It shot like ice through Jay’s veins. He stumbled a little and Ambrielle tried to steady him. Jane’s head lolled around as he ran. The light was almost a solid wall at the tree line.

“MINE!” The crazed voice yelled behind them.

“Fela din Carna,” George yelled and a hole was blasted through the light.

The scream that followed them through the hole had a force as strong as a hurricane and it ripped through the trees. Some swayed. Branches fell around them. There was a large crack and then the sound of many breaking branches and the loud and heavy thud of something big falling close to them in the woods. They were all blown down to the hard packed road.

Author's Note

This is meant to be a little confusing with the pace I am trying to set, but I want there to be a real, raw fear in the air.

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