Page 86 of Ever After

Levi says, “So I have to ask again—who or what do you think led us here? The man in the picture? Boynton?”

I nod. “Think about it. He must be powerful. He invaded my dreams, possessed you. That’s a very strong spirit. And that’s not all.”

Is that movement over there? I peer closer and relax a fraction when a fox comes out from under a bush. It stays still for a moment, its nose twitching as it looks around. In this light its red coat is bleached grey. It takes a cautious step and then slinks across the road, sliding into another bush and disappearing as if it was never here.

I turn back to Levi. “It’s not midnight. You know that. At the most, it’s six in the evening.” He nods. “I think we were lost deliberately and steered here. And suddenly, it’s midnight.”

“When the spirits are strongest and the gap between the world is thin?”

If the situation was less serious, I’d smile. His voice is so earnest—like a child reciting his tables in school. I nod. “Exactly.”

The shadows shift and at first I think it’s just the trees moving in the breeze. But then I see it.

A figure is stepping from the shadows. I grip Levi’s hand so tightly it’s got to hurt. “Fuck,” I whisper.

He follows my gaze. “What?”

“You don’t see it?”

“See what? It’s just the tree shadows and—” He stops and I smile grimly as the figure steps into the moonlight. “Fuck,” he breathes.

“Not just the trees.”

It’s a man, or something that either used to be a man, or is currently pretending to be one. He’s listing slightly to one side, and when he moves his gait is so awkward—shuffling and somehow terrible.

“What is it?” Levi whispers so softly that I almost don’t hear him.

The man stops his shuffling walk and stands very still. Levi and I look at each other and then back. The moon chooses that moment to come out from behind the clouds, bathing the man in light, and we both inhale startled gulps of air.

“Shit,” Levi mutters, and I nod in agreement.

The man is dressed in tattered rags and he’s barefoot, but that’s not what’s most shocking. That honour belongs solely to the wooden spike buried in his chest.

I whisper into Levi’s ear, “They used to put spikes in executed murderers to tether their spirit to the place.”

His only response is to stare in horror as the figure takes a stumbling step away from us. Its skin seems to be sliding over its bones in decomposition, showing rents and tears in the skin, but that’s not the worst bit. It has no eyes. The sockets are full of a fathomless darkness, and moisture seeps from them leaving dark tracks on its cheeks that glisten in the moonlight.

It stops moving, standing very still. I gesture at the open windows, and Levi shakes his head. We can’t wind them up manually. Shit.

Behind the fence, the wood lies still and dark. Levi grabs my hand. “What?” I whisper, but he doesn’t reply. Instead, he just points.

I follow the direction of his finger and my heartbeat stutters. Three more figures have stepped from the shadows. They’re as horrific as the first one but maybe a bit more decomposed. One has a head that hangs horribly from its neck as if it had been broken. Another appears to be wrapped in a dirty shroud, long hair pooling around her face, while the last one is grotesquely contorted as if all its limbs were broken during its lifetime.

They shamble over to the first figure. One of them seems to take a breath and then they open their mouths. Strange sounds fall from them—chattering and clicks and wheezes. It’s eerie enough to raise the hair on the back of my neck.

Levi looks frantically at me, breathing hard. “What do we do?” he hisses.

“Well, I’m voting we don’t stick around long enough for them to notice us.”

“What about staying in the car and just locking the doors?”

I look over at the current creature conflab going on. “The windows are still down.” I shake my head. “And they just materialised over there. Who knows where they go next?” I watch one of them swaying. “They’re not normal spirits.”

“Erm, is there any such thing?”

“I don’t know, but the concept feels wrong here somehow.”

My belly is churning. Whatever these things are—be it manifestation or something else—I don’t want them near me or Levi. There’s a palpable air of menace coming from them—a desire to hurt, to bite, to tear off flesh.