Chapter 4

Well... would you look at that picture of a loving family and see anything out of ordinary? I have not seen it until it spoke to me, with its harsh voice. The mysteries that it has foretold made me sweat... and yet it was me they called crazy. What will they say when the truth finally comes out?

"How many more times will we have to go through this ?!"

"You're crazy... I would never let you do that, I will not let you hurt him!"

"Calm down, Teresa. Better go back to preparing the table for dinner. This conversation is not about you. "

"You think this isn't about me?! You are the one who has destroyed our family. Maybe you should go back to that brothel? To this bitch?"

"Et in infernis arderet..."

"You would love it to happen... fucking psychopath!"

Count to seven, stop it! Count to three, take a breath! Don't count ... you can't count on anyone in this corrupt world. Turn around, remember the landscape. Return to the beginning. Try again. Count to seven...

Good morning sir! We were waiting for your arrival. Booking to room no. 7, on the name Sulobaid.

"Perfectly!"

'Ahh!', Teresa woke up all flooded with cold sweat. The rays of the morning sun fell through the recess in the wall, blinding the awakened woman. All the down comforter, along with the pillow and hay pad, was wet with sweat. Light dust hung in the bedroom, lit by daylight, reminiscent of a herd of miniature skylights, happily circling the room.

Teresa got up from an unpleasant bed. She changed into new clothes. Woman girded her head with a cotton band and began to bring the room to a state of complete cleanliness. She replaced bedding and duvets along with pillows. She tossed the old into a bucket outside the court, flooded it with water and covered it with dried lavender powder. It was early noon when Teresa managed to do most of the housework.

The woman came out the back of the barn, straight into the shed. She collected a full heap of chicken eggs in the basket. Her next stop was the garden, fenced with simply recycled beams, rewound with iron wire, protecting vegetables from wild animals, watching over the fence. Teresa tore out two beautiful carrots, all she needed to cook a decoction for the garden soup was fresh peas, and she had to go a few steps further to the small greenhouse. Made of equally miserable material as a greengrocer fence, coated with old linen material. Teresa unveiled the cotter pin. Beautifully manicured rows appeared before her eyes. In turn from the right were: tomatoes, peas, young shoots of pumpkin and patella.

Peasant woman was about to gather the peas for the soup when she heard the loud sound of the gate opening.

'Who's there? Please wait, I'll be right there!', She turned her back to the incubator, carefully watching the empty yard. Not a soul. 'Is this a joke?', Teresa thought not taking her eyes off the gate, which seemed to be closed. The nervous woman returned to work. 'Ahh... those ugly brats from the neighbourhood! They're up to something again.'

She looked into the incubator again. All the vegetables turned out to be rotting right before her eyes. The plague moved to the rest of the garden and then covered the entire plot. The grass began to turn grey as if someone had extinguished it after a raging fire. The tall oak that had previously cast a shadow on the house now stood naked. Leafless, devoid of virtue. His trunk began to bleed, gout spilled also from the walls of the house. Teresa was stunned, she watched her life fall apart for an unknown reason.

"Good morning, Mori Sulobaid greets you!"

The woman's nose began to bleed. Before she turned to see who was addressing to her, she felt a terrible prick in her right eye. Teresa lost consciousness, falling on the grey grass.

'Teresa, sweetie. I'm looking for your son... Grisha. Could you show me where I could find him? Or else something horrible will happen.', the image turned black, an intoxicating scent of blood radiated from the fingertips. His eyes pierced Teresa's soul. The woman felt indescribable nudity from which she could not hide.

'Well ... I sent them to collect some blueberries. Why did I forget about it?', a desperate attempt to fight against destiny forced Teresa into new life forces. It burned curses on her body. Despite the strong will to survive, the woman lacked a spotless soul, without sin.

'Who did I send ...? What for? Where am I?'

'I only require eccentricity. You don't have it... Teresa... I am extremely sorry for what will happen to you.', the piercing voice vanquished, leaving Teresa at her death's door.

'Who is this? I don't understand ... can anyone help me?!', poor mother was crawling in the ash, the dirt got into her mouths. She started choking and after few moments... she lay dead.

It was late at the hour when Teresa fainted and was brought to Jaspar Gill's hut. The woman barely contacted the outside world. She had severe nosebleeds, all her clothes were stained with blood, her body temperature indicated severe frostbite, but her joints and muscles were not affected. The dilated pupils could indicate the use of intoxicants. From a medical point of view... she was dead.

'Jaspar... have you ever seen anything like this', said Matilda, Jaspar's younger sister, who assisted him with Teresa. Matilda made a special extract that was intended to stop bleeding.

'I never had such a mysterious before. Poor Teresa... she is such a good soul. Matilda, we must do everything we can to save this woman', said worried herbalist, clearing a desk to prepare a needed component.

'She had to go through so much. The case with Zack, betrayal and later this bastard Grisha... experienced such atrocities', Matilda was sympathetic towards Teresa, as a woman that has lost uncle that had played a huge role in her life. 'Maybe if Holt didn't try ...', Matilda didn't finish her words, her sentence was interrupted by the sudden convulsions of a woman lying on a bunk.

Teresa started coughing blood, got up from the bed and looked around the Jaspar's office. Filled with antique furniture, herbs hanging from the ceiling, two bookcases containing an astonishing collection of medical literature. Indeed, the whole room was made out of the famous Hilldawn's oak. Jaspar and Matilda had been living here for over ten years. The herbalist is the man that is not afraid of hard work, which makes him extremely strong physically and mentally.

The siblings moved into the house when their uncle Oswald lived in it. Uncle loved Jaspar and Matilda as his own children. He gave them everything he had. Unfortunately, the time came when he could not give anything but a house as an inheritance. Uncle Oswald fell ill with tuberculosis, which killed him. Jaspar was twenty at the time, he could do nothing to help his uncle. He could only watch the man who took him in and brought him up after his parents' death, dies himself. After Oswald's death, young Jaspar swore he would become a herbalist and later a medic, not to watch his family suffer again. Matilda set up a garden in which she bred all kinds of alchemical ingredients so that she could honour her uncle's memory and help her brother.

'Look Jaspar! She woke up.', the assistant approached the sick Teresa with residue. She gave her a glass bowl, asking her to drink the potions.

"She is in a terrible state..."

'Teresa... could you tell me what actually happened? Why did your neighbour find you in this condition?', Jaspar sat in the chair opposite Teresa. Matilda squatted down to hold the bowl if needed. Teresa looked at the herbalist with bloodshot eyes. The woman's eyes froze, she could not blink, and blood was falling from the cut eyebrow, which Teresa smeared all over her face without realizing what she was doing.

'Ohhh! Hello Jaspar, Matilda. What is the reason for this invasion?', She looked straight at the bowl Matilda was holding. Her expression changed from cheerful to gloomy. She seemed depressed.

'Eh... Teresa, we found you when you lay unconscious in front of the chapel. Also, some unknown disease had to attack your harvest because...', Teresa suddenly interrupted Jaspar. More blood flowed from her nose.

'It's beautiful ... you'll see him soon. I bet he can't wait for your meeting.', the patient slowly dropped her head down, covering her face with falling black hair.

'Teresa, did somebody attack you? You must tell us. We will file a case with the village head, he will help you.', said Matilda grabbing Teresa's hand and trying to soothe her nerves, all she wanted was to give hope to a woman. She didn't expect what awaited her in the next moment. Teresa looked at Matilda. Her gaze made the woman release Teresa's hand quickly and pull back at safe distance.

'I will bring all hell down on you... I will murder you bitch!', Teresa got up slowly from the seat, Jaspar seeing the patient's murderous look, quickly intervened.

'Teresa, please sit down. You're shocked. I will give you water, it will help you a bit.' Jasper grabbed Teresa's hand and signalled for the woman to sit in the chair.

'You smell of vodka as much as he was...', Teresa looked at Jaspar, his sight caused the woman to fall into amok and start to cry. The terrified man tried to embrace the poor mother.

'I've always known that you can't stop killing my husband. This whole place needs to be burned too!', these words forced Jesper to step back. The storm of different thoughts struck him.

The words caused agonic fear in the hearts of the herbalist and his assistant. They were both petrified. Like statues made of salt, waiting for the downpour. Their souls foretold their death before the arrival of their corruption. Teresa smashed the glass bowl she had received from Matilda. She started toward the terrified woman, propped against the wall. She threw herself at the assistant with a glass shard, piercing the thickest artery in her neck. Matilda only managed to kick and whine in the agony of impending death. She fell to the floor in an unnatural pose, covered with blood and tears. Her eyes became empty. Matilda's death became an expression of the beginning of the fall of virtue.

'My god...', Jaspar could not recalculate what exactly happened in front of him. He looked at Matilda's body, drawing more air into his lungs with every second. Finally, it came to him that Matilda's death was irreversible, and her torturer charged in his direction with a piece of glass that had previously squeezed the essence of life from Matilda.

Jaspar's quick thinking saved him from inevitable death. When Teresa swung to deal a lethal blow, Jaspar grabbed her arm and broke her forearm bone. Teresa fell to the floor, writhing like a snake in pain.

The terrified man quickly ran to the nearby library with student books and turned it over onto Teresa's head, crushing her with a loud blow. The whole room was flooded with blood and remnants of a struggle for survival, the winner of which was Jaspar.

'Sweet Jesus... what have I done.', Jaspar's body was shaking terribly after the man understood what he had done.

Jaspar Gil ran outside the house to vomit. The whole village of Hilldawn appeared before his eyes, standing on fire. People's screams mixed with a loud sizzling fire. Hell was not the only problem Jaspar had to deal with. Most of the villagers fell into unbridled anger, murdering each other. It was hard to describe... as if Satan himself came to pay a visit at Hilldawn.

"I must get to Terence's manor as soon as possible!"

Chapter 4 of "Pirates Forest"