To Worship You

Walking on the street, she felt a prickling sensation at the back of her neck. Wrapping her hands around her body, holding her loose gown together, she fastened her pace.

"Carla."

The voice stopped her movement, it sounded old and creepy. Turning back to the owner of the voice, she found herself staring at a group of old women she couldn't count.

'They are just old women.' She knew she was lying to herself.

They weren't just old women, their eyes were too fierce for the sagging skin of their faces, the only thing old about them was their skin and probably their voice.

The one who Carla suspected had called her earlier stepped forward. She wanted retreat, maybe to run but her trembling legs were pinned to the tarred ground.

Her eyeballs moved wildly in search of another normal human like her but she was all alone in the lonely street. She prayed for someone to at least look down from their windows but it felt like time was still.

The hairs on her skin raised in utmost fear as the extremely old women with an unbent back gingerly walked closer to her, her face turning into an ugly scowl.

"You weren't supposed to be here." Her voice still sounded old, it felt like nails scrapping an iron surface.

"You were never meant to be back." She raised her crooked index finger and pressed it on Carla's forehead.

Her eyes followed the finger helplessly without being able to make a move or even shout. Slowly, her environment morphed back into the forest and her legs gave way under her leading her straight to the ground.

The scrapping of nails on iron surface got louder in her ears that she had to hold her trembling hands over her ears but as if annoyed that she was trying to block them out, the scrapping grew louder till Carla was rocking back and forth like a pendulum, her mouths moving without words.

Knowing she couldn't sit still for much longer in the darkening forest filled with the eerie sounds of animals, she held on to a nearby tree and struggled to her feet.

"Rhys?" She called, the only prayer she knew how to pray at the moment but nothing happened.

"Rhys, I am so sorry. Please come … save me." She whispered into the cold air that made her shiver.

3 seconds gone and nothing still. Not knowing what else to do and remembering that she still had Anna back at home, she started to move.

Probably if she made an effort to escape, help would come. She looked around her and got her heart almost jumping out in fright. The forest was dark and scary, so scary she felt her bladder pressing for a release.

"Rhys please." She whispered again, rubbing her exposed hands continuously to keep herself warm.

This time, she was almost about to make huge promises to Rhys' hearing, promises she would fight to keep if it meant ensuring her safety.

"Rhys…" She stopped in her whisper, the terror shooting through her body showing itself in her eyes.

''What was that?' She didn't dare breathe for another minute, her head was shaky as the rest of her body went still but she could not look down.

She had stepped on something soft but solid. It felt like something that had bones in them. No, it felt like flesh … human flesh with bones beneath them.

Carla was sure she was going to faint, no she was going to die.

What was wrong with her life!?

Why did she keep getting thrown into a confusingly terrifying situation without an explanation?

She had no time to think because her stiff leg which had stepped on something she thought was flesh went to sleep and she had to shake it back to life without thinking.

That was when it moved.

"Holy – cow!" Carla cursed beneath her breath.

Slowly, ever so slowly she looked down and a blood rippling scream tore from her throat!

When she felt cold fingers grip her exposed hand, she freaked and her scream took a higher note, she had no time to think about the metallic taste of blood at the back of her throat or the excessive ringing in her head.

When the outline of fingers hovered around her eyes, she went deathly silent and when the cold fingers covered her eyes, she shivered violently and went still, going unconscious.

"Carla!" Someone was shaking her limp body.

It wasn't the shake that revived her, it was the voice.

'Rhys?' She called in her head.

"It's me. Wake up." He responded and her tensed body sagged in partial relief.

Remembering the horrific thing she had seen from earlier, she jerked awake again, her wide eyes unseeing in the near darkness of the forest floor.

"Me – I saw me just now." Her voice trembled.

She couldn't see Rhys face but his sigh was enough to paint an image of his face in her head.

"It wasn't you."

"She looked so much like me." Her voice broke, she was about to cry.

"She isn't you."

"She is dead, I stepped on her burnt body." Carla gripped onto Rhys' tee-shirt.

She didn't know why she guessed the color but she knew it was black. She closed her eyes to inhale his woody scent, something about it gave her some sort of calmness.

When she opened her eyes again, a pair of red eyes was staring back at her.

"You have to for…" As if knowing what he was about to do, she shut her eyes closed.

Not this time, she wasn't about to get her memory wiped off again.

"Answer my questions Rhys. What is going on?"

"I'm trying to protect you." His rigid voice sent her heart racing.

"What do you want in return for giving me the answers?" She felt an unnatural uneasiness in the Darkwood Forest but she still clung to Rhys' cloth.

"To own you." Rhys' voice was so diabolical that for a second she was tempted to open her eyes.

"To fuck you." He bent towards her, the minty smell from his mouth invading her nostrils, she tensed.

"To worship you." His hot tongue licked the corner of her lips and a low shaky cry escaped.

"Don't get me to open my eyes, I won't."

Rhys laughed, a mirthless laughter like he knew some huge secret that she didn't. Of course he did.

"It'll probably end the same way like it did back then." Was all he said and she felt the environment morphing into something warm, where the air felt less stuffy.

On opening her eyes, she frowned at the opened door.