Page 13 of Souls We Rip

Instead of helping or even running away, he pushed me to the ground, darting in the opposite direction. I tried to stand up, but people were stomping on me, not hearing my cries. My back ached from their feet, and seeing that they did not care, I covered my head.

All of a sudden, a loud neigh silenced the hoard of people. Nobody moved, nobody breathed. Mist surrounded the top of the hill, killing in its wake the wildflowers. Drenching everything of life.

Through the sea of people, I noticed my mum, frozen with terror. I pumped my legs to get to her. Her eyes were fixed on something behind me, but I couldn’t turn to verify what it was.

People pushed me to get away. Wincing, I moved forward, my hands stretched. As soon as I reached my mother, my fingers touched her cold skin. My heartbeat increased as panic rose in me.

“What is happening?” Angelica came next to me, her eyes roaming over our mum’s face. She turned her sharp eyes towards me. “What happened to you? You have blood on your shirt.”

I looked down, and there were two drops of blood, but it wasn’t mine.

Gazing over the place I stood before, I saw the man who mocked me drowned in a pool of blood. I averted my eyes, not used to seeing this type of brutality.

Chaos erupted again, people running around in circles, like they forgot where they were and what they could do.

“Let’s go,” I implored, trying to move my mother from the spot she seemed glued to. “Mum, please!” I whined and pulled her hands. But she wouldn’t step away.

Boys and girls started to push us further, but my mum was frozen in place. She was mumbling something, which I could not comprehend. I got closer to her lips, trying to listen.

“It’s him... It’s him... It’s him...”

“Who?” My voice was hoarse from yelling; the urgency in me sent waves through my brain. We had to leave this place.

With the corner of my eye, I saw my father wobbling across the hill. His precious hat was nowhere to be seen, his shirt was free of the belt and unlaced at the neck.

“Move her somehow, please,” I begged Angelica and sprinted to my father.

I was herded by the crowd downhill, but I pushed forward, hitting and stomping to get to him, my lower back pulsing with pain.

Before I could reach him, I stopped, gasping.

The largest horse I have ever seen stood between my father and me. Its dark skin shone in the night sky, its black mane and tail reaching the ground. When the stallion opened its mouth, it wasn’t the stench that pushed me back. It was the fangs, sharp as needles and stained with blood.

I took a step away, mesmerised by its beauty.

But then, the biggest horror dismounted the horse.

I remembered the story.

Ana

Its horns were the first things I noticed. The moonlight made them shine as if they were polished. Both were long as night and sharp as its horse’s teeth. The creature was tall as an old fir, its age endless.

The Goat Man.

Eternity tightened into a single creature; a nightmare to be in its presence. I could feel on my skin the countless souls it took. The story that surrounded him was gruesome. And I realised then that I might be witness to it becoming reality.

It fixed me with its white eyes, remarkable under the long goat skull. They unnerved me, but I could not deny that there was an evident allure about them.

They were like beacons in the darkness.

My heart was pounding, and the hairs on my body stood on end. My eyes widened, perusing its body. Instead of legs and hands, it had hooves.

A simple, black cloak hid the body, its train trailing over the grass as the beast started to move away from the horse. Its smell of wax and old books filled my senses.

It took me a second to realise that the creature was walking towards my father. I tried running towards them, but the horse pulled up its upper lip, revealing its fangs.

“Father!” I shouted, my eyes trying to find a way around the horse. My chin began to tremble as more cries for attention escaped my lips.