Testimony of Children (Alice Gray Book 2)

55

Dominic, Alpha of the British pack, had been murdered and left in a corner of this room as though his life was as inconsequential as the rags that covered him. His face held an expression so full of terror and anguish that it captured me in the horrific instant of his last moment, and wouldn't let me leave it.

But that wasn't the worst thing. Not by a long shot.

Somebody had dissected Dominic and put him back together in the wrong order. Parts of him were wolf, and other parts human, in a gruesome reorganisation of limbs and joints.

Some crazy monster had been playing Frankenstein, fashioning the world's most grotesque poppet out of real life components. Whoever did this had to be insane, and very, very sadistic.

Hearing a noise from just outside the room, I threw the canvas back over Dominic's body.
I really didn't want anyone else to see him like that. Not only was it a sickening sight, it was disrespectful to the Alpha somehow. He'd been made into a plaything by some psycho, and that was no fitting end for a leader of his status.

The light snapped on, and a squeal of girlish delight brought my attention back to the doorway.

"You've found my dolly!"

Mary jumped up and down with excitement and clapped her hands, her face full of childish glee.

The contrast between her actions and her seventy-year-old body was bizarre. Mesmerised by her energy, my mind stalled as I tried to figure out what she meant.

She must have had a relapse.

Mary's life-force was bright and strong indicating that her magic was healthy. Maybe her mind couldn't cope with the return of the power, and she'd reverted back to the state of childhood from before her memories were wiped?

She must have wandered in the same way that Stephen and Evelyn had left open for me to follow them out.

That meant we had to be in the cemetery.

There was no way that Mary could have travelled far from where I had seen her last. Not in the state she was in now. I reached over to take her arm, ready to guide her out of this hellish prison. She flinched and swerved away before I could touch her.

"Mary, it's me, Alice. Come on, we've got to get out of here."

"No!"

Mary balled her fists by her sides and stamped her foot. Her face scrunched up in childlike defiance.

"You found my dolly. Now you have to play with him."

Mary stomped over to the corner with the bloody heap of body parts that used to be Dominic.

"Mary, stop," I screeched, trying to snag her arm on the way past. She shrugged me off again.

Mary lifted the canvas, still dripping with gore. Her body went still. I approached and put my arm around her shoulders, intending to lead her away from the horrific sight. I'd really wanted to spare her from those nightmares.

"There you are," Mary said, delight still evident in her voice, "isn't he beautiful?"

Mary tilted her face to me as she asked the question. I couldn't suppress the shudder that ran through me. Darkness shone out of her impossibly wide blue eyes.

I backed away, terror filling me at the realisation that Mary was involved in all this. Bile rose in my throat again, the bitter taste making me gag and then cough.

How was it possible?

I couldn't understand how the woman that had cared for Stephen for years could be capable of such cruelty. He would have known. He had to. You can't hide something like that from those you live with.

It must have been the return of her power that triggered this. If I hadn't actually seen that flash of evil in her expression, I'd think that she actually believed that the bloody mess was her toy.

Mary crouched over Dominic's distorted body, singing a nursery rhyme to herself. Her life force glowed bright with power. The pattern of green magic knit and grew, creeping over Dominic's corpse.

I jumped back as a sticky, sick sensation prickled over my skin. Did it just twitch? God no, this could not be happening. How was Mary powerful enough to reanimate a corpse?
I really hoped that no consciousness remained in Dominic's human head.

Looking on in silence, fear and dismay combined to freeze me to the spot. I knew I really needed to get away from Mary, but my brain had ceased to function, trying to make sense of what my eyes saw unfolding before me.

The thing that used to be Dominic rose onto its wolf hind quarters, but the human arms were cut off at the elbows, making them the wrong length to support the body.

It stumbled forward, falling face first into the stone altar. When it rolled over, responding to Mary's continued rhyming, its head was caved in over one eye. Old, thick blood dribbled down what remained of Dominic's face in a sluggish tendril of gore.

I nearly lost it altogether when I realised that the creature's torso was neither that of a man or a wolf. Its size suggesting the pale waxy flesh was that of a child.

Unable to stop it this time, a violent fit of retching overtook me. Barely able to get a breath into my lungs I nearly passed out before it subsided. Cold sweat covered my body, hair was plastered to my face. I really wished that I could wake up from this nightmare.

"Look what you did, you naughty girl!"

Mary spun around to face me, pure malice pouring from her bright blue eyes.

"You'll have to be punished. That's what mummy always says. Naughty girls need to be punished. You'll get the belt for this."

I nearly remonstrated, arguing that it wasn't my fault that the creature had fallen. Mary had made it with no chance of balancing on its own. Then I realised how absurd that was. Interacting with her would be pointless.

Mary held my gaze, hatred visible in every feature. Her body was tense, arms held rigid at the sides of her body. She took a small step forward. I mirrored her movement backwards, keeping the same distance between us.

Continuing to move in this way for a few steps, Mary's furious grimace suddenly smoothed out into a satisfied smirk as I tripped over something in my path on the floor. Scrabbling to right myself, I kept my eyes on Mary waiting for an attack.

It didn't come.

Mary turned away from me giving her attention to the mangled heap of twitching body parts on the floor. Singing another rhyme in her high-pitched girlish tone, she gathered what was left of Dominic in her arms and sat cross-legged, cradling him while she rocked back and forth.

Edging away from the ghastly sight, I had to make a run for it while I still could.

Get out Alice! But will she make it in time...
Thanks for sticking with me, not far to go now!