The Bloodstained Parchment

Chapter 6

The wind was knocked out of Audrey's lungs in surprise as Heather rushed to join her.

The man stepped backwards into the room, carefully removing his snowy but blemished gloves, finger by finger. He seemed to choose his steps carefully, as if to block them from seeing something behind him. He gestured in mock kindness for them to enter with long, slender, alabaster fingers. Audrey stayed rooted in place, casting disappointed shade.

The rabbit man spoke. "It's good to see you, Heather. You've served me well. I apologize for my spout of anger earlier. I overestimated the depth of your love for the girl."

Audrey whipped around to stare at Heather with wide eyes, unable to speak. Heather held a look of firm indignation on her face. She kept her slender nose held high, eyes hooded and looking pointedly at the pale man, her lips held loosely together, teeth apart. "What. . ." Audrey felt uncalled for tears springing into her eyes. As she hastily wiped them away, the pale man cackled. "I see this is all very. . . traumatizing for you, Audrey."

He leaned his face close to hers, smiling a thin, wicked smile, prominent canines glistening white. Then he stepped to the side, revealing a huddled figure in the corner. A man was sitting hunched over with his knees pulled to his chest, shoulders heaving, face hidden by his arms. His scraggly, matted, once-chestnut hair tumbled over his shoulders. His attire consisted only of a pair of soiled, ratty trousers, which left his top half bare and wounds in the open. His prominent ribs suggested he was famished. Slowly, he lifted his stained face and looked at Audrey with glistening grey-green eyes. Though the rest of his face was sagging with grief and half painted with dried blood, Audrey couldn't look away from his eyes that glimmered with devastated recognition.

Audrey gasped. "Who. . .?" she asked breathlessly.

The pale man had been taking this all in, crooked smirk growing ever wider. "That, Audrey, is your father."

Audrey's breath caught in her throat. She looked between her apparent father and Heather. Why weren't her father and mother happy to see each other- if that's who they really were? "Mother-" she started, but the pale man interrupted her with another bout of laughter. "Mother! She is not your mother!"

"You're lying," Audrey whispered. "Your words; they cannot be true."

The man sighed, shaking his head and making a tsk noise with his tongue.

"You poor thing," he chided. "Brought up on lies, never knowing the difference between fiction and the truth."

"Is that right?" Audrey demanded, trying to keep her voice from cracking. "Who is she, then?" Audrey pointed at Heather accusingly. Heather kept her gaze level, seemingly indifferent to it all.

The man seemed to hesitate dramatically before saying, "Your mother- your real mother- is long gone." He gave a toothy grin. "Burned."

Audrey heard snuffling in the corner and glanced at the crying man. . . her father? Why should she believe in this stranger, anyway? As she looked on, she saw him mouth something. Run.

But it registered too late. Just as Audrey was about to swivel around, the rabbit man lashed out a hand and cupped her jaw in a vice-like grip. She gasped as he shoved her against the wall, and found that she couldn't close her mouth, or move at all for that matter. She stayed rigid as he lifted her a few inches off the ground, feet dangling.

With a sinister grimace, he opened his mouth. For a moment, nothing happened.

Then came a tugging at Audrey's soul, something ripping out the very fiber of her being. Her eyesight started to wink out as she heard a faint screaming in the background. Was that her?

The sharp pain suddenly became unbearable. A wispy ball of light seemed to be protruding from her mouth and entering the pale man's own jaws.

That was the last thing she saw before she blacked out.