The Dark Place (#FrightFest2016 Gold Winner)

The Dark Place - Chapter Fifty (Part Two)

9

Annie had been alone in the icy, darkness for so long before the people had started to visit her pitch black hell. She could not hear or see them but she knew they were there. She could sense them - almost feel them. The fact that they were so close, and at the same time far away enough to be in another dimension, tormented her.

They were coming again, but this time something was different. There was a murky glow to her dark world and she could just make out a pinprick of bright light far in the distance. Annie wanted to move toward it but could not.

Being dead was worse than she had ever imagined. The endless, biting cold, the like of which she had never encountered during her short lifetime, gripped her and she wondered what she must have done to warrant such a fate in death. Could it be that this was the fate of everyone once they had passed over to the other side?

She had been accused of many things by Lord Munford including witchcraft and murder. Maybe he had been right, maybe she was a witch. At least that would have gone some way to explaining how she had ended up in that dark place.

Lord Munford had killed his wife, that much was common knowledge, but had Annie really bewitched him? Things were not clear to her anymore. In her last memories she had picked herbs for her mother before taking a rest in the grounds not far from the manor house, everything else was a fog.

The spot of light gained in size until she realised that it was not growing, it was actually getting closer. Her dismal gradually became warmer as the light came close enough for her to realise that something was moving inside it. She could not quite make it out but it looked like three cloudy outlines.

"Move towards it!" The voice was neither male or female - young nor old and the direction from which it came was impossible to determine because it seemed to come from everywhere at once. "Go on girl, I said move!"

Wh... what is this? I don't understand what's going on!

"You don't have to understand, all you have to do is move toward the light."

But I... I can't! I'm frightened.

The silence that followed was almost a challenge. Against her will Annie focused on the blurred shapes inside the light and watched as they slowly came into focus and the clearer the picture became, the more her memory returned. The three girls were young, about the same age she had been the day they had dragged up to the big house. The mist lifted and blurred edges became sharper. One of the girls was different from the other two. She was more innocent... frightened... vulnerable.

"She is not the one!" The booming echo of a voice sent shockwaves through Annie. "Do not fear child for soon you shall feel the warmth and beauty of life once more."

But I don't understand! What do you want of me.

The next sound was not the voice but a crashing noise that was so loud it hurt. Everything blurred again as she withdrew into the darkness but she only managed to pull back a little way before an unseen force pushed her toward the light once more.

Who are you? Why are you making me do this.

"Well who do you think I am?"

I don't know! God?

The laughter that followed almost crushed her.

The Devil then?

The laughter stopped.

"I suppose you could call me that but you would only be half correct."