Dark Remains: A Maggie Power Adventure (Maggie Power #1)

Chapter 2 - The Den

Chapter 2 - The Den

She is walking out towards the river again. It is growing dark, but not yet night-time. An unnatural silence hangs in the air.

As she enters the still, clear water, her attention is drawn to something moving beneath the surface. Like a white cloud trapped beneath the waterline, it floats and she instinctively moves towards it to investigate.

It begins to rise upwards, towards the water's surface. It is alive and seems to her to be human. Through the clear water she can see a shock of black hair floating like seaweed. Then two pale arms thrust to the surface. The arms stretch out towards her and she moves forward to meet them - unable to resist.

As the figure emerges fully from the water, its head turns towards her to meet her gaze. She feels strangely reassured by its presence, even though it possesses a face she does not recognises. The figure - a female dressed in an all-white nightgown - stands upright, knee-deep in the river opposite her, water dripping from her body, leaving gentle blemishes on the river's surface.

Her face is white and luminous; her eyes firmly closed. There is a voice whispering soft words, although its mouth is closed in a tight, exaggerated smile. The white-clothed figure continues to move closer to her. As it moves within an arm's length, it beckons her to come closer. Come, come, come with me, the words are spoken without the lips moving. Come, come the gentle voice sings, its arms outstretched. She moves closer and stretches out her arms in reply to its pleading. Slowly the white figure's eyelids begin to lift open and, as she reaches out to embrace her, its eyes open fully.

Only there are no eyes.

Hollow, cavernous holes stare back at her - as thousands of maggots seep from each of the empty sockets.

She steps backward, terrified. But the figure continues to move closer. Come, come with me. The voice loses its gentle, singsong tone and now sounds gritty, hoarse - the words seeping into the eerie silence. She turns from the creature to run, but the water feels solid - like compacted mud - and she cannot move. Still she can hear the imploring voice behind her, Come, come, come with me...

Then she is back inside the old, wooden shack once more, entwined within the torn sacks she uses for blankets. All is familiar. She is alone and lying awake upon the floor. But she is unable to move; her arms and legs are rigid. She looks to the splintered beams of daylight cutting through the jagged holes of the hut's wooden planks. She begins to close her eyes again. She feels both awake and asleep.

Then there is a sound, the voice of that thing once more dragging itself across the solid floor. The white figure's repeated requests echo throughout the hut, come, come, come. She reopens her eyes and it is there in front of her, inside the wooden shack, shrunken, creeping up her body from her feet.

She cannot move. A paralysed scream is lodged inside her throat.

The figure slithers upon her chest, the hollow eyes and the croaking voice. A silent scream is her only response.

Her open mouth becomes a target for the thing. It is now upon her chest and begins to suck the air from her screaming mouth.

She cannot breathe. She knows she will die.

The tension is released from her body and she begins to move. She closes her eyes and is ready to embrace death...

***

"Maggie! Maggie!" shouted Tom standing above her.

Maggie twisted in torment on the floor - the stitched together sacks covering her body thrown to one side. Her eyes at first flickered, and then opened fully.