Witch: A Horror Novel (The Cursed Manuscripts) by Iain Wright (nonfiction book recommendations TXT) 📕

flash, the room had altered. The symbol-covered floors had turned to flesh, and the walls wept blood. The woman had changed, too, her hair changing from blonde to brown and her bright green eyes turning as black as oil. There had also been somebody else in the room – a silently screaming man. It had to have been her imagination.

It couldn’t have been real.

But would I really imagine something as fucked up as that?

Ashley realised she was shaking. She clenched her fists and tried to get a handle on her fear. She resisted the urge to pee.

“Help me,” said a fragile voice.

Ashley turned to face the other room. The woman peered at her with pleading eyes, which were once again green. She was now sobbing and trembling, with snot all over her face. “H-Help me,” she said again. “Please.”

It was hard to know what was real anymore. Ashley felt lightheaded. This place, this farmhouse, was more than it appeared.

She took a tentative step forward. “Hi. W-What’s your name?”

The woman stared at the cracked floor, then back up at Ashley. For a moment, it seemed like she didn’t know the answer. “M-My name is Rose. Rose.”

Ashley took another step forward, stopping at the edge of the painted triangle on the ground. “Hello, Rose. My name’s Ashley. My friend’s name is Jude. He’s gone to get help. How… How did you end up here, Rose?”

Once again, the woman seemed unsure of the answer. As she trembled, flakes of mud and leaves peeled from her naked body. She clutched at the locket around her neck and swallowed. “I-I don’t remember. It’s all so… muddy. My mind… It has withered. I beg of you, please do not hurt me further.”

“No. No way. Nobody’s going to hurt you, Rose. You’re going to be okay.”

“Will you free me from my bonds? These chains, they bite me so terribly that the pain is now part of me. I do not remember a time without it.”

Ashley felt sick. There was so much blood in the room, so many dead animals…

“How long have you been here, Rose?”

“Time long enough to know these four walls intimately. The one who put me here is vile, a wretched abomination. This I know, yet their identity escapes me. Please, take me from this place.”

There was something odd about the way Rose spoke. She spoke politely, using words that didn’t quite sound right. It was like listening to someone quote Shakespeare. Also, since Jude had left, the woman no longer seemed to be so afraid. She sat calmly on the backs of her heels, almost seeming to smile at Ashley.

“I need to escape this place, Ashley. Please, take me away.”

“We just need to wait for help to arrive, okay?”

“You must release me. Liberate me from this bondage.”

“I can’t. There’s no way that I can cut your chains. They’re made of…” She went to say steel, but that didn’t seem right.

They’re more like stone, or…

Bone.

“You need to escape, too,” said Rose.

Ashley wasn’t sure what she meant, so she shook her head and frowned. “Sorry?”

“You need to escape, Ashley. I am not the only one in need of rescue.”

A panic washed over her as she wondered what the woman meant. Was the sicko out here in the woods with them? Was she in danger?

Of course I am.

The sicko must have to come back to the farmhouse regularly to feed the woman and check on her. Maybe that’s what Rose was warning her about.

I need to get out of here.

No. I need to wait for Jude to come back with help. That was what we agreed.

Ashley cleared her throat. “I need to escape from what?”

The woman looked at her with an expression of pity. “Your chains.”

“What chains?”

“The ones that bind all women. The ones that stifle us and imprison us and force us to obey. You are strong, Ashley, I see that. A strong woman like you deserves to be free. You should fear no man.”

The only man in Ashley’s life, aside from Jude, who barely counted, was her dad, but it was true she feared him in certain ways. She feared his anger and also his disappointment. She also loved him; loved the man who cuddled her every time she had scraped a knee or got a paper cut. Her dad worked hard to keep her fed and healthy. There was a time when he’d even made her laugh. She feared her dad, sure, but not as much as she loved him.

Ashley shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re going to be okay, Rose, okay? Just… relax.”

The woman lifted her arms, raising the chains that were attached to her bloody palms. “My time to rest is ending. I beg you to release me. Quickly, before my torment begins anew. Take my hands and free me.”

“I don’t know what you want me to do. Jude has gone to get help. We need to wait. Please, Rose, just… wait with me.”

The woman shook her head and sighed. “Trouble comes. You have missed your chance to avoid it.”

Ashley didn’t reply. Every time she did, the woman said something even more bizarre. She may well have lost the plot.

I think I’m losing the plot too.

Come on, Jude. Please don’t be long.

Chapter Ten

Jude made it back to Devil’s Ditch in less than five minutes, but he stopped at the bottom to catch his breath. Never had he run so fast, and a molten blade was now digging into his ribs. As much as he had wanted to see the woman again, to prove that he wasn’t crazy, he was now deeply disturbed. She’d tried to attack him.

She tried to bite me.

It made sense that she would be afraid of him for being a man, if it was indeed a man who had put her in chains, but it still upset him that anybody might see him as a threat. He’d never hurt anybody in his entire life.

Hopefully, the woman would eventually recover enough