Two girls walk along the side of the dirt road their hands extended from their bodies brushing along the tall grass, the crickets can be heard in the grass. The laughter of the girls echoes in woods adjacent to them. They are beautiful sisters, they walk and skip happily in frilly white dresses. Having just come from church they are happy and feel the love of God wash over them. They are alone. As they skip and laugh down the deserted road they are not aware they are being stalked. Stalked by an evil force that has taken countless children across the world.
These girls, they dance and play the love of God sweet in the warm afternoon breeze. Evil takes no heed of the beauty, evil takes no notice of the joy in anothers heart. Evil only wants to take, to destroy, to ravage. The beauty of the day becomes marred by dark clouds moving across the sky casting its shadow across the fields and the forests. The sweet warmth of the afternoon breeze becomes bitter cold, the breath of the girls comes from their lips a mist in the now crisp air. The heat of the sun is gone, the man moves toward them, unseen. The change in air the only indication of his presence.
Happiness is a torture, laughter like razors across his skin. He must stop the pain, he must silence the joy. Countless before them have fallen, countless joy silenced. The girls stray from the path and into the wood, a shortcut to their home. The wind picks up and the man can smell the slight burning of wood in the distance, an indication of a smoke rising above the trees. A warm fire in its hearth awaits this girl. Loving parents waiting to wrap their arms around their daughters. A loving family.
Closer now he moves, their laughter and giggles are closer now, a small hand moves just beyond a tree, the frilly white dress of the girls stand out against the dark greens and browns of the forest. He will be upon them soon. He breath is short and the hairs on his neck rise at the expectations of the screams he imagines he will soon hear. The pleasure washes over him. The anticipation of the terror that will soon come. Their pain is his pleasure and he soon will have it.
The laughter dies, the crickets die. There is silence in the woods and the evil man is left standing there alone in the silence. Nothing. He stains his ears. Nothing. The giggles are gone, the sweet aroma of burning logs in a hearth have receded and has been replaced by what? That smell. Familiar. What is it? ROT! Decay. It is stronger now as if moving toward him. The waves of pleasure and anticipation leave the evil man only to be replaced by something else. Fear? No, not fear. Panic. Yes, panic. It washes over him cascading down his spine and turning his legs to water. He cannot move.
Then he sees it. It moves slowly through the trees barely visible. So quick, the eyes cant quite catch it. The smell of death is now heavy in the air. He cannot move. He looks down to his feet expecting them to move. Ivy? It begins to slowly wind itself around the man feet. The long vines are brown covered in thorns and they wrap themselves around him. Slowly they grow wrap around his feet, then his leg. The thorns lightly scraping through his trousers and cutting into the soft flesh beneath. It winds ever higher above his thigh across his belly and beneath his arms. The vines grow and grow, wrapping themselves across the entire expanse of the evil man's body. Then it starts to tighten. The thorns, a thousand needles digging, tearing into the flesh. He tries to scream but sound cannot escape. And then they appear.
The sisters, their white frilly dresses blowing in the cold air, the wind picks up. Their giggles begin again. But it is a sound of pure terror to his ears. There is an echo to the laughter. Something otherworldly. Their golden blond hair that so beautifully cascaded down their backs filling the evil man with desire now takes on a red tinge. It becomes wet, blood begins to trickle down from their brow and the laughter becomes ever more demonic. He cannot run, he cannot hide. And they advance. Moving easily across the rugged forest floor. With each step the scent of earth is kicked up, It's so powerful it nearly overpowers the smell of decay that had permeated the forest. They move with purpose, their childish hands raised into the air reaching toward him. Their nails grow longer and sharper with each step.
Something else now emerges from the forest behind the children. Their advance on the evil man stops and they move to each side to allow the thing to pass. It is horror incarnate. The disheveled and torn black robes conceal the things body, it easily reaches seven feet. A sash of twigs and thorns draw the cloak loosely around its body. Rotted skin clings to broken bones, he can see through the tears in the robe. Torn flesh bleeding. Blood as black as night pools around feet blackened with decay on the forest floor below. Its hands rest on a tree branch fashioned as a cane. The hands are gnarled and misshapen, the skin is wrapped around the bones like leather. Long sharp nail protrude from the end of each boney finger. Green mold and moss have begun to wrap themselves around the palms growing up the length of the forearm. Its ribcage is pronounced and easily visible through the loose robe. But the face. The face. So twisted and contorted into an eternal scream, tongue hanging at the side of the loose jaw eyes sunken and dead. The flesh of the face is falling of, the bones clearly visible,
No scream can be manifested from the evil man. Fate has come full circle and his just dues have come up for collection. There is no escape, no where to hide. No where to run. A fog rolls in and more bodies begin to emerge from the thick mist. The wetness clinging to them as the become corporeal. Victims. His. Dozens emerge, moving toward the evil man. At long last his throat is freed. He can scream. A loud screech emanates from the evil man's throat. A noise unheard in the realm of the living. His Hell has come and his victims have waited long enough.
A man lays dead in a road hit by a fallen tree. Two sisters in frilly white dresses giggle and dance down the road.
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