Chapter 8
A Traveler Comes
CONTENT WARNING:
This content contains mature situations, violence, and what some may consider gore and inappropriate for children. Discretion is STRONGLY advised.
Hot searing anguish writhes in Victoria's eyes as they peer on the scene of her creation. "I bare witness to the giants of nature," She contemplates, " Whom have awoken from their heavy slumber to look over us now in velvet black gowns and witness our peril that will dirty the hands of my creature." Everyone held hypnotized by the phosphorescent glow of its immortal eyes. They are gripped with stagnation under the world of night and shadows. Explosively, Victoria stretches her hand towards them as her creature grabs a hold of Benji's head. Simultaneously, in a light breathless voice she says, "No."
The creature easily presses its meaty finger tips into Benji's head like it is a soft rotten fruit, to then peel him from head to ribs. Splitting him in two. All anyone can see is the black silhouette of Benji's body. Lightning brings light to the sight of his demise in flashes alone. Victoria beheld the horror of that which was capable of utter destruction. Her quiet breast quivers of whimpering realized terrors. Virtue escapes her while her soul plummets into despair. She turns and runs. The screams of the others can be heard as they follow in her foot steps. There is now no light left to guide the world in refuge from it's coming.
Sprinting in total darkness through the trees and maneuvering low hanging branches and shrubs, Victoria runs back to Rhode Heuvals to alert Geertrudia. The once familiar path now almost foreign in the blanket of night. The entire world drowned out by the sound of her heartbeat pounding away. It is a grueling half hour of rough terrain where the skirt of her dress is a maddening drawback as it gets snagged on twigs and thorns again and again. In one instance Victoria is tripped by her undermining skirt and she is planted, chest to ground. She curses, feeling the sting from impact; she carries on reaching town panting and heaving.
Geertrudia is standing in her kitchen. She stops to listen when she can hear Victoria stammering and hyperventilating long before she explodes through the front door. They go to each other. Geertrudia eases Victoria down with both of them coming to their knees. Her hands eagerly gripping onto Victoria's. Geertrudia's tears arrive fast, "What is it? Did you find them? Are my girls found? Where are my girls?"
"Geertrudia…" she says sorrowfully through laboured breathing. Geertrudia looks her in the eyes in waiting. Maybe there is more and she would be mistakento quickly assume something was wrong. After all, she knows in her heart her daughters are coming back. It's only a matter of time… but time goes on as she searches Victoria's eyes for more answers. Answers she wants. Answers she never finds.
"You didn't find them?" She asks with her unbroken stare. Victoria can feel a warm static fill her face, touching her sinuses, flooding her eyes in water.She attempts to piece together the words, but none escape her lips. She nods.
"You did?" she asks but there is no need for anymore questions. She found all her answers within a tear. Geertrudia's body begins to tremble; a staggered breath heard just before her cries begin. As if in that final breath all of her hopes and joy seeped out of her very soul. The tears stream Victoria's face and soon become uncontrollable as Geertrudia collapses into Victoria in a realm of grief. They cling to each other as though the world was falling apart, with heavy tears staining them.
Coddling her, Victoria says, "There is a man. They will call him a traveler. The traveler descends upon us. Geertrudia... he is not a man. Thy nature and thy name is the one true destruction. It's strength, measureless. A vanquish foreseeable, impossible." Geertrudia retreats from her lament, focusing on Victoria as she continues, "It marches a grave path with no human desires but to be a device of wrath."
Geertrudia grips Victoria by the shoulders, "Your claims are ones of paramount. Your conviction is true but maybe the night makes illusions to cheat thou eyes?"
"No... do not doubt this truth Geertrudia! It is a creature of unrest! We must seek refuge while there is still time. All earthly hopes are vain. The destroyer comes to retrieve my soul."
Geertrudia pauses. She lets go of Victoria. Looking away Geertrudia ponders and then looks back staring long into her eyes. Victoria hesitates to speak as she sees a thought grow behind Geertrudia's eyes. In an instant Geertrudia's eyes harden. A distant coldness rests on her features, misplaced in her usually warm and joyous face.
"Why does the traveler come for you Victoria?" Victoria takes her time to respond all the while with shame on her face. It was only a matter of time as she hid her despair less and less and she knew as she let it out it would be the coming of her unveiling. The very telling of her own dire secret. There is no hiding now what she knows she is. "I am the guilty maker of that creature. Ones claims of paramount ring true. I gave a man back his life with natural science in a lab that only can be bought with the wealth of high society. This life that was returned was that of a hollow soul who only wishes to vex me as inferior."
Muffled sounds of commotion come from outside. Men yelling in a heightened urgency. Victoria and Geertrudia both turn to listen in. Faint screams can be heard penetrating through the walls. Till Kasper yells what can be clearly made out of the indistinguishable, "A traveler comes! He killed the children! The children Susanna and Madeleif! He killed Benji! With! His! Bare hands! Quickly! Arm yourself with a weapon. The traveler comes!"
Geertrudia stands up, "I stress to comprehend thee. I don't believe you liable in cruelty."
"Geertudia, Nor should I ask of you to comprehend such a profound story. But my words ring true. I arranged the parts of multiple people compiling a puzzle of human pieces to make a dead man live again. Instead I created a monster."
Geertrudia says in holding back tears while peering down on Victoria, "Did my Susanna… my Madelief… were their fates met at the hands… of… the traveler?"
Victoria weeps, "You would be right."
"Your monster one and the same?"Geertrudia asks in scorn.
"…You… would be right."
"You have taken a hand in their presence?"
"Geertrudia, hear my plea, we must go before it arrives."
"Tell me, Victoria. You have taken a hand in their presence?" She says weakly and soft with her crying eyes shut.
"I did not know they would find me… Yes. I take hand in their presence." Geertrudia walks past Victoria towards the front door. "Geertrudia, please-"
"All of your right. All of your good. My girls entrusted within thy. It was your misdeeds that brought about their demise. It was you. The good I longed for in this world was in those girls. Now they are gone. I couldn't be their mother, for what a mother is meant to do for her daughters. For any illness or mortal wound I would have given my life in their stead. Anything, but I did not foresee this. I couldn't protect them from this fate. A fate you brought on them. My heart for sisterly affection, I now cast into the fire... to burn."
It is with anguish and inconsolable pain that Victoria shutters upon hearing this to then coil into herself whimpering. Geertrudia continues outside and stops to grab an axe that is kept near the door. With eager determination Geertudia joins Jacop, Knelis, Kasper, Ignaas and Luarens who are wielding pitchforks and axes. They all crowd the entrance to the village.
"This is no man, but a destroyer!" Victoria screams as she exits Geertrudia's house. A scream that halts everyone in their tracks. They turn their heads in her direction. She then screams with a screech that carries a tremble. After taking a few steps out she continues, "We must flee while there is still time lest we are to face eminent peril. Not a one of your weapons can do anything to harm it. The same force that gives the storm over us its power grants this traveler its unyielding nature. Deathless is their will. They mock pain. They may very well prove to conquer time. You cannot judge my legible words. Thou bring with them a rampancy, worst of all ways yet, if worse there any. They will uproot the surface of the earth and grind you into a clay beneath its feet! It scorches the earth it crosses and it will put out the fires with your blood. There may still be time lest we all heed warning now. Will no one listen to me? It will destroy everything!"
In the darkness of the fields before the entrance of Rhode Heuvals, a manacing march can be heard. All who are present turn and stare in awe. Prowling in the dark the creatures veins and eyes glow as it descends on the village. Light that flashes in the clouds steal the blackness it lurks in, to reveal its massive figure.
"My eyes deceive me." Luarens says.
"He is one hundred feet tall!" Jacop belts out. Under her breath Victoria says, "It is too late."
Along with them all, Geertrudia sees the glow the traveler emits and thenturns back to Victoria with a look of sheer terror stressing her face. They lock eyes. Victoria is far from redeeming herself, for what bond they had, has been broken. There is no time or apology that could ever mend the hurt of indirect betrayal Geertrudia experiences. But right now she could do right by Geertudia. Right now they need each other. Maybe together they can be stronger. Geertrudia needs her in this fight and shoots a look gesturing for Victoria to look behind her. Victoria turns around. Another axe. It rests beside the front door. Quickly she wields it with both hands. She joins Geertrudia's side. They brace themselves. The time to run is gone. For Victoria, the past has arrived.
Now just outside the entrance to Rhode Heuvals the electrical storms wrath grows. Bolts of lightning spear the ground around it. A humanoid conduit, enthroned with lightning in the realm of gloom. Fear can be felt coming from the earth as thunder appears to ring out from whence it stood and Victoria and the others appear as sheep served up to slaughter. Pitiful little things for it to annihilate made to meet the futile scorn of vengeful men. The stars have fallen from the sky as though they hide from sight choosing not to bear witness to what misfortune is to come taking mourning in silent suffering. Geertrudia stares as though she doesn't look upon a man but more that of a ghost. The lumbering of the dead risen. Peering into the impossible and facing its storm stupidly with having bravery shriveled up on her. She blurts outin a frightened tone loud enough for Victoria to shiver when hearing her sayin Dutch, "Torpedobootjager."
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