(Rose)
I know they won't let me in. I thought of trying to invade the house nonetheless to protect myself from what's outside.
But I decide otherwise.
It felt like a spark in my mind. It hurts me inside my head.
Divert the pursuers attention. Escape in another direction. I jog slowly to the stables where I find two scared horses.
Despite finding a saddle next to them, I unfortunately can't escape riding one of them.
It pains me deeply as it would be the perfect chance to put a good distance between me and the danger, but I can't. I never rode a horse and don't even know how to attach a saddle properly.
Furthermore, the horses are so panicked I can't get close, even less tame them. How powerless I am.
So my surprising idea may be less efficient than riding away, but still could help. I can't really tell if it truly is a good idea unfortunately.
I release the horses, making them flee. They both escape at great speed toward the fields. I'll go in another direction in a minute while all attentions are hopefully on them.
I spot a rusty old bike next to the stable, but I wouldn't be able to escape with that either. It's weirdly too damaged and I wouldn't trust the paths after that rain.
Before I leave, I grab the few things my eyes caught that remotely looks useful right now. I grab a long pitchfork for a weapon, and a few other things lying in that barn. Something tells me I could use some of it later like a rope. It seemed like a good idea at that moment. I can't recall what book of adventure or escape I read made me think that.
The truth is, I don't really think and just grab what seems useful to help me save myself.
I'm not sure if I'm stealing or not, but I feel the need to prepare myself with whatever I can find right now. My head hurts so much, but my body moves and acts.
I get myself ready to take my chances to escape as we still hear the horses in the distance.
A last look behind my shoulder lets me see that they're looking at me agape from within the house. I feel weird.
I spit on the ground the mud that was left in my mouth. I'm not really sure why I did that, I'm so polite usually.
An unexpected burst of confidence carries me as I begin trotting away.
I go along a hidden path while all the noises behind are carrying everything's focus away.
~
As I'm swiftly walking away between hill and field, quite hidden from sight, I realise quickly that some people have begun following me.
It's raining again, though more softly. I try to keep my distance from whoever is following me. They're still far behind, I could lose them.
Then I hear a feminine voice urging me to wait from far behind. Wait for me she says.
I still have a doubt, but I do wait for her to get closer. She's not alone so I hold my pitchfork tight.
It's a woman still young running hopelessly, dragging two children with her. She's wearing a long and heavy dress. She has little luggage. The children hide behind her as she stops a few feet away from me.
She begs me. I don't really hear what she says. The sounds reach my ears but my head doesn't manage to process them. I'm looking at the frightened things behind her.
One of the kids saw something behind and has a jolt. I tell them to come and quickly we go. I briefly saw the woman face's when she passes closer to me. She's not much older than me, but seem to have lost all her abilities to manage herself.
I'm not in much better spirits really, but she looked at me as if I was the Christ coming back to save her.
We walk as swiftly as we can but she keeps talking. We will talk later I tell her and that so she would shut up. For now, I prefer being able to hear something dreadful coming close to us, than her otherwise nice voice. I'm scared too. She doesn't seem to realize it how much I'm in panic myself.
The rain stops. We keep walking toward another farm. All seems normal. The children are not crying, not saying a word. They keep walking without complaining. They look back as often as we do. And we see the same weird things hard to understand moving far behind in the distance.
We reach the farm. Other horses flee as we approached. The door of the house is shutting itself violently against something, and reopens itself slowly. The wind scared us all.
But there are suspicious stains against the walls. And I think what hangs on the front step and jams the door is a hand. There's this acrid perfume that reminds me of the train butchery, what feels like an eternity ago.
We don't dare going further and inside. We go around to the barn beside. We hear the cows being nervous. We get in and close the doors tightly. We seal them shut with what we can find. The children help fortifying the place.
Then finally we begin to breathe a little.
The cows sound and act nervous. A child shows us silently a ladder going to the floor above. I climb first, pitchfork in hand.
On the level holding the stocks, there is naught but stacks of hay and the large doors open to the field. I see nothing ominous from there. They climb too. We pull the doors and shut them. A stronger beam of wood locks them better.
Finally we feel a bit safe, and all sigh.
The woman suddenly looks at me with tearing eyes and gets closer. I'm a bit scared and jolt, but she just hugs me and cries. She had been even more scared than me.
The tension falls down. We all sat to rest our legs and speak a bit, more at ease.
We both survived the same train accident, but she was on a wagon closer to the locomotive than me.
Her name is Ann. Her children Charlotte and Victoria. Queens names.
I tell them who I am afterward. It helps calming them down, talking about plain things like that after these rushes and abstract terror. I just feel lost and still confused. My forehead feels like its burning.
~
I realise that I have doze off and slept. I wake up scared and quickly look around me. I have a second or two of panic because I don't remember nor recognise anything.
I'm still in that barn, on a hay stack. Close by is Ann, sleeping too. One of her girls is sitting next to her. They both look feverish. I don't see the other one?
Just as I begin to fear the worst, we hear screams coming from outside.
Ann wakes up in a panic, while I go to open the smaller door we didn't notice before. As I do, something seems to explode in a strange noise. A bucket of warm mud has been thrown against the wall and splashes on my face. I can't see, I step back and cough. I hear more screams, closer. Confusion is boiling my brain.
Ann faints. The girl ran away I think. I'm covered in some kind of wastes or blood.
There is something entering the barn below. I hear the cows panicking too.
I want to run away, but I wonder if I should do something about Ann now lying unconscious. Should I wake her, or even kill her? I'm not sure. I can't think.
The girl is blocking the trapdoor leading downstairs, we have some time. She's smart.
I go to wake Ann, I shake her shoulders and slap her a few times.
Something tries to open the trapdoor. It's violent. I leave Ann waking up and grab the pitchfork.
The girl is ready to let go, me to strike. My muscles are trembling, but they roughly obey me... Ann gathers clumsily our bags.
The girl jumps aside as I'm ready to strike the monster below.
The door to the level below opens itself in a violent burst.
I strike down the thing in a moment of panic, right as the opening was there.
I feel my blood freezing in terror.
There is something very dark and awful down there, a moving shapeless darkness. It's in the background. I can't put words on this.
In the foreground of my blurry sight, what I've struck down is still looking at me, blood covering her face.
I've struck the child without realising it. I'm paralysed in panic, gawking at what I've done.
It's too late. The pitchfork pierced her face, her head, and the dark thing right behind and wrapping itself around her as well.
I feel dead inside.
~