Mother’s Medicine

She had been on an errand to fetch Mother’s medicine from the monks at the Monastery, but had dallied on the way and now found herself caught in a fearsome blizzard. As she brushed the icy flakes from her eyes, Tabitha began to think about the nice bowl of hot soup that she would soon be enjoying by the fire, providing she managed to make it home. As quickly as the last thought had entered her mind, Tabitha discarded it. Why on earth would she not be able to find her way back along a route she had taken so often in the past?

The sky began to darken further, and Tabitha suddenly realised that it was much later than she had credited. She began to walk more quickly, trying to recapture a trace of warmth in her icy bones. It was then that she fell, her legs skidding out from beneath her as she slid across the patch of cleverly concealed ice. Tabitha felt a jolt of pain course up her leg from her ankle just before she struck her head and slipped into unconsciousness.

When she finally awoke, she found herself in darkness. Her head throbbed where she’d struck it, and as she struggled to her feet her ankle screamed in protest. She didn’t think it was broken, although it was not quite strong enough to walk on normally. She felt frozen to the marrow, and when she saw the unbroken bottle of frozen medicine lying nearby, she realised she had lost a lot of time. Mother would be worried, and needed her medicine urgently.

Cautiously edging her way around the ice, Tabitha scooped up the bottle and gazed around her surroundings. The snow was lighter now, but still she could not recognise where she might be. Finally settling for one direction, Tabitha began to creep slowly along as she wiped away tears of pain before they had time to freeze on her face.

The movement was beginning to warm her up, and now that the moon had appeared from behind a cloud she felt more comfortable. Tabitha had only been walking for a few minutes when she knew something was terribly wrong.

The trees all around her were gnarled and twisted, with spiky branches that seemed to be trying to claw and smother her. She had heard many stories about this place, but had yet to meet someone who had first-hand experience of it. She was in the Evil Wood. Alone.

No, she was not alone. The tiny hairs on the back of her neck began to prick up as she felt the unwelcome stares of a thousand pairs of malevolent eyes probing her body.

Tabitha knew a little about the dark denizens that roamed this wood, but she had never dreamed about ever coming face-to-face with one. Now the possibility seemed all too real, and filled Tabitha with a profound sense of foreboding. Everywhere she turned was just more of the wood, so she decided to follow the iridescence of the Moon, and prayed that She would not betray her.

Hobbling much faster on her fragile ankle now, Tabitha was beginning to tire. Fear of exhaustion had evolved from a nagging voice in the back of her head to eclipsing her fear of whatever might be hiding behind the next tree. Tabitha vowed not to give up, but had to stop and rest regardless, in spite of herself. Staring up as she breathed out great gouts of mist, Tabitha gazed transfixed at the way the Moon reflected off the snowflakes and made them shine with preternatural incandescence.

The slightest rustle from a nearby tree broke her reverie. She sighed with relief as the familiar shape of an owl took flight from the tree, in search of a meal. She began to move forward once more, when she heard the unmistakeable soft crunch of snow being trampled on somewhere close by. She felt cold fear grip her heart, and she paused, motionless, not even daring to breathe.

CRUNCH. The sound was faint, but it certainly could not be anything else. Someone was there, watching her from the shadows. Her heart began to pound, and became so loud she feared it would betray her. She felt their presence, even if she could not see them. She knew in that instant that this person intended to harm her. Her whole body froze, alert to the slightest hint of any further noise or movement. The silence mocked her. Something moved from the shadows ahead.

Tabitha screamed silently as she stood rigid, with mounting terror. Her gaze darted from left to right, greedy eyes searching hungrily for an escape. She sent a mental message to her legs – MOVE! Slowly and reluctantly, they relented, and she turned, breaking into a kind of half-run, impeded by her numbness and her ankle, but spurred on by terror.

Turning around for a split-second, Tabitha glimpsed a dark figure shuffling towards her. The figure seemed to be mumbling something, but Tabitha didn’t want to wait around to find out what it was.

Then she tripped, and fell into the snow for a second time. Looking at her feet, Tabitha saw a large stick, with a point at one end. She knew the figure would be upon her at any moment, and she didn’t care. As she heard the figure draw close behind her, she knew by the hissing and gurgling that her murderer would be the vampire. Summoning strength she’d thought was long sapped away, Tabitha made a desperate last bid for freedom, grabbing the stick and swinging round to plunge it deep into the foul creature’s heart.

Then she screamed. It was Mother. She had stabbed her own mother! Her need for the medicine and her concern for her daughter must have urged her out of bed for the first time in years, and this was the way her daughter repaid her. Tabitha stared in shock and disbelief as she looked down at the embedded stick. A thin trickle of blood slid out of Mother’s mouth as she hissed her last word: "Tabitha?"

Tabitha brought her view down to the slumped, pitiful form of her disease-riddled, dead mother. She was numb both inside and out. Then she felt the vampire approach for real, from behind her. She didn’t struggle as the vampire’s fangs sank into her neck, and she felt no pain. As she felt her life ebbing away with every drop of blood the vampire took, and the bottle slipped from her hand to smash on a rock by her foot, she simply gazed up at the ageless, graceful moon, and whispered, "Forgive me."

She slumped down as the last of her blood drained away, and came to rest in between her beloved mother and the shattered bottle of medicine. As the innocent white flakes of snow continued to fall silently around them, the moon continued to stare down with indifference as the vampire slipped silently away into the shadows.

Please feel free to email Cordelia at cordy101@hotmail.com with your suggestions and comments.