13. Daisy
Thirteen
Daisy
The deep voice resonates in my mind, spreading calm ripples of peace and comfort, like how I’d imagine a mother’s embrace. It’s a constant presence nestled deep within me, a guiding hand.
My sinful child. Finally, you are home. I’ve waited for you to return to your brother, and to me. I have special plans for you both. You must help save Grimwood, and your reward will be Jason.
All my life, my mom has told me I’m a mistake, but now I know that isn’t true.
It’s becoming clear to me why she doesn’t love me.
I never truly belonged to her. My true creator, this God, has been quietly waiting for the perfect moment to reveal itself.
My destiny is to become a dark God. I’ve seen the monsters, the blights, and I know what we must destroy.
My first duty will be to save Jason and Grimwood.
Emotion surges in my chest and bursts forth like a rushing waterfall.
Tears of relief glide down my cheeks. I am cherished and chosen.
Tension slips away and I gasp, my body humming with something almost holy.
I throw my head back, laughter bubbling up as I spin, the room swirling into a kaleidoscope of color.
Worry sinks its teeth into me. Deep in my bones, I know I must listen to the voice and follow its orders. If I fail, my new God will forsake me. But I won’t let it down. I’ll prove to it that I can become everything it needs me to be.
I step into the next room with purpose, and the red light around the door follows me, staining my hands and arms the color of spilled wine. I pause on the threshold and let my eyes adjust.
The table is the first thing that I truly see. It stretches the length of the room like the spine of a monstrous beast. A knife is lodged in its back, with the wood grain rippling to form soft, rhythmic circles.
Skeletons sit around the table in grotesque civility. Some tilt slightly, their vertebrae crooked, as if boredom has stiffened them mid fidget. One still wears the remains of a velvet coat, its fabric eaten thin and hanging in tatters.
At the head of the table sits a seventh figure. It appears human, poised with its hands on either side of its plate, but suspicion curls along the side of my neck, a warning that I’m being deceived.
I take a step forward and the room warps around me, the floor dipping beneath my feet. Rot and sweetness mingle in the air. I wrap my hand around my throat, my flesh warm and pulsing.
The delicate chime of metal against porcelain has me peering at the skeletons again in the dim candlelight, as their crawling shadows stretch across the room.
The room seems to pause. The walls expand like they’re taking a deep breath, and a low-pitched rustle sounds somewhere below. All at once, the skeletons turn their empty sockets to me, their heads bent at unnatural angles as though aware that I’m watching.
Jason quietly approaches from behind, placing his hand on my shoulder and drawing me nearer.
My body trembles as tension between us sharpens.
In the distance, I hear the roar of flames, desire catching like tinder in my chest. More than anything, I want to collapse into him.
To surrender to Jason like the dark God he is.
I’d be his best devotee, praying to him every night and serving as he demands. Nothing would be too much of an ask.
“Do you see them?” Jason whispers, his voice deep and smoky. His fingers touch my blonde hair as I continue to study the table. The skeletons have turned away, but now I examine the seventh guest in more detail, finally seeing it for what it truly is.
Its figure transforms from uncanny to monstrous, bloating with a sickening wet hiss as if a cluster of fluid-filled cysts are fighting for space beneath its flesh. Its stomach spills over the seat and onto the floor like toxic sludge.
A blight.
Jason leans down, his lips brushing my ear. My eyes struggle to stay open as I wish he would suck or bite my earlobe. “Look over the table, into the kitchen. There’s more.” A shiver runs down my spine, pleasure chasing it.
I force myself to focus, and soon a puzzled crease forms between my eyebrows. All I remember seeing before is the weathered, wooden walls surrounding the room, but now the house is…shifting. Is it trying to deceive me, hiding secrets it doesn’t want discovered?
Stark white lights illuminate the kitchen, showcasing the blood splattered across plastic sheets that are strung up like curtains along the walls.
Meat hooks swing from the ceiling. A display case has appeared in the border between the kitchen and dining room, filled with chunks of meat that I’m pretty sure are severed body parts.
That definitely wasn’t there before. Nothing in this house can be trusted.
Shadows slither from small pockets of darkness, their silhouettes rounding into beasts as they fill the room with gloom. The lights flicker. It’s only once they stabilize that I can see what Jason saw.
Blights. More are here. They hide in plain sight, unaware that we see their true forms.
The voice stirs in my mind. Since first appearing in Grimwood centuries ago, they evolved and fought to survive, cleverly blending in as human among the unsuspecting.
They’ve been slowly infecting the townspeople to avoid detection.
How close had we come to sharing the fate that Jason and I had seen in our visions?
My hand clenches into a fist. Now that we know, we can change the future.
Obliterate them, our God whispers.
The order roots itself within me, and I nod to myself, agreeing with the voice inside. We must eliminate them all. None of these blights will leave this house alive, and once we finish here, we will destroy the rest that haunt Grimwood. Only then can Jason and I be together. Forever.
“We can steal their weapons," Jason suggests, pointing to the mutilated, bubbling creatures, one of which appears to be a butcher wielding a cleaver. “Slice and dice them up.”
My gaze returns to the skeletons, and then to the knives on the table. I can take one of those.
The wavering candles fade into the background, overtaken by the sickly neon-green glow of the monsters swarming the room.
My muscles tense, ready to strike out or run, but before I can move, loud footsteps approach from behind us, the creak of a floorboard signaling someone’s arrival.
Danger. My alarm is overwhelming. I catch movement in my peripheral vision while my heartbeat intensifies.
More blights. A creature laughs, deep and guttural. Its noise seeps into my skin like crawling ants, making my body involuntarily jerk. My throat tightens and the air thickens, choking me with their disease.
Kill them. Kill them. Kill them. Kill them all. The voice is loud, and the repetition is disorienting. My legs jerk forward as if our God is controlling me.
I need to kill the monsters.