Ana
Its horns were the first things I noticed. The moonlight made them shine as if they were polished. Both were long as night and sharp as its horse’s teeth. The creature was tall as an old fir, its age endless.
The Goat Man.
Eternity tightened into a single creature; a nightmare to be in its presence. I could feel on my skin the countless souls it took. The story that surrounded him was gruesome. And I realised then that I might be witness to it becoming reality.
It fixed me with its white eyes, remarkable under the long goat skull. They unnerved me, but I could not deny that there was an evident allure about them.
They were like beacons in the darkness.
My heart was pounding, and the hairs on my body stood on end. My eyes widened, perusing its body. Instead of legs and hands, it had hooves.
A simple, black cloak hid the body, its train trailing over the grass as the beast started to move away from the horse. Its smell of wax and old books filled my senses.
It took me a second to realise that the creature was walking towards my father. I tried running towards them, but the horse pulled up its upper lip, revealing its fangs.
“Father!” I shouted, my eyes trying to find a way around the horse. My chin began to tremble as more cries for attention escaped my lips.
The brute didn’t even turn; it was advancing on my father.
“Please! I beg of you, don’t take him!” My hands clutched the dress’s neckline, my fingers gripping it tightly.
My father didn’t pay attention to the creature that drifted closer to him. He waved his hands at me as I disturbed him. His eyes were droopy, the alcohol haze numbing his senses.
I heard feet running towards me. My family joined me in begging the creature to spare him. At the sound of our chorus, it half turned.
The goat skull assessed all of us over its broad shoulder. “You want to save this man?”
Its voice was like the wind, travelling from ear to ear with its tone rough and sombre.
“Yes!” we answered in chorus.
Its body twisted fully to us, covering my father.
“Do you, his wife, want him to live?”
I heard my mum swallowing, her eyes widening. “Y-yes, I do,” she whispered.
The brute tilted his head. “Do you, his younger daughter, want him to live?”
She looked from me to my mum, her eyebrows joining, forming a little line between them.
“Angelica…” I pleaded.
Her hands started to shake. “Yes.”
I breathed loudly, sweat dampening my upper lip.
“And you…his oldest daughter, do you want him,” the creature stood aside so I could see my father, “to live?” It leaned its head to the left and then to the right.
My father regarded me, his upper lip turned in disgust.
“Yes.”
Feeling my mum’s body slump next to me, I caught her in my arms. Her chest was barely rising, the colour from her cheeks draining, leaving ashy skin in its wake.
It assessed us, one more time, before speaking. “Too bad that he is not worthy of you. His soul is the evilest of them all. It will be mine!”
The air shifted when it turned towards my father, the latter finally noticing who stood before him and started to scream at the top of his lungs.
“NO! Please, take me instead!”
At the sound of my own voice, everything turned into darkness. The candles erupted in the air, the glass jars shattered, leaving broken pieces across the meadow.
The tables and rugs broke in thin air, spreading their pieces in front of us. The ground rattled once, twice, as the Goat Man watched me.
I felt the brute’s anger, crawling on my skin. Its wrath pulled me one step towards it and my father, but the horse stood vigil.
Both my mum’s and my sister’s heads snapped, their eyes drenched in fear as they met my demeanour.
“What are you doing?” my sister shouted over the commotion.
At once, everything stopped.
The brute’s train flowed in the hot breeze, blending with the darkness that surrounded us.
“You want to give me your soul willingly, for him?” Its voice caressed our bodies, heat and cold hitting us at once.
“Yes!” I shouted, fixing my eyes on my family.
I placed my mum’s stone-hard body into my sister’s arms. I kissed both their foreheads. “I love you very much,” I whispered to them.
My mum’s gaze moved from me to my father, her hand stretching to mine. It was shaking as if she had a fever.
“Don’t sacrifice yourself for him, Ana. Please, you are young and strong…”
Yes, I was. But I was also aware that my mum could not live without his work.
“My love for both of you and Angelica is endless. Without him, winter will devour us,” I explained, feeling the salty taste of my tears on my lips. “Pray for my soul, Mum. Pray to meet you once again in Paradise.”
“We will be parted for a little while, but we will meet again in God’s eternity, with the promise that the Saviour Himself made: ...because I live, and you shall live,” we said at once.
Rusty laughter came from behind me and grated on my nerves. Whatever might happen to me in Heaven, I knew that my belief in God would be rewarded.
But the brute will have to live with its sins.
“Ana, please,” Angelica whispered.
I hugged them one more time, and I turned. Walking towards its horse, I willed my tears to stop.
At once, the stallion backed away, allowing me to pass.
It snorted in my ear, the sound making me jump. I let my hair be sniffed, and then it took another step back.
Its large body slumped between my family and me, creating a barrier between two worlds.
My feet carried me closer to them, my heart bruising my chest with its pounding.
The one who should have protected us, the one who should have stayed between us and evil, was looking at me as though I were a stranger. My father’s dark eyes blinked with his nostrils flaring, and his upper lip curled up close to his nose.
And still, I had two other persons to save.
“I give my life for my father,” I stated, my voice loud enough to make the creature tremble.
“So, you said.” Its voice lingered on my body, my legs shaking from its tone.
I took another step further, feeling its eyes on me. “Please, leave him be!” My eyes darted to my father; his skin was paler than the moon, but the curled lip was still there.
Its laughter stretched the time and space, an earthquake in the making. “I do not receive orders from a peasant, woman! Come closer, I want to see you.”
My feet started walking, pulled by its voice. The breeze lightly touched the seams of my dress, raising it above my ankles.
Whimpers came from behind me, but they were muted by the stomping of the horse. The ground shattered in two, separating me from my family.
I stopped walking and whirled around to see them.
My mum fell to her knees, eyes closing. Angelica didn’t know where to look, either to my mum or me. Sighing, I resumed my ascent.
I stopped in front of the creature. The skull was larger than I thought, its horns pointier than the horse’s fangs. With a swoosh of his hooves, my braids were untied, my long ebony hair touching the grass at my heels.
Its white eyes seemed endless from the distance I put between us. And I could still feel them roaming from my toes to my hair. It studied every inch of me, as if the wild creature could know whether my soul was worthy of taking.
“Hmm,” he mused. “Fine, you can replace him. Although he gets his punishment!”
The Goat Man shifted, his cloak touching my feet. It sent shivers through my body, fear getting around my heart.
A black scythe floated next to him, appearing out of nowhere. Its blade shone in the moonlight; the only light present after the disaster the Goat Man created earlier.
“Tell me, peasant, with what hand does your father strike?”
I swallowed, leaving my mouth dry. My eyes roamed over my father’s face, who realised the imminent danger. I turned my head towards my mum and sister, whose pale faces told me I had made a horrendous mistake.
“Answer me, woman, or I will take both of you!” it roared as its scythe floated near my father’s body. The Goat Man tilted its head, eyeing me up and down.
Swallowing, I snapped my head again to my mum and Angelica. Gavril joined them, his hands holding my sister’s shoulders.
“With his right hand…” I whispered.
In the next moment, the scythe cut through my father’s right shoulder, his arm falling on the grass. His scream mixed with my mum’s and sister’s howls, making my head hurt.
Blood was dripping from my father’s shoulder, staining the fresh, burnt grass, colouring it in crimson. He fell to his knees. As much as I wanted to go to him, my feet would not budge. It was as though I was glued to the ground, unable to move or make a sound.
My father’s continuous screams pierced the meadow, shattering my heart. My hands stretched towards him, but they were pushed back with such force, I thought I might lose them.
“Hmm, he does look better than before, I might say,” the Goat Man’s whisper crawled on my body, making my knees buckle. “Come, peasant! I will not end you here. Your mother is already distressed.”
I was pushed by the air to move backwards, my eyes glued to my suffering father, sobs threatening to wreck my chest.
The Goat Man saddled up, twisting the reins of the horse. As I was pushed by the breeze, my body floated to the saddle. My long dress was shoved to my thighs, exposing the skin I was trying to hide every day.
I grabbed the saddle ends and gritted my teeth.
“Wave your family goodbye, peasant! An eternity of suffering awaits you,” the Goat man whispered, its force moving my face to my mum and sister.
Gavril was trying to take both out of there, but my mum pushed past him and ran to my father.
That was the last time I saw them as I was.
The horse neighed once and galloped across the meadow. My fingers turned white from the force of holding the harsh leather, my heart breaking with each breath.
My mum’s screams reached me, and my eyes closed in prayer. For my ending to be painless, for my mum and sister to find their peace, and for my father to change his heart.
“Those words have no power in my world, peasant,” The Goat Man shouted. Its voice was carried over the houses and people who watched us from their porches.
I dipped my chin to my chest. What happened to me felt like a picture movie, one that Teacher Alexandru showed me and some other youngsters from the village.
Everything was moving fast. Time was ageing my soul.
Ready to be ripped.