The Goat Man #2
Another piece I should have said to her was what I put in small writing at the end of the page. But since she fell into my mirage, I couldn’t. And I was tired of answering questions about my life and the gloomy world that I was a part of.
Reaching the lair I was given by my master, I saw my servant, grabbing the horse’s reins.
“Where is the human?” I demanded, my hood slipping from my head. I marched to him, my toes dipping in the dirt and burnt grass.
The boy circled the air, his eyes widening with fear. “Master, she is not here!” He dropped the pitchfork he was holding with a thump.
“What do you mean, she is not here?” I hissed, looking over and under the horse, as if she could hide there.
“I-I…” he babbled, his eyes rolling uncontrollably. Not only were his eyes acting strangely, but also his head. It turned as if he had no bones in his neck. Well, he didn’t.
Whirling around, I made the trees bend, and the ravens fall from the sky, leaving their bodies for the boy to clean.
I had to find her.
The bond of the contract wouldn’t let her leave this lair and its immediate surroundings, unbeknownst to her. She would have serious injuries, which would end her life faster than one can say Fish!
A thing that I’d written on the paper. But, being curled up in her own nightmares, she omitted it.
My blood was flowing faster than usual. Something wet dripped onto my hair, and I looked up to the sky.
In my walk from the old citadel to my cave, I didn’t notice how dark the clouds had turned, how, instead of a light breeze, the wind intensified.
I had to get to her before all my plans were ruined by her stubbornness.
The ghost went inside the cave, floating against the wind. I stepped towards the stable, but the boy shouted, stopping me.
“Master!” the ghost yelled, floating to me. “Someone is waiting for you!”
My hand passed through his throat, making him gasp. “Who?”
“Goat, already relinquishing your skull?” The mocking voice of my master filled me with dread.
Leaving the ghost to scurry off, I turned to my master.
The Elk wore its skull proudly as if it were part of its body. Its stature towered over me. Its heavy hooves left prints on the dirt, pushing down tufts of grass. It was unusual to see it outside its cave. Therefore, my suspicions grew as the Elk stepped in front of me.
Its maroon cloak was embellished with yellow threads, contrasting with its spirit. The storm that was brewing was his command. Nothing shiny could come out of such darkness.
“What wonder brings you here?” I asked, placing my hands behind my back, a sign of respect which was expected of us, the lower level of the Order.
I felt my back straightening, pushed by the power of the Elk. I summoned my skull with my mind and placed it back. My stomach turned upside down at the stench of death it collected over the centuries.
The Elk tilted its massive antlers, letting them fall on its broad shoulders.
“Dear Goat, I came to see the one who would grant our wishes.” The Elk stepped forward.
As it walked, the cloak opened, giving a peek of brown fur.
“Your servant told me you were visiting the Souls’ Pool.
Why is that, hm?” The rumbling of his voice vibrated the ground.
“You won’t join the procession?” It tilted its head to the other side.
It took a step, leaves gathering behind its cloak as a second layer.
“No, master,” I said, bowing.
“It is of no importance whether you participate or not. Alas, I would have to choose someone else to teach her our ways.” It straightened its head, taking another step towards me. My head snapped as an invisible force raised it.
“I didn’t fail to notice that your horse returned alone.”
Dread filled my bones, and I felt my body being pulled closer.
“You appear all humanly, and the girl is nowhere to be found,” the Elk said with disgust in its voice. My feet were pulled into the air, floating like the ghost who watched petrified from the threshold of the cave.
Although we Souls’ Rippers, do not have a heart, there were many other ways to torture us. Our fears and wounds are heightened: cuts feel deeper than humans’, aches intensify faster.
The Elk took pleasure in torturing the souls it claimed. In my early years of being a Souls’ Ripper, I witnessed my master dismember a woman who tortured animals for fun. As if it were personal, that the woman took the lives of her whole herd of sheep.
I tried asking the Elk to dim down the torment, but then it took my fingers. Only when I begged on my knees did it put them back.
“If you lied about having a pure soul in your possession and trying to bring it to our side, then your horns might find a new place to hang on your body.” Wind rustled my cloak. “Because your proposal of turning a pure soul into a Soul Ripper might come in handy for my plan too.”
“Which plan?” I whirled my head in its direction, clueless about what it was talking about.
I felt its hatred through its skull. Still, the Elk let me out of its trance, and I gasped as my pulse resumed its flow.
My master started pacing in front of the cave, its cloak floating in its breeze. “Your proposal sparked an idea in my head. If you manage to create a Soul Ripper from a pure spirit, then we could do that too. And instead of recruiting only the most nefarious souls, we could collect others, too.”
I nodded, not really caring about that.
Once the tenth soul was collected, I was out of this darkness.
“But if you ruined this, then everything goes away!” Its scream tore the trees in two and then glued them back. My head pounded, and I brought my fingers to my skull.
“Hello!”
Her soft, sweet voice was the greatest sound I had heard in that moment. I felt as if I could kiss her toes and worship the ground she walked on. But then she genuinely smiled at my master, making me eye her through slits.
Why would she smile? It was not kind; it was not good. It was the opposite of what she was.
She bowed once as if the eternal Elk were royalty.
In a way, it was.
It had the largest antlers of us all. It could reach the highest branch of an apple tree. Neither of us had seen its human form, and to be honest, I did not wish to. Its voice could bend the ground to its liking, its wishes always coming true.
The Elk bowed to the girl as well, its antlers brushing her ie. My blood flowed faster to my head as I stepped closer to her. I felt the need to push the woman away from my master.
She was mine to wield, not its.
I had the sense of possession in my bones, and I was not fond of it.
“So, you are the girl who offered her soul for her father,” my master mused, one of its hooves pressing once on the grass. Its words lingered in the air, clearing a smidge of dark clouds above us.
The woman only nodded, fixing my master with her eyes.
“Hmm, and you’ve never hurt a man in your life?” The Elk tilted its head, one of its antlers resting on its shoulder.
“No,” she whispered, her voice barely audible.
“Not even an animal?” The Elk lowered its head to the other side, observing the girl.
“No, God wouldn’t let me,” she said, this time louder. Her head was held high, defiance in her glacial eyes.
If I could carry feelings, I would have been proud of her. But her expression changed when the Elk started howling. She winced, taking a step back, her ears turning red.
“Darling girl, there are no gods, saints and other things you kneel for between painted walls!” the Elk roared, its laughter endless.
I watched the woman as her fists clenched. Her nails dug into her palms, drawing blood. “If I believe that there are beings worth kneeling for, what is it to you? I would still keep my contract with the Goat Man!”
My eyebrows shot up. There was nobody who could reply to my master in that manner.
“Oh, is that right?” the Elk asked, the grass freezing at our feet.
I moved in front of the woman, but she would not have my protection. She went around me and stood taller in front of my master.
“Yes. Neither of us has to hurt any being without defence. And if I understood it right, you are a server of justice,” she said. Pausing to collect her words, she blinked. “You take evil souls out of this world, keeping the balance.”
Her idea made me raise my brows. I knew she was smart, but seeing her twist the spirit of the Elk in her favour, flicked something in me.
The Elk pondered the retort, its upper hooves clapping. “I will let you live, girl. Only because I want to see how this,” it crossed one hoof in the air between the woman and me, “plays out.”
My master then stepped towards the forest, waving at us, its antlers drizzled by the light rain.
And then, it was gone.
Watching her back relax, I stepped forward, right into her shadow.
“Where were you?” I asked, my voice sharp as if it could cut the thick branches of the firs. I made one of them fall, its needles dropping to the earth. The thump resonated in the woods, bouncing off the ground.
The human turned around, taking a step back. She pinned me with her eyes, defiance playing among the iciness. “In the stables,” she said loudly.
I snapped my head towards the servant. “You said she was gone!”
“I-I…didn’t…” he stammered over his own words, his ghostly eyes rolling continuously.
I drew the mud and patches of ripped grass beneath him, pushing his form down.
“Stop it!” the girl ordered, placing her body between my servant and me. “We are not your rag dolls!”
I squinted my eyes at her, halting the servant’s body from descending into the pits of the Earth. The dirt covered everything except his head, his mouth opened into a silent plea.
My cloak thrashed in the wind I created with my fuming thoughts.
“If not that,” I said, pulling her body closer, “what are you?”
She gasped, her blue eyes widening from the movement. Something nagged at me, and I released the hold on her body, retreating into my chamber.
As soon as my body touched the mattress made of goose feathers, I pulled the covers over me.
Damn that woman and everything she touched.