The Goat Man
I watched enthralled all night as the three women found each other again. Despite all her suffering, Ana made it back to light and was able to enjoy her mother’s embrace and her sister’s smile. Slowly but surely, Ana would have her heart again.
Stained by my selfish desires, but she would have one nonetheless.
Leaving them be, I turned around and advanced slowly through the snow. Sending her skull back to our home with just a thought, my feet carried me away from the ninth soul.
I breathed the Undrea air; the scent of wood and firs clung to my coat and hair.
The air’s sharp edge cut my skin, numbing it.
For the first time, I felt the cold seeping through my body.
It must be the contract, which slowly enabled me to have human reactions. Something I did not realise until then.
Perhaps due to this contract, I felt more than hatred and dislike towards humans. It could be that because of this piece of yellow paper, I acquired the undying feeling of love. It was a lost sentiment for many years.
I rushed to the lair to confirm my suspicions, dashing through the kitchen.
“Andrei,” I called, but the ghost did not appear. I took one of the ignited candles that he must have used that morning and touched the flame with my fingers. The burn was rejuvenating, my eyes widening at the red mark it left on my skin.
I threw the candle away, extinguishing it in the process. My feet ran to my chamber to tap my cracked Souls’ Mirror.
One tap.
Nothing.
Two taps.
Nothing.
The happiness I felt was exhilarating. And then I stopped, hearing something I missed. I pressed my hand to my chest, the vibration coming from it pounded my hand, moving it up and down.
“It is not there yet,” an ominous voice spoke. It travelled over the rock, the sound stealing my euphoria and replacing it with dread. “It is an illusion.”
The Elk’s laughter froze my hand on my chest, the blood stopping its course through my body.
“What do you want?” I growled through my teeth.
I saw one of his antlers’ shadows on the stone walls, a nightmare coming alive. His hooves clacked on the floor, their sound filling me with rage.
He was here to destroy me. To break every dream Ana and I allowed ourselves to have.
“You relished your skull for good, brother,” he whispered, stopping in front of me.
I leaned my head closer, assessing him. His coat was ripped at the bottom; his fur lost its glimmer, and somehow, he’d managed to break one of his antlers. “What happened, older brother? Got dragged through the dirt?”
“None of your concern!” he hissed, his voice making the bed and Mirror tremble.
Chuckling, I took off my cloak and threw it on the floor. “What can I do for you, heir of sheep?”
A guttural sound came from his neck, rattling once more the Mirror.
“You’re right, I am the heir! Thus, if you become human, then you will receive what belongs to me, and I cannot have it, little brother.”
The threat blocked the smile on my lips. And then, I was aware of the silence. The ghost didn’t make an appearance, and Eugen should have come to my chamber by now, his curious mind making him question every little sound.
“Where are they?” I asked, my tone low and filled with bitterness.
“Finally, you ask. They are in my lair, guarded by my whisperers. Guarded is an understatement, of course.”
“What did you do to them?” I shouted, the Mirror almost falling, balancing from side to side on the wall.
“Don’t get hasty, I did not do anything to them…yet.”
It was his turn to chuckle, the skull moving as his chest puffed. I was sick to my stomach, and for the first time, I truly wanted to end him, but not then. I had to wait for the right moment.
And as I did not have a pure soul…
“So, tell me, brother, how do you expect any of us to claim something that probably disappeared? Perhaps there are new owners to that land, the sheep’s bones have already decayed, and the house is already in shambles.”
“You would know that?” His tone hinted at something that I would rather lock up and keep safe.
“Yes, I have visited the old house, if that is what you are insinuating.”
“Ah, and that was the moment you trusted your whore?”
I dashed to him, my arm pinning his neck, his skull almost coming out of his head. My other hand punched his chest, squeezing whatever he had inside, a gurgling sound filling the air.
“Do. Not. Talk. About. Her! Do not mention her name with your soiled mouth. She is above us all!” My voice was low, my lips too close to the bone. “You’re nothing more than a speck in front of her!”
He pushed me to the opposite wall, my back hitting the stone.
“Are you certain?” he said, malice ingrained in his voice.
He arranged his cloak and skull to fit and strutted to me.
Its hooves tapped against my head. “You need to be proud, brother; you corrupted her in killing nine humans. What does that say about her? She does not seem to be pure anymore. Especially not after she killed her own father!”
His skull was in my face, darkness watching me. I slammed my hand on it, sending my brother onto the wooden table, breaking it under his weight.
“You and your cult made her this way! The contract pulled at her and took and took. By the time I realised it was the vilest thing I could do, she had already ripped the souls of three people!”
I stood up, watching my brother crawl. He was stumbling to regain his posture. Something was off with him. The Elk did not seem to be that almighty anymore.
“Do your knees hurt, Elk? Are your bones aching with the weight of years?” My eyebrows raised, and a smirk appeared on my lips, my foot stomping on his stomach.
A shuddering breath left his mouth, but he pushed me with his mind into the Mirror as retaliation, ruining it. Shards of glass covered my skin, the prickling feeling filtering to my bones.
“You deserve to die, little brother! Your sins are beyond counting!”
I took a piece of glass, the blue swirls from my eyes receding, leaving a pure colour behind. “Sins that YOU made me commit!” I threw the shards of glass at him, specks of blood coming alive through his cape.
“I’ll see to it that her love never reaches you, not in life, nor in death!”
“I already have it! Her love is more powerful than any of your whisperers or commands, brother! But you will never understand that, since you killed everyone who felt something pure for you!”
He roared, and the room turned dark, taking me with him.
“Master, wake up!”
My eyes snapped open, but in the darkness that surrounded me, I couldn’t discern a thing. Pain echoed between my temples, creating a haze in my thoughts.
“Master!” someone shouted on my right, making me wince.
“Andrei?” I whispered, my palms searching the ghost. Once I hit something sticky and a howl of pain crossed my ears, I knew I had found him.
“What happened?” he whispered, his form creating a swoosh in the dark space.
Aware that there might be whisperers, I kept my mouth shut.
“Master, please, answer me!” the ghost whined.
“Where is the child?” I asked instead, hoping that my brother did not do anything to him.
“Asleep,” Andrei answered, his voice shaking.
At least he was oblivious to what was happening.
An idea sparked in my head. “Andrei, you can get out of here, can’t you?” I suggested.
“Yes… I just didn’t want to leave Eugen all by himself.”
“Go! And bring her,” I gave my last command to him.
Neither of us knew if I would come out of this alive.
“Andrei, one more thing,” I called, the pain in my head throbbing.
I felt a light breeze on my cheek, a sign that he had not left yet.
“Thank you for serving me over the past year,” I said, a tear falling down my cheek, the fact that I wouldn’t come alive from this, feeling more vivid by the second.
“It was my pleasure, Tiberius,” he whispered, and then he left, Eugen and me alone in the dark, the whisperers crawling closer to us.