The villagers huddled together in the square at dusk, watching the Oracle and I. The bridge ahead swayed over the torrent dividing us from the woodland.

“What is it that awaits me?” I asked. “The beast afflicting us…”

The Oracle regarded me with a glint in his eye. The corners of his mouth sagged. “It blocks my vision, shrouds itself from me…”

I looked back at the villagers, at the mothers and their watery eyes.

“And what of me?”

“A prophecy is malleable,” he croaked eventually, “slay it you must.”

 

As I stepped on the first of the bridge’s planks, the Guard rushed to me and pressed into my palm a gold coin.

“My grandfather’s talisman,” he said. “He was as you, Knight.”

“I cannot…” I began.

“It befits me not,” he insisted. “Keep it, it’ll bring you home. It always did him.”

I offered him a thin smile. “Thank you.”

I turned to leave and a gentle hand rested itself on my shoulder.

“This is no troll that lurks beyond these waters,” he uttered gravely. “The children, they aren’t snatched by some monster that comes hither. No, I’ve seen them, running barefoot past me in the dark, eyelids shut, arms slack. Across the bridge, away into the shadows.”

My fist tightened around the coin.

Bring me back.

 

Down a weary path coursing between needle-clad trees, I walked.

“Reveal yourself!” I cried out in a voice more pitiful than I’d hoped, one that must have died in mid-air.

I unsheathed my trusty sword. Immediately, it slipped like sand through my clutch, vanishing into the wind. That was when I heard it, nay, felt it, a hollow murmur, burrowing into my skull.

???? ????? ??? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ?????? ??, ???????

fuckfuckfuckfuckfucknotthis…

I knelt, hands taut, breath shallow, managing nothing more than a hoarse whisper in return.

“I beseech you, not us! I can bear the sight of the loss you inflict no longer.”

Hooves neared then, and I saw it there, standing before me. A horse, the color of coal, merging with the dwindling ether.

Its back had grown long, much too long, and carried many more than a normal horse could. They sat astride it, a chain of flaccid wraiths, faces bloated, irises swiveled up into their heads, little legs and chalky nightgown hems fused into the beast’s flanks.

The last wraith was the most lifeless. She still looked the way she did when we were kids.

I retched.

Emily?

“Please,” I cried, words breaking. “No more. You’ve already taken everything from me.”

Empty pools stared at me. Into me.

Considering me.

??? ???? ??? ?? ??? ???? ?? ????????

I closed my eyes, nodded vigorously.

 

 

One foot steps. The other follows. Everything is numb. Tingly. Black.

I know I’m crossing the bridge. Water roars below. The night is without moon, yet the village lights should be visible.

Whoos and hurrahs echo distantly. "Heavens, the Knight has returned!"

As I approach, they morph, coalescing into one contorted lament.