Cătun II

Ultima mea postare din povestea "Cătun", a intrat in top 3 cele mai citite articole ale mele, așadar, după cum am promis, revin cu capitolul al doilea din această poveste. Sper să vă placă lectura și, dacă în continuare povestea Cătun se va dovedi a fi una de succes, atunci voi continua să postez un capitol pe săptămână, până voi posta toată povestea. 

Lectură plăcută și, un sfârșit de săptămână plăcut!

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Drepturile de autor pentru desene îmi aparțin.

II

The walk

The sun had already gone beyond the mountains, and the sky was slightly illuminated. At dusk, the pinnacles of the dome surrounding the small village were now transfusing their shadow, blocking the rays of the sun, transforming the floor into a pit of darkness, covered by an orange, weakly illuminated sky. Soon it will be dark. All of the fears and anxieties which were drowning by now in Michaels’ and Clara’s lungs would be transfigured into a deep dread, as the night brings the unknown, and “Catun” was such a place, a place where human intervention cannot change the outset, and the conclusion of mother nature. Now that each tree, spec of grass and ground were bathing in darkness, the silence brought other sounds which were only a background glimpse on the onset of the day. The nearby river which could be seen on the way to the village, right after the maze of the rocks, could be heard as clear as light, and the wind brushing on the green spikes of the mountain trees gave an eerie feeling, as the sky was being invaded by clouds.

-“I think it’s going to rain”, said Michael while sucking deep from a cigarette. 

-“Oh…I really hope it won’t” Said Clara, half-heartedly.

-“When you’re in the mountains, you never know when it’s going to rain, besides, it’s the rainy season.”

-“Michael, the howl from earlier…”

-“I told you there are bears around this place”.

-“I know, I know…”

-“We have two options Clara. Either we go back to the houses, and look for some tools to try and repair the car or…”

-“No! Said Clara knowingly of what was going on in Michael’s mind”.

-“Either way, we still have to go to the houses.” Said Michael, sucking again from his cigarette, letting a spread of cloud pouring out of his mouth, “We don’t have any guns. It’s only a couple of hours of walk. I don’t suppose you want to climb to the monastery”.

-“Michael that’s not funny! I mean it!”

-“Fine, we’ll stay here over the night, in the car. But we can’t keep this light on forever, it’s draining the battery, and maybe we still have a chance of fixing this car at dawn.”

-“Michael…” said Clara again, looking at the steering wheel, trying to avoid eye contact with the darkness outside of the windows. It was almost fully dark, and there were no lights outside.

-“Michael, the howl from a couple of hours ago…”

-“I told you Clara, there are bea...”

-“I know. But, I just…I mean didn’t you find it odd?”

-“What do you mean, odd?” Michael was rubbing the hot side of the cigarette on an ashtray installed in the car. He was now facing Clara, as he didn’t want to blow smoke on her side.

-“I mean…maybe I’m just feeling paranoid but…it didn’t sound like a bear.”

-“What do you mean?”

-“Didn’t you hear it? It sounded like a…scream. A human scream.”

-“Bears can make many different sounds. It’s impossible for someone to be here. Didn’t you see all the old people?”

-“Yes but, you showed me there is a monastery here”.

-“Don’t you think they would come and take care of the dead if someone was living on the monastery? Just brush it off. Don’t dwell on such thoughts. It’s not healthy. You’re with me. You are safe”, said Michael with a smile, although his smile was fake. He too thought the howl didn’t sound like a bear, and he too was worried. That is why he wanted so much to go to the nearest village by foot. But he knew Clara was terrified. He was used to living in the woods. Not only that he grew up here, he often went hiking in the mountains with his dad in foreign countries, when he was a child. It was his ‘dad and son’ activity, as he often went with him for such activities. He knew what he needed to do in order to survive, but he lacked the equipment as he did not come here with the intent of hiking or surviving outside in the mountains with bears with peculiar growls.

-“Look Clara. I’m going to try and fix the car now. I think it’s going to rain pretty soon which is going to make it almost impossible or extremely messy to climb that hill in the morning”

-“Noooo.” Whimpered Clara.

-“Clara!” Said Michael raising his voice. “Please try to understand. I’m trying to fix this. For both of us. You know that if it starts raining hard, the river we passed when we came here could flood. It could make it really hard for us to go back tomorrow, and all of this because its’ night and we are afraid? All you have to do is wait for me here. Look I have a flash-light. I just want to go back to my grandparents’ house and look for some tools. I know they should have something.”

-“Ok” sighed Clara. “Please come back fast!

Michael kissed Clara on the lips for what seemed like an eternity. He didn’t kiss her as a goodbye, but as an ‘I’ll will be back, wait for me here’. He then took away with his flash light in the sea of darkness. If it weren’t for the wind brushing the trees, the river hurdling over its rocky floor and the crunchy grass, one would have thought it is wondering in nothingness, as there was nothing surrounding Michael in that moment. Quickly, he activated his flash light and forwarded towards the hill. His blood was racing through his veins and he wished he would rather be drunk. But he was drunk indeed, with fear, and with dread. He was still thinking about the bear sounds from earlier, or at least what he thought would had been bear sounds. The idea of meeting such a dangerous animal then and there terrified his senses. He knew a bear would normally be afraid to come in a human settlement, but this settlement was deserted now. There were trashcans emptied and knocked down in the village, which was a sign of bears scouting for food, and then there were the bodies… A bear must had been responsible for such a tragedy. Or maybe a wild wolf?

As Michael started climbing the hill, the whole valley was illuminated for a glimpse. A thunder then followed the light, bringing an almost unearthly vibration to the surroundings.

“Storm is close”. Said Michael to himself. He had to hurry. He didn’t have a jacket and he knew leaving Clara alone for too much will certainly frighten her, especially with a storm around the corner. Michael could feel under his feet that the hill was leveling which meant he was on the top now. He used the faint light of his lantern to search the way to his grandparent’s house.

As he passed one of the houses he could see through one of the windows. He approached it with fear in his breath, as he was regretting what he was doing, but curiosity got the best of him. With a morbid curiosity, he wanted to see those corpses again, as they were still lying on the bed, like they were sleeping. A sense of relieve passed through his stomach, as he unconsciously felt like he had to check, to make sure they were still dead, and not some living zombies wondering the village.  He parted away from the window and now entered his grandparent’s front yard. 

He walked around the house, like he was trying to silently walk past an angry dog, and went about to the barn. A small barn which didn’t played any role other than stocking small amounts of hay. He knew his grandparents would keep small objects there, such as tools.

As Michael was looking through the hay, trying to find anything useful, there was a peculiar sound which could be heard through the wind outside. The wind was becoming more and more frequent now, and even though the weather was becoming noisier, there was a peculiar sound which wasn’t like any wind, thunder or animal. Michael stopped for a moment and just listened…

 Besides the wind bumping on the old wooden walls of that small cabin, there was complete silence. Then…a sound! It was faint, and it sounded to come from far, but it was definitely different from the other sounds. It wasn’t in the same family with the weather. It was…a whistle.

Yes, definitely a whistle. It wasn’t a sound resembling a whistle because, the whistle changed tones, like singing. It went on higher tones, then lower, changing all the time. This brought severe dread through Michael’s body and hoped that it was maybe someone from the village who was still alive, or maybe Clara. He went outside and yelled. “HELLO!!! CLARA? HELLO!!!” The whistling stopped. Utter silence.

Water drops started to hit Michael’s nose and forehead signaling the rain officially started. He quickly wraps up what he found, which was a key and a hammer (not much), and went as fast as he could towards the end of the settlement. As he was walking fast, he heard steps on the grass, somewhere near him. And then the whistle…That damn whistle started again. As if a person was walking around him in the dark, slowly, and whistling. He started pointing his flashlight around him trying to find the source. He yelled again and the steps and whistle stopped as well. Michael also stopped. He was pointing the flashlight all around him, sweating, or just wet from the rain.

It thundered again and in that glimpse of a second, when all of the surroundings were lighten up, he could see in the distance…something. He wasn’t sure if it was an animal. It wasn’t bipedal anyways. He pointed his flashlight were he saw the thing and…it looked like, an animal. Like a small animal, just standing, staring at him.

Then it started whistling again and slowly, slowly, walking towards him. It was a person! A…a…human being…walking on his legs and hands, like an animal. It was naked. Michael dropped his flashlight in a strong glimpse of fear. He heard the steps, through the darkness going faster and faster.

He completely forgot about his flash-light and ran in the opposite direction, which was back to his grandparents’ house. He couldn’t see anything so he was just blindly running away. He tripped a couple of times but his fear was so alive in him, his instinct of survival, that he didn’t even care that he may have sprained his ankle, or cut his leg in some branches, he was just looking for a solid surface, a house!

He was blindly touching the walls, trying to find the door, while that human beast was still running pretty fast behind him, screaming with that eerie scream he heard a couple of hours ago. All he could hear besides the screams were his fingers scratching the walls, the rain, the sounds. Finally, he felt a wooden surface. It was the front door, and it was locked! Damn! With a fight-or-flight instinct, he immediately broke the door with his shoulder and went to hide inside of a small cabinet he knew it was right at the feet of the bed. It also had a key inside. So he quickly hid in that small, crawl space, and waited.

 Then, the door moved, slowly. As it could be heard, the beast was crawling on its four legs again, looking around the house. He could hear it breathe deeply, making short noises from once in a while as it was looking for him. He tried so hard to clench his breath, to not make any noise. Then the thing started whistling again, and it got up on its two legs, just standing, not doing anything. From time to time, he could see what was happening inside of the room, as it was thundering and there was a fraction of a second of light, every one or two minutes. Then the beast went over to the bed, while still whistling. Whistling in high tones, then low tones. He could hear as that crazy person was carving inside of his grandparent’s flesh, fingering their insides. It then went to a wall and he could hear as the beast was carving something on the wall. For a fraction of a second, Michael could see again the inside of his room through a crack of the cabinet’s door and was able to see who that thing was. It was a human, a man. He was naked, and hairless, like a big newborn. It also looked to be very tall and muscular, almost like a tribe’s man, like a cave man.

After finishing carving on the wall, it went back on its four legs and got out of the house. Michael was still petrified, as he didn’t understand what was happening, and he also didn’t have anything on him anymore. He waited to make sure the thing was far away. He was afraid that it might have waited for him outside. As he was looking through the crack, in the sheer blankness of his room, a thunder came about, lighting the inside of the house once again, and in that glimpse of a second, he could see, clear like the sound of the thunder, written on the wall, with the blood of his grandparents’ the sentence: