The Town Whispers: Season 1

Chapter 21: The Lessons of Edith Blackleech Pt. 2

Angry

Disappointed

She could feel the good will with which she'd left the house - to entertain her mother's whim, because she loved her - slip away.

EDITH: Can you see it Mildred, my darling, my child? Can you see it? The way it wriggles and moves, the texture of it?

By then, the sky had begun to show light in the far east - the promise that morning had indeed come to The Fort - and Mildred could clearly see the shape of her mother, as she jumped into the center of the grove, where there was a break in the canopy, where the light ambient light there was filtered through.

As usual - she felt miles away from Edith - unsure of what her mother meant - not knowing where to look.

She looked for something that wriggled, but saw nothing - she stared intently at the earth, looking for worms - perhaps that's why her mother had dragged her all the way out to that god forsaken place, maybe there was some unusual clew of worms, that had surfaced and now lay like some disassembled thing, wriggling on the ground - desperately trying to pull itself together.

But she saw nothing

EDITH: Come here, and see - open your eyes, look now, and see.

Hesitantly she stepped forward

Besides the soft pattering of rain - the world felt dead. No frogs, no birds in the trees - nothing. In that spot, Mildred felt imprinted in a single second in time - where the sound of drizzling rain played over and over in a terrifying loop, she felt as if her feet were in quicksand and her head swam, as the world began to turn.

EDITH: Poor Mildred - my daughter - your eyes are glass orbs, in a face too sad. Your mind is melted by safety and society. Does it feel like razors on your nerves?

It did in fact feel as if the sharp edge of a razor was scraping against her nerves - a deep intense feel of unease, as her core buzzed, and hummed - her legs felt as if the bones might climb out from under her skin. Her skin was clammy and sickly.

EDITH: Can you see the way they move? The way they rub together, their bodies of liquid airy night, all fighting and sliding against one another.

EDITH: Look.

EDITH:  Into the trees.

EDITH: Between the Elms which my sisters and I planted - can you see them peek at you from the shelter of their forest temple?

EDITH: They want to know you Mildred - they want to help you throw away the burden of that cult of death named progress.

EDITH: I can help you - They can help you.

EDITH: Look Mildred, Look deep. Sip from it's cup with your eyes - widen your mind and know the truth.

EDITH: They have always been here. Before you and I - and they will be here long after.

EDITH: These are the Long Shadows which you serve - and whom also serve you.

EDITH: Do you see how they clamor for your attention?

She....could see..... The darkness that filled the empty places between bushes, and trees was static living - it was a pond overflowing with inky fish.

What had her mother done - what had Edith dragged her into?

Mildred was cornered - she stumbled into the center of the clearing where the flat rock she'd sat atop the last time she'd been there.

The edge of darkness encircled her and moved like a tornado twisting both ways.

The air was filled with the sound of a low humming - the low humming of many, many different voices - none of which she could discern from one another.

EDITH: Turn to me Mildred, Turn to me Mildred and know that Mother always knew best child -

Mildred turned to Edith - her mother was kneeling in the mud, with hands outstretched in front of her, palms turned up.

Her mother muttered words which were too quiet and quick for Mildred to understand, she stepped forward - afraid. She was overwhelmed by the movement in the trees - she didn't understand what was happening - it was all too much and she wanted it to stop - needed it to stop.

And it did.

As if she had commanded it all to stop.

[low rumble]

EDITH: Mildred Blackleech - daughter of Edith Blackleech.

EDITH: It's been so long that we've watched you grow.

Edith's mouth moved, but the voice that emanated from her throat was not hers.

EDITH: Do you know the plans we have for you? Can you feel it?

EDITH: Can you feel the strings at your joints pulling?

EDITH: Why do you fight it?

EDITH: You can never be rid of us - of...me.

EDITH: I am you - Mildred.

EDITH: I am what fills that place between bone and flesh and knits you together - I am that which walks in your footsteps, I am your shadow - and I am yours as you are mine.

Mildred's breath was panicked and ragged - it was all too much.

The light of dawn was now more than a promise in the far east - it had crested the hills, and light seeped in through the canopy of the trees - the walls of Sanctum, where the clearing gave way to wood and brush was still inky - but it was still - vibrating in place.

As Mildred looked at her mother - stunned, and stupefied, confused and scared - Mildred's shadow lay upon the ground, measuring the distance between mother and daughter.

The far away - low light of dawn, elongated Mildred's shadow - made her legs spindly and arms long.

Mildred wouldn't have noticed - she never noticed such things as the mark she left trailing her - a dark promise that she still lived - her shadow - had it not been for the fact that it too vibrated - like the forest around her.

She stared at it - eyes bulged - the whites around her iris, bloodshot, pupils dilated in fear.

She must have been imagining it - it couldn't be-

Mildred stood still as she watched it move.

It popped and clicked - a little at first - then more. A finger dug it's way from the ground - that monstrous imitation of Mildred slowly pulled free of the sucking gravity of the earth - it twitched - trying to imitate the way it should move, the way Mildred moved - it had watched her for so long - but still it couldn't get it right.

Edith's mouth began to move again - as that voice - wriggled from her throat.

EDITH: I have watched you cry. I have felt your pain. I know what you want - What you truly want. And I can give it to you. You don't even need to ask.

EDITH: Just do not protest.

EDITH:Why doesn't she love you Mildred? Why can't she love you, and hold you? Why is she so odd and peculiar? Why must mother be so cruel?

EDITH:  Don't. Worry. Mildred.

EDITH:  I can keep her safe - lock her away - where she'll be taken care of - where she can't be weird Edith Blackleech.

EDITH: Poor Girl - Mildred never had a chance with a mother as cracked up as Edith.Look at her clothes - look how dirty she is - She could have been so beautiful, if she only had a real mother. .

EDITH: It's okay - I am always at your heels - Always there waiting to meet you when you fall. I can do what you won't.

EDITH: Just don't say a word

Shhhhhh.

Mildred's shadow stood lumbering in front of her - out of time with Mildred's own breathing, and muscle spasms but trying to imitate her all the same.

She stood silent - as tears trickled down her face, and her tongue remained tightly clamped between her teeth.

Her shadow - The Long Shadow - turned - still attached to Mildred, as it's legs trailed into the earth, connecting naturally at the bottom of Mildred's own feet.

Standing over Edith it began to envelope her -

Mildred watched silently as it's long exaggerated fingers - flat and dark, slipped thin and paper like underneath Edith's eyelids -

She watched in horror, as it's elbows twitched and moved with the strain of its work.

Shhhhh. 

EDITH: Don't say a word Mildred - Look away like you always do. Go home and I'll be with you again soon.

Edith convulsed, as the final words spilt from her lips. Her body twitched and spasmed, as Mildred's shadow continued to work.

Mildred turned away dumbstruck and shocked.

She walked into the sun - back east towards home - She was alone - for the first time in her life, she was completely and utterly alone.

No shadow following at her heels. 

...

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