Bleak Hill

CH XVI "The Revengier Tale"

"IT has its roots in the 17th century. There were not too many data about it, most of it is described as a myth." Lily opened her backpack and took out multiple crumpled papers.
"You have to understand that I am not sure that this is the cult we saw... Or that it's a cult that actually existed and was more than a figment of imagination in some people's minds, or a scary story they told their children. I cannot be sure about any of it. Now then, the markings I saw looked something like that. At least that's how I recall it."

She grabbed one of the papers and un-crumpled it . She had drawn a symbol of an upside cross with a bird on the upper half of it.

"We searched in multiply cult books, religion books..."

"Historical documents on murders by said groups..." Rafael intercepted and smiled at Lily.
"And we found nothing."

"Wait then why..." Tom started speaking but Lily interrupted him.

"We found nothing until I searched the folklore and myth section. Apparently in the 17th century, there was this supposed scary tale about a cult under the name Revengier, that each summer, in the warmest day of the year, used to abduct one untouched young female and sacrifice her at the reaping. There is part of the tale in one of the books."

"You mean they killed her?" said Beth with her eyes wide open.

"Well, yes. They were dark magic followers, murdering a virgin is the stereotypical sacrifice, Beth." Rafael stared at Beth with obvious dislike. Beth stayed still, unnaturally avoiding his gaze.

"What was the reaping?"

"Well, Tom, the reaping was the biggest celebration, where they would ask for protection against tulpas. Now, you may wonder, what exactly the tulpas are, well, I found something about um..." She took another sheet of paper, "tulpas being thought forms." Lily stopped for a little bit and started grabbing dozens of papers with a terrifyingly decisive look on her tiny face, "Let me explain a little more..." she glanced at Rafael who was utterly concentrated on her words.
"Some people believe that each definite thought produces a double effect- a radiating vibration and a floating form. The latter is what produces a tulpa- a living being created only by thought."

Everyone was dead silent. I felt fear crippling in our dimly lit room. I shook it off quickly. I would not be weak. Not anymore. Thais is all I wanted- a lead. I would follow it no matter where it took me.

"Can you read the tale as it was written?" said Rafael, while putting on his glasses.

"Um... Sure I guess." Lily cleared her throat and took a really old looking book out of the backpack. Its cover was dark blue with golden letters on it, but Lily opened it fast, so I didn't get to read what was on the cover. She opened the book in the middle and found the page she was looking for with blind ease which made me think how much time she had spent with it.

"Rough'r is their skin,
tough'r in their eyes,
curs'd art those who is't i am speaking of.

at which hour did sweat drips,
at which hour windeth is nay m're,
those gents cometh to receiveth the female innocent at corse and soul.

doth not catch but a wink tight, and beest acknown
yond those gents might cometh because those gents crave thy blood."

"This really, really creeps me out guys." Beth had stiffen up, fear painted all over her face.

"Well thank God you weren't there that night then." Rafael responded somewhat indifferently.

"Okay, so the tale says that their skin and eyes are tough, probably a metaphor for them being brutal. They are cursed, which makes sense since they slaughter innocents and are not true beings, well  not true beings as perceived by most people. Sweat dripping is..."

I couldn't concentrate on Lily's analysis anymore. I did not want to interrupt her either, because I was holding on to the information I was provided with, filtrating every single one of them, trying to read between the lines. But something was indeed wrong, something did not make sense and I had to say it.

"But Lily, my aunt wasn't untouched, or I don't know, innocent at corse. On the contrary I heard she was quite open minded in college."

"Look, maybe it's about someone unmarried, or maybe it doesn't matter anymore, maybe it's just about blood being shed, or about someone innocent, or... I don't know, it may not be a cult at all Daniel. All we can do is speculate. She was a female and to my knowledge she was never married. I don't know about the warmest day of the year part but we can check that..."

"I'm on it!" exclaimed Rafael and left abruptly out the door.

"Does he ever act normally?" asked Beth.

"Not really." Said Lily and I simultaneously and Tom laughed.

"Is there anything else?"

"That's as much as I could find. And trust me it was hard, it really did not want to be found."

"I know Lil. Thank you."

"I don't need a thank you. I just want us to be safe."

"I can't believe how real this is." Said Beth. Tom looked at her and half smiled.

"Yeah, took me quite some time too."

We spent the day together waiting for Rafael who was absent for the most of it. I stayed sat most of the time, thinking about how can we use anything that we learnt and what were the chances of there being any truth in the Revengier tale. Tom left in the meanwhile, due to his work schedule, but Lily and Beth stayed in the kitchen. From time to time I heard a sparse laugh. I did not pay them much attention, I only occasionally answered their questions. As hard as I tried thinking what could we do, my mind was a complete blank. We had no leads on who these people were, no whereabouts of theirs, nothing. So I sat at our only flowery armchair and thought about everything and nothing until Tom returned with Rafael. Lily run to the door.

"So?"

"Unfortunately not."

"No?"

"No. The warmest day was on July 22nd. Our, um, encounter with them was on August 6th."

"Are you sure? Completely sure?"

"Yes, Lily I'm sure." He said somewhat angrily. Lily stayed there without flinching, or saying anything, but her face looked a bit puzzled.

"So does this mean that the whole cult thing does not apply to what you guys saw that night?"

"Probably not." Said Rafael.

"Listen," I started, "even if it was true, or partly true we honestly can do nothing. Nothing. We got nothing on them."

Silence fell across the room. Everybody stared at me probably waiting for some brilliant idea to juxtapose what I said only seconds ago. I stared at the ceiling for a couple of seconds, then closed my eyes. I did not know if we were safe. One of us was already dead. Maybe they saw us at the field. Maybe they know who we are. All of us may be in danger. Except Beth. She wasn't there that night. Her chances of surviving this were higher. At least for now we were together. Most of us.

"How about a game of monopoly?" I asked out of the blue.

And we sat all night playing, arguing, but mostly laughing, especially when Beth won three games in a row and Rafael started complaining that this is just like real life, and she could at least let us be rich in the game.