A Fury of Memory - Villain Novella II

Chapter 2

It was the same masked woman I saw from Gabe's memory, her dress tattered and torn by the forest brush, the rabbit mask still worn proudly like a permanent accessory for every occasion. Her body swayed like she was playing a song in her head as she approached our camp. Around her waist was a blade sheath and on the other what looked to be a burlap bag.

"Who the fuck is that?" Patrick whispers next to me.

I wanted to explain what I had seen but I couldn't, this was only a memory and I was simply a passenger. Past me simply states, "I don't know but she has to be from where McPiggy came from. That or it's National Wear Your Creepiest Mask While Camping Day."

Moving up to Hoghead she slowly leans down over his corpse, taking his severed head into her hands and leaning her own head on his. It is once again silent besides the sound of our own breathing and pulse in our ears.

Suddenly a horrible squeal erupts in the air, the same she unleashed when she chased Gabe with her army of carnivorous goats. In the flashes of illumination I see her shake with his head in her hands, a rage flowing through her, her voice cracking into a sob at the end. 

White Rabbit's quickly reaches for her knife and finishes decapitating the head with a lightning slash. Slowly she puts her knife away and raises the head with one hand while heading back to the campfire. Her free hand reaches in and grasps the remains of Gabe's head and holds it up alongside Hoghead's. 

The black beady eyes of the hare mask stare straight up at the ridge, as if sensing exactly where we were hiding. Her shrill is  loud as it echoes up to the ridge,  "I can't see you out there, but I can smell you. Your rotten stench matches your dear dead brother here. You have the blood of both of these men, of my babies on your hands.  What you did to me and my family will result in pain. Your death will not be as easy for you as it was for your brother here. Consider him the lucky one."

She just stood there, looking right at me through the darkness and I could feel her hate, her desire to destroy me. Slowly she lowers the heads into the burlap bag, ties it off and slings over her shoulder as she turns back towards the darkness from which she came. 

Once she has vanished Patrick looks to me, "Crazy ass rabbit came in from a different direction than Piggy, I bet we could follow her out of here to where they come from." 

"Unless she wants us to follow, it could be a trap, why don't we try to keep going up the way you guys traveled? For all we know she may leave false trails, traps, or keep it covered all together. I mean that is what we would do, she looked right up here knowing we were watching, that we would have to follow after her. "

Patrick shakes his head, "The brush up there is way is too thick and I am not confident I could find it in the dark. I say we follow her, I bet that way leads around to the house but is easier. It may be a trap but for all she knows there is only one of us. We keep our distance and follow any trail we can find from her. There is no way that girl in that clothing took a more difficult route than through that brush, trust me."

"OK, that makes sense, let's track her then. We need to know what we are up against. With Ron and Andrew out there somewhere we can keep an eye on any sign of them as well. Do me a favor and tell me what happened, you are a good liar but you are my brother and I can always tell when you're bull-shitting me. If we have any chance I need to know everything." 

He just stares at me for a moment, wanting to say something in retaliation but then sighs and nods. "OK then, no bullshit. I'll tell you what I remember but first let's get our shit and move before we give her too much of a lead."

Within five minutes we grabbed our smaller travel packs, put out the fire and moved after White Rabbit.  There was a trail, a clear one that almost seemed deliberate. We took our time to check the area, just in case she was hiding in the darkness ready to pounce. Pat started to tell me what I already had seen but the alive me was happy to be caught up. Once he got to what happened after he separated from Gabe I took keen interest. 

"I started to move through the field and endless stacks of smashed and totaled cars. It was really strange, especially out in the middle of nowhere. How did they get them all there you know? Like who the fuck are these people? Anyway, there were also countless buildings and some animals too, goats roaming around and shit. With the shrooms the goats eyes were alive and left trails behind them. The smashed cars and trucks were breathing..." 

"Is it a compound, is this some kind of cult?" I ask as I move low between trees. 

"Maybe, never really occurred to me till now. Anyway, I was about three-fourths around when I hear some noises behind the main house; crying, an animal scream that I guessed was sheep or goats since I had seen them around. This wasn't just a normal cry, it sounded like real pain. I started to move over in that direction and within minutes was about to move around back when..." He stops mid-way and just stares off.

"When what? Do you see someone, did you see what was happening?"

"No, that's just it. I can't recall what happens next. All I remember is waking up in the woods with a splitting headache like I was waking up from a bad hangover. No, more like I hit it on something. I was in the woods away from the house, deep in some brush where I couldn't see the farm compound anymore. I drifted down hill towards camp in case  Gabe had decided to head back. I made the fire hoping it will help signal him until you showed up. I didn't mean to abandon him, I just thought I was making the best choice at the time."

"I would have done the same thing, it makes sense to report back, that is what Ron always taught us." 

"Then why does it feel like I caused this, that I left Gabe alone to get caught by these psychos."

There was a silence that filled the heavy cold air as we hoped for the dimmest of daylight to help light the way. The body and mind of the alive me was calm and concentrated at the task at hand, at being alert to my surroundings.  

We continued to move as the clear tracks of White Rabbit leads through the woods to a destination we both anticipated and feared.