c h a p t e r n i n e .
Jude Evergreen
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JUDE WAS STANDING IN A LAKE OF SHALLOW, INKY BLACK WATER THAT ROSE TO HER KNEES, with no signs of life for what seemed like miles all around. Not a single mosquito hummed about, not a cricket chirped, not a bird called out. Time hung still, leaves caught mid-fall, the ripples upon the water frozen in motion.
The luna moon hung in the sky, its reflection on the water's surface absent, like it was never meant to be there at all. If she squinted closely, the craters on its distant surface almost formed a face. Almost formed a smile.
The trees were thick, menacingly so. They clumped together in such a way that the branches interlocked, revoking any promise of a viable way to enter the forest beyond, effectively trapping her within the confines of the lake. The sound of water sloshing, as she waded barefoot through the reeds and mud, was alarmingly loud, and yet it did not move- did not swish around her, did not ripple, did not splash.
Out here in the open, there was nowhere to go, nowhere to hide should some primordial creature be watching from the wall of trees. Out here there was no possibility of remaining silent when your only option was to head for shore, a feat unachievable without the creation of noise.
So, with no real choice, Jude made her way to the southern shore of the lake, picking her way through tangled reeds and bloated fish. Here the water spilled off onto the sandy bank and into a small creek, littered with fallen branches, foliage and stones.
A heap of rancid, rotting matter barred the way forth, its contents and origin undeterminable even as she drew near. Fur, flesh and bones were snagged between branches and trash, clogged between scrap metal, bicycles, old clothes, and other waste. Something had died here. Many things had died here, trapped as the trash swept them along, drowned and left to rot, collecting them like ornaments. Something evil clung to the air sullied by the stench, something wrong and vile. It forced her skin to prickle, and it did not want her here. Move on, the feeling screamed at her, do not linger lest you join them. It is beneath your concern.
Holding her nose, she climbed over the mound of garbage, the skin of her legs stained a deep, residual red left behind by the water.
Clumps of black fur, still tethered to slices of acrid flesh, scattered up the watery path forward. She had seen them before. Each one seemed like a new memory as she came across them, and something formed in her chest like a stone- sorrow? Heart ache? Remorse?
Guilt.
A wolf lay at the hollow base of a tree, where the creek came to an abrupt end. Black fur matted and torn, patches of it missing- lining the path back to the lake. Its muzzle rested gently in the water lapping against it. Eyes open. It whimpered, exhausted, as Jude knelt down by its side, pressing a comforting hand against the gash across its chest, bleeding black through her fingers. Bleeding into the water, becoming it. It flowed in waves but never seemed to end, as though the beast were trapped here, forever bleeding its heart out, forever trapped and alone. Its eyes, a rich and mournful amber, begged for relief. Begged for its end.
There was something familiar in those eyes, windows that allowed her to peer at the helpless thing inside. The thing in those eyes called her name, whispers on the wind, tickling the hairs on the back of her neck. In that moment she was not observing the fading light of a monster, but the slow, agonized passing of a once dear friend.
"You can't stay mad at me forever, Judy."
A voice broke through the trees, and as the girl looked up- there was no forest anymore.
There was only a cozy bohemian living room, the sway of beads hanging in the doorway and the mindless hum of the radio in the corner. There was Jude on the couch, mug of coffee turned cold. There was Destiny, who hovered in the kitchen over a little terrarium on the edge of the table by the window.
"I'm not," Jude rasped as reality reformed around her. "Mad at you- I'm not," she sighed, sitting the mug down on the coffee table, no longer interested in it. "I know it's not something you want to be involved in. I get that. It's dangerous to mess with and quite frankly, fucking scary now that I'm here"
"Well if you're not mad at me, then what's going on in your head?" she reached out, ringed fingers touching her shoulder lovingly. "What's got you all quiet? Not the Judy I remember."
The girl who used to yap a lot, the girl who used to beg Destiny to let her practice braiding hair, who used to climb on her lap at family gatherings, who used to pester her to play dolls, to play dress ups when Peter wouldn't and she had no one else to do it with. The little sister Des had always wanted. Had always considered her to be.
"Nothing. Just thinking, about how all this is gonna go" she answered. "If we're really going to get anything out of this."
"Well, with any luck we'll find something," Destiny answered as she plucked something from the terrarium, something small, pale and wriggling.
A maggot.
She could already feel her stomach churning, could already feel its slimy texture on her tongue, the way it squished between her teeth as she bit down, or perhaps the way it would squirm inside should she swallow it whole.
"Absolutely not," she balked.
"It's part of the ritual," Destiny murmured, her voice patient but firm. "It eats from your flesh and becomes one with your body. You eat it, and just maybe you'll be able to reclaim your memories."
Jude wrinkled her nose, recoiling slightly. "Ah. So that's what the guts were for," she said as she examined the now empty jar that once contained the entrails of her corpse, the ones that Peter had cut out.
The truth sat inside her, dead weight sinking deep into the pit of her stomach. She could feel the fear coiling inside of her, not of the maggot but of the realisation it inspired.
"I'm not sure how well it will work, given this is usually for contacting the deceased's spirit- and well, you're already here. Theoretically, this should give us something to work with."
Jude did not want to know what happened to her anymore.
Even from the bits and pieces she could string together from various split visions, she knew her end had been ugly and brutal and it didn't take a genius to guess it. She also knew, even deeper down than that, that gathering these memories would not bring her back from the dead, but merely force her to relive it all. All she wanted now was to find a way to get through this so that her spirit could move on to wherever the hell it was supposed to be.
Suddenly it wasn't a maggot twisting between Destiny's fingers, but an instrument of great terror. Her mouth went dry, and it felt like the breath in her lungs kept slipping away.
"I....I don't think I can, Des," she whispered. Her hands- palms itching from the sweat- trembled slightly, fists curled in her lap. "I don't want to see. I don't want to see what happened to me."
Roman and Peter wanted to know, to find whoever it was and stop them from doing it again. It was Jude who was left stuck in this limbo, knowing deep down there was nothing to be done for her.
Knowing how she died didn't matter. Knowing who killed her, in what way, in what brutal fucking way, didn't matter. All that mattered was getting her out of this place, this space between life and death, before she wilted away into some hellish ghoul forever.
"Maybe you don't have to," Destiny's expression softened in her contemplation. "What if I try it for you? See if I can find anything relevant to who your killer is. You don't have to see a thing."
"Would that even work?" Jude doubted.
"It might. Might not. But we came this far," the woman shrugged. Hopping up almost enthusiastically, she beckoned for the girl to follow her into the kitchen, where she pulled out a chair from the dining table.
"Oh, and you should probably tie me to the chair, just in case" she shrugged, almost as an afterthought.
As carefully as she could, Jude wrapped the rope around Destiny's torso and secured it at the back with several knots, ensuring escape would not be feasible while ensuring her safety.
Carefully the brunette tilted her head back, raising the squirming maggot to her tongue and dropping it into her mouth, swallowing it whole. Jude tried to imagine what it tasted like.
A few minutes passed, and the medium began to seize.
Her eyes peeled back into an ocean of bloodshot white, swallowed by the void in the back of her skull. An inky black substance bled into her scleras, overflowing like a plugged faucet- droplets running down a face that rapidly paled. Her eyes continued to spin in their sockets, completing the circle- irises emerging in two small dots of red amongst the black.
The witch's trembling ceased, and now she sat panting on the chair, the rise and fall of her chest evening out as a sense of calm settled over her. It was no longer Destiny looking back at her, no- her friend was long gone, somewhere in the chasm behind those demon eyes.
The smell of wet fur hit Jude first- earthy and sour as though it had been waterlogged for centuries. Then came a faint, creeping stench of something not quite dead but on its way there. For a moment she found herself back in the woods, trolling through sludge and debris, through water a deep dark shade of blood. For a moment she was back kneeling by the side of a wolf suffering through its eternal death.
It's here, Jude realised as a profound sense of familiarity washed over her.
Destiny's face had been draped in a sheet of deathly white skin, dark veins crawling up her neck and seizing her throat- snatching up her right to speak and claiming it for itself. She tilted her head to the side, the way a curious creature would examine something intriguing.
With a slow and guttural voice, so deep you'd almost have to strain to understand it, the wolf inside her spoke.
"You were mine."
No anger seemed to course through its tone, instead a calm and almost sad sound infiltrated the room. It looked at her as though she were a loss to be mourned, a wonder never experienced, a life never lived, a soul never saved. If she looked closely, Jude thought she could almost see its eyes glisten, right before the light returned, and black ink reverted to white.
A retched noise sounded from Destiny's throat as the woman lurched forward, hurling up black bile onto the linoleum.
Jude rushed over and pulled her hair back, rubbing her back while she got it out of her system. When it was over she helped her out of the chair, and promptly steered her far away from the open bottle of vodka on the table. She brought the brunette to her room, slow and steady, and just like a mother would for her child, tucked her blankets in for her.
After all that, Destiny Rumancek had no visions to report. But Jude wasn't stupid- she could see the deeply disturbed look in her eye, the look of someone who had seen something vile beyond comprehension. It was a look that spoke volumes, more than the sheen of sweat on her forehead or the chills racking her body. It was a look of sorrow.
So, Jude played along and did not ask questions.
It was evening by the time she stepped outside.
A red jaguar idled by the curb, the golden chariot of the prince leaning against it. He fixed his face with a usual grin as the girl drew near, a grin that never failed to reel her in, no matter the mood.
"Any luck?" he asked, smoke spilling from perfect bow-shaped lips. He regarded her with a look concealing something beneath it- concern, for the uncertainty of her future? Hope, that answers would finally start showing up? Fear, that perhaps they never would.
She shook her head, taking up his other side.
"Fuck," he muttered, flicking ash onto the pavement. He didn't sound angry, not really. Just tired. His eyes, viridian and shaded with a concerning lack of sleep, darted around as if to find a focus point or a purpose. And then those eyes found hers, and then Jude felt like she was drowning.
Drowning in a sick sense of guilt, because she didn't have the heart or stomach to tell him she wanted to give up.
"So, what do we do now?" he asked her, antsy in the wake of her silence.
She shook her head. She didn't have a clue. She didn't have a clue and didn't want to have a clue. Sleep, she wanted sleep. On the way home she closed her eyes and sidled up against the passenger side window.
She thought back to the dreams. To the wolf, to whatever had possessed the medium before. Jude couldn't shake the feeling that darkness and depravity wasn't the only thing Destiny had seen in her trance.
Nor was it the only thing hunting her.