Cadmionn

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window.

The light seemed to dwindle and flicker through the dirt stained glass dancing about as if it were an invitation, a subtle wave and nod towards Lucey to enter. Blood still oozed forth from the gaping wound in her neck. Attempts at clasping it shut with her dominant hand began to weaken. A pining and bellowed screech echoed from the distance, cascading throughout the ancient deodar cedars and the vastness of the dark night. “HROWWWW!” The new moon didn’t offer any visibility, save for the starry sky and the twitching flame signaling Lucey from the derelict cabin. Faint and growing weaker by the minute, her mind hindered by confusion, desperate for answers as to what happened during the spell. Lucey journeyed a long way through these morbid woods still unsure of the shadowy spirit’s whereabouts since the split occurred. “HRRROWWWWW!” She lifted a blood drenched arm, curling it over the right shoulder, making certain the grand rod was still straddled over her backside. The priestess’ soiled left hand clenched the aged leather satchel swaying from her hip, still nurturing the Book of Elders in it’s womb. A sigh of relief emitted from her heaving and panting as her escape for survival continued onward. A violent shriek erupted from the distance shocking Lucey’s nerves, causing her body to convulse with fear as she collapsed onto her back from the hellish scream. Now crawling on all fours and desperately clawing for any weapon as her head frantically swiveled in all the cardinal directions. At first, Lucey’s fingers thrusted about only grabbing loose soil, twigs, and dead branches. Suddenly, she halted all movement, bearing witness to the phenomenon before her. A violently luminous glow emanated forth from the peak of Solon’s Mountain, just beyond the tree line, blasting upward towards the night sky. Once covered in nebulous dark clouds, now glowing under the hue of an inter-dimensional color. Green, red, and magenta collided together creating an otherworldly glow in the atmosphere. Lightning, then thunder followed which crackled and split through the freezing night air just before the earth began rumbling. “No. Noooooo!” she shouted with regret and anger, both festering together.

Lucey scattered a few more feet until she gained momentum and enough strength to stand with the help of an old tree trunk, one of many silently bearing witness to the event taking place in their ancient house, the Woods of Cadmionn. Continuing her desperate trot, eventually melting into a debilitating stagger towards a secluded cabin, she finally slammed against the door. Her bloody hands pounding for entrance. “Open the door, PLEASE! Open the door, NOW. Please, help!” Only silence responded. Lucey rushed to the window. “HRRROWWWWW!” The bay of a ghastly hell-hound, or whatever evil came from that mountain bellowed throughout the ancient woodland once again. Lucey sprinted to the westward side of the cabin, slamming against the window pane, wiping the aged dirt gathered across and collecting for decades, maybe a century. Lucey’s cleaning attempt only worsened the visibility as blood smeared from her gaping jugular wound, now mixing with earthen soot and soil. “Come on, come on!” she said, growing more irritable and frantic by the second. Forced to wipe away the unwanted clay-ish mixture with the hood of her sacred cloak only dawned during rituals. Finally, an oval opening guaranteeing the promise of clear sight. Lucey crowded her filthy, blood drenched hands over her face as they pressed into the stained glass. Yet, the view would only offer the promise of a dwindling flame now taunting her from inside the empty cabin. No other human in sight save for a small table and bowl set atop, now full of an alchemized, black-ish powder of fine mold, which Lucey was sure contained fruit only decades before. A process only patience and time could perfect. “Nooo!” She scrambled to the ground searching for anything to smash open the window for entry. Finally a decent stone, resting underneath dead branches. Lucey lugged the dense collection of sediments over her shoulder before using all her might, tossing it through the glass. THRASHHH! The sound pierced through the earth’s rumbling and shaking, now periodically announcing itself making it harder for Lucey to keep balance. Her stone landed with a thud, then thump onto the hardwood floor. Now it was up to her to finish the job, kicking down sharp shards of glass, save for one, hoping to use it as a dagger if need be.

Voices from beyond this midnight hour and blackest of nights suddenly taunted Lucey.

“We’ve been watching you. Stay with us…Stay with US!”

Lucey quickly turned towards the tree line as a multiplicity of etheric voices sliced through the air like a knight’s battle blade through its enemy’s neck. She could spot the tree tops bobbing one-by-one closer to her. As if something was plowing past them gaining immense ground and power in her direction. “HRRROWWWWW!” This god awful shriek sounded closer than the previous horror. The time was now, as Lucey desperately climbed into the cabin, first crawling onto the window’s ledge before losing balance and plummeting to the floor harder then her stone had landed. “Huh-Ahhhh” spewed from her mouth as the fall sucker punched breath from her lungs. A torturously wretched pain rushed to her backside and hands lead by a series of audible crushing and snaps. She prayed to the Elders that it wasn’t a broken bone or worse, a snapped rod. She flung an arm over her backside, as a dancing hand straddled the full length of the Grand Elder’s staff, still in its entirety. An excruciating sharp pain etched into her leg before she could raise it. “My Elder!” Lucey shouted at the horrible sight of skeletal remains. Only a few rested whole and undamaged by the landing. Yet, several skulls danced about, rocking back and forth from her crushing blow. Lucey couldn’t help but witness their dusty and discolored heads partially decorated in a dark red ink. She turned to her cloak, now fully drenched by her own blood. Her first notice of the immense amount escaping her body. Fighting back shock, a sense of airiness rushed to her head. She stumbled to the table, quickly using it as a prop to hold herself up. Her vision began to blur causing those horrid skeletons to double in quantity. “What was this thing?” she thought to herself. Her initiation was going so well, the incantation was spot on, or she believed. Then, suddenly, the ground gave way and began cracking, crumbling, and splitting beneath them just before its, black, arachnid like fingers crept out from the darkest corner of that mountain. Tormenting and feeding on her coven one by one. First their hearts, just as it did Elder Bridgida, the mentor, whose breasts were slashed off by its coal colored claws before ripping through her chest, right in front of Lucey. Then it fed on their heads. Elder by Elder, as their bodies twitched and trembled about from nerve endings still in shock. It sucked out whatever was left from their dying corpses still battling through trauma. Lucey thought quickly, braving through a field of wretched screams to grab the Book of Elders and the Rod of Ófréon. Just as she fled to escape, it leaped on to her with it’s arachnid hands and shadowy form. “Some disembodied spirit from the netherworld? Maybe.” she thought to herself. Trying to suck and feed from her brain, she struggled with the entity, only upsetting it more as it launched back an enormous and ghastly claw, thrusting towards Lucey’s neck and leaving a gaping wound. Now, even thirstier from the flowing blood of the youthful priestess. Lucey could only think to use the rod as a weapon instead of it’s true purpose. Still, this was enough as the staff’s might and power made hard contact with the ghoul. “A Gormenghast!” erupted form her mouth and throbbing head. The woodland was known for these spirits wondering in and out from the netherworld. Guardians, no, but tormentors thriving on chaos as their nectar; fear as food. Cursed they were to wander this wretched land of slain men, yea, even kings who committed dark deeds.

“HRRROWWWWW!” Suddenly the wretched call, for the first time, appeared to surround the cabin. Creeks and cracks slowly echoed, slivering through the walls then roof of its weakened cedar structure. Lucey removed the ancient staff, relieved that it survived the arduous journey in one piece before resting it on the wall for safe keeping. Quickly, she snatched the sacred book from her satchel and side-swiped the decrepit fruit bowl off the table leaving only a cloud of black moldy powder. The Book of Elders stuck a hard landing from its weight and immense binding before she frantically flipped through pages. This sacred grimoire of the coven now made sense. Certain pages were always stained with blood, which Lucey never received an answer for, until now, as her hands officially stamped the ancient pages with new blood…hers. “Where are you? Where is it?! Here! The Spell of Ófréon the Cadmionn,” she said aloud with a victorious reassurance. “Stay with us. Don’t leave us.” The taunting whispers erupted from inside the cabin and into Lucey’s mind. “Ahhh, get out! Nowww!” angrily she announced with stained hands clasping her head. She couldn’t help but stagger backwards as she felt those disembodied voices seeping through the fontanel or her own skull and into her mind’s eye. “HRRROWWWWW!” came another belting screech followed by intense hammering over the cabin’s thatched roof. “C’mon, C’mon, C’mon!” could only be expressed as she felt the panic and terror from this monstrosity closing in. “Focus Lucey, bloody focus,” she commanded of herself. A combination of mystical sigils and triangular symbols covered the pages surrounded by a language only known to the coven’s Elders. An understanding she was just beginning to comprehend before the split occurred and massacre began. “No, no, no , no , no! How am I supposed to close it. I have to stop it!” she yelled at herself. THWACK, THWACK, THWACK! Pounding from the rooftop erupted. Lucey knew the Gormenghast was only taunting her, for it could travel through various realms, let alone float through any solid object, such as a flimsy old wall. No, it wanted fright to build within Lucey, making this decrepit spirit’s feast all the more delightful. The young initiate clambered her fists into tight balls. Her drying blood created an adhesive keeping them shut before she pounded both over the table. “NOOOO!” she belted towards the heavens. Her hope dwindling like the candle flame that twinkled about from the window seal before breaking and entering. “HRRROOWWWWWWWW! “We’ve been watching you. Stay with us…Stay with US!” An army of voices announced from the room once again. Her fit of rage only exacerbated the wound as more blood gushed forth from the gouge in her neck. She quickly swiped away the sweat, mucus, and tears using the sleeve of her soaked cloak. THWACK, THWACK, THWACK…THWACK, harassed Lucey as this cursed demon pounced atop the structure before a portion of the roof finally collapsed. The horrified priestess clenched her shoulders tightly as they nearly tapped her ears while beams of snapped cedar wood crashed behind. She made sure to keep her eyes away, only allowing her back to face the sadistic succubus. Lucey pressed her limbs firmly, keeping all body parts close and intact. A last ditch effort at protection. With no translator to close the spell, Lucey could only turn to those shattered and silent bones scattered over the floor, now covered by snapped wood and straw form the crash. “How long has this been going on?” The question rushed into her head. “These bones. Other priestesses, like me? How long has this spell been interrupted by this…this abomination?”

The widow like claws of its shadowy form crept forth over the edges of the roof’s gaping hole. Long, iron like talons, inched their way into the cabin, followed by a ghostly skull and ghastly body looming above the trembling Cadmionn. The cabin grew darker as the Gormenghast finally entered the desolate space. Lucey stood there, with back turned, still gazing with confusion at the Book of Elders. Unable to make sense of it if she tried. Frustrated, Lucey winced and scolded herself under the pressures of failure. The sudden realization of her desperate journey from Solon’s mountain top to this wretched cabin, only to meet her demise grew stronger. “AHHHH!” Lucey belted out before finally turning and facing the phantasmal wretch stalking her. Face to face she was as the Gormenghast floated above the floor. It was almost as if a shadowy cloak covered all significant features save for the gruesome claws that Lucey only knew all too well. It’s decrepit hands grew wider while its spidery fingers splayed open ready to suck the life force form her supple body. Lucey reversed, causing her to stumble over a skull and tumble onto her backside. It all proved perfect for the ghoul as it hovered toward her, ready to pounce on its fresh prey. Lucey, the Cadmionn, already weak from pints of dna draining out, could only use her bloodied arm as a shield, a desperate effort for protection. “HROOWWWWWWW!” touted the Gormenghast, like an alpha wolf howling at the full moon. Lucey could only save time by continuing to crawl backwards little by little until she collided with the wall. “HROOWWWWWWW!” The Gormenghast inched ever closer. “We’ve been watching you. Stay with us…Stay with US!” The voices continued to hound Lucey as they filled the collapsing cabin. Suddenly, a hint of subtle light began pulsing within the tiny space. Lucey turned towards the source. A golden claw encasing a loaf sized obsidian crystal, continued to grow in luminescence. “The rod of Ófréon? How did…but I didn’t do anything.” she replied with confusion while gazing at the strobing staff still resting safely on the wall. Lucey couldn’t help but notice the gold claw, encasing the magical obsidian, resembled those same vicious talons that swiped at her, stealing a chunk of flesh. As quickly that Great Elder’s rod flashed, did a distant memory enter her mind. A story her guardian told when she was barely old enough to even watch an Elder Coven. She considered it myth or remnants of a legend during that solstice night when Ófréon ceased to be; vanishing from the center of the grand circle only leaving his rod behind. Only those sacred eleven, the first coven, remained after Ófréon’s disappearance. Left they were, to spread the details of that fateful solstice, under the halo moon. Tales survived through family and with every generation that passed it altered slightly. Then, at this very moment, the idea dawned on Lucey, the Cadmionn. Like a distant voice from the coven suddenly sinking into her mind. This was the reason for the rod. “We’ve been watching you, stay with us.” The voices echoed again. “That voice…the Elders…. Ófréon?” Lucy questioned herself. “Yesssss. We’ve been watching you…Come to us.” Voices vibrated towards Lucey from the Grand Elder’s rod. The crystal suddenly strobed with light as the floor gave way, splitting right underneath Lucey. She rolled to her right avoiding a fall to an infinite abyss just as a beam of inter-dimensional light blasted through the opening. Green, red, and magenta collided together creating an otherworldly glow inside the crumbling cabin. Lucey gazed upward at the beam, in shock and amazement. “The same light from Solon’s mountain. The coven. They didn’t die. They’re here.” Her epiphany finally arrived. “The Great Transcendence! My Elder! It’s real. They all achieved what Ófréon did!” She hovered her hand inside the obsidian’s flashing rays. An etheric hand levitated form her human hand. “My Elder! My formless form.” She said with wild amazement, gazing in astonishment at the most sacred aspect of a Cadmionn. Lucey’s spiritous and glowing hand pointed towards the rod’s crystal, now burning brightly with enough light to illuminate a whole village. “Come….Come to us….QUICKLY!” The voices of the Elders spoke with eagerness and determination.

“HROOWWWWWWW!” The Gormenghast thrusted towards Lucey with thirst and hunger. It thrusted its talons, stabbing into her fleshy backside. “AHHHHH!” A horrid scream came forth as she felt something akin to iron hooks ripping through her ritual cloak and slicing her bare back. It wasn’t until now that the she realized that this was all part of the Elder’s plan. She was to escape with the book of Elders, the Rod of Ófréon, into this very cabin, where the flame of eternal light flickered onward. This was her mission. Every initiates test. To vanquish a Gormenghast, and journey to the next stage of a Cadmionn. Lucey thrusted her arm towards Ófréon’s rod as this foul ghoul of the netherworld, the bane of everything sacred, feasted on her shoulder blade before ripping out a patch of her beloved burgundy braids, exposing her naked scalp. “AHHHHH!” Her erect arm, now violently trembling as she felt her own life force escaping as the Gormenghast feasted.

The pulsing staff of light rested on the wall a good cubic’s distance away. Stretching her hand until it nearly ripped from the joint didn’t help nor work. As this curse of man’s ignorance pinned the young priestess downed before moving to her head, Lucey laid helpless. Struggling and squirming under it’s awful strength as it drained hers, she could only wait until her last night was done. Flashbacks erupted in her mind’s eye. One by one, like a blazing show of fire lights. Childhood, her guardians, Elder training….the Scribe Hor-Tence, her love. Tears streamed from Lucey’s eyes as the horrible pain of being eaten alive deemed unbearable. Yet, worse was the terror of her screams unheard as she lay dying, alone, save for the curse of men’s evil deeds that drooled over her head, gripping it with widow like fingers. “Remember….REMEMBER!” Voices erupted from the dark crystal. Lucey’s face was smothered with claws, only able to see with one exposed eye, she realized the light was addressing her. The Elders delivering a message. Suddenly, a lasting memory came forth. Solon’s mountain peak blasted forth in her inner vision. Ófréon’s rod stood center stage, the Elder’s recited the spell, Lucey held the book for Bridgida, the mentor. She could still feel the energy from her loving eyes as they offered comfort to a nervous initiate. Her inner feeling, just couldn’t shake a terribly dark energy looming about. Then she remembered that final part of the spell, just before the Gormenghast emerged from the darkest pit of that cavernous peak. “RIGHA, RIGHA, RIGHAAAAA!” Bridgida and the eleven Elders shouted, commanding in unison as the ground shook and gave way for that cosmic light blasting forth from underneath. “The Rod of Ófréon!” erupted from Lucey’s mind. She recalled how the same crystal split into eleven rays, striking the eleven Elders before they all collapsed, soon to become food for this abomination. Their formless forms were here, now, inside the crystal. “The gateway to the other realm!” Lucey thought loudly. Her mouth still shut closed, covered by this damnation’s heavy hand.

The Gormenghast lifted back her head causing Lucey’s spine to bend backwards. Then, she remembered the glass just as her back was pulled like an archer cranking a bow causing her to partially lift off the ground in excruciating pain. Frantically she reached for the belt around her cloak, before feeling it’s sharp point, still fresh from the shattered window. Lucey clenched it with her dominant hand as the raw edges sliced through her skin. This pain seemed incomparable to the agony of being eaten alive by a Gormenghast. Lucey snatched the broken shard from her waist and stabbed it into the Gormenghast’s hand with dagger like precision. The only part of its grotesque form allowing it to latch onto the the land of the living. “HROOOOOOOWWWW!” exploded forth from this wraith before it released Lucey’s body, clambering to remove the jagged knife of stained glass. The priestess’s head collapsed, colliding with the old floorboards. She could still see the cosmic light rising from the crevice that split the floor from wall to wall. Otherworldly red, green, and magenta collided and swirled together creating a feeling of crossing over into the EverLife. So many stories she could recall of the Grand Elders speaking of such wonders and visitations. “No. Come. Come to Us” The voices of the eleven Elders announced to her once more. Their chants echoed and rang in Lucey’s mind. With her back continuing to bleed out, and shoulder blade gnawed off, Lucey, the Cadmionn, attempted to call forth those magical words. “Righ- -.” Choking interrupted her command, followed by a coughing fit as blood spewed forth. Suddenly her body was yanked back before she was violently flipped onto her raw and torn backside. “AHHHHH” she screamed from the excruciating pain. Lucey could now bear witness to the Gormenghast’s anger as it finally freed the desperate weapon from it’s wretched hand. It was now or never for Lucey as the ghoul that decimated the corpses of her Elders was finally ready to abolish her as well. “Come…Come…..Hurry. Come to us.” The voices urged. Lucey summoned all her might, battling through pain and cries before belting out…. “Righa, Righa, RIGHAAAAAAA!” The call of the Cadmionn, Lucey, the priestess, rang boldly that darkest of nights. Yet, all suddenly turned bright as an immense ray of light emitted from Ófréon‘s crystal, colliding with Lucey.

The Gormenghast, unaffected, finally launched towards its prey before clenching the priestess’ head and feasting on her brain. Her legs twitched and kicked violently as her arms flailed about, yet it’s humongous, wide finger fangs, continued to suck the life force from this, once, magical corpse. Lucey, the young priestess, the Cadmionn, levitated above, watching the gruesome spectacle that was her deathly demise. Her luminous formless form, hovering above the murderous scene. Like a dream it was to her. Something lying in-between the fulfillment of a nightmarish prophecy and the reward of that wish fulfilling gem she always carried. “Come, come…come. We are here.” The voices rang out. Lucey’s spiritous form, the most sacred aspect of the Cadmionn, turned towards the Rod of Ófréon. Now, finally, she could almost see those eleven Elders through the crystal’s light. Bridgida, the mentor, waving her pupil onward. “You must continue. Join us….Join us.”

Lucey floated towards the Obsidian, ablaze with the sacred light of the Elders. “HROOWWWWWW!” Screeched the Gormenghast who could spot Lucey’ formless form, yet could do nothing, only continue to feast on her mangled and decapitated corpse in the realm of the living. Suddenly, a hard rumble gave way. The crevice opened wider, as the cosmic light of red, green, and magenta intensified. What seemed to be a portal of some kind, suddenly became vacuum, engulfing all and everything. The table, that moldy fruit bowl, chairs, all disappeared into whatever laid waiting in the glowing abyss below. “The netherworld.” she thought to herself. Lucey witnessed her lifeless body being sucked away, down into its depths. The Gormenghast stabbed its claws into the floorboards as the shadowy form began drifting into the fabulously lit split. Even this ghoul that haunted this realm couldn’t fight off its demise. Lucey gazed on as it struggled to claw away from the vacuum that was intensifying. The ghostly form of the Gormenghast stretched an twirled inside the split that gave way, slowly but surely vanishing into the pit until its claws were ripped from the floor. “HROOWWWWWW!” The phantom yelped as Lucey gladly observed the grand demolition of the evil that haunted her Elders and the woods of Cadmionn. Down it went, back into the dungeon of the netherworld, unable to feast on anything living or thriving with passion and desire. “Come…..Come to us.” Lucey finally drifted towards the Obsidian crystal of Ófréon, carried on it’s light ray. Slowly, but surely, her formless form dissolved away with the likes of that Grand Elder over a millennia ago. The priestess, Lucey the Cadmionn, finally vanished.

Suddenly the opening of the floor began to close shut as the cosmic light carrying hues of red, green, and magenta slowly dimmed until all was dark again in the partially demolished cabin. The atmosphere laid quiet and bare. The rod, which observed and counseled calmly, now mysteriously missing as well. Instantly, a candle spontaneously appeared atop the busted window seal, as a dancing and flickering flame ignited from the naked wick. The fire flame ablaze, dancing about. A signal to any and all who dare approach, possibly the next Cadmionn.