A week before the full moon, CHAPTER 3

A WEEK BEFORE THE FULL MOON

         Daphne looked at the house where Grandpa was. It was as if her eyes would not shift from there. I was afraid, of what she was saying,"You have to go there?"

         I knew what was to happen, I had seen it before. I would go there, and never return. There was something worry some about the house. where he lived, it was nothing to desire, ta do. Even our tar paper shack had a good roof on it his did not.I did not know if it was his house that created the pretents of evil, but something did.

         No one in our community said any thing in opposition to him.It seemed odd that he was the oldest member of the community, No one dared to speka ill of him.


         Grandpa did not seem at all happy, that I was asking questions about my father vansihing. There was no place for him to have gone. Other then the dense wood of the marsh. I know, he had gone to see Grandpa as I was there when he left to do this. I saw him arrive there. Grandpa seemed upset at him for some reason, that I could not hear from where I stood on the road. Grandpa lifted his fist at pa. So, I knew he was not impressed with him. Pa grabbed his arm and drew it back to where belonged.

          I decided I would no go and see what he wanted. I decided this while I was on the road heading there, I shifted my weight to my opposing foot to turn around and head back home. Looking back at Dauphne who was on the porch looking at me as I began my trek to his place.

         The bullrushes that grew there were suddenly over my head in growth, however they were at my shoulders with their heads full of seeds in places. They all towered over me. They were so tall, that I could not see what was behind me, The shoots grew behind me too. To seal off the rut upon which I had just stepped forward from. I tried to step through them, but they were harder than my foot and body mass was unable breach them.

         The began a huge forceful wind that ravaged the plants and the animals alike. People headed inwards to their shacks to stay out of it. Clouds began to roll in. The wind was blowing in the direction of the rut in the road, the only thing I could see was his house. The rest of the road was swallowed up by the grass and stalks of the bullrushes that grew there.

         But a moment ago, I could see to the end of the road. Now all I saw was his house and the path across the bullrushes to it.

         I stepped backwards the plants wrapped around my ankle, knee ad thigh to not allow me to move there. They drew my to turn towards the road that was still clear of the growth. I tried to fight it's intentions.Found I was unable too.

         I was about to turn back. The bullrushes seemed to have grown appendages of their own to hold my steadfast in my journey there. Their leaves and stalks tore at my skin and clothes, to impede me. On my journey back. The rut was gone that I was walking in. The grass in the middle of the two ruts was now taller than I was. I tried to step past it. Found my foot was unable to.

         I thought, 'Alright! I will continue on!"

         When I looked at my house, I was unable to see it standing there. It was as if it had not been there. The only thing I saw was the bullrushes as they stood their like sentinels guarding every where, but where I was going. The other shacks were invisible thanks to the plants, that had grown larger as soon as I stepped onto the rut causd by the wheels of the wagons, carriages and vehicles' tires.

         I turned around to walk upon the rut to get to his house. The storm subsided. The bullrushes turned into bullrushes again. However I knew I was unable to turn around and go back. They decided that for me. I looked over my shoulder to see them rapidly regrow to their newly found hieght.

         I stepped toward on the rut I was now on. I thought about returning, the step I was about to take stopped. The foot that was on the ground, seemed no longer to touch the ground. It was as though there was nothig under it. When I looked down to see it. I saw the earth spread and separate from where my foot had been resting. I sank. Plummeting into the hole, where my foot was. Was to my knee. Beneath the earth.

         It swirled and spilled back from whence it had come. I tried to joustled my foot. Only to find that it was unable to move in this soup like earth. It seemed as though my foot weighed a stone tonne. The more I struggled the deeper it sank.

         The muck seemed intent on swallowing me, whole. I was struggling like a heavy weight contender to escape from its deathly grasp. The muck closed its maw on my shoed foot and legs. I sank up to my knee. I was unable to move.

         As I struggled the further I went into the quagemire of muck. I was beyond my knee. I was still sinking like nugget of gold on a panner's pan. I lost my balance to fall face first into the ground. I had sunk up to my top of my thigh in the mud. My leg was encased in the earth. The other was bent to try and keep me from sinking any further.

         I opened my mouth to scream,"Daphne!"

         Dauphne was no longer on the porch; she was where I was when I started heading towards grandpa. She was upon the ruts, she did not see what was before her, The grass rose and concealed everything before her when she looked at me.
She no longer saw me.

         Her heard my scream, she tore through the grass and bullrushes whose leaves and blades were sharp enough to draw blood from her body as she tried to journey to where I was. My voice sounded distant. She drew up the matchette that hung from her belt. She began to cut through the stalks of the bullrushes. They were tremendously hard to cut through.

         She did not know, where I was. Unable to see thanks to tremendous growth o fthe plants. She stepped forward, the plants grew behind her to conceal her from the rest of the community.

         The dank putrid water slipped into my mouth. I gasped. It did not taste any way imaginable to taste. I sank up to my chest, in the earth and water. Daphne felt something warm close about her ankle. She looked down to see my hand as it closed upon her ankle. She turned about to grab my arm to keep me moored to the surface. Her hand fell upon my forearm, she pressed her nailed hand into my forearm. Tearing a huge rent in my arm from the force of her hand holding there.

         She stepped forward, she was bent over to remain standing. She knelt there to try and secure me to the ground, where she stood. I heard a gut wrenching sound of a door opening. I heard it, it was to my left above where I lay. I looked through the water like earth to see grandpa walk onto his porch to arrive on the rutts that had served as a road.


         I peered up through her bent jean encased legs to see grandpa walking towards her. He did not even look at me, his face had an appearance of concern on it as it rested on Daphne. She despised him and all he was worth. She turned around to glare at him. She screamed,"Help him!"

         Grandpa smiled through his yellowed and decayed teeth, at her as she stood there, leaning over so, her cleavage was exposed to his eyes. He licked his cracked and broken lips as he reached out to grasp her by her right shoulder and bicept, He snarled"Let him die!"

         "You will not, let him die! You godless bastard!" she bellowed as she twisted further to pull me from the murky water. lashed out at him with long talons to cause him to feel her outrage.          

         "Maybe, I would! If you sleep with me! For an enternity! You are mine! He will live!"

         "Fine! I will do it!"

         "Come, with me! Now!"

         "No!"

         My head and arm protruded from the rut. The rest of me was beneath the earth. I found that I could not move, so much as an inch further. I could feel my body being encased in the ground as if it was as strong as steel. It was growing tighter and tighter about my body.

         The others in the community looked at me. They were petrified by what they saw of me, there. Several of them approached were I had lain just below the surface of the road. Grasping my appendage as it was the only thing they could grasp. I felt their hands grasp my arm, They pulled. I heard a popping sound. Agony grabbed and held me in its gauntlet the shoulder stung. Pain ripped through it into me. The pain tormented me, beyond torment.

         They were afraid of what she had done. She gave her soul to him. No one ever had done this, before. Grandpa walked over to where I lay in the ground.

         He reached out to grab my hand. He pulled me out of the ground, I did not realize that he was so, strong as to do this. My nerves were frayed, the ground had always bee able to keep my weight until now. I looked back at the ground that had tried to eat me up. My shoes tongues hang out. That was to only evidence of what had happened to me.

         I walked inside along with Dauphne and him. The house seemed the same, the voices I heard when I was coming here were louder now. I peered around the house, seeing chicken wire and woood hanging out of the wall were the plaster had fallen off of it. It was afraid of what I would find there . There had to be an explaination for this, but what I did not know.

         I saw something on the floor that I did not recall until now. It was a metal ring in the floor. He reached out top draw it up, so I approached it. Beneath that was a stair case that he indictated to fallow him down the stairs.

         Dauphne looked afraid of what we were doing. Walking down the stairs, water dripped and ran down from above us. The water was beyond ice cold. It fell to my right the reason. I knew it was ice cold was because it fell on my hand and I saw a cloud rise from the back of my hand. I flinched, from its chill.

         The walls of this passageway were rough and stone work made up of it, The floor was covered in dirt and stones that were not even, roots hung as though they were rafters to this channel. That we were walking in. Grandpa held a torch with which to see.

         The passage way came to pitch fork with which we were to choose our path. I slowed as I looked about for some indicator as to what passage to use to get to where Grandpa was taking us. He peered over his shoudler to see Dauphne as she went undaunted into the passage way. It was almost as though she relished being here.

         I grew afraid, of what we were doing cobwebs lingered above us, like a huge net strung out to catch its prey. I saw small things that glittered as walked forward. These objects danced and darted away from the light that was tearing away the shroud of darkness that was there. I heard noises coming from where these tiny lights were on the floor.

         I was growing afraid of what we were seeking. What had I gotten myself into thanks to him and his asking me to come along.

         I saw a delapitated brown cloth covered object, I scooped it up and ran back the way we had come.

         Grandpa did not see me, do this, He did not hear my foot falls, as he continued to drive Dauphne to where eh desired fro her to go.