Plague

Chapter 5: The Weeping Forest

The two of them stood at the edge of the woods, tall trees that stretched into the dusty skies loomed above them. Compared to such naturally made monoliths, Roana felt very small.  It was quiet, save a few birds that chirped in the treetops, shrouded from view and the sound of rain pattering quietly on the leaves.  A few drops managed to make it to the floor through the patches of void space between trees. She looked to the doctor, who was admiring the scenery.

“I can give you more information about that doctor now,” he ended the silence between them.

“Huh?” Roana was brought out of her daze.

“Over four hundred people have gone missing in this place. That’s a shocking number. They all disappeared consecutively in groups in odd hours of the night. Many had claimed to see the doctor prior. People have searched this place, but found nothing,” he informed.

“How do you know that?” The fact that he had such details about someone like that caused unease to creep through her stomach and send waves through her body.  No one else held this information, so how did he get it?  Was it something he just knew or something that he had gathered from others? In that case, was it even legitimate information or was it hearsay?

“I am a skeptic who seeks the truth,” the doctor gave her a cryptic answer.

“Is it real? Do you know?” Roana wanted to make sure that they weren’t just working off of the ramblings of the over imaginative.

“Why not check on it yourself?” The dark-clad man suggested. “If you desire to gain personal knowledge then you should behold it and not listen to my words.”

In fact, he encouraged her to seek the truth for herself. He wanted her to try and solve the mystery on her own and not take anyone’s words as the immediate truth.  It was good to question everyone and everything that someone surrounded themself with because that was how they gained knowledge in its purest form. It meant that someone stood up for something and could form their own opinions and thoughts and weren’t prone to falling into the flock.

The two of them started to walk into the woods, leaves crunched beneath their boots as they ventured past a myriad of tree trunks.  Shadows dappled themselves across the two and Roana felt the temperature drop. Her eyes wandered through the foliage and negative space between the trees. She wanted to see if she could catch any glimpse of Josephine if she happened to be in the forest, lost and scared. The occasional leaf fluttered down, dancing through the chill wind. As she took in her surroundings, her ears picked up the faint sound of weeping, like a cry for help.  It was soft, so much so that it barely reached her and she had to concentrate really hard on it to even make out what it was.  Roana paused and glanced at the man.

“Did you hear that?”

He looked at her. “Did I hear what?”

“Maybe it’s my mind playing tricks on me. It’s all your fault for telling me those stories. Now I’m paranoid.” If the doctor didn’t hear it, Roana questioned her mental state. Was she afraid through the power of suggestion? She sincerely hoped that was it and the doctor was simply trying to scare her.

The two continued deeper into the bowels of the forest. With every step they took, the weeping and begging grew louder. It bit into her lobe and reverberated in her ears.  Even if she put her hands over them to block the voices, they resonated in the depths of her skull and she couldn’t get away from them.  They begged and pleaded for her to help them, they cried in agony and clawed at her psyche.  As the environment darkened around them, she felt her mental state wavering. Try as she might, Roana couldn’t shut them out.  It was overwhelming and she couldn’t understand why the doctor couldn’t hear them. 

Anxiety bubbled up from the depths of her body and her eyes darted around.  Where were they coming from?  Why could she not see anyone? Why did they need help? What did they need to escape from? Why were they trapped in the forest? What was lurking in the forest, trapping these people?

Was it really all in her head? 

“Okay, I’m not just hearing things,” Roana put her hands to her ears. “It’s so loud that I can’t even concentrate. I feel like my eardrums are going to burst.”

“They’re crying,” the doctor’s voice broke through the cacophony and caused her to snap her attention to him.

He was looking up through the branches of the trees, but she couldn’t tell what he was transfixed on.

“Who?”

“The victims.”

“Huh?” Roana didn’t know what he meant by that. 

Was he talking about the victims of the mad doctor or someone else?  Perhaps they were just victims of horrendous crimes in general.

The two stopped to see what looked like a small, derelict house.  It was hidden away in a cluster of trees and looked as if it had sat unoccupied for years.  Branches had grown through parts of the roof and it was constructed entirely of wood, as if someone had built it themselves.  At one time, the house might have been an impressive structure.  Now it was lost to the decay of time. 

It was a diminutive structure, one that probably only housed one person or two at the most.  How long had it been out there?  How long had someone just lived in the forest and what happened to them? She bent over and tried to see what could lie inside of the structure. It was pitch black inside and she could see nothing. No sign of life. No movement of any kind. No detailed features. 

Nothing.

“There’s a house here? I’ve never seen or heard about this at all.” Roana hadn’t ventured into the woods, but she was sure that she would have heard about this place from someone.

“The door is wide open. It doesn’t seem like anyone has inhabited it in a long time,” the doctor gestured with his staff at the opening of the house.  The door lay against the frame, cocked and rotting with one broken hinge at the top.  Rust had aged it and eroded the metal exterior.

Roana stepped cautiously towards the entrance and tried to peer inside while she kept her distance. She still couldn’t make out anything.

“It’s too dark to see inside,” she stepped inside.

The girl struck a match that bathed her face in orange light and provided a small window of clarity.  She lit a candle that she carried in her pocket for the occasion.  It was pitch night and the wood groaned under her feet.  It was so rotted and old that she felt as if she might fall through the floor at any moment. 

Even though she had a source of light, she could only make out vague silhouettes and see a small amount of the floor at her feet. Roana couldn’t help but feel isolated.  There were no footsteps behind her, so she assumed that the doctor just waited outside.

She didn’t feel safe in this house, but she wanted to find Josephine.  If she was being held captive in here, then she wanted to find her and take her back to Conversion Town.  If nothing else, she wanted to at least check and see if she wasn’t hidden away.  Abandoned buildings made good homes for the dregs of society to hide away in and keep their victims.

Roana just hoped that she wouldn’t run into whomever Josephine’s captor was.

“I’m going to investigate. Josephine could be in here,” she stood in the living room with her back turned towards the doctor.

Cautiously she walked through the house and peered at the rooms and what they contained. There were few rooms to search and most were in disarray and rotting.  They served as homes for insects and nothing else.  Broken furniture lay everywhere, covered in moss and filth.  There was a single bedroom, a small bathroom and a kitchen and living room that shared space with each other. The air smelled of wood and rust and there was no breeze. Rain dampened certain parts of the rooms that had been exposed to the elements.

Roana tensed up as the light of her match illuminated a spot on the floor with a door that looked as if it led down to some type of basement.  She froze completely as she caught sight of a shadow.  The girl was in disbelief.

“No…” her voice was shaky and barely audible and her eyes widened. “How is this possible? He doesn’t exist. There’s no way that can be him! He can’t exist! There’s no way that can truly be him! Does that mean? If he’s there then…” Roana’s eyes grew wider as she pulled open the heavy wooden door.  It creaked and moaned as it revealed stairs that disappeared down into a black abyss. 

She stood at the entrance and gazed down, transfixed on what could lay before her. Her breath picked up and her eyes darted around. She tried to search for the figure in hopes to catch a glimpse of it again.

“I can’t believe this,” she tried to talk herself out of what she had seen. “I won’t. He doesn’t exist…he can’t exist.”

Suddenly, she felt palms on her back laying flat against it.  Fear shot through her and she could do nothing as they shoved her forward.  Roana had no time to even possibly help herself as she tumbled down the stone stairs and hit them, one after another.  The sharp, cold edges dug into her body as she descended and sent ripples of agony through her form.  Desperately, Roana tried to reach out for something, anything that could stop her fall, only to be hit again and again with the stairs.  At moments, the wall bashed into her head. She fought for consciousness.

She tumbled over and over until she finally landed at the bottom on her back.  The pain was so intense that it bordered on numbness. She could feel her body tingling. Roana could barely keep her eyes from fluttering shut as she tried to see who had pushed her.  She thought that she could see the vague silhouette of a beaked doctor but before she could even do as much as process it, everything faded to black.

---

Her skin was pricked with small bristles and her body ached.  Pain emanated from her back, legs and arms.  Her head pounded as she stirred and a cool breeze washed over her damp body.  When she opened her eyes, she noticed that she was back outside and that the rain had stopped.  The foggy, purple skies bid her awakening and the doctor stood a few inches from her.  

Roana turned her head to see his boots through the grass blades. He looked down at her.  Her vision swam and the pounding of her head nearly overtook the few sounds of the atmosphere and she tried to focus on the doctor’s form.

Though she had been awake, she still wore a perplexed expression. Through the haze of unconsciousness, she was trying to put together everything in order to gain her bearings.  How did she end up back outside? What happened? Didn’t she fall down the stairs? Did those events even happen to her or was it all a figment of her imagination? 

“Was that…a dream or was it real?” She asked in a groggy voice.

“I wonder…” the doctor said wistfully and looked towards the sky.

“Did you…save me?” Roana turned her head towards him.

“You’re very sharp.” He was being vague again.

Slowly, Roana sat up. The pain shot through her again and caused her to inhale sharply.  It had reminded her that what happened was very real.  She put her battered arms behind her and propped herself up with her elbows. The dirt and grass below were abrasive on her tender and swollen skin. It was hard to move and felt as if her body was cold and locked up. Trying to do anything would just result in pain and slow movement.

“Did you see what I saw? Tell me that I wasn’t just going mad.” Roana wanted to know that what she had experienced was real. Between the voices and nearly being killed by being pushed down stairs, Roana felt as if she was losing her sense of sanity. She needed some sort of anchor that held her down to reality.

“That depends on what part of the dream…or was it reality that you’re referring to.” The doctor spoke. She was getting really tired of his vague ways.

She needed something that made her feel like a human being and in an important moment he couldn’t even do that.

“Stop screwing with me,” she rolled over and rose slowly as pain resonated in her very bones.  “Now isn’t the time for your capricious drivel.”

“Were you referring to that plague doctor?” He asked.

“You know I was.” She glared at him in anger.

“I told you that I would show you the truth.”

“Does that mean that…he’s real?” Despite her disbelief, she couldn’t help but know that he would only give confirmation to her worst fear.

“Yes.”

“How long have you known?” She demanded answers. 

There was something all too convenient about his knowledge of information regarding the mad doctor. Why did he know this? How did he know this? How much did he know? Why was he hiding it from her when he knew that she was looking for Josephine and the mad doctor could possibly have abducted her? Didn’t he want to help her?

“As long as I have existed,” he held his peace.

“Are you one of those people he’s tried to kill, or is that a myth?” Roana knew there had to be a reason that he knew what he did. If he wasn’t talking about it, then it could be because he suffered trauma at the hands of the mad doctor.  

Maybe he knew far more than she even realized.

“I have nearly been murdered, but not by him.” The doctor wasn’t going to go into anything too personal, but he didn’t exactly have the best background.

“What was the significance of what just happened? Tell me that, doctor. What does he have to do with all of this?” Roana knew that the doctor was involved for reasons of his own.  He had to be.

“You wondered where Josephine was. She is with him.” 

“How do you know that?” Roana didn’t want to hear facts that weren’t supported by evidence.

“The world doesn’t stop turning because you close your eyes. There are those who never sleep. They are always seeking the truth, arguing knowledge that they couldn’t prior.” He decided to give her some kind of answer. He knew that by now he seemed very suspicious.

“So, you were investigating yourself. Does that mean the doctor won’t hurt you?” If he was aware of all of this, then he had to have some kind of contact with the man in question.  It was either that or he was spying on him or possibly learned it from people who knew of him or knew him.  The doctor noted that people have tried to kill him before; no doubt he hung around some shady people.

“He could if he wanted. He just didn’t care that I was around. We are both medical professionals from different walks of life. We hardly interfere with each other unless we have reasons.” It was like that with any of the doctors. They were not out to be friends, they were out to do a job and often competed with each other to be of service to people.

“You knew…” Roana trailed off as her visage morphed into sorrow. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”