Journey to the Heart: The Beast Within

I had managed to sneak out of my hotel through the back entrance; I had the suspicion that someone was following me, despite my mind finding no nearby pursuers. I wore a black dress shirt, and a black dress coat. It was cold outside. I made a driver on the back road stop his car, letting me get in. He was now driving me to the forest. I snuck up to the bushes roughly twenty meters in front of the dock; and there stood Ababa, right where he said he’d be. I ran out to meet him.

“I’m glad you called, I had planned for an expedition tonight.”

“Ryan. I’m so sorry.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

It was in that moment that the look in his eyes told me everything. I didn’t need to read his mind; I knew exactly what was happening. I already said, I’d never control him, he was my friend. The pain was like getting bitten, sharp and sudden, and strong enough to knock me over. I had been shot. What happened immediately afterwards was a blur. I heard raised voices. And since I had a firm grasp on the language now, I understood most things being said, unfortunately the pain was so searing, I was barely conscious, and suffice to say, my power was rendered useless. Who were these other men with Ababa? They were not his friends. Three of them were dressed as soldiers, and the forth was suited. After a few minutes of discussion, they noticed the guy on the ground bleeding profusely from the right shoulder. Me.

“Mr. Seguin, I am pleased to see you, again. I hope you remember me. Oh, did you think we didn’t know about the diary? We were the ones who placed it there; a precious book amidst thousands of other books. Ingenious, yes? You understand. loup-garou, is in all of us; as I’m sure you’re familiar with the expression, ‘the beast within.’ Well, you have met him, in me, and in you. How else could you steal with no remorse? You come from a land where everyone knows everything. But you are a boy. You know nothing.”

I tried to gather my strength in order to say a few words,

“Hello George. You got me good. I thought you were better than this though; shooting someone in the back is low, real low. Even for a corrupt cop such as yourself.”

“We can’t all be thieves. Some of us have to make an honest living; or a more or less honest living.”

The three soldiers raised me to my feet. Dragging me from the dock, where we walked about a quarter mile, and standing at the pathway to the forest, George explained to me exactly what was going on. It was about time I got some straight answers.

“They say the man who controls death controls the world.”

“Thanks Ababa, that really cleared things up for me. What do you want with me? I’m just a kid from Canada.”

George laughed, “Only a sorcerer can do whatever it is you do. And only a sorcerer will be able to retrieve what I need. Go into the forest and find me what I seek, and you and Ababa will live may live, find it not, and you both die; it’s simple really.”

George pulled out a flask; he put the drink to his mouth. This was a different man. The officer I saw in the police station was but show, like an actor playing his role to a tee, so did George appear a dutiful middle ranking officer. He spoke with his soldiers, assuming I didn’t speak Amharic. He planned on realising me into the forest, to find ‘death’s amulet.’ Whatever that was, it didn’t sound pleasant. If I tried to run, they’d shot me. If I camped out in the forest, I’d die of million different things; including blood loss. “Well, seems I underestimated the forest in the first place,” I added in a muffled speech. I was slipping in and out; boy there was a lot of blood running out of me. Ababa helped me up. I wanted to go home. I hated these superstitious bastards.

“Ryan. We must do as they say. They will give us knives and a flash lights; they demand we find an artefact. These men are serious people. I don’t know a lot of things, but I do know this, they will kill us.” Ababa was may have been weak, but he wasn’t a liar.

“They’ll kill us anyway. When this is over, remind me to kick your ass.” I still had some humour left. I wasn’t mad with Ababa; he really was a good person, they must have leverage. I called out to George,

“Hey man, give me some of that, I’m feeling a little shot here.” George tossed his flask over,

“Keep it, it’s yours my friend.”

Wow, what a nice guy. The soldiers gave us our tools and sent us on our way. Ababa was forced to support me for the majority of the time. I was dying. We had entered but a few feet when I heard George call out; “be careful, he has eaten for years.” It was followed by a stream of laughter. They believed in spirits and monsters. I heard them pondering our fate, as if some forest ghost was going to swallow us whole. I was starting to hate this shit. I was too old for ghost stories. Ababa was given the directions to follow; we had only to stay on the path until we found the Great White Rock. We had walked but ten minutes when we found the large white boulder. We rested for a moment there.

“I’m dying.”

Ababa tried to reassure me, “Only half an hour and we’re there. We get off the trail here, and walk down the hill. When we come to a stream, we follow it.”

“I don’t understand why those wimps can’t do this?” I really was confused by this.

“They’re afraid. The say the amulet can only be found on a night was the moon is full, when it is visible to our eyes.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“It is also then that loup-garou is most powerful.”

“Alright, enough with loup-shit head, let’s just get there and see if we can find something, if not, we leave the forest on another trail.”

We travelled another twenty minutes, somewhere along the way I had fallen asleep from blood loss. I heard a voice in my mind. It wasn’t George and it wasn’t Ababa. Someone else was out here with us. He was speaking to me. “Do you believe?” Do I believe what? “Once you begin, you can never go back.” Who was this in my head?! We reached the stream. I dipped arm in the spring and it went numb. Ababa examined the wound, and guessed that the bullet went right through, we finally caught a break. All the while a feeling of dread was growing in my stomach; like we were being watched by the trees. I believe in the supernatural, but what was going on here felt too natural to be out of this world. Talk about a change in perspective. Ababa was surprisingly calm, as if he grew in courage. I felt some strength of my own return, and I stood to my feet.

“That water felt good. We’re not alone Ababa.”

“The water is special. And you’re right Seguin, but we must continue.”

Ababa was like a new man; first with his determined iron will, and now with the ‘Seguin’ business; he had never called me that before. We approached what looked like a giant crater. “A tree once stood here,” I noted. I used the frayed roots and trunks to climb down.

“Okay, what am I looking for?”

“Walk to the center, you will find it there, buried in the dirt, all will be revealed.”

I had dug only a few inches under the earth and found what seemed to be hair or fur. Why wasn’t Ababa coming down to help me? “Get your ass down here.” But he did not respond. When I looked up, Ababa was gone. There was stillness in the air, like every living creature was hiding, afraid; but afraid of what, I didn’t know. I reached down, thinking ‘death’s amulet’ was stuffed under some packing material that felt like hair, but when I pulled on the hair, I was shocked to see what I had discover. Out from the ground, I pulled a grotesque head. It was covered in long hair, but looked as if it was placed there only a few days ago. I cringed at first, dropping it. And then stooping down, I studied it, only to learn the truth. The head was not human.

I exclaimed, “loup-garou?”