The Visitors
Once again, as Bailey slept, she found herself in dreams that could not be her own imaginings.
She sat up in bed, frowning into the darkness. Something had woken her but she didn’t know what. Bailey listened intently, trying to pierce the darkness and trying to blot of Stranger’s snores. It was then she heard it, a deep, vibrating humming. Bailey frowned more deeply and listened, trying to work out what the sound was, scarcely breathing so she could hear it.
And then, a voice, said her name;
“Bailey.” Bailey blinked, her eyes becoming huge. She opened her mouth and tried to say something,
anything but nothing came out of her mouth.
“Bailey.” Came the voice again, Bailey swallowed;
“Whose there?” she whispered tremulously, fear making her voice higher then normal. Bailey did not fear any enemy she had fought, she had been wary of them, but never afraid. But this was something she couldn’t see, something she couldn’t touch. Something that didn’t make sense and that was scared her. Fear of the unknown.
“Bailey.” Said the voice again,
“There’s something we want to show you.” And then, with out warning, three blue and glowing somethings just came through the wall and into the bedroom.
Bailey’s fear sky-rocketed, this made no sense to her mind. She didn’t understand. Her throat closed and she could make no sound. She blinked huge fearful eyes at the phantoms that had just materialised through a solid wall.
Bailey blinked again with less fear and more of a questioning expression as the blue, shimmering clouds gained more definition and became three male Steef, between Daimen’s and the Seer’s age.
But what hit Bailey more then this was what state they were in, forcibly reminding her of the three Weirdos that had contacted Abe. The Steef that appeared to be the leader seemed alright, he was in one piece at any rate. But the other two were…missing bits… One of them didn’t have a head, just his body leading up to a roughly severed neck and nothing else. The third Steef had his head but was missing his horns and it looked like his heart and lungs had been ripped out, all his ribs wrenched out of his chest so he looked like some bloody representation of an eagle.
Bailey gulped.
“Stran- Stranger.” Bailey hoarsely whimpered,
“Shh, child. There is no need to wake your friend.” Said one of the Steef who stood slightly ahead of his fellows. The Steef in one piece.
“We mean you no harm.” Said another one, Bailey couldn’t tell which.
“We just wish to show you something, something you must see, must understand.” Said the first Steef again.
“What- what d’you wanna show me?” whispered Bailey.
“We will show you.” Said the third Steef voice. Bailey, keeping her eyes firmly on the apparitions, hesitantly climbed out of bed and pulled a jumper over nightshirt and sleeping pants and laced up her sneakers. Tentatively she stood before the spirits. She swallowed again and drew herself up.
“I’m ready.” She said firmly. The lead Steef nodded and then they sank out of view through the door. Bailey crept after them, desperately trying to not make any noise and opened the bedroom door, slipping through it and closing it gently.
She followed them out of the Steef home and through the underground Steef winter city. Eventually Bailey came to one of the hatches that led topside and heaved it open, it was extra heavy with the weight of new fallen snow pressing down on it, but she finally managed it and scrambled out into the snow. A cold wind immediately cut through her thin clothes and bit her skin like a thousand tiny needles of ice. A flurry of wet snowflakes blustered in her face and Bailey hugged herself and shivered. She seriously considered going back to bed but her stubbornness drove her own and she began to struggle through the snow.
Bailey trudged along, the snow coming up to her knees, soaking her pants through. But she still continued, her only guides the faintly blue, will-o-the-wisps that marked the three Steef. Their voices, soft whispers when they were in her room, now all but drowned by the ferocity of the storm encouraged her on and the human followed their faint outlines, wondering from time to time what madness had driven her out into the freezing bitter cold of the winter night.
Eventually Bailey came to a small wood of trees, the trees seeming to huddle together in the blizzard. Bailey stumbled in among the trees, earning a slight reprieve from the storm’s full brunt. The spectres were right there waiting for her, they were talking amongst themselves in low voices and Bailey could only catch a few words;
“Too far…young one…make it the rest of the way?”
Bailey fought the urge to sit on a nearby stump, she knew that out here, she’d never get up again. The Steef spirits turned and looked back at her, they could tell she was cold and wet and tired. And each of them felt some guilt, but what they were leading Bailey too, was too important to go undiscovered.
“It is only a bit further Bailey.” Said the whole Steef, Bailey nodded, saving energy for walking instead of talking. The phantoms began drifting away again and Bailey dutifully followed.
Deeper into the forest – which seemed a lot bigger now – she walked until she came to a great wall of thorns, a thicket was blocking the path in front and there the blue spirits were once again waiting for her.
“Beyond this and up the steps and we will be there.” Said the hornless Steef, Bailey nodded again and drew her attention back to the wall of thorns. With a resigned, but determined sigh Bailey went right up to the thicket and looked at it for a moment. From a distance it seemed tightly woven, but closer too, Bailey saw that this was not the case. There was gaps between the thorns and branches, and if she was careful she guessed she could find a path right through to the other side.
She forced her way in.
It was a close thing and in places a very tight squeeze but eventually Bailey tumbled out of the thicket on the opposite side, covered in small, bleeding scratches. She was too numb to feel them now but she knew that she would feel them later… Climbing slowly to her feet Bailey swayed and fought to keep her balance. She had to blink a couple of times before her eyes focused on the three phantoms leading her on this trek, but they did eventually and Bailey stumbled after them as they began to drift away again.
The trees had thinned when she caught up with them. The next obstacle loomed to the right of her, in the form of great white slabs of rock that rose high above her like so many naturally formed broad steps. The flats were sprinkled with snow.
Before her the land dropped away and she found herself on the summit of a high cliff. For a moment Bailey could only stare at the land around her from her new vantage point. It stretched for miles, like a great patchwork below and the view took her breath away. When she came to herself again, Bailey noticed that she was out of the trees and she turned back gazed at the fringe of tall, dark trees that outlined the dark wood, a few feet behind her. The darkness between the trees look cold and frightening. There was only one way to go.
Up.
Bailey turned to look at the giant white rocks that led up like a giant’s boulder formed staircase. She glanced at the spectres that stood beside her. Her eyes held the question, ‘Up there?’ and the whole Steef spirit nodded wordlessly, but his meaning was clear; ‘Up there.’
Bailey had come far to back down now, she flexed her fingers and approached the first ‘step’, it stood a foot above her head. Bailey jumped and scrabbled with her sneakers until she was able to hook her arms over the edge and haul herself up onto the first ledge. She looked up, the wind picking up at the higher altitude and whipping her unbound hair.
There was still a long way to go.
¤§¤
When she finally made it to the top, Bailey was exhausted and when she looked over the landscape she felt a swirl of vertigo and moved away from the precipice. Now she had no shelter on the bare stone and the wind was strong enough for her have to crouch to feel safe.
On three sides there was nothing but air. On the left, the tops of the trees of the forest she come through sway like a deep, green sea in the night. On the right was the huge, sheer, cliff drop that look over the sprawling landscape. Bailey felt sick just thinking about it. In front though, was another small cliff, like the one she had climbed to see the stars when she and Stranger had been travelling to the Grubb village. That seemed a lifetime ago now.
The earthen wall stretched along Bailey’s right, she saw know that the wood below grew at it’s base. On the left it plunged away, joining the first cliff, making it taller and even more formidable. Bailey gulped and looked up, trying to keep her balance. Trees grew above her, where the cliff of earth must level out onto another plateau like that of which the Steef lived.
Tangled trees writhed up there and Bailey felt a comforting wash of familiarity, these were like the trees further south and Bailey felt an urge to be up amongst them. She began to climb, keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the wall in front of her face. She dared not look elsewhere in case she lost her grip and she fought to forget how high she was.
It took her a while, but relatively quickly Bailey had clambered up and over the cliff and was now on flat, solid ground again. Bailey moved away from the edge and looked up towards the trees, feeling more comforting familiarity.
She looked around at her own level and soon found her apparition guides, they were beckoning to her, they seemed frantic and excited and Bailey realised that they must be near their destination. Cautiously but not at an ambling pace, Bailey wound her way through the trees, following the Steef souls’ glows.
After a while she caught up with them. They stood to one side of the path, the whole Steef on her left and the other two torn Steef on the right. Between them was an archway made on lots of slender, supple branches entwined together. There was something sinister about the archway and Bailey hesitated. But after that first second she clenched her fists, lifted her chin slightly and walked boldly through the archway.
It was like walking into a nightmare. And what Bailey saw, high on the cliff plain, burned it’s image into her mind, and she screamed.