MASTER GEORGE AND THE HAT LADY (Final Episode)

FINAL EPISODE

Embittered on all sides

“Angie”, I called out to her again as if she could talk through all that choking and gasping. Josie’s predicament flashed before my eyes whilst the culprit being my friend.

“What have you done Timothy”?, I turned to him but then he gave me that raw smile. “The witch!”

“Angie! Angela”, I moaned but nothing was more devastating than her cold blooded father arriving in time to see her blink her very last. He fell to his knees as everyone ran helter skelter in the mansion.

“What did you do”?, His hands slipped from my collar.

“Don’t touch her”, I warned him with my hands picking up the knife used to slit her throat.

“The police would be here soon,…..this is not a risk you want to take”, he pleaded with me.

“I don’t care”, I got up as he hurriedly crept to his child with that lingering sorrow on his face. I dropped the knife and didn’t look back as I ran alongside the last group of people in the mansion.

“The witches killed her”, I whispered as his wolf ears picked it up regardless.

“Witches!”, He sniffed his dead daughter as tears skipped from his face onto hers.

I felt so rotten, so lukewarm. Of course I hated myself especially with my feet acting like they had fetters on them.

“I need to leave Willemshire tomorrow”, I said to myself as I manage to not squash my index finger against the door knob.

“This will be a long night”, I presumed for sleep was out of the picture. I called to my mum who still remained in the comfort of those dark four walls but for the first time she didn’t reply me.

“Mum, I messed up”, I cried.

“Who did you bring with you”?, She attacked me immediately.

My face went from sad to frightened in seconds. I turned around to make sure I wasn’t the insane one but she was pretty sure about what she first declared with that croaky voice.

“Mum I’m not in the mood for games! Angie is dead”, I fell on my knees but then she even went ten level creepier.

“What being did you bring into my home boy”?

It was at this point it dawned on me that the creature who deceived me for half my existence was silently grunting on the ceiling.

“What do you want”?, I restrained from showing off excess fear.

“You left me”, it took a chance with Josie’s voice.

“You were never real to begin with”, I shifted towards my mother’s door.

It’s googly eyes brought it down in a flash as I saw nothing short of a primate figure which corrected itself into my late father.

“I love you son!”, He halted seeing as my mother’s door hid something far sinister.

“You’re not my dad”, I rebuked. “And….you will never have access to me again, you parasite.”

“Don’t call me that”, it returned to it’s slimy form. “All I’ve done is give you companionship, I gave you the power to sniff blood. Tell me Marcus what would you be without me”?

“A normal kid”, I countered. “Yes,…..a normal kid who would have lived with normal friends and have a normal life.”

“But you are not normal”, his left claw laid on my cheeks. “Sooner or later, you’ll be dead before daybreak, you’ll need to let me back in.”

“No”, I spoke with brief confidence. It was as if I exhaled knowing that either way my death that night was destined. Angela was my all, seeing her die in my arms gave me zero need to live.

“What’s survival if hope died yesterday”? I spoke to myself as the door ushered in three shadows.

The creature knew I would pay for rejecting it’s offer but that was a risk that I’m happy choosing.

“You shouldn’t have eavesdropped boy”, Gabriella smiled as she walked in with remarkable black socks. Funny enough, these witches don’t wear shoes into another person’s home. It’s considered a tarnished propaganda to their magic.

“Look at you, all tasty”, Monica dared to show me her forked tongue.

I wasn’t scared one bit rather I was disgusted by their foul smell whenever they took off their hats. The red lady however was the only one with gloves, I supposed she was the strongest.

“No! You’re wrong”, Gabriella kept smiling at me.

“You can read thoughts”, I asked while shutting my mother’s door completely.

“Sure”, Christina intervened. “All of us can….but I smell another living being right where you stand.”

“Back off”, I barked.

I wasn’t about to let them take away the only thing I have left even though she had no idea who I was communicating with.

“Don’t shut me out”, she started to sob.

“Mum hang in there”, I held the door knob tightly. “It’ll be over soon.”

“I’m not the monster”, I turned to the black hat lady.

She however didn’t seem quite interested in what I had to say. “Unleash your beast and let us kill you like we killed her”, she squatted in front of me.

“No”, the creature spoke as it snuck up on Christine dragging her out of the house in full force.

I quickly grabbed the mop beside me but like wind, Gabriella vanished while the red lady was at the receiving end.

I struck everywhere and anywhere as these witches were only tracked by my ears. Their laughters and whispers of my name were beyond doubt annoying and scary at the same time.

“Fool”, the slap hit me as the red lady’s hand burnt my left cheek like hot rod. She grew bigger and bigger with no space in sight for me to run.

“Scream!”, She opened her mouth which stretched at every turn.

Gabriella wasted no time in picking me up scratching me with talons for legs. She enjoyed every bit of my skin that fell prey to her, it was more or less the blood that incites the guffawing.

“Stop”, I pushed her away but she vanished again leaving me somewhere that doesn’t look like home.

“Your mind is my breakfast”, the screechings began but all I could see are flashes of what appeared to be a crippled man. He was bald and his left iron leg couldn’t stop piercing my ear with those awkward noises.

“Marcus darling”, an axe appeared on his left. “Chop me some wood, will you?”

“Where am I”?, I asked him almost collapsing backwards.

“Wrong answer”, he ran towards me but then just as the axe was inches away from my mind blown eyes, he coughed blood on me,……tons of blood.

“Dead!”, that freaky voice came up from the background. It was fast and brutish tearing the old man limb from limb. Since the room was dark, all I could see were those emerald eyes.

“One witch down”, Master George spoke as Monica was now a pile of ash leaving just her hat as a sole witness.

“Angie”, I mistakenly uttered from my trembling lips. His snarl was pretty fierce as that grip on my arm tossed me back on my mother’s door.

“You don’t get to speak her name ever”, his claw pressed me down.

“Get off my food”, the creature returned more battered than when it left. “I won’t ask a second time.”

George had no time for trivialities, all he wanted was something to fight and at that point, I saw his form turn into a thing of fire.

“I’ll pick the bones”, my mother echoed through the door knob.

Gabriella’s roar halted the fight as that black smoke tore through my ceiling like a tsunami. She was enraged but as fate would have it, shock overwhelmed her.

Looking intently at the black wolf, she almost broke in tears. They were just like the flavour of ice cream she sold to us the day Josie died.

“You….Mayor…. you’re the monster”?

“Is that a question or an assurance”?, George heaved with his claws as thick as a six inch nail.

“You have no idea how many atrocities I’ve committed to find you”, she gently took off her black hat. “And to make it all worse, you killed one of us.”

“Nonsense”, the creature intercepted. “You all can take your petty squabbles outside.”

I laid low watching the audacity of that slimy parasite. It started to weaken knowing that it couldn’t feed from my fears or loneliness anymore.

“I’m dying Marcus”, It stretched what now looked like human hands to me. “Allow me win this fight.”

“You’ve already lost”, I managed to speak as one kick on its hand sent it into the witches grasp. She consumed it immediately even when it’s screams dropped a heartfelt pity in me.

“A means to an end”, Gabriella said smirking at me. “No one is getting out of here alive.”

Master George countered that with a straight bite into her arms which commenced the brawl towards my bedroom. It was a time like this that I’ve been waiting for.

“Mum let’s get out of here”, I opened the dark room but she scratched me the minute a leg of mine went in.

“What the hell mum”?, I screamed. The werewolf screamed as well with a much more agonizing pain. The witch’s laughter on the other hand grew louder and louder.

“She must be winning”, I started to sweat. Whatever the outcome of that fight, I hope no one survives.

“Mum please let’s get out of here”, I pleaded. “For Josie’s sake.”

“I….hate…..the….li….light”, she stuttered a reply.

There was no way I would turn off every bulb in the house not when a werewolf just tossed a witch into the television.

“You’re no match for me witch!”, Master George came out on top. “I’ve been killing your kind for a century and two years.”

Gabriella tried to mutter a reply but things went sideways especially after he had bitten her two hands out of shape.

“I’m not afraid to die”, she choked in the hands of the man that stands embittered.

“Neither am I afraid to kill”, he replied.

There I stood, watching the gory scene of a neck squashed like okra. She became ash but something jaw dropping happened. Her hat which should supposedly rest on that pile of black didn’t. It floated towards me even as those emerald eyes sized me.

“I’m still hungry for one more”, Master George clapped his teeth.

“You’ve got your revenge George! What else do you want”? I grabbed the hat quickly.

“I would have spared you…..but you’ve seen my true face”, he stood facing Josie’s picture.

“Oh how I enjoyed eating her boyfriend’s insides”, he folded his hands in his pockets.

Something in me was a bit relieved that he was no longer in wolf form but his claws still stuck out of those large hands.

“Sorry you have to die”, he said as he bent down to pick a watch he dropped at the entrance.

“Drop the witch’s hat, it won’t save you”, my mother finally pushes her door wide open. “You’ll only become like them and the cycle continues.”

“What should I do mum”?, I remained at the doorpost.

“Who are you talking to”?, The mayor kept approaching.

“Lure him in”, she said. “Lure the prey in.”

For a minute, I took a deep breath as my legs went slowly backwards. I didn’t open my eyes even though I was fully engrossed in darkness. All I saw was Angie holding me and assuring me it would be okay.

“For what’s it worth, I consider you the dramatist”, Master George spoke with that silent chuckle. His emerald eyes prowling in the dark was what I didn’t wish to see but the bones that broke in a flash sent a shiver down my spine.

I opened my eyes in horror as I saw another glowing pair of eyes behind his.

“You’re not the only werewolf in Willemshire”, she said as George replied “Impossible.”

Those were seemingly his last words, the rest were terrible shrieks and emphatic moans. I didn’t watch how she plucked out his heart but then I realized why she didn’t want me to wear the witches hat. She figured we would be enemies forever, that was why she also stayed hidden.

“Mum”, I called out to her but her first response was faint.

“The switch is behind you”, my conscience tempted me.

“It’s daybreak already”, my mother said as her hands were faster on the curtains than my hands on the light switch.

There she was, beautiful than ever as the emerald eyes were now hers. “I’m sorry I hid this from you”, she stood inches from me.

“He wasn’t the only one who got the bite.”

“Mum are you saying what I think you’re saying”?, I hugged her warmly.

“Yes love”, she patted me softly. “They are coming, lots of Master George.”

“And the witch”?, I refrained.

“They don’t die”, she displayed her fangs.

Watch out for the next story

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