Orcs in the Webbe

The fog hung over the city of Londinium; dark, suffocating and toxic. The distant sound of a howling dog echoed through the cobbled streets mingling with a coarse voice drunkenly singing, the latter noise coming from open door of a local bar. Suddenly the source of the noise; a drunken, singing Orc lurched forward out into the street and vomited onto the already grimy pavement, closely followed by a female of his species shouting abuse and hitting him with her umbrella. He stumbled, fell and lay motionless in the gutter, defenceless against the blows and far too intoxicated to fight back. Eventually the female Orc stomped off her fury abated, leaving the mumbling drunkard to recover on his own.

Across the cobbled street another female Orc, younger and considerably thinner than the first, shivered and pulled her scarf closer around her neck. She shrank back into the alley so as not to be noticed by the drunk or his errant umbrella wielding mistress. Mary was exhausted from entertaining that evening and just wanted to make it home without incident. She waited for a few moments, glancing each way down the notorious street, before attempting to walk the three mile journey to the bed-sit she had been renting for the past few weeks. By the time she passed the Orc in the gutter he had fallen unconscious and no longer posed a threat to any one.
 
Three miles later, Mary was climbing the steep flights of steps to the room she would be calling home for the foreseeable future. The room felt damp and cold but was still considerably cosier than the streets of Londinium had been that evening. She lit the oil lamp and sat down on the corner of the bed and removed her slightly worn laced up boots. Exhausted, she began undressing and climbed under the threadbare covers of her bed and pulled them tight around her.

She stared at the cracked, damp-ridden ceiling for some time before sleep gradually approached her. She thought of her childhood... her brother... and... what happened. She remembered the game they used to play before the accident. It was a simple game, hide and go seek, but many months of playing the game had made them all increasingly more confident in finding hiding places which would take the others hours to find. It seemed an idyllic childhood memory until her thoughts followed events through to what happened. Mary squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to block out the bad memories, but as sleep claimed her they invaded her dreams instead.

Ten children aged between nine and fourteen gathered at the old barn on a hazy summer’s day in preparation for their next game. Mary, being the oldest, chose her team, and her brother Matthew, the second oldest, chose his team. Everyone scattered and one member of each team leant against the tree they had named the wishing tree and counted to one hundred.

As the children one by one found places to hide, the sky slowly began to turn gray and a cold wind swept across the field. Mary had been hiding in the Barn and could hear the wood panelling cracking under the pressure of the sudden change in weather. At least she would be dry for a while if the rain did come. She waited, growing excited as the time passed. She would normally have heard the other children by now, slowly as the mind of a child can and often does wander she began to get a bit impatient as her legs began cramping up, she needed the toilet too.

She let what felt like another hour pass and decided she could no longer squat down waiting to be found. She would be forfeiting her freedom but she no longer cared. Actually if she could creep out of the barn and make her way home without being spotted she could claim she was the winner anyway as no-one would have seen her. She pushed open the lose plank of wood and squeezed through the gap back into the field. Eerie silence greeted her. Where was everyone? A sudden wave of panic swept over her. Her fears increased a hundredfold as she approached the wishing tree. From the branches of the tree hung ten sets of children’s clothing and no-one was to be seen.

Mary awoke bathed in a cold sweat. Her nightgown had become twisted and was uncomfortably suffocating her small body. The guilt from losing her brother and friends that day had haunted her ever since. They had never been found. Mary’s parents and the parents of her friends never forgave her. Mary had run off to Londinium shortly after in the hope that she could escape from the constant accusations of the other's in her village that she was somehow involved in the disappearance. After a couple of months of sleeping in doorways, she had been forced to work the streets. Sitting on the laps of dirty, drunk old Orcs, Elves and even Dwarves, something which in the aftermath of the Mordredian Wars Londinium was not short of. At first she had been absolutely disgusted in herself, but the money made sure she had somewhere dry to sleep and soon the revulsion faded.

Still shaken from her nightmare she got out of the bed and went over to the dirty mirror on the makeshift dressing table. As she looked herself up and down she saw that her young and fresh features had long since been stolen from her. She focussed hard on the dark circles under her bloodshot eyes, suddenly the image shifted and her brother appeared in the mirror. Horrified, thinking herself still in a dream she jumped back in shear fright and caught her elbow on the door, pain shooting down her arm. The blood in her veins seemed to freeze. She tried to blink away the image of her brother but still he remained. A cold blank stare, his top lip curled with a grimace either of pain or hatred. Was it hatred? It hadn’t been her fault. They had all disappeared and left her all alone. If anything it was their fault.

She wanted her brother to say something to break the silence but all he did was stare. Not sure what to do Mary lifted the mirror and lay it face down on the table to avoid her brothers gaze. She felt guilty doing this but what was her alternative? What she didn’t notice was the pool of water that formed under the mirror. She spent the rest of the night wide awake listening to the darkness fearful of sleep. She must have drifted off because when she awoke she could hear the market sellers setting up their stands ready for the new days trading.

After a quick wash from her hand basin, Mary dressed, tied her hair back and set off to get some food, all the time avoiding looking at the face down mirror. It had been almost two days since she had eaten properly and her stomach growled. She had however made more cash than normal yesterday. Her planned evenings activities involved being felt up by a Dwarf who had thankfully passed out before he had managed to get it up and his wallet just happened to be on the bedside table of the room he'd taken her too. He would awake believing he was the best lover in all of Albion with an empty wallet and a hangover like Haydes. The walk to the market was brief. The morning mist hung heavy on Mary’s chest, her eyes stinging with lack of sleep because of the nightmare. She stopped for a moment as she glanced at her reflection in a bakery window. Her clothes were now discoloured and beginning to look like rags. She blinked and went to walk away when they caught her eye. Just one of her lost friends first, then another, then another until they all appeared to her in the different panels of glass. Mary looked straight behind her hoping to see her friends but all she saw was a fat Orc setting up his fruit and vegetable stall. She looked back to the window and the reflections of her friends remained. Every one of them had the same look she had seen from her brother last night. One filled with hatred and revenge. And evil.

Mary scurried away shaking uncontrollably. She stopped in a side road as she attempted to catch her breath. What did they want from her? Why were they angry with her? Why wouldn’t they talk? Mary felt weak and needed food. She would go back to her room and rest up for today and maybe if she felt better later would go and earn some more money on the evening. After buying some bread and an apple Mary went back and ate like she had been starved for a month. A nauseous feeling sat in her stomach once she had eaten but the heavy bread had made her sleepy. She drifted off an the dream came again. The wishing tree, instead of baring fruit, was baring the clothes and shoes of the children. Hanging there like a shrine to them. Mary sat at the well of the tree and sobbed into her dress. She felt a touch on her shoulder and her brother, Matthew, stood beside her. He said nothing and wouldn’t answer any of her questions. Where had he been? Where were the others? His apparition faded and Mary woke from her slumber.

She had to get to the bottom of this. There was a elderly Orc who had helped her when she had first come to London, her name was Mrs Strauss. She was strange and smelled similar to boiled Elf but she had been kind and understood some of stranger elements of Mary's story, she even claimed to be a shaman before the wars took Wylde Magicke from the world. She had wanted to help Mary with her dreams but at the time Mary had been so traumatised with her missing friends that she simply couldn’t open up and explain. She had left Mrs Strauss' house back then without even saying goodbye.

Mrs Strauss lived on the other side of the city and once Mary had made her mind up to see her she packed a small bag and set off. It was early evening bby the time she knocked on the familiar door, memories flooding back at the sight of it. The old Orc opened the door and momentarily Mary feared Mrs Strauss would be angry but instead a wide toothy smile crossed her face. She embraced Mary with a big hug and ushered her in to the cluttered sitting room. Before she knew it, Mrs Strauss had made some tea and bought in some left over cake. Mary began telling her story and Mrs Strauss listened without interruption.

Mrs Strauss remained silent for a while, ruminating on what Mary had told her. Then her eyes sparkled and she suggested a séance, explaining as she went what this was and how it could be done. Reluctantly Mary agreed, not really knowing what to expect and partially afraid to face the rest of the children again knowing that she had let them down in some way. Now with new purpose Mrs Strauss set about clearing both the room and the table, constantly wandering in and out muttering to herself. Mary sat silently whilst this was happening around her and found herself staring in to the big glass cabinet in the corner of the room, how had these things hasppened to her, what had her life become. Without warning her brother suddenly appeared in the glass. He was just as menacing as the first time he had appeared. His eyes pierced through her and made her heart ache. Mrs Strauss re-entered the room and stopped short in the doorway as she too saw the boy's reflection in her glass cabinet. The wooden tray she was holding slipped from her hands and clattered to the floor. She stared at the boy as if hypnotised. Mrs Strauss slowly walked around the table closer to the cabinet to get a better look. Matthew's cold eyes followed her. Behind her one of the other children appeared watching her from the mirror above the fireplace, then another in a glass on the table. Soon every reflective surface in the room showed an angry face of a child, everyone that had disappeared that day.

Mary leapt up from her chair. ‘What do you want?’ she screamed
‘You left us to drown, we want you.’ chorused the children. Mrs Strauss stared wide eyed at Mary.
‘Mary, what do they mean?’ Mrs Strauss was trying to make sense of what the children were saying but it didn’t tie up with Mary’s story.
‘I don’t know. I came out of hiding and they were gone. I guessed everyone had gone home for dinner so I left, what do you mean drown.’
‘You left us Mary, you left us to die and now it’s your turn.’ A voice to the left taunted.
‘How, how did I leave you to die? You left me!!!’ Mary screamed and began to cry. She got to her feet and started to leave. The door to the sitting room slammed shut and both Mrs Strauss and Mary were urged to sit on the settee by an invisible force. They both sat quivering with fright.

Mary blacked out. She began to dream. She was at the wishing tree again. Instead of the clothes hanging from the tree, the clothes made a path to the river. Which had been swollen for that time of year. The banks had corroded considerably since the day before they had been playing there. She saw the children crying out. Matthew was leaning over the bank with a large stick trying to save someone else in the river. She ran closer and saw herself flailing in the water. Struggling to keep afloat and gasping for air. The other children were running around trying to reach her from further up the river. Everyone in a blind panic. Matthew leant in closer and disappeared from view. One by one Mary watched the ten children either fall or jump into the river.

Mary woke choking on the imagined water. The room was now filled with chanting, shouting and screams from the children. Mary buried her head in her hands and wept. Water began soaking through her boots and stockings. She looked down onto the floor and it was covered in two inches of water and was rising. Mrs Strauss sat in a comatose state staring at the ceiling. The chanting grew louder and louder. Mary held her ears trying to block out the deafening cries.

‘Leave me alone. I’m sorry. Please leave me alone’.

Suddenly the wailing stopped. Mary slowly pulled her hands from her ears before the cabinet smashed sending out gushing water. The mirror followed, sending shards of razor sharp glass across the room. One by one, all of the ornaments smashed into tiny fragments.

The last thing Mary saw as she lay breathless in the crimson coloured water was her brothers reflection watching her.

He was smiling.

Sarah English
October 2009