Page 6

Lindi had heard the rumours – then again, who hadn’t?

The rumours about disgusting monsters that hid in the darkness of night. Creatures with strange, void-like flesh that often glistened like starry skies, or like inky water. Evil spirits that looked nothing like humans or animals, but often a horrifying mesh of both.

Apparently they smelt of rot, decay, and infected blood. Their very breath was said to be putrid as they fought with big, sharp fangs.

Such things couldn’t exist.

They were merely make-believe to ensure little boys and girls came home before bedtime. To make sure they were good and ate all their vegetables, did all their chores, and went to bed on time so they could hide under the covers and protect themselves under the sheets.

They had to make sure they tucked up their feet to protect them from clawed hands grabbing them from under the bed.

Some people called them devils, as if they came from the very depths of hell as a vengeance for all the sinful wrongdoings of humankind.

The followers of the church clung to them as a way to turn people to their faith, convincing them to follow the teachings of the Lord for protection.

And, of course, people at their most vulnerable clutched their new rosaries in fear and prayed for forgiveness.

They were to kneel before their Almighty God, repent, and promise a life of their holy morals.

Lindi had never needed such convincing; the Heavenly Father had always been on her side... until now.

She’d believed, just as her mother and father had – and their parents before them.

The idea of true devils escaping the fiery pits of hell to take them from the land of the living had never been a fear, but the threat of greeting them in the afterlife had always kept them firmly on their path of faith.

She’d never met one, neither had any of the people she’d known, nor had anyone they’d encountered. Yet the rumour persisted, and no one knew of its truth or its origin.

Not once in all this time travelling since she’d been taken had any sort of monster jumped out from the bushes. The rumours had been nothing but lies, especially as it was believed that the scent of fear brought the creatures upon their victims with a vengeance.

And Lindi had been afraid this entire venture.

No, the rumours were just foolish little bedtime horror stories to invoke obedience.

How can not doing anything be so exhausting? she thought languidly.

Her long, tangled, and leaf-strewn brown hair swayed back and forth as it dangled from the top of her head.

With her nose squished against short, coarse, sandy-coloured hair, and the smell of dusty horse pervading her nostrils, her barely alert eyes flickered.

Her arms ached from being bound behind her back on and off for days, the trio of armed men only giving her short breaks of freedom.

Enough to sleep, answer the call of nature, and eat before binding them again.

Even though they’d stopped binding her ankles, she knew she wasn’t fast enough to get away, and she had no idea where she was. Nor did she know where they were taking her.

All she knew was that the nights were cooler, the days hotter, and the land was patchy and barren in parts. For a while now, it seemed they’d been crossing a desert that was dotted with twiggy shrubs she couldn’t name.

They hadn’t even been attacked by any large predators, although she saw an abundance of animals like kangaroos, reptiles, and even sheep. She swore she even saw a goat, although she wasn’t quite sure, but she’d definitely seen plenty of hares.

She knew all about hares, and how they were introduced to the land at the beginning of the century following the settlement of western men. Those cute little things were an absolute menace to her farm, and the foxes introduced to hunt them also rooted through their crops and chickens.

Yet, she tried to count them as they travelled.

All Lindi had to entertain herself as they carted her through forests, meadows, flat plains, and mountains was her environment.

The men ignored her presence as if she mattered naught. They refused to answer her questions, and they didn’t respond to her snide remarks, callous insults, or her begging. To be ignored so completely and utterly, as if her voice was inaudible, was maddening.

At least they haven’t touched me. It was a solace amidst the terror of all this. Although Sal, the fucking prick, eyed her a little too fondly, her presence was so ignored it was like she didn’t truly exist to them.

She was cargo. That was all.

What for? She still didn’t know, and that unanswered question terrified her.

And worse still, the only thing they had said was, “I’m sorry.” Gregory apparently had a conscience. His dark, bushy facial hair covered most of his tan features, but his brown eyes often appeared forlorn and distant.

He was the only one who appeared to wear some kind of black religious robes and lacked armour, unlike the other two.

Mathews, the silent one, never said anything from what she gathered – even when he’d cornered Lindi in her room, he never said anything.

He was the tallest and the strongest of all three of them, and if he didn’t look devoid of emotion, he appeared thoughtful.

His cleanly shaved, light features showed everything and yet there seemed to be nothing to reveal, even when she peered into his green eyes.

Sal often sat back on his cream stallion with an air of boredom, as if he searched the horizon for more bloodshed. His long brown ponytail swayed tauntingly against his back, and she wanted nothing more than to wrap it around his thin neck and strangle him with it.

The lingering pain of her father’s death, and his hand in it, continued to burn in her chest. She feared so deeply for her mother that bile constantly threatened to rise in her throat – and it was all Sal’s fault. Gregory wouldn’t have murdered him, and she had a feeling neither would have Mathews.

Just Sal, and his stupid, scarred-up face.

He was actually a rather ugly, ratty-looking man whose entire body was covered in scars – some old, some fresh.

He was battle-hardened and mean, despite his thinner, shorter frame.

She figured he found fault with his appearance, and he compensated with callousness rather than the appealing confidence he should have worn.

People often dictated their own attractiveness by having a shitty personality, and he had a shovelful of dung in his heart and thick skull.

I miss my home, Lindi thought with a sniffle.

She missed her parents, her life, her friends, and even her chores. She’d never complained about doing hard work, so she even missed the burn of aching muscles from good, hearty exertion.

It’s my birthday today.

There would be no birthday celebration for her, and it made her heart bleed even more than before.

Gosh, she felt so pitiful that just remembering that made her tears renew.

She’d been crying on and off for the past two days, wishing for time to go back so she could do.

.. something, anything to change what had happened.

So many fears. So much inner turmoil she couldn’t bear.

She sucked in hard through her nose to remove the disgusting drip, only to cough and hack at the taste of powdery dust. The chop of hooves over rocky desert continued to kick up fine orange dirt into her abused senses.

Then, before long, a strangeness took Lindi’s focus.

After so long of seeing nothing but barren, dry desert all day, rocks abundant and boring, true greenery began to shift into view.

It started sparsely, as if the flora had been growing outward, but there was evidence of new trees sprouting through the earth.

The further they went, the bigger they seemed to be, until one or two appeared to have reached proper maturity.

Some were strange, as she’d never seen these kinds of trees or plants before, their branches reaching far with bristly leaves. Some smelt rich and fragrant when their leaves or needles brushed over her head, so much so they filled her lungs with pleasantness.

Everyone knew that Austrális was a rather dry country the further they travelled into the middle of the continent, so to see such vibrance was shocking. Lindi had lived on the outskirts of their more tropical forests and towering mountains that sat between her plains and the sea.

She’d always wanted to go further east to see the closest ocean, but she’d never considered going towards the centre.

Her brows drew together when wet, muddy grass crunched and squelched beneath the hooves of the horses they rode.

This doesn’t make any sense. She couldn’t help lifting her head to further peer around. How did all this come to be?

It was like an abundant oasis had grown in the middle of the dry, dusty countryside.

The stagnant air even seemed to cool, especially as the early autumn heat that had been bearing down on her faded under the shade.

Any perspiration lining her forehead and neck became refreshing, and she found it easier to breathe.

Insects clicked and buzzed around her head, and she wrinkled her nose side to side at the perfume of flowers sprinkling their pollen into the air. The area was rich with life.

She looked back at Mathews, whose horse she was being carted on, just as he lifted a branch to avoid its swipe. He didn’t appear phased by what he saw, and neither did the others – especially as none commented on it in surprise.

Have they... been here before? This definitely felt planned and usual for them, whereas she couldn’t stop her head from turning one way or the other.