Page 14 of Souls We Rip

The brute didn’t even turn; it was advancing on my father.

“Please! I beg of you, don’t take him!” My hands clutched the dress’s neckline, my fingers gripping it tightly.

My father didn’t pay attention to the creature that drifted closer to him. He waved his hands at me as I disturbed him. His eyes were droopy, the alcohol haze numbing his senses.

I heard feet running towards me. My family joined me in begging the creature to spare him. At the sound of our chorus, it half turned.

The goat skull assessed all of us over its broad shoulder. “You want to save this man?”

Its voice was like the wind, travelling from ear to ear with its tone rough and sombre.

“Yes!” we answered in chorus.

Its body twisted fully to us, covering my father.

“Do you, his wife, want him to live?”

I heard my mum swallowing, her eyes widening. “Y-yes, I do,” she whispered.

The brute tilted his head. “Do you, his younger daughter, want him to live?”

She looked from me to my mum, her eyebrows joining, forming a little line between them.

“Angelica…” I pleaded.

Her hands started to shake. “Yes.”

I breathed loudly, sweat dampening my upper lip.

“And you…his oldest daughter, do you want him,” the creature stood aside so I could see my father, “to live?” It leaned its head to the left and then to the right.

My father regarded me, his upper lip turned in disgust.

“Yes.”

Feeling my mum’s body slump next to me, I caught her in my arms. Her chest was barely rising, the colour from her cheeks draining, leaving ashy skin in its wake.

It assessed us, one more time, before speaking. “Too bad that he is not worthy of you. His soul is the evilest of them all. It will be mine!”

The air shifted when it turned towards my father, the latter finally noticing who stood before him and started to scream at the top of his lungs.

“NO! Please, take me instead!”

At the sound of my own voice, everything turned into darkness. The candles erupted in the air, the glass jars shattered, leaving broken pieces across the meadow.

The tables and rugs broke in thin air, spreading their pieces in front of us. The ground rattled once, twice, as the Goat Man watched me.

I felt the brute’s anger, crawling on my skin. Its wrath pulled me one step towards it and my father, but the horse stood vigil.

Both my mum’s and my sister’s heads snapped, their eyes drenched in fear as they met my demeanour.

“What are you doing?” my sister shouted over the commotion.

At once, everything stopped.

The brute’s train flowed in the hot breeze, blending with the darkness that surrounded us.

“You want to give me your soul willingly, for him?” Its voice caressed our bodies, heat and cold hitting us at once.