Before leaving my side, my sister, Mary, said some words I did not understand. She whispered as if to herself and her mouth trembled as she spoke. She clasped her hands around her dress as she gazed at the horizon in rapt attention.
"Don't leave me!" I shouted at her. I held her arm so tightly that my hand seemed to merge with it. She just looked at me and tried to smile, but her facial expressions seemed numb.
Finally, through tears of fear, she murmured a word I could never forget, "Njörðr," and then she broke free from me and ran into the forest after the garden. Between heart-rending cries, I begged my sister to come back until my throat could take no more. A cold, whipping gust kept me at bay from the oncoming danger.
My governess came out to get me and took me to get me back into the house. The winds broke the glass in the windows and knocked down the pictures on the walls, and after a few minutes of anguish, everything calmed down.
Nine years have passed since Mary's disappearance, and I will never forget that day and what happened to her. My mother always said that my sister suffered from delusions, that she saw abstract figures that invoked her and shapeless creatures that desired her virginity.
My mind is full of those moments when I witnessed Mary's madness, but despite being enraptured by her delusions, she always came back to reality with us. I spent my time searching for the meaning of "Njörðr" and why my sister mentioned that word. I found mythological legends in books that my uncle (a man very fond of stories and fantasies) brought me from Barcelona when he visited us.
My mother was very stern and would not let me read those stories, as she was sure that my mind would be as disturbed as Mary's. She would take the books and hide them. She took the books and hid them in a locked drawer in the office, and kept a strict watch that I did not meddle in her private things.
She, my mother, was not the same since my sister disappeared. She fell into a depression that plunged her into a secret alcoholism accompanied by reading hundreds of books. My governess at the time kept me out of my mother's state. She was much worse, but I managed to deal with her attitude over time until I no longer needed her services.
Now I am a man. My mother is gone and I became the new owner of this house. I never left this place, for here lies the secret of my sister's disappearance. The only person who accompanies me is Eustachian, a butler who arrived here three days before my mother died. He always seemed strange to me, for he was cold and distant, but a good advisor if needed.
Now I was free to find in those pages the meaning of that word that haunted me from that day on. I left trails of books everywhere, which I would pick up and reread in case I missed some detail.
My madness reached such a point that I would ask Eustachian not to move any book from the floor, for that meant a bad omen or the loss of a clue.
I spent weeks gorging myself, feeding on fruit and alcohol. I felt like I was following in my mother's footsteps for the last few years before her undoing. Eustachian loomed over my office, bearing that rigid gaze. He was like a shadow that held me and took me to bed when my neurons could not take it anymore.
During that time, I began to dream of monstrous, feerical creatures. Transparent figures danced around a black pit from which emerged a human-shaped creature crowned with forest roots. It was all implausible. I felt a pressure in my chest that made it difficult to breathe.
And out of the shadows emerged a colossal semi-human creature with the face of a bovine. It wore sapphires around its neck, and its eyes were more human than mine. It grabbed me with one of its hideous hands and threw me into the abyss through which I awoke.
I caught the first glimpse of Eustachian's face, next to him was a woman whose face was drawn with anguish.
"What's wrong?" I asked, gasping.
Eustachian tried to reassure me before answering. "Sir, this is Mrs. Sullivan, and she is here because she is looking for her daughter."
"I beg your pardon? Your daughter got lost around here at my house?"
"Y-Yes sir," the woman stammered. "I saw her run up here and squeeze through one of the doors. I arrived in despair until her butler attended to me. We searched everywhere, but she is completely missing. Lately, she has been suffering from severe delirium and sleepwalking. I am very distressed and no longer know what to do. Please, sir, help me to find her!"
I shuddered and remembered what I experienced with my sister.
"Did your daughter, by any chance, ever mention the word Njörðr in front of you?"
The old woman's face paled.
"How do you know that?" she asked with a crack in her voice.
The surroundings outside the house became grey and gloomy. The lights were absorbed by flashes of shadows coming from the forest. Murmurs of unseen and merciless beings filled our ears, making us shiver. A young, white-clad figure walked slowly along the edge of the garden.
"That's my daughter! That's Meg!" The woman shouted at the top of her lungs.
"We have to go outside, I know what's going to happen!"
We reached the main entrance and it was like entering another world. The clouds created a dark, scarlet circle overhead. The trees played their part in creating an entrance for their victim. We shouted the girl's name several times, but she didn't react. I decided to take the risk to go for her and save her from her fate.
As I moved forward, I felt my heart slowly beating out of my chest. The wind hit me with all the impetus of its anger, but my spirit; already wrapped in temperance, would not turn back, so I kept going and, without realizing it, I managed to reach Meg.
"Don't leave me!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, and suddenly the atmosphere changed.
I went back to that moment when I was a child and I was holding my sister's arm tightly so that she wouldn't leave. She stood in front of me, staring into my eyes. She wore a crown of roots wrapped with leaves and white foam. Horrible, mythological creatures of the forest surrounded her as if they were her entourage.
Her arm slipped from my hands. I could do nothing to stop her. She passed me heading into the forest and the creatures followed her. A flash of light blinded me completely, bringing me back to reality.
Mrs. Sullivan was on the ground holding Meg in her arms. My body was immobile, Eustachian was doing everything he could to make me react until my fingers began to move.
"Don't leave me..." I whispered, and as a last vision, I felt my sister's body enveloping me completely.
THE END
