The Temple

The temple sat on the brow of the hill, a dark forbidding presence over the villiage in the valley below. No-one could remember when its black towers were erected, or if they did it was not spoken of. No-one went near the temple and there were stories about those who did. This is the last of those stories.

Every year the villiage held a festival, the reasons lost in the murky darkness of the past. Bonfires were lit, deer hunted, and rifles fired into the air. There was something different about this year though. No-one could have predicted the events that were to come...

James stood on the villiage green basking in the warmth of the festival bonfire and full of freshly roasted venison. As was the norm for that time of year there was a light drizzle which evaporated in the air above and around the fire, giving it an almost tropical humidity. Even the harsh wind which perpetually tormented the residents of the villiage had lost its edge and on the villiage green the occasional stirrings of the humid air were quite pleasant.

As he let his eye drift across the green, nodding to those he knew from the villiage, he saw her standing across the fire from him. A girl in with dark hair and a black dress was staring at him through the fire. It was hard to see her clearly through the flames and smoke. Keeping her in view, he made his way around the fire to where she was standing. The green suddenly filled with a sea of people, all staring at the sky. The first of the fireworks exploded above their heads with an ear-shattering explosion and he lost sight of the girl as the crowd erupted into cheers and shouts. He decided that trying to find her in the throng would be an exercise in futility and went to get himself a beer.

The villiage had little contact with the rest of the world, news of beyond the valley came to them from the farmers who had been to the next valley over on market days. Because of the landscape it was impossible to get a television signal and radio reception was patchy at best. There were very rarely any visitors, sheep farms not being the greatest tourist attractions. People from the surrounding valleys would sometimes come for the festival but did not stay long. This didn't seem to bother the residents much, even the teenagers whom you would expect to see getting itchy feet and suffering from boredom, seemed to be content to live their lives in the valley. It was as if the valley existed in another world, blissful in its ignorance of the rest of humanty's daily round.

As he sat in the tavern, nursing a pint which was brewed in the old stables, he pondered the existence of the girl on the green. Why was he so hypnotised by her? Why did he want some kind of contact with her? Who was she? As he sat, absorbed in his own thoughts, a hand came down on his shoulder and he only just managed to avoid soaking himself with his pint.

"Ho there Jimmy, what're you doing in here? You should be availing yourself of one of the villiage fillies, you know how they get on festival night." The speaker, a big gruff man with more hair than could be considered normal, sat on the stool beside James and motioned the barman for a pint. "You look like a lovesick ram Jim, Alice turn you down again?" The big man winked at the barman as he set a pint in front of him.

"I hear she's taken up with young Jethro from the next valley." Said the barman his face splitting with a huge grin.

James looked up at them both, finally seeming to snap out of his reverie. "Thats bull and you know it Tom. We're waiting till next market day, I'm going to get her a ring."

The barman nodded, still smiling, and set another pint in front of him. James went for his pocket but the barman waved him off "Thats going on Zach's tab since he spilt most of your last one with his roughness" James' hairy friend looked aghast "I have a tab? First I knew of it."

"I'll take it off the next load of oats, like I always do Zach." With that he left them to their pints and went to check the barrels.

"So whats got you staring into a pint then lad, if it isn't Alice and her fool of a father?"

James wondered briefly what to say and then decided that skirting round the issue would only pique Zach's curiosity further. "How many visitors are there at the festival this year Zach?"

"Well there's Neville and his boy from two valleys over; old bill and his wife; and of course there's that new preacher from Market Town. Third year running and he's still coming to preach at us about sin and the like. Biggest audience he gets, the festival. Thats it though. George and George were meant to be here but they've had some trouble recently."

"No girls then?"

"Not to my knowledge, no. Why this sudden interest in girls Jim? Alice's dad made you jump through one too many hoops?"

"No nothing like that, I love Alice." As he said it he knew it wasn't true, but that was a thought for another time. The girl dominated his mind at this moment. "I saw a girl this evening, a visitor. She was standing on the green just before the fireworks and I lost her in the crowd. I can't stop thinking about her."

Zach suddenly looked worried. "Well I could be wrong but I reckon I clocked all the visitors this time around, and there were no mysterious girls that I saw."

"Maybe I imagined it. I only saw her through the fire, could have been anyone." James sighed and downed his pint. "I'll see you tomorrow Zach, I think I'm going to sleep it off."

"Goodnight lad, I'll meet you at the top field at six, and don't let any mysterious girls into your bed." he winked "At least get their name and address first." Zach's laugh was infectious and James caught himself smiling despite his mood.

"Goodnight Zach."

As soon as James left Zach's smile dropped and he stared into his pint in much the same way as James had. It had come around again, another thirty years had passed and it had come around again. He had hoped, thirty years ago that he wouldn't have to do this again. Intervention at this point was not an option, James was on his own for now. He stood abruptly as the barman came back through from the back room. "Its that time again Will. Keep a barrel warming for me, I think it may be needed before the night is done."

"Right you are Zach."

The fireworks were still lighting up the green as Zach made his way through the damp night. Away from the heat of the fire and the crowds of people the rain was almost oppressive, insidious in its ability to soak through even the thickest clothing. There would be a storm later, there always was on this night, but for now the rain made do with sneaking into Zach's clothes. He turned onto the road that led out of the villiage, up the hill to the temple, and was stopped short. Standing infront of him was a girl, her dark wet hair glistening from the rain that ran down it and flashed to steam where it met her skin. She looked up at Zach with dark eyes which seemed to drain the colour from the world.

"He is ours old friend, there is nothing you can do." Her voice held odd echoes on the very edge of hearing and Zach shivered at the sound.

"The choice is still his, you cannot take that from him."

"And you cannot tell him what to choose, I thought you would have learned that by now Zacharius. Go home, sleep, and maybe there will be a tomorrow."

"I can't do that and you know it." Zach sighed, feeling suddenly weary. "I just want it to end"

A sudden bang made him jump and look around but it was just another firework, as usual they'd saved the biggest bang for the end of the show. When he turned back the girl was fading from view. Her last whisper barely audible above the shouts from the green "It will never end Zacharius, never...end..." The shadows grew darker for a moment and as the girl finally dissapeared the colour returned to the night. Zach hunched himself against the wind, which had begun to pick up, and turned back to the villiage. His mind screaming at him for his weakness. He took a last look at the temple, a darker shadow between the land and sky and set off in search of Alice. He would save this one, or at least give him a chance...

James sat on the edge of his bed, his head in his hands. He'd tried everything he could to banish the image of the girl from his mind. Every time he closed his eyes he saw her again, details he hadn't noticed before filling themselves in. He was sure he was imagining most of them, the way her hair glistened and writhed as if alive, the way her eyes seemed to grow larger and drain the colour from the world in black vortices.

He stood and went to his wardrobe, opening it he dragged out a long wodden box from under his discarded shoes. Not thinking about it he flicked the catches and lifted the lid, the world decided to add some drama to the scene with a thunderous crack of lightning and a flash which threw disturbing shadows on the wall. Ignoring the noise James lifted his fathers rifle from the velvet padding of the case and proceeded to load it. The familiar sound of bullets sliding into the magazine gave him some comfort. He remembered his father teaching him to shoot when he was still a boy, first cans and bottles lined up on the wall at the end of the top field, then crows and the occasional buzzard. The ritual of preparing the rifle done he turned, walked over to the window and looked up the hill. Another sheet of light spread through the clouds illuminating the temple at the summit, throwing its warped carvings into stark relief, its detail thankfully distorted by the rain flowing down the glass.

The faded from the sky and as the darkness once more descended he glimpsed a figure through the rain. she was there, standing on the temple road with the wind whipping her hair into twisting and otherworldly forms. The lightning flashed once more and she was gone. Spurred into action by this vision, James grabbed his coat from its hook by the door and hurried out into the storm.

The storm battered the hillside and soaked the sheep huddled in the lee of Alice's father's barn. Zach stood a the end of the track oblivious to the wind and rain, wondering how to approach the conversation ahead of him. Sighing he made his way up the track, keeping to middle to avoid the pools of water accumulating in the wheel ruts. As he approached the house the door opened and Alice's father stood, shotgun in hand, the light and warmth of his house flowing around him to be swallowed by the night.

"You have no business here Zach. Get off my land." he yelled, the wind tearing at his words. He waved the shotgun for emphasis and Zach stopped.

"My business is not with you Arthur, I must speak with Alice."

A look of fear crossed Arthur's face, quickly replaced by fury. "You have no business with my daughter, no business at all." With that he raised the gun and lossed both barrels at Zach. The noise no match for the fury of the storm.

Zach stepped forward oblivious to the pellets pattering off his coat like the rain. "You know better than that Art. Let Alice decide if I have business with her or not."

Alice appeared behind her father and looked at the tableaux in the yard, the look of horror on her father's face. Zach stood calmly, shotgun pellets steaming genlty in the puddles at his feet. "Father? Zach?" The unspoken questions evident in her eyes. Her instincts took over and she did the only thing she could. "What are you two doing standing out here in this weather. Come aloing inside before you both catch your deaths."

Her father looked defiant for a moment, then sagged. He stepped aside, defeated by the kindness of his daughter and Zach entered their home.

"I'll put the kettle on, shall I?" Alice asked and bustled off without waiting for an answer. Zach closed the door behind him and sat at the table, his large frame causing the chair to creak ominously. Alice's father sat in a battered old wingback chair by the fire, the empty and seemingly impotent shotgun laid across his knees.

From the kitchen came the sounds of industrial domesticity as Alice busied herself with the tea. "I won't let it happen again Arthur, I can't. Alice may be our only hope."

"There is no hope, it can't be stopped. You tried last time and I lost my son to that obscenity." Arthur's face twisted into a visage of contempt and loss, tears flowing down his cheeks. "You let it take my son!"

"I know, and for that I am truly sorry, but would you lose another son?"

"I have no other son to lose, I only have my Alice. I will not have you take her from me, you hear?"

"I speak of James. He would be your son if you would have him. He loves Alice, more than you maybe, and that could save him."

Arthur set the shotgun beside the fireplace and sighed. "I know, I wanted to protect her from this, keep her out of it. I could see that it may be James's fate and I wanted to protect her from that loss. She is devoted to him you know, I fear the power that gives him."

"Think of the power that gives her though, she may save us all."

The kitchen had fallen ominously silent, Zach and Arthur looked up at the doorway at Alice who stood there a puzzled expression creasing the smoothness of her features. "What are you talking about? Save him? Is James in danger? Where is he?"

The tea forgotten she grabbed her coat and the shotgun from beside her father, grabbing the box of shells from the sideboard she stuffed a handdful into her coat pocket and loaded two into the gun. "Where is he Zach? What's going on? Save him from what?" Arthur stood and grabbed her shoulders "Calm down Alice, Calm down. I'll explain everything, sit down. I'll explain."

She shrugged him off and Zach stood "No time Art, no time. Explanations are for later, we have to act now." With that the kettle started shreiking in the kichten and Alice jumped, dropping the shotgun.

"Where is James!" she screamed at Zach "Where is he? If you know, tell me!"

"I'll take you to him. Leave the gun, it will do you no good." Zach put his hand on her shoulder. "This will not be easy or pleasant Alice, you must not blame James for anything which happens."

"I'm ready" she replied, the resolution and strength radiating from her features making her seem more beautiful than ever. She would save her man, or die trying. She turned and embraced her weeping father. "Keep the fire burning dad, I'll be back soon." She released him and turned to the door, opening it she stepped out into the storm.

"Take care of my daughter Zach, bring her back to me or so help me..." Zach nodded and stepped out after Alice, closing the door behind him.

Arthur sat and stared into the fire, trying to see the future in the flames.

The storm seemed to redouble in its intensity and fury as James took his first steps on the temple road. He shook his head to clear the rain from his eyes only to be partially blinded once more seconds later. This was no natural storm, he could sense that. The way the wind screamed in his ears, like thousands of voices crying out, their tears the rain which battered him and soaked him till the chill was in his very bones. Every so often lightning split the sky and the shadows came alive with obscene and twisted forms, their writhing bodies entwined in some kind of unholy union. The glimpses were brief, and vanished like the lightning itself. He staggered to the old and broken dry-stone boundary of the temple, no-one had been brave enough to come up the hill and repair the many breaches and the stones were slick with what seemed in the darkness to be membranous black skin which pulsed and throbbed with the wind.

A voice peirced the storm ahead of him and he made out a warm light spilling from the door of the temple. The relief on the temples stone work seemed to melt and flow in the flickering light. He hesitated at the boundary and looked up at the looming towers of black stone, lightning once again peirced the darkness and he saw her standing at a window in the tallest of the five towers, her hand out towards him beckoning him onward. He took a step forward over the boundary as a voice cried out behind him.

"James! Stop!"

He turned towards the voice and saw Alice rushing up the hill towards him. "James no! Wait!" Behind her he saw the lumbering bulk of Zach struggling to keep up.

Shaking his head, he looked from the temple and back to Alice. "Alice? Zach? What..." Then the voice came again from the door of the temple. A wordless music, one moment an agonising scream, the next a song of such beautiful sorrow. James took another step towards the temple. Zach's voice peirced the storm. "James! No! Come back!" Alice stopped, standing on the other side of the boundary wall, here eyes fixed on James' back.

"James! Where are you going? Don't go in there! Come back! I love you!"

Thunder rolled in the sky, and a bolt of lightning struck the stones of the boundary a few yards to their left. Hot stone rained, steaming, through the air around them. The voices from the temple cried out, harmonies reverberating around the sky and drowning out the wind, or merging with it, becoming it. James turned and looked across the boundary at Alice, his eyes empty "Life is short and love is always over in the morning" he said with a voice that was his and yet not.

Zach reached them and stood behind Alice. "James? Come back James, step back over the wall and walk away from here." He held his hand out, inches from the boundary. Alice dropped to her knees in the mud, sobbing. "That's not James!" She wailed "Where is James?"

"James has come to us." The voice issuing from James body said, its strange harmonics mixing with the voices in the wind and from the temple. "The cycle will continue, you will have a peace that never ends. Our bargain has been fulfilled once more Zacharius."

Zach sagged and Alice looked up at him "Bargain? What bargain? Damn you what have you done?"

Zach looked at her, tears mingling with the rain. "What I thought best. I thought to protect the life I loved but I was young and did not realise the cost. I have been trying to take back what I did ever since. I have failed again."

Alice stood and slapped Zach full across the face. "You did this?" Another slap. "You let this happen?" And another. "You took him from me!" Zach caught the third slap in one of his large and work worn hands, pulling Alice closer to him he whispered in here ear. "It is not over, there is still time." Pushing her away he looked up at the temple, seeing the figure stood in the high tower he sighed. "I have done all I can. I can go no further." with that he turned and started down the hill.

Alice stood, shattered at the boundary. Running the events of the last few moments through her mind, Zach's words echoed in her mind, the emphasis of his last statement played over and over again "I can go no further." Turning she looked across the boundary at James' retreating back. A sea of emotion flowed through her; Fury at Zach, Fear of the black temple and the storm which seemed to flow outwards from its dark stones, Loss for James, the only man she'd ever loved.

She watched as James entered through the obsidian archway of the temple's entrance, and the wind seemed to wail in triumph and tormented joy. Again Zach's words replayed themselves to her; "...not over... still time... I can go no further." In a flash of lightning she saw James' rifle lying in the mud on the other side of the boundary and reached her decision. Stepping over the boundary she picked up the rifle and started towards the temple. Zach could walk away if he chose, but she was damned if she would.

Further down the hill, from the shadows of a gnarled and twisted tree, Zach watched as Alice reached her decision and smiled. He watched as she entered the temple and the black stone door closed behind her then turned and made his way down the track, back to the villiage huddled against the storm.

James was lost and confused. He had no memory of where he was or how he had come to be there. The branching passages before him were lined with a writhing living black skin. Agonised and voiceless faces pressed out of the walls and hands seemed to grasp at the air, beckoning him into their dark embrace. He shied away from their clutches, staggering from junction to junction. He caught snatches of whispering voices, sibilant, wordless they drew him deeper into the stygian maze of corridors. He could feel the beginning of madness on the edge of his mind and longed to sucumb to it, to draw the oblivion of insanity around himself like a protective shroud. Fleeting glimpses of memory returned to taunt him, a girl grotesque but beautiful, innocent face framed by living black hair, another girl, blonde, her pretty features torn by loss and grief, pleading with him for something, her arms open to him, the longing in her eyes so poignant he could almost taste it. Tears coursed down his face, an unknown grief flowing through his veins. He sank to his knees on the black stone of the passage's floor and screamed wordlessly in pain and torment.

The heavy stone door of the temple creaked closed behind her, its stone hinges grinding in their sockets. A silence descended as the storm was shut off as if a switch had been flicked. Alice stood in an anteroom lined with obscene carvings. Tentacled beasts in union with tormented human forms, their bodies twisted in ecstatic agony. A sibilant gasp echoed from the pasage before her and Alice started towards the sound, the rifle gripped tightly in her hands. The passage before her held more carvings in the black rock, and she paused to vomit, the images emptying her stomach until she was left gasping on the stone floor. Lying against the cool stone a weariness overcame her and her eyes started to close. A terrifying scream brought her to her senses, a cry of such grief and agony pulled her to her feet and she made her way onward. She knew the voice of the screamer though she'd never heard it cry out in such pain. "James." She whispered to herself "I'm coming my love, I'm coming". She hurried forward through many turnings and junctions, all thought of the hideous carvings banished from her awareness by the horror of that scream. She rushed headlong into the darkness and did not see the figures twisted in agony rising out of the walls their clawed hands grasping at her as she passed.

The whispers stopped and a voice came through the fog of memory, snapping James back to awareness "I'm coming my love, I'm coming". He knew the voice but could not remember where he'd heard it. His memory flashed an image at him; a barn, rolling in ecstacy in the hayloft, the same voice whispering in his ear as his mind exploded in orgasm. "Alice?" he whispered. The memories flooded his awareness; the hayloft in her fathers barn, lying in each others arms as they watched the sheep grazing on the hillside, Picking wild flowers on the high meadows at the head of the valley, the way she pushed her blonde hair out of her face. Then darker memories, her standing across a broken wall pleading with him, telling him she loved him and a voice that was not his replying "Life is short and love is always over in the morning." He stood and surveyed his surroundings, a new resolve holding the darkness of madness at bay. "Alice!" he shouted and started off the way he thought he had come.

After a few more junctions, directions chosen without thought, and he came upon a room. It was roughly circular and had what looked like an altar stood at its centre. Spaced evenly around the altar were five braziers, which burned silently with eerie black flames. The carvings on the walls though ghastly were thankfully static. The ceiling was lost in thick black smoke which issued from the braziers in sinuous clouds. Across the room another passage led off into darkness.

As james looked around a whispering chant began at the edge of hearing, growing in urgency and volume till it pounded in his head and sent waves through the smoke. The black flames of the braziers pulsed and flickered in time with the chant as tendrils of smoke snaked down from the nebulous cloud rippling above his head. As the tendrils coalesced around and above the altar, he bagan to make out a figure forming in the sinuous pillar of smoke. The chanting suddenly ceased and a figure stepped down from the altar, her arms wide in a gesture of welcome. "Greetings James, Welcome to my home. We have been expecting you." James stepped back aghast at at the figure before him, voluptuous, sensuous and somehow repellant. Her hair flowing over her shoulders like liquid smoke, her dress seemingly made of the same substance as the now pulsating walls, alive and twisting round the curves of her breast and thighs. Fleeting images of abhorrant couplings flowed across her form and her white skin contrasted her dress causing the images to remain burned into his vision for many moments after they'd passed and melted back into the blackness. A movement flickered at the edge of his vision and he caught sight of Alice emerging from the other passage.

"James!" she cried and the woman whipped around, her hand outstreched, smoke flashing like a whip and entwining Alice in its grasp.

"Alice! No!" Cried James as the smoke snaked around her body and through her blonde hair.

"Interesting, most interesting. You think to save him girl?" the black woman asked. "You think you can defy fate, defy me?" The fury in her voice was palpable and a deep red suffused the flames as she clenched her fist. The smoke visibly tightened around Alices body and neck, and as she opened her mouth to scream a tendril snaked with terrifying speed into her open throat. Alices scream was choked off and a look of horror descended over her features. As she twitched and writhed silently the rifle dropped from her hands and her paroxysms kicked it away from her, across the room to James' feet.

James couldn't pull his eyes away from the display of cruel agony before him. The black woman cackled in glee as Alice's struggles slowly became less and less determined. He stared into Alices eyes and she summoned up the strength to glance at the rifle at his feet, a pleading look in her eyes. James looked down at the gun and knew what he had to do. While the black woman's back was snarling in almost ecstatic glee at the suffering of his love, he bent and picked up the gun, kissed it, took aim, and fired.

A red flower bloomed in Alice's forehead and she finally slumped, released by death from the agony of the black woman's torture. Furious at the loss of her plaything she turned to James and whipped both hands towards him the smoke issuing from beneath her black fingernails. He held her gaze as the black tendrils enveloped him. "You will suffer forever boy, your agony will be like unto nothing that any human has survived, and you will live through it all. That is the price of your valley's peaceful existence. That is the bargain that was struck to keep the evils of the world from your doors. Your suffering for separation from the horrors of the rest of humanity. It was done out of love and is maintained by pain. Love is always over in the morning."

James struggled in the smoke's cloying embrace, already he could feel the madness again. His hands held tightly to the rifle and with an effort he brought the muzzle up under his chin. Looking the devil in the eye he said "Life is short, but love is never over" and pulled the trigger. The black woman screamed in frustration with a voice that set the very stones of the temple resonating and vibrating.

Down in the valley Zach cocked his head at a sound barely heard over the storm. The wind, which he'd thought couldn't have got any more fierce, wailed through the villiage, blowing the door of the tavern open and extinguishing the fire. He pulled on his coat and strode out into the night. Looking up the hill he saw the stones of the temple assaulted by the storm, lightning blew chunks of black basalt from the towers and one by one they crumbled, falling in and raising clouds of dust which were whipped away by the wind. He hurried towards the temple road, allowing the following wind to carry him faster than he might have wanted. A vortex in the clouds of smoke and dust spiraled into the sky above the temple, its billowings giving fleeting glances of unearthly creatures spinning an twisting in the wind. Zach stopped at the boundary wall and watched as the fallen stones of the temple were sucked into the center of the vortex and dissapeared into the clouds. The last of the black stones lifted into the sky and the wind rose until it seemed to scream its defiance into the night. A final peal of thunder rolled across the sky and the world fell silent. To Zach's ears the silence was a relief, as he looked up at where the clouds had swallowed the stones of the temple he could see stars winking through the rapidly thinning clouds. He stepped over the boundary, certain that he could do so now the malign influence of the temple was gone, and strode towards the grassless patch of ground where it had stood. He saw the two bodies lying in the dirt and knew that he had one last task to perform, one more promise to keep. He knelt briefly over each one and murmured a few words, then he waited.

James woke with a gasp, and sat up abruptly. Dawn was pinking the hills to the east and the song of birds and crickets filled the twilight. "Alice!" he shouted and scanned his surroundings. Upon seeing her lying a few yards away he got up unsteadily and went over to her body. He dropped to his knees and gathered her supine form into his arms and wept, his tears falling from his eyes to hers, closed as if she were only sleeping. "I'm so sorry, my love" he whispered in her ear as he held her head to his chest.

"I forgive you." She replied "I will always forgive you."

Zach watched the exchange from his seat on the boundary wall and smiled. "It is finally done. They will have to make their own way in the world now." He said to himself and faded from view.