by Yarnspinner


Part 2

The next thing Frank knew, someone was jarring him from a sound sleep and some missed sound was echoing through the trees.

"Franc! Wake up you stupid boy!" Rene was shaking his shoulders violently and screaming into his face. "We cannot stay here; it is too dangerous!" A look of terror was in the Cajun's eyes that mortified Frank and lent energy to his still-wobbly legs. Frank struggled to his feet with Rene's help.

"Wha' is it, Rene? Wha's wrong?" The sense of urgency in his friend's movements and voice convinced Frank that argument would be stupid, but he couldn't stop the wave of nausea that overcame him when he stood up. "Oh, I'm gonna be sick!" He vomited his last meal onto the damp humus at his feet.

"Vitement! Quickly! Or eet will be too late!" Rene came back and grabbed Frank's arm and practically dragged him through the trees and brush of the bayou. "Mon Dieu! Eet ees evil and eet comes for us! We cannot waste time! We must fly!"

Without light they ran madly through the undergrowth away from the place where their punt had sunk. Running into trees and through briar thickets, they stumbled along as fast as they could, heedless of the bruises and torn flesh they received in the bargain. Rene pulled his machete from his belt and cut the briars where he could see them, but he wasted no time about it if he didn't.

Out of breath and in pain, they all but collapsed on a fallen log in a hollow, gasping for breath. Frank felt as if his head was about to explode and thought that it might be a blessing if it actually would go ahead and do just that. Rene kept looking back the way they had come, anxiously looking for what might be following them.

"I'm not sure, but eet may not be following us. Mon Dieu, I hope not!"

"Rene, wha' IS it? There ain't nothin' in this 'ere swamp tha' should scare you as bad as all that!" Frank clasped his hands to his temples as if trying to hold the pain in.

"I cannot tell you right now, mon ami! Not until ze sun ees up and shining her warmth on our faces. But you see, ze fog has lifted and ole Mr. Moon is out! Look zere. Zat ees ze old oak tree zat blew over in ze storm last spring. We are almost safe at home!" Rene's voice rose in excitement as he realized where they were. He almost sounded hysterical with relief.

"All right then. Let's git home!" Frank levered himself up and began making his way toward the tree. He stumbled along, his path wobbling only slightly until he got his momentum going. "We're almos' dere, Rene! We's gonna make it!"

Rene stood to follow him, but paused to look over his shoulder in the direction from which they had just come. Horror and amazement broke over his face as he looked into the glowing face of a woman only inches from his own. The green glow of her hair and skin illuminated his face for an instant before it disappeared.

He recognized the look on her face as that of triumph and the beginning of a laugh. Only a quiet murmur of protest escaped his lips as he turned to catch up with Frank.

"Yep! Dere's da path to the shanty, Rene, just over da bog. We can do dat! Just have to be…aaaauuuuugh!" Frank screamed as he fell into a swirling eddy of thin mud that looked deceptively solid. The quicksand began to pull him downward.

"Rene! Help me! Da quicksand's got me!" Frank reached around him for anything to hold onto that might keep him from being sucked under. "Rene! C'mon, man! Ya gotta get me outta here!" He reached as far as he could and just barely grabbed onto a root from the massive overturned oak. Rene calmly walked over to the tree where Frank was being slowly pulled into the bowels of the swamp. He looked down at Frank. "Oh, Rene! Thanks, man! C'mon, get me outta here! This's pulling me somethin' fierce!"

Frank looked up at Rene. But it wasn't Rene that he saw. Yes, it was his friend's face, but the eyes staring coldly down at him seemed to glow with the same eerie light he'd seen on the bayou. The grin which split Rene's face had the same glow, and somehow Frank knew that it was too late. He screamed as the machete came down on his arm, severing his only anchor. Rene watched with horror from behind the being that had taken over his body. He watched Frank scream in agony and terror as he was sucked under the surface and heard the maniacal laughter ripped from his own throat at the scene. As if time itself were expanding and making everything move slowly, Rene watched the hand on the tree root slip onto the leaves and the remaining gore drain out into the semi-solid quicksand nearby.

Then the entity in his mind left him. It was like watching an emerald film over his eyesight sweep away in a breeze and he heard a maniacal wail as it passed away from him. Rene fell to his knees and wept into the ground.



To Continue



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