“Sorry or sorrow”   By Ben Goode © 2016

They had followed her for some time. Two of the worst senior high school girl bullies.
Unfortunately they were fit, sporty and gorgeous cheerleader types bent on taunting anyone who didn’t fit in. And Jody definitely didn’t.
They kept up with Jody no matter how fast she walked or jogged.
Retrogression. Almost puerilism.
The games we play.
A defence, an attack.
No goal but to lose.
Ugly and ill-gotten.
 
It was a gravel road and not many people drove their cars on it. The countryside was quite beautiful, but also quite remote. Thick brush lined the roadside. And the cricket noise was quite thick. There were hardly any houses around. Most of them were farms on large acreage.
Jody normally liked the walk home to wind down, but today was not one of those days.
She had normally been able to tactically evade these girls but they had obviously well planned to pursue her on this day, and there was nowhere at all to hide.
But she had deliberately taken a different route, to mislead her pursuers. She didn’t want them to know where she lived after all, but these roads weren’t very familiar to her.
She wasn’t entirely sure what was ahead of her, but she had heard of an abandoned old railyard which was around the area she was in. She hoped maybe she would find it, where she could hide away.
“Hey Jody hoe-dee, it’s no use running you can’t escape us witch bitch!”
“Why don’t you just leave me alone?” Jody screamed.
“Why should we? You killed our mascot cat, for one of your weird satanic rituals!”
“It was just a stupid cat!” Jody cried.
“Well it wasn’t just a stupid cat to us, you fucking murdering whore!”
One of the girls managed to chase Jody down and tackled her.
They attacked her savagely, and mercilessly threw punches and kicks.
Jody tried her best to defend herself. She managed to block some of the punches to her face but not enough of them.
“Now you even look like an ugly witch!” One of them laughed.
Jody’s eyes had already blackened and blood flowed out of her broken nose. She had teeth missing and her hair was caked with blood from the cuts on her head.
She cried in anguish, but knew nobody would hear her.
 
Hostility boils, hoodwinked.
Misgivings. Salience. Typecast.
Unchanged circumstances.
Curtain. Final act.
Drama, perhaps comedy.
Relief in reflection.
Applause, but no bow.
Acting. Not convincing. Poor role.
Cameo and unrecognised.
No standing ovation.
 
She was sure she had a broken rib and her legs felt as if they were going to collapse from underneath her as she stumbled forward to try and walk. She knew she couldn’t stay around, because there would be no help for her.
She finally found the railyard and it was getting dark. But she fell weakly to the ground.
She closed her eyes.
Angry. Lightning flashes above.
Just like my thoughts and my bitterness
Rumbles like the thunder.
Sour, twisted inside, discerning.
Decayed happiness. Wrathful in self-pity.
Wounded. Worn out.
A war cry to no one. A battle within.
Virulent viewpoint. Vicissitude. Victim
Jody’s eyes flickered open suddenly; she could hear footfalls close by and barely moved her head over to see two creatures stalking her nearby.
They were dark shadowlike figures with glowing eyes. Hissing and whispering at first, but then she heard it very clearly, a raspy duet of voices which said:
“Mortality is such a delicate thing. Perish you will a soft fleshling.
Feel the pain, and then you’ll see, oblivion in, you soon will be.
Then you’ll wake up from a sleep, your wrath of vengeance, they will reap”
Barely conscious Jody was sprawled out on the ground at the mercy of the ghouls.
They stood over her, one at her feet and one at her head. And like hungry vultures they ripped her apart. Her arms and legs were taken first as their jagged jaws perforated her flesh.
She screamed and it echoed through the valley. Her bones crunched and splintered.
 
The pain coursed through her body like electricity Blood gushed from her severed limbs, and she felt it pool all around her like a warm bath. They consumed her torso like veracious sharks. Her insides were torn out and the ghouls fought over them.
“I’m sorry!” were her final words.
Jody lapsed into merciful unconsciousness, as she felt herself slip away into oblivion.
Oh dark one I start to fade;
Look upon the mess you’ve made
So upon a place unknown,
Dead upon a branch that’s grown.
I ran away, I couldn’t stay –
Death has come, but goes away.
Chased, and hunted, fallen down, and lost upon this sacred ground.
A nobody’s hour of calm, no light,
A day no longer and stars so bright,
A peace I want, but to awake.
A time that’s taken, for my own sake.
No noise, except night birds that call,
May my deep unconscious, please just fall.
Reality had twisted into a dreamscape, memories, regrets; feelings seemed to be mixed into a soup of afterthought. The pain she had felt in her apparent death seemed to linger on for hours. She felt as if she was being pulled inside out, and into a whirlpool of nothingness. But as quickly as the nothingness seemed to consume her, she felt as if she had been suddenly accelerated into a tunnel. She felt the pain ebb away and her consciousness was somehow gradually returning.
It was early in the morning Jody opened her eyes. She was fully intact, and unscathed.
She felt as if she had awoken from a soporific sleep. She put her fingers to her mouth, and felt that even her teeth had been somehow restored, and there was no sign of blood anywhere.
She rose to her feet and she noticed that even her clothes seemed brand new.
But she wasn’t alone anymore as two police cars had arrived on the scene with lights flashing. As soon as the car had parked, a woman had rushed out of one followed by several escorting police. The distraught middle-aged woman rushed to Jody, panic stricken and hugged her tearfully.
“Mum?” Jody hugged her mother back, but was quite disorientated.
 
“Thank god you’re ok Jody, we’ve been so worried. Your father and I heard somebody had been attacked in town by those damned Johnstone girls, and when you didn’t come home we realised it must have been you.” Jody’s mother explained “Jody we spent all night looking for you, why are you out here? Are you hurt?”
“No Mum I’m ok, I’m ok, can we go home now?” Jody asked.
The police approached Jody. They were going to question her about the incident no doubt.
Time seemed to slow down, and Jody found herself falling, and slipping back into unconsciousness.
Black, crow, impurity,
Raven soul obscurity,
Sable, shadow, coaly,
Livid wrath unholy.
Dark, sable, wraithlike
Never-ending odd night
Gothic. Wicca spell.
Road that leads to hell.
 
The Johnstone girls had been at home entertaining their friends with a rowdy party. They had the house to themselves as their parents were away
Their house was one of the richest and largest in the area, but much like the others it was fairly isolated built on acreage surrounded by the woodlands.
 
The house was packed with people drinking and dancing to the most recent music.
Various groups sat around tables, talking and smoking, but most had their heads buried on their mobile phone and IPad devices.
 
The Johnstone girls were having conversations of their own with two handsome boys in their age group. They had been laughing and flirting with the boys, obviously trying to impress them, and it had seemed very successful until now:
 
“Go on you tell it!” One of the girls said.
“Wait what? Oh that! Pfft they probably already know it already.”
“Tell them anyway, go on!”
 
“Oh for fucks sake Meagan, there’s nothing really to it, Jody was a fucking push over!”
“I thought that was just a rumour, shit the cops were asking if we knew anything about that.” One of the boys said as he looked at the two of them. “You really did that shit to her?”
 
“Well the cops couldn’t prove anything if they wanted to. You should have seen her though.
I don’t think she’ll be showing her face at school anytime soon. That’s one less witch we have to worry about hey?” Cindy said. “She was a fucking cat killing Satanist anyway so we did the town a favour!”
 
“Yeah but Cindy how do you know she was a witch anyway?” One of the boys asked.
 
“Aw come on Jerry don’t be daft, even her great grandmother was a witch, and legend has it that bitch was actually burnt at the stake by the local township. But we couldn’t do that to Jody Hoe-dee so we did the next best thing!” Cindy replied.
 
“Two against one Cindy, shit that’s pretty harsh!” one of the boys commented.
 
“Fuck you’re a pussy! “What the fuck is with you all of the sudden Lewis? Did you have a thing for her?” Cindy snapped.
 
“She was just misunderstood that’s all, sure she was a bit weird, but she didn’t deserve to have the shit kicked out of her!” Lewis countered.
 
“She killed our fucking mascot cat!” Meagan glared at Lewis “I mean shit, you’re in the team, Jesus doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
 
“She only did that only after you had her tarred and feathered at the prom. I mean come one Meagan you guys have fucked her over so many times you’re lucky it was just the cat she killed, she could have gone all Carrie on your ass!” Jerry shook his head.
“Well she’s no fucking saint, and not even that smart anyway!” Cindy sneered.
 
“Well you’re not that smart Cindy the whole town knows about it, maybe you shouldn’t have told so many people!”
 
“Yeah well even if they do prove it, her family are so poor they couldn’t afford a lawyer!” Meagan laughed.
 
“So you’re both not even the least bit sorry that you hurt and humiliated her?” Jerry asked.
 
“Ha ha, why the fuck should we be?” Cindy laughed out aloud.
 
The music and talk suddenly went all silent in the house.
Everyone had synchronically become stationary, except Cindy and Meagan.
Each person’s head turned toward them, and if they were facing the other way, their head turned unnaturally sideways and even backwards.
 
Cindy and Meagan screamed hysterically, but they were frozen in fear.
 
All of the people had jagged teeth and glowing eyes. And all spoke as one demonic voice:
 
“No sorrow for a crime of two, justice, youth, from each of you!
Witches curse for there’s a spell, family sins condemned to hell”
 
Then suddenly the crowd returned to normal as if nothing had happened.
 
But the girls had kept their faces of horror. They both had been aged, appearing withered, gaunt and very unpleasant. Upon seeing them Lewis and Jerry dropped their drinks.
Their glasses smashed on the floor. People in the room turned to see the commotion.
Some gasped, commented and even laughed at the girl’s appearances.
 
The girls screamed and both tried to leave the room pushing past people in their hasty retreat,
They seemed to be heading directly for the nearest bathroom to see.
People continued to laugh, comment and gasp as they made their way through.
 
As they faced the bathroom mirror in horror, writing appeared before them.
“Mirror mirror on the wall; see your true self, down you fall.
Sorrow now, and fear of you, torment that you never knew.
Ugly inside, now it’s out, beauty, prestige now in doubt.”
 
It was all too much, but despite Cindy and Meagan’s hysteric screams, nobody seemed to care. But an ambulance did arrive eventually, to carry away the two, who had lapsed into an exhausted unconsciousness.
 
The next day in the town hospital, in one of the ward rooms, the two sisters had been put into beds alongside each other. They each had drips and various other medical instruments attached to them.
They both appeared to be sleeping with apparent exhaustion. A nurse had been overseeing them before a Doctor had entered the room.
 
“Oh hello Doctor Garran is it?” The nurse greeted him. “I’m Rene Cutler. I’ll get right down to it.
The patients have been identified as Cindy and Meagan Johnstone. They appear to be in their late eighties, currently in a stable condition, however their medical records show them as being only fifteen and sixteen years old.”
 
“Fascinating case this one, it appears these girls have a severe genetic disorder associated with one of the Progeroid syndromes. They are thought to be monogenic,] meaning they arise from mutations of a single gene.  But I’ve never seen a case quite like this” Dr Garran said as he reviewed his notes. “Their rate of deterioration is highly unusual”
 
“Well as far as I know the most widely studied of the progeroid syndromes are Werner syndrome and Hutchinson-Gilford progeria, as they are seen to mostly resemble natural aging.” Rene suggested
“Excellent Miss Cutler, I like how you think, you’re a quick study!” Doctor Garran.
 
“Well you’re definitely the right Doctor for the case, with your reputation of expertise.”
“Why thank you Miss Cutler. Perhaps later we can discuss employment opportunities within one of my medical facilities?”
“I might just take you up on that!” Miss Cutler smiled. “Do you need me any further Doctor?”
“No thank you Miss Cutler, we’ll talk again soon.” Doctor Garran smiled.
The nurse nodded and left efficiently, passing by two police officers, and Jody, who had then walked into the room.
 
One of the police introduced themselves and shook the Doctors hand, and then the other did the same. The police proceeded into the room and seemed to be taking notes for a report.
 
Jody was next to introducing herself, and she smiled at the Doctor confidently as she shook his hand.
“Doctor Garran, I’m Jody Wiccan, I’ve heard a lot about you but you’re not from around here”
“Very perceptive Miss Wiccan you seem remarkably knowledgeable to know who I am”
 
“It’s a small town and word gets around”
“Yes it does. From what I understood you were a victim of these girls bullying tendencies, and for all intents and purposes you were supposed to have been assaulted by them as well. But you seem to be in very good shape to me”
“Just rumours really, a few pushes, shoves and harsh words exchanged.  Yes they did bully me and I’m here with the police so they can get statements from them. I came with them to identify Meagan and Cindy”
“Well there’s not much left of them to identify in the condition they’re in. I’ll leave you and the police to do what you need to do, and you have ten minutes to do it. See you soon” Dr Garran said as he walked away.
 
The two police each stood by the side of Cindy and Meagan who awoke in turn, to see Jody standing in-between their beds.
 
“Jody?” Cindy looked at Jody with amazement. Meagan seemed too weak to speak.
 
“Mortality is such a delicate thing. Perish you will a soft fleshling.” Jody smiled.
The police both changed into horrific ghouls and mercilessly attacked Cindy and Meagan.
The ghouls tore into their flesh and consumed their limbs just as easily as a shark in the water. Their torso’s were torn and tattered in a bloody gore.
Nobody seemed to hear or see the commotion.
Neither Cindy nor Meagan could scream. They felt themselves slipping away.
But Meagan did manage to weakly say just two words;
“I’m sorry” were her final words. Darkness, silence, and apparent oblivion.
Reality had twisted into a dreamscape, memories, regrets; feelings seemed to be mixed into a soup of afterthought. The pain she had felt in her apparent death seemed to linger on for hours. She felt as if she was being pulled inside out, and into a whirlpool of nothingness. But as quickly as the nothingness seemed to consume her, she felt as if she had been suddenly accelerated into a tunnel. She felt the pain ebb away and her consciousness was somehow gradually returning.
Meagan awoke in her hospital bed to see Doctor Garran standing over her. She was intact, unscathed and felt as if she had awoken from a soporific sleep. She was young and beautiful again.
“Cindy? Cindy is she ok?” Meagan asked.
“I’m afraid not Miss Johnstone, she died peacefully in her sleep about an hour ago.”
“What about Jody and the police? Where are they?”
“Miss Wiccan and the police left yesterday after noon, you’ll be pleased to know there won’t be any harassment charges laid against you. Apparently your apology seemed to be enough.” Dr Garran replied. “It’s only when we recognize our past wrongs that we can truly turn over a new leaf!”