Sun Kissed Innsmouth
Part Sixty Nine
The slow walk through the nighttime woods left Felecia breathless and sweaty. The woods near to the estate had been sweltering during the summer days but grew quiet and breezy at night, everything west of that odd meadow seemed to hug onto the days heat indefinitely. After a long march through the woods onto the edge of a muddy quagmire that seemed to invite every manner of biting insect Felecia finally stopped and gave words to her growing discomfort. “That meadow and the old house, they seemed much nicer than this swamp. Is your home much farther?”
The old woman stopped and turned, showering Felecia in the bright lantern light. The beam offered a disquieting view of mosquitos the size of ripe limes as they slowly buzzed this way and that. “This swamp is my home. Everything I see, west of the meadow up to the beachhead north of here, belongs to me. That was the agreement.”
Felecia nodded back to the meadow and the long since abandoned house made from shipping crates. “What agreement? That meadow was nearly perfect, who would be so cruel as to make you abandon that place?”
The old woman didn’t scoff or shrug, she turned away from Felecia and kept on walking through the sucking mud and the insects.
Why wag your tongue when just looking at me does the work for you?
Felecia had so many questions and their number only grew with every mention of the old woman and her place in the long, ugly Conway lineage. So many old and awful cut off questions tried to emerge and speak out loud before Felecia cut them all off. The answer was obvious as it was eternal. Nana.
The old woman really was Nana’s twin and she really was left out there in the wilds, abandoned in her finery to fend for herself so long ago.
They trudged on as Felecia swatted at the fat, hateful mosquitos until her reserves dissolved under the heat and the moistures endless assault. “My Nana, my grandmother, your sister. She made you stay out here. I’m sorry that happened. She made my life hell as well.”
The old woman said nothing as she busied herself with changing out the hand rolled beeswax candle from her directional lantern, she seemed content with the simple chore and to continue toward the rocky plateau that waited beyond until Felecia began fussing. “How long have you been left out here?”
The old woman didn’t scoff or shrug, she didn’t settle down or let the directional lantern settle on one length of the woods to the south too long. “Too long. I was left out here too long. That’s the truth of it. Now follow me in silence, or don’t you come along at all. It’s your choice.”