The Crazy Village Lady

“No. No, no, no!” Sal followed the trail of crimson in the snow to her crumpled form. “Mom!” He pressed his hands against the large red stain on her garments. “Come on, not this again. Your stitches were barely healed, What were you thinking?”

Somewhat deliriously, she smiled up at the large flakes wafting from the sky. “The Winter Berries are ripe, I wanted to sell them at the market. They fetch a great price, you know.”

“I told you already that I make more than enough. I had to leave my job early because Mrs. Potter saw you stumbling through the snow.” He looked down at her feet. “For Titan’s sake, Mom! You don’t even have shoes on!”

Despite her protests that she’d not finished harvesting the berries, Sal hefted his thin mother in his arms and trekked back to their cottage outside the village. Her eyes closed as they walked, drifting off. The blood on her dress began to dry and he breathed a small sigh of relief. He could barely afford their food and rent. Another visit to the physician would officially put them into debt. If the blood was clotting, though, he could take care of it himself.

He set her down on the cot in the corner of the main room and assured himself that her breathing was even and unbothered before he stoked the fire from embers to a large blaze that nearly didn’t fit in the hearth. He was worried about her. Her sleepwalking had gotten worse in the recent months. He’d begun sleeping with his bed against the front door to prevent her from leaving the house. The stitches in her abdomen were from a nasty fall she’d taken while Sal had been at work. She claimed she’d stayed in the house all day but the baker’s daughter, Kristi, had seen her walk like one of the undead into the forest, mumbling about the angels.

The village called her crazy. Sal had fought the diagnosis at first, but as the time dragged on and she grew worse, he feared they were right. Sal worried she might become a nuisance to the town and so much so that the magistrate would order her locked in the asylum in the next city over. Nobody knew what went on in the asylum because nobody was allowed in. If they took her, she was as good as dead as far as Sal was concerned. So far, her craziness extended to mindless wandering and strange muttering about angelic creatures and demonic fiends.

Sal returned to work, and, for the next few days, things continued as normal. He worked in the coal mines, the rhythmic pounding of his pickaxe grounding, in a way. He tried to occupy his thoughts in the dark tunnels, to keep them away from his mother, but he found himself worrying anyway. She could be bleeding out in the snow again, her purple, frostbitten hands reaching for the last of the Winter Berries out in the forest.

“Sal! It’s your mother!” Sal’s fists tightened around the handle of the pickaxe, but he turned to face the newcomer in the tunnels. Kristi.

“What is it this time?”

Her face was ashen. “The magistrate has her. She came into the village shrieking about the Urslusmegalucerus and that everyone needed to leave.”

“Take me to her.” He jogged after the girl, watching her red pigtails bounce against her back. In a different life, he’d have lived in a house of his own and asked the baker to marry Kristi, but with his mother’s condition, he had no other option but to care for her. He scoffed at his mother’s ridiculous raving. The Urslumegalucerus. A fairy story to scare little kids into staying in bed at night. A great big bear with teeth like a lion and antlers like a great moose.

Sal arrived at the town meeting hall where his mother, in nothing but a nightgown and one of Sal’s coats was begging the magistrate to listen to her.

“You have to let me go! You may not believe me but Sal and I have to leave! You can’t let me stay here to share my fate with the rest of the village! It’s coming!”

“Sal!” the magistrate shouted, spotting him the second he entered. “You promised you’d keep her locked up. She’s scaring the town and disrupting the market.”

“Sal! Sal! If they don’t let me go you have to leave! It’s coming! The Urslusmegalucerus!” Her eyes were wide with fear.

Sal’s heart sank as he beheld her. What had she become? How had this happened? “No, mom, it’s not coming. Let me take you home.”

“Out of the question!” The magistrate snapped. His thick, dark eyebrows furrowed deeply. “I told you, the second she began to cause disturbance she was through. I’m having my men take her to Dernum. At the asylum, they will be able to keep her from hurting anyone, herself included.”

Sal opened his mouth to reply, but screams began to rise from outside.

“Too late.” His mother whispered, looking at her feet.

The soldiers inside the hall shared glances before they all dashed outside to see the commotion.

Something twisted in his stomach. Sal, pickaxe still in hand, grit out, “Stay here.” He wasn’t sure if he was talking to Kristi or his mother, but he hoped they both listened. He dashed outside into the street and his jaw went slack.

A bear, fifteen feet in stature at least, antlers six feet across, tore through the town. One swipe of his paw brought down the tents and awnings lining the street. Vendors ran screaming. Sal could feel bile rising in his throat as a soldier, sword in hand, charged the bear. The man was dead within seconds. The bear trampled over the body, further into the town.

His mother was right. She’d known. She wasn’t crazy. He wasn’t sure what she was, but she wasn’t a mindless lunatic. He had to get her out. As he turned to go back to the town hall, another one of the massive creatures emerged from the treeline no more than a hundred yards away.

“You have to go now!” he shouted by way of greeting. “She was right! The Urslusmegalucerus. Two of them! They’re destroying the town.”

The magistrate looked stunned. Despite being the son of a madwoman, the magistrate knew Sal was no fool. The moment he regained control of his body, he fled through the backdoor.

“Come on,” Sal said, gripping his pickaxe. They followed the path the magistrate had taken, through the back of the hall into a long corridor. They pushed open the heavy oak door at the end. Sunlight flooded the darkness. The magistrate was climbing on the back of a horse.

“Hya! Move!” he shouted, digging his heels into the side of the beast. The horse sped into a gallop.

“Come on, there’s two more horses in the stable!” Sal shouted as they jogged towards it.

Kristi leaped into action alongside Sal, saddling the horse faster than even he could. He hefted his mother into the saddle of the dappled mare that Kristi had saddled. Before Sal could offer his hand, Kristi swung herself into the saddle behind Sal’s mother.

A scream sounded from the road behind them. Sal’s head snapped towards it as an Urslusmegalucerus tackled the magistrate and the horse from the treeline. “Go!” he shouted at Kristi. “Keep away from the treeline! Don’t stop until you get to Dernum!”

She and his mother rode off, fast. Sal climbed onto the back of the black horse but didn’t follow the two women. He steered his horse to the village where the screaming didn’t stop. He likely wouldn’t make it, but if he could buy a minute, maybe two, for anyone to flee, it would be worth it. He adjusted his hands on the handle of the pickaxe and rode into the fray.