The Finale Of My Horror Story, LIKHO

ICYMI, I took a stab at writing a horror story. You can find the first 2 parts in the blog above, and this is the finale. 

ACT III

Alek and Samo ask her about herself. Does she have a family? How long has she lived out here? What is she making for dinner? She said she lives alone, and has lived in this house as long as she can remember. She says her dinner is the last of her stores, since game rarely seek out their fortune as far out as the marsh. She can’t hunt as she once did, but she has grown great at setting traps. She asks them what they are doing this far out in the wilderness. Alek is about to answer when Samo interjects with a lie. He tells her that they got lost while hunting. 

They finish eating(some sort of meat stew that they find delicious) and Samo says they will both go outside to relieve themselves before going to sleep for the night. Outside, Samo tells Alek that they should keep their true purpose a secret. The wilderness has been nothing but treacherous, and this woman may be in league with the beasts in order to ensure her protection. Alek is skeptical, but agrees. 

Back inside, Samo falls asleep. Alek talks more to the old woman, who gets him to open up about his grief. She sympathizes with him, telling him that this region is very magic. In fact, she knows of a way that he can see his wife and daughter again. Alek begs her to tell him, and he says he will tell her in exchange for him telling her their true purpose there. They have no hunting gear, and Samo has soft hands while Aleks are fully calloused. He tells her the truth, and she chuckles. She says she will help him tomorrow. 

In his sleep, Alek sees his wife and child in the all-white setting once again. This time, they aren’t burning alive. They are happy, thanking him and telling him to continue onwards. This time, Alek fights forward to try and hold them. When he grabs his wife’s hand, it is as if she has woken up from a trance. She grabs him and ask him what he has done. He says he has trying to help them find peace. She tells him that he has made a huge mistake and to run as far away as he can. Repeating it louder and louder until it is a scream as the dream falls apart around her. She is ripped from his arms as if from an invisible lasso as he wakes up. He realizes that he is holding the talisman that his sister-in-law gave him. Thinking it is cursed, he throws it into the fire. 

He realizes that what woke him up was the sound of chopping. The old woman is at the table with her back to him, chopping away at some kind of meat. Her figure looks different. She is taller, more disfigured. Her feet pop out from underneath her dress and there are hawk-like talons where her feet should be, scratching/carving the wooden floor impatiently as she hums in a notably scarier sounding voice. Samo wake up as well in a groggy haze. Alek asks what she is doing. “Making breakfast, of course!” She walks away to grab something and they see what she was chopping: A human arm. 

The men jump up, scared shitless. Samo grabs a knife and they stand up to confront her. They ask her what she is. She laughs maniacally as they men come to the realization that she is the evil they were seeking. She turns around and reveals her true form to them. Her skin is grey, wet and clammy. She is missing an eye, and the one she has is huge. Her hair is now just a wisp covering her bald head that covered in boils. Her fingers end in claws that are overlapping the handle of the cleaver she is using to chop up the human body on her table.  (she is a creature called a Likho)

As she turns, she stands up straight up and towers over the men by several feet. She tells them that they were fools for seeking out an evil such as her. The men are scared shitless and just stare for a moment. Alek makes the first move and bolts for the door. The Likho turns and grabs his skull in the “palm” of her foot, slamming his head into the side of the house and knocking him unconscious. Samo swings his knife against the creature, but she catches his wrist with her hand and throws him to the other side of the house. Samo looks at Alek, who is laying in a puddle of his own blood coming out of a gash in his head. He takes his chance and runs out of the door. 

He sprints through the pitch black night barefoot, unable to make out any of his surroundings. He searches franticly, trying to find the path they came in on. While he runs, he suddenly looks up to see his teenage son, who is lit up bright against the darkness and facing away from him. He stops in his tracks and says the child’s name. His son turns to face him, and his face melts away and maggots crawl out of his face as he collapses. Cut to a shot of Samo’s feet, where we see both of his achilles tendons cut with a single swing of the Likho’s cleaver. He falls to the ground, writhing in pain as the Likho grabs drags him back towards the cabin, laughing over his piercing screams. 

Alek has another vision of his wife and child while unconscious. He sees them up close, and when he calls out for them, they suddenly shoot far away. He wakes up in a brain fog. He scans the room and sees the Likho at her table, hard at work. As things come into focus, he sees her chopping away again. As he looks to the other side of the room, he sees something hanging from the ceiling. It’s Sammo’s skin and it is laid out like a tanner. The Likho turns and puts a tray of Samo’s limbs and organs into the oven.

Alek screams, and the Likho quickly turns and puts her talon to his throat. It’s his turn to die. Before she delivers the killing stroke, Alek cries out for her to wait. He begs her to spare his life, and offers his services as a blacksmith in return. The Likho stops to think about it and agrees. She says he can live as long as he forges her a new eye. Alek says he will do it, but asks that he be allowed to tie her up so that he is not afraid for his life while he works. She agrees, and he gets to work. 

He ties her up and begins to work on the eye. He continues to work, waiting for the Likho's guard to be let down. He heats up a metal poker over the furnace. He sweats over the fire as his eyes dart around the room and the tension builds. He seizes his moment and uses the hot poker to blind the Likho. She screeches an unbearably loud and shrill shriek. Alek has to cover his ears, but he grabs a knife and sprints out of the house and into the dawn light. He sees the Likho flailing around the room, unable to locate him as he escapes. 

Alek runs and gets all the way through the marsh and into a clearing. Out of breath, he looks behind him and can’t see the Likho or the cabin anymore. He breaks down crying, realizing that this was all his fault. How he did this all for himself and his own peace of mind and not for his wife and child. Now his friend was dead because he convinced him to stay when they should have given up. He looks up and sees something glimmering nearby. It is a golden, jewel-encrusted one-handed axe wedged into a tree stump. He inspects it and thinks about it for a minute. He figures he may as well take it so that can sell it and give the money to Samo’s family. 

He goes to grab it out of the stump with his left hand. It won’t budge. He pulls again. Nothing. This is when he hears the shrieking of the Likho. He turns and sees her gliding through the morning fog in the distance. Alek turns to run but realizes something. His hand is stuck to the axe. He pulls and pulls but he cannot get his hand free of it. He plants his feet into the stump and pulls, but only succeeds in dislocating his shoulder with a sickening crunch. He turns and see’s the Likho getting closer, cackling as she comes. 

He takes out the knife he grabbed earlier and makes the choice: To start cutting off his own hand. The knife isn’t heavy or sharp enough to chop it off, so he is forced to stab and saw it off. He gets really far, but cannot stand the pain. He plants his feet back on the stump and pulls the remaining connective tissue loose. He writhes on the ground for a moment, but looks up and sees the Likho continuing to approach, seemingly locked on to his screams. 

He holds his wrist as he continues to run through the marsh and towards the woods. The cackling continues to get close and closer. He looks over his left shoulder and sees nothing. He looks over his right just in time to see the Likho leap and grip onto his shoulder, sinking her teeth into him. He screams in pain, trying to pull her off.  She pulls out her teeth and whispers in Alek’s ear. “You sought me out and now you’re trying to leave? You are going to die here, fool. And so will everyone who comes looking for you.”

Alek realizes it’s true. He grabs the Likho and plunges headfirst into the marsh. He tussles wit the Likho underwater as her barely audible screams echo through the marsh. He fights with her to hold her under the water with him. The air escapes his lungs as he runs out of breath. As he struggles, we see flashes of him seeing his family back in the white. They embrace him as he breaks down into tears. He walks into the light with both his wife and child. 

We cut back to the village, where the corrupt priest is holding an empty casket funeral for both Alek and Samo a few months later. We see Samo’s teenage son later pack up supplies and a weapon before heading out into the wilderness down the same path his father took. Back at the marsh, we see the Likho slowly emerge from the marsh. She coughs out the water and cackles before walking back down the path towards her cabin.