Insanity's Pain

Insanity's Pain

"There is a swirling darkness there just behind the eyes." Kenifyd smiled as she brought up both her hands and placed her index fingers to her face just behind her eyes. The young girl sitting with her squinted from the bright afternoon sun as she tried to understand the old woman's ramblings.

Why? The girl railed to herself. Why do I try to make sense of what this senile old woman says? It never makes sense.

But, the old woman persisted. "And then the thickness numbs and builds a painful pressure in the front of your head, right here." The old woman rubbed her forehead as if to sooth away an ache.

"But no matter you see, because it is nothing to me; just some phantom and ill gotten memory."

The girl winced as the old woman laughed.

"It gets all swirly grey and numb thick and pains; and they comes in the night and take the very spark of life ands they twists it tight with afraidness and shamefulness and the youth energy hides it's fresh laughter being torn from thems that can't get away."

Gently, the girl placed a hand on Dame Kenifyd's shoulder as the old woman wrapped her arms tight around bony knees and rocked herself with slow forward and backward motions. Kenifyd's tears flowed freely from her insane grey eyes.

"It is okay Dame Kenifyd. The bad man has gone away and won't return."

Again, the old woman's harsh cackle made the girl wince.

"Theys coming I tells you. And theys never stays away. Theys always here, right here I tells you, in the grey swirly behind these eyes."

A silence fell between the girl and the old woman as they sat beside the hut. Fennris wondered if she should attempt to get Dame Kenifyd back inside. The old woman was agitated and it would be wise to get her out of sight.

But, Fennris wasn't up for a struggle and Kenifyd always proved noncompliant when she was agitated. No, it is best that I sit here and try to sooth the old woman through the roughest spots in her tirade.

In a soft voice almost a whisper the old woman continued.

"Theys can do those things and never guilt touches thems. In the nights when they not suppose to be there. Ands they tells you be quiet or theys going to kills you. Always same. Theys coming again in the grey swirly behind these old eyes."

Again, the woman wept as she rocked herself. Fennris rubbed the old woman's shoulder and crooned to her gently. She must calm her agitation. The girl looked around to see if anyone else might be able to hear what Kenifyd witch was saying. Fennris frowned, though no one had yet taken notice. The girl was afraid the evil filth that usually spewed forth when Kenifyd became agitated, was not far in following.

As the grey haired woman settled on a moment of quiet, Fennris stood and tried to persuade her grand-dame into the hut. She was no harm, except to herself, when she got this way. She incited the villager's fears and someday it would be her death for what she said. Her death and any who might try to defend her.

She was crazy, this old woman. Fennris knew there is no help for it.

"Please Grand-Dame Kenifyd, the sun is terribly hot and the hut so much cooler to sit in." Fennris gently lifted the thin blue veined hand to assist the woman in her standing. But, the old woman looked up into the blue brightness of her grand-daughter's soul and shook her head expressing deep sadness.

"No Fenni girl. The shadows fill yonder hut. Only in the bright hotness of the sun am I safe. Theys no coming to the full light of the day you see, only in the shadow and the deep night they use for their deeds. And they says be quiet or they kill you. But everytime they come you dies and you no knowing your death till they be gone. They take piece by piece till you are no more and leave a sliver only to keep your body living. No little Fenni, I stays right here in the safe hot light. I only a sliver left and they coming to take my death and making it theirs to own. My soul in peril great it is. I stays here in the sun and be safe."

Resigning to the inevitable the young girl sighed from deep inside her growing fear. "Yes, Grand-Dame. Do you want some water then?"

The old woman nodded but said nothing. She looked around her and the old grey eyes glaze over as she seemed teleported to a past long gone and lost to the dust of time. A smile crept over her face and she was young again.

Fennris sighed her relief as she entered the hut to fetch a cup of water. Kenifyd would stay quiet for a while. The smile always preceded her growing weariness and she would soon succumb to sleep.

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