Nathaniel's Tale

Nathaniel's Tale is the sixth chapter in the Wombles Eight.

''We grew up in a dark, old mansion in Gotham City. In the United States. Mother and Father were part of a big organisation. That organisation made us very rich. They never told us how and we don’t know to this day but we know it was something very powerful and dangerous.''

''The strangest people used to come and go. All we ever knew was that they were important and threatening. Dark and brooding. Natalie and I kept well away. In the early years we were guarded and fussed over by Nanny. Later we found our own ways to stay safe with these strangest of visitors.''

''The house had many secrets. There were tunnels behind the walls. Some places the walls sounded hollow. There were times when our parents scalded us badly for going near parts of the house! It felt unfair back then but alas we are alive because of it!''

''People said the house was haunted. There was history of the most terrifying ghost stories. It was supposed to be occupied by the lost souls of a terrible old asylum. Some said that the beheaded, hung, and strangled held on as ghosts. Even those broken in life by the horrors of the iron maiden and rack were said to walk our gloomy corridors.''

''These were but fables to keep people away. Everybody except them. Those people in that mysterious and dark organisation. There was however something other than the stern people wearing their rings. The rings had an owl design. We didn’t and still don’t ask about that. The something that killed our parents was other worldly. It was like pure fear itself.''

''Whatever scared you personally it would become. A metaphysical manifestation of your greatest fear. Natalie saw it when Father was killed. She was terrified of spiders, still is today actually. She watched as a huge, hairy black and tan tarantula paralysed Father. She saw it eat him alive. She saw his look of terror! What Father saw we cannot say. For It, as well it, takes the form of your fear alone. To all others it will look different.''

''That was the day that Natalie was blinded at sixteen years old. Natalie changed her name to Father in honour of a brave man taken down in his prime of life. We never knew his name lest the organisation should realise. The same with Mother.''

''A year went by without the organisation coming to our house. We started to feel better, safer. Until Natalie’s birthday. Mother made a cake with Natalie’s name emblazoned on it. Little did we know that by stating the name of one who has felt the fear It comes back!''

''So it did return! This time it was  only myself who witnessed as It took our Mother. The blindness caused by the sheer spectral terror of a year ago was a kindness to Natalie. I saw my worst nightmare. It was a clown! Clowns make my spine chill like nothing else on this Earth. The clown was wielding an enormous hammer. The like of which you might find at a fair. With that hammer It struck my Mother! It struck again and again! It crumpled her body into a mutilated heap of flesh and bones. Finally it committed the most heinous act. I think you can guess but it makes me shudder to remember.''

“It ate her didn’t it mate” Constantine finished ignoring Mother looking pale and shaking. Mother just nodded drank his brandy and continued.

''I feared It so much but I also loathed it. Hated it. I determined that I would get my revenge! From that fateful day I researched everything I could about the occult, witchcraft, black magic and spectral phenomena. To my surprise there was much black magic going on in Gotham. The trail led me to a strange man known only as Doctor Fate. He wore an odd outfit and had a gleaming helmet. The helmet was some sort of antique.''

''Doctor Fate didn’t wait to here why I was there to see him. He knew! He knew everything about me! It scared me to think there was so much beyond the world I didn’t understand. Though revenge was driving me and it kept me brave. For my family’s sake!''

''The Doctor performed a strange ritual with substances the like of which I had never seen. It was like I had taken some of kind of drug. The vision took me to a factory full of chemicals. I was floating outside of my body. I could go through walls. On searching around I found out where the place was. It was called Ace Chemicals and from there I floated all the way back across the city. Through the walls of Doctor Fate’s old house into my own body. Finally he told a date and a time.''

''I woke up cold and confused back in my own bed. There was a note next to me. That date and time were written. It was signed DF. Everything flooded back into mind. I checked the date to find it was the very one I had been given. The time? Yes indeed. The time was one hour from that moment.''

''There wasn’t a moment to lose. I rushed out of my room, out of the house and into the city. An old beggar was blocking my way. He wouldn’t leave me be until I paid him. Pay him I did! Handsomely to get rid of him. The beggar then surprised me by handing me a dagger. A very old dagger. As I held the handle I understood. This was no ordinary dagger. It was something in the way of black magic.''

''I rushed to Ace Chemicals where I heard a strange laughing. The laughing echoed through the walls but I could follow it as it got louder. Eventually high on a platform I saw It! That evil clown face was mocking me but I held firm and raised the dagger!''

''With a great effort I raced to the platform with It mocking me, taunting me, teasing out my fear! Then It saw the dagger and roles were reversed. It’s face contorted with fear at me! I lunged and dagger went into flesh. Now It was solid and vulnerable not spectral. It was bleeding and struggling but it’s deadly claws from my own imagination were reaching to skewer me.''

''I slashed It’s face accidentally making it like it was smiling. The dagger was plunged into it so many times but still It fought. Finally I pushed It off the platform and down, down it fell into the vat of acid below.''

And that is my tale Mr Constantine.