Chapter 10: Chapter 10: The goats

I woke up still passed out next to Victor. He’d been kind enough not to leave me there in the study but was already up and reading something. “Did you sleep well?” he asked without looking up as I rolled over to reveal what I was sure was my untamed Annalise mane.

“Yes, my lord, I’d meant to go upstairs but…” I started.

He waved his hand to interrupt me, “you were invited,” he replied.

I nodded as I went to put on my slightly less damp dress. “I’ll get ready for our trip today,” I said.

I was practically skipping as I went to get ready. I had a million songs I wanted to sing, I brushed my hair to the tune of “no goats.” I then grabbed my only non wet or dirty clothes and sang, a different iteration of “I didn’t see no goats.” I had moved on to “goat busters, I’m afraid of no goats,” when I turned to see Bearon standing at the door.

He was staring at me as if I were crazy. At this point I couldn’t care less. I had kind of seduced Victor, and I hadn’t come across the most disgusting scene in the book myself. As far as I was concerned I was on top of the world.

This particular plot point also was set up to be a fun one. Annalise rides the carriage with Victor who fawns over her while she doubts him, but then she gets to town where another man (Frederick) also fawns over her. I was going to be the stereotypical romantic female lead whose only confusion was too many men. I skipped by Bearon down to meet Victor and burst through the front doors ready to go.

“My lord?” I called excitedly.

But before I could enjoy another moment of my current good fortune and enthusiasm, I was practically smacked in the face with my first unfortunate sight of the day. Victor was standing back faced to me with one hand on his hip as he stared ahead at what should have been a magnificent horse pulled carriage. Riding in the front ready to direct us, however, was a large human sized fox wearing a top hat. Victor had his hand pressed against his face and appeared to be in minor distress. He seemed to be in even more distress trying to force out his lines. “I had a meal prepared for our trip, my lady,” he muttered, “are you ready to go?”

He removed his hand to stare directly at the fox before looking back to me. Bearon and Robin had appeared behind us like some sort of looming silent servants in a horror film or ghost story. “That’s our driver?” I replied.

“Is something the matter my lady?” I heard Robin reply from behind me.

I did my best not to indicate the amount of chills I was feeling upon seeing the situation. “Everything’s fine,” I said, “I’m excited to spend the day with you my lord.”

I went to pull myself into the carriage as Victor slowly followed me. I went to hold the door for him as he shook his head. Realizing my error I let him proceed first and help me in. He sat across from me and immediately bent down over his lap to put his head in his hands again. I heard a “we hope to see you this evening,” from the Robin Bearon peanut gallery as the driver did whatever he needed to do to prep us for our journey. Victor slowly sat back up and finally blinked at me.

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“I take it you don’t trust our driver?” I asked.

He shook his head slightly.

“It’s the implications,” I surmised.

Neither of us needed to say anything else as we began to bump along. I hadn’t wanted to tell him what I was really thinking. I was honestly relieved to know he could see it too.

Victor was supposed to ask me some somewhat romantic questions. He continually opened his mouth and looked at me as if he were about to stick to the script. But then he returned to looking out the small window nervously. He coughed as we hit another bump. “My dear,” he started somewhat uncharacteristically, “I would like you to know that it is not you that has me troubled, or last evening.”

“I wasn’t worried,” I replied, “in fact I am quite confident you enjoyed and continue to enjoy my company.”

He chuckled as he looked back to the window, “I’m afraid that by trying to avoid certain… unpleasant events. We may alter…”

But he couldn’t finish the thought. As the next thing we knew, a large bump and call from the fox caused the whole carriage to lurch to a halt. Victor looked nervously towards the window before he stared back at me wide eyed. “What’s the matter?” I started as he shook his head.

We heard the fox come around the side to check something as Victor begrudgingly indicated for me to stay put, “You may not want to look my lady.”

I did my best to stare straight ahead as he opened the door of the carriage, but the stench hit me first. I turned my head ever so slightly and saw the first carcass. There right outside the carriage, was the bloodied massacred body of a dead goat.

I swallowed as I realized the implications myself. “We seem to have driven over a dead goat,” the fox yelled, “it may take me a minute to readjust the wheels and get us up and running.”

Before I could even process what this meant I hear another thump from the top of the carriage. Something sticky started to slide down the window next to me. I was trying so hard not to look. But I couldn’t take it any longer. I turned my head to see a putrid eye and lolling tongue hanging against the window staring back at me. I instinctively jumped out towards the door and almost smacked into Victor. He spun to cover my face with his hand. “I know you didn’t want to see this, I’m sorry but you really shouldn’t look right now.”

“What’s going on?” I replied.

Our fox driver suddenly yelled as he came charging back around. “It smells,” he said as he went to adjust the wheel again.

“Just show me”, I muttered as I felt Victor slowly slide his hand down.

I nearly dropped to the ground as I was faced with the ridiculous and completely disgusting sight in front of me. A pile of dead goats, all completely torn up and bloodied, were sitting there right next to the side of the road. “Don’t look left,” Victor said as I turned to see an even bigger pile of goats next to it. Most of their entrails were falling out and a thick puddle of blood and who knows what had started to slowly drip towards us.

I felt Victor hoist me up as I realized something else had started to run near our feet. “Is the wheel almost done?” he asked as he put a supporting arm under my legs. I wrapped my arms around his neck as I felt him try to move us quickly back to the carriage.

Our fox was fiddling with something else, “five more minutes.”

I tried not to look again as I realized there was another pile of goats that had appeared behind the carriage. This one was even more horrifying than the ones in front. Victor quickly slipped me back inside as he went to take a seat next to me. He was breathing heavily as he laid his head back against the back wall of the interior. I let my head rest on his shoulder as I felt him reach to pull me in closer to him. “This isn’t the first time I’ve deviated so much,” he mumbled.

“From the… way things are supposed to be, if we were in a book,” I said for him. For some reason I couldn’t get out the word plot.

He nodded, “but something has clearly changed to make things change this much.”

I swallowed, “what do you want to do?”

He shook his head, “not see any more goats and determine our options.”

I felt him pull me closer to him as he whispered, “we can get through this together.”

I nodded as I closed my eyes. “Together,” I replied.

I felt the carriage lurch forwards as our fox driver seemed to be trying to extricate us from the putrid smelling goat situation post haste. I had so many questions, and so many things I wanted to say to Victor. But before I could get out another word I felt the carriage lurch once again and send me jumping up to smack my head. I felt a brief searing pain as the next thing I knew, my entire world went dark.