THE GORGON’S CURSE

Madeline Konstantinos was running for her life. She had to get away, otherwise her father’s sacrifice would be for nothing.
Branches like skeletal fingertips pulled and scratched at her as she ran through the forest that she had once called home. It had been a sanctuary for her and her father ever since they had come to America from Greece when Madeline was just a baby. That had been eighteen years ago, but now the danger that they had fled had finally caught up with them. Had claimed the life of her father just as it had claimed her mother.
Even in the blind panic of flight and at night, Madeline knew this forest like the back of her hand. She knew that if she kept on running as fast as she could in an easterly direction she would soon come to the main highway. From there she hoped that she would be able to hitch a ride to the city.
All her life Madeline had lived in isolation in the cabin, with her father. It was safer that way. She had never been to the city, not even to go to school. Her father had home schooled her and taught her all that she knew. Now she had no choice. She had been told by her father that if the worst should ever happen then she should flee to the city and seek out a friend of his named Veronique Bouton. Madeline repeated that name in her head like a mantra as she ran. There was just one problem. Her father had never given her an address. He had just told her that Veronique lived in a mansion on Staten Island in New York City. The only other thing that Madeline knew was that the mansion was near the water, overlooking the bay. She armed herself with this information, hoping it would help her find Veronique once she reached the city, but first she needed to get there.
Madeline clambered up the slope, knowing that once she breached the trees at the top she would be on the open road. Interstate 87, she knew, would take her to Staten Island. She just needed a ride.

Gregory Barton was driving home from a successful day of hunting. He had the carcasses of three deer in the back of his truck and when he got home, he was planning on skinning them and carving them up into some nice, sweet venison steaks. His mouth was watering already just at the thought of frying one of them up tonight for a late supper. It would go down nicely with a couple of bottles of his home brew.
He was driving along the I-87 through the Green Mountain National Forest, trees lining the road at either side, when the girl suddenly ran out into the road ahead of him and held up her hands in the vain hope that he would stop for her.
“Crazy bitch!” Gregory cursed as he slammed his foot down on the brake.
The truck screeched to a halt with just three feet separating the front bumper and the young girl that stood before it.
Gregory wound down his window and stuck his head out.
“What the Hell do ya think you’re doin’?” he yelled, “Are ya tryin’ to get yerself killed?”
The girl was dressed in a dark grey hoodie with a Slipknot logo emblazoned in red over her left breast, the hood drawn up to cover her head and most of her face, though Gregory could see that her eyes were covered by dark sunglasses. She was a pretty little thing so far as he could tell, and her figure curved in all the right places, even in a hoodie and jeans.
“I’m awful sorry, sir.” She spoke quietly, “I was hoping that you might be kind enough to give me a ride?”
Oh, I’ll give you a ride, alright. Gregory thought to himself with a lascivious smile.
“Where are ya headed?” he asked out loud.
“I need to get to Staten Island, but I know that’s a big ask.” The girl answered. “If you could just take me as far as you can go then I’d be ever so grateful. I have a little money to pay for gas if need be?”
“That won’t be necessary.” Gregory assured her, and he popped open his passenger door. “Get in, I can take ya a little of the way there, but after that you’ll be on your own.”
The girl managed a smile and ran around to the passenger side. She climbed in and closed the door, strapping on a seatbelt.
“Thank you so much, you’re very kind.” She said.
“Think nothing of it.” Gregory waved her thanks aside as he started driving again.
Besides, he thought, you ain’t gonna be riding for free.

Madeline allowed herself to relax as the truck pulled away. The kind man was smiling as he drove.
It was an expression which Madeline found hard to reciprocate right now, considering that all she really wanted to do was curl up into a corner and cry. Her whole life was changing faster than she knew how to keep up with. Dad was dead. Someone wanted her the same, and her only sanctuary was in the city that she had avoided all her life, with some stranger whom she had never even met. Even this man beside her was a stranger, but at least she could try to make an effort to get to know him. It was the least she could do to repay his kindness.
“My name is Madeline by the way.” She said, forcing herself to smile. “But you can call me Maddy.”
“Gregory.” The man answered, and he offered her his hand which she shook.
“I really do appreciate you putting yourself out for me like this.” Maddy continued. “If you need any money for gas then I have about a hundred dollars on me, if that will help?”
“Don’t ya worry your pretty little head about that. I’m sure we can come to some sort of arrangement.” Gregory assured her, glancing at her in his peripheral vision as he drove. She really was a cute one, even with the weird glasses and the hood.
Maddy squirmed a little uncomfortably in her seat. It didn’t sit right with her that Gregory would not accept her money, but he had mentioned an arrangement of some sort, so perhaps she would still be able to pay back his kindness somehow.
They drove on for a little while in silence until Gregory made a turn off down a side road. Maddy was unfamiliar with the route to Staten Island, having never been there, so she was sure that Gregory must know where he was going. It was only when Gregory brought the truck to a halt at the side of the road that she began to suspect that something was wrong. The area they were parked in was surrounded by trees and away from the main road. It probably wouldn’t see much traffic at this time of night, if at all.
“Why are we stopping?” Maddy wondered nervously.
Gregory had unclipped his seatbelt and turned on the interior light. He turned towards her with a lecherous grin upon his bearded face.
“I thought we might take some time to negotiate that little arrangement that I was talkin’ about.” He said to her.
“Sure.” Maddy stammered, “What did you have in mind? Like I said, I have a hundred bucks on me. How much do you think would be fair to compensate you for all your trouble?”
Gregory chuckled and shook his head. Maddy didn’t like how it sounded.
“I’m-a gonna take your money anyway, darlin’.” He told her, “I was thinkin’ about somethin’ other than money.”
“Oh?” Maddy replied, “What’s that?”
Gregory leaned in closer to her, his face just inches from hers, and Maddy shrank back away from him as far as the interior of the truck would allow. The smell of his sweat was palpable enough that she almost gagged.
“I was thinkin’ we’d start with a little kiss and see where things go from there.” He sneered.
Gregory puckered his lips and loomed in closer.
Maddy shoved him back as hard as she could.
“Get off me!” she yelled. “I’m not going to do that!”
Gregory’s leer was unwavering.
“I’d like to see ya stop me!”
He grabbed her by the arms, pinning them to her sides, and pulled her towards him.
Maddy squirmed and struggled violently in his grip. She threw back her head in an effort to evade his wet lips and in doing so she dislodged her hood.
The tangle of snakes in her head hissed and writhed angrily and turned their yellow eyes upon Gregory.
Gregory flung her away from him, this time he was the one retreating in his seat.
“What the fuck are you?”
Maddy was crying, the tears that had been wanting to spill since the moment she had seen her father murdered in front of her, but she had dared not let fall, were finally allowed a release as she pulled her sunglasses from her face to reveal her own yellow eyes.
“I’m so sorry, Gregory, but you don’t leave me any choice.” She lamented.
Gregory looked at his hand in horror as he felt himself becoming petrified from the inside out, his skin fading to a mottled grey as if he was being slowly turned into an actor in one of those old black and white movies. He tried to move, but his joints were rapidly stiffening and solidifying. Gregory had time to scream once before he became stone completely, his wide-open mouth now stuck in its grotesque gargoyle’s grimace forever.
“I’m so sorry.” Maddy wept and even she didn’t know in that moment if the words were meant for Gregory or her father. If only she had been able to use her curse to save his life, then she may never have been in this terrible situation to begin with and this man wouldn’t have died.
Maddy remained sat in the passenger seat for quite some time, her legs drawn up to her chest, glasses still clutched in one hand as her snakes soothingly tried to lick the tears away as they coursed down her cheeks.
The gentle caress of their forked tongues on her skin tickled and Maddy found herself begin to smile a little despite all the grief that still threatened to tear her apart from within.
“You’re right.” She said to them, sniffing snot back into her nose, “I can’t just sit here feeling sorry for myself. I’ve gotta get myself to Staten Island and find this Veronique.”
The snakes writhed and danced with approval as Maddy dried her eyes and cleaned herself up with a tissue from Gregory’s glove compartment.
She got out of the truck and walked around to the driver side, opening the door and standing aside to allow Gregory’s petrified corpse to tumble out into the dirt with a heavy thud.
Maddy tried to drag his statue into the nearby trees, but Gregory had been a heavy looking guy even before he’d been turned to stone, and Maddy had to stop to rest several times before she was finally satisfied that her would be attacker was not going to be seen by anyone that casually drove by on this road. With a few more tissues from the glove compartment Maddy then took the time to wipe off anywhere on the statue that she might have left fingerprints. She may have lived in a cabin in the woods all her life, but they’d still been able to get cable TV; she’d seen enough crime dramas to know that you had to leave nothing behind after you’d killed someone.
After she had done that Maddy looked in the back of Gregory’s truck and saw the three dead deer. Her internal well of sadness got a little fuller as she dragged the animal carcasses out of the back of the truck and hid them in the forest too. She would have liked to have given them a decent burial, there was a shovel in the back of Gregory’s truck, only the gods knew what he used that for, but she had already taken too much time hiding Gregory’s body and she didn’t want to risk being found by the one who hunted her.
Her final act was to walk backwards out of the woods, brushing away any footprints she had left as she went with a tree branch which she then tossed back into the trees once she had reached the road once more.
Maddy got into the driver’s side of Gregory’s truck, fortunately he had left the keys in the ignition and Maddy’s father had taught her to drive in his own truck when she was sixteen. She closed the door and put on her seat belt.
“I’m sorry, guys, but I’m gonna have to put you all away again for a while, okay?” she said with genuine regret.
Her snakes hissed with understanding and allowed themselves to be covered once more by the hood.
Maddy then put back on the sunglasses.
She started the engine, turned the truck around and headed back to the main road to continue her journey to Staten Island.