Short Fiction · Chapter
XIV: Enid explained
Enid Mandifer, instead of fleeing, follows Lieutenant Lanark into the woods, armed with a hand-mirror and a Bible.
What happens
Enid Mandifer, instead of fleeing, follows Lieutenant Lanark into the woods, armed with a hand-mirror and a Bible. She encounters the transformed Persil Mandifer and other grotesque undead creatures, including a headless torso and a living head without a body. Driven by terror, she retrieves Lanark's revolver but is herded by the undead toward the base of Fearful Rock, where she finds Lanark poised to strike something emerging from a hole.
Themes in this chapter
Supernatural Evil and Occultism
Enid encounters undead creatures, a headless torso, and the transformed Persil Mandifer, all animated by dark forces.
Fear and Control
Enid is herded by the undead like a sheep, with Mandifer mocking her helplessness and controlling her path.
The Power of Belief and Ritual
Enid clutches a Bible as a talisman, reciting a psalm for deliverance, paralleling Jager's use of the Long Lost Friend.
Characters to notice
- Enid Mandifer
Follows Lanark into the woods, armed with a hand-mirror and Bible; encounters the transformed Persil Mandifer and undead horrors.
- Kane Lanark
Fights off attackers with saber and revolver; found poised above a hole at Fearful Rock.
- Persil Mandifer
Appears as a slimy, dark, featureless humanoid; mocks Enid and speaks in an unknown language with his son Larue.
Key passages
“Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God … for lo, they lie in wait for my soul.”
Enid prays for God to rescue her from her foes who are ambushing her soul.
Enid recites a verse from the Bible as a protective talisman.
“That is useless. You do not hide from the power that rules this place.”
Persil Mandifer tells Enid that hiding is futile against the ruling evil of the area.
Mandifer's transformed form speaks to Enid, asserting the dominion of the local supernatural force.
“These are no more than dead men, whipped into a mockery of life. They will prepare you a little for the wonders to come.”
Mandifer explains that the undead are merely corpses animated to torment Enid before greater horrors.
Mandifer taunts Enid, revealing the nature of the pursuing creatures.