Beware the Silent Wood

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The solitary flame flickered as a damp breeze drifted in through the broken glass. Out beyond the edge of the woods, an owl called in the dark. Dry grass rattled as its prey scampered along the ground, intent on escape. Luck was with the mouse, its grey fur blending in with the dying foliage. Not everything that moved in the woods that night was so lucky.

Deeper in the gloom beneath the old oak trees, something stirred. The hunter was awake. The woods fell silent.

**

The air tingled with unexploded lightning, the energy hanging on the wind itself. Branches, nearly bare, rattled and sighed. Where the moon once glowed brightly, ominous clouds gathered as the storm grew. It was not a night to be out.

David hunched into the wind, his nylon jacket a poor blanket from the chill. He had not expected to become lost. These woods were his childhood playground. Recently returned from deployment, he had been seeking a quiet place to recover. War is a noisy, intense, and often scary experience and his mind needed some solitude. Tucked away in his grandfather's cabin, the mice and bats were his only company. After thrashing awake from the clutches of his nightmare, he had hoped a walk would calm his nerves.

The path was overgrown and more jagged than he remembered. Rocks and fallen trees pushed him off the hard-packed trail and into a segment of the woods he had never explored before. A vague memory from old campfire stories niggled at him as he trudged deeper and deeper into the forest. Feeling uneasy, David looked over his shoulder to see the candle still flickering. Relief flooded in. His highly strung senses eased as the adrenaline flowed out. Laughter bubbled up, sounding slightly manic as he overreacted to the sensations around him. He sure wished he hadn't thought about those old tales. Paying closer attention, the silence was a strange phenomenon. Even on the darkest night, something moved or cried, howled or sang.

Tonight, it was him and the wind.

And even the wind was tense.

Losing his balance as the leaf-covered path gave way, David stumbled onto the remains of a fallen oak. The trunk lay decaying in the ravine, leaving the sharp points of the jagged stump to mark its final resting place. The old tree had been a signpost to guide him home. Now, mushrooms glowed faintly along the rotting bark. The sight crashed into memory and old images of night-vision-assisted raids poked in from the edges of his sanity. David locked them back up in his internal vault. Now was not a good time to walk down memory lane. He was having a hard enough time staying on the real one.

Distant thunder rumbled through the darkness at a pitch he could feel in his bones. The scent of rain and ozone tickled his nose as he scanned the forest for his way back to the cabin. Lightning split the sky overhead, highlighting the branches and outlined a bulky shape he could only hope was his shelter.

It was not the only thing that was illuminated. Accompanied by a throaty growl, a shadow moved onto the path behind him. Inhaling the scent of the frightened man, the creature stretched to its full height, exhaling in a deep chuckle.

“Little pig, little pig, let me come innnnnn....”

All of David's training fled as terror gripped him. He raced through the woods, the storm whipping up and covering all sounds of pursuit. Running headlong through the woods, he veered off the path as the candle's glow beckoned him to safety. In his haste, David dismissed the signs which might have saved him. It was natural to overlook the broken window as he careened into the door. And the damaged step might have been there before and he simply hadn't noticed.

But the deep grooves in the weather-worn door were hard to miss. It was only after he slammed the door closed behind him that David realized the cabin was not his grandfather's. And the candle was not the one he lit as a marker to guide him home.

Thud!

David jumped as the door shook under the impact of his pursuer.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The nightmares of his youth manifested outside the old plank walls. Ghost stories aren't real, he admonished himself, even as the lightning illuminated the figure outside the remaining dirt-coated window.

David looked at the broken glass in the other frame. The candle, valiant to this point, snuffed out as the wax failed to melt with the moist air gusting in. Wisps of cold smoke and old ashes filled the air as darkness engulfed him.

Screeee...

Long fingernails dragged along the fragile glass, piercing David's remaining calm and he flew into the back room, tripping over remnants of brittle furniture and mildewed walls as he went. Limping from the series of impacts and panting with fear, David knew his time was short. Whatever was out there could surely hear him. He needed to find some way to defend himself. But old traumas held him tight, their grip paralyzing him as he waited fitfully in the dark.

Lightning and thunder collided as the storm broke. Rain streamed down and the roof, saturated and leaky, failed to repel the onslaught. The grime-covered window let in little of the flashing light, but it was enough for him to see the dark stains on the ash-coloured floor. A broken table and what may have been chairs lay smashed behind the door. The last inhabitant of the cabin had clearly tried to barricade the door. And just as obviously, failed.

David scrambled to gather the broken pieces, searching for something sharp enough to use as a weapon.

Screeee...

The glass peeled with the presence of the predator. David twitched as the sound reverberated into his soul. He had survived a war on foreign soil. His gut twisted at the thought that he could die, alone and forgotten, at the hands of this unknown enemy.

His fear congealed into a pit of regret. He had brushed off the concerns of his family and friends, rationalized that he had lots of time to catch up.

Tap.

A single claw pecked at the glass.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

David shrunk deeper into the corner. He wasn't ready to die. But fighting this demon might be a tougher task than any other fight he had engaged in. Trained to take out targets on the battlefield, he knew he could defend himself. But only if he could see his enemy.

SMACK!

Cracks spider-webbed out from the impact point in the window. Successive flashes of lightning highlighted the advancement of the lines as they slowly inched out to the worm-eaten frame.

Inside the storm-lit cabin, David pulled his make-shift spears closer as rain dripped down his spine. Hoping the predator would tire of the hunt, he settled in wait for dawn. With any luck, daylight would have the creature heading for its own sanctuary and leave his alone. Rationally, he knew this was unlikely, but the thought pleased him for a brief moment, until reality clawed at the idea.

He was deep in the woods, in a cabin even he had not known was real. If he did not survive, no one would ever find his body. The rain continued to seep into his clothes, coldly creeping down his spine, chilling him from the outside in. He could not stay here for long.

Ssshhhh...

Beneath the crashing storm, David heard a tiny sound. Something was moving in the next room.

Ssshhh...

Grabbing up a chair leg, he crept along the wall, sliding toward the centre of the tiny house.

“Little pig...” The thready voice was barely noticeable over the pounding rain. “Oh, little pi-i-ig...”

David whipped his head around, seeing nothing. His fingers dragged along the ragged wallpaper, time having stripped the images from the walls leaving patches of rough plaster and broken lath. Without the wall to his back, he would soon become disoriented in the inky room.

The clawed hand crashed through the time-weakened wall to grab for his throat. Flailing backwards with his make-shift spear, David felt the table leg sink deep into his enemy, even as its fingers tightened around his windpipe. He raked at the creature, his vision clouding as the last of his air was choked from his body.

“Trespasser,” the ancient being hissed before dragging a solitary talon across the artery in David's neck. Satisfied, the creature dropped his prey, the body slumping to the floor, its lifeblood seeping out to mark the boards as others had done before him.

Outside, the storm abated. The torrential rains slowed to a gentle shower, soon to cease entirely. Beyond the tainted grounds of the old cabin, a timid mouse peeked out from beneath a pile of dry grass.

The woods breathed again.

The hunter was silent.

And beyond the meadow, a single candle flickered and died, its last smoke drifting upwards to catch among the rafters.