You must remember?

"The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window."

Or so the person who called into the police department at 1 AM claimed. Due to the snow and ice, it had taken hours for police and crime scene investigators to reach the location of the body.

Harvey rolled up to the scene, dawn crawling across the sky. The overcast sky already overthrew the sun, and his coffee wasn't running through him enough to warm him up yet.

Reluctantly, he shut off his truck and headed out into the bitter cold, and made his way to the scene of the crime. This wasn't their first victim laid out in such a horrific manner, but he prayed to the deity he hardly spoke to, that it would be the last. If God could answer at least one prayer, it would be for this nightmare to end in their small mountain town.

The crimson blood sprayed across the white blankets of snow wasn’t what entered his nightmares. Neither was it the victim’s hollowed-out eye sockets nor the gasps from his partner, Detective Ramirez, at every single scene.

No, what haunted Detective Harvey Ledger, were the recurring nightmares where he gathered the limbs of the victims, and strung them from the trees himself. He was the one who had killed them and displayed them throughout the national forest. In his nightmares, he was the monster.

Every morning after he woke from one of the gruesome dreams, he told himself the tightening in his chest, and the queasy feeling in his stomach was enough proof that he wasn’t sleep-killing anyone. He wasn’t a sadistic killer.

“Ledger? Hello?” Ramirez was snapping her fingers in front of his face.

He came back to the present moment, the crime scene photographers snapping photos of the latest victim.

“I’m sorry?” Harvey asked, rubbing his temple with his free hand. His other was seeping in all the warmth it could from the crappy gas station coffee he stopped to get on the way in.

“I said, “There’s a cabin nearby. Should we go question whoever lives there?” Ramirez shuddered and rubbed her hands along her arms.

"No one has lived in that place for over fifty years," he grumbled.

Ramirez pointed to a small, red sedan parked down the pass a ways. "Not according to her. She said there was a candle burning in there."

Harvey shook his head. "A candle? Why was she in here this section of the park? It's closed this time of year."

His partner shrugged. She was a hard worker but didn't give him enough answers. He should be used to it by now, yet he asks the same questions every time, hoping it'll get her to dig deeper. He reminded himself that she came from an overworked department in California, where she may not have had the opportunity to know everyone in the place she protected, and for this, he was grateful for being Sherriff of a small town.

"Look, she's really spooked. She says something called her here last night, like a spirit, or a ghost," Ramirez said with a shrug.

"Hmph, alright I'll go talk to her."

The park was holding fast to the chill of winter. He tried to take slow, carefully chosen steps across the ice-slicked roads. The crew had put down salt for the teams up here, but it was too little, too late.

Once he reached the window, he recognized the woman immediately and tried not to groan. It was Gail Wayze, a medium from a surrounding city. Slowly she rolled down her window, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Why didn't you save me?!" She shouted, her voice a shrill sound.

Harvey jumped and dropped his coffee.

"Why didn't you stop him from sacrificing me, HARVEY?!"

"Would you quit that?!" He barked, peering at his coffee which pooled out around his boots. "What's the matter with you?"

A smug grin appeared on her face. She had startled the detective to his core and wore it proudly. Harvey wasn't easy to scare but attempted to soothe his pride by telling himself it was due to the nightmares.

He kicked the styrofoam cup and leaned against her window. "Did you kill this poor lady?"

"What?!" The color drained from Gail's face.

"You heard me. Quit playing games. Are you killing women to increase interest in your psychic business?" Harvey scanned the inside of her vehicle. There were fast-food wrappers, a rolled-up tarp, and a cooler in the back seat.

Gail help up her hands and shook her head vigorously. "Look, I didn't kill her, I SWEAR!"

Harvey stared at her impassivley.

"I'm serious! Something caught my attention, the light in the window."

"The candle?" He maintained a skeptical attitude. Not because he didn't believe something nefarious was happening here, but it was the best way to pull the truth from the woman.

"It flickered. I even saw it go out and then get lit again."

Harvey nodded. There was no way the cabin had electricity, so fire was the only source he could imagine.

"Thank you for your answers. Are you gonna make it home alright?" He drummed his hands on the windowsill.

"Well, I wouldn't mind some company on my way home." Her smile made his skin crawl.

"I'll have Officer Ramirez escort you home," he said, turning and picking up his cup. He might be the murderer in his nightmare, but he sure as hell wasn't a litterer.

Harvey trudged through the snow to the cabin, Gail's spooky voice echoing through his mind.

Harvey, why didn't you save me?

He shook his head and motioned for the young officer behind him, he forgot her name already, to stand on the other side of the door. She nodded and obeyed without argument. As life-saving as it was, he regretted sending Ramirez away with the meduim.

As he knocked on the door and announced the police presence, he wondered if he'd be better off with Gail.

He waited thirty seconds, then banged on the door. "Police, please open up." Another minute passed of utter silence. "That medium, I swear."

The other officer chuckled. Before she could say anything, the door burst open and slammed her down. Harvey threw himself back and drew his gun.

“Who’s in there?” He growled, ducking and kneeling at the side of the entrance. There was only the sound of wind kicking up and throwing snow behind them.

The other officer got to her knees and readied her gun.

“You okay?” Harvey asked.

The officer nodded, her cheeks flushed red.

“We’re coming in!” Harvey shouted.

Guns pointed outward, they canvassed the room. Boards were missing in various parts of the flooring, shredded curtains hung from the doorway across from them, and the small candle beside the foggy window flickered at them.

Slowly the pair crept to the only possible place someone could hide. Harvey charged into the room, only to find an old mattress with hay, and nothing else.

“This place is fucking creepy,” the officer whispered behind him, dropping her weapon.

Harvey nodded. He didn’t want to do a throng except leave. They both made their way out of the cabin, informing the crime scene photographers to go to the cabin to document the candle and the investigators to test for DNA left behind.

***

“Have you heard that the candle was out by the time the CSI guys went to collect evidence?” Officer Ramirez sat at her desk, logging reports.

Harvey shook his head. It had been three days since the body had been discovered. Every night he’d had nightmares.

Blood against the snow.

Eye-less women.

His muscles twitching as he strung up their bodies.

Gail’s voice echoing in his mind. But this time her voice was saying, “Why won’t he stop?”

“The DNA is back!” Ramirez stood at the fax machine, the one she said was almost as old as the town itself. “Holy shit… boss.”

“What?” His heart hammered in his chest, why he did not understand. Except the fear burrowing in his mind that he was the monster who committed these disgusting deeds.

Harvey rushed over to her, knocking his chair back as he stood. Ramirez jumped, her hand shaking.

“Who is it?” He stood over her, but couldn’t process what he was looking at.

“Tobias Ledger.”

Harvey’s mouth ran dry. “My grandfather?”

“What the hell? Hasn’t he been dead for twenty years?”

“Yes.”

Did this somehow explain the nightmares? Harvey shook his head. None of this explained the dead women.

“Where do we go from here?” Ramriez asked, dropping the sheet of paper on his desk.

“We go back to the cabin, with the medium.”

The phone rang, and Harvey sprang to answer it.

“Sir, there’s something strange about this body too.”

“Is that so?”

***

“You want me to… summon your grandfather?” Gail asked, holding a kit. A briefcase containing all sorts of spirit summoning things, that was his extent of understanding the woman’s profession.

“Do what you need to do to get him here.”

Gail nodded and got to work. She lit several candles, sprayed a bottle of essential oils, and gave a crystal to each officer in attendance. Ramirez sent Harvey a skeptical glance but he simply shrugged and gave his attention back to Gail.

“Okay, he’s here,” she announced, her eyes closed, her hands waving in the air.

“Ask him, if he is in heaven or hell?”

Gail’s lip twitched, but her voice was steady as she asked, “Does your spirit reside above, or below?”

She paused for a moment, and the room was silent.

“He says, ‘H-heaven.’”

Harvey snickered. “He must’ve snuck in there.”

Gail swallowed hard, her eyes still closed.

“Ask him if his father owned this cabin.” Harvey leaned against the door.

She repeated the question aloud, paused, then said, “yes.”

“Ask him, why did he hurt so many girls?”

Gail’s lip quivered, and Ramirez gasped.

“Ask him,” Harvey stepped toward Gail, arms open, “how many young girls he stole innocence from?”

Gail dropped her arms and fell to her knees.

The officers lining the walls drew their weapons.

“At ease,” Harvey said, kneeling down beside her.

“You must remember, Harvey?” The woman said, tears streamed down her cheeks. “We were there together. The body we found?”

Harvey tried to recall a graphic scene, but only could see himself doing the terrible thing, not his grandpa.

“The bodies we’ve found… they were already dead. But why string them up?”

“To ensure justice was served,” she said. “To find the bodies he buried in this park. To bring justice to the girls he harmed here.”

Harvey couldn’t bring himself to dig into the memories of the past, but he embraced Gail, recognizing her pain.

The door swung open behind them, the door slamming into the side of the cabin. The wind blew snow all around, the candles went out. And so was the truth. The truth of the monster in his family.

***

“How did you figure it out?” Ramriez asked later, after she finished processing Gail.

Harvey sighed. “Gail’s voice… asking why I didn’t save her. It must’ve tugged at a memory buried deep in my mind, of when I didn’t save her…”

Ramriez shook her head sympathetically.

“She won’t do time, she’s already suffered enough.”

Harvey only hoped he would be able to sleep, praying the nightmares were over.