Moonlit Night

I aroused from my slumber to find the sky above me painted with a mixture of pinks, oranges, blues and a faint red. Sunset was one of the most peaceful times of my nights. I watched as the beautiful spread of colors slowly faded into the deep purple black that meant night was upon me. I gathered everything I would need for the night into my satchel that I placed on my right hip and jotted out the door. Out into the cool breeze of the night I went, the moonlight guiding my movements as I approached the edge of the woods on the back side of my home. The tightly woven trees made it impossible for the light of the moon to reach the floor of the woods, creating somewhat of a black hole look along the tree-line.

As I crossed the threshold into blackness a chill ran down my spine. I had been in these woods a million times, a hundred different nights, but tonight something seemed off. The ground, dampened from the rain in the days before, was littered with fallen leaves, branched and an array of shrubbery. As I picked my way over, under and around the chaos that was thrown on the floor of the woods something in the distance snapped. My whole body jumped and faced the direction of the noise. I stood there as if I was frozen in time for a few short moments while I tried to calm my racing heart. If there was something out there, I doubt I would hear it over the pounding that was in my ears. I tried to force my eyes to adjust faster to the darkness and take in as much light as possible, though there was none, so that I could see any sign of movement in the distance. Could there be something out there, I pondered to myself as my heart rate began to return to normal. What a silly thought though, what could possibly be in the darkness that I hadn’t see before?

Trying desperately to gain back control over my emotions, I slowly started moving. Searching through the muck on the ground for roots, nuts, mushrooms or anything that could be of use to me. Often, I wondered to myself why I did this in the dead of night. Why not during the day? I knew the answer, that didn’t stop me for thinking about it though! I had once attempted to come to the woods during the day, that was the biggest mistake I have made in my short life. The heat of the day was unbearable and the sun so bright it burned my eyes almost to blindness. I kept telling myself that eventually my eyes would adjust, and I would get used to the heat. Wrong! By the time the day was over my lungs were singed from the hot dry air, I couldn’t see, and I swear I had blisters covering the entirety of my body. It was that day that I found the answers to my wondering thoughts and that day that I decided that I would never again attempt to face the light of day. I was out of commission for several days after that and sometimes I my vision is still a bit hazy. Thinking back on that day I again began to wonder if I could have acclimated to the sunshine. Would my body have adapted if I had continued to try or would the days have beaten me to death? I guess I will never have all the answers. Maybe I could ask someone I know? Maybe they would think I was crazy so maybe not.

As these thoughts ran through my head and I dug around in the mud I felt the slightest of breezes run through my hair. The breeze itself wasn’t uncommon for this time of year but the sent that came with it was. A foul, bitter smell that burned my nostrils and caused my eyes to water. The smell of rotting corpses coming from the deepest part of the woods. I knew this sent all to well and the fact that it was stinking up the air again put me on edge. I wonder what had happened over there, what died? I picked at the earth some more suppressing the urge to follow the death smell. What was I thinking? Nothing good would come from shoving my nose into a situation that could get me killed. But alas I found myself inching closer to the sent that carried the threat of my own death with it.

I should go home and forget about this insanity I thought to myself as I creeped closer to where the smell was coming from. It was like a war had broken out inside my body. Every fiber of my being was screaming for me to high tail it out of there, but my body just kept moving forward. Closer and closer I got to what I was certain would be my demise. It was like I was in a trance that I couldn’t break free of and step by step I fell deeper into it, and further into the woods. At this point I was deeper into the woods than I ever had been, nothing around me looked familiar. I could feel panic start to creep its way into my body at the realization that I may not know where I was or where I had been, But I just kept going. Up ahead I could see what looked like moonlight shining through the trees. Could there be a clearing this far into the field of trees? I was about to find out.

As I got closer to the dull light from the moon the trees began to thin out and the ground was less cluttered. The smell of death was so thick in the air that I could taste it. What was I going to find when I reached the edge of the trees? I couldn’t help but hope that it would be just an animal that had passed peacefully in its sleep. But the faint tinge of fresh blood hanging in the air along with rotting flesh made it agonizingly clear that my hopes were futile. As I reached the trees closest to the dull light, I could see what was in fact a clearing in the woods. There, where the moon beams were unhindered by the trees, it was so bright compared to the underbrush of the woods I had just left from. I could see all the way to the other side of the clearing that seemed to stretch on for a mile or more. The short grass glistened as the moonlight reflected off the due that had settled on it. A huge cluster of briar vines pealed out of the ground to my right and crawled up the mound of boulders that curved in a crescent out of the woods. The boulders broke off into smaller rocks as the crescent came to a point about mid-way into the clearing. There in the center of the semicircle of rocks stood a lone tree. Long sense dead, the dried hollow tree looked as if would crumble to ash with just a touch. Beyond the wall of stone, I could see a stream flowing back down into the sea of darkness on the other side of the clearing. Back on the far left of the clearing there was an old abandoned cabin. The door had fallen off its hinges and hung open making the doorway look like a black void waiting to gobble up anything that stepped onto the broken-down porch. The cabin itself was leaning as if it was tired of standing and was moments from collapsing. An old crumbling carriage sat to the left of the cabin still holding crates filled with glass jars.

What was this place I thought to myself, still standing at the edge of the woods. I stood there in awe at this ray of light in a sea of dark and for a moment I had forgotten why I had come here. Suddenly I realized I had been holding my breath and the sharp inhale rudely reminded me of why I had come here. I hadn’t seen any dead bodies when I scanned the lay out but there was no doubt that something here was dead, and something here had killed it. I crept along the tree line staying in the shadows, hoping that whatever was there wouldn’t turn its sights on me. As I came upon the crescent wall of rocks, I could see they reached all the way back into the woods. The stream behind the wall followed it back and was fed by a waterfall that spilled off the top at the back end. The hollowed tree in the middle reached high into the sky as if it was trying to grab the moon and snuff out the light. Standing at the base of the tree and peering up at its dark glory I seen a carved-out hole in the side that could have been a home for a squirrel or chip monks maybe. At this moment, though, it showed no signs of life. Leaving the tree behind, I followed the rocks around to where I could see the abandoned cabin more clearly.

At first glance it appeared almost peaceful, a quaint home in the middle of nowhere. Upon closer inspection though I could tell that it had been touched by death. I couldn’t help myself as I approached the old rotted porch, I took a sharp breath in and almost gaged on the smell of the rotting corpses. From the door I could see the pieces and parts of old kills and it was at this point I realized I should not be here. The fact that I stumbled onto this massacre was sure to be enough to be the end of me. Slowly I backed away from the carnage as panic finally set in completely. My heart pounded in my ears and my vision became blurry, my breath was escaping my body faster then I could bring it in. Fear began to take over my whole body and I shuffled back away from the open door. I couldn’t peal my eyes away from the void created by the hole that once was a doorway which caused me to stumble on the makeshift stairs at the head of the porch. I hit the ground on my back and the moon shining in the sky welcomed my eyes with the beauty that was it. In the moon light I found so comforting though, was a shadow that glided through the beams silently like a fish through water. The barn owl swooped down quick as a bullet after me and grabbed at me with talons as sharp as razors and I rolled to the side dodging by only a hair. The satchel on my hip was not so lucky however, and the owl lifted it away as it returned to the sky to circle around again. As fast as I could I ran with all the might I could muster. The trees could give me shelter if I could make it there. As fast as lightening I ran across the ground looking at the sky for the evil barn owl that would be my demise, but it was nowhere to be found. I kept running, willing my legs to go faster, when behind me I heard the slightest flutter in the distance and then a sharp pain in my lower leg as the talon pierced through my skin. It had me. As I watched the ground disappear from beneath my feet and the wind rushed around me, I couldn’t help but think two things. First, this is why they say curiosity killed the cat and second, such is the life of a mouse.