Candle of Mysteries

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

Sightings of the candle burning began one day mid August when one of the city folk became lost in the middle of the woods nearby. They were following the path which had a sign posted at the entrance saying "Leave the path at your own risk- all who step off will be cursed". Their first mistake was failing to bring a flashlight; the second was stepping off of the path unknowingly when the sun set and it became pitch black.

As soon as they stepped off the path the trees suddenly became more sinister looking and their mind started to play tricks on them. "Oh no," they whispered aloud, with a sinking feeling in the pit of their stomach. "I knew I should have grabbed my flashlight! Maybe my phone still has some battery left."

Pulling their phone out to check it, they saw it was at 1% battery. "I'm screwed." Fear started to grip them as they slowly walked step by step through the woods towards where memory thought the path should have been.

After what seemed like just a few minutes passed, in the distance a light suddenly came into existence. At first it looked like the light you see when the edge of the trees begins to come into view but then it started to morph and change. As they came closer an outline of a cabin formed from the shadows and revealed that the light seen in the distance was a single candle burning in the window.

More curious than afraid now they walked right up to the cabin and opened the door- but nobody was there. That should have been warning enough to leave right then except something about the candle drew them all the way into the cabin. If they had looked behind and out the door they would have seen an eerie fog forming among the trees blocking sight of the rest of the woods. It was not a natural fog but rather the type one sees and thinks of when something bad is about to happen.

As they walked up to where the candle was sitting, they noticed there were strange engravings and symbols akin to what one would associate with witches and those involved in black magick- different from white magick and the good kinds of witches.

Hair standing up on the back of their neck and goosebumps running up and down their arms, they decided it was time to leave the creepy cabin as fast as possible. Just as they stepped outside the door a strong gust of air whooshed past and through them slamming the door behind and causing them to jump 3 feet in the air. As they sprinted away into the thick fog and darkness back into the trees they looked back and saw the cabin had suddenly vanished as if into thin air. More spooked they ran even harder, hoping against hope no trees would loom out of nowhere and knock them out.

When they couldn't run any farther and had to stop for air, leaning up against a tree the path suddenly materialized in front of them. In the distance was the real end of the path and as soon as enough air was back in their lungs they booked it home as fast as possible. That night strange visions and dreams plagued their sleep but when the morning came all memory of visions and dreams vanished.

The next day, while feeling spooked about their encounter the night before, all seemed as though everything was normal. When they fell asleep, however, they never woke up again- in fact, there was no body at all the next day. Nobody knows what happened. Sometime in the night the body vanished without a trace and no one but the person who vanished had been there- the doors were still firmly locked and the bedsheets looked like they had been slept in with just clothes left under the covers.

This wasn't the last incident of disappearing persons. Over the next two months leading up to Halloween night, aka All Hallows Eve, 13 people in total vanished without a trace. The only thing all had in common was that they were in the woods after dark and they all had birthdays on October 31st. Was it just a coincidence or was there something odd and mysterious at play? Most of the city folk thought it was the latter and warned people to stay out of the woods, especially at night.

A 14th person, whose birthday was also October 31st decided to try their luck and go looking for the missing people. This time though they brought a flashlight with extra batteries, food and water, a crystal necklace for protection, and sigils written on their arms for extra protection, plus a GoPro strapped to their forehead to record what they saw.

However, nothing could have prepared them for what happened next.

Stepping off the path willingly, the trees became sinister once more and leaned in close. Fog started to roll in much quicker this time as if it knew the 14th person was intentionally looking for answers. They quickly became lost in thick fog and despite turning the flashlight to full brightness nothing was visible beyond three feet in front of them.

Heart pounding and body sweating, cautiously they crept deeper into the foggy woods. In the distance the candle which had cursed 13 before them burned in the window of the cabin, a sinister beacon of hope.

This time the door was firmly shut and locked and nothing they did could get it to open and reveal the secrets within. Looking through the window the candle was clearly visible with all its markings and engravings. As they were looking at it the candle blinked out and a cold gust a wind blew causing goosebumps up and down their arms, legs, and neck. The back of their neck prickled as though something was watching. Turning to face back into the woods and looking into the thick fog, something moved in the distance. Knowing it was a bad idea to go towards whatever was moving in the deep dark woods, curiosity won.

After walking towards it for a time, the fog suddenly parted like a curtain and revealed a clearing with a big black cauldron burning over a fire. The curtain of fog closed behind them obscuring the way back out and they realized they had to stay and be witness to whatever was about to happen. Glancing around the strange clearing they noticed there were 13 sharp branches protruding into the air above the cauldron. They screamed as they noticed impaled on those branches were the 13 missing people, blood dripping down their bodies.

At first it seemed as though the bodies were corpses until one of them breathed. The 14th person screamed again, and turned to run away when a figure emerged from the wall of fog, stopping them dead in their tracks.

Mouth open they watched, frozen, as the figure approached the cauldron and started chanting in some unknown language. If it was even possible, more chills ran up and down the 14th person's spine sending more goosebumps along their skin. As the figure kept chanting the bodies impaled on the branches rose off them and into the air, hovering in a gruesome circle above the fire. One by one the eyes on each body blinked open, and though they were breathing they were not truly alive.

An eerie absolute silence had now fallen on the clearing as the figure chanting over the cauldron ceased whatever spell it was that was cast. All eyes abruptly turned to the 14th person who was still standing there as a frozen witness, GoPro filming everything. A deep moaning noise began to rise, and realizing they were in danger, they found their feet were working again and they took off at a dead sprint into the foggy woods in a desperate effort to get away.

Managing to make it to the edge of the woods they kept running all the way into the city screaming. When people asked what was wrong, all the person could do was stutter unintelligibly and point behind them with a shaking finger. Emerging from the woods and into the town were the bloody, impaled bodies of the 13 lost people. Chaos now broke out as people realized what was happening.

"Zombies!" shouted one person.

"Run!" yelled another.

Suddenly the sun broke the horizon- nobody had noticed it was morning and time had ceased to have meaning. The zombies were nowhere to be seen. However, each night at dusk moaning noises came from the dark shadows, and nobody wanted to be caught outside after dark for fear the zombies would get them.

One day, zombies were seen in the daylight.