Far Away in the Unconscious Mind…

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

She put her pen down and paced nervously through the room, then as if without thinking, rushed back to her journal and continued:

“I’m scared- I shouldn’t have seen that candle”.

Maya was up all night after returning from that cabin half a mile from her house. A troubling feeling left her unsettled, a feeling of regret that she had meddled with something she shouldn’t have, though she couldn’t understand exactly what it was; all she did was look through the window. Maya had discovered the night before that the cabin which had been abandoned for years had somehow been harboring strange activity. A lit candle piercing the heavy darkness ignited an unnerving fear in Maya’s heart as she walked through the woods searching for her dog’s ball that seemed to roll away into nothingness. When she saw the light, terror struck every nerve in her body, yet she still had enough courage to walk closer and peak through the dusty window. There was no one around for miles in that mountain home that Maya’s family visited every summer escaping the humid summer heat. Who in the world could make it here let alone burn a candle? It wasn’t just a curiosity but a relentless suspicion that it was something paranormal taking place because what she saw, or actually, what she didn’t see kept her up all night.

The early sun rose calmly behind the majestic mountains. Slightly warming the cool crisp air, it comforted Maya somewhat after a long night of distress. Running it through her head many times, she decided not to bring it up to her parents. After all, they would just assume she hadn’t been taking her meds and make a big deal from needless worry. She even doubted herself for a second, had she been taking her meds? ‘Yes, my God, I have!’, she scolded herself quietly. This had nothing to do with her schizophrenia, she was sure about that. This was different, it was definitely not a hallucination. Whereas her hallucinations felt somewhat like an extension of herself, bothersome but not dangerous, this felt foreign and unnerving, as if something was trying to attach to her somehow. She had always wondered to a somewhat excessive extent what it was like for the characters of her hallucinations. Did they feel anything? Did they know they were not real? What is reality anyway? But that was besides the point now, ‘The cabin was empty’, she reimagined what she saw in a low whisper. ‘ The heavy locks were closed from the inside, no one entered through the door, that’s for sure, and the window did not budge… there is just no way…’. Bone chilling chills ran up her spine and a heavy sleepiness overtook her. Maya tried to fight it without success and plunged into a sudden deep sleep.

Whispers and hissing laughter kept her awake in her slumber. She knew she was asleep but she also knew that she wasn’t dreaming. More whispers and more laughter, she tried to shake off the dread and open her dream eyes while her physical eyes refused to waken. She could hear her own breathing heavy with fear. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t wake up but she managed to calm herself with a mindfulness technique her psychologist had trained her to use when anxious. Slowly, Maya’s space began to take form. She could ‘see’ the whispers now as pockets of a lower shade of darkness and the laughter undulated with faint colors in the distance. Taking a few steps towards them, the colors took on a more vivid hue and their sound now matched the sound of laughter she first heard. She could sense that it was somehow mocking her, teasing her to come close, that the light she had seen was simply the bait that hooked the fish. Maya could not stop herself from approaching. It wasn’t fear anymore nor curiosity but a powerful attraction like that of a strong magnet. She could feel herself be drawn ever more intensely with each step, all the while in the back of her conscious mind, now so far away, she was certain that she was falling into a well organized and seductive trap. She brushed off that last shred of conscious thought and allowed herself to walk faster and faster. The laughter now hovered over and around her and the whispers transformed into a repeating chant. ‘Far in the depths of the unconscious mind, the shadow comes out to play’… ‘far in the depths of the unconscious mind, the shadow comes out to play’.. the chants grew louder as she uncontrollably ran toward them. She could now hear herself chanting along, laughing… ‘far in the depths of the unconscious mind, the shadow comes out to play’, her voice grew louder as her awareness rushed back through her veins. Maya realized that she had been running and chanting as if through a trance yet she felt a strange ecstasy that kept her going. The laughter was loud and her voice louder, the colors were vivid and her light brighter. She looked down at her running legs and saw nothing moving. She looked at her arms but saw nothing except large holes bordered by skin. She realize that she was more than a 1000 times her size and the holes looked like her pores stretching out and through. She looked down and beyond and suddenly Maya was jolted out of her trance with an unexpected silence. No more laughter, no more whispers, she could sense only fear. However, the fear was not hers. Afraid as she was, it was fear outside of her that she felt settling around, replacing the voices and colors. ‘Who is there?’ She managed to call out.

“It worked”! A voice sounded through the darkness.

“I can’t believe it worked! Wh- wh- what now? Alex? What do we do?”

She could hear people gasp and move around nervously knocking off objects and shoving shoulders.

“Relax!”,Alex snapped back.

“I guess she’s ours now, that’s what we wanted, didn’t we?”, he continued, “I told you my grandfather was not crazy! Black magic - ha! You all laughed! Now you’re all in on it, no turning back okay? OKAY?” Alex’s eyes turned black with victory and dominance, staring at his accomplices, ensuring they don’t run.

He looked at the smoky figure towering over him. He could tell it was a female with the fear in her eyes suddenly beginning to invade the space around her. He could see her slowly comprehending her predicament as she tried to move, wiggling out of what seemed like an invisible rope binding her formless body.

Maya’s confusion began to wind down and absolute terror struck her heart. Peering down, she noticed a large and old book with a Latin print on the front :

Ignis et Evocatio Lucis.

An enough knowledge on occult subjects offered an instant understanding of it all. Her fate was sealed. ‘Fire and Evocation by Light’.

With a heart full of despair, she looked into Alex’s dark grinning eyes and with a reluctant surrender declared: ‘I am yours until you set me free, ask and I shall obey.’

Too bad for Maya that Alex was not the kind of guy to house any wisdom or mercy and what he wanted was the stuff of nightmares. Her heart cringed in a hopeless despair and could do nothing but accept her master. Any disobedience, and she would burn like the wick of the candle that had trapped her soul, only to be brought back again and again until she could disobey no longer.

***

The afternoon sun gleamed through the window of a gloomy and empty room full of the echoes of screams. Maya’s parents helplessly watched as their daughter lie hooked up to noisy machines on a hospital bed, unconscious from a sudden and mysterious coma. A warm tear ran down her cheek as she in her shadow self went on to obey her first heinous command.