ill-fated friend

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The small flame danced invitingly in the darkness, promising warmth and safety with its soft glow. The cabin stood in the middle of a wooded purgatory filled with fir and hemlock stretching along endlessly.

Hal deplored any sense of imagination, especially mine. He finds it unnatural for a woman to have any sense of eccentricity. Denying any notion I possess that is otherworldly.

Hal is an educated man, a physician of the mind so he ought to know.

I would declare to the world the hauntings of these walls but it would be too fanciful a notion and further condemn me here. However something lurks.

He assured me that it was curable with lithium and solitude but it seems to have made me more outlandish. He's told me to pray and that god could save my soul but I'm unsure.

In an attempt to ease any doubts he had promised it was for my own good that I be alone. Nobody to fuel my mind, he said. I can feel myself getting better, I'm sure of it. My darling, always caring for my health.

* * *

The nights have gotten longer and the daylight is so precious. I see the birds and well sometimes I even open the front door dispelling the damp stench that fills the room but I dare not step foot outside.

I've been here for a week now with no sight of him, I worry he's gotten lost somewhere in those woods.

I noticed a small old woman yesterday with many heads hunching amongst the treetops creeping through the branches, her eyes a milky snow in the day.. At night she is there waiting for me. She watches me from the trees almost the way an owl does perched upon a branch, she is no owl though. her eyes glow in the dark, the most disturbing ochre hue. I wonder, Oh I wonder what she is.

* * *

I've seen her! Jumping from tree to tree in the daylight getting closer and closer to the cabin but she has yet to approach the door.

I've seen her creeping amongst the fallen branches through the leaves on the ground the way fog does on brisk mornings. I've seen her.

The pills are seeming to work, I'm feeling much better now. Any day now Hal will come whisk me away from this chilling place. I wonder if he sent the woman.

She keeps those eyes on me the way a mother does her young child. always watching and looming. I would ask her but I ought not to go outside.

* * *

It's been a few days since I've written anything. My heart has grown faint and the night grows colder.

The woman now looms closer, sneaking through the trees. I've considered asking her where Hal is. She leaves sometimes at night, I'm sure she is telling him how marvelous I'm doing.

I can hear the woman now. She has the faintest voice, almost a whisper.

I've tried to watch her through all the windows at once but she catches me at all of them right against the glass and begins crawling through the dirt.

She's gotten very quick so I must slither along the floorboards to catch her.

* * *

I wonder if Hal will ever come or if the woman has eaten him. She has an awfully large smile. It looks as though she is holding onto a secret. She has begun crawling beneath the floorboard and through the walls.

From within the structure she creeps pounding upon the wood, That awful sound echoes through the cabin.

* * *

I've decided to go search for him through the woods. I see her crawling beneath the earth guiding me to him.

I've walked for hours her creeping beneath my feet at first now upon my shoulders she rides.

the two of us creeping through the forest.

I'm unsure of Hal, unsure if I want him to return. His constant worry of my mind made me very tired.

I tell you this privately of course, we wouldn't want him to come take me away. I'm sure he would be hysterical if he found out about my ill-fated friend.

If he ever does come, we'll be waiting.