The Candle

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. At least that’s what we thought. We knew where the cabin was, we camped only a hundred yards or so away and passed the small crumbling structure often but always in the day time as we hiked down to the stream.

This was about five years ago and our camp site was just over there through the elm trees and over those flat rocks. And before you ask why we didn’t camp there tonight, just listen to this story and you’ll know why.

The cabin was so old and its faded planks were gray with age, the same gray color as the lifeless trees that surrounded it. It blended in so well that we sometimes passed it without realizing it was there.

But one night, as we were all sitting around the fire, just like tonight, we were telling ghost stories and watching the fire crack and hiss, and one of my friends, there were three of us that night, pointed off into the distance and said, “Hey, what ‘s that?”

Bobbie and I immediately looked over to where Jerry, the guy who yelled, was pointing. At first we didn’t see anything and Jerry admitted that he probably imagined it. But as Bobbie continued telling the ghost story in the most sinister voice that he could muster, Jerry yelled out again.

“There! Look! It’s some kind of a light!”

Bobbie and I stood up this time and followed Jerry’s gaze. For a moment or so neither of us saw anything, but then I saw something. It was a light. I could tell that it wasn’t a flashlight. It had a warmer glow and it wasn’t moving. I remember thinking that it looked like a candle. Bobbie saw it too and as I was trying to process where a candle could possibly be coming from, I realized that it was about where the cabin was.

Okay so mystery solved. Someone was probably exploring the cabin and had lit a candle. We settled back to our spots around the fire and Bobbie resumed the story. I don’t remember the details but do remember that it wasn’t very scary and I was disappointed. Little did I know that night would be the most terrifying night of my life.

We stayed up another hour or so and then went to sleep on the sleeping bags that we had placed around the dying fire.

Not much later, something woke me. I wasn’t sure what it was, but Jerry and Bobbie were already standing up and I could see that their eyes were wide in fear and even in the fading light, their faces were absolutely white.

I started to ask what was going on but they both shushed me and I knew better than to say another word.

It didn’t take long. One second we were all motionless and the next, a sound like I’d never heard before made all three of us freeze. It sounded like a scream that a hundred pound screech owl might have made but it wasn’t a damned owl. It was human. The absolute desperation and terror was clear and it scared us so badly that we couldn’t even look at each other. To actually see another human being react to what we were feeling would have been too much to handle. We waited…….unable to do anything else, and in time it seemed like it wouldn’t happen again. I can’t speak for the other two but I prayed to God that it wouldn’t.

In a trembling voice, Jerry asked, “What the hell was that?”

Neither Bobbie nor I could answer. My throat was so constricted that I knew I couldn’t speak and just shook my head.

Jerry was able to croak out a few words, and said. “That was someone screaming for their lives. We have to do something.”

“What? What the hell can we do?” Bobbie asked. “There’s no cell coverage out here. Should we hike out and get some help?”

Somehow I found my voice and said in a low, steady tone that surprised me, “Whoever that was is either dead or will be soon. We don’t have time to get help. We have to find out what’s happening.”

My friends just stared at me. No one responded and I waited a few seconds and picked up a heavy stick and started walking towards the cabin. Somehow I knew that was where the scream had come from. I wasn’t sure that the others had followed me or not, until I could hear their footsteps crunching over leaves and breaking small twigs behind me. I was hoping they wouldn’t make that much noise but their steps gave me some small amount of comfort.

Abby, one of the girls that was listening to me as I told the story asked me which direction we had walked towards and I pointed to where the cabin was. No one said another word and I continued telling the story of what happened on that terrible night.

It took us about twenty minutes to get there and there it was, the cabin. The light was still lit and we could see that it was a lone candle shining through a half broken pane of glass. We cautiously approached the window and looked inside. The feeble light allowed a view of the inside of the cabin and it looked empty. We backed up and began walking around the cabin to see if anything or anyone was somewhere close. We stayed together and walked slowly trying not to make any more noise. I noticed that my friends had picked up sticks about the same size of the one that I still gripped tightly in my right hand.

Nothing seemed out of place and after another walk around the cabin we loosened up a bit. Jerry made a comment that maybe what we heard actually was some kind of owl. Everything else seemed normal, he said.

We wanted to believe that but down deep we knew that what we heard wasn’t normal. But the memory of that terrible scream as well as our fear started to subside, at least a little. We walked into the cabin and looked around. It was just one big room and the only furnishings were an old wooden table where the candle was placed, and some plank shelves. Nothing else except for the candle. It flickered steadily and its light held the same orange glow.

Satisfied, we walked out of the cabin, our fears almost extinguished. Bobbie made a joke about having to change his underwear when we get back to the camp site. Jerry and I, laughed a little harder than the comment was worth and after a few more steps towards our camp, Jerry stopped and said, “Wait a minute.”

We asked him what was wrong, and he looked at us intently and said, “The candle.”

“What about it?” I asked him.

He looked back at the cabin and said, “We saw it flickering hours ago right?"

We both nodded and said, “Yeah, so?”

Jerry said, “Any candle would have burned down by now. You both saw it. I didn’t even see any wax dripping down.”

Bobbie and I looked at each other and we couldn’t argue with what Jerry said. How was that possible?

Without another word we all turned and again entered the cabin. We huddled around the candle and sure enough, there was no evidence that it was actually burning down. We intently studied it and finally Jerry and I stepped back from the candle and started talking about it in low voices as if the candle could hear. We looked back at Bobbie and saw him reach out to pick it up. As he did so, the candle seemed to change. The flame, still a bright orange quickly became the tip of something. The body of the white candle also seemed to morph into something. The candle had now become merely an orange and white part of some sort of an appendage and it was moving. It gripped Bobbie’s wrist and the old table that it had sat upon now also changed and became another appendage that gripped Bobbie’s thigh.

The entire wall was now moving, and we could see that it was becoming a part of a hideous creature that was abandoning its chameleon ability to blend into its surrounding. And like an Anglerfish that had adapted its tongue to resemble a worm and attract unsuspecting fish, it was now abandoning its camouflaged appearance because the fish that it had caught was Bobbie. I’ll never forget the look on Bobbie’s face as another appendage, this one a spear with a series of razor edged spikes began to very slowly slice through his stomach. Very, very slowly. Bobbie's face had a look that began as an almost humorous reaction to something that could not possibly be happening and ended with a look of absolute horror that I could never try to describe. Would never want to describe.

Jerry and I knew that we could not save him and threw ourselves out of the doorway and began running. I was slightly ahead of Jerry and it was then that we heard the same type of scream that we had heard earlier. But this time it was closer and it was louder and even more terrifying because we knew the person who made it. I don’t know how I had the courage to stop running but I did. I only realized later what must have made me stop. I could tell that Jerry wasn’t there any longer. I yelled for him and immediately wish I hadn’t. In a muffled, frantic voice, Jerry screamed out pleading for me to help. Then I heard him sobbing.

I turned and saw that a large claw-like appendage had him by the chest and shoulder and was slowly pulling him back to the cabin. What I hadn't yet seen was the other appendage that had reach the other side of a tree that I was standing next to. I started to run.

I looked around the fire where I now stood, five years later and looked at the people who sat around it, their faces shocked and amazed at the unbelievable story that they had just heard.

I sat down and a few moments later, one of the girls said, “Wait, are you saying that’s a true story? That really happened?”

I nodded.

“But then what happened to you? How are you still alive? You said the other claw was almost on you. How did you get away?”

I didn’t respond for a while but then stood up and unbuttoned my flannel shirt. The open wound in the center of my chest was ugly and red, even after five years and the woman thought it was some theatrical effect that I had applied. She reached out and touched it and the claw that had become at home in my body snapped out and ripped her throat out. It was quick. Not so for the others. There were five of them and it took a great deal of time.