The Cry

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. It flickered and danced in the wind. It stood on top of the old window ledge all cracked and decaying. I tried to rationalise outcomes in my mind. That’s what my therapist told me to do in times like this. My inner voice told me, that it was the new recruits joining the summer camp this year, playing practical jokes on each other. I was hesitant, but they needed to be reminded of the rules, even if I really didn’t want to.

I was sat opposite on the balcony of the ranger’s sleeping quarters, on night duty, rocking gently in a wooden rocking chair. I had full view of the abounded cabin and the large lake that wrapped around the site, where the vast forest gathered. Tightly gripping my flashlight, wearing only my ranger shirt, camouflage shorts and slip-on flip flops, I stumbled down the cabin steps, creaking as I stepped on each wooden slab, walking towards the cabin with force.

There was a chill in the air, it was a warm, still night and the sky was full of glistening stars with a large orb full moon in the centre. Everything around me was deadly quiet, you would hear a pin drop miles in the distance. Moving closer and closer, towards the wooden shack, I came to realise that the candle once swaying in the window had vanished from view.

“Hello!” I called out, my flashlight pointing in the direction of the dilapidated door. I could feel my bony fingers shaking.

Nothing.

“You’re not supposed to be in here…” I stuttered.

Still nothing.

Then a cry echoed in the silence.

I was terrified. Every inch of my body shook like leaves in the Fall. I climbed the creaky stairs, which were broken and falling apart, heading to the entrance and the window where I had seen the candle.

I nearly missed it. An object hidden at my feet at the entrance to the cabin, the door banging back and forth with the call of the wind. A tiny baby, swaddled in white, laying in a woven basket. It cried for attention.

“What do we have here?” I said lightly, pushing the door open to see if anyone was hiding. Everything was gloomy. I could feel the dust particles flying into my throat. I picked the basket up and held it to my chest.

“Ow!” A sharp pinch. My finger drew just the tiniest amount of blood. When I looked, a sharp piece of wood stuck out from below the basket. I sucked the blood with my mouth and brought my attention back to the baby who was still wailing. The sound was an odd sort of cry, not distressing but a numb sensation, tingling through my veins.

“Let’s find you some help, yes?”

I grabbed the handle, about to race down the broken steps, to find someone who was more capable to handle such matters, when the atmosphere changed drastically. From a low monotone cry, the baby began to howl. The pitch seemed to strike right into my ear drums making my whole-body ripple like water. I stared down at the child, even though everything was telling me to cover my ears, to see the most disturbing thing I had ever laid my eyes on.

The baby that once looked so pure and angelic, now turned into a version of myself. My own face screaming below me, back to a time when I scared everyone around me.

Its eyebrows arched, its eyes blotchy and demonic looking, with large purple and black bags growing each time it let out a scream, its mouth wide, now blood started trailing out from its teeth. I couldn’t bare it, the basket I was holding crashed to the floor, as I held my hands clenched into fists over my eardrums. Even my own cries couldn’t drown out the unnatural noise from the child.

I awoke, covered in a pool of sweat. My body pulsing and my long spindly fingers quivering. I was wide awake, my eyes glowing in the moonlight of the camp. I dragged myself out bed and into the bathroom, where I covered my face in cool water staring at myself in the cabinet mirror. I took a few breaths in, remembering what my therapist said to calm the body down.

I walked sleepily towards my bed stretching my finger, looking down with squinted eyes, I stopped short, feeling my panic rising. The cut, it was there, sitting right across my finger. My gaze looked out the window, the night’s sky a blanket of blue, the stars twinkling and the full moon clouded in the distance, the lake cool and still under the fresh breeze. I looked over the camp, my eyes gazing over. I felt my pupils dilate.

The abandoned cabin, a candle burned in the window, flickering in the wind, tormentingly. There was no time to be scared. I raced down the steps in my pjs, bare feet on the grass, running towards the cabin without a flashlight.

Nothing.

The candle in the window that had once flicked, disappeared once again, then I heard it…

A baby’s faint cry.