The Scarlet Haired Maiden

“Never look in her eyes,” he said. “Look to the horizon and concentrate on the ship. Her charms are many and all-powerful, but you have to be strong. You have to look to the ship on the horizon. It always appears when she's here, and it may be your only saviour. She can’t look there or stand between you and the ship and will do all she can to make you look her way

He paused as he reached down to touch the cat that was sharpening its claws on his right leg.

The cat looked as old as the man and was missing an eye and part of an ear. It had to be the ugliest cat I’d ever seen. What hair it had was matted into large clumps, leaving what looked like several bald spots on its body. Some mucus seeped from its eye, and it made a gurgling sound as it sharpened its claws on the old man. It didn’t sound like any sound I’ve heard coming from a cat and was quite unsettling.

The old man didn’t seem to notice or care.

He truly believed the story he was telling, and feeling sorry for this lonely old man, I gave him my full attention.

He told me she appears every twenty-five years and was called "The Scarlet Haired Maiden.”

Worried about the damage the cat was causing, I reached down to push it away from him. It pounced at my hand with its fangs bared and made a hissing sound that haunts me to this day. It sounded more like a snake than a cat and caused a gut-wrenching fear to arise in me that I'd never felt before or since.

He smiled a toothless grin at me and said, “Yeah. I've seen that face before; she has that effect on people. The first time I met her, seventy-five years ago, she scared the shit out of me too."

I stared at him for a few seconds, thinking, "Wait a second, did he just say that cat is seventy-five years old. He must be worse off than I thought. Why is he here alone?"

My thoughts were broken when he said, “Don’t worry about my leg. I can’t feel anything down there.”

He reached down and pulled his pant leg up to reveal a fake leg. My eyes opened wide in confused shock at what I was seeing. It wasn't a modern prosthetic, or even close to modern. He revealed to me an old wooden peg leg with what looked like an old cobblers' shoe stretcher fastened to the bottom. The shoe stretcher was attached with some sort of homemade hinge system, which acted as the ankle.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing as the cat, obviously happy that the pant leg was out of the way, started scratching at the wooden leg with renewed vigour.

He stared back out at the ocean before continuing with his story. "Everything I'm telling you is true. Twenty-five years ago I met a man, much like you, in this same park. I tried warning him, but he wouldn't listen. He called me a crazy old man and laughed at me before leaving. She came for him. I know she did because she came to me in my dreams and thanked me.”

"I believe she took all of him, not just a small part like she did with me. I know this because if he were still here, she would have let me go by now."

I realized now that this man was lost. Lost in every sense of the word. It was apparent he had dementia and had wandered away from his home or wherever he lived. I was getting more and more uncomfortable with this situation and asked, “Where do you live?”

He became angry when I changed the subject and said, “No. You have to listen. Please just listen. Let me finish. I need to describe her to you so you can know when to run. You need to remember and heed every word I say. Do you understand me?”

I could see the need and anguish in his eyes, so I nodded my head in agreement and said,

"Ok. Yes, please go ahead. I'll listen carefully and take your words to heart."

He looked at me with gratitude and, with a warm smile, described a woman with unmatched beauty who posed a life-altering threat to me that only I could stop. It felt like he was describing some kind of fairy-tale woman to me, but I listened carefully as I understood he needed to do this.

“Her beauty is incomparable and almost impossible to describe fully. Her scarlet hair flows like fine wine and shines like a halo when it’s kissed by the sun. It has a scent that I could only describe as that wonderful scent a Lilac bush releases on a warm spring morning.

Her skin, My God, her skin has a colour of its own. Almost like a mixture of all the skin colours and shades of colour on earth. It's captivating to the eye and even seems to sparkle at times.

Her lips perfectly shape her face and seem always to be moist and inviting. They will make you ache with the need to feel those lips on yours.

Her shape is that of a goddess, like Venus but only better. The beauty of each of her features is beyond the normal sense of beauty. Each physical aspect of her pulls at a man’s heart and will leave you breathless. But when all of these incomparable features are put together in the form of one woman, she becomes something else entirely.

She is impossible to resist, and with one glance into her eyes, you will lose all control of your body. Your whole being will become overwhelmed, and your manhood will rise and release your essence into your pants just by looking at her.

You will give anything just to be near her. I mean anything, including your soul."

I was thinking, “Doesn’t sound all that bad to me,” as he stopped talking for a minute and looked down at his peg leg while scratching the cat.

All of a sudden, he looked up and stared out over the water toward the horizon and said, "No."

I turned to look where he was looking and could see that far in the distance, just coming over the horizon, was a ship. It wasn't your typical modern-day ship but a three-mast sailing ship with its sails billowing in the non-existent breeze. There was something about it that didn't seem right to me, and the hair rose on my arms as the cat let out a loud cry that felt like it came from the bowels of hell.

I was startled out of my trance when I heard a woman’s voice behind us, “Mr. Fergus. There you are. My God, are you ok?" I turned towards the voice and could see two women hurrying towards us—an older lady dressed in business attire and a younger lady dressed in what looked like hospital scrubs. The old man seemed to come alive when the older lady stood in front of him and took his hands in hers. They said that they had been looking for him all morning as; apparently, he had wandered away from St. Luke's assisted living home, again. He was happy to see the women but became distressed when they tried to take him away from me, so I offered to walk back to the home with them and help him get settled. I helped him up from the bench, and as we walked towards the park exit, I looked out at the water to see if the ship was getting closer. I was surprised to see that it wasn't there.

I asked the women, “Shouldn’t we find his cat and bring it with us?”

They both looked at me confused and said, “What cat? He doesn’t own a cat.”

For the rest of the walk, I felt strange somehow, almost like I was in a dream.

When we got to the home, Mr. Fergus seemed to have forgotten entirely about the story he had told me and wanted to show me his room. The younger lady, his support worker, let me know that it was ok and it would be good for him as he never has any visitors. I felt for this man who had lived a long life and now, towards the end, had nobody to visit him.

Over the next few weeks, I visited him a few times a week and listened to his stories of days gone by and love lost and found.

After the third week, I got the call I knew was coming. He'd passed away in his sleep and had left a letter for me with instructions. He left all his worldly belongings to me, which wasn't much, and his last wish's which he wanted, followed exactly as he described.

I did as he wished and had his body cremated on the fourth day after his passing. The next morning at precisely eight o'clock, I stood at the spot we met and spread his ashes in the water in front of his bench. He said the ship would be there and when I saw it I was to read the sealed envelope in my pocket. I looked to the horizon and was surprised to see that it was there; I could see the sails in the distance. I pulled the envelope out, opened it and read the five words written there in shock.

“Never look in her eyes.”

I stood staring at the paper for a minute before I heard a voice coming from the bench behind me.

"Are you ok, sir?"

I felt my heart stop for a second as I turned around to see the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I couldn't help myself and felt my feet moving in her direction.

She had long wavy hair that was the most incredible shade of red; I would say Scarlet red. I walked towards her as my eyes focused on her lips, the kind of lips that begged to be kissed and could make a grown man cry. Those lips turned up into a warm, inviting smile that lit up her face in unimaginable beauty and drew my stunned gaze to her eyes.

I felt every fibre of my soul being pulled into those eyes, but I felt no fear. Her eyes were a very rare colour for a red-haired woman. They were the most unbelievable shade of blue, like the deep cold blue you would see on a mountain glacier. She was absolutely irresistible, and I loved every second of her presence. I was in love.

Now, as I lay on this hospital bed recounting my story to you, the itch in my left leg is driving me crazy again. The doctors said it's what's called a phantom itch and was a common thing for people in my predicament.

You see, when they found me, two weeks later, my left leg was missing. The doctors said that someone with great skill had removed it and left me on that bench to be found.

I know now the old man was telling the truth but not the whole truth. His job was to find someone to replace him, and then he would be freed and spent the rest of time with her in her realm.

I know this to be true because that’s what she told me in the crumbled letter I found in my pocket a few days ago.

Now I just have to wait twenty-five years before spending the rest of eternity with the goddess of lust, God’s gift to man… “The Scarlet Haired Maiden.”