In the fall of night, beneath the shimmer of stars and brightest moon, the whispers call.

 Inside the woodland haven in a setting away from the trodden trail, a chill, arriving with evening's sunset, begins to envelope the cabin.  

Placing another log inside the fireplace, Joseph slowly leans back in the old creaky rocking chair, trying to ignore the faint whispering voices, seeming to imamate from just outside the cabin's walls.

"Surely it's just a low gale rushing through the tree branches," thinking to himself.    "That's the only thing that it could be. Either that, or I'm becoming touched."

Living alone in the woods, often times created peculiarities, which a person became accustomed to.  Hearing noises, such as bumps, rustlings, or other sounds outside the cabin was usually just a rush of wind; it might also be a deer or raccoon meandering about. Even unexpected wails, some shrieking like the devil's own, could be accounted for. Those types of unearthly bellows, more or less, were attributed to a screeching owl or coyote howling in a distant hollow.  

The voices, however, were unsettling to say the least. Closely listening, he could almost distinguish actual words in the low breathy whisperings. They hissed, with an eerie forebodingness, unlike any utterance that he was familiar with that could be produced by a whoosh of wind. "Yet, he thought, that's all it could be."

Lost in the transition of thoughts, the reach of darkness began to consume the cabin, overtaking the flicker of light emanating from the fireplace. Taking notice of the encroachment of night into the room, Joseph arose from the rickety rocking chair, and lit the oil lamp atop the lone table in the corner of the room. As he adjusted the flame, his quarters illuminated with a relaxing glow, inundating the room's darkest shadows with a shower of amber light.  

Making his way back to the rocker, thoughts of the past sat down beside him, and began reminiscing in a constant flow of pictures; scenes that haunted his every waking hour.

 

Joseph hadn't always lived alone. His wife of three years, Sarah, had disappeared the better part of a year ago. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, and he considered himself to be the luckiest man in the world to have found her.

During her daily routine, before darkness had settled across the valley, she always collected the water pail from the kitchen, and headed off toward the nearby stream to fill it. Even with his daily insistence that he accompany her, she always maintained, the walk alone through the woods brought solace to her spirit.

"A person needs time to themselves" he reckoned. So he always gave way to her wishes. During this particular instance though, she didn't return.

Taking up a lantern, after Sarah failed to return to the cabin in a reasonable amount of time, Joseph set out to find her, and he searched relentlessly through the night, calling her name constantly, while desperately praying beneath his breath, begging for her safety. With morning light, he abandoned his search long enough to enlist help from his neighbors, and the local townsfolk.

Continuing the search for days afterwards, with the assistance of others, no signs were ever found of Sarah. It was as if she had stepped off the face of the earth.  

However, the search did bring about a grisly discovery. While looking for Joseph's wife, some of the searchers stumbled upon the body of the old woman that lived in a nearby hovel. She was the area's outcast, who locals say practiced witchery in the clearing where she was found.

Recounting their stories, many testified that they had happened upon her during evening hours while returning home from hunting, and had witnessed her reciting incantations, calling upon ungodly forces to do her bidding. Fearing for their safety, all that repeated the tale, hurriedly made their way back to their homes, and prayed for their deliverance from the evil that they had seen. One to each also shared the same forethought, that no sane person would ever dare confront the old woman about her communion with the devil. To tempt the wrath of evil befalling oneself or one's family would be foolish.

All their fears could be put to rest now, because she lay in a heap inside the clearing. Her body bearing multiple slashes and stab wounds to her torso, with what appeared to be buckets of dried blood absorbed by the rags she wore. The remaining splatters covered the immediate surrounding's grass and vegetation. It was a scene that caused the stoutest of men to become unsteady on their feet.    

Looking about, the horrid scene created an obvious conclusion to those having the misfortune to view it. This was the handiwork of a madman; perhaps someone who had crossed the old woman, and was overcome by fear, thinking about the spells or curses this abomination of mankind had perhaps placed upon him or his loved ones. With a rage of fear and vengeance, he sought out and destroyed the venomous viper. Who could harbor an ounce of malice toward the person if that was the case?

 

Then there were some that speculated otherwise. Their thoughts and words were, "perhaps it was just a random murder, committed by a roving fiend. It wouldn't have been the first time someone was killed, just to satisfy some monster's bloodlust."

"God forbid that was the fate passed upon Joseph's wife, Sarah", was the murmurings among others. A few even suggested that maybe she had been kidnapped, and carried away to a fate worse than the death of the old woman.

Joseph refused to believe any of the suppositions at first, but after feverously searching the woods for more than a week, he resided himself to hope. That's all he had left.

The search began to taper by the locals after days of finding nothing, and eventually subsided, although Joseph clung to his hope, and searched daily for his love.

 

To the local residents, the death of the old woman was of no consequence. Being afraid of the evil that surely tainted her, no one would touch her body and give it a proper burial. After several days though, it became general knowledge that her body had disappeared. Most surmised that coyotes had probably feasted on it. Being steadfast in their lack of concern, everyone was just thankful to be rid of the scourge. 

Joseph was familiar with the stories of the old woman's witchery, and like most people, he avoided going near her shanty, or the clearing, where she practiced her witchery when he was out hunting. He wanted no dealings with anyone that was in league with the devil. So Joseph left the old woman to herself, and was thankful that she did likewise toward him.  

Moving the rocker closer to the crackling fire, the evening chill seemed to be steadily engulfing him as the sound of whispers continued to announce their presence outside the cabin door, becoming more prevalent as the evening progressed.

Then unmistakably, he heard his name. "Joseph"!

Startled, he jumped from the rocker, and peered into every corner of the room, but all he saw was the lamp's soft glow, and flickering from the fireplace upon the walls. Yet he was sure he had heard his name called.

Regaining his composure, Joseph eased back into the rocker and listened, trying to verify that he had actually heard his name called, but the voices had ceased. "Perhaps I'm just overwrought," he thought. "I've overdone the chores today, and I'm just tired".

Basking in the warmth from the fireplace, and the voices no longer taunting, Joseph started to drift in and out of consciousness, until sleep finally overcame him, and he found himself immersed in a dream.

n his arms he held her, as if to never let her go. This was the woman he loved with all his heart and soul, his beautiful Sarah. Her hair was colored like riches of gold, and her eyes glistened with stars. With purest of skin, her features were born of an angel, soft and smooth to the touch. Sarah was perfection at its finest.

She had settled in town a few years ago, just a short time after he had carved out his tract in the woods. Finding employment as a house girl, Joseph soon learned of her arrival, and after seeing her, he started courting her that very same evening.  Within a month, to his complete disbelief, but overwhelming joy, she consented to become his bride. 

Sarah was everything he had ever dreamed of. She was his life, and their life together at the cabin was surrounded by their love.

With the water pail in hand, Sarah headed out the door, and Joseph's loss and heartbreak found him inside a dream. 

Grabbing the lantern, and down the pathway toward the stream, Joseph hurriedly made his way in search of Sarah.  "Surely", he thought to himself, "she has to be somewhere."She couldn't have just disappeared from the face of the earth." 

His search continued for hours to no avail. Then he heard a voice chanting. A female voice! It was coming from the clearing in the pine thicket, the place people called the devil's hole, where the old woman, who lived in the nearby hovel, practiced her witchery.

Making his way through the woods, toward the chanting, Joseph stopped at the clearing's edge, and his blood ran cold. His body gave steady shudder at the sight he saw while holding the lantern aloft.

Kneeling before a makeshift altar, made of stones and weavings of sticks was an old woman, chanting prayers to the devil himself. Other than being filthy, and dressed in pauper's rags, her worldly presence also reeked of the sinister bidding that she was about. She was the most loathsome creature that Joseph had ever seen. The sight of her turned his stomach to the point of retching. Pure evil was before his eyes, and the recognition of it made him sick.

Turning away in disgust, he soon felt her eyes upon him, and he angrily looked toward her. As he did, she laughed, and called his name. "Joseph, come to me. Come to me my love. Don't you recognize your loving wife?"

Her image immediately changed, and kneeling before the altar, built unto evil, was his beloved wife, Sarah.

"Joseph, my dear," she said. "I created this beauty for which your eyes crave. It's all for you, my love. The first time I looked upon you, and saw you toiling at the cabin, your body fit and muscular, I knew I had to have you, and I did."  Then she laughed a damnable horrible laugh.

Then without pause, she added. "I pledged all I had to become your wife, and have you all for myself. Even though I had already pledged my soul to the darkest of lords, I had something else to pledge, and without hesitation, I also pledged your soul." Then she began laughing again, and it was the most hideous laugh he had ever heard.

Lunging forward into the clearing, he unsheathed the knife on his side, and with the brutality of a madman, he plunged the knife into her chest, and he continued slashing and stabbing her until her screaming and throes of agony subsided.

The evil lay before him in a pool of blood, and his mind began to scream.

Retrieving the lantern, he began running, and running, until he came to the stream. Then he forgot why he was running.

Calmly he knelt beside the stream, and washed away the blood that had splattered him.

Looking about, he noticed the sun was rising; so he began the journey along the path, making his way to recruit the help needed to find his beautiful wife, because his all night search by himself had been fruitless.

Joseph bolted upright from the rocker. "Oh my God", he shouted. The memories came flooding into his mind. "Oh my God, I killed her" he said aloud again. He remembered everything now. His wife Sarah was the old woman, and he plunged his knife into her, over and over again.

His heart was racing, and the voices outside the door began to chant again, and this time he knew they were calling his name.     

Then a knock came upon the door, and a voice called out, "Joseph, it's me, Sarah. Let me in".

"No"! He yelled. "Leave me alone. You're dead! "

No sooner had the words left his lips when the door swung open, and there stood Sarah, and she began to laugh as she started walking toward him.

Then he saw the flash of a knife as she raised it, thrusting it into his chest, time after time, until he fell to the floor dying.

Looking toward the door, he saw them--evil things. Closer they came, and he screamed as they put their icy hands upon him. He then realized, they were pulling his soul from his body, and he screamed again.

 As he screamed, the words of Sara coursed through his mind. Not only had she pledged her soul to the darkest of evils, but she pledged his also.

The demons were there to collect the due, and they dragged his screaming soul out the door, and down the pathway, to the clearing in the woods.

C.E.Vance

The End