Lopez Melissa
Stories (2)
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The Dead in the Pool
I was housesitting for my boss. She was a best-selling author of horror stories. She wrote of ghosts, primarily, and their phantasmal interactions with the living. I had been looking forward to this housesitting job for weeks, not just for what she said she’d pay me, but I wanted to see inside her house. Her home was built against a hillside in a modern, simple style. It’s mostly concrete and glass, quite plain, really, but it has a large atrium in the middle of it and a swimming pool was installed there.
By Lopez Melissa4 years ago in Horror
The Forest Wolf
Sunlight flickered through the canopy of leaves above, through the swaying treetops, filtering golden light onto my path. They seemed afire, the treetops, all red and orange and yellow, and now and then the wind would glide past and make their dying leaves loose themselves and flitter down in silence like gentle rain. The fallen Autumn leaves carpeted my path, and my footfalls made a mashing sound upon them as I trod along. I continued on this path, winding between pillars of Oak and Birch and Evergreen, and reveled in the fragrance of them with every deep breath. Scents of green, fresh, living things mingled with brown, molding, dying things. I could smell the rich and living earth beneath me, aromas of minerals and growth. I walked, on and on, into the darkening, damp woods. The trees followed me, whispering to each other my progress along the path. I felt them close in behind me, spreading their branches out, around, and above me. Perhaps sheltering me, perhaps trapping me. I felt they were still deciding what to do with me. A strange stillness fell around me, a hushed and suspended silence. It seemed to me the Forest was holding its breath, wanting to reveal itself fully to me, but waiting…waiting for permission, maybe. I carried on, deeper into the shadows, swallowed further by the thickening woods with every step. I could not stop nor turn back. I would have to harness my mounting fears and hold fast to the trail. Dusk had fallen. The woods came down and around me, trapping me in a globe of darkness. My skin quivered at the chill wrapping around me. It would soon be too dark to see. Nevertheless, I continued along the leafy trail and promised myself I would be safe as long as I did not stray. I held my hands down at my sides and slightly away, feeling for branches and bushes sticking out into my path. As my hands and fingers groped in the dark, I suddenly felt something brush against me. It moved under my left hand, tickling me. I felt the heat from its body rising into my palm. I reached for it and felt coarse fur mixed with soft. Its muscles and bones rose and fell beneath its skin as it aligned its steps with mine. I could not see it fully for the darkness, but I knew it was an enormous and powerful animal. My intuition told me it was a wolf. I looked for its eyes and found them looking up at me, glowing like embers in a fire. Suddenly, I knew him. I knew I had always known him and I can’t explain how I understood this, I just did. It was like being told a Truth I had always sought. He was there for me. I closed my hand into his shoulders, into a handful of his fur and held on. I let him guide me along the path. The way ahead was black, and though my eyes were as wide as they could be, I could see nothing around me, only blackness, only uncertainty. But the wolf was there, and I was not afraid. I knew I would be protected from any lurking harm and led somewhere safe. We walked together all night long until the forest began to fill with golden light again. A new day was approaching. Birds suddenly appeared, flitting tree to tree above our heads, chirping and singing their full-throated songs as they followed us. Deer fed on soft grass sprouting up through the fallen leaves, their soft brown eyes watching us with curiosity, then resignation, as we went by. They were not in the least afraid of the human woman or the wolf walking with her. We finally arrived at an opening and looked up at the sky. The rising sun pressed away the night’s waning garb of violet and deep blue as it spread its cape of soft pink and yellow across the horizon. We walked to the edge of a promontory jutting out over a vast lake encircled by snowy-topped mountains. The lake was like a plane of glass, its surface mirroring its surrounds. I stood still, breathing softly, in and out, in and out, inhaling all the still, silent calm my eyes beheld. The wolf sat at my heels and leaned against my legs. I sat down with him and we both took our rest. I felt the power of the wolf next to me, the one who had delivered me from the dark forest, from my fear, and brought me to this place… this place that seemed the home of our Creator. My wolf sat with me there until I awoke, curled and comfortable in the blankets and pillows of my bed.
By Lopez Melissa4 years ago in Fiction
