The Candle
The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. My friend and I had been camping nearby for about a week. We talked about going inside, perhaps sleeping in there instead of our tent. But we always decided against it. I don’t know if it was the unsettling silence that overcame the forest every time we approached it, or perhaps it was how everyone in the nearby town seemed unreasonably out of sorts since their innkeeper mysteriously vanished while out gathering wood. Either way, since we saw the candle it was clear someone had reclaimed the space and so we kept our distance.
