A PRIEST’S SIN

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The candle gave off a faint light, as if it was providing the needed light to the dismembered hand while it wrote the latest name in the page of a black book. After the name was written, the dismembered hand disappeared and a mysterious, shadowy, cloaked figure, covered in a gray shroud, stood in the corner of the room where the candle continued to burn, watching and waiting.

Two hundred years prior, a priest was lost in the woods in the middle of the night, having ran away from the angry mob that wanted him dead. As he continued trekking through the dark woods, he noticed a faint light in the distance. Like a moth to a flame, the priest headed towards the light, in order to investigate the source. He found himself in a clearing with a camp fire in the middle, and hooded figure sitting by the fire. The priest sat directly across from the figure, with the campfire between them, hoping to see the face of the person he is currently with. However, the darkness of the cloak was so thick, even from the vantage point of sitting across directly; the priest is still unable to see the face of the hooded figure.

“I know what you want,” the priest heard the whispered words in his mind and he knew the words came from the cloaked figure in front of him. Testing the figure, the priest challenged the figure and asking to reaffirm what it is the priest wants.

The cloaked figure answered, “Your faith has wavered. You no longer believe if God even exists. After serving him for all these years, he had the audacity to hide his face from you, the way my own face is hidden from your view by the hood of my cloak. I can give that to you, I can make you believe again, that is, if you do what I tell you.”

“What do I have to do?” the priest asks.

A fierce wind blew around them and the priest needed to cover his face to keep the leaves and dirt from getting to his face. Once the wind died down, a decrepit old cabin behind the cloaked figure appeared. It was as if the mist of darkness was blown away by the sudden gust of wind. The cloaked figure got up and walked towards the priest; the campfire extinguishing when the figure passed by the fire.

“Bring seven innocents into the cabin to be baptized. Once you bring them here, you will have proof of the divine and you will never doubt God’s existence again,” promised the cloaked figure. The mysterious figure then headed for the cabin, leaving the priest alone in the woods, with only the faint light of the moon guiding him back towards the village that he ran away from.

For the next five days, the priest worked tirelessly, sneaking around town because the townspeople were still on the lookout for him. In the end, he was able to kidnap seven children and bring them to the cabin. The priest tied the children to chairs to make sure they could not escape and wrapping some rope around their mouths to ensure they were not able to call for help. As night was beginning to fall, he looked around for anything that can be used as a light to illuminate the room they were in. Finding a small candle, he set it on the table and continued to look for anything he might be able to use to light the candle. When darkness covered the entire cabin, with only the sound of the whimpering children showing life, the candle suddenly lit, illuminating the cabin. The cloaked figure stood among them and the children were panicking for their lives. The head of the cloaked figure tilted up as if looking towards the ceiling, and then, a bloody two-edged sword slowly came out of the hood. When the sword was fully revealed, it fell on the covered hand of the cloaked figure. The figure pointed the sword to the small table where the candle was and next to it appeared a book with a quill and ink.

“Write down their names on the book,” instructed the cloaked figure to the priest. The priest removed the ropes from the mouths of the children and asked them for their names; each child revealing his or her name while quivering in fear. The priest wrote the children’s names on the book and as soon as he finished writing, the cloaked figure cut off the priest’s hand.

The priest wailed in pain, screaming and holding the stump where his hand used to be. Blood was gushing from his forearm; like a fountain, and drops of blood fell on the children. After a minute of wailing, crying, holding his forearm where his hand used to be, he saw his hand beginning to float in the middle of the room, going to each child and untying them. The priest saw that the visages of the children were no longer innocent but monstrous, their eyes glowing hellish red. Earlier, they were afraid for their life; now he was afraid for his. He was willing to sacrifice the souls of these innocents to get a glimpse of the divine, but all he saw was horror.

“WE HAD A DEAL!” the priest yelled as loud as he could muster due to his weakening of blood loss.

“You promised to show me the divine proof of God’s existence if I were to bring seven innocents to you. You… lied to me…” the priest continued with tears running down his face and blood coming out of the stump where his hand used to be.

The cloaked figure moved closer towards the dying priest to answer the priest’s demands.

“Who do you think made the devil? Who do you think made me? In your despicable faith, it was said that I fell like lightning from Heaven. Well, congratulations, you found the location where I fell. I was there when you were formed in the womb of your mother. I was there when you first took your breath when you were born. I was there when you were first baptized. I was there when you became a proud priest. Lastly, I was there when you practiced magic in secret, when you first attempted at casting a so-called spell that resulted in desecrating the church you swore to serve, all because you wanted to see God’s face. It was very entertaining to see you thinking you were successful in casting whatever it was you were doing but actually failing. You actually believed that you can see God’s face that way? Well now you will see God’s face; you will see God’s angry face when he sends you to my domain. But now, I want to say ‘thank you’. Thank you for giving me the souls of these innocents. Thanks to you, now my house can stay here because of the corruption of these innocents.”

After hearing the words of the cloaked figure in his heart, the priest again became aware of the presence of the seven children that surrounded him. He looked at the face of the children that he kidnapped, each of them had a look of hunger that the priest knew he was the main course. The hooded figure slowly moved towards a corner of the room. As soon as the hooded figure turned around, the children pounced on the priest, tearing him to pieces, eating his flesh, drinking the remaining blood, breaking bones to devour the marrow inside it. Soon, there was nothing left of the priest but tattered clothes, broken bones, and splashed blood on the walls and floor. After their feast, the seven children stood before the cloaked figure, still hungry for human flesh. They continued to stand there until the candle burned out. Once the light of the candle was extinguished, the red eyed children left the cabin, running in every direction with no one stopping them. When morning came, the old cabin remained in the woods, no one knowing of its existence.

Two hundred years since the event of the priest’s sacrilegious act. The candle in the abandoned cabin was lit once again. The shadowy cloaked figure stood in the corner, watching and waiting.

Harry was hiking in the woods with his friends: Troy, Amber, and Neal, enjoying the outdoors. It was their last summer together before they go their separate ways to each college they were attending in the upcoming school year. As the sun was setting, they began to make camp, and Harry volunteered to gather firewood. While Harry was walking around, surveying and collecting, he noticed the decrepit, abandoned, old cabin in the distance. Thinking nothing of it, but making note of its existence, Harry went back to his friends with the fire wood he had collected, only to find that their camp is still in disarray. Harry suggested that they instead make use of the cabin he saw a little way from their current location, to instead make use of its shelter for the night. When night time came, Harry and his friends were sitting around the campfire, enjoying the experience of the great outdoors. Amber got up from her seat and told them that she’s just going to walk around the cabin in order to relieve herself. After she was finished, she noticed through the back window the lit candle on the table and an open book. She returned to her friends at the front and informed them of what she saw.

“Harry, you said this place was abandoned,” inquired Amber.

“Well, yeah. I mean look at it. It’s old, decrepit, and it looks like it hasn’t been maintained or lived in for years,” Harry replied.

“Well, I just saw a lit candle in the window around back. So someone lives here and we’re effectively trespassing,” informed Amber.

Everyone got up and went around back to see where Amber saw the lit candle. They then went around the front to knock on the front door hoping to introduce themselves to the people who are living there and apologize for intruding; the door creaked open on Neal’s first knock.

“Hello? Is anyone here?” said Neal to anyone inside the cabin who might hear; little did they know that the great evil that was inside heard him.

“If anyone’s here, please make a noise or something to let us know someone’s here,” Neal continued. They were met with silence with only the crackling of the sticks in the fire behind them making a sound. They slowly crept inside being wary of every creaking step that they are taking inside the creepy abandoned old cabin.

Troy said to his friends nervously while backing out, “You know what? I’m just going to stay outside and guard our stuff. Let me know if you guys find anything useful inside when you get back.” Troy then immediately bolted out of the cabin and sat by the fire facing the cabin; little did he know of the danger that surrounded him, watching him from behind the bushes.

Harry, Neal, and Amber, continued exploring the cabin together towards the room where they saw the candle from the back. Once they opened the door, they cautiously and slowly entered the room to check it out, not knowing that the room they are currently in is home to the bones of the priest and numerous other victims of the children that have been devoured and turned to dust a long time ago. They slowly walked towards the middle of the room and saw the book opened. Illuminated by the single candle, the name on the bottom of the list was their dear friend’s Troy’s name. As soon as they saw Troy’s name, they immediately saw the cloaked figure in the corner of the room, opposite of the door. Fear and panic filled their hearts which caused them to flee outside screaming. Troy was watching the cabin door intently, too focused on the door to notice the danger surrounding him. When he saw his friends running out of the cabin in fear, he immediately got up from his seat and asked them what happened while running after them.

“WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!” Harry told Troy in a panicked voice and continued to run in the direction where they came from; away from the cabin. Troy was about to go back to the cabin to retrieve as much of their stuff that was still at the cabin’s vicinity when he heard Amber yell from the distance, “TROY DON’T GO BACK THERE! THEY WILL GET YOU! I HAVE THE CAR KEYS AND WILL EXPLAIN AFTER WE LEAVE HERE!”

Listening to his friends, Troy turned around towards his friends and ran after them. The group continued running through the woods with adrenaline pumping through their system, assisting them in their current flight instinct until they reached the car they used to get to the woods. Once they were in the car, Harry turned on the ignition and drove him and his friends away from the woods.

“What the heck did you guys find in there?” Troy inquired while out of breath.

“We found a book on the table with the candle, and the book had your name along with others. It was like a list,” Neal explained. Harry was not saying anything, only focused on driving as far away from the godforsaken place and getting home as soon as possible.

“What do you mean my name? How could my name be there? I’ve never even been there before,” Troy continued.

“We don’t know. All we know is that your name is on the book that was on the table. Maybe that person in the hooded cloak, who was at the corner, that wrote your name. Whatever it is, we’re not going to let whatever that thing wants to happen to you,” explained Amber.

After driving a certain amount of time and calming down, Harry spoke up and began apologizing to everyone in the group for suggesting in taking shelter in the cabin. After an additional ten minutes of driving in silence, it was then they noticed that they still haven’t left the woods. They stopped the car in order to get their bearings and realized that they were right back where they originally parked the car before hiking. At this time, Harry, Neal, and Amber began to panic again, Troy however, was asleep earlier during the drive. Neal shook Troy awake to inform them of their current situation. When Troy opened his eyes, his eyes were red.

“Oh, shi..” says Neal before Troy snapped his neck. Amber screamed bloody murder at the sudden event and Troy immediately shoved Amber’s head through the car window smashing her head through it. He then pushed Amber’s neck on the broken jagged glass of the car window, her blood spurting forth from her slashed neck, ensuring her fatality. Harry, being the driver and witnessing the murders in the back, he immediately got out of the car and ran away, not knowing that the direction he went to was back towards the cabin.

“Oh, damn!” Harry said to himself when he realized that he was back at the cabin. He was about to run away to another direction when he saw a child with the same red eyes as Troy did earlier. No matter which direction he turned, he saw another red-eyed child in front of him, and they had a demonic leer on their faces. Not having anywhere else to go, Harry went inside the cabin, shutting the door behind him as soon as he got in, hoping in vain, that somehow they are not able to get through solid doors. He thought of everything that’s happened so far and remembered Troy’s name being on the book. Seeing as no other choice, Harry went for the room where the book was. When he got to the room, he immediately went towards the book with the intention to write his name. As he reached for the quill, hoping to join Troy and those monstrous children in order to avoid getting killed by them, his hand was chopped off by the cloaked figure.

Harry howled in pain and held aloft the stump of his wrist where his hand used to be. Harry was stumbling around the room and as he turned, he saw the red-eyed children in the room and the cloaked figure with him. He then saw the door to the room open with Troy was standing there, dragging the dead bodies of Amber and Neal into the room. The red-eyed children looked at the bodies that Troy brought and began to devour them. Harry was kneeling on the floor, still holding the stump of his wrist, crying in terror and bleeding, as he watched the gruesome horror of the cannibalism that was happening in front of him. When they were half-way done with the bodies of Amber and Neal, Troy and the red-eyed children looked up towards Harry, leering at him with their obvious intentions towards him. Even though Harry was weakened due to significant blood loss, he was still able to move and attempted to pathetically move away from them as they walked menacingly towards him. When Harry reached a corner, Troy went for him and grabbed Harry’s feet to drag him to the middle of the room. There, Harry was devoured alive by his former friend and the red-eyed children.

By morning, the only remains left of Harry, Amber, and Neal were their broken bones, bloody spots on around the wall and floors, and their tattered clothes. Troy disappeared along with the children with red eyes and they were nowhere to be found, with the candle in the cabin having burned out.