My Little Angel

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The wailing woman would look out the windows of her cabin home and stare into the souls of every weary wanderer, and a few of those unfortunate to look back and meet her gaze were never seen again. My father once traveled through those very woods at night where the cabin lies, when he was but a young man.

My father’s father lived on the other side of the mountain that overlooked the woods, in a small town where my father grew up. He had left the town when he was a boy to be with his mother’s family, and a few years later, he met the woman that would be my mother and fell in love. As he was about to be wed, he ventured back to take his young bride to meet his father before the wedding. My grandfather at the time was a sickly old man who couldn't travel, so my father made the treacherous journey to him though he had no money and no form of transportation. He and my mother set off on their journey before dawn and walked the whole way through the woods and mountainside which took them about half a day.

They reached the little shack of a home that my grandfather lived in by mid-day. He fed them and they stayed late into the evening, chatting about their future plans and their excitement to be starting a new chapter in their lives. Once my father realized it was getting late and that they must be going, he bid his father farewell and said they'd best be on their way back home. My grandfather pleaded for them not to travel at night, especially through those woods for many people passing through them were known to disappear at night. He offered them a place to stay with him, but seeing as he lived in a dismally tiny home, my father refused, not wanting to stay in such cramped quarters. So with that he and my mother went on their way and chose to risk a journey through the woods at night, after all, they were nonbelievers in superstitions and ghost stories.

My father had heard of the abandoned cabin that many had rumored was the dwelling of a demon that sought to take the souls of unlucky travelers that happened to stumble upon it at night. In all the years that he’s lived in that town by the woods, he never saw a cabin, though he explored the woods countless times as a boy. A few elders in the town claimed to have seen glimpses of it in their youth but had somehow been spared from a gruesome fate. Probably by a guardian angel, spared because of their purity, they thought, or maybe just so that they would be able to warn others. Nevertheless, my father as well as many of the younger residents of that town believed it just to be an old fairytale used to keep the children in line and to keep them from staying out too late. That night, he led my mother through the forest certain that nothing sinister was waiting for them in the dark.

They entered the woods just as the sun disappeared behind the trees. Soon they found themselves stumbling through the forest in almost complete darkness. My father having traveled through those woods many times before felt completely confident that he'd be able to navigate through it even with no light whatsoever. His confidence however began to waver when after about an hour or so he saw it. The cabin was smaller than he had always pictured it but still looked just as terrifying. He quickly rushed them out of the area and although he had claimed not to believe in the old stories, he chose not to risk their safety on the small chance that they might in fact be true, and so headed back the way they came to escape the woods as fast as possible. However, hours went by and they couldn’t find the way back to my grandfather’s tiny home.

This had made no sense to my parents, for they had only traveled an hour when they turned back, but almost three hours later, they were still deep in the woods surrounded by an endless sea of trees. At this point, my mother was very frightened and my father was worried but he knew that they couldn’t stop, even though it didn’t seem like they were in any immediate danger, he simply felt that they needed to keep walking. Eventually, they stumbled upon a steep hill that was unfamiliar to my father and so hopeful that he was nearing a way out he approached it only to find that on the other side lay that very same cabin, this time with a candle lit in the window. In all the times he’s heard the elders’ stories of spotting the cabin, they had never heard mention seeing any sign of life coming from the cabin. This sent an ice-cold fear into my father. He knew that someone or something was inside the cabin, waiting.

As soon as he saw this, he ran harder than he had ever run in his life, pulling my mother along. After a while, my mother couldn’t take it any longer, she had to stop and catch her breath. My father tried to carry her but he too grew very tired. After what seemed to be an eternity, they found themselves lying on the forest floor, their bodies aching with exhaustion. Their bodies wanted nothing more but to rest but their minds wouldn’t let them. It felt as if they had been traveling all night in the woods which should have been impossible since it was not that big and any direction would have led them out in a couple of hours.

As they lay there shaking with fear and pain, they heard a rustling nearby. At that moment my father realized that the whole time he was in the woods he had never heard a noise other than the ones they made while walking. Now that they laid still the sound of movement nearby scared him more than death. They rose as fast as they could and scrambled through the undergrowth only to find themselves once again face to face with the cabin. This time it was only a few feet away from them, and this time the front door was wide open.

In the doorway stood the woman. She was unnaturally tall and sickeningly gaunt. She was completely naked and looked as if she hadn’t eaten in months. She had but a few brittle patches of black hair and her eyes were small for her face with ink-black irises.

The woman took a quick look at my father and then turned to stare into the eyes of my mother. Her glare lingered for a while. Her eyes seemed vacant yet still searching for something, something my mother couldn’t see. The woman cocked her head back and let out a loud wail, a shriek so horrible it paralyzed my mother and made my father cower in fear. My father describes it as a sound that only a mother witnessing the death of her child could make. In an instant, she stopped and everything turned deafeningly silent. She slowly turned around and reentered her cabin, closing the door behind her, and just before she blew out the candle my father saw what looked like a group of people huddled just behind her, standing in the middle of the cabin waiting for her return. Once the light went out only the dark silhouette of the cabin remained.

My parents ran out of there at once, and almost immediately after turning around, they found a glimpse of light shining at the end of a line of trees. They pushed forward with the last of their strength and soon they watched the sun rise just as they crossed the threshold between the forest and the countryside. Shaken by what they've seen and relieved more than anything else, they continued forward, not daring to look back. Eventually, they made it back home safe and sound.

For a long while after they thought about that night and the woman in the cabin. When she had looked at them it appeared as though she was looking within them, searching for something. Maybe she was assessing the pureness of their souls as the elders would have said. If that were the case why let them go? They were by no means pure. But a month later my mother would find out something that could possibly be the answer. It had turned out that she was pregnant and had been on that day that she went with my father through those woods. Perhaps the woman was indeed searching through their souls and had found my little, new soul, resting soundly within my mother.

My father is certain that my being born was what saved them that night. According to him, that woman is the one who decides who stays and who goes. And that night, seeing as that small group of travelers carried within one of them an innocent soul, she chose to let them go. I wonder what would have happened had my mother not been pregnant with me. Would the woman not have shown mercy? The night I was born, my mother died giving birth to me. My father raised me alone and always called me his little angel. Ever since I was a child, I have seen the wailing woman in my dreams, in almost every one of them she beckons me into her home and welcomes me as another guest among the countless faces that reside in her cabin with her. My father never told me the story until my 13th birthday when I confessed to him about the recurring nightmare I have with the cabin and the woman and the faces. He assured me that the danger was gone, but what I left out about my dreams is that although I’ve only ever seen her in photographs, every night I can clearly make out my mother’s face among the guests in the cabin, eagerly waiting for me.