Silenced

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. A sligh flicker like a fleeting thought- the kind that leaves as fast as it comes. The residual smouldering embers trying to reignite but darkness remained. She could not open her eyes nor make a sound from her slackended mouth. The fleeting thought burnt out. She drifted away.

Stirring once more, the embers grew into a small flame like a growing hope, licking at what little wax was left. The window was barely a-glow and yet, there was that glimmer of a notion. The scent of pine-wood and fresh daisies was comforting to her, homely even. Only darkness sat behind her eyelids but the warmth from that little falme felt fuzzy in her mind. She tried to reach her other senses further. Masked by the earthy, wood smell that she enjoyed so much was a hint of cologne. The smell made her feel nauseous but she did not recall why. The candle in the window began to struggle again, fading back to embers.

Some time passed. Burning brighter this time, the wax seemed to replenish and grow with each awakening. More alert now, cologne mixed with a pungent scent that reminded her of wet rust. The thoughts of her little cabin becoming darker as that fleeting image had began to accumulate into memory. The hairs on her neck began to stand as she felt the surface beneath her back. She could not place the material- it would make sense for her to be in her bed whilst surrounded by the darkness of night. Her bed was comfy, soft and inviting but the material beneath her fingertips was thin, scratchy and unwelcoming. She attempted to pinch it between her thumb and finger but her body betrayed her. Fighting exhaustion, she drifted away once more, the glowing wick of that candle burning her mind.

She dreamt whilst she slept, something she felt she had not done for some time. No. Maybe? Perhaps this was a different dream- although it did feel familiar, more of a memory than a dream. Yes a memory.

Standing in her cabin, the sun was shining through the large bay window casting pretty rainbows and patterns across the stained wooden floor. She smiled as she recalled the vacation, some time away with her husband and two boys. They had needed this, things had been difficult at home. A slight breeze brushed a strand of hair away from her bruised cheek which was now turning slightly yellow. He had been so stressed and unlike himself, the cabin in the woods had been the perfect getaway. She swam here as a child in the lake just a short walk away.

She unpacked the groceries she had just picked up from the nearby town. Some homemade pizzas always made her boys happy. The air was very still and much too quiet for her children, she thought they must be by the lake and too far away to hear. She hoped they were behaving, her husband had had quite the temper of late. He seemed unhappy and distant from his little family. She had suspected he would leave for one of his other women and so taking him to the lake was her last attempt to make him stay.

The woman headed to the bathroom to wash up before the boys returned for dinner. As she entered the room that same foul smell filled her nostrils- the kind of smell that sticks in your throat. Metallic and rusty mixed with the cheap cologne she had bought her husband the christmas before. There he was sat on the floor of the bathroom with his back to her. She jumped at the sight of him and giggled at her own reaction.

"What on earth are you doing sitting in here? You were so quiet I didn't even know you were back inside!" She exclaimed but he did not respond. He just sat there with his chin against his chest. His breathing unsteady and unnerving. Her steps towards him began to faulter. "Where are the boys?" she whimpered. Hunting for the source of the smell, suspecting it was coming from the tub in front of her husband, she tentatively pulled back the shower curtain- the way they do in horror films. He began to laugh, a laugh that would send waves through the strongest stomach.

Falling to the floor, unable to process the heap of bloody, congealed meat before her, it couldn't be. What had he done? The pieces of her children were almost unrecognisable. Almost, a mother would know. She reached down into the sticky pile trying to put the pieces back together. It was all she could do in her grief-stricken mind. Their blood soaked her skin, The scent of death clung to her like moss to a damp wall. When piecing them together would not bring them back a heart-wrenching shriek escaped from her lungs.

She woke.

Fresh sweat gleemed across her forehead. Pure panic, loss and desperation shook through her like lightening as she tried to lash out, only to find her arms and legs buckled. The bright light above her blinded her already streaming eyes. Everything was so white... so clinical. The blood from her dream appeared to smear her vision, thick and red. She cried for someone to help her, someone to free her from the nightmare. Tall figures loomed over her and pinned her down, pressing her hard into the scratchy bed. They spoke over her as if she was not there.

"It was him. It was..." her speech slurred off and the panic dimmed as the medication flooded her nervous system. Her mind extinguished as easily as blowing out a candle.

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window...