The Other Soul

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. I stood stunned, frozen in place, staring at the unusual glow. Terror controlled every muscle in my body. What once was the highlight of my summers was now weaving panic through my veins.

My family owned the cabin as a place to escape from the world. We camped out there every summer for years. The smell of the grill against the fresh night air still gives me goose bumps. My brother and I would sneak in some beer and stay up late telling ghost stories. We had ourselves convinced that the place was haunted.

Our hearts sank the year we drove up to find that a massive flood had destroyed the foundation. The repairs would have cost more than rebuilding the whole thing, so my parents decided to demolish it. That didn't end up happening. It was one thing after another for a while, and the cabin project ended on the back burner. Life kept moving. Eventually the cabin was forgotten completely.

During that time, the hardest thing that happened was the death of my brother, Jasen. That's the day my world ended. I became depressed. Couldn't move out of bed, weeping for hours on end. I felt like I would never recover. The pain never left, just moved out of the forefront of my mind. My life went on, though I never forgot. I grew up, my parents moved out of town, and I moved in with my boyfriend, Shawn.

Shawn was a sweet man when he wasn't drinking. One night he had one too many and his temper got the best of him. Face still red from screaming, he punched a hole in the wall right next to my face. I wasn't going to stand for that. As fast as I could, I drove off to anywhere but there. I didn't have a lot of friends and my parents lived hours away. The only place I could think to go was our old rotted out abandoned cabin. It wasn't ideal but at least it was safe away from him.

I pulled up for the first time in years. Sticks crunching under my tires, the smell of leaves in the air. It was like being home again. Walking in was like opening a time capsule. Everything from hip height up was still where it was after the flood, untouched. I found our old emergency power outage kit with a lantern, flashlight, and a few candles.

The top half looked normal. Pictures on the walls, dishes on the counter, and cabinets still with old boxes of mac and cheese. The bottom half of the house looked distorted. The wood was warped and washed out. Creeks echoed with every step.

"Yes!" My old art supplies were still there and intact. Painting always helped me clear my mind. With the chaos swirling in my mind from the massive fight we'd had, I needed some time to process. Flipping through, I found where Jasen had begun a painting of himself before his passing. My face got hot and tears rolled down my cheeks. It deserved to be finished. I laid out all of my supplies and got to it.

About ten minutes in, I heard what sounded like a creaky footstep. "Probably a mouse or something." I thought to myself. No big deal. CREAK. It happened again and this time it was loud! I jumped a foot off the ground. "Hello?" I called out. Nothing. Quietly, I listened for more unusual sounds, staying as still as I could. Another five minutes went by without a sound, so I chalked it up to a creaky old house settling.

I continued to paint. Crreeeaaakkkkkkkkkkk. The floors creaked again! Then the creaking happened in succession. Rhythmic footsteps continued in a slow walking pattern for about a minute, then went away again. Now I was spooked. No one should have been there. Against my better judgment, I took my flashlight and did a full exam of every room. No animals, no people, no nothing. I gathered my stuff, blew out the candles, and trekked out to my car.

In the still dark woods, a flicker of light caught my attention. "Did I forget to blow out one of the candles?" I turned off my car, went back inside and investigated. Nothing was lit. Again, I thoroughly examined the cabin, made sure EVERYTHING was burned out, and stepped out the front door.

Clink! Crash! Thud! The sound of metal crashing to the ground rang out loudly inside. "What the hell?" I whipped my head around instinctively, but I never expected to find what I saw that night.

This time in the front window, a candle glowed brightly. I froze. My heart pounded out of my chest. Above the candle's glow was the illuminated shape of a head and shoulders. "Shh shhh shhh Shawn?" I muttered.

In my shaking hands the painting I was still holding shook out of my control. "NO!" I didn't want to go closer to the window but this painting was too important. I ran over to catch it before the wind could carry it away. It flew close enough to the window for me to see the outline but by then it was gone.

I got the hell out of there as fast as I could and sped off in terror. The whole drive I felt unsettled like something was watching me. The air in the car felt heavy. While I was squealing the tires on a sharp turn the red paint spilled onto the painting. GASP! "No no no no no, please be ok, please be ok" When I picked it up to check it out the paint spilled in a way that looked like it spelled out something. "What the fuck?"

"All? Pill? What is that" The globs of paint shifting creating a clearer picture. My heart fell into my gut. Chills covered my body. "Oh my gosh, it's 911"

I pulled back over to the cabin. Every fiber of my being said get in the car and turn back around, but I couldn't. Something deep in my gut was telling me it was my brother's spirit. Slowly, I gently nudged the door open. It was entirely dark. Then I nudged it a little more till I could stick my foot in. CrEaKkkKk. My own steps struck fear into my heart. Every sound felt ten times louder.

As I walked in, the candle in the window lit back up. I flipped around, but there was no figure beside it this time. When I turned back to go to the bedroom, I came face to face with a clear outline of a human like shape. Gasp! I took in a sharp, quick breath of air and held it. The sheer horror I was feeling shut down my basic functions. I couldn't move, I forgot to breathe out, and I stood stunned with no hope of moving.

A cold wind grabbed my wrist and pulled me back. "AAAAahhhhhh!!!!" I screamed! I turned to run when I saw a faint and blurry figure on the other side of me. It wasn't clear like a live human, but I could feel the sweet, gentle energy. A familiar energy. "Jasen?" I squeaked out, vocal cords still tight from fear. No reply.

The figure diapered right as the painting wiggled out of my hand. There was a bitter-sweet peace in feeling like it was really him, but something was off. His soul felt agonized and afraid. "Jasen I feel you. I know you are here. Please talk to me. What's wrong?" I called out. A dark energy fell over the room, and suddenly I couldn't feel my brother anymore.

"OUCH!" I looked down to find blood dripping down my leg. There wasn't anything nearby that could have hurt me. No furniture or animals. The dark energy in the room felt thicker and more palpable. It had a stronger ability to move the physical world around it, and it wasn't happy.

Were it just myself I'd sprint out of there so fast and set the whole damn thing on fire but it wasn't. My brother was trapped inside and being tormented by this other mysterious dark soul. I had to stay. I had to fight.

"HEY GHOSTY!" I yelled. At that point I was too pissed to be scared. "You better back up off my brother!" I was grasping at anything I could think of to get it to go away. Near me was an old sauce pan and ladle, so I started banging. The spirit stepped back but not fully away. It's like it was recalculating, planning its next move.

The image of my brother's soul being held hostage and terrorized pushed me to the next level. Now furious, I screamed again. "LEAVE THIS HOME!" Within myself, I felt a glowing white light. The ominous spirit's energy thinned out as my own grew more powerful. "I SAID LEAVE!!" I screamed with the full breath of my lungs! "GO!"

I could feel Jasen again, but stronger this time. We pooled our collective power and took up every inch of space in the house. I reached my hand out as if to grab hold of Jasen's spirit. There was an indiscernible sensation on my hand that truly felt like he was with me. I yanked him out of the cabin as fast as I could and knocked the candle to the ground.

I dashed outside and watched as the small spark caught onto the drapes. The flames soon reached up to the ceiling. I stepped back, gazing into the bright hot flames, now billowing out the windows.

Next to me, my brother's soul felt lifted. "Are you at peace?" I asked, never expecting an answer. I heard a sound I thought was long gone. In the precious voice of my lovely brother I heard the words "Thank you" His spirit rose up to live in peace. I took our painting, made the drive all the way out to my parent's house, and made a new, better, life for myself.