The Songbird

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

It was late dusk, and their boat was heading back to their private dock on the eastern edge of the lake. They had spent the entire day out on the water, indulging fully in the activities of their youth.  

They waterskied and wakeboarded through the center of the lake. Then, they took their boat to the south side of the lake to scale the large group of boulders and jump off into the cool mountain water.  Their last stop was the little rope swing their dad had put up for them off a private inlet by the osprey’s nest on the north side of the lake. It was still in excellent condition—almost untouched by time, even though it had been about five years since they’d been here.

This was an annual trip for siblings, Mike and Anna Johnson, and their two best friends, Emily and Colin Stevens, who were also siblings. Due to schedules changing as they graduated from college and grew up, they hadn’t been to the lake at the same time for years.  

Mike and Anna’s great-great-great grandparents had been some of the first settler’s on this lake, and their family’s home sat on one of the oldest and largest parcels of land—or “the Johnson side” of the lake as the locals called it. All that sat on that part of the lake was the large redwood cabin and various outbuildings that had been built by their great-great-great grandparents, an abundance of virgin forest, and a lone, derelict cabin in a private alcove at the very edge of the Johnson Family’s 3,643 acres of lake front land. 

The abandoned cabin was about 2,000 feet away from their dock. And there was no denying the lit candle that shown through the front window as their boat drew closer.

Anna grabbed Mike’s arm hard as he turned the wheel to straighten the boat to pull up to their dock. He had been engrossed in a conversation with Colin about who did the best tricks on the wakeboard earlier in the day. They were talking loudly and laughing heartily when Anna interrupted them.

“Mike! Look!!!” she said loudly as she gestured to the flickering flame. 

“What is it, Anna?! Colin and I were talking about something really import—“ Mike stopped talking mid sentence, and his smile immediately melted off his face as soon as he saw the flame.

The siblings looked at each other with a look of sheer terror as their boat pulled up to the covered dock where the boat was housed.  At that instant, a clap of thunder sounded.

“Everyone, MOVE, inside NOW!” Mike screamed over the din of the booming thunder.

“What the hell is going on, guys? You two are acting super weird all of a sudden!” Emily said as she clambered out of the boat. 

“We’ll explain inside,” Anna and Mike said in unison as they hastily but expertly tied the boat to secure it to the dock.

As the four of them ran up the steep hill towards the cabin, rain started sheeting down with a vengeance. It quickly became hale. First, it was the size of small pebbles, and by the time they were on the porch it had become the size of golf balls. Lightening was flashing every few seconds and the thunder sounded like it was directly overhead as the four of them stood there, huddled around each other on the small porch.

Mike was shaking like a leaf as he fumbled through his keys to find the one for the front door.  He finally found it, jammed it into the lock, and pushed the door open with his full body weight to get them inside to safety.

“Anna and Colin, check every window and door on the second floor. Pull all the drapes and shut every door. Grab all the bedding and sleeping bags from the rooms and bring them down here. Emily, start a fire, and I’ll secure all the doors and windows on this floor,” Mike said, with a militant and authoritative air.

They got to work on their respective tasks and Colin looked at Anna while they were on the landing of the second floor and said, “Anna, I don’t understand, will you please explain?”

“Yes, but not yet, there’s not much time to waste. Let’s get this finished and then get back downstairs to Mike and Emily.” Anna said.

They hurried and raced downstairs with all the blankets and bedding from the house. Once they got back down, the fire was roaring in the fireplace and the wind and thunder outside the house seemed to be getting stronger by the minute.

Every blind in the house was pulled tight. Every single exit locked. Still there was the light from the lightening that bled through the tops of the blinds on the bottom floor. Mike instructed everyone to block all the light coming in with the bedding that was heaped on the floor. 

No light could get in. None could get out. It was like they were locked in a windowless cage, with the world exploding in a storm outside around them.

There were four sleeping bags left that they arranged in a half circle around the fire. 

Colin said, “Is someone finally going to explain just what is going on around here? What’s with all the dramatics just because of a silly little flame burning in the window of that broken down old shack?! It’s probably just some transient backpacker looking for a place to rest for the night.”

“That’s no transient backpacker. Or person. Or anyone of this world. Sit down and we’ll tell you the story. We have a long night ahead of us. Mike knows it best, he should tell it.“ Anna said.

“Years ago, when this land was first settled, there was only a handful of people that were tough enough to make a place here on this land,” Mike began. 

“Our great-great-great grandparents came, started to build this property, and not long after, Henry and Clara Murray arrived. Henry was a fine looking businessman from Oklahoma City who had made a fortune tanning and selling the hides of animals killed by settlers on the plains. He also was adept at the art of taxidermy.”

“Taxidermy? You mean the preservation of the flesh of dead animals?” Emily asked.

“Yes, exactly.” Anna said.

“Ew!” gasped Emily.

“So Henry was wealthy, handsome, and a real catch for the time, according to what our great-great-great grandfather said at least. He had aspirations to move out west here to the Sierra’s where there were more animals than any one man could imagine, and to bring his booming business out this way. But before he could come, a man like him needed something the West couldn’t provide with all its abundance, and that was a wife.”

“Henry had longed for Clara for years. She was the beautiful singer at the finest saloon in town, and every man wanted her. She had raven hair and eyes as bright and blue as the sky after a winter snow. She was like an angel on earth—so beautiful, so lovely, and completely unattainable. Her father was the owner of the saloon and he refused to let her get married because she was a real money maker. Every man that saw her loved her and desired her. And any man that held her held a sure way to earn the repeat business of all the desperate men in the area.”

“Henry offered to pay her father for her. To buy her from him. And he wouldn’t have it. So instead he started to target Clara directly. Buying her lavish gifts of diamonds and clothing, and silver trinkets and anything material a girl could dream to have. He’d delight her with stories of the magic of the west and charmed her and convinced her to run away with him, promising her freedom.”

  “They devised a plan, and he packed up all of his worldly belongings in a wagon headed for the West. She escaped from the saloon after the show one night, crawled into the wagon in the dark of night in a waiting cage in the back of the wagon with food and water a if she were an animal, and waited for him to get there the next day. He had told her this was the only way to ensure her safety—if she willingly crawled in the cage—and waited for him to take off down the road. He promised her he’d let her out as soon as it was safe to do so.”

“But as he got into the wagon and the journey progressed, he became afraid that she wouldn’t really love him. That if he opened the cage she’d fly off or someone would recognize her. And he’d tell her “it isn’t safe yet, just another few miles”. Until they finally got to the church in Reno, Nevada, where they were to be married.”

“You can imagine how livid she was when he finally let her out of the cage. But he did let her out and made her believe it was all for her own good. And he apologized over and over until she agreed to let him marry her.”

“They were married and she was riding beside him in the wagon as they came into California and found their way here to settle in the Sierra’s. He promised her a perfect and beautiful life. Instead what waited for them was an overgrown forest needing to be cleared and a business needing to be built in a place where everything was way more expensive than anticipated.”

So he had their small cabin built, and a large outbuilding in the back for his “taxidermy”. But there wasn’t many in the market for taxidermy. So instead he started to sell other settlers “private time” with his wife instead.”

“You mean he prostituted her out?” Emily exclaimed in horror.

“Oh yes, and he put her back in the cage again. For now he was increasingly fearful that she would leave. He locked her in the cage until it was time for her to escape and do her duties to the men in the surrounding area. And every time before he’d lock her up again, he’d beat her, focusing especially on her larynx, until he annihilated her voice box and she could no longer sing.”

“Clara was now a caged bird with no song.”

“Our great-great-great grandmother knew something was amiss. She had met this beautiful young woman who had all but disappeared, with the occasional sighting telling that she had withered away to almost nothing. And she determined to do something about it. So one day, she saw that Henry left to town, and she started poking around the property. She found Clara, caged and bloodied, and she ran in to unlock the cage. She let Clara loose, and got out of there right before Henry got home.”

“Clara had been locked up in the taxidermy room. So when Henry came in to check on her, he found her cage empty and started to go into a rage. He was throwing things around and smashing everything he could get his hands on. In his fit of anger he didn’t see her come up behind him, and she swung and knocked him out with the backside of an ax. She tied him up and began to preserve his body, as if he were already dead, like one of the many thousands of animals she had seen him preserve for taxidermy. Every time he’d come to, she would hit him again in the head with the blunt end of the ax. She wanted to keep him alive as long as possible, to feel the pain he’d inflicted on her for all of those years. She did this over and over again until there was nothing left inside him, until all life was removed, and just his body remained.”

“The last thing she removed was his eyes. In their place, she put two black stones to represent his black and lifeless soul. She kept his body to beat him every day the way he beat her, and to curse him with every piece of her being for making her what she was. She lived out her days in the cabin, never fully free from the damage he had inflicted upon her, as she succumbed to her injuries not long after his death.”

“So this doesn’t explain why we are now in the lake equivalent of a fort, with all the windows and door latched. Or why the two of you freaked over a candle.” Colin said.

“Henry Murray knows it was the Johnson family that helped to free Clara and end his life. He used to light a candle every night to sit by and review all his worldly possessions. Every time a candle shows in the window, he’s doing the same. When he gets really angry there’s horrific thunderstorms on the lake. You see, Clara showed my great-great-great grandmother what she had done to his body. And it never got removed from that cabin. And although he has no eyes, legend has it he can see with the lightening and get in wherever it’s light can.”

Just then, the 4 of them heard the scratch of metal on the windowpane outside.

“What was that??? It sounded like an ax!” Colin said.

“It probably is. Henry is angry and seeking reparations from our family. Our father told us as kids if we ever see a lit candle in that window, to lock ourselves inside and stay together, and stay awake for the entire storm to protect each other. And most importantly, no matter what, to never let the fire die,” Mike said.

They all looked over at the logs stacked by the fireplace. There was 5 logs. They prayed that it was enough to get them through the night.