Watch For The White Bird

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The dancing flame was a beacon against the dense fog of the night. Between the flickering of the golden orb in the window, an ominous shadowed figure can be seen pacing back and forth from within the dilapidated building. In the distance, from the myriad of trees engulfing the small cabin, large branches snap and crack, echoing throughout the still air. Each bone-snapping crack becomes louder and louder as the lurking creature inches closer.

The soft earth beneath the cabin quietly beats like a heart behind flesh, forcing teardrops to shed from moist blades of grass. An old well sits at the edge of the backyard of the cabin, collecting all of the life of the earth that seeps into it. On the other side of the decaying wooden walls, 20 year old Feya tries to find cell phone service as she continues to pace by the grimey, thick glass of the window. Her brown hair is matted and tied back into a round mass on the bottom of her head, sticking to her neck like glue. Her skin is dewy against the glow of the candle flame as she sweats with tension. Her black track pants and white tee shirt are painted shades of brown and green from her long journey.

Inside the cabin, a sink stands alone against the back wall. To Feya’s surprise, the water appears to still be running and in use. She turns the lever and fills an empty plastic water bottle with a beige colored liquid spewing out from the faucet. Feya looks with disgust at the contents of the bottle but takes a sip anyway, out of desperation. Tilting her head back as she swallows the sour liquid, Feya’s puckered eyes meet with the ceiling of the cabin. Deeply etched into the wooden boards above her head like claw marks from a bear, reads the phrase: “Watch For The White Bird''. She repeats the words to herself over and over again in her head, but makes no sense of the baleful warning. Her attention turns back to her device.

With numerous failed attempts to call anybody, Feya writes a beseeching text message to her mother that reads:

“Got lost on my hike earlier. I don’t have any service up here. If you see this, please come help me. I love you, my location is : ”

Attached to the message is a Google Map destination which places Feya in a heavily wooded area, miles away from any sign of life. After pressing send, Feya’s dirt filled fingernails freeze at the sound of a large thud against the door of the cabin. Horrified, she dives onto the floor out of sight from the window, putting out the candle in her motion, and scurries into a dark corner of the room. Now in complete darkness, Feya looks strenuously out the window into the night as she tries to make out the source of the disturbance outside. The full moon illuminates through the window against the darkness of the room.

“Does that lock even work anymore?”

Feya thinks to herself as her chest pounds with each passing moment she sits on the floor. She looks despairingly at the old rotting door frame and the rusty latch doing little to ease her nerves.

“Hello?”

A familiar voice calls out to Feya from outside of the cabin. In an instant, Feya’s body trembles at the sensation of pins and needles coursing through her muscles as she comes to the realization of who is calling her from beyond the cabin walls. Raising her head and glancing towards the front door, Feya sees herself outside the window. She wears black track pants and a white tee shirt with her thick brown hair clumped into a ball behind her head. Her skin reflects streams of sweat that shine with the moon.

“What the…”

She mutters to herself in confusion and disbelief.

“That’s not… me?”

Thinks Feya, with her eyes remaining locked on herself as she passes by the window. Her breath holds.

“Anybody there? I know I saw a light in there! I don’t mean to bother you, I’m just lost and could use some help please,”

The other Feya shouts from outside. Digging her nails into the floorboards, Feya desperately darts her eyes around the dark room searching for an escape. Her breathing becomes more labored as she begins to army crawl towards another dirty window on the other side of the cabin facing the opposite direction of the door, just above the sink.

Feya fumbles out of the window and into the misty grass, wet from the fog. With a surge of adrenaline, Feya picks herself up off the ground and begins to run without looking ahead of her, fearful of what is still behind. Before realizing it, Feya’s feet lose contact with the earth and she falls deeply into a hole just behind the cabin, splitting her skin against the rough ground. She hits the dirt with a hard thud and lies motionless at the bottom of the slender, deep hole, gasping for air and bleeding into the soil.

Just then, an unnaturally large creature emerges from the trees silently. The strange beast appears to be a colossal mass of captivating white feathers, each varying in size and length. The feathers cascade and loop about each other, making any body parts of the entity indistinguishable. Although they have a soft and gentle appearance, the feathers are as thin and as sharp as razors. It moves in one swift motion across the grass as the feathers flutter gracefully, acting as wings. It reaches the edge of the hole that Feya has just fallen into. Despite the creature having no discernible face, it appears to gaze intently at Feya, who is still breathing beneath the ground as she squirms in pain. The giant mound of moving feathers falls to the earth and begins to pile dirt onto Feya, over and over again until the hole is filled and level with the moist grass.

Out of breath beneath the heavy dirt, she pleads desperately to no avail. The feathers of the beast grow larger and more wild as Feya’s cries for help subside below the soil. The creature quietly shuts the open window of the cabin, careful not to alert Feya, who has just arrived. Dozens of unmarked patches of dirt are sprawled across the backyard of the cabin as the feathered creature begins to dig another open hole next to Feya. The soft earth beneath the cabin pounds like a drum. Just as quickly as the entity materialized from the trees, it vanishes into the light of the moon as it floats away from the shadows.

Inside the cabin, Feya is able to shimmy the rusty lock and open the door. She inspects the cabin, certain that she saw the flickering of the candle light in the window, but finds nobody. Feya convinces herself she must be tired after a long, stressful day and decides to settle in the cabin for the night. She locks the door, lights the candle, and paces back and forth in the glow of the flame against the darkness, hoping to get a signal on her cell phone. The trees surrounding the cabin shake and snap with life as something creeps closer. A single white feather glimmers in the moonlight as it rests on the windowsill just above the sink, overlooking the well in the grass. The faucet quietly drips with a mesmerizing blood red substance as Feya approaches with an empty bottle, ready to take a sip.