‘I’m in the Walls’

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

Of course, Sara would never have lit the candles had she known the true meaning of the ritual. All she wanted was to help her new friend. But that’s the trouble with children, they can be so trusting, so easy to trick.

Sara’s first encounter with the cabin was similar to her friend Charlotte’s last. Both sought refuge there after being chased through the forest. Sara was staying at a summer camp on the outskirts of town near the woods, where a group of the children thought it would be funny to throw rocks at her.

‘Sara is a witch, Sara is a witch’ their singsong taunts resounded around her.

‘Burn the witch, burn the witch’ the townspeople cried after Charlotte.

Centuries apart, they ran to the cabin from their assailants.

Charlotte was so close to home, but as she ran her dress was ignited by a torch, and flames engulfed her body. She lay across the stone steps burning to her demise, nothing but charred bone and dust, but the cabin remained.

Few tried to live there after that, a witch’s home was surely cursed, people thought, especially after the burning. Located so deep in the woods, anyone that knew of the cabin avoided it or fell away, until eventually, it was altogether forgotten. Children would tell stories about witches in the Salem woods, but no one really believed them. Yet once Sara ran into the old abandoned cabin, the children didn’t dare follow her. She was safe at last.

Sara took in deep breaths of the musty cabin air as she waited for her eyes to adjust to the dark cabin. It was the middle of the day but between the small window and thick forest, there was barely light at all. She listened for the campers and peered through the thick window to see that they had gone. With a sigh of relief, Sara moved to leave but heard a strange noise. She glanced around the empty cabin, seeing nothing but cobwebs that lined the single room. Sara walked toward the door again but then heard what was distinctly a voice. Her heart quickened.

‘Hello?’ She said.

‘I’m in the walls.’ A girl’s sad voice replied. ‘Can you help me?’

Sara looked around alarmed. ‘Wha- what do you mean? Where?’

‘In the walls.' She said again. 'People like the ones that chased you put me here…they thought I was different, just like you.’ The voice said, breaking.

Sara felt a pang of pity, ‘How do I get you out? Is there a door?’ She looked closer at the walls.

‘I’m trapped, but you can help me. Will you come back tonight and set me free?’

‘Why not now?’ Sara asked nervously.

‘I'm trapped, the girl said again, ‘but at midnight, you can free me.' Sara hesitated. 'Take the book, Sara.’ The voice said more sternly. She glanced down to see a thick book at her feet, had she somehow missed it before?

Sara picked it up and suddenly had the overwhelming urge to help her.

‘How did you know my name?’ Sara asked, her speech feeling lazy in her mouth.

‘I heard those children calling you. But don’t worry, we can make them pay together.’ The girl said giggling. ‘By the way, I’m Charlotte.’

A warm reassurance surged through her and Sara agreed to help and left with the book.

Once she got out of the woods her head began to clear and she hid the book in her bunk before joining her campmates in the dining hall for dinner. Sara was feeling much more herself and almost wondered if the day’s events had happened at all. Adults were always telling her she did have quite the imagination.

Once back in her room, Sara checked her mattress half-expecting to find nothing at all, but as she reached she felt the peeling spine of the book. She pulled it out and looked at it under the covers by flashlight. As time passed a strange feeling came over her again, and she crept from her room to find matches.

Sara walked through the camp directly into the forest. Though it was close to midnight, somehow the forest seemed even lighter and more familiar than before. She easily found a path to the cabin and walked there happily, nearly skipping through the dark forest. She hummed a song foreign to her ears and shortly arrived. The cabin door was already open and this time it wasn’t empty. Cozy furnishings were placed throughout the home, a fire was lit, and a great smell came from the stove. The song she had been humming played on a record in the corner. Along the floor, there were eleven black candles in a circle, and one in the window. Moths lined the walls amongst the cobwebs and flitted around her as she lit each one, just as the book instructed. As the last wick flickered to life, she put one foot into the circle and shuddered.

Her chill shook her from the inside out and for a moment she saw the cabin’s dark emptiness again. It all felt very wrong, so wrong that Sara almost blew out the candles and ran for the campground. But then there was another voice in her head, one that sounded slightly different than her own.

‘But Charlotte is your only friend. And she is so alone… locked away in this cabin all by herself..day after day for so many years…you have to help her… and then she’ll play with you and make all the children that bullied you really sorry’.

Sara nodded to herself, took a deep breath, and entered the circle. The moment her foot touched the floor, she felt a heaviness and began to panic.

‘Charlotte? Are you there?’ Sara cried out looking around in the darkness.

Through the candlelight she watched in horror as the wall began to creak apart to reveal a hidden narrow room.

‘Coming, sweetie.’ an old woman’s voice cackled.

Dread fell over Sara as she watched Charlotte emerge from the other side.

A wrinkled old woman peered back at her smiling through the darkness with black teeth and long white hair that smelled of rot, she was completely naked. She rocked in an old chair watching her for a moment and then suddenly slunk to the floor and began rapidly crawling toward Sara, tongue out, drooling.

Sara was rooted to the floor and didn’t even have time to scream before the witch lunged at her, mouth open and eyes wide. Black dust poured from her lips into Sara’s throat until her breathing stopped. Poor Sara was reduced to just a moth, that crawled from her former body’s eye, and joined the cluster of moths that fluttered around the ceiling. Charlotte dragged her into the secret room, blew out the candles and started down the familiar path to town, humming as she went. The cabin was empty once again, except for those left behind in the walls.