The Family Tree-line

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. It has been over 100 years since anyone has ever lived there. The trees living near the cabin have broken through the surface of the walls to stitch itself as one. This cabin has been claimed by an old spirit. So the light inside glimmers as if winds woosh, but there are very few days in the year that forecast for high winds.

Yet, I recall my mother telling me stories about an old grumpy hard working businessman that was always fixing something on that cabin, and yes it was old in those times, but it was a home he added many rooms to house his big family.

During the Mexican Revolution, Domingo was a landowner in the region that held a great significance to both leaders of the Revolution, Francisco, and President Porfirio. Domingo, as diplomatic as he could have been, never chose a side, and continued his business for the sake of his family’s well being.

Domingo carried himself with great discernment, intelligence, and was incredibly willful. As careful as he could be towards the battle between these two powerful men began to change when Francisco threatened Domingo to hand over more than 150 horses. All friendly discussions were immediately trampled by Francisco’s ugly feet of desperation.

To no one's surprise, Domingo chose to protect his family’s wealth by refusing to bow down to this man. Domingo also decided to visit the neighboring state to speak with President Porfirio to discuss some type of protection over the land, crops, and goods he had rejected to handover to Francisco. Upon his arrival, he was told to wait one night because the president was busy with politicians and strategizing his next attack against rebels. Domingo waited, anxiously, as he worried about his 4 boys, and 3 daughters. He had left some trustworthy men to protect his home, but he still felt distraught.

The night got longer as he waited thinking what to do, what to say to the President, and how everything would play out in the end. A letter slipped under his hotel room door. He jumped out of bed to open the door, but no one was there. He begins to read the letter as quickly as he can, and suddenly a weight of embarrassment and disloyalty comes onto his body. He sinks into the edge of the bed. Nearly crying, but also filled with anger and confusion.

A few minutes pass that feel like a lifetime. Domingo hears a man rushing to his door. When Domingo lays eyes on the man he left in charge to protect his home standing in front of him, hundreds of miles away from home, a shock hits his heart. The man brings awful news.

Domingo doesn’t wait to hear any of it because he rushed back to his village the fastest way he knows. He traveled back without any of his belongings. He arrives, and most of the village is still awake, though it is 3:27am. Everyone avoided looking at him, as Domingo searched for answers within their eyes. Candles burned very low as if the flame understood the mood. The road leading up to his beautiful home was lit by villagers. As he reached the gate, the big welded double doors were already torn open. Finally falling to his knees, he sees the bodies of his family members hung from each tree up the path to his home.

Domingo is washed over by a calm cool breeze spawned from the exhausted bloody night. He undresses himself walking over to each body gathering blood from the hanging corpses, and rubs it all over himself. He curses the land he owns, and torches the tree line. He then ends his cursed prayer by hanging himself on the final tree at the end of the path.

Many homes that were near Domingo’s house have since moved, or were left abandoned. Businesses fled, and much of the village was left to the wilderness to absorb.

But the story goes that whenever that candle is lit, it's because Domingo is delighted. Only, he delights in taking souls. In the time it took for the revolution to end, Domingo’s corpse hung there, but his spirit roamed free to haunt, and attack men from any nation, and leave them stranded in darkness, soulless.

Anyone walking by this old trail becomes petrified with fear or worse, disappears. Domingo reveals himself to many as a military general, with a shadow lingering upon his face. His complexion has always been white, but somehow his face manages to stay in darkness. Standing tall, he does not walk, but instead hovers slightly above the ground. The worst story to ever arise from all this happened to young Temio.

The day seemed to drag on as he worked tirelessly to be home by lunch, but instead decided to finish harvesting all the crops for old Marco Murrieta. Temio’s younger brother, Melo, typically helps, but today he overslept. Civil dusk began to set and Temio felt a sense of urgency to be home. Old man Marco suggested traveling by the old abandoned road. Marco told Temio it would be twice as fast to his house and could be home before nightfall.

Temio made his way through the old road, and noticed a home, built more like a cabin, lit up with ambient lighting all around it. Temio figured this was the family that Marco Always spoke about. He made his way past it, as the hanging skeletons began to appear behind his line of sight.

The cabin also appeared to be dark and abandoned as it has since the day Domingo’s was brutally hung. Many thought it was Domingo’s spirit that roamed and haunted everyone, but it was a fallen soul that heard the curse Domingo tried to use to protect his land. This evil soul was called Brisa de Luz (wind of light).

Temio couldn’t see the path ahead that well, and stumbled over himself. He hurt his ankle. He decided to walk back a few paces to the cabin he saw to ask for help. He couldn’t find the cabin with lights surrounding it. He only saw a bold dark home with tree’s warping within it. Temio looked off behind the home down a crooked path where there was a group of kids playing and laughing. The laughter echoed. Temio decided to knock on the door, because where there are children, there must be an adult. He heard heavy hoof-like steps walk towards the door. The door swings open, and a gust of wind blows Temio’s hat off, and rips open his off-white button up shirt. Temio falls back because his ankle can’t hold his weight that well. He’s then dragged across the front yard, near the path, as the group of kids rally around his body and scream as if air carries their soundwaves faster and slower at the same time. The screams many believed come from one entity, the devil. Trees surrounding this area wave faster and harder, but there’s no wind.

Brisa de Luz wraps Temio’s body up to a tall trunk. Swirling around Temio, Brisa flows blue-greenish and black fire around creating a tough shell of wind-fire. Temio isn’t burned, but the air in his lungs flees, and his skin is peeling. The children scream louder, and Brisa barks a loud screech that commands the swirl of fire to evaporate. Everything becomes quiet.

Then, from Temio’s head all the way to his big toe, he is carved open by the air around him. Brisa completely drains Temio’s blood. Leaving a dried pinned up skeleton mangled within this tree trunk.

Today, people use this trunk to cast spells, and pray to their dead gods. Brisa de Luz was only the key to unlock a portal for all unchecked demons.