The Tale

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The trio of friends set up their small campfire just a stone’s throw away from the moss riddled cabin, just as they had done every Saturday night since the beginning of summer. As the three blankets are laid out, the extra sticks picked up along the trek were thrown into the blaze warming the trio’s faces as they settle in for the story. “It’s Tee’s turn tonight” Cam says over the hushed sounds of the night above them. It is then that Tee notices a flickering in the window, something that Tee nor the others had seen before, but something that brought about a sense of familiarity. “I’ve got just the story for tonight,” Tee said with confidence. “This one's for you, Matti.”

Matti was new to this area; a quiet, anxious person who was welcomed without question by Tee and Cam. Matti, still unsure of the friends’ motives but longing to feel some sense of belonging in this new environment, joined the duo on their weekly escapades deep into the foreboding woods. “Why for me?” Matti asks as Cam’s eyes roll with a sigh and a warning to Tee: “Not this again Tee, Matti isn’t ready..” Cam was always a little calmer than Tee, which Matti took notice of.

“It’s fine Cam, something about this night tells me Matti is ready.”

Tee turns to Matti with furrowed brows and whispers, “Matti, you have to remember.” “What did you just say?” Matti replies with a nervous chuckle. “Follow the embers, the EMBERS Matti, THE EMBERS… MATTI…THE EMBERS” Tee continues louder and louder to a scream, almost disembodied.

As Matti’s heart begins to race trying to comprehend the words that don’t seem to match Tee’s mouth, the sound of Cam’s calm voice overpowers Matti’s trance; “Alright then, give it a try Tee.”

Tee begins the story as Matti sits in disbelief, heart still pounding:

It was a night just like this, in woods just like these, with a cabin covered in moss just like this one here. A family lived there, two parents and a child with their two dogs. The family wasn’t the richest but made due with the father, a hunter, and the mother, a talented seamstress. Together, they supported the family through supplying food and clothing to the local town folk outside of the woods. They were a nice family, appreciated for their goods but misunderstood for their way of life being out in the woods. There were many rumors started about the family and their way of living, especially after the child mysteriously vanished and never returned.

You see, the father would often be out on his hunting trips for a few days at a time and would always return. Until one time he didn’t. It had been a week since the father had left on his hunting trip, the mother and child growing more concerned each day. The child found the mother crying one night to which the mother assured the child that the father would be fine and should return any day now. In an effort to help the mother, the child left the cabin that night with only a single candle, the two dogs as guardians, and the hopes to find the father.

The next morning, the mother found the child’s bed empty. In her panic, she runs to the door to look for the child only to find her husband, bloodied but alive and out of breath, stumbling towards her. She screams in joy and concern before letting out another scream of pain and grief for the missing child realizing the child’s reasoning for disappearing.

The child never returned. However, the rumors in town began to circulate and it was said that the mother would light a single candle every night for the child. She was hoping the child would see the familiar flickering in the darkness and return to them. She lit a candle for years as the moss covering the cabin dried out and a strong gust of wind blew the candle’s flame in just the right direction to set the cabin aflame with no survivors. No one knows what happened to the child and the two dogs. Now in town, it is said that if you see a flickering light in the woods at night, it is the mother forever hoping for the child’s return, or the child continuing the search for their missing father.

“That’s a very sad story, Tee” Matti states with a tearful gaze.

“Do you remember now?” Cam says quietly.

Matti turns to face the moss covered cabin, now noticing the familiar flickering of a candle in the window. A trail of dimly lit embers leading to the cabin’s front door. Matti turns back to ask the duo if they see it as well, but instead is greeted by two dogs, one nuzzling Matti forward and the other looking on calmly with reassurance. Together they begin their walk home.