The silence completed the darkness. No insects or animals could be heard in the stillness. The slow moving figure crept noiselessly through the trees, constantly searching. The smell was faint but growing stronger with each step. The figure stopped and took a deep silent breath to isolate the source of the smell before correcting their course to follow it.
The woods stretched out for many miles in all directions. The trees here had been dead for so long that they were nothing more than petrified wood jutting up from the ground. There was no vegetation in the forest aside from the petrified wooden corpses.
The figure moved through the woods easily avoiding the trees in the pitch black darkness. Sounds began to emerge as the smell grew stronger. Loud, heavy breathing cut through the silence, and there was a steady dripping of liquid onto the dead ground. The figure crept toward the noise until the smell was overpowering. It stopped and silently slunk to the ground to wait out the remaining hours until daylight.
- - -
The small girl was sitting hunched over in the corner of the cabin trying to be invisible. Her father was at the hearth cooking meat for his dinner. She remembered that, at one time, he cared about her. At least he pretended to care about her before. They used to live in warm happiness as a family with her mother. The days were filled with love and joy once upon a time. Until the fateful day the father was out hunting and left his wife and child to stay at the cabin until his return.
It had been a beautiful spring day when he kissed them goodbye with the promise to return with fresh meat. The mother and daughter decided to go into the bountiful forest to gather berries to surprise the father when he returned. They did not anticipate all the surprises that would be in store for that day.
The mother and child followed the forest path to the berry bushes and got to work picking the ripe harvest. They toiled for hours until their baskets were full and they decided to head back to the cabin. They left their baskets on the porch and went inside to clean up. Once the mother declared they were ready to make some pies, she sent the daughter outside to fetch the berry baskets.
The daughter walked outside and screamed. There was a huge bear right in front of her, its nose buried deep in one of the baskets of berries. The scream alerted the bear to the girl’s presence, and the bear stood up to swipe a massive paw at the child. The mother ran up and snatched her daughter out of the way but received the mighty blow from the bear’s paw in her stead. The daughter, terrified and helpless, was frozen on the cabin floor hearing her mother’s screams and watching the huge beast attack until the screams ceased. The thoroughly distracted bear payed no attention to the stunned girl on the cabin floor. Instead, it dragged the larger quarry off into the woods.
The small girl was paralyzed with fear for a few more moments until her brain caught up to her circumstances, and she sobbed on the floor until she passed out.
When the father returned later, he shook the daughter awake and demanded to know what happened and where her mother was. The daughter began sobbing again, and the father shook her until she was able to choke out, “B- b- b- bea- bear.” The father dropped her on the ground and took off to follow the trail of blood leading away from the cabin.
The father returned about an hour later. He was no longer a loving, devoted father. How could he ever love the daughter again when she sat, unscathed, in their cabin and did nothing to protect or help the mother. The father wished she had been the victim instead of the mother. The mother was the father’s reason for life. He was only able to love the daughter because he loved the mother so much. But now the mother was gone, and the daughter was still here. The daughter did nothing but witness the mother’s demise. The father made the daughter clean up the mess outside and then decided to ignore her forever.
The daughter never understood how she lost everything so suddenly. She needed her father, but he did not care and ignored her and pushed her away if she got too close. She spent her days in the corner by herself. She no longer tried to talk to or interact with the father, and she avoided being outside at all costs.
So here the daughter sat in the corner of the cabin. She would wait until the father finished cooking ate his food and went to sleep before she would get up and scavenge his scraps. She was picking through the bones when the father stirred in his sleep. He was calling out the mother’s name. He called her name several more times before waking up in a cold sweat.
The daughter stayed very still, but the father’s eyes found her anyway. It was the first time he had looked directly at her in months. The father began sobbing and wept for several minutes. Then his sobs transformed into roars of rage. His eyes zeroed in on the daughter, and he sprang at her, hitting her everywhere his fists could make contact. The father tired after a few minutes of his rage and sprawled out on the floor. He screamed at the daughter to get out and picked her up and threw her out the door when she didn’t respond.
The daughter laid in a heap outside on the ground. Her whole body ached and she began to cry. A roar of rage erupted from the cabin, and the girl heaved herself up off the ground and began quickly limping into the forest. She was scared of the father but terrified of what might be lurking in the darkness of the forest. She ran faster and faster, adrenaline coursing through her veins and urging her forward. She ran through the lush forest and ignored the cuts from the thorns and branches. She didn’t stop until the woods changed around her and the trees became rotting carcasses jutting up from the ground.
The daughter had never been this far from the cabin before, and she slowed her pace. The dead trees stretched out around her and she continued through the woods until exhaustion and her injuries overtook her. She slumped to the ground and sobbed until unconsciousness stole her emotions away.
- - -
Daylight would be breaking soon. The forest was already more grey than black. The figure slowly approached the source of the delicious smell. It was a small child laying on the ground with bruises and dripping cuts. The figure had never seen a child in such a sad state. The delicious smell was overwhelming and the figure only needed a taste to unravel the mystery of the child. Not wanting to cause further pain, the figure knelt down by one of the puddles of blood next to the child and dipped their fingertips into the blood before quickly sucking the fingers clean.
The child’s story fell into place in the figure’s mind – the love, the loss and pain, followed by the neglect and the incident that put the child in its current predicament. The figure was overwhelmed with pity and searched through the child’s story for something to comfort the child. Even if it regained consciousness, the child wouldn’t survive the day. The figure stood and concentrated on shifting its shape and features until it looked exactly like the child’s mother. It knelt back down next to the child and waited, keeping a steady vigil until the child woke up or its suffering ended.
The child’s breathing became more rapid and its eyes fluttered open and closed. Its eyes found the figure disguised as the child’s mother and smiled then began crying. The disguised figure reached out and wrapped the child in a loving embrace. It held the child until the sobs stopped and the child finally found peace. The figure dug out a grave and buried the child.
Now, the figure faced a dilemma. Its job was to assist the dying, not to find someone and facilitate the process. But the figure had never faced this situation before. Innocent and avoidable death should be punished, but the figure was not a punisher. Even so, a plan had already formed in the figure’s mind. The figure concentrated and transformed again.
- - -
The father woke up alone in the empty cabin from an unexpected noise. An animal was outside uttering a pitiable cry. The father slowly opened the cabin door to observe the source of the sound. A baby bear was limping into his yard crying out loudly. Anger swelled up in the father’s heart and he grabbed his hunting rifle and shot the cub. There was no way for him to miss at this range, but the cub was unaffected and cried out even louder. The father reloaded is rifle and aimed again. A different noise ripped through the air with the gunshot – a powerful, angry roaring snarl. The father did not have an opportunity to lower his rifle before the adult bear attacked.
Once the towering beast was finished with the father, it turned its attention to the cub that had been crying. In the cubs place was a terrifying figure watching the bear with absurd pleasure twisting its face. The bear yelped and bounded through the forest to its den where all its cubs were healthy and accounted for. The figure stalked up to the cabin and took great pleasure in ushering the father to the well-deserved hell that awaited him.