In a trance I proceeded down the dirt trail. On either side were rows of birch trees spanning the entirety of the path. The wind brushing through, weaving in and out between the trees Leaves whistling by. Life here was all glaring my way. They all said now is the time. Each bird said it’s time to take us all with you. The deer spoke of the same with all the critters signing along to the same tune. The time is now.
Walking down the path I froze as if walking into a wall. A field stopped me and I fell through the earth. Cold, dark, and falling for a few seconds yet it felt so much longer than that. The light went out. I came to, in what could be described as a cabin/ dojo. Empty interior, only wood floors, wood walls and a wood ceiling.
The spirits in the wood were all different. The knots in the wood, consisted of living eyes that would look at each other and myself. Looking into these knots showed visions, I could see what they have done and what they have seen. They blinked in a wave like motion. My eyes presented the room my impression. The holes in the boards could hear and speak. They spoke in the tongue of lumber. Creaking from then tension in the room. Snapping from the pressure of each other. They understood and communed. Many screamed in anger grief pain. Many laughed hysterically. Crying out! Yet a few boards stare into you without emotion. I feel pity for them. Grabbing your attention. out of all of these spirits they did not fit in.
Above me was the only source of light, the hole that brought me here, dimly lighting the room. I often find myself in these situations. To learn a lesson, or to live out an experience? Pondering for a moment, breathing in the atmosphere.
From out of the darkest corner emerged a man. His skin was ghoulish clinging to bone, a rotting animal after months of decay. Patches of him were missing without flesh showing, matted fibrous wood embedded in parts. What little left of his finger nails could have been wood. Bones could be seen naked exposed to these surrounding onlookers, imprisoned in the room. Facial structure was square, proportioned so well, onset confusion came when seeing him. All though I know exactly who he is in the back of my mind, incapable of thinking of his name. Maybe before he came to this condition he may have been handsome yet all was sunken in to the skull.
The Eyes were piss yellow, iris blood red. The scalp was so tightly wrinkled with rotting flesh, appearing as a full head of hair lay atop. The man was thin in the corner, naked and old. His chin rose making eye contact with me 30 paces away. Gathering to his feet he stood swaying to keep his footing as if unconscious. In the one step he made he was now 3 paces away. He glared into my eyes as if asking for help or to tell me what I must learn here. Save me! Was his expression.
He wouldn’t speak but instead a gasp of air left his lips, a low eerie breath could be heard, begging for salvation. The man needed to be restored through any means necessary. What ever had to be done the man would do. Too weak to accomplish it himself he looked towards me with a pitiful face. He looked to embrace me and I stepped back.
He stretched out his hands the best he could, they couldn’t pass his waist. Shaking the right arm was, attempting to reach out. The left one stayed motionless drooping to the side with the rest of him.
Again I stepped aside. What seemed to be the end was the weak man falling toward me. Prostrate right in front of me I turn and walk towards the hole for escape. Three times he was ignored surrounded by all of the other spirits in the room which have always been ignored. Right in front of us they live, we see and feel all of them yet we still choose to ignore.
A painful existence. Something told me to turn around… to help this man that was repulsive and broken. I walk to him in a relaxed but definite manor, I made up my mind. The room was darker than before. It was difficult to make out where he was laying. Searching the room for him without any luck. The corner of the room where he crawled out of was darker now. No longer part of the room. it was a total void. Step too close and it might suck you in is how it made me feel.
The sense of wood planks in that corner were gone, there was only the void. It sucked me in, the pace into this corner was no longer definite, hesitant surely. I took step after step. Creeping into the corner I found nothing, feeling the walls on each side. Neither cool nor warm, as if feeling one’s own body just the temperature of oneself. I turn around chilled by what I felt and there behind me was the man glowing a sickly yellow color. His eyes were black, the red was gone and now he glared with hate. It was too late to help him, my chance to save him vanished. His arms by his side, his flesh was entangling-each other like fingers interlocked. His body was piecing itself back together, the rot turned into leather like scar tissue. He was changing right in front of me.
The mass of the man tripled and muscle began to form where there was only bone. This once skeleton that was hopeless and weak turned into a monster. Blood was sealing his cracked flesh all over his body. He looked at me with teeth snarling all of the jagged like thick needles coming to a point.He came in close, grabbed my face and proceeded to take maul away at me with his piercing bones. My vision blurred and all went numb. Paralyzed by poison.
Not able to react yet capable of watching my demise. Tossed me down and strangled my neck. The dim lights faded with me in the dark corner. The room began to twist together, boards snapping and exploding. The man smiling, standing over me. The wood room went up in flames. Everything burned in the brightest flames.