Bruma and the Enchanted Forest

By Martin Barajas

The day was cold. Although the sun was out, dark clouds appeared in the distance over the San Gabriel Valley. A soft wind blew. Rain was expected later in the day. All put together, it was a beautiful day. But in the city of South El Monte, there was a group of friends that were turning this beautiful day into a living nightmare in their lives, a nightmare from which they would not awake. Having just robbed the city bank on the east side of town, Rebecca and her four buddies, Steve, Ricardo, Mark and Mike, fled scared for the mountains. The youngest of the five, Mike, had been wounded in the robbery. Police sirens sounded all around. In a desperate measure to hide away from the law, they ascended the mountains and drove off the main road, into the wild forest. There, they would come to a valley hidden deep in the mountains, a valley hidden to the world, where some of their most horrific nightmares were about to come true. What happens in this place will blow their minds away, literately. This was a place where their darkest side would manifest in them, and their true friendship would be put to the test. This was a place where they would be given the chance to turn around and make things right in their lives. However, not even the monsters and demons in this forest would deter them from their dark purpose. They were willing to lose it all, even their lives, for the love of money. This was a place of magic and wonder, a place of horrors and witches. This was the place where they would meet Bruma. This was the enchanted forest.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 14, 2011
• ISBN: 9781452094724

Martin Barajas

Hi, thank you for taking the time to learn a little about me. My whole life's been full of bad decisions. Though I made some good ones along the way, married a wonderful woman, had three wonderful children, I continued on the bad road and lost it all, just like that. I found myself at the bottom of the pit, where is dark, cold, and lonely, but I still had the power of God within me. With nothing else to lose, and nothing else to do, and with all this time in my hands, I knew I could transform this bad episode in my life into something positive. I knew I could extract a lot of good out of this bad situation. It took some time and dedication but I persevered. I put all my mind to it and that's how this fantasy was born. This is a good book to read if you love a good thriller. My story has a little bit of everything. It is full of adventure, drama, action, fantasy, mystery,...oh, and horror. May I also add that it has a touch of romance, but not too much, don't want to spoil the effect. This book was meant to frighten you and entertain you, and hopefully bring to your attention the importance of not making a dumb decision that will wreck your life for years to come, in minutes. I will advice you to read this book at night, in your bed, under the covers,...oh, and I warn you, buy yourself a night light. You might need it after reading this book. Read, enjoy, and be frightened. May God bless you. M. B.

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© 2011 Martin Barajas. All rights reserved.

First published by AuthorHouse 1/11/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4520-9445-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4520-9472-4 (e)

ISBN: 978-1-4520-9471-7 (hc)

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Printed in the United States of America

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Chapter 1

The bank robbery

Chapter 2

The cabin by the lake

Chapter 3

The woman in the woods

Chapter 4

The young man’s tale

Chapter 5

The money

Chapter 6

The dream

Chapter 7

The map

Chapter 8

The last hours of darkness

Chapter 9

Into the woods

Chapter 10

The mist

Chapter 11

The separation

Chapter 12

The valley of the lost souls

Chapter 13

The chase

Chapter 14

The attack

Chapter 15

A new beginning

Dedicated to my good friend

Enrique Gonzales

Chapter 1

The bank robbery

It was a cold day in the city of South El Monte. The traffic on Durfee, avenue was heavy going in both directions. It was a big avenue and it was just before noon, so it was normal for that time of the day. The city of south El Monte is located eighteen miles east of Los Angeles. It depends on its large industrial zone full of flourishing small businesses, some warehouses, some small factories among other types of moneymaking operations, to give the city the financial strength to offer its residents a good standard of living.

The Home Security Bank on the west side of the avenue had been open for business since eight O’clock this morning, yet, the parking lot was only half-full. Everything seemed normal inside of the building. The security guard had been watching customers walk in and out of the building throughout the morning. It was the same normal activity to which he was accustomed. It was business as usual. Every day, he would watch people make their deposits or withdrawals of their money, day in and day out, the same as he did today, which he found to be, the most boring thing to do in this, the most boring job in the world. Half of his shift was gone and he hoped that the next four and a half hours would zoom by at the speed of light. (Another boring day.) The guard thought to himself. It was a small bank. It only had six tellers to the right, coming in through the front door, and a decent lobby with a couple of desks, to the left. An agent sat behind one of the desks while talking to a couple, who sat on the opposite side.

The guard was bored and hungry. It was almost lunchtime and there were only a few customers inside the bank. (This is the perfect time to go fetch a meal.) The guard thought. After contemplating many options, he decided to order some tacos next door, which he loved to eat frequently. It was a meal that was cheap, convenient, and would not take much of his time to pick up, not that he would be missing anything exiting at the bank, but it was his job to be in the building at all times, and his job was his job. His presence was required at all times to keep watch over the safety in the bank, even if it bored him to death.

He notified the manager that he would be gone for five minutes or so, and started heading for the door when something made him change his mind. Two men had just walked into the building and according to his professional instinct, it all seemed too wrong. Though they were dressed casually, there was something rather strange about them. Their smile wasn’t enough to disguise their nervous faces. Their eyes seemed unable to lock on a single object for more than a second. Their pupils bounced like pin balls inside of their eyes as they explored the place. This awkward behavior gave away their dishonest intentions to the guard who, by now, offered them all of his attention. They were wearing jackets, one with bright colors, and both men seemed to be in their late twenties.

As the two men passed the guard, he greeted them with a good morning, forcing a smile to his face. He knew they were up to no good and tried to make something out of their response, there was none. The men walked right past him as if he wasn’t there at all. Their indifference to his gesture gave the guard an immediate insight on their, not so good, intentions. He felt the warmth of his blood rush to his head and a load of adrenalin was released throughout his whole body by the adrenal glands above his kidneys. With the adrenalin rushing through his veins, all of the guard’s senses were on maximum alert, as were also his muscles, which were ready to snap into action in an instant. (I better hold back on lunch.) Full of emotion, he thought in his head, never taking his eyes off the pair, and placing his right hand over his weapon.

The guard focused all of his attention on the two men as they passed him. He turned around, not taking his eyes off the suspicious duo, and failed to notice the other two approaching him from behind. One was an older man in his late thirties. The other was much younger, maybe in his twenties, if so, both wearing jackets. Keeping an eye on the two that had just passed him, waiting to see what their next move would be, was the last thing that the guard saw, then everything went black.

The older of the men struck his gun so hard on back of the guard’s head that the guard was out before he hit the floor. As the guard was going down, the other three pulled their weapons out and ordered everyone to the ground. Right after, the first two jumped through one of the teller’s windows, to the other side of the service counter. The other two kept watch over every one else on the ground. They knew that more than one of the employees would probably manage to push the alarm button quicker than they were being ordered to the ground, so the plan was to get as much money as possible, as quickly as possible, before the police arrived. It was a dumb idea; however, these were dumb criminals.

Outside of the building, in the bank’s parking lot, Rebecca Wilson sat behind the steering wheel of the green explorer. With the engine running, she waited nervously for her friends to come out of the bank with the loot. She was a beautiful twenty-five year-old woman that had nothing to lose, so she thought. Having ran away from home at the early age of sixteen, she had been involved with drugs ever since, and had never being able to maintain a serious relationship with a man for the same reason. She was always on the move, looking for new thrills, and she could not pass this one up. This was, by far, the main event in her life. There was a chance of making it big if she and her friends managed to pull this one out. She could make lots of easy cash and she had nothing to lose, so she thought.

Inside of the building, the men were moving as quickly as possible. They wanted to leave before the police arrived, but they also wanted to get as much cash as humanly possible, in such little time. After forcing the tellers to open the money drawers and making them drop all the bills inside two sacks they had brought with them, they jumped back to the other side of the counter and started running for the door. It had taken them about three and a half minutes to pull the job. It had been quick and simple. They had never imagined it would be so easy to pull this off. They ran out with big smiles in their faces, joyful, like small children stealing candy from a candy store. The other two proceeded to run out behind their two friends, all cheering like children.

These were inexperienced bank robbers, ‘wannabes,’ if you might call them that, and being so, they had forgotten to remove the gun from the security guard. As the last two ran out of the building, the guard became conscious again, just in time to act on his professional instinct. His head was hurting and he didn’t have full use of all his senses yet, but he managed to pull out his weapon and fired several shots at the fleeing suspects. He struck the youngest of the men once in the leg, dropping him to the ground as he moaned in pain. The older man reacted by spinning around and shooting the guard several times, putting him out of commission. He then grabbed his younger friend and dragged him to the explorer, shoving him inside the vehicle as he screamed in pain. Rebecca panicked and was about to drive off without her friends, but she managed to hold on. As soon as the last man was inside the car, she stepped on the gas and sped away from the bank. They were on the run.

As they headed for the freeway, which was only four blocks away from the bank, Rebecca was forced to maneuver the vehicle around heavy traffic and at times, had to go over the sidewalk, or drive on the wrong side of the avenue, to keep it rolling. Meanwhile, the police sirens seemed to get louder and closer with each tick of the clock, which was ticking as slow as time ran in slow motion in their heads. It seemed to be taking them forever to speed through these four blocks that led to the 60-freeway. They knew that reaching the freeway without being spotted by police would greatly increase their probabilities of getting away.

Inside the speeding vehicle, Mike Smith was crying out in pain. He was the youngest of the men. The bullet had gone through his leg, just missing the bone, but tearing flesh and muscle. It disabled him to walk and caused him great agony. Mike was a twenty year-old, white man, who as a young boy had a promising future. However, after graduating from High School, he started to hang out with the wrong crew, a party crew. It was the party crew where he met Ricardo Santana, a drug dealer, gambler, ambitious kind of guy. Ricardo was a twenty-eight year-old Hispanic, and was feeling that life had passed him by without him achieving any of his goals. He refused to be a loser in life and was willing to do anything to avoid being one. He was hungry for fast, easy money, and had talked Mike into Steve’s plan to rob the bank.

Everything had gone as they had planned, except for shooting the guard, and their young friend being shot in the leg. Being this their first time robbing a bank, and probably their last, they made many mistakes, and that brought a lot of tension inside the vehicle. They didn’t know how badly they had injured the guard, and Mike’s painful cries added to the tension of still having to get away, but, where to? This was turning into a mess very fast.

They managed to make it to the freeway without being spotted by the police. They could see the chopper in the sky rushing to the site of the crime. Fortunately, it was nowhere near them. They drove into the on-ramp to the 60-freeway eastbound, then jumped into the 605-northbound, heading for the mountains. The chopper flew farther in the distance. Rebecca seemed to keep her cool, moving no faster than the speed limit allowed her to drive on the freeway. She blended well with the ongoing traffic, maintaining the same speed as everyone else. On the other side of the freeway, going the opposite direction, a couple of police cruisers passed them with their flashing lights. The explorer was too deep in traffic to be noticed by the speeding patrol cars, which probably, by now, had a good description of the green explorer. They jumped from the 605-northbound, to the 210-eastbound, and drove off on Azusa Canyon Road, which would take them up the mountains, where they would hide for the moment.

Luckily, they had gone undetected the whole way and that was a good thing. However, they still had to find a solution to Mike’s problem. They could not take him to a hospital. That would be a suicide move, not to mention, stupid. Moreover, not one of them had any medical experience, or training whatsoever, yet Mike needed medical attention now.

The foot of the mountain is only fifteen minutes away from the freeway; however, it seemed to them like an eternity getting there. When they finally arrived, Mike had either passed out or fallen asleep, which was well appreciated by everyone in the vehicle. He was unconscious now, so the crying and moaning had ceased. No one dared to wake him since there was nothing they could do for him at this very moment. His cries would only add to the stress of the moment and that was something they could do without. Rebecca pulled the vehicle over to the side of the road and stopped just before it began its ascent to this huge chain of mountains and their many forests. They contemplated the towering wilderness rising before them, the Angeles Crest Forest. They looked back, one last time, at the world they were living behind, probably never to return. They knew they were in big trouble, so after a moment of silence, Rebecca began to drive up the road, to the wilderness in the mountains.

It was awfully quiet inside the explorer as she drove up the first mountain. No one had a clue on what to do next and no one dared to make any suggestions on the matter. However, the silence that surrounded them proved to be just as punishing to their frightened hearts, as any of the things that they could possibly suggest. Rebecca drove and drove up the road until finally; she could not hold the words inside of her mouth much longer. Her mouth exploded. Can someone tell me where I’m supposed to be driving to? I mean…I’ve been driving up this road to, I don’t know where, and what about Mike? He is hurt badly! We need to get him some medical care and we need to do it now, and…and, we don’t even know where we’re going! Why is no one saying a word? What is wrong with you people? Sure, it’s so easy for all of you to just sit there all quiet since you’re not the one driving. Well let me tell…

RICARDO Hey, calm down, alright already!

That was all that he said and once again, everyone was quiet for the moment. The silence was creepy and each hoped that the person next to him had the answer to their problem, yet, each knew that an answer to their problem, which was very real, did not exist. They had committed a serious crime and were now on the run. It was impossible to turn back the hands of time. After another brief moment of complete silence, Steve spoke, First, we get away from the city, then we find a place where we can lay low for a couple of days, and then we will see what we can do for Mike!

Steve Harris was also twenty-eight years of age, the same as Ricardo, and had been his good friend for many years. Both had been the first to enter the bank. Steve was a computer geek and had gone to college for a couple of years. He had an ease for speech and was blessed with the good looks of a handsome white male. Anybody that didn’t know him well enough would think that this was a man with a bright future ahead of him, well, not so. Steve had a big problem, as big as Rebecca’s. Just like her, he was also looking for new thrills all the time, unlike her; he did it just for the thrill of the moment. His ego seemed to be hungry for action most of the time. His passion in life was to walk on the edge without falling over, and he was always putting his life in danger, all in the name of a good time. Just like his friend Rebecca, he could not pass this opportunity either. His plan to rob the bank seemed as easy as one-two-three. I agree with you Steve. His friend Mark told him, agreeing with his, not so humane, plan to get away and ignore Mike’s agonizing cries, and his life threatening gunshot wound.

Mark was the older of the men. No one knew his age and no one asked anyway. He seemed to be only a few years short of hitting his forties. Even though he was much older than his friends, he was a follower, not a leader. No one seemed to know his last name and no one cared. He was homeless and a drug user. No one seemed to know where he came from or any of his immediate family. He was always around when he was needed though, and was always ready to help a friend in need, just like today, big mistake. He was the one that shot the guard.

The Azusa Canyon is a popular site for area visitors. Its paved road, which curves to the left and right across the Angeles Crest Forest, goes up and around the river of mountains, penetrating its woods like a mega rollercoaster that has no end. It offers these visitors limited access into this hidden wilderness and its running rivers. All day long, cars drive up and down this road, making it the least candidate for a get-away route, but at least they were getting away somewhere, away from the city and its cops. They drove up these mountains through twists and turns in the endless entanglement of read that lay ahead of them.

For forty minutes, they had been driving deep into the mountains without saying a word. For forty minutes, they had been looking at the growing abyss below them. The space below kept getting deeper and deeper as they ascended the mountains. Any other day, this would have been an inspiring sight for their eyes to savor, but not today. Of course, they could have used this forty minutes of sight seeing to think of a solution to their problem, but they where numb at the mind and there was nothing really to think about. They were in deep shit and that was that. Still, the scenery was beautiful to their eyes.

All of a sudden, as they drove through the mountains, Steve thought he saw an opening to a dirt road by the side of the main road. STOP! He yelled, startling Rebecca as she drove past this elusive road. It was so narrow and faded that it was hard to spot from a moving vehicle. It ran up and around a sloping mountainside, away from the main road. Steve had been lucky, ‘or unlucky,’ to see it. What’s wrong? Rebecca cried back to Steve after abruptly stopping the vehicle.

STEVE There, you see it? There’s a dirt road back there! I think, well, maybe we should go in it.

RICARDO Are you crazy? We are driving aimlessly, up a mountain road that leads to who knows where, and now you want us to drive into a dirt road that will lead us nowhere? Are you insane, or stupid?

STEVE I’ll tell you what insane is, to keep driving like idiots with nowhere to go until we are caught, that is insane, or stupid. Unless you have a better idea, we can go into this dirt road and hide deep in the forest for a couple of days until we think of something to do. Unless you are in a hurry to do forty years in prison and want to stay in this road…do you? It would serve you well to be caught, after all, it was your stupid idea not to use masks so we wouldn’t arise any suspicion, remember? By now, we probably have the whole county’s police force looking for us with a clear snapshot of each of our faces.

RICARDO I guess you’re right, but what about Mike, and what are we going to do for food?

STEVE I don’t know! Let’s get away first and then we’ll worry about the rest.

MARK I second that thought.

Chapter 2

The cabin by the lake

They agreed that it was best for them to go into the dirt road, which would take them deep into the mountains and its wild woods. Rebecca drove in and immediately wondered if it had been a good idea to go into a road that put their lives on the edge, literally speaking. This dirt road was narrow and very dangerous to drive through. It had some tight curves with only about ten feet of road at the edge of cliffs and steep mountainsides. This gave Rebecca only inches of road, between them and the drop, to maneuver the vehicle without falling into the abyss. Any miscalculation on her perception of width, of the vehicle, would send them rolling a long way down to the bottom of the canyon. This road seemed to be scantily traveled by any one and it was hardly visible to the human eye. Only the faint track markings on the mountainside, which were hard to detect by plain eyesight, insinuated of a road being there at all. Nevertheless, they followed this elusive road to where ever it might take them. They did not know and they did not care. All they knew was that they were going deep into the forest, and all they cared about was getting away.

After two hours of ascending, and at times descending, these treacherous mountains, its winding road began to descend into a small valley hidden between these enormous towers of dirt and rock. The road ran into the hidden valley and its many woods that spread across its forest. They drove towards this hidden valley and as they did, they were beginning to feel vulnerable to the forest and its mysticism, wondering what mess they had gotten into. It took them more than half an hour to reach the hidden valley. Then they drove about twenty minutes more into a valley that offered soul-searching tranquility, and seemed to be a safe haven for these criminals at this crucial moment. They drove until the road ended by the side of a lake.

They followed the road and stopped at some distance before it ended by the lake. The reason for this was the small cabin next to it. Surrounded by huge pine trees, was a small cabin that stood about fifty feet from the lake. The road ended right in front of this cabin, which was by the side of the lake, which lay well within the valley, which lay hidden between the mountains of Southern California, where some of their nightmares were about to come true.

Their vehicle came to a stop about one hundred and fifty feet from the cabin. The tall trees of the forest surrounded both, the cabin and the lake. It would be hard to spot the structure from the air. Anything flying above the forest would just pass it up unnoticed. It would have to fly very low to notice anything but the lake. It was the perfect hiding place for these small-time criminals.

In the time it had taken these criminals to get to this hidden valley, Mike had awakened several times, crying and moaning in pain for a few minutes at a time, only to fall back into a deep sleep. He was burning with a fever by now, and even though he seemed to be unconscious, the expression in his face showed the pain he was feeling at that instant.

After contemplating the cabin and its surroundings for a long fifteen minutes, Steve made a suggestion. Well, it will be dark soon. He said. We have to make a move and we have to make it now!

RICARDO What do you suggest?

STEVE I suggest that Rebecca and I drive up to the place as a couple and…

REBECCA Don’t you wish!

She looked at him with a disgusted look in her face.

STEVE Listen, we’ll knock on the door claiming to be lost.

RICARDO I don’t think they will buy that stupid story, dude.

STEVE I know, I know! This seems to be the only road out of here, and it runs for hours before coming to the main road. I would not believe that stupid story myself, but it will buy us enough time for you and Mark to, you know, sneak up from behind the house. You will exit the car here and run to the house. Once you are in a good position, I will give you a signal. Then Rebecca and I will rush in and take the occupants hostage. You two will run in behind us, surprising the enemy in case anything goes wrong. Are you with me?

MARK Why do we have to sneak up from behind the house? Why can’t we just drive up to the cabin all together?

STEVE Because it is important to use the element of surprise if we want to get the upper hand on this. Now Mark, I know that it was not in the plan for you to shoot the guard in the bank. I don’t know how you feel about it, but if we find any resistance here, you might have to do it again. Are you down with that?

MARK Bring it on baby!

STEVE What about you, Ricardo?

RICARDO Let’s go!

STEVE "Rebecca…?

REBECCA There’s no turning back, white boy.

Ricardo and Mark jumped out of the vehicle and immediately ran for cover to the trees behind the cabin. They ran from tree to tree in their best effort to be elusive. There was a chance that the cabin was uninhabited, but they did not want to take a chance, so they did their best to be unseen.

*

Steve and Rebecca drove the explorer to the cabin while Mike remained lying on the back seat. He was awake, but his eyes remained closed. He seemed to be trying very hard to ignore his pain. He knew he wasn’t going to get any medical attention, anytime soon, yet his fever kept growing and his temperature rising. He knew he was in deep trouble, even though, he never complained. He knew of the risks involving the bank robbery and had agreed to take part in it, regardless. Now, he was being a man about it and was standing his ground. He was determined not to be a burden to his friends.

Ricardo and Mark were moving from tree to tree with the stealth of a fox, moving closer and closer to the cabin, just as the fox closes in on its prey. When Ricardo was running to the last set of trees, before coming to the back of the cabin, out of the corner of his right eye he thought he saw a small shadow run right past him with unnatural speed, and moving through the trunk of trees. He reacted in a split second by turning to see what it was, but it was gone way before he had turned his head. He felt like he had caught a glimpse of something, yet he knew he hadn’t. What a strange feeling. He had never felt the sensation of seeing something that wasn’t there, not as he did at this moment. It had been almost as the shadow of a small child, except, it could not have been a child. Children don’t move that fast, in fact, nothing moves that fast, and nothing moves through the trunk of trees. (It must’ve been my imagination.) He came to that concluding thought. Even though it was early, the sun was passing over the mountains and as it slowly set behind them, the day began to darken.

*

Rebecca drove the vehicle to the wooden cabin, which seemed to be abandoned at first glance. They parked the explorer closer to the lake, facing the water, stepping out and pausing for a moment, observing the place carefully for any sign of occupancy. From their point of view, the cabin appeared to be deserted, but still, Steve was cautious as he began to walk towards it. Rebecca followed close behind. They walked up to the door and hesitated a bit, just enough to look at each other. Then, Steve raised his right fist and was about to knock on the door when, Come on in, it is open! The voice of an old woman called from inside the cabin. They looked at each other in awe.

STEVE Did you her that?

He whispered to Rebecca, still unable to make anything of what he had just heard.

REBECCA Yes, I did. What’s going on?

She whispered back to him with a suspicious look of wonder on her face.

REBECCA It sounded like the voice of an old woman. She must’ve been looking out through that front window.

They continued the whispering.

STEVE That would be a reasonable explanation if that front window wasn’t fully covered with boxes, or whatever they are, from the inside.

REBECCA Yeah, you’re right! There’s no way she could have peeked through that window, and I don’t see any cameras around.

STEVE A cockroach couldn’t peek out of that window.

As they were whispering to each other, they were purposely making time for their friends to appear from behind the corners of the cabin, one from each corner. While they waited, they were stunned once again with another invitation from the voice inside. Come on in. The sun is going down. You don’t want to be out there after dark. It’s not safe. Their hearts suddenly accelerated and they looked at each other again, this time asking each other with the look in their wide, opened eyes, (What’s going on?) This was not what they had expected at all. They were the ones using the element of surprise, but instead, the old woman’s voice inside the cabin, inviting them to come in, stunned them. This threw them off balance in their initial plan to rush in and take the occupants hostage.

Their two friends, Ricardo and Mark, had finally positioned themselves behind the two front corners of the cabin. This gave Steve enough courage to act. With a bit of a hesitation, he stretched his trembling right arm and reached for the doorknob. He turned on it slowly, and slowly, he began to push the door open, a bit concerned of what awaited them on the other side. His heart was trembling and so was Rebecca’s. Once the door was fully opened, Steve proceeded to go inside. Rebecca followed behind, pulling herself close to his body. As they entered the cabin, she looked back outside, at the fading woods in the twilight hour of the forest, between day and night, and wondered what the woman inside of the cabin had meant by saying that it was not safe to be outside after dark.

*

Ricardo and Mark waited patiently for a signal from Steve. Each waited behind each of the front corners of the cabin. They had agreed not to move without a signal, so when they saw their two friends walk calmly to the inside of the cabin, they patiently waited. What this two didn’t know was that Steve had totally forgotten to call them in. They were unaware of the strange experience Steve and Rebecca were going through, so they just waited there, with their guns at hand and ready to rush into action at any moment, there was no signal.

*

As soon as Steve and Rebecca entered the cabin, they began to scan the room for anything unusual. They were also holding their guns in their hands, ready for whatever might come against them. The first thing that caught their eyes, were the lit candles glowing around the room. The flames of these candles were the only source of light in the cabin. It was obvious that there was no electricity anywhere inside the wooden structure. Their eyes scanned the room in the dim light of the candles. They were looking for the source of the voice that had invited them in. There was a door to the right. It led to the only room in the cabin, other than the lobby. The door was shut. When they turned to the left, there she was. They had located the source of the inviting voice.

Sitting next to the fire of the fireplace, was an old woman. Her gray hair fell past her shoulders. The fact that she was facing to the back of the room made this a creepy moment. She was sitting in the back of the room and she was facing the back wall. They were looking at the back of her head. There was no way that she could have seen them approach the front door. There was nowhere to peep out through. Not even a ray of light from the outside, as thin as a hair, could penetrate this dim room. The place was sealed completely, yet she saw them before they even knocked on the door. This was getting stranger by the minute.

The silhouettes of the cats that lay on the floor, surrounding the old woman’s feet, were hardly visible to their eyes, which had not yet adjusted well to the poor light in the room. The woman was looking up to the upper back corner of the room, where the wall meets the ceiling. She seemed to be looking at something that wasn’t there. This was confusing to the pair of robbers. They did not know what all this meant.

Inside of Steve’s head, a bunch of questions lined up in his brain, ready to be spoken, all at once, through his mouth. The questions kept adding to the line that kept growing inside of his head when finally, ignoring his inquiring mind, and holding his questions imprisoned in his head, he stuck to the original plan and let the first words escape from between his lips. Hi, we got lost in the… You better bring your friend inside. It’s not safe for them to be out there after dark. The old woman interrupted Steve as he had started to speak, then she continued. And the young man in the car needs medical attention real bad, but if you don’t bring him in before dark, the life threatening wound that he suffered earlier, will be the least of his problems.

Listening to her words, Steve and Rebecca felt confused and frightened at the same time, unable to comprehend the woman’s ability to know things that she had no business knowing. This was a bad mixture of feelings to have at this moment, if they wanted to take control of the situation, and Steve knew this so he took on the offensive. He took a couple of steps towards the old woman and began to interrogate her aggressively.

STEVE Who are you and how do you know so much about us? What the hell is going on here, old woman?

He raised his voice and his weapon as he looked around the room once again.

OLD WOMAN I’m just an old woman.

She answered as she slowly began to turn around. And if you don’t bring your friends in right now, they will be no more.

Aauugh! Rebecca screamed the moment the old woman’s face came around from out of the dark. Steve froze the instant he looked into her eyes. They looked like normal eyes except, their pupils were missing. The old woman’s eyes were as white as the snow that covers these mountain peaks in the wintertime. They were wide opened and stood out in the dim light of the candles, contrasting with the dark wall in the background. The old woman was as blind as a worm.

*

Ricardo and Mark waited outside the cabin for a signal from Steve, but instead, what they heard was Rebecca’s scream. They instinctively ran for the entrance of the cabin, afraid that they were going to engage in a gun battle as soon as they crossed the door. Both rushed in through the door with their guns in their hands, aiming in all directions. What’s going on? Breathing heavily, Ricardo asked as he kept aiming his weapon around the room, looking for a menacing target. Mark was right behind him, mimicking all his moves.

They had also startled Rebecca and Steve, who did not expect the surprise entrance from behind. It prompted a defensive reaction by Steve, who quickly turned around and almost shot his friends.

STEVE "Aauugh! You idiots, you scared the shit out of me! You almost