Spirit of the Lonely Places



The deserted moon spanned hundreds of miles of blank grey surface, the light of the distant star had long since faded into night. The grey landscape had grown dark, an ominous wash of black streaked across a star-dotted canvas.


Firelight roared and churned, not unlike the ethereal and otherworldly movement of human dancers thrusting sparks upwards into the sky to fade, dim and vanish against the silent and fathomless blackness of space. There were no nebulae here, no arm of the spiral galaxy, only the stretching vastness of space.


The human sat huddled together around the fire propped on camp chairs speaking softly Sunny hunched some distance from the fire mesmerized by the dancing flames to fearful to draw any closer, Likewise, Krill hung towards the back of the circle in fear of the cold resting out in the darkness and the heat that roared so close by.


At that moment, Captain Vir stood the firelight casting eerie shadows across his face, flames licking across skin, tinting his otherwise human skin orange with fire.


Those around the fire quieted. Sunny sat up head cocked to the side, dog sitting next to her as the fire crackled.


He turned to face Krill and Sunny, single eye sunken deep into its socket by shadows cast form the flames, "The spirit of the lonely places.... Do you know the stories?" The fire crackled and died low for a moment casing the man's eyes into even deeper darkness. Sunny shook her head, Krill shrunk back, the humans voice had dropped low hanging barely above a whisper, "It goes by many names including, 'the devourer of mankind' and, most notably, 'the wendigo'." More dancing flames, "The Wendigo springs from legend, a nightmare of the Algonquian people said to the embodiment of hunger and greed. A giant of a creature many feet taller than a man, with wide eyes, sharp claws, and an emaciated body often depicted with the head of an unholy stag."


He turned around the fire in a great circle dark sockets lingering for a long time on Krill and Sunny, "There are many stories of how the wendigo came to be, some say he is an evil spirit, some say he was once a man, but all agree upon his insatiable desire, his unquenchable hunger. The most popular story depicts a hunter, a man lost from his tribe in the cold reaches of the mountains, starving, and near death he is driven by his insatiable hunger to consume..... human flesh." White teeth glittered at krill over the fire. "By breaking one of the most Taboo laws humankind he is cursed to wander the icy reaches always hungry.... Never satisfied. A metaphor on greed? Or something more?"


Sunny Sat back a little where she sat, Krill hid behind a chair, "Regardless, to this day, natives of that land still blame their disappearances on this creature warning against wandering the forested reaches..... Alone."


"But these aren't the only stories that haunt humankind. Across Earth hundreds if not thousands of legends have appeared, and none so gruesome as that of Teke, Teke." Above the blackness of the sky seemed to grow deeper to Krill, "Originating in Japan in the year 1969 the legend goes something like this. A young school boy, walking home late in the evening wanders lost in an unknown part of town. The street ahead opens into a wide courtyard building complex, and there he sees the silhouette of a young girl in the window. Elbows on the windowsill, she leans her face against her hands staring out into the night. Long, dark hair obscures her face."


Krill found himself oddly close to Sunny.


"Thinking he might get directions form her, the boy approaches through the rain. A train rumbles by in the near distance. As he grows closer, he can see the look on the girl's face.... a sneer of pure hatred, before he can move, the girl leaps from the windowsill, and to his horror he sees....."


Nothing but the sound of the fire.


"She is missing the bottom half of her body. A horrible gash is rent across her torso spilling her internal contents out onto the street from her dangling torso. She stands to full height on her hands dark hair covering her face with nothing but the glittering of her hate-filled eyes. The boy runs, and behind him he can hear teke-teke-teke as her hands slap the pavement. He races past buildings, through puddles across the street listening as all the while teke-teke-teke."


How long had Krill been gripping Sunny's arm.


"Ahead, a fence, and a train yard, he is almost to freedom.... Teke-teke-teke.... He leaps catching hold of the rain slicked links scrambling as she approaches, but then he is on the ground. Flat on his back he peers up through the rain into her hate-filled eyes, and then comes searing pain followed by blackness. A boy is found dead the next morning, cut in half bloody handprints leading away from the scene."


Was Sunny holding onto him?


"As usual, there are many versions of the legend, was it suicide, was it murder, was it an accident that caused the train to cut the young girl in half. No one knows, what they do know is that she remains, vengeful and full of hate. You cannot outrun her, and even if you could, she will not stop until you are gone. Three days is all it takes."


Vir looked around the fire, "Beware wandering near the trains of Japan at night, or she might just." A sudden rush forward. Krill squealed, Sunny leaped to her feet. The captain laughed and settled back near the fire.


"These legends have survived for thousands of years, when I was a child, one particular legend stood out. Told at schools, and at sleepovers for young girls the story has many variations, as most stories do. Some speak of suicide, a depressed queen, dead children, but all require the use of a mirror the name Bloody Marry, and a summoning ritual. If you know anything at all about human lore you will understand that a mirror is said to have power to reflect the soul, and was often used as a divination tool for witches. In certain areas of the world, it was customary to turn mirrors to the wall after a person died to avoid allowing the spirit to be caught inside."


Sunny was still on her feet. Krill hid behind one of her massive legs eyeing the darkness behind them.


"The exact ritual to summon Bloody Marry has been lost, and there are many variations. Turn of the lights shut the doors and repeat her name three times as you stare into a mirror, spin in a circle and say it ten times, light some candles, keep the water running, flush the toilet. If you get the ritual right, you may just see her, staring back at you from the mirror. Depending on the story, her dead child may appear in your arms, and if it cries you will die, but if it remains silent you will be allowed to live. In other cases your chances aren't so high usually bodily injury or death follows, your eyes ripped out your body covered in claw marks, your limbs removed or your head decapitated."


Sunny had scooted closer towards the fire with Krill at her heels. Around the fire, even a few of the humans peered backwards into the dark.


"A similar story originated in Mexico. A woman Maria by name wished the hand of man who would not have her. In her rage she dragged her children to the river, and one by one.... She drowned them. When the man would still not have her, she returned to the river. Realizing what she had done she threw herself into the water to die as her children did."


Distant stars glittered cold above them, "But heaven would not have her, and she was doomed to walk the earth crying out for her dead children. She appears La Lorona, the wailing woman, soaking wet wearing all white, she calls for her children, reaching out for those unsuspecting children that pass mistaking them for her own. Like bloody marry if splash water on a mirror and call her name.... she may just come."


Was that the sound of running water.


"Oh, My children!"


Krill jumped.


Sunny had seated herself with her back to the fire now staring out into the darkness. Krill stood with her as Vir's voice washed over them.


"Do you think I'm pretty...? How do you answer that question? How do you respond to a woman with a covered face?"


Krill had a horrible feeling they were about to find out. Waffles had moved over to sit with Sunny unaware of the quiet tension around them.


"Kuchisake-onna that's her name, and she wanders the streets of japan at night asking one question..... "Am I pretty." Despite her covered face you must answer. Answer yes and she will pull down her mask reviling her horribly slit mouth. She will ask again." He moved silently forward through the humans slowly turning to face Krill and sunny. The firelight glittered against his remaining eye, "Am I pretty..... tell her no and you will die, tell her yes, and she will slit your mouth to look just like hers. Your only hope is to confuse her ask her, "Am I pretty?" Or reply and say, "Your Average.... Run that is your only option to escape her.... The slit-mouth-woman." He grinned, and the fire flickered against his skin.


"But there is one figure, a figure that has haunted the hearts of men for thousands upon thousands of years. In his name, all evil is spoken, all darkness is brought forth. He haunts the hearts of men silently whispering inside driving them to wickedness and evil."


The fire was growing low behind him, "As many of our stories have demonstrated, he goes by many names; Light Bringer, Beelzebub, son of the morning, Morning Star, Lucifer, and Satan, The Devil. In popular Christian theology Satan represents the dark to god's light, a profound evil and symbol of darkness. There are many stories of Satan just like any other character from religion or myth. The presiding idea in all of these stories is Satan's rebellion against God. Some say he was once god's most beautiful angel until he was cast out to eternal damnation ruling over hell or wandering the earth casting men's hearts into darkness and with him he brought others."


Krill shivered.


"Unlike these other stories, the Devil, has presided longer than any other myth or legend I have thus told. His malignancy is more pervasive, he is not confined to one area, but is carried in the hearts of men wherever they go. He is the first evil the one that caused man to fall from his state of glory, the one who whispered to Kane spurring the first murder. He lives in the darkness, hiding, whispering. With the help of his devils. Slowly he brings man to his knees under the crutch of vice and sin."


He shivered, "The devil has no real power over man other that what they give him, and they give him much. Fall far enough, and it is said he may take you and your body with him. For thousands of years humans have turned from the light of their creator down darker paths in worship of this dark figure. Witches used rituals of blood to summon him at their bidding, cultists sacrificed their own children to the flames to appease him, and so he has remained hiding in our hearts and in our heads driving our wars and our secret lusts until we are nothing but the monsters he has made us."


He grew silent then as the fire smoldered behind him. The dark landscape was quiet, the humans were uncommonly still staring into the embers or the stars. Captain Vir stood hunched over the fire watching cinders flicker and burn.


Sunny and Krill sat together on the hard paced earth chilled despite the warmth of the fire.


***


Interesting how pervasive fear is to humans. We think them recklessly fearless masters of horror, but the truth is that man does not fear what is concrete, they fear what lies inside their own minds It bubbles up within them manifesting as true horror.


For humans horror is not the unknown or inhuman monsters, it is the human kind of monster. Taking a person and changing them so they aren't quite right turning things upon their head until truth and safety means nothing, a cannibal, a woman cut in half, a mother who murders her children, a slit mouth, the face in the mirror.


And the evil lying dormant on the inside poised to consume.

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