Fic: Simon's Woods
Title: Simon’s Woods
By Kelli/Nessa5
Written for madmad_stories2,
The ten words: crater crow eldritch fortune gosh legs lunatic stars stumbled own
Word count 870
Note:. Sorry it’s so late. RL the past few weeks have been very busy.
" You’re a fool Mister, if you think you can go though them trees without getting killed.
The old man scolded after upending his cup to get the last dregs of beer from it. He slammed the cup on the bar and leaned closer to the well dressed dandy, “Simon’s woods are cursed,” he hissed through his missing teeth. “The last man who took the shortcut through them was found the next morning in Crater field a mile away. There wasn’t a mark on his body, but all his blood was gone, and the look on his face was as if he’d seen the Devil himself.”
James Puffwell shrank back from the man foul breath and put his own cup carefully on the bar. He stood up and put his hands on his hips. “By gosh, you sound like an old women! I have the good fortune to have been educated in the best schools, and I do not believe in your local spooks. I am sure the blood sucking ghost In Simon’s woods is nothing more than a story the old grannies made up to keep the kids out them. And to prove it to you I AM going to take the short cut through them to get back to my hotel. And in the morning you will see that I was right.” He gathered up his coat and with his head high and his boot heals clumping in a determined stride on the wood floor he walked out into the night.
The old man watched him go, half torn between stopping the fool and letting him go to his fate. Finally he turned back to the bar, “Give me another, Milly. It’s a long walk home around the woods and it’s cold out there.”
***
It didn’t take long for James to realize that he’d made a bad move. The ail house was far behind him and the town was a long way before him. The moon and stars shone almost no light on the path through the dense eldritch woods. But he was committed to his lunatic boast now; there was no other way but forward as he stumbled down the dark path.
He startled when a crow made a shrill cry just above his head and was quickly followed by the whole covey of the black birds taking off from the trees above him, their obnoxious calls loud in the silent woods. He laughed at himself for being afraid of birds and walked on.
The next thing to startle him on the path was to find out that he wasn’t alone on it. he thought he could see the shape of another person waiting for him in the middle of the way. As he got closer he could see there was indeed a man waiting for him in the middle of the woods. If the faint black and white moonlight the man’s red hair shown clearly, and it had to have been a trick of that same moonlight that the man’s eyes seemed to glow a soft blue. “You should have lessened t the old man James Puffwell.” The man’s voice was soft and mocking.
The chilling words sent a chill all the way from his toes to the top of his head causing his hair stand on end. Bluffing to cover his fright, James puffed himself up to his considerable height and spoke in a superior voice, “Who are you sir? And how do you know of me?” as though they were meeting in a park in the middle of the afternoon.
“I am Simon, and I know everything that passes through my woods.” The dim light hid most of the man’s face but James thought the man looked amused.
“Then you would know that I simply wish to pass through your woods to reach my bed on this cold night.”
“Tonight I am not in the mood to allow trespasser's through my wood.” He did sound amused, and condescending.
“I have friends waiting for me on the other side. Would you have me turn around and go back the way I came only to go all the way around?” James bluffed.
“You should have taken the old man’s advice and gone around. You have no friends waiting for you, not at the inn nor anywhere else. No one, but the old man will ever miss you.”
It was the truth, but how did this man know that? James tried to convince himself that it was just the cold making him tremble, but it was not, and he knew it, and the man standing so calmly in front of him knew it too. “What do you want of me?” he squeaked, to his further shame.
The man laughed softly, mockingly, “Follow me and you will find out,” he said, turning and disappearing off the path into the trees. When James hesitated the man reappeared, “It will be much less painful for you if follow me without a fight. Either way the end will be the same.”
Deep in his soul James knew the truth when he heard it, and on trembling legs he followed the man off the path and into the woods, never to be seen again.
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