Tea Leaves and Diamond Bracelets

Rusałka

Match Seventeen: Rusałka:

Feliks played with his empty gun in the dark. He may have been goofy, but he wasn't stupid to keep it loaded while playing around with it. The Polish man kept the bullets locked in the top drawer of his desk. As he played with his gun, an odd memory came into his head.

This was during the war. Poland had just been taken over by Germany at the time. Feliks didn't know what happened. He used to be so strong. The boy had to be. Europe was a savage place at the time. It was either fight back or submit to the stronger party. That being said, Feliks grew soft over the years. He didn't even see Germany's invasion coming. Uncertain of what to do during one October evening, Feliks wandered into the woods.

That's when he saw her.

Feliks picked up the phone back in present day.

"Hello?" Toris asked on the other line.

"Toris, buddy!" Feliks said. There was a pause.

"Feliks? What do you want?" Toris asked. His voice trembled as he spoke.

"Calm down, friend," the Polish man said. "Why are you so upset? I just have a question."

"What?" the Lithuanian man asked.

"Do you remember a woman with long white hair who live in the woods?" Feliks asked.

"Huh?" Toris asked back.

The Polish man looked up at the ceiling. "I remembered when I was in high school during WWII. I was wandering around the woods when I heard singing."

"Singing?"

"Yeah." Feliks rubbed his forehead. "I can't exactly remember the song. She sounded like she was crying at one point."

"I'm not following..."

"Anyway, I followed the singing deep into a clearing in the woods. I pushed past the brush and saw a woman with long white hair. She had her back to me. Beautiful girl. Only her nails seemed to touch the ground."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"I don't know. It's all kind of hazy to me."

"Why are you telling this?"

Feliks sighed. "I don't really know. It just all came to me. You really don't remember such a woman?"

"No..." Toris said.

"Okay, bye," the Polish man said. He hung up before the Lithuanian man could say a word. Feliks set his phone down on the desk. Am I going crazy?

He wasn't.

There were the stories.

The creature itself went by many names. Vampire of the Forest. Rusałka. White Devil of the Forest. Frozen witch. Hag of the Bog. Siren of the Mist. Just to name a few. Not many have seen her face. They've heard her singing. She's only been seen around wartimes. But what is she really? Is she a dark omen? Maybe a lost soul haunting the forest where she is seen? There are many guesses, but no answers to accompany them.

Toris couldn't stop thinking about that phone call with Feliks last night. The Lithuanian man had heard the stories himself. Initially, he chalked it up to bed time stories used to scare children into behaving. Now, Toris was not so sure.

There was that one encounter buried in the back of his mind however.

He was about sixteen at the time. This was during another war. He and Feliks fought on the same side. He couldn't remember which battle. It had been days. Food, water, and ammunition were running low. The young men split up to cover more ground. Feliks took the east while Toris took the west. It was early winter at the time. Snow hadn't fallen on the ground yet. Cold winds were still blowing though. Toris pulled his jacket closer to his slender body. All he had going for him was the path of trees ahead.