Falling Down Woodwir Way

April 27th, 1985

                        The birds disappeared from what was a sunny and peaceful day in Harriston Ontario. The main street was as vacant as a two-star motel on Route 66. It was not just because of the small and local businesses all closing at six o'clock on the dot.

There was something uneasy in the air on that Saturday night. The feeling of just before a wicked storm hits. The same feeling you get before you have to present a speech in front of a crowd at a local school.

It was a very unappealing night, and mostly all of the 2000 residents of this small town kept themselves busy indoors. There was not a dance to attend. There was no rollerblading at the old crumbling hockey arena. Everyone just wanted to stay indoors.

There was one woman however, who had different plans for this cold evening. Down one of eerily quiet streets laid an equally as eerie house. It was a Victorian era home that looked as if it had stories to tell. During the day, it might capture some pleasant looks from people passing through the town looking for old historical buildings. When night came however, it did not look as inviting. This was the home of the Diana family.

They moved from a European country that they do not speak of sometime in the mid 1950's. They have had this house since their arrival. They are a particularly closed off family, which adds even more mystery and uneasiness to this home. Inside, the oldest daughter Claudia had just celebrated her 21st birthday alone. Claudia was stout but held her weight well. In her high school days just a few years prior she was quite self-conscious about weight and overall appearance.

She spent mornings trying to put eye liner on to distract from her mundane brown hair she saw through her cracked mirror. Claudia wore dark colours and leather boots. Much inspired by her favourite movie Grease. Unfortunately, her fantasy of being a "bad sandy" did not turn out like she hoped for. She would often get made fun of for her accent, which nobody could pinpoint where it was from. She used heavy makeup to block out the light freckles which infested her face. The constant bullying caused her to have just one goal. Lay low and get through high school as quickly as possible. She only hung out under the stairwell each day with the fellow outcasts the small high school had to offer.

After graduation, she was not much heard of anymore. It was only in the past few months; she became the talk of this gossip town. It all started when Claudia ran a small ad in the local newspaper offering her services. She claimed she can tell the future. For a conservative town like Harriston, the news sparked criticism, with even a few disgruntled residents wanting her and her family deported from the town. A few jocks from her senior year of high school booked appointments pretending to be serious clients, only to ridicule her in her own home. The only serious cliental she got seemed to be people from out of town. There would be about three a month that would come out of the old creaking home smiling. This would only enrage the neighbours even more. Eventually, Claudia stopped posting ads in the newspaper for her services. No one seen her for a few months. It seemed as though she disappeared. That was until the day she picked up David from school.

David was Claudia's younger brute of a half-brother. He was freshly nine years old, sporting his new buzz cut. He was stout just like his sister. As Claudia came to walk him home, he would waddle down the hallway towards her. It was not David, the parents, students and faculty were all looking at that day, however. It was Claudia, who had a huge baby bump. Clearly pregnant, the news spread quickly around the town. Residents wondered such questions as who would have sex with her, and why was she pregnant so young. It became a popular rumour around the students that she used witchcraft to make the baby. Claudia for the first time was the centre of attention, but for all the wrong reasons.

Claudia knew she had to leave. She could not take the constant pressure surrounding her. She needed a way out. Claudia then started to wake up to vague visions of a boy. This boy was lost like she was. She spent weeks trying to solve the meaning of this vision. All she could recall was a boy that was running away and wanted a better life. She tried to channel this boy through various crystal balls she accumulated over the past year with little to no luck. David would always walk in to see her scribbling something down on a piece of paper. It was like she was trying to solve an ancient code. Claudia was invested in this vision she had and would stop at nothing to figure out the roll of this boy she had visions of, and how he was connected to her.

Claudia suddenly knew what she needed to do. She waited for the perfect night, which just so happened to be that uneasy Saturday night in Harriston. Claudia's lonely 21st birthday.

It was 9:00 at night. The inevitable storm finally hit Harriston, when Claudia stormed out of her house, one hand carrying three old boxes filled to the brim, and one hand covering her pregnant belly.

"The Boy! The Boy!" Claudia screamed in her thick accent.

"The Boy! The Boy! Prophecy! Prophecy!"

Claudia bolted down the street as the wind was singing a violent song, and the thunder was backing it up. Little David came out of the house watching his sister disappear into the darkness.

"Claudie! Where are you going! Claudie!" He cried but was not heard.

She kept running. Barely out of breath, she ran through the storm with her vision on her mind. She hurriedly past the damp Harriston baseball diamonds which were located at the edge of town. Not too much further she ran where she came across a bridge. The bridge had wooden planks across it, with metal bars at each side. The metal was littered with graffiti from the local teenagers. The water was violently rushing underneath the bridge. On the other side of it was a vast and dark forest, with one single sign pointing its way. It was made out of an old dead tree, made to look like an arrow. A name stood in the arrow of the sign.

WoodWir Way it read.

Claudia stood in the middle of the bridge. She howled into the spooky forest,

"12 Years for the boy, moments away for I and her."

She glanced at her growing stomach, and then into the forest. Claudia breathed heavily before taking a sprint into the unknown. The rain was not letting up, in fact it was storming worse than before. Her only source of light as she ran into the dark forest was the rapid lightning in the sky. Claudia went off the main path and zigzagged in various directions, as if she was looking for the perfect spot.

"Prophecy, Prophecy! Where did you come from?" Claudia screeched with insanity.

Claudia found herself on a perch in the forest. She took one of her boxes and aggressively emptied it on the mud below as it splashed. She took out a lighter and tried her best attempt to light the candles in the heavy rain. She aligned them all into pentagram, sat herself in the middle, and started to chant.

"WoodWir! WoodWir! Do you hear me calling your name? It is I, Claudia Lily Diana, and the unborn one, here to begin your prophecy! The night is perfect!"

She began to cackle as she looked down one final time at her pregnant belly.

"The Circumstances are Perfect! Take me to the time of the next one and let us escape from this period once and for all!" Claudia chanted once again.

She began to aggressively cackle as the wind threw its biggest gusts, as the rain laid its hardest storm, and the thunder roared its loudest scream. The candles burned bright through it all, getting brighter and brighter.

Suddenly, there was nothing. The rain stopped. The wind went quiet. The candles blew out.

Claudia was nowhere in sight. She seemingly,disappeared.