Eridanus ~ A Collection Of Short Stories

The Maiden of the Woods

(Reviewed by WritersBlock1316)

(Prompt Contest for Halloween Vault 3D. Word count-958 words)

The stormy weather was not ideal for one to go camping in the woods. Yet, they were a young, bold couple. Daring. Adventurous. Dead.

Vera and Cruz Diego were rumoured to have camped out in the woods two days ago, on the night of Halloween. They were seen entering Grey Woods with all their camping gear, but nobody saw them leave after the terrible storm that struck that night. The leaves lay scattered and branches were broken. But the couple simply vanished in the woods.

Apparently, the people who went looking for the them found only their initials carved into a 100 year old tree. I had a hunch about the carvings on the tree. A hunch, which if confirmed, could indicate what happened to them.

I packed my backpack for a treck into the woods to investigate the couple's disappearance. As I zipped up the bag and walked out of the door, I thought about the rumours about the strange creatures in the forest. Mysterious creatures that were rumoured to be lurking in Grey Woods.

I trudged down the road. Banshees and witches were something I didn't believe in, and it seemed ridiculous that they'd be haunting the woods. But there was another creature I had in mind. One that people had actually spotted. The Blue Maiden.

She was a lady who was true to her name. Her clothes were a pale blue, seemed to be made of smoke. Her eyes were supposed to be icy blue, without pupils. Her long fingernails were her most well-known feature. Although nobody could conclude why the Blue Maiden had pale blue fingernails, I shuddered as I thought of a theory. Only time would tell if I was right. For now, my aim was to find out what fate the Diego couple had met with in the woods.

A kilometre's hike later, Grey Woods was in sight. I stopped for a moment, gazing at the tall maple trees inside the woods. The strange way in which the sunlight glinted off the tree trunks gave the woods a greyish glow, owing to the name 'Grey Woods'. The woods seemed greyer that day because of the storm clouds above.

Taking a deep breath, I walked in. My feet crunched on the dry leaves on the wood floor and every sound I made was magnified in the silent woods.

My first stop was the tree under which the Diegos had camped. The same tree where their carved initials had been found.

The huge mahogany tree wasn't difficult to find, and I spotted it from several yards away. My boots stepped softly on the fallen yellow leaves, as I made my way to the tree as quietly as I could.

The initials were there in the middle of the trunk. "V.D & C.D".

I leaned closer towards the trunk, running my fingers over the carving. The inscription was irregular, and the letters were not perfectly straight. A blade couldn't have made this, I thought.

I looked closer at the edges of the inscription. My heart raced with dread as I realised that my theory had been right.

The initials seemed to have been made by fingernails.

I recalled the second part of the Blue Maiden's legend. She selected her victims carefully, usually unsuspecting campers in the woods. The tales I had heard claimed that the Blue Maiden killed her selected victims and added a glass bead to her necklace every time she claimed a new person.

And before claiming them, she marked their initials on tree trunks with her long fingernails.

My head was pounding at the realisation that the initials on the tree trunk weren't made by the Diegos after all.

"I shouldn't be here...," I muttered to myself as I stumbled across the leaves, tightening my backpack. If the couple had indeed been the victims of the Blue Maiden, nothing could have saved them anyway.

The trees rushed past me as I rushed away from the old mahogany tree. My breathing was heavy, and it seemed as though my heart was beating a hundred miles per hour. I couldn't be here.

I stumbled upon a clearing a few minutes later. Young maple trees circled the clearing, and their red and gold leaves littered the ground. I spotted a red rag from the corner of my eye. I carefully looked at it from a distance and realized it was a jacket wedged under a large boulder. This indication of human life, for some reason, only aggravated my fear. The sooner I got out of Grey Woods, the better. I didn't want to have anything to do with the creatures of the woods or with the Diegos' disappearance anymore.

As I made my way out of the clearing, my eyes fell on the trunk of a nearby maple tree. I squinted in the sunlight to see what was on the trunk.

Two letters were carved into the tree trunk. A person's initials.
My initials.

There was a faded tint of blue on the edges of the carving.

My blood ran cold as I saw the mutilated wood. My brain froze for a moment and I almost collapsed onto the ground.

There was a soft tinkle of glass beads behind me, outside the clearing. I heard a twig break. I froze.

"I love new company," I heard a lady whisper, her voice carrying in the wind. "The more people I kill, the less lonely I am here," she cackled. Her laugh echoed through the woods.

The last things I saw were blue fingernails. The Blue Maiden was responsible for the disappearance of the Diegos. She still haunts the eastern part of Grey Woods.

Only these days, I accompany her.