Death of The Light

Last Year, I went on a trip with my School friends, Natasha and Prem. We rented a cabin in the woods and planned to stay there for a week, enjoying the countryside. I am a keen amateur photographer and I was looking forward to chance to take some photos of whatever plants and wildlife we found out there in the wilderness.

We started early in the morning on the day of our trip. After packing our supplies into the boot of the car, we set out on the road. It was going to be a long journey and while I was driving, Natasha and Prem decided to take a nap in the back seat.

Four hours later, we were almost our destination. The road was terrible, filled with bumps and potholes. The car was shaking so much that it woke my friends up. They said they were hungry and before long, we spotted a small diner by the side of the road. We decided to stop and have a snack.

When we pulled up outside, we noticed that the diner much more dilapidated and run-down than we had realized. Some of the letters were missing from the sign and the windows were dirty and covered in insects. There was a guard dog on a chain sitting outside the front door. When we got closer, we realized it wasn't a dog at all, but a wild wolf, I pulled out my camera and took a picture of it.

When we went inside, we saw that the diner was almost completely empty. The only other customer, besides us, was a creepy old woman. Her face was lined and wrinkled and she looked like a homeless person. Her clothes were ragged and dirty. Flies were buzzing around her head and every time she coughed, she hacked up a big wad of mucus and spit it out on the floor.

The diner was filthy. The tables were stained with grease and the walls were crawling with bugs. All three of us were hungry so we sat down and ordered some burgers, fries.

While we waited, I couldn’t take my eyes off the old woman. The most disturbing thing about her was that her left eye was missing. There was just an hollow, empty hole where her eye should have been. When she noticed we were looking at her, the woman became very irritated. She turned to face our table and began to laugh sarcastically.

The waitress brought over our food and we started eating. The old lady saw we were still staring at her and she growled at us. Then, she reached into her pocket, pulled out a glass eye and held it up to her mouth. Her lips spread into a malevolent grin as she stuck out her tongue and began to lick it. It was the most disgusting thing I had ever seen. She was cackling like a hyena.

Cyril grabbed my camera and said, “Hey old lady! Smile!”. Then he took a picture of her. The old woman suddenly stopped laughing and her face twisted into a scowl. She stood up and shuffled towards our table. We were surprised and a little frightened by this turn of events. Drinks and rolled over our burgers and fries. She let out a string of obscene curses, calling us everything under the sun, then shuffled back to her table and sat down.

We were left sitting there in stunned silence, shocked by her behavior. We couldn’t eat the food after her eye had been all over it so, we just got up, threw some money on the table and left.

As we walked out the door, the wolf who had been sitting quietly suddenly leaped up and started growling at us and gnashing its teeth. It was tugging against the chain and hopping back and forth, looking like it wanted to tear us apart.

I looked up at the sky and saw that it was dark and there was a storm approaching. The wolf let out a long howl and I remembered what my grandmother had always told me when I was a child: “Wolves always howl at those who are about to die.”

We quickly got back into our car and drove on. Within a few minutes, we had driven into the storm. Thunder and lightning started and it began to rain heavily. I switched on the window wipers and tried to tune in a station on the radio. I wanted to put on some music to cheer us up and raise our spirits, but we were up in the mountains and the reception was poor.

All I could find was a station playing old blues music. The clouds above grew darker and darker. I had to switch on the headlights. We drove in silence, listening to old blues guitarists singing creepy songs with lyrics like “In the pines, in the pines, where the sun don’t ever shine, I would shiver the whole night through…” and “There’s a hellhound on my trail.”

Looking over my shoulder, I saw my friends had fallen asleep in the back seat. When I turned around again to look at the road, I had to suddenly slam on the brakes. The car skidded to a halt on the wet road and Natasha and Prem were thrown forward, hitting their heads on the front seats.

"What are you doing?” they shouted angrily.

“Look!” I replied in a trembling voice.

We couldn’t believe our eyes. Standing in the road in front of us, was the old lady from the diner. How could that crazy old bat get there so quickly? There was no way on earth…

I got out of the car and cautiously approached the old woman. She just stared right through me.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “We apologize for what happened at the diner…”

Before I could finish, the old lady swung at me and slapped me across the face. The force of the blow was so strong that it knocked me off my feet. Natasha and Prem jumped out of the car. Natasha lifted me up and dragged me back to the car while Prem started shouting at the old woman. She just stood there and laughed in his face.

Prem ran towards her and probably would have hit her, but the old woman suddenly opened her mouth. From somewhere down in the depths of her body, there came a low buzzing sound. Then, a swarm of bees flew out of her mouth.

They attacked Prem, swarming all over his face, stinging his mouth his nose and his eyes. He was screaming and trying to beat them off with his hands. We couldn’t believe our eyes. Natasha stood next to me, not daring to move.

Finally, Prem collapsed on the ground and began writhing in pain. Large boils appeared on his face and his head swelled up like a ripe melon. The old woman threw her head back and began cackling loudly.

Natasha and I jumped back into the car and locked all the doors from the inside. We were in a panic. My heart was pounding and I could barely breathe. I searched for the keys and Natasha began rooting around in her backpack, looking for her cell phone so she could call the police.

When I looked up, the old lady was standing in front of the car, grinning at me. In her hand were the keys to the car and she laughed as she jingled them at me. Natasha and I stared at her, open mouthed, as she walked around to the passenger window. With a balled fist, she banged against the glass and it shattered.

She grabbed Natasha by the neck and began choking her. Then, she opened her mouth and let out a gust of nasty, fetid breath. I watched in horror and, right in front of my eyes, her face began to melt like ice in hot weather. I screamed.

“My face!” she cried.

At that moment I lost all hope that we would get out of this mess alive. Natasha’s face turned to liquid right in front of me. Blood and skin dripped off his skull like hot wax and his eyeballs dropped out of their sockets.

She reached out for me with hands that were dripping with blood and mucus. In a hoarse, barely audible voice, she moaned, “Help me!”

I recoiled in horror and turned my head, unable to look at the disgusting sight.

Then, the old woman reached out and touched my arm. I froze, unable to move. A searing pain shot through my whole body and my entire arm went black and withered away until it looked like the arm of a desiccated corpse.

I kept screaming and screaming until I couldn’t scream anymore and everything went black…

We woke up the next morning, lying in a clearing in the woods. Me and Prem were completely naked and our skin was covered from head to toe in terrible scratches. Our bodies ached as if we had been beaten and tortured all night.

When we made our way back to the road, we found our car. The windows were all smashed and the exterior looked like it had been beaten with a hammer and scratched with a knife. The interior was charred and blackened as if it had been set on fire.

Without a word, we crawled into the vehicle and drove down the road. The car chugged along as if it was going to give out at any moment. We eventually came to the diner and we crawled inside, begging for someone to help us and call the police.

At a table in the corner, staring at us and laughing out loud, sat the old lady.