The Village Does Not Like Her

(TW mentions Dead Children and body horror)

The village does not like her. I could not truly tell why the village didn’t like the reclusive woman, for she sold eggs from her own coop and honey from her beehive to the villagers for cheap prices, and she seemed to be so kind to everyone she encountered. Yet, the other villagers did not like her.

“It is so strange for that woman to live alone,” They whispered in the streets

“She must be sick in the head to not have garnered a husband yet,” They gossiped in the tavern.

It was so odd to me to hear them talk about her in such a way because on all accounts, she was the most beautiful creature I have ever gotten the pleasure of gazing upon. Her skin was pale ivory, the kind of paleness that exposes the veins underneath. If I stare long enough her skin looks almost blue, and if I stare any longer I can see the way her brown hair looks ever darker than it should be, like the shadowy bark of the trees at the end of the village. 

“Good morning, Dawn.”

An elderly voice broke my yearning gaze and I was brought back to the cloudless world of reality.

“Good morning, Elder Grey,” I spoke in a soft hum of attention. “What can I provide for you today?”

“I would like one of your honeybuns and a loaf of bread…” Elder Grey stopped to follow my gaze. “Oh Dawn, I know that woman is just an awful thing to see on such a beautiful morning.”

Words caught in my throat, I wanted to defend her or to at least tell the Elder that she was being incredibly impolite; however, there is one thing that should be known about me: I am the saddest form of a coward.

“Oh never mind her,” Elder Grey sighed. “I’m sure the woods will be quick to eat her up.”

I closed out her bill and thought harshly upon what she said, as the woods did have a tendency to swallow people whole. It was the very reason the streets seemed to abandon the moment shadows appear too long. It was also the reason that the children were so very sparse in the village. Naivety was a fatal disease in the village, and youthful rebellion resulted in the trees snatching one away. 

As Elder Grey left my bakery, I found myself in a state of expanding thought as the faces of forgotten children ran through my mind. Little cherubic faces, goblin-like hands, little devil smiles, and angelic halos of curls. I was one of the lucky few not snatched away. My mother wrapped a rope around my waist to ensure that even if I was snatched, I would be pulled right back into her coiled arms.

“Dawn?” A tender voice interrupted my memory. “Did you hear me?”

I seemed to blink and the woman was before me. It was some kind of dastardly sin that I did not know her name, for it was her visage that haunted my heart.

“Oh excuse me,” I shook my head as I looked back at her. “I did not hear you, what can I help you with?”

I had never seen her quite so close. I had always kept so much space between us but she apparently did not know the rule that I had made for the two of us that I did not ever intend to tell her.

“I was just wondering, Dawn.” The woman explained as she looked over the menu. “Why does everyone go away at night?”

I cocked my head at her, surely she knew that the woods was a creature with browned teeth and tendrils of green that were filled to the brim with sticky acid. 

“The night is certain death, don’t you know?” I asked her.

“How are they so sure? Has anyone died just because of the night?”

…

I blinked and it was morning again, the bakery was full of chatter. Another child was gone from the village, and some poor woman was crying in the square for the woman of the woods’ head; however, as I kneaded my dough, wrapped it into shapes, and put it in the oven there was no such arrest. No pitchforks or torches in the woods and not a single word was spoken when she pushed her cart into the village with her eggs and honey.

“Good morning, Dawn,” Elder Thomas said as he hobbled in.

“Good morning, Elder Thomas,” I smiled politely, although my eyes were enraptured with the visage of the woman. “What can I provide for you today?”

“I would like one of your honeybuns and a loaf of bread…” Elder Thomas looked over his shoulder and shook his head. “Oh Dawn, I know that woman is just an awful thing to see on such a beautiful morning.”

I only nodded as I packed his order into a package. He looked at me for a second, like I was forgetting to say something and he couldn’t leave until I said something to him.

“Have a good day, Elder Thomas?”

Elder Thomas nodded slowly, his skin seemed to take on an isolated shiver of movement. For a moment, it seemed as though his skin was nothing more than a thin fabric for an eclectic collection of maggots. Though when I blinked he was gone from the bakery, and instead, I caught the woman of the woods’ eyes. She looked at me with sad eyes, like she knew the greatest tragedy of this Earth and I was the fated Orpheus who had doomed her to a life as Eurydice in the underworld. However, she moved towards me with her pale hand reaching for the handle of my door.

“Where are the children?” The woman of the woods demanded, tears in her eyes

“They are on the streets, don’t you see them?” I responded dumbly.

She was beautiful even as she cried, she was the definition of beauty if I had ever been wise enough to read the dictionary verbatim.

“No,” Her voice shook as she spoke. “I hear them every night, where are they? Why won’t the Elders answer me?”

...

As I found my voice, it was another morning at the bakery. My brain beat against my skull as if it demanded freedom, and as I looked out into the street and saw the woman of the woods walking towards my bakery, I was almost tempted to break open my forehead and allow my brain its’ wishes granted. 

“You are early today—”

“Please,” She begged, cutting me off entirely. “What is my name?”

I blinked at her, surely she knew her own name? That would be a strange thing not to know of yourself.

“You know your name surely,” I responded.

She looked at me, and she really started sobbing. I found myself moving from the counter to comfort the crying woman in the woods.

“That’s not right,” She shook her head. “Nothing’s right here, why am I here?”

I looked at her, my confusion fully riddled through my eyebrows as I held her to me. She was so warm, warmer than the oven behind the counter. She was real and beautiful, her skin felt soft too as I ran my fingers over her back.

“You are the only one who says anything normal.” She blubbered into my neck. “Why do they always ask me where the children went? Where did they go?”

...

The village does not like her. I could not truly tell why the village didn’t like the reclusive woman, for she sold eggs from her own coop and honey from her beehive to the villagers for cheap prices, and she seemed to be so kind to everyone she encountered. Yet, the other villagers did not like her...

My head hurt, I have thought that thought before haven’t I? Even if I haven’t, then why did I look out the window and see the woman of the woods outside my window with eyes full of terror as she stared back at me… Her name wasn’t Dawn because I was Dawn, wasn’t I? 

“Good morning, Dawn.” Elder Margaret said as she came through the door.

“I don’t know you, do I?” I asked her quietly.

Elder Margaret froze, and her mouth began to bleed profusely as she continued with her order.

“I would like one of your honeybuns and a loaf of bread…” Elder Margaret looked at me with blood still spilling down her horrible chin. “Oh Dawn, I know that woman is just an awful thing to see on such a beautiful morning.”

“Who are you?” I asked.

Elder Margaret crumbled to the ground like a sack of potatoes and her strange body contorted and twisted until he sat up like Elder Thomas. 

“I would like one of your honeybuns and a loaf of bread…” Elder Thomas looked over his shoulder and shook his head. “Oh Dawn, I know that woman is just an awful thing to see on such a beautiful morning.”

I took a step back from the creature that took on too many faces and as I stared at Elder Thomas's skin, it came to fruition that whatever it was had skin that moved like bugs. There was no such thing as God in that creature’s eyes.

Y o u m a d e u s D a w n

...

“Dawn.” 

I blinked and the woman from the woods stood before me again, we were in the middle of another transaction. Had she ever bought anything from me? Had she ever sold eggs or honey before?

“Where did you take the children?” She asked me with wet cheeks.

When had she started crying? When did I start crying?

“Where are they?” She asked me, this time her voice rising in anger.

“Go away,” I demanded of her.

“Don’t do it,” She screeched, grabbing onto my arm. “I don’t know what you did to the village, but it won’t work on me, so tell me where the children are now!”

I don’t remember having so much hair on my arms, did I ever not have hair on my arms like this? What did I do to myself to get so much hair? There was a copper taste in my mouth as she held my arm….Her eyes widened with realization as she held my arm tightly.

“You killed them, didn’t you?” 

My teeth hurt, and I felt a howling sadness in my chest as she said such a horrible thing to me. Why was she so mean to me? Why didn’t she love me as I loved her?

“I did.” I finally managed to say, with a bitter tone.

“Why did you do it?” 

I blinked so many times, I wanted this story to end. I wanted a new day where she didn’t hate me, but as I blinked, there she stood to clutch my arm. However, the days did pass us by outside. The sun rose and set as the rain tumbled down the streets, Elder Thomas and Elder Margaret, and Elder Grey undulated through the bakery and picked up their identical orders, and the buildings outside had snow on their roofs as the sun beat down on them. Everything but the woman in the woods changed, and there was another problem, I could finally hear the children.

“Why did you do it, Dawn?” She demanded with tears flowing down her face.

The stupid children were so loud, their laughter and their screams always the same high-pitched and cacophonous sound. Why did she love them so much? The stupid children who couldn’t die quietly either

“Because you always loved them more than me,” I cried out.

Her eyebrows furrowed in fury, and I say to God above that I have never seen her look more beautiful than she did right before me.

“I put a curse on you.” Her voice came out venomously. “You dragged me in this bubble with you.”

I stared at her, and I saw all at once the horrible truth as she pulled me forward with a strength that I didn’t know she had. I blinked and saw what she was doing to me, I screamed out, I didn’t want to go back I didn’t want this.

...

It was a makeshift graveyard, I should know because I built it myself. The tiny faces I could not forget sat up in their uncovered holes and stared with their strange milky eyes straight into my soul.

“You didn’t even know my name, and you were jealous of the love I had for them.” She accused me as she dragged me through the children’s graveyard. “That’s why I couldn’t remember my name, the spell was meant to cast your personal hell.”

“What is your name?” I begged. 

She stopped suddenly and stared at me with her righteous anger, I wanted so desperately to kiss her and I could not ignore the fact that she so desperately wanted me dead. 

“My name is mine,” The woman shook with anger. “You stole so much from me, I will not give you my name.”

I felt like she had ripped out my still-beating heart. Was it beating, or did I just pretend that I could feel it beating to remember what had made me love this woman?

“Then the village defended you,” She screamed out. “They said I did this because I was a witch.”

I knew that was true, I had said nothing to defend her when the Elders and the crying parents had chased her through the village. They believed in me because I had lived in the village for so long, I was just the unmarried baker…… Then it hit me again, that no. They did not like me one bit, for I was a strange creature in my bakery with no husband and all alone. I seemed terrifying and aloof, but I was familiar, so they turned against the witch of the woods. However, children see through everything.

“They loved you so much,” I moaned. “Those stupid children, I wanted you to love me as I loved you. Like you loved those children.”

“You didn’t love me.” She shook her head with a growl. “You were just lonely, and saw I was alone too.”

I closed my eyes, I didn’t want to hear her, and I could not ignore her when she said.

“It is time for the children and me to go.” She hissed. “You and this horrible village can rot in here.”

...

There was once a woman in the woods that I desperately loved.

I loved her so much, I never said a word to her and didn’t know her name.

She was kind and beautiful, and she loved children the most.

I hated those children.

I killed them all, one by one, until it was just me and her. 

I should’ve killed the village too, then they wouldn’t ask questions. This was all my fault.

The woman I loved so finally came to my bakery and demanded answers

She saw through my skin, the monster I had been

So I kissed her, I stuck my tongue down her throat so she would feel my love.

And she cursed me as she pulled away, and the horrible village, for the awful things I did.

But I grabbed her by the wrist and forced another kiss. I stole her away into my curse.

She has escaped now, that woman of the woods, it was her own curse after all.

There are only long lines of village elders with voices of children chiding me,

And the woman of the woods lives in her homely cottage with the ghostly children.

I can only watch desperately from the snow globe on her mantle.

Now I understand, why the village does not like her.