This story is a total fiction. It came from the imagination of the author. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental and was not the intent of the author. There are no persons in this story that are under 18 years old with the only exception of the farmers 12 year old son that was not involved in any acts of a sexual or violent nature.
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The year is 1432 of the Christian calendar. I owned a small farm on the Hungarian plain. The harvest was in, and I was celebrating the event with a few of my friends in the village tavern. Not a thing I could afford very often but tonight was a special night.
It had been a long, hot, dry summer and there were times it was doubtful there would be a harvest. After the King's taxes, there would be enough for my small family and I to survive another cold hard winter. This was all a poor peasant could ask for. Unless you were of noble birth, you could ask for little more.
The night grew dark and since I had no horse I would have to walk the one and a half leagues to my farm.
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I finished my last pint of ale and bid goodnight to my friends and the tavern keeps.
As I left the warmly lit tavern, I pulled my coat around me against the cold north wind that seemed to chill me to my bones.
I walked at a brisk step. This helped to keep me warm as well as shorten the journey. The road was dark. It twisted and turned through the woods. All the leaves had fallen from the trees and what I could see held the cold look of death. There, twisted branches seemed to reach out and drag me down. There was no moon to light my path and even the stars failed me in the night mist.
I had walked to about the half way point when I felt someone was following. I couldn't see or hear anyone but it was just a ghostly feeling that made me shiver. Not from the cold but from the strange feeling that tugged at my coat tail.
I stopped in my tracks and listened but I could hear nothing. Feeling just a little silly, if not at ease, I walked on. I guess it is just the darkness of the night that made me imagine this ghostly tracker.
I came to a path that led into the woods I knew would take some time off my journey. I knew this path well but I had only used it in the day time. Never on a dark night like this. There would be no light at all in the deep woods that the path passed through and I knew that if I lost the path it would extend my journey, not shorten it. Then still, there was that haunting feeling that I was not alone in these woods but that someone was following me.
Once again I looked back the way I had come but still I could hear or see no one.
I smiled to myself, telling myself, "Are you such a cowardly fool that you see what is not there to see? Show some courage and move along."
I took one last look behind me and stepped out on the path through the woods. My pace slowed since I could not even see my boots carrying my body. It wasn't long before I had lost all sense of direction and I knew taking the path had been a mistake. I was so lost that I could not even turn back to the road. I didn't know by now in what direction lay the road.
Having no choice, I could only plod on; hopefully I could somehow find my way.
As I walked I could hear the twigs and leaves crack and snap under my feet.
The mist grew thicker as I walked and that feeling was back that someone was out there in the mist following in my foot steps.
Once again I stopped and listened. This time I heard the twigs snap behind me and knew something or someone was there.
"Hello," I called, "is someone there."
This time I was answered with soft laughter, a woman's laughter. Not the laughter of joy but this laugh was cruel and sinister. The laughter of the hunter who has its prey at her mercy.
This caused the hair to stand up on the back of my neck. There was someone there. Not an animal, or at least not the kind of animal with four legs. No wolf or bear ever made a sound like I was hearing that moment.
I was overcome with panic I turned from the laughter and ran. I could not see my hand in front of my face but my fear seemed to give me wings. The tree branches whipped and cut my face but still I ran. The brambles grew up around me and tore my clothes. I ignored the cuts and scratches to my body and ran on, I stumbled and got to my feet running on ever deeper into the forest. Finally I ran head long into a rock or tree trunk, but whatever it was it knocked me out cold.
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When I awoke, I felt a trickle of blood oozing from my fore head. I was gasping for breath. My head was still spinning when I sat up and looked around. There, about ten feet from my prostrate body was a patch of mist that seemed to glow with a light of its own. That same woman's laughter seemed to come from it.