by Elle Anor
KONITAH – a Short Story
She can smell your fear
First edition. February 3, 2014.
Copyright © 2014 Elle Anor
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
This free e-book may be copied, distributed, reposted, reprinted and shared, provided it appears in its entirety without alteration, and the reader is not charged to access it.
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Konitah – the Short Story
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Konitah – the Short Story
They hear your footsteps on the dry leaves. Hear every twig, trampled by your feet, snaps. The beating of your heart sounds like a drum roll in their ears. Your fast, shallow breathing, alert them – a human was running. They smell your fear!
Climb into the nearest, highest tree. Stay there until daybreak. It will save your life.
On their hind legs, they will jump; try to grab you from the tree. Never look down. Avoid those fiery red eyes. They will hypnotize you. Let you climb down at own free will.
Stop!
It’s a trap!
They will catch you! Rip you apart, to consume you.
Who are they? You will ask.
It is the creatures of the dark, misty woods. Most people will tell you.
With hair as dark as the night. Eyes as red as a flaming fire. White teeth sparkling as the clear water from the creek. Dagger-like claws as sharp as razors. A roar as loud as thunder. Breath as foul as the sewer. They are neither man, nor wolf, neither brute, nor beast.
No one has seen them before. Only those who did not live to tell, how they have been slaughtered by the seven-foot tall creatures.
Those who survive, says there are a pack of them. A few of them say there are only two.
However, there’s only one lurking the forest, only one tracking you down. She can smell your fear.
Her name is – Konitah!
She dwells in the woods and hunts only at night, hungry, seeking revenge. Her lover was taken from her a mere six years ago.
Be careful you do not mistake the light for daybreak. It is the light of the bright moon, where she hid. Wait until the first birds appear, then – but only then – climb down from the tree. Get out of the woods! Run as fast as you can! Konitah is hiding from daylight. She will not appear.
***
It was a rumor of course, because Konitah killed many men during daylight.
This was the story told by many about the creature from the woods. Everyone from the village of Billedar and the town of Brumahdor told their children to scare them. Grown ups and children spread this story wherever they went.
Some of them weren’t even there when it happened. Only a few of them were at the town center before she became the beast – before she became the killer of men.
***
Marilla gazed at her two boys. They were fast asleep.
Every night the two of them wanted to hear the same story – the story of Konitah. Marilla didn’t tell the same story like the one going around. No, she told them a beautiful one.
She told her twins the story of a woman who loved and lost, of a woman who searched the dark woods, hoping to find her true love again. A bad, selfish witch put a spell on the woman. She would stay in the woods forever and never find her true love ever again.
She smiled, tucked them in and gave each of them a kiss on the cheek. “She won’t harm you. She knows you’re mine,” she whispered.
The smile faded from her face. She closed her eyes for a moment, thinking back.
Her husband entered and stood behind her. “Are the children still awake?”
Marilla gasped aloud when she swung around. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
She tried to pull herself together. She forced a smile on her face, before she replied. “Yes, finally.”
“The story of Konitah again?”
She smiled sadly while nodding.
Marilla gazed a while longer at her children with a tenderness in her eyes. She thought she would hate them, but she couldn’t. They were flesh of her flesh. She bore them out of obligation only, but Marilla loved her twins, Nasho and Hamee, with her whole heart.
As the years passed by, she grew to care for the man she once hated. She still couldn’t love him, because her heart belonged to someone else.
Uragi sat at the table in the kitchen when Marilla walked in. She filled the kettle with water, put a few more stumps of wood on the fire and hung it on the hook over the fireplace.
“You tell the story different from the one I heard before.”
She shrugged. “I don’t want them to be scared of the woods.”
He flew up from behind the table and grabbed her by the arm. He turned her around and glared at her. “What if she harms our boys when they go in the woods, because they are not afraid?”
She stood still. Without blinking, she looked him in the eye. “I just know she won’t harm them.”
Uragi shook his head. “I’m going to bed,” he announced. He strolled out of the kitchen, but stopped in the doorway. He glanced back at his wife. Their eyes met again for an instant. “You must forget about her. She’s a creature now. A beast.”
Marilla sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. Not a day went by without thinking of her. About the love, she lost.
It was forbidden for two women to be together; to live as husband and wife – as lovers.
She had to make a choice. Married Uragi or be stoned to death. She chose marriage. That was the last time she ever saw Konitah again.
That night the killings in the woods began; it had not stopped since the wedding, six years ago.
Many nights when the moon was at its brightest, Marilla would go outside. For a while, she would stare at the woods.
It was all quiet – serene. One could hear the rippling of the water of the river, running through the woods a kilometer away.
She saw movement behind the trees, close to the house. A dark figure with red eyes appeared, staring back at her. She knew it was Konitah.
A sharp, burning sensation filled her chest. She desired to see her once again to touch her for just a second.
With in an instant the figure was gone again; vanished without making a sound.
Marilla stood a while longer, waited for her tears to dry, and her aching heart to calm down, before opening the door. She glanced one more time over her shoulder before she entered the house.
