Whistle in the wind.

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The person who saw this candle alight in the window was a young girl who lived just off the eastern edge of the woods.

Alex was only nineteen-years-old and she was a resident of the Bates Psychiatric Hospital which sat outside the woods. It had not always been a hospital. Once it was a great house with a family, rich and spoiled, with not only a house bigger than anyone ever needed, but a woodland in their own back yard.

The family lived in the house for many generations, up until the aristocratic age died out, leaving a big empty house too big for any one family to need, and too expensive for the majority to afford. Then, in the 80s it was snapped up in an auction by a charitable organisation that catered to the wounded and mentally ill. It was almost impossible to tell that the clinical looking building with its harsh fluorescent lights, bleach white walls, and dull spotted hard stone floors was once a flourishing pretty house, host to parties with guests from around the world, including stars from Hollywood, singers, and even duchess’ and dukes.

The only thing that remained from that house was the old groundkeepers place, the cabin in the woods.

Alex had seen the cabin in the woods on many occasion. She had first seen it when she found her way into the woods nearly one year prior to that night. Before that she wasn’t a resident at Bates; she had been living at another hospital, a centre for children.

It was lucky for her that her friends James and Blake came with her to Bates. They even had the same birthday, meaning they came at exactly the same time. It hadn’t crossed Alex’s mind before, but maybe that’s what had first brought them together?

On that night, she was sitting in her room, on the edge of the mattress on her small single bed. She was drawing, leaning from the bed onto the windowsill that overlooked the grounds, leading up to the lip of the woods. She didn’t have her own desk, so the windowsill had to do, though even if there was a desk or table to sit at, Alex liked the view and if it were her choice, it would sit beside it anyway, purely for the view.

Alex decided not long after she arrived at Bates that it was somewhat a leg up from her last home, solely because of the woods. It was of course fenced off, but the fence that kept her and the other patients from getting through was quite flimsy.

Alex noticed that for some reason, the staff here were not so anxious about keeping the patients from letting themselves off out of sight as they were where she grew up.

It became obvious, when James told her, ‘We were kids. Of course they’re going to be worried about our safety, people get sued for losing kids. Nobody cares if an adult goes missing.’

Alex smirked knowing that James, although cynical was completely right. ‘I wouldn’t exactly call us adults,’ Alex added.

‘Speak for yourself,’ said James, turning her nose up, looking at the wall.

Blake, pushed her glasses further up onto the bridge of her nose, as they kept slipping down to the tip as she read a book, ignored them both until she got to the end of her page.

‘You’re both as childish as each other,’ she said looking at one after the other as she flipped to the next page. ‘Alex wanders off like a toddler at the fair and you, James, have a strop anytime someone says anything you don’t like or tells you to do something.’

James twisted her lips biting her tongue as she stopped her mouth from opening, wanting to scold Blake, but that would only prove her point.

‘Speaking of wandering off,’ said James, turning back to Alex. ‘You’ve been inside all day, that’s not like you’.

Alex looked up at the clock on the wall, seeing that it was nearly five o’clock and that it had already started to get dark.

‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘I was going to go out this morning to take that nasty thing Mrs Blackwell calls banana loaf to the little crow I’ve been feeding in the woods, but Louis was in the way of the door.’

Blake looked up from her book and said, ‘you really shouldn’t let him push you around, even if he does have something sharp on him to threaten you with, he’ll never use it.’

Alex, unconvinced, twisted her face. ‘That’s easy for you to say, he doesn’t even talk to you, he completely ignores you,’ she said, turning to James. ‘And you; he doesn’t bother you either.’

James didn’t respond.

‘He’s all talk,’ said Blake.

Alex’s twisted expression turned into a frown. ‘Like I said, it’s easy for you to say when he doesn’t even acknowledge that you exist,’ said Alex. ‘You’ve seen the scar on Butch’s face, he’s twice the size of any of us and he didn’t fight back.’

‘Oh please…’ James said with an arrogant scoff. ‘That scar is years old, he didn’t get that from anyone in here. He probably did it to himself.’

Alex turned away from the both of them and looked back at the woods from the window and back down at her drawing.

‘Fine, I’ll go now then and if he gets in my way I’ll push past him, I have somewhere to be,’ she said. ‘The banana loaf will be no good by tomorrow.’

‘You know that’s probably almost never the same bird, right? One just flies down every time you go there because they know you have food,’ said James.

‘It’s a crow,’ Alex snapped, ‘and yes, it is, crows are smart. He comes every time, he knows my face.’

Alex left her room in a huff, stuffing the banana loaf into her pants pocket after wrapping it in some cloth.

The halls were quiet, only a nurse here and there walking down the hall carrying clipboards and one wheeling a medicine cart, dropping off little plastic cups to the patients in their rooms.

She felt a wave of relief as soon as she turned the corner and saw that the front door was clear. Louis was nowhere in sight. The entire walk there she had been looking from side to side and over her shoulder to make sure he hadn’t been watching from the crook of a door to chase after her.

A familiar echo bounced off a wall and into Alex’s left ear as she found herself breaking into a hasty walk for the exit. She could hear him somewhere and she turned looking for him as she listened to the sound of his voice echoing.

Her eyes, darting left to right like a pinball in a machine, spotted a silhouette on a wall through a doorway next to the front door. She noticed it right away, it was Louis’ shadow.

Her hastened pace turned from long steps into more careful shorter ones as she tried to get past as quickly and quietly as she could.

Alex hadn’t even realised until she started to struggle as she approached the front door and felt the cool metal of the door handle, but she had been holding her breathe in angst.

Louis was chatting away to someone in the next room, too busy to notice her, as he undoubtedly told some self-absorbed ludicrous story about something in his past, either to make himself seem intimidating or interesting.

The door opened smoothly without a creak or a squeak, allowing Alex to swiftly sneak out onto the front steps unnoticed. As soon as the door closed silently behind her, she let out a relieved puff of air from her chest. The forest was just ahead across the small road outside the building, and through the long bit of grass that ended at the fence between her and the forest.

She looked behind her occasionally as she hurried across the grass. She couldn’t help but think someone was watching her, but no matter how many times she looked, and how hard she focused on the windows, she couldn’t see a single soul looking at her.

Some might say that she was small for her age, and it was kind of true, she wasn’t very strong either, and even though the fence that guarded the forest was flimsy, she may not have been able to break her way through herself. Someone, or something, had already been into the forest before her.

Maybe an animal, she thought.

Passing through the fence into the forest and hearing the sound of leaves and small twigs crunching under Alex’s feet felt like passing through a wall into another world. Even though it was just a few steps from where she had just been on the other side of the fence, it was like it was ten times quieter… peaceful.

The smell was different and Alex actually felt like she could breathe in there, without feeling suffocated by people and her surroundings.

The smell was her favourite, that and the trees themselves. There was something completely calming she found in brushing the palm of her hand and her fingers across the bark of the trees.

Before ever picking up a twig, or a fallen branch and using it as a sort of cane or pretend sword, she would always speak to the nearest tree and ask if she could take it, thanking the tree at the same time. She knew that it sounded strange, but someone had told her once that it was bad luck to just take it, and that the trees talked to one another, and they communicated through the dirt to trees all around. She was told that if you treat them with respect that they will do the same to you, and even watch your back if you’re ever in trouble.

There was a cold chill in the air that leeched into the fabric of Alex’s overalls, and as she was rubbing her arms thinking just how cold it was, she heard a warming and familiar sound.

Less than a second later the friendly crow came flapping down onto the ground in front of her feet, repeating the sound, squawking as it looked up at Alex.

‘Hello little one,’ she said smiling, greeting the crow. ‘I’m so sorry I’m late.’

Alex bent down and pulled the wrapped-up piece of banana loaf from her pocket.

‘I was stuck,’ she said with a little frown, opening the parcel for the bird and breaking off a corner to pass it to him. ‘You can guess who I’m talking about.’

The crow looked up at her with each bite, like he was trying to listen to her story as he accepted each piece of banana loaf with delight.

‘You must be starving,’ she said, feeling a guilty sick sensation in her stomach.

The forest turned a dark blue as the night crept in and the sun disappeared. Alex had been too distracted to notice just how dark it had gotten, there were no lights in the forest, none at all. With it being almost winter, there were no leaves in the trees so the moon should have given some light, but rotten luck had it that the sky was full of a dark cloud, blocking and glow from the moon that would have given a path to Alex.

Even the crow was hard to see with his dark feathers, even if she could communicate with him intelligibly somehow, he would be too hard to follow without a flashlight.

A dull, heavy feeling twisted in Alex’s stomach as she tried to look around, straining her eyes to see in front of her. The little crow was squeaking, almost like it knew she was in distress.

After frantically turning around looking for some light in the distance coming from the hospital, Alex realised she now had no idea which way she had come from.

As she started to panic and her breathing quickened, becoming heavier with each breathe, she noticed something in the distance, a small light, like a star twinkling amongst the trees, but it fluttered and was more orange than a star. Alex gulped as she felt a wave of hope, and the stress in her clenched sweaty palms eased as she headed towards the faint light.

As she got closer, she noticed it was a candle, and with the sound of the trickling from the stream, she knew she was near the old grounds keeper’s cabin. There was a candle in the window, flickering and dancing around, causing a shadow and orange glow inside the window of the cabin and on the woodland floor.

Seeing the candle in the window of the cabin was enough of a shock to take the wind out of Alex’s chest. The cabin was supposed to be abandoned, and each and every time she had seen it that’s how it looked. Although, she had only seen it during the day, and she had never been able to get close enough to it to look through the window and see inside. There was a busy stream between her and the cabin that trailed off way through the forest and out of sight. More than once, Alex had thought of carefully crossing to get a look on the other side and seeing what was over there, and more importantly, what was in that old cabin.

The problem was, if she ever did she would return with wet shoes and pants and it would be all too obvious that she had been somewhere she shouldn’t have been. It was bad enough returning with mud on them from time to time.

Just as she stared harder at the dancing flame, Alex felt something. Something on the back of her neck, like something was watching her, but different. There was someone there, but she couldn’t see them.

There was a whistle, someone was whistling a tune somewhere in the forest. The wind carried it across the stream, though Alex couldn’t actually see where it was coming from or who it was coming from. At first, she was worried it was coming from her side and that someone had followed her into the forest, starting to feel sick as her anxious brain told her that Louis had seen her and followed her into the dark wood.

Then she heard a crack from a twig breaking, but just one, and then the sound of leaves but they weren’t rustling, it was more of a drag.

Alex looked over the other side of the stream concentrating hard to focus in the dark to see if she could figure out who it was. She thought to herself, should I hide? Then realising that it if it was too dark for her to see anything, then nobody would be able to see her.

And then she saw someone, someone on the other side of the stream dragging a sack through the leaves and across the forest floor up to the door of the cabin. Alex was wondering what was in the sack, but more importantly, who the person was that was pulling it. It was almost impossible to see them in this light, but Alex could just about make out that it was someone wearing what looked to be a big cloak, and they looked small, but thin rather than short… really thin.

Alex was frowning hard as she strained her eyes to look through the night air as she watched the person reach the front door of the cabin and swing the sack over their shoulder making the most unexpected noise. It made a clattering noise, almost like someone had just knocked down a row of pins at a bowling alley.

‘BOO’, someone grabbed onto Alex’s shoulder tightly as they yelled from behind her, causing her to shoot up from her hunched position and jump up off the ground. Somehow, she had managed to hold back what should have been a scream and instead let out a shrill eek.

Alex could feel herself trembling more than she had been before, as she turned around to look at who had scared her. All she could see was a dark silhouette standing in front of her, unable to see their face. Whoever they were, they found themselves to be amusing, letting out a snigger as they stepped forward, causing Alex to step back and fall backwards onto the ground.

The wind blew a hard gust and somewhere a cloud moved, allowing a glimpse of moonlight down onto their face, showing Louis to be standing over her, grinning.

‘Stupid girl,’ he said. ‘Haven’t you been told not to wander off into the night… there might be monsters.’

‘The only monster here is you’, she said, seeing his grin widen as she spoke to him, trembling with fear at what he might do to her.

Alex quickly scurried backwards as quick as she could without standing up until she felt a sharp sting as her hand plummeted into the water of the stream. Alex gasped at the shock of the cold water and pulled out her hand, turning around and looked back towards the cabin, sparking the idea in her head to call out for help to whoever it was that she saw going into the cabin.

Maybe there is still a grounds keeper, she thought.

The candlelight was out and the cabin sat there in the dark, looking empty as ever before.

‘What are you looking at?’ Louis asked stepping forward, leaning down towards Alex as she laid on the ground.

Alex turned around quickly and threw a handful of water and small rocks and dirt from the stream and into his face, causing him to cry out in shock and anger as he stepped back.

Alex rushed to her feet, pushing him to the side, and ran straight as she could run and as fast as possible, pushing branches and shrubs out of the way. After about a minute of running and the cold air stinging the tears on her face, she stopped. She turned around looking to see if she had been followed, but she couldn’t see anything. All she could hear was her own heavy breathing, hearing it loudly, and as she did she tried to slow it down and catch her breath, telling herself she was safe.

‘All I have to do is get home,’ she said.

Then there was a creak, but this time it was from a big branch bouncing as it hung from a tree and was pushed by a gust of wind, grabbing Alex’s attention, and pulling it to the left towards seeing something, another glow in the distance. Only this time it was a lot bigger, and there wasn’t just one of them, there were lots, lots of little lights.

‘There it is,’ she exclaimed, realising she had seen the hospital and all the windows lit up in the distance.

As she stepped forward to hurry to get back home, she heard something, the leaves… rustling. There was a fast thumping that followed, and now Alex could see ahead of her lit up in the moonlight, she could see someone was running right into her path ahead.

Her heart quickened and she panicked. ‘He can see me,’ she said, her breathe getting quicker and quicker and then there was a loud noise as something swayed at her, gripping her with a heavy thud around her middle, knocking all the wind out of her lungs.

Unable to scream with the wind knocked out of her she felt the strain in her throat as she gasped for air. Then suddenly she looked down and she was high off the ground, her feet dangling in the air with something wrapped tight around her, constricting her breathing.

There was another rustle, and someone called out, ‘Where are you?’ It was Louis.

Alex, still in a panic, realised something. Her hands were touching whatever it was that was wrapped around her and she quickly realised there was something about it that she recalled. She looked down to see a branch of a tree wrapped tightly around her creaking as it held her up from the forest floor and high in the air.

Alex looked ahead from where she heard Louis call out and she could see him in the distance, not too far away. He was walking in her direction and Alex was trying as hard as ever to be quiet and slow her breaths.

‘It’s okay… it’s okay,’ she said to herself. ‘He can’t get me up here.’

The wind was getting stronger and the gusts that hit her made her swing from side to side, making the tree creak loudly, but that wasn’t the problem. One of her shoes came loose and slipped off her foot, falling to the ground with a heavy thud that echoed out through the wood.

Louis snapped around to Alex’s direction and looking up at her. ‘You,’ he snarled.

Alex gasped as he stared directly at her and started forward to her direction.

Louis hurried towards her but something tripped him and he stumbled to the ground with a crash and then silence.

Alex seeing him fall just a short distance away didn’t know what to do, she expected him to get up after a second, but he didn’t. Then a minute passed, and he didn’t get up.

After what felt like twenty minutes, Louis still didn’t get up.

‘Now’s my chance,’ she said, starting to struggle out of the grip of the branch with the intent to climb down and run as fast as she could back to her room, but the grip from the tree branch tightened.

A whistle then hummed in the distance. Alex looked to its direction, from what she could tell, it was from where she had run from. The whistle got louder and the sound of footsteps followed.

‘Why won’t you let me down,’ Alex pleaded, hitting the tree that squeezed her tightly.

Then she saw it, whoever it was she saw before, walking up to where Louis had fallen. Alex’s first thought was to call out and warn whoever it was that Louis was dangerous, and then she bit her tongue.

What she saw was a thin hooded person bend down to Louis’s body and pull out a knife from his sack.

Alex still trying to be as silent as she could didn’t know how to react, Louis had threatened to cut her himself, before she could think for another second, they sunk the blade into Louis skin.

Alex pulled both hands to her face and covered her mouth stopping herself from making any kind of noise and at the same time trying to stop herself from being sick as she felt her stomach turn.

She could hear the cutting and see whoever it was pull and pull has they appeared to be cutting the skin away from Louis’s body.

Alex was crying, shaking and felt like her head was too heavy for her neck as she tried to support it and stop from throwing up.

The cold was making it so much worse, making it harder and harder to keep still and stop her teeth from chattering as her jaw shook from the cold.

Alex saw them pull what looked to be what was left of Louis’s skin and carefully put into into its sack before standing up.

Alex felt her breathing start to quicken again as she saw them move and wondered what would happen now if the tree branch loosened its grip and she fell to the ground. Would they do that to her as well?

It didn’t matter, they were walking right in her direction. No… no, she thought crying.

Do they know I’m here? she asked herself.

Alex shook her head and told herself, ‘No, you’re going to be okay, James and Blake are waiting for me at home. I’ll be okay.’

Then they reached below the tree and stopped dead and stood still. Alex was looking directly down at them terrified and trying to see their face, and that’s when she saw something… her shoe.

They saw it too, they looked to their left and saw the shoe on the ground, stared at it and looked up.

Alex’s stomach dropped, it felt like a cannonball had plummeted to the bottom of her gut as she saw it look up at her.

It’s dark cloak and hood surrounded its thin body. Inside the dark hood staring up at Alex with black holes for eyes was a skull, bare, with no skin, staring directly at her as it turned its head from left to right.

Alex screamed as loud as she could as it looked into her eyes, seeing it drop the sack to the floor and reach out a bony hand towards her leg.

The tree suddenly leaned and a branch came swooshing towards them knocking the bony creature into the distance and a second later dropping Alex onto the ground.

Alex fell onto her feet and stumbled down onto her front as she felt the intense pain of the fall hit her feet.

Without her shoe, Alex ran as fast as she could towards the lights of the hospital, struggling to keep her balance as she ran with only one shoe.

Her heart pounded and she panted like a dog as she ran for her life, trying not to look back as the tears streamed down her face.

Alex crashed into the fence frantically searching for the hole to climb under to the other side.

Desperately trying to get through Alex called out for help, crying out and hoping someone would help her, and then she saw it as her hand pushed through the hole. She felt herself gasp and dove down to the ground, scrambling to get through.

She was covered in dirt and tears, but she pulled herself through to the other side of the fence and stood up. She looked at the illuminated windows on the hospital with such relief, thinking she would have never thought to be so happy to see the place.

Assuming she was safe, Alex turned around just centimetres from the fence and saw it standing there, staring at her from the other side of the fence. Its hood was down and showing a white skull with empty eyes staring back at her. Alex lost her voice and stammered as she stepped back in fear wanting to break out into a run.

The creature lifted up its bony hands and pulled its hood over its head and walked back into the forest.