The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Spirit Guide
by Naching T. Kassa 

.The wolf stood at the edge of the clearing, his yellow eyes boring into mine. He waited as I limped forward. When I joined him, he turned toward the cabin at the clearing’s center.

It was tall, made by white men and abandoned long ago. Why my aunt had taken it as her home, I did not know.

I glanced toward the wolf. As I had expected, my guide had vanished. I staggered from the wood beneath the darkening clouds and crossed the grass which led to my aunt’s door.

As I drew closer, the pungent scent of death filled my nostrils, and the low hum of buzzing flies filled my ears. I paused, my heart knocking in my chest. The sound grew louder and the smell riper, until I clutched at the medicine bag about my neck. One squeeze sent them all away.

The door flew open, and my aunt stood in the doorway. She seemed to glare at me from the shadows, a cruel smile upon her lips. I clutched my medicine bag tighter, and she showed a different, kinder face.

“Little bird!” she cried. “You are bleeding! What has happened?”

“We were attacked,” I said, my voice hoarse from the smoke which had permeated my village. “They are dead. Everyone is dead.”

My aunt rushed to my side and took hold of my good arm. She helped me into the house and onto a pile of buffalo robes.

“Who was it?” she asked as she treated the long gash in my arm. “Who did it?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I couldn’t see them. They were shadows, attacking in the dark.” The images roiled inside my mind. When I relaxed my grip on the medicine bag, I saw the faces of the dead, their skin drawn tight over their bones. I saw them killing my brothers with their rusty knives and ripping at the flesh of my mother with their teeth. My father had been torn apart before my eyes. When I squeezed the bag tight, my memories of the dead became shadows once more.

“How did you survive?” my aunt asked.

The lie tasted bitter in my mouth, but I spoke it anyway. “I lay as though dead and waited until they were gone. Then, I came to you.”

“What will you do now?”

“Someone conjured the shadows that killed my people. I will not rest until they’re dead.”

She nodded. “Do you still have the stone?”

I reached into my medicine bag and pulled it out. The small, round crystal glinted in the soft light which seeped through the windows.

“Keep it with you always. You are a girl without a spirit guide, and it is the only way you will know the truth.”

I lowered my eyes to the buffalo robe. “I wish I’d had one tonight. Do spirit guides ever lie?”

“No. Never.”

The wolf howled in the distance then, and my aunt’s eyes widened in fright. I squeezed the stone, and her face grew calm.

“You are sure? Sure they never lie?”

“They cannot lie. It is impossible.”

“Then the stone is a lie.” I rose to my feet, dropped it on the floor, and ground it beneath the heel of my moccasin. When I blinked, I found the truth revealed.

The walls of the room in which I stood, were covered in dried blood. Flies teemed along the walls and floor, their wings humming a fateful dirge. My aunt’s eyes gleamed as her mask of kindness fell away, revealing the wickedness beneath. I pulled the knife from the sheath on my belt.

She held up a hand. “Little Bird, what is wrong? Why are you doing this?”

“Spirit guides never lie,” I said. “When the wolf came and saved me from the dead ones, I asked him who sent them. He led me to your door.”

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Fiction © Copyright Naching T. Kassa
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Naching T. Kassa:

Arterial Bloom

Lush. Brutal.

Beautiful. Visceral.

Crystal Lake Publishing proudly presents Arterial Bloom, an artful juxtaposition of the magnificence and macabre that exist within mankind. Each tale in this collection is resplendent with beauty, teeth, and heart.

Edited by the Bram Stoker Award-winning writer Mercedes M. Yardley, Arterial Bloom is a literary experience featuring sixteen stories from some of the most compelling dark authors writing today.

With a foreword by HWA Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient Linda D. Addison, you are invited to step inside and let the grim flowers wind themselves comfortably around your bones.

Available on Amazon!