Young Writers Society

In the thick veil of darkness, the windows of the wooden house glowed brightly with light. The numerous trees that created an ocean around the house cast swaying, long shadows on the ground. They seemed to reach out to the woman who stood about ten steps from the front door.

The woman shivered, and raised a hand to brush her black hair out of her face. The biting winds placed the hair back where it had been. Giving up, she returned her hand back to her side. It trembled uncontrollably in the cold.

After a moment of taking a deep breath in preparation, she raced to the front door, swung up a fist and was about to knock. Before she could, the door abruptly opened to reveal the warm inside of the house.

A man in a white shirt, white pants and white cloak stood in front of her, his colorless hair floating around his face freely. His pale eyes curved in a smile. “Come in.”

The woman stared at him in wonder, before she took a wary step into the house. She froze for a split second, then seemed to realize that nothing had happened to her, and continued on her path into the house. The door closed behind her softly.

“You,” she began to speak with a cracked voice, yet had to cut herself off. After curling into herself and releasing two shattering coughs, her eyes regained a little amount of life. “Are you the wizard of the forest?” She finally managed to inquire.

“What’s that?” the pale man responded as a question, laughing. He half danced over to a chair and carried it above his head, then set it down right next to the woman. “You can sit. I don’t mind. Anyway, what wizard?”

Not looking at the chair nor sitting down, the woman set a hand against the wall. Her eyes searched desperately for any signs of recognition on the man’s face. “The wizard of the forest. You’re supposed to be the wizard of the forest. They told me about you, that I’d find you here. A white man.”

The man shrugged and sat down on the chair after waiting a while for the woman to sit. His smile tilted to the side. “Then I guess that’s me. Well, do you think I’m a wizard?”

Before answering him, the woman supported more of her weight on the wall, and glanced around at the interior of the house. The house was completely square, with no rooms. About half of it was filled with tables and chairs of various colors and sizes. Another half was full of water. When the woman noticed it, she took a step back hastily, yet after a moment of studying it, gaped slightly. The water wasn’t being held in by anything, yet it wasn’t falling — not even a drop.

Inside the water, there were five floating animals; a blue tiger, a crimson bird encased in flickering flames, a turtle with the head of a snake, a deer with black scales instead of fur, and a gold fox with six tails. They all were breathing and swimming without being drowned.

After a long, silent while of staring at the bizarre assortment of animals, the woman gazed directly at the pale man. “I need you to be a wizard,” she replied, and clenched her hands into fists on her brown leather cloak.

A shade of interest fell across the man’s face. “Revenge?” He murmured, rolling the words around in his mouth.

Eyes wide, the woman stared at him. “I never said anything about revenge.”

Laughing, the man leaned back in his chair so that only a leg of it touched the ground. He lifted a finger and pointed it at the space above the woman’s head. “That thing told me.”

The woman reflexively glanced up, yet found nothing. She brought her head back to where it had been, frowning.

Smiling with his eyes, the man stood up from the chair, walked over to the woman in a blink, and began to make motions right above her head, as if he was brushing off dust. “Don’t drag around so many things into my house. They don’t like it.”

He blew away a strand of hair from his face and jumped back onto the chair. His face regained the same smile. “What revenge?”

The woman shook her head and took a deep breath. She began; “They killed my husband, and my daughter—“

The man laughed out loud, cutting her off. He crouched on top of the chair, still giggling. “No, I said, what revenge?”

“I’m telling you that.” The woman replied in visible confusion. “If you didn’t cut me off, I would have told you.”

“What revenge?” The man repeated, a cold light shimmering in his eyes briefly before it disappeared. “I know your story. That thing told me, remember?” Again, he pointed at the woman; this time right above her left shoulder. “What revenge, do you want?”

Slowly, the woman lowered her gaze to her hands. “I don’t have the power,” she murmured in a low voice. “I want to kill them all, but I don’t have the power. That’s why I came looking for you. I’ve been looking for years—“

The man raised a hand, his expression only half smiling. Even the little laugh that had remained on his face disappeared when he opened his mouth. “Many like you came to this house,” he told the woman. “But many also died on the way. I know everybody who reached me, and those who didn’t.”

A weak smile formed on his face. He leaned forward in his chair with a precarious balance, swaying dangerously. “Do you see what I mean? I let them get help from me. If they wished for death, I sent them away.”

“I…” the woman nearly stopped breathing. She raised a trembling finger to point at herself. “Why did I reach you, then?”

The man spread his arms out to the side widely. “I’m alive. Can’t you see it? I’m still living.”

“I don’t…” The woman shook her head wildly. Her eyes were getting mistier by each second that passed. “I just need revenge, not riddles.”

His eyes twinkling, the man let his cloak fall to the ground and then raised up his shirt to his chin. The woman immediately averted her eyes, yet slowly turned them when the man kept his shirt up.

There was nothing. The man’s torso seemed to be erased out in the shape of a jagged slash.

Without hurry, the man tugged the shirt back into its place. His eyes were grinning.

“How?” The woman whispered. “What… How…”

“All curses are meant to come back to the caster. If they don’t, they just exist out there, wandering. Like this.” He reached out into the air in front of him and made a hand motion, as if he was grabbing something. Faintly, he smiled. “You can’t see it, can you? It’s trying to eat me because I avoided it. I’ve never done the same thing since.”

With tears in her eyes, the woman shoved her face into her hands. “I don’t understand what you’re saying. I just want revenge for my family.”

The man sighed. He released what he had been holding in the air and scratched his pale head. “Sure. I guess you don’t like talking.”

He closed his eyes for a second, then reopened them. A huge, bone-chilling wind swept through the house. The man’s cloak wavered in the air wildly. “The curse is done. They are dead.”

The woman blinked. “Just like that? Is this a lie?” She murmured, stumbling back a step.

“No, it isn’t.” His face visibly exhausted, the man nearly knocked over the chair he was sitting on. He laughed tiredly. “It’s coming. Get out.”

Her face went slack with shock, yet she still managed to stumble to the door. It slammed open by itself, the direction opposite compared to when the man had opened it. She took a shuddering breath, then began to sprint as fast as she could. The door shut behind her.

The house immediately went silent without the presence of the woman. Even the warm air settled, holding its breath.

The man frowned sadly, and turned to face the animals in the water. They had all stopped moving. Instead, they were gazing intently at the man.

“I—“ the man began.

Before he could say anything, the crack that had erased half of his body widened. His face and hands disappeared, and the white pieces of fabric fell onto the ground in a small heap.

A whisper of air existed before the water fell down in a massive wave, holding nothing inside.