The Beldam And The Little Girl

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. Yeah, yeah I know you’ve read thousands of stories that start this way and you’re thinking “how cliche,” but it is what happened. I’ll start at the beginning. It was spring break. Myself, and my friends, Stephen, Mary, Alexa, and Madeline (Maddie) had just handed in our midterm essays for our "Paranormal and Theories of The Occult” class at the local college. We had all met in that class and bonded over our love of the paranormal and Cryptozoology. Becoming close friends, I was actually dating Mary at the time, we all loved to go out to haunted locations looking for ghosts or hunt for cryptids wherever there were reports. Wether we believed in these creatures or not it was fun to travel to these locations and look around.

So anyway this spring break I had decided to bring my friends to an old abandoned cabin I had found in the middle of the woods some years back. I had never explored it as I never had the need as a 15-year-old. Now at 21 with my friends who enjoyed all things creepy why not. I told my friends about it and they all seemed very excited about the idea. So at about 2:00 p.m. the next day we all loaded in my car and drove out.

“Is it a hard trek out to the cabin Tony?” asked Alexa about an hour into our 3 hour drive. She was still nursing a knee injury from volleyball and pain would flare up from time to time.

“It’s well off the beaten path.” I replied. “But it shouldn’t be hard to find. I remember exactly where it is.” All my friends rolled their eyes as they knew that was a lie. “Alright I know about where it is. Don’t worry Alexa it’s not too hard to get to. About an hour give or take off the path.”

“Are you in pain right now?” Mary asked with concern.

“Oh! No I feel fine. Alexa said back. “I just don’t always know when it will flare up.”

“Well let us know when it does okay, and Tony can carry you back to the car.” Stephen said. My real name is Anthony but most everyone calls me Tony. Mary was riding in the front with me so I swung my hand back trying to slap Stephen. He was anticipating this so I missed. I wasn’t really mad though Alexa was small so if I had to carry her back to the car I easily could.

It was about 5:07 p.m. when we got to Hawk’s Point National Park. It was a popular hiking and camping spot but most people stayed at the camp site that was near the road not in the woods which we were headed. As I stated it was spring break and in this part of the world even this late it was still bright out. The sun doesn’t officially set till 10:00 p.m. so we had lots of time. We made good time on the well used trail and by the time I led them off the trail it was 5:37 p.m. Going off trail wasn’t too hard and it was easy going through the forest. After almost 45 mins we checked in with Alexa and she said she felt great and we kept going soon after I announced that we were there.

The front “yard” if you could call it that was cleared and open but the back of the cabin was up against dense woods. It was very dark inside the cabin so we got out our flashlights to look around. There was a lot of old timey stuff in there. Maddie used the word vintage. Upstairs we found a room that looked like it used to belong to a little girl. I was very creeped out now. It had been cool seeing the old rustic things in the house not creepy at all, but now. Everyone has their Kryptonite when it comes to fear and mine was dolls and little kid ghosts, especially little girl ghosts. Kids were creepy enough when they were alive.

“Ok guys I’m gonna go check…..” I trailed off.

“Check what?” Maddie asked. Mary knew of my phobia better than the others, but she didn’t say anything.

“Check anything that isn’t here.” I said as I headed for the door. Stephen stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

“Ok, man I know about your Phasmophobia or whatever it is called but I do know that you will regret not looking through this room with us. You always do.” Stephen stated. He was right. Any time I had not searched a room I regretted it afterwards. “All right but if I hear giggling or a little girl voice say, “Come play with me.” I’m out.” I said. The rest thought that was fair enough as they would nope out of there if that did happen anyways. Mary spotted an old book on the side table by the bed. It said Abigail on the front in messy little kid hand writing. Mary opened the book to read and just stared. I looked over her shoulder and saw this:

mîn cennes macung mîn dêorling feorm pron ðe ic lôgian gamenian sîð æt sîðestan mid mîn hwæðre sê ûplang gumðegen swâðêah hê unm¯æne. ðe ic cunnian nâ stellan ðurhwunian heonu yfel hoppian ðêos. l¯æstan hindermîn cennes macung mîn swæs crâs  

“Looks like old English.” I said. I couldn’t read old English but I was familiar with the look and structure of it. Mary flipped through the pages, all was written in old English and in messy little kid hand writing. The wind whistled outside. I walked to the window and looked out, it was dark. We had been in the house for only about 30 mins. there is no way it should be dark now. It should only be 6:48 p.m. at the latest. I called the others over. We all leaned close to the window trying to see out. Right before our eyes small hand prints appeared on the window. A moment later a little girls face slammed into the window with a bang. Keep in mind we were on the second floor. We all rushed out of the house into pitch blackness. We were shining our flashlights in every direction. Panic was starting to set in as there was no way we could find our way back in the darkness. We should have had at least 3 hours before sunset why was it dark. I clicked the light on my watch, 3:04 a.m. the witching hour.

“What the hell.” I said. “That is not possible.” We all heard a snap like a small fire cracker behind us we turned and saw a candle burning in the window. We stared in shock for a few moments. After what felt like hours but was probably only a few minutes a beautiful young woman walked out the door and sat on a chair on the porch by the candle. Beautiful may have been an understatement she was stunning. She had jet black curly hair falling to her lower back only at the moment she had it pulled over her right shoulder. She looked like a young Salma Hayek in her early twenties. She seemed unaware of us until Stephen shined his light at her to get a better look. She squinted and shielded her eyes from the light with her hand.

“Put it down.” whispered Mary. As Stephen lowered his light the woman lowered her hand to look at us. She didn’t say anything at first. It looked like she was trying to adjust her eyes to the dark after being blinded by a high power LED flashlight.

“Well are you going to come have a seat, or are you just going to stand there?” She spoke with a beautiful Victorian accent.

“We were just leaving.” Mary said slowly backing away.

“I’ve been expecting you.” The woman said standing. Okay that was a huge red flag and all of us felt it. There was no one in that cabin when we entered, there was dust covering everything. And that wasn’t bad enough she had been expecting us? Being students of the Paranormal we knew this was a bad situation. We were frozen with fear we didn’t know what to do.

“Tea’s almost ready.” she said as she walked back into the cabin. An invisible force pulled us toward the cabin our feet slid along the ground. As we entered the cabin we looked around. The thick dust was gone and, had it not been for the currant situation, the place would be cozy. The darkness was gone, not just from the candle but also a hand full of lanterns hanging on the walls. We all sat silently until Maddie decided to speak,

“W-Who are you?”

“Oh, of course Madeline were are my manners? My name is Clara, Tony do you mind if I call you Anthony? I don’t like nicknames.” she said as she pored tea for us.

“N-No, not at all.” I replied. I warned everyone with a look not to drink. It was most likely okay but better not to take the chance. All of a sudden we all heard little footsteps upstairs. We all looked up.

“That’s just my daughter, Abigail.” Clara said.

“That’s the name on the book we read.” whispered Alexa. Small footsteps came down the stairs and we all turned to look.

At the bottom at the stairs stood a little girl. About 4 or 5 years old. Her skin was very pale and she wore a white night gown. She tilted her head and stared at us. Her face was the same one we had seen on the window earlier. The minute we saw her it struck us….she was a ghost her legs were transparent. She just stood there staring not saying a word. We stood up terrified. Mary ran for the door the rest of us following her. We got to the middle of the clearing before we heard Clara.

“You're not leaving.” she said her voice still sweet but stern. As she spoke the words seven pairs of red glowing eyes appeared staring at us. Out of the forest surrounding large black dogs emerged. Hell hounds or demon dogs whatever you want to call them that is exactly what they looked like. Red glowing eyes, dark featureless bodies, smoke or black mist rising from them. We slowly backed up as the dogs growled and snarled at us bearing their teeth stalking us. The dogs became quiet and walked back to the tree line the minute we re-entered the cabin. We looked at Clara who was sipping her tea.

“You can’t leave.” she said.

Sometime later we awoke lying on the floor of the bedroom of the little girl. Stephen got up and went for the door it was locked.

“Of course.” I thought. I looked around at the 4 lanterns chasing away the dark in the corners of the room. I checked my watch 3:04 a.m. How was that even possible! No time had passed since we tried to run from the cabin! Had my watch stopped? I sat up against the wall. Stephen was still ramming his body into the door.

“You can do that all day that door is never going to move.” I said. He sat down as I stood up. I walked to the window and saw Abigail’s book. I opened it and to my surprise it was no longer in old English. I read the entry to the others to let them know about the change. The girls got up and I handed the book to them as they looked through it. I walked back to the window and looked out. As I watched the dogs as they stalked the tree line one of them disappeared into thin air.

“We have to get out of here.” Mary cried. “If we stay after the witching hour ends we’ll never be able to leave. It may already be too late.”

“It’s not. Time hasn’t move since this all started.” I said showing them the watch.

“That doesn’t mean it won’t start again any second.” Stephen pointed out.

“We’re going to have to make a run for it.” I said.

“Are you crazy? We can’t out run those dogs.” Alexa said.

“We don’t have too. I stated. “Here’s what we know. Clara obviously controls this world. That’s evident by the way she literally dragged us into the cabin. And sent those dogs to keep us here when we tried to leave. But I think her control only extends to a certain area. I’ve been watching those dogs. They never leave the clearing. They’re stocking around the the tree line but they’re careful to never leave the clearing. I saw one evaporate when it got to close. We just have to make it to the trees and we’ll be good.”

“How are we going to get out the door it’s locked remember?” Stephen asked clearly irritated. I tried the window. To my surprise it opened.

“We don’t have any other choice.” I said. We all climbed out the window and down the vines. I peeked around the side of the cabin watching the dogs.

“On my mark.” I said. “1, 2, 3, GO!!!” We all took off running for everything we were worth. We only made it half way before we were knocked down by the dogs. Immediately the dogs began ripping us apart. I felt the flesh tear from my back. I couldn’t see as blood filled my eyes. I could hear Mary and the others screaming in pain as everything when black.

I awoke with a scream. I looked around frantic. We were all lying on the floor of the little girl’s room again. I looked down at myself. I was fine. No injuries at all. My clothes weren’t even ripped. I crawled over to Mary and opened her top. She was fine too. No wounds anywhere. I leaned against the wall. We were trapped. What were we going to do. My analytical mind started rolling. I thought about Clara and her powers. After a few minutes a light bulb went off. A Beldam. Clara was a Beldam. Beldams were exclusively female. We learned from class that Beldams were a very rare entity. They’re known for having button eyes and creating dream worlds for children and after convincing the children to stay in that world the Beldam feeds on their souls. Clara didn’t have button eyes but I remembered there was another type of Beldam, even rarer. There were many similarities between the 2 types but the former was more dangerous. Most Beldams were ugly hags and cruel, but this second type were beautiful. Clara’s behaviour matched this second breed perfectly. Beldams had a thing for games. I remembered. That’s it, a game that’s how we were going to get out of here. Only Beldams had a tendency to cheat. I had to think of a game complex enough to make it hard for her to cheat because she was going to. But simple enough I could make a change when she did so I kept the upper hand. I looked up saw the door was open and the little girl was peaking at us from the doorway, half her face was hidden by the door frame. I gave her the come here motion. She stopped hiding but stayed in the doorway.

“Abigail, that's your name right? I asked. "Can you go get your mom I’d like to talk to her.” Abigail disappeared and I could hear her go downstairs. My friends started waking up at this point most thrashing as the last thing they remember is being attacked. “I think have a way out of here guys but I need you to trust me.”

“Mommy want’s to see you.” a tiny voice said from the doorway we all looked to see Abigail. As I stood my friends followed my lead. As we reached the bottom of the stairs we saw Abigail sitting in Clara’s lap.

“You want to talk?” Clara asked placing Abigail on the ground. The girl ran past us going up stairs.

“You’re a Beldam aren’t you?” I asked. I knew the answer, but wanted to hear her say it.

“Oh, so you are more clever than you look. She replied. "I was beginning to doubt after that stupid plan to run."

“Why don't we play a game? I know you like them.” I said. I saw Clara’s eyes glimmer.

Everyone likes games." she responded. "What kind or game would it be?"

“Let’s have a game of riddles. Just you and me. My friends can wait outside and watch from the doorway.” I said.

“What about the dogs?” Mary asked.

“They won’t bother you as long as you stay on the porch.” Clara said.

"If I lose we'll stay here with you forever." I said.

"Hmm, and if you some how win this game?" Clara asked.

“You call off the dogs and let everyone go.” Clara’s face clouded when I said that.

"Hm, deal." Clara said and and held out her hand to shake on it.

"Not until you give us your word." I said. Clara dropped her hand.

"Fine." Clara said exasperated. "I give you my word as a Beldam."

My friends were pulled out the door by an unseen force but the door stayed open for them to watch.

“If I get a riddle right or stump you with one I take a step toward the door. If you get a riddle right or stump me with one I take a step back farther into the house. The games ends when I get out the door. Or when I back into the far wall.” I said. Clara smiled again “You go first.” I said. Clara and myself stood facing each other in the centre of the room 6 feet apart. Clara began.

“What has roots that no one sees. Is taller than trees up it goes and yet never grows.” I thought for a moment.

“The Mountain.” I said. Clara nodded. I took a step forward.

“Your turn.” she said.

“All things it devours, birds, beasts, trees, flowers. Bites steal, gnaws iron, grinds stones to dust.” I said. She thought for about 20 seconds.

“Time.” she said. “The answer is time.” I nodded and took a step back. This went on for some time neither one of us gaining or losing ground. Clara spent a good minute thinking of the best riddle and I decided to taunt her.

“Come on ask me anything.” I said. An evil smile crossed her face.

“What year was this house built?” she said. There it was. The cheating I expected, that wasn’t a riddle. I swore when I realize my mistake. Ask me anything I had said. Okay that was on me. Of course I got it wrong and took a step back. I was prepared for her cheating though had a plan. I asked her questions I knew she would be able to answer and answered her questions incorrectly even if I knew the correct answer. I took a step back and bumped into something I looked back and saw the handle to the back door. This was it. I asked Clara an easy question.

“What year did Canada become a country?” I said. As expected she answered correctly. She smiled thinking she had won as I couldn’t move farther back. Reaching behind me I opened the door and stepped backwards through it.

“I win.” I said. The look of confusion on her face.

“What? You’re all the way in the house. You're the one who lost.” Clara yelled.

“I’m out the door.” I said. “That was the rule I just had to make it out the door. You failed specify which door. So I win.” I knew the Beldam would try and twist this in her favour so I didn’t give her the chance. I grabbed the fire poker while she was confused and started attacking her with it. She did well to block with her arms till I swept her legs with my leg and she ended up on her back. I jumped on her chest the poker aimed at her neck. I placed my other hand on the poker to drive it through her neck. I heard a giggle and small footsteps from upstairs. I hesitated. I screamed and drove the poker into the floor boards right next to her head. I got off her pulling the poker with me. I looked at Clara.

“I know I can't hurt you.” I said. I pointed the poker at her as she stood up. “But I’ve beaten you twice now. Once in the game and once in hand to hand combat. You gave us your word and you’re keeping it.” I threw the fire poker down at her feet. I turned and walked out the front door joining my friends who were all shocked by my trick. We started walking away the hell hounds were still there and watching us but they were quiet and not moving.

“Wait! what about the little girl.” Mary said. “Should we try and help her.” I shook my head.

“This is her home. Let’s just let them be.” I said. We heard a loud crack like splintering wood behind us. We turned to look and the candle was out and there was no sign of anyone. The dogs were gone too. I looked at my watch 4:02 a.m. Sunrise wouldn’t be for another hour yet but there was enough light for us to easily make our way out of the woods to the car. We all drove back in silence.

In 2 weeks we were back in class. This experience didn’t dull our love of the paranormal however. We still love exploring abandoned places and ghost hunting. But we make sure are were no Beldam reports before we go.