Of Monsters and The Innocence Within

They Emerged from The Woods

"Hey, that's not fair, Celia! That's not how you play the game."

"I know, I'm playing it my way."

The children squatted there, along the Brazos riverbank, searching for the best rocks to skip. The mid-morning sun loomed over them, the summer air of 1984 quickly losing its cool.

They were a ways into the forest, shrieking and laughing, knowing the house was too far for anyone to hear them and drag them back to their chores. And hours of home schooling.

"Matt, try this one." Celia held out the clear, smooth pebble to him.

He looked at it a moment, admiring its translucence, and when he picked it up, he found it was cool to the touch.

There was a strange and sudden ache in his chest as he walked to the water, the closer he came, the heavier the pebble seemed to grow. He stopped and looked at it again.

"What are you waiting for, just throw it in," Celia commanded from behind him.

Matt started, shook his head a little, and with everything in him screaming against it, threw the rock into the water.

Both children held their breath, but the pebble only disappeared with a simple plop. And the ache in Matt's chest with it.

"Well, that sucked," Celia muttered.

They turned and renewed their search.

And below the surface, just as it reached the riverbed, the pebble glowed. The currents shifted, swirling mud, twigs, water, and water weeds around it until a humanoid figure formed. The glowing pebble took the empty place of the creature's heart and its eyes opened.

Above, the children continued on, now trying to climb nearby trees to see how high they could go.

"Celia, move your foot, I need that spot."

"Hang on, I'm trying to."

They didn't notice when the water began churning. When the sounds of the forest stopped. When a water nymph stepped onto dry land.

But they did hear her song.

"Little darlings, sweet babes!

Won't you come beneath these waves, to a loving mother's embrace.

Such innocence is not for this world,

Too dark, too full of war.

Little darlings, sweet babes!

Won't you come and play, to have this one, forever day."

The children stopped. Was that their mother singing? Such a beautiful voice!

They climbed down from the tree, approached the temptress. Their child eyes saw the moving water, the mud for eyes and clothes, the weeds for hair, but their hearts saw their sweet mother.

Celia smiled, stepped into the river. Matt stood, transfixed, as he watched a thin layer of water creep up his older sister's body and a curiously similar figure appear in the muddy embankment.

His hand burned and the illusion lifted. His mouth opened to cry out a warning, but too soon his sister walked into the river and another walked out. She had his sister's brown eyes, but they had no warmth. The skin looked sun kissed, but as his fake-sister approached, a chill entered the warm air around her and he shuddered when her cold arm brushed his.

His body shook as his eyes followed her to where she stopped a few feet away, looking back at him. Waiting.

He squeezed his hand that had held the pebble and his eyes flashed to it, glowing in the thing's chest. A thought entered his mind. Could he do it?