Eva has always been known to do exactly the opposite of what she is told not to do; a trait not particularly weird for a lady that grew up in a neighborhood filled with badass homies. This is not to mention her daredevil stunts that is almost impossible for a lady; it was no wonder that she had earned the nickname "Lady Hulk" in her neighborhood.
During vacations, the major part of her free time would be spent on exploration, expedition, hiking, and wandering in the woods, and this brought much worries to her parents - but only if they can convince her to stay at home, because all advices seemed to be falling on deaf ears. Her character and disposition to life negates and is in absolute opposition to what her beautiful face suggests. Her motivation has been "if guys can do it, why shouldn't I do it?", but it seems she has a way of pushing hers beyond what an average guy can do.
On one of her deep-jungle expeditions in the woods; and as usual, she normally goes to a new place per expedition, so this was not any different; but just some few miles into the woods, the game changed. One of the traits of Eva is fearlessness, and that could explain why she always plays around the paths that even angels are scared to tread on. As she progressed into the woods, she heard a domal noise, but because she never expected anything unusual to happen, she cared less of the noise. But again, the noise came; and this time stronger and more distinct, and sounded like a baby left in the middle of the jungle.
"Holy lamb!!" she thought within herself, how would a sane mother leave a baby right in the wood by this time of the evening? After the first baby's voice, some more sounds arose, and it seemed like market women having conversation inside the woods. This is getting pretty weird, because her town speaks Swahili, but what she heard looked like a combo of Italian and Spanish; how is that even possible? This sent waves of cold chills down Eva's spine for the first time in her life, and she felt a weird uneasiness right inside her soul - oops!! Never knew she had a soul after all.
Eva had to borrow some courage from oblivion and continued through the woods. She was now approaching an undulating path which appeared to have been abandoned for long - I mean, how can you explain thick cobwebs forming on the road? This did not deter her from moving through the undulating path, she just cleared the cobwebs with a piece of stick she found on the ground. Now the road had become very lonely, and multiple sounds are now rising from the woods that she cannot discern anything from it. But she resolved within herself "whatever is out there that made the noise, I want to see it", because she had never believed in ghosts or anything mysterious.
As she progressed into the woods, she saw what she never expected: A young lady sitting on the stump of fallen tree right in the middle of the woods sobbing profusely, with her hand covering her face. Eva shouted from afar, "Hey! Young lady, why are you all alone in the middle of the woods and crying, do you know it's not safe?"
She answered not a word but sobbed even more. When Eva noticed that she wasn't responding to any of her questions, she moved over to the young lady. By this time, the young lady freed her hands from her face to reveal something that I would not call a face at all - because it lacked everything that is found in a normal face; no eyes, no mouth, no nose, just as flat as your house wall. Eva just stood there transfixed like someone stung by devil's wasp.
A voice came from the young lady; but with what she spoke, Eva cannot tell, and she said to Eva, "What have you come here to do?"
The voice sounded deeply masculine and multi-tonal, which made Eva reek of fear, and she lost any thought of what to do. The only thing she could do was some few lines of words that she stammered through, "Hey, I commmee innn peaaccee".
I'm sure the young lady didn't want to harm Eva, because for someone to see without an eye, and to speak without a mouth, it wouldn’t take a muscle to draw out her life source.
For the first time in Eva's life, she ran in fear, and probably might have run more than what Hussein Bolt did throughout his running career. But the questions that have been left unanswered are; why didn't the young lady pursue Eva? What made the initial noise? What happened to the lady's face? Why was she sobbing? But in all these, at least, Eva now believes in mysteries and ghosts.
THE END
Authored by @samminator
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That's one way to tame a wild spirit.
That's one of the dangers or powers (depending on how you look at it) of superstition/religion.
A creature without a face is like a mirror, a creature with all the faces. If it does not show, it reflects.
Eva will be foreever linked to the original sin, to the fall and therefore doomed to punishment and ostracism. Even free-spirited Evas, like Mark Twain's, get tamed at the end.
The eternal struggle between logic (purposeful march) and impulse (purposeless wandering). We are told is either or.
That's a reason to sob about.
Eva's free-spirited nature was tamed at the end. Like everyone else, there's a measure of curiosity in us which constantly seeks for satisfaction, but Eva's own was a little bit beyond normal.
Wow, the thrill and the suspense in this story is reminiscent of horror, imagine approaching a lady with no face, that horror context of having to know that it's scary. I love the descriptive analogy, the mental pictures painted in the story of the forest is freaking awesome.
That's the main idea; to create a combo of horror and suspense. I'm glad you liked the piece. Thanks for coming
Until Eve finally knew fear! I believe that at some point, people face that something that surpasses us and that is above us, maybe not physically but spiritually. The fact that she is a faceless woman, but cries and talks, cannot be a normal creature. When Eva arrives at this place, she doubts her courage, but even so, she continues her search in the forest, to then really face this mysterious being and face herself. I like the intensity of the story, the metaphors you use to let us know some things, such as that it was a place that even angels dared not visit. That comparison already tells us how terrible it can be and what to expect. Thank you for sharing, @samminator
There are things way beyond what our normal senses can explain; and that was exactly what Eva witnessed. At least she now knows that mysteries do exist.
Thanks for the kind words
There is a very common expression in Caribbean lands: "Life gives you surprises" (as Rubén Blades sings in a famous song). That's a little what happens to Eve, who, like the biblical character, discovers mystery and vulnerability. I think you create a good psychological atmosphere in your tale, @samminator; well conceived the main character and also the ghost that is presented to him. Thank you for your story.
No matter how courageous we might claim to be, we are not absolutely immune to vulnerability. Eva just had to discover this the hard way; but she now knows that fear can also help one to survive; not just courage.
Thanks for coming around
An interesting story. In our area it is still very thick with horror stories. In some people fear can make him lose courage, but at a certain point he will be motivated to do as if there is no fear at all. but to reach this point of course there must be a turning point so that it will change the fear of being desperate and dare to do anything. If later Eva became aware that in her life there was always a scary thing and the mystery was a blessing that we could take the wisdom.
in life there is always something beyond our knowledge, including mystery, ghosts or other magical realms. we also learn something religious and we believe. There is an astral dimension that not everyone can understand.
Thank you @samminator
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Warm regard from Indonesia