Chapter 1
Faceless
Seventeen years later….
Here she was again tossing stones off the bridge into the frozen lake below, daydreaming about all the things her life was missing. Ever since she was young Autumn longed for adventure. When she was younger she would often wander off into the woods at the edge of town and pretend to be a princess and imagine she was being saved from an evil monster by a knight in shining armor. But all they ever were, all they ever could be were fantasies.
By The time the sun had reached midday point it had begun snowing again. While she loved the winter season she couldn’t stand how cold it was so she headed back along the dirt road that lead back home. About a third of the way home she heard a noise coming from the brush up a head.
“Huh…I wonder… “ she said has she slightly veered off the road and into the woods.
She wondered for a bit but after seeing nothing unusual she turned back towards the road. Suddenly a cold breeze hit her from behind blowing her amber hair into her face. She looked back at the woods behind her for a moment and then continued on.
She could see her home in the distance, but something was strangely unusual. All the windows were closed and there was no smoke coming from the chimney. She approached the door and saw that was slightly unhinged. Something was wrong .
She slowly pushed the door open. And looked inside, all the lanterns were dark and there was a strange odor in the air.
“hello…mother… father…” she said quietly
She took a few steps forward and suddenly the door behind her slammed shut. She spun around in surprise. ..
“it was..j…just the wind” the said to herself.
She couldn’t see much except for where the cracks in the window allowed a small amount of light to creep in. She stumbled around in the dark for a bit until she reached the windows. She slid back the shutters and allowed the dinning room to be lit with a dim gray light. The room was a mess the wooden chairs were scattered across the room all the décor on the table was on the floor. As she bent down to pick up one of the candle holders that was on the floor something moved along the back wall. She stood up quickly looked around carefully.
“Father is that you…” she stuttered as she walked slowly towards the wooden wall at the back of the room.
As she approached the wall she could see what looked like a face protruding from the wall. She leaned in to get a closer look. The wooden face…was that of her fathers….
She stepped backwards and then she heard a whisper from behind…
She turned around for a moment. She was far beyond worried now… she gripped the candle holder tightly as she looked across the room. There in the dim light of the window was a figure, its head was tilted and its body was slouched over. Autumn back up against the wall. She began to feel heavy breathing next to her…she turned her head slowly…the face on the walls eyes were open and staring sideways at her. She put her hands over her mouth and bit her tongue has tears to fill her eyes.
“He comes from you…” the face whispered as it sunk back into the wall.
Autumn slunk to the floor and turned her eyes back towards the window where the figure stood. But it wasn’t at the window any longer… it was standing above her. It had no face but a large mouth where a face should be. Autumn began to cry…”please….no…” then hands began to grow from the wall behind her. They pulled her tight against the wall as the monsters hand pulled her mouth open….
