Displaced

The mountains of North Carolina hold a lot of secrets to this day. People go missing all the time. Bigfoot roams there and even closer to home the Brown Mountain Lights shine brightly on occasion. I am sure that long after I am gone, they will still hold their secrets.

On a lovely outing with my husband, we decided to take a day trip to the mountains. We had trouble on the way with traffic and needing to stop every so often because of leg cramps. It made the trip even better with the small stuff.

On this day we decided to go to a place I enjoyed the view from since childhood. We paid to get in and explored the area. While he enjoyed talking to another gentleman that worked at the small park about comic books and geekdom, I wandered off a little bit to look at the garden area.

It was a comfortable day. The wind wasn't too harsh in this particular part of the mountains for once. It was overcast so any pictures I had taken had filtered light. I couldn't wait to see them.

I was getting a close up of a weird caterpillar when I heard the first sniffle of crying. The caterpillar stopped moving and just turned around the way it had come. Remember when I said I should pay attention to my surroundings? I am clearly not a clever woman. I watched it disappear into a bush. The second sniffle of sadness came just as soft as the first.

I looked back to see Jason still speaking and moved a little further down the path. I spotted a bench pushed back off the trail in the middle of a high wall covered in ivy. I walked closer and when the bushes cleared my view, I saw the rest of the bench. A woman in a pioneer dress was sitting on it, sobbing into her hands.

I debated leaving and minding my own business. I took a step back to leave her to her business when I stepped on a stick. The crunching of it underfoot stopped her crying for a moment. I looked up to see the woman looking at me from between her fingers.

"I didn't mean to disturb you."

She let out a loud wail and put her face back down. I moved closer. Now that she had seen me, I might as well be nice.

"Are you all right? Is there anything I can do to help?"

I approached the bench and stood in front of her. Her crying stopped again. She slowly lifted her face to look at me. I should have run when she stopped crying the first time. Her face wasn't a face. Sitting among twisted vines and briers sat two lidless blue eyes staring at me.

I didn't hesitate to run when she reached for me. I could feel her on my heels as I turned the corner back up to where my husband was. I cleared my throat when I saw the top of his head and walked normally to stand beside him. I could tell I was shaking and I knew that I couldn't hide my fright from him.

He stopped talking to the gentleman. They both looked at me. The other guy knew what I had seen, I could see it in his eyes.

"Are you OK, babe?"

"Yeah, I'm just hungry."

The other guy lets out a breath he was holding and I just nodded at him. We left shortly after to grab a bite to eat. I told Jason over our dinner what had happened. He believed me. He said he could tell something was wrong and that I never acted like that when I was hungry. Normally I get angry. We left the mountains shortly after and have yet to go back.

I may avoid going to that place again. If I absolutely have to go, I'm taking more people with me and not separating from the group.