Quill's 31 Days of Halloween

Day 2

The Evening Path



Azra gazed at the path before her. It was heading into evening, and the stillness of the forest path calmed her. With the sun behind her, it gave the surrounding trees and plants a comforting pinkish glow.

It was times like these, the quiet, peaceful moments that her burden did not seem so heavy.

Azra watched as the wind flowed around her. A passionate little leaf twisted with the movement of the wind.
The dancing leaf strained against its fathering branch, and a sudden gust of wind set it free. It twirled in its happiness, floating in the bliss that was flight.

Azra softly stretched out her hand, opening her palm to greet the little runaway, only to watch with despair as the leaf passed through her outstretched hand, continuing its graceful decent to the ground.

Azra slowly closed her palm, the seeping sadness reaching to her soul. She lowered her eyes, wishing that the road of her life had not led her here.

If she had known, so long ago, what waited for her, would she have made the same choices? Were her past choices doomed to haunt her forever?

She was frozen in time, never going foward, stuck eternally, to pay for her sins. Azra heard the approach of a couple down the path, and sunk to the shadows.

The couple strolled down the path, never noticing Azra as they teased each other and laughed. They were linked hand in hand, enjoying the cool evening walk. Their joy was like stabbing knives for Azra, who had no joy or light to brighten her existence.

The couple's voices reached her.

“You know the legend right?” the man teased the woman. “A woman found out about her husband’s cheating, so she tricked him to come into the forest with the promise of a picnic. Out of spite, she killed him. Now she walks the forest, searching for any cheating man that walks down the path. Promising to get revenge”

“Good thing my ex didn’t come with us then.” The woman giggled.

Azra turned away, not needing to hear anymore. She regretted what she did all those years before. And every day, she was punished anew. Azra felt a single ghostly tear fall down her cheek. Her sweet voice filled the forest in a ghostly whisper, before she vanished from view.

“I miss you…my love.”


“Diiid you hear that?” the man turned to his companion abruptly.

The woman was pale with fear as she looked around frantically. She laughed uneasily. “It’s probably just a trick. It is Halloween after all.”