Forgiveness

Running through the woods after witnessing his wife's infidelity, Ron's anger convinces him that the only solution is violence. Soon however, he meets a stranger in the woods who tries to convince him that everything is not as it seems and that the best course of action is forgiveness.

(The following story contains course language, sexual references and other subject matter intended for a mature audience)

Ron stormed through the forest, trying not to think about what he just saw. He could feel the heat of his rage coursing through him, fuelled by the mocking laughter in his mind. He didn't know where he was going; all he wanted to do was break something, hurt something, anything to help him forget what he just saw.

He didn't want to believe it, while the laughter in his mind told him he should have seen it coming. He just saw his wife, the woman he loved more than anything in the world, together with the two people he trusted the most. They were... he didn't want to think about it, so he forced himself to march through the woods. But the laughter followed him.

It was all his wife's idea, the laughter reminded him. It was his wife that suggested a weekend visit to their friend's cottage. It was all innocent enough, a few drinks and a couple of laughs. Then they asked if would he get more beer before the stores closed? He was five minutes out when he remembered he left his credit card with her. And when he got back, he found them in the living room. They were... fucking! His wife and his two friends. Fucking! All three of them! Fucking! Fucking while he was out on an errand they had sent him on!

He tripped over a exposed root and hit the ground. His mind laughed harder at him as he got back up and continued onward. His anger rose with each step he took. He was so angry, he wanted to hurt them. He wanted to kill them. He should kill them! He spotted an axe leaning up against a tree. He should just kill them with that axe, the laughter told him. All of them. They're laughing at him, he was sure of it. His own mind was laughing at him, and it was their joke. He hated them. He should just kill them.

He picked up the axe. It felt good and heavy. Shouldn't be hard. He turned back to the house and the laughter continued. He would kill them and then they would stop laughing. The joke would be over. The insanity would be...

His foot caught the same exposed root again and he fell, face first, onto the path. The axe dropped from his grasp and landed with a thud a few paces from where he lay. He picked himself up slowly and rubbed his chest. The laughing continued. It was as if the whole forest were laughing at him. He took a deep breath and stopped. And listened. The forest was laughing at him. There was a physical voice laughing at him. A single, mocking voice which laughed as one amused by pain. As soon as he noticed it, however, it stopped.

“S'up.” A voice spoke.

Ron looked around, half expecting to see his best friend, promising to make everything alright again. But it was a stranger who walked out of the shadows of twilight. He was younger than Ron and wore a denim jacket with a red hood. The stranger extended a leather gloved hand to Ron.

“Are you laughing at me?” Ron accused, even as the stranger pulled him up.

“You hear the laughing?” The stranger asked, though he seemed more relieved than confused. “Hmm, can't say I envy you, but it'll definitely make things easier.” His eyes darted to the side. He raised his hand and... blew a kiss over Ron's shoulder. When Ron turned however, there was nothing there except more woods.

“Who are you?” Ron demanded, more aggressively than he should have.

“Doesn't matter.” The stranger said. He turned and blew a kiss into the forest, “I know what's going on and I am here to help. You can hear 'em, but not see 'em. That's good and bad. Depends on how far...” He looked down at the ground, then back up at Ron. “Whatcha doing with that?”

Ron looked down to the ground. Laying directly between them was the axe. Ron dived for it, but the stranger stomped his foot onto the handle, adding his own weight to the load. He watched Ron battled for the axe before giving up.

“That bad, huh?” The stranger said. “Could be worse. Should be better. So, who ya gonna kill?”

Ron shook his head, “I'm just cutting wood.”

“Bullshit, who ya gonna kill?”

Ron took a swing at the stranger's jaw. Somehow he missed and he stumbled, falling to the stranger's feet yet again. He scrambled to his feet. “Who the fuck are you?”

“'We went over this. I'm the one that knows what's going on.” The stranger turned and blew another kiss into the forest. “You hear laughing, don't cha?”

Ron shook his head, but he did hear the laughter. It would vanish about the same time the stranger blew a kiss or whenever Ron paid attention. But another thing he noticed was that the wind was picking up. Quickly.

“What's the fuck is going on?” Ron asked.

“Nevermind. Too much is going on. Too much is at stake. For the both of us. And for different reasons.” He took Ron's hand, “It's good thing we have the same goal. ” He pulled Ron along through the woods. He would stop momentarily to whistle through his teeth and blow kisses into the woods. The laughter would die down every time he did so, but it also came back and more quickly after each time. The laughter was also louder now. Ron swore he could hear more than one voice in it, like a room at a party.

“Don't slow down.” The stranger had to shout over the wind, “And don't think about 'em. Try thinking about something else. Who were you going to kill?”

“Who is laughing at us?” Ron screamed.

They seemed to arrive where they were going, as the stranger slowed stopped. They stood in a small circle of pine trees close together. The place must have been visited often, as a fire pit had been built in the centre. The wind didn't penetrate through the trees and the laughter was quiet, save for the solitary voice that had started before.

“You couldn't believe me, even if you were able too.” The stranger answered, starting to build a fire in the pit. “It's not important to know what they really are anyway. For our purposes, we'll call them ghosts.”

Ron rolled his eyes. “There's no such thing as ghosts.” He protested.

“Ghosts only need two things in order to exist.” The stranger continued, “Belief and interaction. That means you're halfway there. Just don't believe in them.” The stranger looked up from the fire and into Ron's eyes. “Believe in me. Specially when I say you're in danger.” He light the fire with a match. The wood burst into a roaring fire. The wind outside the grove bellowed and shook, and the sound was deafening. The Stranger sat still by the fire, breathing in the smoke.

Ron stepped away from the fire. His anger already made him too hot. “What is this all about?”

“You tell me.” The stranger's demeanour had changed. His words came slower and he was more calm. “Tell me. If I had not stopped you, who would you be killing with an axe right now?”

Ron decided to play this game. There would be no harm in it. “My friends. And my wife.”

“Ahh.” The stranger smiled. “Now why is that? Actually, it does not matter. What is important is this; you have forgive your wife.”

So this was what it was all about. They wanted to add insult to injury. He heard the laughing outside, but he didn't care. He knew it was someone laughing at this little game and Ron wasn't having anymore of it. “Who set you up to this? Daniel? Christine?” Ron demanded. He grabbed the stranger's by his jacket. “Tell me who sent you.”

“You did.” The stranger replied.

“Wh-what?” This answer shocked Ron. It didn't make any sense. “What do you mean I sent you? How could I have sent you?”

“Sit down.” The stranger motioned to the ground beside the fire, “And relax.”

Ron gave up, too confused and upset to fight him. The stranger took a seat next to him so that his knee touched Ron's. The stranger reached into his pocket and threw in handful of powder into the fire. The fire jumped and burned more brightly for a moment, then faded back to its modest roar as though nothing had happened.

“Now I know you can feel is hatred and all you want to be is angry. It happens. You are angry and anger clouds your judgement. You are only human. But trust me when I say you need to relax. You have to concentrate. I am going to try to help.” The stranger pointed to the heart of the fire. “Look into the flames and listen to my voice.”

The fire flickered like all fires did, but the cinders didn't die as they hit the ground, they danced with ghostly lights and shadows.

“Relax. Ignore everything but the sound of my voice. Watch the fire. Watch the cinders. Watch them dance.”

The wind and the laughter soon drifted off as he listened to the Strangers calming words. The snap of the fire disappeared and the wind quickly followed. He thought the laughter was still in the background, trying to distract him.

“Remember the good things about your wife.” The stranger's voice prodded. “Tell me how you met.”

Ron tried to remember, but it was so hard. The laughter was getting angry. More like screeching. But he tried to remember. “It was a party.” He said, “A costume party.”

The cinders danced and swirled and suddenly images took form inside of them. He could see his wife in the fire. She was wearing the costume she had been four years ago. The wild torn dress, the wild make-up and the leaves in her hair. She was dancing to music he couldn't hear.

“Your wife.” The stranger reminded him.

Ron nodded and tried to think of the words. “She was wearing such a strange costume. It was her hair. It was all wild with leaves and vines tied in that caught my attention. Her skin shined with glitter and sweat. The Moon Child. That's what she called it. I didn't know what it meant or what it was supposed to be. I guess I still don't. I was in an uninspired vampire costume and my other friend....”

“Focus on her. What was your first impression? What did you feel?”

“Feel? I felt,” He searched for the right words, more pleasant words, but he continued before he could finish. “I wanted to fuck her. I wanted to fuck her in that costume. I had such a hard on for her. Her body glistened and I could smell her sweat mixed in her perfume. She was so beautiful, I wanted to fuck her so badly.”

“Did you?” The stranger asked. The voice wasn't judging. He really wanted to know. Maybe the stranger couldn't see what Ron saw.

“No. Not that night. She was with someone else that night. Nothing fancy, but nothing to mess with. I talked to her for a bit, but we were both pretty drunk. She was so pretty, and her costume showed off her body nicely. Her tits glistened in the lights and she had such great legs...”

“She obviously left an impression.” The stranger's voice grew louder as the vision faded. “When did you see her next?”

“Here and there. We were part of the same social circle. Friends of friends, you know. Wasn't too long before I saw her again. So I asked her out on a date.” He saw the fire churn again. He and his wife sitting at an iron table in a cafe, with cups a piece of cake between the two of them. “It was all part of an elaborate plan I had worked out. Credit card in one pocket and a condom in the other. I would turn her on enough that she'd invite me up and we'd fuck. But as the date went on...” His wife was laughing at a joke and the vision of himself laughed along with her, “I realized there was more to it than that. I liked her. A lot. I had went out for casual sex, but I ended up falling in love.”

“Did you make love to her that night?” The strangers voice asked.

“No.” Ron said. The vision faded, “We went on dates. Lots of dates. But we never... made love. I loved her.” Someone was laughing. “Or I thought I did.”

“Maybe you did.” The stranger said, and the laughter sneered. “Think about her.”

A wail pierced through the laughter and he saw his wife jumping up and down. The wail came into focus and he heard that noise he once thought he'd never forget. Her laughing in happiness.

“I asked her to marry me, and she said yes. Then I showed her the ring. And, well as you can see.”

“Tell me.” The stranger said.

“She thought I was joking when I first asked. But I gave her the ring and she went crazy.” His wife was a bundle of laughter and hugs. He could almost hear her say, 'Yes, yes I will.' “I wanted to marry her. I was so in love with her.”

“So what happened?” The stranger asked.

The fire disappeared, and Ron dreaded what would happen next. He knew what he would see. His wife between his two best friends, laughing at him as the forest laughed now. That was what happened. But the fire changed to his wife sitting in their living room with friends. She looked lonely.

“She was unhappy.” The words surprised Ron, even as he spoke them, but his mind continued, “She's been unhappy for a while now. She wouldn't tell me why, but I knew something was hurting her. She wouldn't talk to me though. I didn't understand, and I didn't know how to talk about it.”

The fire changed to a scene from that very afternoon. He was in the kitchen of the house he ran from, talking to his best friend, the man who he trusted more than anyone in the world. “So I tried to talk about it to my friend Daniel and he said,” the words choked him, but Ron got them out, “He said that he would take care of it. Take care of it... like a kitchen sink that had a leak.”

“So why does she deserve to die?” The stranger asked.

The grove burst into laughter. The fire was snuffed out and Ron felt like he woke from a dream.

“There isn't much time.” The stranger got to his feet and waved his hands. The sound of wood snapping filled the air. "I've helped you all I could."

Ron noticed how fast the wind had picked up. He never thought that wind could blow so hard.

"You have to get back to the house,” The stranger yelled, “You have to forgive your wife.”

Ron felt the anger flow in him once again, “Why is this so important to you?” He yelled.

It was the stranger's turn to grab Ron by the shirt and stare straight into him. “You'll never understand why this is important to me!” He yelled back, “My only hope is to make you realize why this is important to you! I've done my part! It's time for you to do yours! Do what's right and do it now! Go!”

The stranger breathed hard into his clenched fist then slapped Ron hard in the chest. Ron stumbled back, rubbing the place where the Stranger hit him. It stung a lot, but Ron realized something else. He couldn't feel the wind. He stood up straight and looked back at the stranger. He needed to do something. And he needed to do what was right. He thought about all he learned as the laughter filled him with hatred.

“I...” Ron thought hard through the laughter, then nodded his head, “I'm going!” He got up and started to run up to the house. He stopped and turned. “What about you?”

“They don't have the gumption to take me on directly! Go!” The stranger called out, just as a tree broke from the wind and fell right where the stranger stood. Ron had no time to go looking for him. He had to make it back to the house before he was killed as well. So he ran.

He could still hear the laughing, but he didn't care. The wind was terrible, but he ran through the forest as fast as he could. He almost fell a couple of times, but he simply got back up and started running again.

He could hear the rattling of the house before he could see it. It was rocking with the force of the wind beating against it and groaning as it swayed on its foundations. The wind was so bad it stung his eyes, but he cut across the lawn and pushed open the door.

The lights were flickering. They should have been out. The air conditioning was out and it felt hot inside compared to the cold wind. The voices laughed at him even here, but he went from room to room, each one deserted until he finally found her.

She was in the same room as before, huddled in the corner, alone. Her dress was mangled. Her makeup was running from tears and her hair was twisted into knots. She always played with her hair when she was upset. She looked like the Moon Child again. Though no moon child had ever looked so frightened.

She almost cowered away from him as he approached. She trembled from head to foot.

“Ronald.” She whimpered. “Ronald, please. I'm so sorry. Please, don't hurt me.”

He hated her. The laughter told him that. But the stranger told him something more powerful. He did love her once. And probably still did. And he thought he understood why she did it. He knew what he had to do.

He got down beside her. She cowered away from the hands that embraced her. He kissed her for head and whispered in her ear. “It's alright. I understand. I forgive you.”

The wind screamed. A tree branch smash through the window and lunged towards the two of them, stopping a few inches from crushing them. Then the wind and the laughter vanished. It was silent, save for her breathing.

---

It was the worst storm to have hit the area in decades, or so the wound up radio claimed. Reports of property damage and fallen trees streamed in, as well as the first funnel cloud to be seen in the area in a hundred years. Just another example of how erratic mother nature could be.

Ron packed up his car, taking one last look at the house before driving off alone. There were no phones or power, but he knew they would be alright without him. As he drove along, the effects of the storm littered the street, but the street was empty of cars, so he drove around most obstructions easily.

Soon he noticed a hitch-hiker a head, with his thumb out. This hitchhiker a denim jacket with a red hood and leader gloves. This time he wore a black backpack as well. Ron pulled up and rolled down the window.

“Need a lift?” Ron called out. The stranger turned and got in as if he were expected. They drove in silence for a little bit, neither one making a sound.

“How did it turn out?” Ron asked.

“Turned out well..” The stranger answered. At least he's not pretending it never happened, Ron thought. It made things easier. Maybe...

“So what exactly happened out there,” Ron asked.

“It's probably better if you didn't know.” The stranger said. He never took his eyes off the road, staring straight ahead.

“I forgave her,” Ron continued. “But I'm not sure if I want to be with her anymore. I'm not sure if I love her anymore. Does that make any sense?”

The stranger's head turned and looked him in the eyes. “More than you know.” The stranger replied, before looking straight forward.

“But,” Ron thumped his fingers on the steering wheel, “You must have known what's going to happen.” He stopped himself, “I broke up with her. Am I doing the right thing?”

The stranger's expression didn't change as he continued to stare forward. "That's for you to decide and for fate to consummate. I'm not a marriage councillor, nor am I an expert on women."

"What are you then?" Ron asked.

The stranger looked towards his window. "Drop me off here."

Ron stopped the car along side the road. They were still in the middle of the forest, just a long stretch of road between the trees, no different from the place he picked the stranger up. But the boy opened the car and slung his back onto his shoulder. “Peace 'n blessings 'n good luck..” He shut the door and walked out into the woods.

Ron rolled down the window. “Hey! Wait a second!” The stranger stopped so he continued, “I know you were out there for something, and you saved me and Susan's life. Thank you!” The stranger stayed so Ron continued. “Can I ask... what you're looking for? Can I help?”

The stranger stopped for a few moments. “I'm just looking for someone to believe in me.” He turned and looked over his shoulder. “And for a little interaction.” Then he turned back to the forest and walked out of sight.