“Honey, please just do this for me!” mom yelled at me, moving me towards the front door. “They cannot see you here or they'll come and get you!” 

Defeated, I went back into the farmhouse. Before I could say anything to my mom, she pulled me by the arm and took me to my room. 

“You are not to move and if I find that you did, I'll turn you in myself! Is that clear?!”

“Yes Ma'am,” I said, just trying to not get scolded again. 

“Stay. Put.” She closed me in my room and rushed downstairs to meet my dad and brothers.

Stupid stupid stupid! I thought to myself. How did you get caught like an idiot!

I made sure to go deep enough into the forest and I even hid the book when I heard his footsteps, and now it's nothing but a pile of ashes. Something I may be if they catch me. 

All of a sudden, small, indiscernible whispers started flooding my ears. They were coming from everywhere. The window, under the cot, in the closet, and even through the door. They were at their loudest at the door, and these ones were understandable.

“Come with us”

“Join us child”

“They don't love you, but we do”

I couldn't take it anymore: I ran out of my room only to greet the hateful gaze of the town judge and the pastor. 

“Round up the executioner, we've found ourselves a witch!”

I bolted back into my room and did my best to lock my door. I pushed the cot across the room and in front of my only escape. They were banging on my door now, and I heard the pastor call for an ax: I only hope it's for the door. I'm trapped, and they're gonna get mother. I started to tear up but not from sadness, but from pure anger. Those voices got me into this, and now they’re going to get me out. So Speak! Speak up or let your pawn die tomorrow as the sun rises over the horizon!

“The Thing you once only gazed through will be your ticket to seeing the sun set tomorrow”

“Your escape is only a leap away, do you dare be the hare in a coyotes game?”

I snapped my head to all corners of my room, looking for any possible way out of here. Then my eyes landed at the small eye level window facing towards the east: a place where I once watched the sun rise every morning. I took a rock that I found from one of my previous expeditions and threw it as hard as I could at the window. The thin wall of glass broke into small sharp pieces, but I wouldn't need to crawl through them: because just as I planned, the sound of the window breaking was heard outside the door, causing the judge and the pastor to run outside and out back to where my window leads. As fast as I could, I pushed my bed enough to squeeze through the door and down the stairs. I ran out the front door only to be greeted by the audience. Nosy neighbors, bored farm hands, my own family, all just watching me run from an early demise. I made eye contact with my mom, and though she didn't say anything, her eyes spoke for her.

“Run”

I bolted into our neighbors field of corn, hoping that it and the surrounding night would hide me away.

“She's in the corn!” I heard one of the people screech, presumably at my tormentors. 

I ran. I ran as fast as I could, just hoping that my legs could take me farther than their hate can reach. 

“Come to us child”

“Let our light in”

“Open your heart to us”

They're back, with more riddles. How am I supposed to “open my heart” to them? I couldn't think about it any longer as the voices of my chasers neared. The maze of corn eventually stopped and the only cover left was what the elders call “The Labyrinth”. I always heard stories about it, usually my brother trying to scare me or the pastor telling us about the evil that takes place there, but you know what the scariest thing about the forest is? The silence. My mother always said, 

“The lack of sound is caused by the fear of making any”

A shiver ran up and down my spine but I took a few more deep breaths and stepped into the forest.

*** 

The only noises that I heard were the sound of my shoes hitting the soft dirt and the occasional hoo of an owl. As I ran, I began to feel dizzy. I only assumed it was because of the copious amounts of running I just did, but when I stopped in my tracks and it didn't stop I began to worry. I looked around: everything looked the same. Every tree looked the same, no direction was different. The silence started to get to me, I was going crazy. 

“Hello?!” I yelled into the trees, though I knew nothing heard me. 

I was desperate, so I didn't care. 

“Help Me!”

The dizziness was unbearable now, so much that I tripped on nothing and fell into the dirt, I was going to pass out.

“Sprejmite nas zdaj!”

“Pohitite! To storite zdaj!”

“Nimate časa!”

I was too weak to speak but my thoughts spoke for themselves. Whoever you are, I accept you. Guide me and let me live. The ground shaking and the sound of jewelry pierced through the waking forest, accompanied by a voice.

“Oh my child, he has finally brought us together.”

The voice placed a cloth beneath my nose, the smell of which sucked any lasting energy in my body. A familiar hymn shook me throughout my body as I took one last breath before falling back into the darkness.

“Baba Yaga”