Autumn

An unseasonably warm day in October rolls in with wind, its hot breath out of place amongst the colors of Autumn. The grasslands, with their once waving carpet overflowing with green, are now faded and fallen against the earth like they are speaking secrets to the coming Winter. The wind causes the now brittle goldenrod to move in jerky, unsettling motions. The fields are no longer a place where the Maiden dances. She has left them, empty and alone. Now, leaves tremble in the wind like the lost, barely holding on to the relative safety of a ledge. Some are torn from the branches, and I watch them swirl through the air, carried along by some electric force.

It’s too soon…

The crow women claw at the door that leads to the staircase until it creaks open enough for me to feel the dark. I wonder where I’ve left my cloak. I must have hastily thrown it in a corner when I turned toward the sun so many months ago. I never wash or fold the cloak, yet somehow whenever I find it before grieving into the darkness it is tidy and mended. That too is their magic.

Branches cry against each other and leaves rush up behind us, startlingly quick. I glance behind me expecting to see something… A thing that follows in the shadows and rustles in the night. My breath catches when I think about it, and I feel my heart swell just a little. Then the wind comes again, a train-like sound in the distance.

Come closer…

No. I think about the time we have left, shake my head to clear the spell and follow the path of the dog that is with me. Out of the shadows of the woods, towards what is left of the warmth of the sun on my back. I exhale the intoxicating scent of the darkness and concentrate on my footfalls, pulling myself forward for just a bit longer. Blinking at the sun now exiting a cloud and hearing the crow women close the door for now.

I will return…

When the hourglass tips towards the pit and the sand spills over that staircase, I will be there. I will wrap my cloak around my shoulders and open the door. And then I will descend.