In a clearing in the woods stood a lonely candle. Paula stared at it in amazement. What was doing that there?

The absurd candle was surrounded by small stones that were set around it, but there was nothing more strange there. Anyway, Paula thought that it was evident that someone had been there who abandoned the candle when they heard someone approach, but why? What were those people doing there? An answer invaded her mind causing chills. Would that be witchcraft?

Paula looked around trying to find someone hiding in the dark of the night but she saw nothing... just trees and branches, many branches. Darkness was a plague in that forest. She couldn't see anything beyond that little circle of light. Suddenly that idea caught her attention. How could she have seen that little light from the house? It was so strange that for a moment she doubted about her sanity.

Suddenly there was laughter around her... Paula started looking for the people who made fun of her walking around. She was fed up!

"Where are you cowards?" she scream.

But nothing else was heard, only her steps as she broke the branches. A minute passed... then two. Paula began to think that maybe her mind was playing tricks on her again, anyway she didn't have to wait too long because she started hearing the noises again.

"Hello! Anyone there?" the girl asked in a trembling voice.

Something in the air made her shiver and fear returned to her. Suddenly an icy breeze blew out the candle behind her suddenly. Paula was then plunged into darkness. Her heart began to beat so fast as her eyes began to get used to the darkness again. Paula tried to calm her nerves by leaning against a tree but it was useless because an idea horrified her. She had been so furious as she ran through the woods that she hadn't realized what direction she had taken. Paula had no idea how to back home and it was impossible to orient herself in the dark. There the trees grew close together and their branches hid the moon.

"God! Where I am?" she whispered terrified.

This time something answered. Paula heard a loud, clear laugh and could also make out a small silhouette in the darkness that slipped through the bushes.

"I saw you! Who are you?" she asked retrieving the courage.

She began to walk quickly to where the silhouette was but before arriving she observed that it was hiding behind the trees. That was moving very fast.

"What do you want? Why don't you leave us alone?"

That child's play was making her very angry. Why didn't it confront her?

When Paula searched behind the trees there was nothing there. She was confused, wondering where that strange silhouette was but then she saw it again so she started to follow it.

"Come here! Don't run away!" Paula said. "You could have burned down the house. Why don't you leave us alone?"

At that moment the small silhouette disappeared after a small slope. Then the moonlight filtered through the branches of the trees and for a few seconds Paula could see more than just a silhouette: it was a boy with his back to her or maybe he was a teenager. This caused the woman to change her strategy.

"If you leave us alone I promise I won't charge you with the police. Your parents won't know."

Paula was suddenly silent when she reached the top of the slope and what she saw shocked her. There were not many trees there so the moonlight allowed her to see what was there. It was so strange that for a moment she did not understand what her eyes were seeing until she remembered where she had seen something similar... a memory that went back to her childhood.

Small mounds of stones stretched everywhere between trees and bushes. Those stones looked like... tombstones. That looked like an old abandoned cemetery. Paula was horrified, she remembered the school days and the book that she had mistakenly taken from the library, she remembered the photos that the book had and. She had seen with bubbling curiosity (hidden from her teacher) olds cemeteries... a cemetery lost in the woods.

The boy's presence had disappeared somewhere in the forest, perhaps behind those tombstones... what if he was a spirit? Paula thought.

Then she screamed in horror and started running. Paula was out of control and she ran without knowing where she was going because she only wanted to get away from that place until suddenly she ran into a tall and thin man.

Still screaming, Paula backed away from him but stumbled over a branch and fell to the ground. The dry leaves cushioned the blow a little.

The man leaned towards Paula and before she could avoid it he took her by the shoulders to shake her.

"Paula! Stop it! Shut up! Shut up!" she said but she had not recognized him due to the darkness of the forest.

The man slap her face gently to help her react. It worked, Paula stopped screaming.

"Uncle?"

"Yes girl. Of course it's me. What happened? What are you doing here? Where is your aunt?" asked the man. He was agitated and it seemed that he had run as much as Paula.

"I guess she is in the house. We called the police when you left the house, uncle. But I thought I saw people from the window of the house and I couldn't help to come to the forest."

"Did you come alone? Are you dumb?"

"I...," at that moment Paula realized that she had done something stupid.

He interrupted her violently.

"What happened? Why were you screaming? Did you find the idiots yet?" he said furious. "I have heard them all the time but they hide. They make fun of me, can you believe it? I couldn't find them."

"No, but there is a graveyard there."

The man was slow to respond.

"Yes, I know, and what happens to that?" he said without understanding but then changed his attitude. "Don't tell me they're there. Fucking grave robbers! They were altering the peace of our ancestors by doing witchcraft!"

"Not! There is nobody there," Paula interrupted him. "And then why were you screaming?" he asked now angry at his niece.

Paula felt stupid because she had lost control when she saw an old cemetery. What was going on with her? She had never been afraid of such things! But no... it hadn't been just the cemetery but the boy's shadow...

She didn't have time to answer because just then they both heard footsteps. Near them at least two people were running to get away.

"Damn children!" Mr. Parker yelled before going to chase them.

"Wait, uncle! Wait!" Paula yelled trying to follow him.

"Don't follow me, Paula! Go with your aunt back home and bring the police. I'll catch those assholes already!"

A short time later Paula stopped exhausted because she could not run as fast as him so she lost sight of him soon, she could not tell him that she could not return home because she didn't know how to do it, she was lost.

Paula walked a long stretch between trees and thorny bushes, trying to find the correct way that would take her back home but couldn't find it.

She was very tired so she sat down on a dry log that had fallen to the ground. The darkness of the forest scared her. Paula didn't forget what she had seen and still had the question of whether that silhouette she had seen was human or not. Then she wondered if she had really seen it. Her mind tried to find a solution to everything.

The night was long and freezing. Mr. Parker didn't return.

When daylight came, Paula was still outside the house. Her eyes went to sky and shed a little water because the sudden clarity.

She had no idea how long she had been lost in the woods. Paula remembered that night as a nightmare but the light of day gave her hope, now she could find her way home.

Trembling from the cold and with her feet hurting, Paula climbed a slope helped by the roots of some old trees. When she was on top she could see better where she was. Paula was slow to recognize something to show her the way until she saw some bushes crushed by the passage of a person, so she walked towards it. From there it was easier for her to locate herself in that area but after ten minutes she found that she was still very far from home. For a moment Paula thought about her friend, where would Daiana be? Would she manage to speak to the nun?

Daiana was also thinking of her at the time. She was awakened by the light that came through her bedroom window. She had couldn't see Paula and wanted to speak to her. Things were altered in the town. Daiana had gone to see Sister Marta and the nun had received her in her room as always, spoke to her with kindness and curiosity, but suddenly her features changed drastically. Looking over Diana's shoulder, she had started screaming like crazy, scaring the young woman who didn't understand what was happening to the nun. Mrs. Gonzales pushed her out of the church, forbidding her to disturb the peace of the frail old woman again. Daiana tried to explain that she had done nothing but the woman did not want to listen to her.

The church manager was very angry and forbade her and Paula from going back there. She did not want to see them in her beloved church. Since the two friends visited the nun, she was so upset that sometimes she woke up screaming at night or talked to herself. Mrs. Gonzales was fed up with her follies and did not think it necessary to go and disturb the Parkers, especially Mrs. Parker to trying to bless her house and expel the supposed spirits created by the imagination of two young atheist women and one senile old woman.

Daiana had the urge to insult the woman but held back. It was better this way, if nobody believed on the nun so everything would calm down.

So she went home, but it wasn't too long before she knew that rumors about the Parker's; house had broken through the walls of the church. That did worry her.

Paula didn't know anything about that, however due to everything that had happened lately she intuited it. When he had been walking in the woods for a short time, he found the remains of the candle that had burned that night. The ground around the candle looked trampled so he thought someone would have wanted to do some kind of witchcraft there. A cold chill ran through her at the thought that the rumor that the house was haunted had spread in the town.

Paula kept walking and made the decision that when she got home she would tell the parkers what was being said in town about her home. She couldn't hide it any longer. She had to face the consequences of that mistake.

Several minutes later she stumbled upon the path that led to the house, so with a relieved smile she walked through it. When Paula got to the house she could see all the fuss there was. There were three police cars, many of them going from one place to another. Officers unfolded a map on the hood of one of the cars.

The first person to see her was Mrs. Parker who screamed with joy and almost ran towards her, but Paula was surprised by her uncle's reaction. The man was behind his wife and when he saw his niece he breathed a sigh of relief. He ran and when he reached Paula he hugged her.

"I should never have left you alone in that damn forest."

Paula had never seen a gesture of affection from him, not even for his wife, and her surprise was such that she was left without knowing what to do or say.