Chapters:

Possession of Faith

Walking a waivered path towards home, the motherly shout of, “Oh, Jesus! It’s her!” caught the shambling young woman’s ear. Unhurried as her pace, she struggled to focus toward the exclamation. Joshua ran out the front door to find his wife Miriam sprinting feverishly across their muddy yard. In the distance shambled a familiar outline which his wife frantically rushed to greet. He soon followed, equally elated. Only an hour had passed since realizing their only daughter had again wandered off, another of Faith’s ‘episodes,’ as they had been oft referred as. Ever since she could walk, Faith had been a sleepwalker. Lessened since her stint of puberty, Faith, now sixteen had been known to traipse off into the night, though never going farther than the barn located a hundred yards from her front porch. This night, however, Faith tested previous boundaries.

When Miriam came within arms reach of Faith her jaw dropped. She dug her heels into the fresh mud, stopping short to take in her daughter’s present state. Faith continued on, her off white long nightgown wetly clinging to her gaunt, one hundred and fourteen pound frame. Speckles of grime pockmarked the slightly torn garment. Barefooted, blood help helped dirt further adhere to raw feet as she pressed on. “Baby, where have you been? Are you alright?” Miriam continued on with a barrage of obvious questions, all the time in shock of her daughter’s present state. Faith locked eyes momentarily, before her mother felt the gaze go eerily past her. Undeterred, the desperate mother outstretched her arms and embraced her child. Faith continued toward the house without reciprocation. Miriam turned, drilling her feet deeper in the mud. Joshua ceased running. He stood silent. Faith continued on. He watched his wife fall to her knees dumbfounded in the muck and could not imagine what he was about to encounter. A sudden glint of morning sun bathed her enough to blur the visage. It wasn’t until Faith was no more than ten paces before Joshua realized the light was coming from his daughter. Faith continued on past her father, across the porch and through the front door. Instinctually finding her way to her room, a trail of reddish-brown footprints marked the path.

Joshua debated who to help first, his collapsed wife or shock stricken daughter. Given who was still mobile he chose the previous. “Who was that, Joshua?” asked Miriam shaken. Joshua held her close only to be embraced with twice the pressure. He could feel his heart rate begin to match hers as it pressed to his chest. “She—she stared right through me, Joshua,” she paused before the revelation, “Her eyes,” Miriam buried her face in the thick flannel of Joshua’s button down. He could feel her spasm in to tears against his chest. Joshua remained silent, as was his way in times of hardship. His mind ran a devotion to God over and over and over. A skipping record of The Lord’s Prayer narrated by his inner monologue. Concern for Faith began to instinctually bring Joshua to his feet. Raising Miriam from the wet earth, he continued to console her with his embrace. His own heft plus the burden of a half fainted woman made his rubber boots suction in the mud. Joshua struggled to free himself from the ground’s grip without pulling off a Wellington or losing footing. After some struggle, he led Miriam back home.

Joshua followed the tiny barefooted prints left by Faith. Bloody mud soaked impressions dotted the worn wooden porch in an unsteady pattern. One step seemed flailed to one side, while others pigeon toed. Being a seasoned hunter, Joshua found his daughter’s tracks resembled a wounded animal looking for shelter. A fatherly panic shuddered through him, quickening his pace to the house. Miriam struggled to keep up as her feet dragged through the thick mud. She sobbed incoherently, “My baby.”

The bones of the old ranch style home creaked eerily when Joshua and Miriam entered. Cold, crisp air gave way to an unpleasantly familiar odor. Burnt hair. Joshua knew the aroma from every time he singed a patch of arm hair while starting the fireplace. He continued to follow the rust colored tracks Faith left leading to her bedroom. On the walls, smeared handprints of an unstable person only adding to Joshua’s concern. The visual sent Miriam into further terror. “Faith? Baby? Mommas here. Do you hear me? Baby, please answer momma,” her voice wavered and cracked through panicked breaths, “Why isn’t she answering, Joshua?” Grabbing the closest wooden chair, he sat Miriam down. “Stay here. I’m going to go check on Faith,” Joshua’s quiet way seemed to give his wife solace. She nodded approvingly as streaks of tears cleaned the mud from her face.

Next Chapter: Possession of Faith