The Cursed Expedition: Part Four

By Carter Nielson

Part Four: A Cry for Help

For part three, click here.

After seeing the woman the night before, Cedric went immediately to bed, chalking up the appearance of the woman as a symptom of his weariness from the day’s work. When he got up the next morning, he went straight for the camera. Cedric went through all the pictures he took again, just to make sure. There she was, that creepy woman, in every. Single. Picture. She was staring right into Cedric’s eyes. He was spooked to the core, but he felt…drawn into her gaze. A cold wind chilled Cedric to his bones, even though he was inside the shelter. Cedric fumbled with the buttons next to the small screen on his camera to zoom in as much as the hardware allowed. He focused on the woman’s face. It looked like there was a rune painted onto her forehead, but the resolution was too blurry for him to identify which rune it was. Even more chilling than the painted rune was her expression. She wasn’t smiling, exactly, but one side of her mouth was raised. It was a knowing, eerie look, as if she knew she was being looked at. As if she wanted to be looked at. Cedric squinted, half-hoping he was seeing things. He blinked, then blinked again. The woman wasn’t in the photo. There wasn’t a single trace of her. Hands shaking, Cedric zoomed back out to view the entire picture; nothing.

Cedric’s hands went limp, his camera falling onto the cold ground. He slid to his knees beside it and stared blankly into the distance. Cedric was going crazy, just like all those horror stories of people slipping into insanity. Warring emotions and tangled thoughts overwhelmed his tired mind. A sob wracked his body, and he realized he’d been crying. It didn’t feel like enough to express the torment tearing into him.

Jared came through the shelter’s entrance, looking worried. As he moved towards his friend, his distressed look deepened. “Cedric, man. Are you okay? I heard you screaming.”

Cedric tried to get a response out, but all he could manage were anxious grunts. He held his hand out to signal he was fine. He breathed deeply for a few minutes, and Jared stood in silence, waiting for his friend to calm down enough to talk.

Teary congestion muffled his words, but Cedric managed, “She was there. …At the site.”

“Who? It was just us there,” Jared replied.

“Just,” Cedric paused to take another deep and shaky breath, “check the pictures I took, you’ll see. I’m being haunted.” That admission squeezed new tears out of the corners of Cedric’s eyes. He kept his face down while he picked up his camera from the ground and handed it to Jared.

Jared stepped over to Cedric and picked up the camera off the ground, reassuring Cedric that he wasn’t haunted and saying he would be all right as he started scrolling through the first few pictures. Cedric noted with distant relief that the camera was unharmed despite being dropped; that camera was his baby.

Jared broke the silence after a few minutes of looking. “Cedric man, I hate to break it to you, but these are just pictures of the site. I don’t see a woman.”

Anxiety prickled Cedric’s forehead instantly. “No, you’re just not looking close enough. She’s hidden in the background.” He calmed down enough to stand and take the camera back from Jared. He went to the last picture where the woman had been most visible, smirk and all, but she was gone. He scrolled back through all the pictures. She was nowhere to be seen on any of them. Cedric couldn’t believe it, he was going crazy.

Jared placed a tentative hand on Cedric’s shoulder. “You’re just tired. Let’s go back to the house.”

Cedric agreed numbly, despite what he saw. He knew what he had seen, and he had to find out what was happening. Nothing had seemed right since he first saw the woman right after he landed. He had a feeling that if he just knew more about the rune on the woman’s head, a little more of this would make sense. Cedric knew exactly who he could ask for help. His uncle Charles knew quite a bit about mythology and runes — he got a masters in it or something. As soon as they got back to Qaanaaq, Cedric would call Charles. Cedric had always thought Charles’ degree was a useless liberal arts degree. But man, he was looking forward to his uncle’s nerdiness now.

The next eight or so hours were a blur, as the crew set about packing up their camp and driving back to Qaanaaq. Cedric went over in his head how he would approach the conversation with his uncle. Before he could think of a way to tell his uncle I’m being haunted by a woman clad in animal skins from head to toe, and oh yeah, she holds a staff, they arrived back in Qaanaaq.

Cedric grabbed his bags and rushed into the house they were staying at. He walked right past their host and into his room. Cedric opened up his laptop that he had left behind, and clicked on the skype icon. He called Charles, who lived in Ireland and should have still been awake. The ringing went on for what seemed like hours, until the call disconnected itself. I need to contact him, thought Cedric. He’s the only person I know who would have any idea about this. He tried to call again, but was met with the same result. Cedric decided to write his uncle an email, explaining the situation, old woman, ritual site, runes, and all.

After he sent the email, Cedric was left to sit in his anxious thoughts. He had to do something proactive, if only to prove to himself he wasn’t as rocked by the whole situation as he really was. He decided on going out into Qaanaaq to see if he could find anything that would help him understand what was going on, or, heaven forbid, encounter the woman again. Cedric stood up and grabbed his camera, walking quietly out the door so Jared couldn’t hear him from his room.

The cold air bit at Cedric’s face as he walked out the door, but what pained him more was the idea of being haunted and seeing her again. To ease his nerves, Cedric snapped a couple of pictures here and there around the small town. He took a cool shot of some colorful houses with rolling wintery hills in the background, it was oddly lifeless. The town was undeniably small, but Cedric had figured there would at least be a few townsfolk walking around. Yet, he saw no one, as if he needed to feel more eerie. Cedric took out his camera to check if the recent pictures had the woman in them. He was both relieved not to see her, and worried that her absence confirmed his mental decline.

After an hour or so from Cedric’s departure, he decided to return and check his computer. The sun was starting to go down anyways, and he was finally feeling a little better. On his walk home, he noticed that every single house had a bowl and a pile of meat scraps outside the front door. He walked up to one and saw milk was in the bowl. The combination was familiar. He was almost certain his uncle had said people in ancient times did this to appease evil spirits so they wouldn’t find a human meal inside the home. I just want to go home, this is too much, Cedric thought. He was about to break down again, but as he lowered his gaze, he saw his camera. He tightened his grip around the camera; he could do this. He was just tired, and if he made it through another expedition or two out to the site, his career would be made. He walked back to the house with a newfound determination.

Cedric entered his room and sat down at his computer. His uncle had emailed back! There were also three missed calls on Skype from him, but Cedric ignored them to open the email. Cedric scanned the words, his heart sinking.

Ced, call me immediately. You’re in danger, Qaanaaq is not safe for you.