title: The Candle Tree
Genre: Introspective
rating: g
summery: The tradistion of the candle tree is long steeped in mythology and lore. all we know is that it's been here for as long as anyone can remember. this is but one of it's millions of stories.

The Candle Tree

I was born in a small village in England on new years day, 1861. This village was just like every other village that exists in England. I was a farmers daughter; one of six. Our lives were simple but happy, doing the daily work a woman does on a farm. But this story is not about my sister or myself, or even my family. it's about a very unusual tree.

The candle tree is unknown in origin, but it is, as far as we can tell, much older than even the village which was founded in 1596. It's a siccamore, and stands over eighty feet tall. On every branch from the very top to the very last, has at least one candle melted onto it and durring special occasions each and every one is lit. It is a segnifficant part of village life. Mass is conducted below it. We've had wedding, babtisms, and funerals below it.

On Christmas eve when the air is still and cold, we gather round it at midnight and sometimes we even give each other our gifts. People have met and fell in love. it has been the site of many a luck and misfortune for as long as I have lived. Chilren play in it's shadow and our elders have died there.

On All Souls Night, we light a candle for everyone who has died that year...durring the plague we lit over a thousand one year. it has seen love and hate, drought and bounty, and all four seasons. The candles at the very top are the oldest and have coated it in a thin layer of wax that softens in the summer months and melts down like iceycles.

It is said that if you sleep under the tree, and wax from a lit candle drips onto you, you will die an old maid or meizer. i have been told as well that it will give you prophetic dreams. the angels have both blessed and cursed this unique creation. some have come to God in the instant they see is, and some have consorted with the devil below it.

Whatever you may have heard about this tree, it is ours alone and we will protect it with our lives until judgment day.


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title: By the Dieing Flame I Write
Genre: supernatural
rating: pg13
summery: When new collage student Sarah is challenged to stay in a haunted and abandoned dorm house buy her preppy room mate and friends, will she come out of it alive? and in what state of sanity?

By the Dieing Flame I Write




Sarah was a very quiet girl. She'd just turned nineteen and was starting her first year of collage. Her closest friend was a small pet mouse that she'd saved from a cat. She never really fit in with anyone and few people found her very interesting. She was very beautiful, with long black hair flowing almost to her ankles. Her eyes were a very pale blue and from lack of being in the sun, her skin was almost snowy.

Her first week on campus was stressful, but then highschool had been that way too and she was sure she'd fall into the routine fast enough. She didn't much care for her room mate, but they had different schedules and were rarely in the room together. The first Friday she was there was the first time she really spent any time with the odd girl. Her real name was Jenny, but she went by the name of Blackrose. She and her friends were very interested in the paranormal, and this night they decided that Sarah would be perfect to see if there was any truth to a very old legend.

"Hey Sarah..." Jenny called over to her.
"You wanna play a game?"
Sarah set her book down and looked over at the group of girls.
"What kind of game?"
Jenny smiled, but it was a mean smile.
"We hear you don't like the dark...but if you play this game with us, we'll..."
She paused to make up something that might appeal to the introvert.
"Get two of your work books for you for next semester."
Sarah was more than a little nervouse, but those books were exspencive. And maybe she'd make them see her as a person.
"Okay...what do we do?"
Jenny was silent for a long moment as she came out of the shock of Sarah's answer.
She thought they'd have to coorse her into it.
She laughed a little and stood.
"Come look out the window."
Sarah stood and followed her.
looking out across the campus she saw a creepy old building.
"Over in the building there's supposedly a ghost. She's about your age and she looks a lot like you. It's been closed off for about twenty years because of a fire, but the first floor that she haunts is safe."
Sarah stared at the dark windows and shivered.
"I don't believe in ghosts."
That wasn't true but she wanted to look brave.
"So you want me to sit in the dark room all night?"
Jenny nodded.
"Tomorrow night we'll walk you over there. if you stay the whole night, we buy your books...if you don't...we'll make you listen to a Voltire CD."
The last comment gained a snicker from her friends.
"Okay."
She shrugged.
"i win either way. i like to hear new music."
Jenny rolled her eyes and Sarah went back to her book.

~~

Seven pm

The sun was beginning to sink behind the foothills and the full moon could be seen on the horizon. The four girls walked up to the house and Jenny led them around to the back window where there was a window that had been broken.
"This way. Don't turn you're flash light on until you get in."
Sarah sighed as she stepped through the window and turned her flash light on.
"It used to be for the teachers."
They shined their flash lights around the room they had entered.
"Bathroom doesn't work anymore, but it's down the hall. This is the room the legend began in."
Sarah was interested in the room.
it was as if it hadn't changed in over a hundred years.
"What's the legend?"
Jenny flopped down on the bed, sending a cloud of dust into the room.
in the beam of the flash lights it vaguely took on a human shape before disipateing.
"Back when this house was built it was a plantation. The daughter...hey, her name was Sarah too..."
Sarah huffed and crossed her arms.
"you're not going to scare me, i told you, i don't believe in ghosts."
Jenny rolled her eyes and sighed.
"yeah yeah, whatever...anyway. She got really sick and in a mad fevor she thought she caught herself on fire. But when she stood up to run to the window, she tripped and hit her head on the window sill."
She pointed her flash light at the window they'd just come through.
"Some say she died instantly, others think she bled to death slowly before anyone found her. everyone is clear on one thing though..."
She suddenly pointed the flash light on the girl standing behind Sarah and screamed.
"Oh my god she's right behind you!"
Sarah screamed as she felt hands grab her from behind.
Before she knew what was going on, the other girls were gone, and she could hear their laughter as they went back to their own dorm.
With a heavy sigh, she flopped down on the bed.
The sun had set completely and it was now very dark in the room so she sat up against the headbored, staring around the room.
She hated the dark but she needed those books.

Nine pm

She was beginning to be very bored sitting there by herself. She'd adjusted to the dark and she'd turned her flash light off. She found different things to concentrate on so she wouldn't be so scared. She didn't know that she'd soon be terrified.

Eleven pm

It started with some footsteps and she growled softly to herself. "very funny guys. i thought i was supposed to be here alone!" But after several minutes of nothing but footsteps she glanced around. Soon she began to see shadows matching the footsteps. A tall man in a long coat with a bag. He was at the foot of the bed. Suddenly beside the bed there was a shorter woman with her hair pulled up in a bun. She was more solid than the man. Shakily she turned the flash light back on but as she shined it on the two figures they disappeared and the footsteps stopped. She sat there, heart pounding in her chest. She wanted to run...but then the thought of showing those girls that she wasn't as mousy as her pet crossed her mind and she shook her head defiantly at herself. "I will stay...it's just my mind playing tricks...." She took a few deep breaths, realizing her heart beat sounded like the foot steps in the silence. "It's just my heart...not footsteps..." She tried to relax a bit and closed her eyes to take a rest. if she could fall asleep, she could stay all night no problem.

One am

She was woken from a sound sleep by a hand on her shoulder and she screamed as she opened her eyes to find a very blurry man. The voice was garbled as if being heard through water. "Sarah..." The voice was familiar..."Sarah are you alright?" She was shaken by the man. She turned the flash light on and shined it on him but this time he didn't go away. His face looked like melted wax and she screamed again, worming her way out of the mans grasp. She began towards the window only to trip and hit her head on the window sill...

The next morning

"Sarah...Sarah are you okay?"
It was that voice again.
She was afraid to open her eyes.
"Sarah...come on...it's time to wake up now."
She opened her eyes slowly and saw the blurry man again.
but this time she didn't feel scared.
"Doctor Marks?"
Her eyes began to clear and she saw him finaly.
There was a heavy sigh of reliefe from the room.
"Oh thank goodness!"
The woman off to the side of the bed spoke as she sat next to Sarah.
"We were afraid you'd never come back to us!"
Sarah looked around at the people and began to recognize them as her family.
"What happened?"
She looked around at the furnishings and realized suddenly that she was home.
"I had the strangest dream...Mama...what year is it?"
The woman smiled softly and kissed her forehead.
"It's seventeen thirty one my darling. You hit your head and you've been in a coma for over a year."
Sarah hugged her mother tightly.
"I missed you so much. i went to the strangest places in my dreams. I went to school again but it was different. and no one liked me. and there was all kinds of strange things and..."
the more she spoke the less she remembered about her life as a collage student, but that was okay with her.
She was happy to be back where she belonged.

Present day

"Sarah?"
The three girls went back to the dorm, looking for her.
"Hey come on, times up...Sarah."
As they reached the window they were horror stricken to find a skeleton laying on the bed, a flash light clutched in it's boney fingers, wearing Sarah's clothes.
The girls screamd and ran from the building, never returning again.
~fin~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the Dyeing Flame I Write

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