Free The Witch Within by Iva Kenaz

latent peril nearby? The overwhelming anxiety forces me to rise.
    As soon as I recover, I set off to follow the deer to thick walls of bushes, mainly blackberries. I'm about to go back, but he is already struggling through the branches and thorns, walking carefully yet persistently. I have no choice but to follow him and so I wrap myself in my cape and go. After a while, struggling, I see that a rock lies ahead of us. My heart skips a beat for a moment. The cave!
    I hurry to free myself from the thorny bushes and finally step out into a small clearing. The sun shines over the grey granite stones and my eyes eagerly search for a door. I notice a small crack on the right side of the rock wall, but it looks more like a fox hole. I hurry to explore it and notice that it is in fact bigger than it had seemed from afar! It’s half my size. Could this really be my grandmother’s cave? I detect that the hole probably used to be larger, for the stones around it are visibly not part of the rock—they were obviously piled up around the entrance for protection.
    My heart starts beating faster as my eyes focus on the simple door-like shape lying close by. It is indeed an old door made of wooden sticks and hay, but it’s rotten, in a state of decay. If my grandmother was here, would she use such an old door? Cautious about who I might find in there, I peek inside. My eyes are getting used to the darkness and finally I see. I see a stone-like table with various sized furs on top of it, woollen sacks and a big locked wooden box underneath it. There are half-burned candles in the various-sized recesses in the walls, also a large stone that probably functioned as a chair with an animal skin on top. I marvel over the big sacks filled with a variety of dried food, the piles of wood and the stone bed with even more leather pieces, capes, furs and woollen blankets. I freeze when I behold that someone is lying there, covered in one of the capes. I'm short of breath as I whisper:
    “Grandmother?”
    I have a terrifying suspicion as I enter the cave. Carefully, I touch the overcoat that covers the silhouette and feel something hard beneath it. I jump away in a fright and cause the body to move, followed by a rustling sound. A skeleton. I utter an uncontrollable shriek. I start shaking as I notice the familiar dress, apron and a golden pendant on the skeleton’s chest – it reads the same symbol as the one that my grandmother left behind incised on the white quartz stone:
    The six-pointed star.
    Grief takes hold of my heart as I stare into the empty, dark holes that used to be her eyes. After a moment of gazing into the two voids, I finally calm down. I'm not afraid of the skeleton anymore, the only thing I fear now is that I'm left here without her guidance. She was my only hope, my light at the end of the tunnel.
    I shiver as the grave-like silence and the chill of the cave gets to me. I need to get out and inhale some fresh air otherwise I’m sure I’ll faint.
    When I step back into the sunlight, I notice that there is no sight of my deer. He has left me, most probably because his task had been completed. There was no reason for him to linger I suppose. And so I'm even more alone now. Lonelier than I have ever been before. As lonely as my grandmother used to be. I look back at the cave and it’s as if I’m looking into my future. Soon it will be my body lying there, new food for wolves, vultures and insects. I suddenly dread going back to the cave and exploring it any further, although I know I will eventually have to.
    I lay myself on the grass and turn away from the bright sun. Despair takes over and I can’t help crying. A river of unexplored emotions runs through me uncontrollably and I allow myself to flow with it.
     
    *
     
    I've been laying on the ground for a long time, watching the sky turn pinkish beige and the sun touch the peaks of the mountain range. I know that I have to pull myself together, stop grieving and simply be