The forest was inescapable. It was dark, stormy, fierce. Jack was afraid of the darkness that consumed the land, but he would never be able to escape.

The oak trees sighed as the wind blew, leaves flew from their branches and fluttered gracefully to the dirt floor. Jack didn’t see it that way; he saw the flutter of a leaf and thought, ‘what a large insect come to eat me!’ When he heard the tree twitch in the wind he thought, ‘what beast is around the corner?’ And when he heard the scurrying of a bunny or a chirp of a bird, he thought, ‘I’m doomed! I’m doomed! What creature calls me into their lair?’

This was Jack’s prison. A prison he made up in his own head. The guilt consumed him wholly. He was afraid of every hum, every snap of a twig or scuff on his boot. He couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat, couldn’t empty his bladder without the thought that he was going to be trapped forever in that forest.

He travelled for days, weeks, months, according to himself. In truth, it was a day or two trek through the forest. He had been traveling in circles for three. Fiona made it so. She knew he would regret it if he stole from her. All men did. They all paid the price of looting her grave.

Before Fiona died, before the last drop of her blood settled beside her, she vowed she would never be stolen from again, not even in death.

Her husband had taken all of their gold and ran to gamble it away for some stupid competition, and when he came home with not a penny, she slapped him and called him a fool. He was drunk, she noticed after, and he was angry. He grabbed a knife from the kitchen, and raised it above his head. Fiona could do nothing as he stabbed her. She could do nothing as he dragged her dying body across the room and placed her into a coffin, like he had prepared it.

She realized then: she had been the fool. Falling for a man so dispicable and greedy was beneath her, yet she fell all the same. She truly believed in him when they met. He had been kind, bought her her favorite flowers and gifted her happiness from his jokes and his smiles and his ambitions. She had been so overcome with him she left her family, her home, for a stupid, stupid man.

As she lay dying, she vowed, she swore and she prayed, to any god or demon or diety or witch, that she would never be stolen from again.

As she died, she felt her life slip away, then it grasped something. An oath, a dream, a wish. She woke up in a coffin. But she wasn’t afraid, not of the dark. She closed her eyes a slept.

A hundred years passed and she saw the light; someone was opening her coffin. She hadn’t understood. She couldn’t move and could only twitch a single eyelid open. She saw a man reach for her, scrambling fingers pried open her stiff bones and took the rings off her fingers. He took the necklace from her neck and the jewels on her dress.

In life, she had been quite wealthy. She realized then that was why her husband sought to marry her. Because of her money. With that thought in mind her fingers twitched and the man robbing her stopped, looked around and then stared at her. She bolted upright and slashed at his cheek. He dropped all of his findings and screamed. He shoved her back into her coffin and closed the lid, burying her again with her belongings. She did not chase him nor give him another scare. She knew he wouldn’t steal from her again.

This happened a lot over the centuries. Most of the time she slept, occasionally waki mg to find a person digging up her grave. She wondered why anyone would dig up a grave already dug, but humanity was stupid, really. Greedy, was her conclusion.

After another attempt to steal from her, Fiona realized every time she marked a person with her nails, drawing blood, she could see where they went. What they did after leaving her grave. She had thought they were dreams for the longest time, until she realized she was cursing the people who stole from her.

Then, after a few more attempts she began understanding the way ghe power worked, she could inflict a fear so great and trap people in the forest she was buried in. It wasn’t exactly fun, but it did her of her boredom. She played with the humans foolish enough to rob her and slept when there were none.

Jack was a bit different. As soon as he opened her grave he started rambling about his father’s debts, his mother’s ailments, his sisters plights. He asked for forgiveness before trying to take a jewel from her, but he took the jewel all the same.

She twitched her toe as Jack kept speaking. He didn’t take very many, unlike the last girl who tried to take every single item save for her body from the coffin, but a robber is a robber.

Fiona screeched as she flung her arms out, catching Jack by the shoulders and forcing him to stand still even as he shrieked and tried to get away. She said, “Foolish human, you are but a sinner that has fallen into my lap. Dance through the forest, sinner, dance.”

As soon as she was done, she let go and gave Jack a scratch on the cheek. He ran, withought bothering to close her coffin or refill her grave. Fiona didn’t wish to chase though, still after all these years she was content in her coffin.

She just watched as Jack lost his way in the forest. He shouldn’t have tried to rob her.