Don't Take the Pill – One Shot It was midnight. The moonlight barely touched my window. I was trying to sleep, but I couldn't. I felt something. A presence outside. I couldn't see it, but I knew it was there. Watching me. It was like the trees had started breathing differently. Like the moon was holding its breath. Part of me wanted to go out and check. The other part just wanted to close its eyes and pretend nothing happened.
I thought about how peaceful everything had been until now. My cabin in the middle of nowhere. Far from noise, far from people. Just me, the forest, and my silence. When I needed food, I'd go to the nearest town's supermarket. My savings from an old job were enough to get by. My days were dull. Grey. And I liked it that way.
Until tonight.
Knock knock. A dry knock. Not loud. Not insistent. Coming from the door. My body tensed immediately. No one ever came out here, especially not in the middle of the night. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, 30 seconds… It knocked again. Knock knock. As if whoever was there… wasn't in a hurry.
My heart pounded. Curiosity is a slow poison. I knew that. But I got up anyway. Walked to the door. Every step was too loud. The silence amplified everything. I stood in front of the entrance. The wood seemed to breathe too. No peephole. Just a chain. I slid it off with a trembling hand. Turned the handle. Opened the door.
No one. Just the silence of the night. The only thing I could hear was the leaves breathing. A shiver ran down my spine. I went back inside. Locked the door. Chained it. Got into bed and tried to convince myself it was in my mind
The next morning, while I was having breakfast, someone knocked again. Knock knock. Same sound. Same rhythm. I froze, remembering the night before, but it was daylight now and, for the moment, I wasn't scared. The sunlight streaming through the window was comforting: warm, golden, soft. It had that power. I felt like nothing bad could happen while the sun was up. Like darkness and all it held were trapped far away, out of reach.
I walked to the door, more confidently this time. Opened it. And there she was. A girl. Collapsed on the ground. Her clothes torn, stained with mud and blood. Her skin scratched, dirty, pale. She was trying to speak but could only whisper, gasping for breath. She had a deep wound on her arm. Like a claw mark. Brutal, raw, impossible to ignore."Hey!" I yelled, crouching next to her. She looked like she might pass out. "What happened?""The… bear…" she whispered while her lips cracked. "In the woods…"Her eyes went blank. Her head tilted to the side, like just talking had been too much.
She collapsed against me, unconscious.
I held her carifully, heart pounding in my ears. The sun was still shining. But it no longer brought comfort. I cleaned and dressed her wounds. She slept the whole day. Woke up at sunset. Her eyes opened slowly, like each blink weighed a ton. She sat up weakly."Where am I?" she murmured."You're in my house," I said from the kitchen. "I found you at the door. You're resting on my couch. You were in bad shape."She looked around, confused. Touched her bandaged arm carefully. Shivered."… Thank you. Really.""It's nothing," I replied, trying to make light of it.
I gave her water. She drank like she hadn't in days. After a while, once her breathing calmed, I said:"You can stay here while you recover. It's not much… but at least it's safe."She looked at me. First with suspicion. Then with a kind of sadness."I… I don't want to be a bother.""It's no bother," I said. "You shouldn't move with that wound. You don't have to leave just yet."
Silence. Sunlight poured through the windows. Warm. Golden. It wrapped around her like a halo. Finally, she nodded."Just for a few days… until I'm fully healed."
In the days that followed, the girl —who never told me her name— slowly regained her strength. I cooked, she rested. Sometimes we talked. Sometimes we just shared the silence. I don't know when it happened, but I started getting used to her presence. Her soft laugh when something amused her. The way she stretched in the morning like a sunlit cat. Her calm way of existing, like she was in no rush for anything. And sometimes, when she looked at me… it felt like the world stopped for a second.
I never thought my days would change for the better.
I hadn't had company in a long time… except for that eerie presence I sometimes felt.
Solitude had been my only routine. And I didn't mind it. But some part of me had been a little broken inside. I only realized it when she arrived.
One afternoon, I lost sight of her. I came out of the shower and noticed the front door was slightly open. I looked around. Nothing."Where is she?" I was getting worried. Threw on a coat and rushed outside. The cold hit my face. The wind whipped through the trees.
I imagined her hurt, alone, bleeding again. My chest ached. My heart thudded violently."Where are you?!" I shouted, running blindly into the woods. I hadn't gotten far when I saw her. She was walking calmly down the path, holding a bag."Eh?" she raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing out here? Are you okay? You look pale."
I froze. My face was cold. Slowly, my racing heart began to calm. She smiled."Where were you? Are you insane?!" I rushed to her. "I thought something happened to you!""I went to town," she said casually. "Got some stuff for dinner. Meat, bread, a bottle of cheap wine. And this—" she pulled out a small bag of candy "—in case you were in a bad mood."
I laughed, relieved and mad at once."You could've left a note.""I didn't know you were so overprotective.""I'm not. But considering how you showed up at my door, half-dead…""I'll keep that in mind," she said with that half-smile I never knew was mockery or tenderness. "But I'm not making promises."
Then she stepped close enough for me to see every strand of her long lashes. Got on tiptoe and touched my forehead. I'd never had her so close. My heart sped up."You're burning. Fever from the fright," she joked. And I laughed. Really laughed, like I hadn't in a long time. At such a terrible joke. In that moment, I knew I was doomed. I was falling for someone I didn't know. Someone who maybe wasn't even real. But I didn't care.
The nights passed. Her wound was almost healed. The forest was still the same, but something in me had changed. She brought life. Sang softly while cooking, hummed songs I didn't know, talked to the birds like they understood. I'd listen from the other room, pretending to read, but really, I was just listening.
Sometimes we'd walk to the stream. Not far. She'd kick pebbles and laugh at the silly things I said. She looked at me like everything I said mattered."Don't you ever get bored here?" she asked one afternoon, lying on the grass."Not before.""And now?""Now… it's hard to be alone," I admitted.
She smiled. And there it was again: that feeling in my chest. Not anxiety. Not fear. Something else. Something soft. Warm.
That night, I saw her sleeping on the couch. Her tiny hands resting on her belly. A slight frown, like she was dreaming something uncomfortable. I walked over with a blanket. Laid it gently over her. Watched her for a while. Thinking about how strange and beautiful it all was. Thinking maybe, just maybe, I deserved this. Thinking I never wanted it to end. That she'd have to leave.
But something in the back of my mind bothered me. Like something was off. A feeling I couldn't shake. Like a small stone in my shoe. A silent voice that made itself felt. Like an open door. Like a cold draft in a sealed room.
I ignored it.
I woke up with a dry throat. Sunlight peeked shyly through the window. For a second, I smelled toast. For another… I thought I heard her laugh.
"You're finally awake!" said a voice. I turned. It was my mom. Standing beside the bed, worried, holding a pill."You have to take this," she insisted. "The noon one. Did you forget again?"She looked at me like I'd done it too many times."You didn't answer your phone," she added, touching my forehead and moving the pill to my lips. "You worried me.""But I…" I tried to say something, but no words came out. It was like my body knew what to do. I opened my mouth. Took the pill. Swallowed.
Silence. The sun kept coming in. But there was no smell of toast. No laughter.
I got up slowly. Went to the living room. The couch was empty. No blanket. No teacup. No clothes on the chair. I went to the kitchen. Just two plates. Perfectly clean. No sign anyone else had ever been there. Nothing.
I walked to the front door. Opened it. The forest was still. Like always. Too still.
I sat on the grass. The air was cool, but not comforting. Everything was the same. Except me.
I saw her in my mind, smiling like the first time I saw her. Her voice still echoed somewhere in my head. And I thought:
"If she wasn't real… why do I miss her so much?"
I cried the silence... You came the same way you left.
The End.