I’m leaving this as a warning. I urge you not to attend the Wellness Retreat in the Pacific Northwest. The cult, or coven… whatever they are, put us under some spell. Their elder spewed something black and nefarious into my girlfriend’s mouth. Things got much, much worse from there.

••

We arrived for our first day at the Wellness Retreat on the Pacific Northwest coast. We’d been looking forward to decompressing from our busy, stressful lives in the city. My girlfriend, Aubrey, signed us up for the chanting ritual and forest bathing sessions, our favorite activities from the mindfulness and meditation package. 

Our first chanting session at the yurt in the woods was starting soon, so we slipped on our favorite athleisure outfits, tied our hair up, and headed out the door. 

We reached the signpost near the trailhead and followed the winding path that cut through the cedar, pine, and maple trees. The forest felt ominous, almost threatening. The only sounds came from our feet stomping the fallen leaves beneath us. 

We navigated further down the path, finally spotting the yurt in the distance. Its walls were held together by intertwining, twisted branches and packed earth. I could see the flickering of warm candlelight dancing across the walls inside the edifice. As we approached, luminaries lined the path into the gaping mouth of the structure—a calm, glowing welcome. The dome was coral blue, contrasting the forest's deep greens and browns. The exterior walls were decorated with paintings and symbols. 

When we stepped inside, the spiritual guide greeted us. Her piercing, stone grey eyes peered into mine. It felt like she could read my thoughts and gaze into my soul. She had long, frail hair that fell wildly down to her waist. Her face appeared sunken, almost sickly, and her harsh cheekbones were sharp.

She handed us each a cup of tea and requested we drink it before the chanting ceremony began. The contents were a dark, black liquid adorned with gnarled stems and roots. I leaned in to smell the brew and quickly regretted my decision. The stench was putrid, almost nauseating. 

Aubrey gulped hers down first. I took a deep breath to work up the courage, and finally tipped back my cup. It tasted even worse than it smelled. The liquid flowed down my throat like razors, and my mouth felt like it was on fire.

“Should we go in for seconds?” I snarkily remarked as I choked it down. Aubrey chuckled a bit out of sympathy; her face was grimacing and contorted from consuming the concoction as we moved further inside the room to join the other guests.

The old woman crept toward the center of the space. Aubrey and I maintained our focus on her as she began chanting in a raspy, monotone voice while she poured some of the rancid black liquid into her bowl.

“Om namah Shivaya. Ra ma da sssaaaa!” 

The elder paused for a moment, scanning the room. The air was heavy and suffocating, and her chant felt like a vacuum slurping up the oxygen in the chamber. She raised the ceremonial bowl, extending her arms to the dark sky above, and offered it to the large opening in the structure's ceiling.

“We invoke you, Mother! Cleanse our souls and consume our burdens!”

The other guests began rehearsing lines. Their bodies swaying slightly to the cadence of the script, as if under a spell, crying out, “Oh Mother, we love you so!”

Suddenly, a swift breeze drove through the space, extinguishing the flickering candles. A wave of unease came over me. I started to feel nauseous, my vision blurred, and my ears began to ring slightly.

I looked over at Aubrey. She was shaking. Violently. 

Her eyes had rolled back in her head, exposing only white. She began foaming at the mouth and convulsing as she crumpled toward the floor.

The elder woman leading the ceremony rushed over and crouched beside Aubrey. She leaned in, grabbing Aubrey’s face with her spindly fingers. The woman’s long, brittle hair created a canopy that engulfed them both.

I watched in horror as the elder slowly opened her jaws, the skin beyond her lips tearing at the corners as her maw extended unnaturally wide. She extended her fingers. Her jagged, twisted nails reached into Aubrey’s mouth, forcing her jaw open, and began spewing a black secretion down her throat.

I tried to scream. Tried to move. Tried crying out for help. Nothing.

My vision was getting blurrier, now a narrow, darkening tunnel. I tried reaching out to Aubrey again, grasping at the air, but the concoction had taken hold of me. I was sinking further and further from consciousness.

Then everything went black.

••

I woke up in bed, my head pounding. The room swallowed all light and sound. I looked out the window, still dark. Glancing at the opposite side of the bed, I saw Aubrey asleep, her chest rising and falling. I took a deep sigh of relief. 

Aubrey’s alive.

Feeling dehydrated, I slipped out of bed and went to the kitchen to pour a glass of water. I made my way back to the bedroom, stepping gently not to wake Aubrey. As I entered the room, I felt the air had changed. 

As I looked toward Aubrey, my glass came crashing to the floor, shattering into dozens of pieces. There in the dark, was my girlfriend sitting upright, stiff. Her arms dropped to her sides. Her eyes rolled back again, her pupils disappearing behind her skull. Her mouth gaped open as she stared forward into the darkness.

“Aubrey*, wake up!*”

I rushed to her side, my bare feet tearing on the shards of glass strewn across the floor. I grabbed Aubrey by the shoulders and shook her. Desperately pleading, tears streaming down my face.

“Aubrey, please, please wake up!” No response. I ran to the kitchen to grab a wet towel, trying carefully to avoid the glass on the floor this time; maybe a cold, damp cloth would wake her.

As I returned, she had fallen back into bed fast asleep.

••

The following morning, Aubrey looked strangely refreshed. There were no longer dark circles under her eyes, and her skin was radiant. She almost appeared… younger.

Looking closer, I could see her eyes had somehow changed. Instead of rich brown, they were slate grey—the same shade of grey I saw in the old woman’s gaze at the chanting. A wave of distress washed over me as we made eye contact.

“What happened last night? I remember drinking that awful tea, then everything just went dark.”

I explained the horrors, everything I saw, the black fluid—all of it. Aubrey looked oddly dismissive, brushing off the nightmare I had just spent the last twenty minutes explaining to her.

 

“There must have been something in the tea. We’re at a wellness retreat after all. I feel fine, rested even! Come on, let's get ready. Forest bathing starts in an hour.”

••

Against my better judgment and pleading, we arrived at a small clearing in the woods near the coast. Waves crashed against the cliffs, and a steady, cool breeze howled through the canopy above. The resinous scent of furs and pines filled the air. Even during the day, the forest was dark and damp here.

To our surprise, no one was around—not a single guest, not even the staff—just the howling of the wind and the waves threatening the cliffs in the distance.

“Where the hell is everyone?” I questioned anxiously. My instinct was screaming to turn around, leave, and never look back. 

“Let’s just head back. Something feels… off.”

Aubrey wasn’t feeling the same sentiment. “I’m sure they’ll be here soon. We already came all this way, let’s just wait ten more minutes.”

This wasn’t like Aubrey. She was typically even more cautious and risk-averse than I was. I shrugged it off, hoping the ten minutes would pass so we could finally get the hell out of here.

The sun had started to fade, casting tall shadows across the floor of the opening in the woods from the towering trees surrounding it. Suddenly, I heard a disturbance resonating deep within the endless dark forest. 

I paused, tuning my ears to the thicket beyond. My heart started pounding.

The noises grew closer. Discarded leaves and broken branches crackled under heavy footsteps. I could also hear voices between the gusts of wind—a chorus coming from all directions—the sound of a dozen people chanting in unison.

“Om namah Shivaya!”

No. No***.*** No.

A flood of overwhelming panic replaced my anxiety. The chanting grew louder. I couldn’t hear myself think; they were closing in, encircling us.

“Ra ma da sssaaaaa!” 

I could see the group exiting the woods and entering the clearing. The elder appeared. She looked different, more deformed than before. Her arms and fingers were irregularly long, and her skin grey. Her presence immediately felt darker, more threatening. 

The witch’s cold, grey eyes scanned the surroundings, sharp like daggers as she continued chanting and creeping directly toward us, picking up speed. 

“Aubrey, something is seriously wrong. We have to get the hell out of here*!*”

But it was too late. She was already in the elder’s grasp, under her spell. Motionless.

My heart was racing as a torrent of panic overcame me. My nerves hummed like lightning. I wanted to run to Aubrey. Tear her from the crone's grasp so we could escape. But I couldn’t move either, trapped in my frozen body.

All I could do was watch in horror as the elder extended her twisted, bony fingers to Aubrey’s face. With the tips of her long, jagged fingernails, she carved an incision from Aubrey’s chin to the side of her nose, up through her forehead, and toward the back of her skull. Blood trickling down Aubrey’s face. 

Once satisfied, the witch began to slide her fingers under Aubrey’s flesh and began to peel back both sides, exposing her insides. Aubrey wasn’t screaming. She didn’t flinch as the old woman’s lower jaw unhinged, displaying rows of jagged, serrated teeth.

The witch lifted her head toward the midnight sky and let out an ear-piercing shriek, then sank her teeth into Aubrey’s insides. The air filled with the sound of bones cracking and crunching. Muscles, meat, and tendons shredding between her jagged teeth while I watched in horror as she consumed Aubrey—the smell of metal circulating in the air.

She unzipped the rest of Aubrey’s flesh using her serrated fingernails, tracing from the back of her head down to the bottom of her back. The witch reached deeper into the bag of flesh, thrashing and tearing out the remaining organic matter, chunks of meat, organs, and splintered bones, all discarded into a pile of slop beside her. 

The clothes Aubrey had been wearing no longer clung to her body, fell to the ground, soaking into the pool of blood and guts on the floor as the elder pressed further into Aubrey.

The witch disrobed. Her blood-soaked grin widened as she began sliding Aubrey’s soft tissue over her own and wrapping Aubrey’s face around hers to a perfect fit. She let out a blood-curdling scream as the grotesque transformation was complete.

Suddenly, the chanting stopped. The forest fell silent. I could feel the spell the sorceress had cast on me breaking. My heart beat wildly, like a sledgehammer against my ribcage.

Thu—Thump. Thu—Thump. Thu—Thump.

RUN.

••

I woke up the following morning—at least I think it was morning. I can’t remember how I made it back to the casita. My head was pounding. I walked to the bathroom to wash my face and collect myself. 

My heart dropped as I looked in the mirror. The hair on the back of my neck stood up straight like it was pumping electric current. In the reflection, I could see that my eyes were a piercing stone grey, and a cup of black tea was on the counter.