Those left by the road.
Note: I wrote this story for my and friends, but i really like it and I want to show you today.
The town of Rubio, the well-known Pontálida town, the place of so many bridges, a location more than two years old, has a curse that many years ago I was told about when I came to visit my grandparents' house in the region of "La Palmita". They told me that when this village was only a place of passage, which temporarily housed people who were going to different sectors to restart their lives, received as many other times, some French families, sons and mothers, fathers and men all hardened by the wars of the old world and expelled by their now archaic customs. Like many, they passed through this then small town and like many, with some members of their caravan, decided to take this piece of land as the end of their journey and found their new home.
In this way, those men and women who stayed, were part of the growth of the settlement that eventually became a real village and kept for a long time the secret of their customs until, almost a hundred years later, an ancestor of our family found them in the depths of Cerro de la Piedra while hunting on a full moon night. He saw them in a circle of green flames, calling to the ancient gods, binding their souls to him to serve them after their lives ended, in exchange for being able to use some of their power while on earth. That man was discovered by the participants of the circle of fire and was captured, bound and taken to their leader at the time; as my grandfather told, it was a beautiful woman with pronounced features, black wavy hair, green eyes that showed great power and a lush body that spoke volumes of its origin. She took the face of our ancestor and told him the following:
"You and your descendants will be bound to our blood and our rites," she conjured as with a knife she cut into his flesh, "And when the last of us leaves this world, the youngest male of your blood will feel the call of the mountain and to this circle he will return... And he will cause the seal to be broken again, so that those faithful to Belec will fulfill his covenant."
My grandfather looked me in the eye as he finished his story and said, "We tell this story to all the male children of our family, so that they will know the ancient promises and so that when they feel the call, they will not fear" all this while holding his coffee with a smile that did not let me take the matter so seriously.
This was about 10 years ago now, I had forgotten about that story, I left my hometown and became a professional in the capital of the country, only, sometimes the stories we try to forget are the ones that vibrate the loudest at the end of the day.
A few nights ago, I woke up at dawn in a cold sweat, with my body burning and my hands shaking, I felt that... I felt that I had to go to my family's house, the one I hadn't set foot in for so many years. I didn't care about anything, neither the annoyance of my boss telling him that I would be absent for a few days, nor the discomfort of my wife telling him that I would be going home. I took the first thing I saw useful and left on the first flight that would take me as close to Rubio as possible, I didn't care about the price of the tickets or the time I was going to travel. I just had to go home.
Less than two days later, I was on my way to La Palmita again. I passed quickly ignoring everything, the people who looked at me strangely without knowing what a man in a suit was doing walking fast through the squares, ignoring the burial of someone with a strange last name. I just wanted to step on my grandparents' house, to see that old hunting map that my ancestor made in the past over the big hills that surrounded the city. When I saw it I felt the connection, I understood everything and I walked, I did not change or look for suitable clothes, I just entered by the closest path to that hill, I crossed the mountain and stones until I left the areas that mountaineers and young people always walk. I walked where others had not walked for a long time and there I saw it. I saw the circle already extinguished and I knew what I had to do.
I went to the center of that circle of dead flames, among the grass I found a sharp stone which I used as a knife and in my arm I made a deep cut that quickly made blood gush out and this, when it touched the ground, gave life again to the flames as if they were gasoline and I being among them, I felt that I was again master of my actions, with a pain in my chest and a feeling that I had just made a big mistake. Without time for anything, a woman emerged and although I had never seen a picture of her, I knew it was the woman who so many years ago tied my family in that full moon rite. She approached me and taking my face said "you have fulfilled, little hunter's son, now, those who left the path of darkness in oblivion will return to fulfill the pact and because of you, everything will be possible". Without another word, he left me on that mountain that I now walked alone, knowing that something very m