The Circle

April 6th

I woke up abruptly, agitated and panting. My chest went up and down at a rapid pace. There was no doubt that I had suffered one of the worst nightmares of my life. I struggled to remember what I had dreamt, but all that remained in my mind were the remnants of the panic I had caused and which now had me sitting on the mattress, covered in a cold sweat and shivering with fear. I've lost count of the days when this phenomenon is repeated. No matter the moment, every time I close my eyes and fall into the clutches of sleep, it repeats like a movie. It has become a torture that throws me directly into a spiral of insomnia. On the other hand, I'm still in the bloody habit of looking at the other side of the bed. I don't know what I expect to find.

April 7th

I went out, like every morning, for a run in the mountains. I had left my keys, but I didn't come back, anyway, who would want to climb this place? Luckily, I won't have to go down to the village to do the shopping until next week. I don't like people, I'm uncomfortable being observed. I skirted the cabin to take the back trail. Something caught my eye in the field. There was something white, like a drawing on the ground, a few meters from the back of the house. I approached it and saw that it was a large circle, about a meter in diameter. I bent down and felt the material with which it had been drawn. Was it salt? Who had been able to go up there during the night and draw something like that? I decided not to think too much and started my jogging day. 

April 8th

When I left this morning, the circle was still there and it was whiter than the day before. Someone had noticed it by throwing more salt on it. Again I wonder who's going up the mountain and doing that. Surely someone in the village is trying to make fun of me. I don't understand what they have against me. I don't think they like me, even though I hardly talk when I go down to buy. I've gotten angry and erased the circle with my feet. I've been running for over two hours.

9th April

I called the police. The circle's back there. I've been assured they'll question the village until they find the person responsible. They won't leave me alone. 

April 11th 

I couldn't write yesterday because I was thinking all day. Something happened during the morning that I found quite curious and to which I find no explanation. I went out to hang out my clothes and I heard a knock on the back. At first, I thought it was an animal. I turned the corner of the cabin and saw something very strange. Again, there was the circle, but there was something inside it. I can't be sure what I saw, because it was a fuzzy shape, like a kind of mist that seemed to sway in the wind. It vanished right away, I didn't have time to take a picture with my cell phone.

April 12th

The police called this afternoon to tell me there's no one in town who knows anything about my case. The circle keeps turning up every morning, so there's someone coming up here to go over it. No one wants to help me. I think even the police are making fun of me. 

April 13th

I got them! In the early morning I went to the window in the corridor to have a cigarette, because I had woken up again to one of those horrible nightmares. I saw him sneak up on me. It was a fine, hooded figure. I waited in silence and watched as he took a small sack from the salt pocket. I let him complete his purpose, and when he went around the whole circle and was about to leave, I shouted at him from my position on the second floor. He looked up at me and ran. I did not have time to catch him, but at least I have already checked that I am not crazy and that the hand of the man is behind this phenomenon.

April 14th 

The person who was going upstairs didn't come back last night. He knows I'm waiting for him and he's probably scared. I was there all night and didn't leave until dawn. I smoked a whole pack of cigarettes while I was on duty. 

April 15th 

Today, while I was preparing the meal, something very disturbing happened to me. I heard three knocks behind my back, as if someone were knocking on the front door. I went out to open the door, but no one was there. I looked in all directions, but saw nothing. I thought I had imagined it and went back to the kitchen. Then a loud noise startled me. It was coming from the entrance. I ran over there. The door was open and had been pushed so hard that the glass in its centre had broken. The doorknob had made a hole quite deep in the wall when it hit. There was no wind, and there was no one outside either. Whoever it was had hidden. I shouted and went around the cabin looking for the person responsible. I was furious. Does this look like a joke to you? 

April 16th 

Tonight, the joker who busted down my door has been singing under my window. Or rather, I should say "funny", for it was a woman who sang. I got up and took the shotgun I keep under my bed. I shouted at her to stop and that she was armed. When I looked out the window, she was already gone. I called the police again. 

April 17th 

I think I'm going to go crazy. This morning I found the whole bathroom floor covered in scratches. I can't believe that woman was inside my house. The police won't give me any answers. They claim to have combed the area and seen nothing unusual. Incompetent people! 

April 18th 

I waited for her. Last night I sat in the doorway of the cabin to stand guard. But she had to come in through a back window, since I heard a thump in the kitchen. I came in like a devil's soul, shotgun in hand. When I looked out of the kitchen, I was speechless with horror. I expected to meet someone, but instead it was a mist. Something similar to what I saw inside the circle the other day. There she was, standing in front of me. Her outline was shifting like smoke. But there it was, it was real. I could make out two little bright spots on the top, as if they were her eyes. Although it lacked a definite shape, it reminded me of someone. Without thinking, I fired and he disappeared. 

April 19th 

Insomnia will kill me. I don't have nightmares anymore, but when I get to sleep, something wakes me up. Sometimes it's a scream; sometimes it's a cry, a whistle, or even a pinch. I can't take it anymore. 

April 22nd 

The police called me yesterday to tell me that they had located a young woman who had confessed something related to my case. Apparently, he was climbing the mountain late at night, along with three other young men, to perform satanic rituals. On one of these occasions, they went up with a Ouija board and decided to play by my house, claiming to have been "attracted" by a powerful energy that flowed from here. They drew a circle of salt around it to prevent the "entity" they contacted from entering our world. The results they obtained were terrible, the girl was scared to death. She told the police that she was poisoned by hatred and thirsty for revenge, and that she threatened them if they did not let her leave the circle. The young woman, despite her panic, felt guilty for having been part of his release and gathered the courage to go up every night and strengthen the circle, in case that entity was still there. I don't know what to do anymore. The phenomena don't stop. 

April 26th 

I've begged him to forgive me. I don't know what else to do. I want you to leave me alone. I'm lost. I'm crazy. She won't let me. She's stalking me. She's everywhere. I'm finished. 

Inspector Hernandez kept the victim's diary on file. Its author, Fernando Prieto, 38, had taken his own life two days ago in the mountains, throwing himself into the void. A deserved end for a murderer, since his hand did not tremble in killing his wife just a month before. The case of his suicide led the police to inspect the house and its surroundings so thoroughly that they found the dirt removed that hid the mutilated remains of the woman. But the inspector didn't believe in ghosts, but in guilt, she was the one who killed him, wasn't she?

The Chapter Hunter