Tethered

Alexandra Paul

Young Solomon and his mother Nidia live in the wilderness, at a remote cabin that is their family home. Solomon was born blind and Nidia teaches him as the pair forage for food and supplies provided by the woods around them, he uses a rope tethered to his waist so that he never loses his way home; she provides her son with three rules: 1. The house is a safe haven, 2. To always give back part of what they scavenge in the forest, and 3. To never under any circumstances remove the rope from his waist as it is his guide back home. One night, after Nidia develops a strange cough, she leaves and is never seen again.Approximately ten years pass as Solomon becomes a young man, living on his own after presuming his mother and father are both dead. One day, he happens upon a hunter named Henry, a good-hearted man who requests he stay with Solomon through the night. As he learns more about Solomon, Henry begins to care for his well being and decides to help him with supplies and thinking about a way to get Solomon out of the forest, despite his protestations to leaving. As the days pass, the two become friends and after offering to help him build a tool which requires a chain that Solomon had seen in the woods as a boy, the pair set out. He allows Henry to extend his tether so the two can venture further. After finding the chain and cutting it the pair experience a supernatural roaring that night at the cabin. When Henry goes to investigate, he is nearly attacked by a strange figure in the woods after noticing that it had ripped a small bear apart. He urges Solomon to stop throwing food into the woods, breaking his mother's second rule, to try and dissuade this creature from coming back. Meanwhile, he discovers Nidia's journals which start out pleasant enough, but soon grow volatile as she suspects her husband Lucas of trying to take Solomon away from her. The next day, Henry strikes out on his own to find this creature and uncovers a second journal; this one repeating "I'm so sorry" over and over as the writing becomes scribbles, then scrawling, then incoherent as he reads through the pages.Solomon hears Henry's gun go off and rushes to find him, he reaches the end of his tether, and removes it from his waist. Crawling a short distance down a nearby gully, he discovers Henry's body. Before he can process what he's found, the creature emerges; his mother, now devoid of human emotion stalks toward him with demonic eyes. All Solomon can do is hum a lullaby they used to sing together, she hums along and he recognizes her. Embracing Solomon, he instinctively stabs her with his pocket knife, killing her. Solomon begins to cough and collapses beside a tree, and as the sounds of nature swells around him, his blank, white eyes soon grow a set of pointed pupils, much like his mother's new eyes had looked.