Ghosts of Cwndol

The fireplace crackled with a merry joy that was not matched by the solemn face staring into it. As the sound of screaming foxes echoed across the farms outside, Eryn took another large swig of the generous gin and tonic she had made herself and sighed.

"Working from home." She drunkenly mumbled, shooting her cottage angry glances. "Working from fucking home."

Eryn had originally been quite proud of her life plan. She got a series of jobs with the same key feature, that she would be travelling the country, living out of hotels, online hookup's bedrooms and the occasional stretch of sleeping in her car. Combine that with a gym membership for the showers and grooming, and she found she could live rent free for years while she saved up for the deposit on her house. It wasn't always pleasant and it had cost her plenty of friends and connections, but it had an end game.

Then a year ago two dreams came true at once, by setting her sights low and agreeing to buy cheap and stay there as little as possible, Eryn had bought a small cottage in the remote village of Cwndol, she would occasionally stay there when in the area and had even hosted the odd party, but she considered the road (and hotels she could put on expenses) her true home. She had also gotten her dream job, management consultant. She was seen as passionate in her desire to visit the companies she was consulting for and a good hands on manager, meanwhile her home was accumulating value as she paid off the mortgage and didn't use it enough to add to the wear and tear. It was perfect for Eryn's purposes as an investment.

Then COVID hit and she got the fateful email, the usual pleasantries of "unprecedented times" and "our number one priority." But for all the bluster Eryn could see the truth of the matter, she was now under house arrest for the foreseeable future. The house was empty, devoid of all comforts. Eryn had screamed and pleaded enough that the internet was going to be hooked up soon and had drained almost all her mobile data ordering every creature comfort she could think of while sitting in her car in a nearby town that actually got mobile signal.

Devoid of anything to do but wait she decided to run herself a bath, but even that was more complicated as she would like. Eryn was stood naked by the gurgling hot tap for some time before she realised that the hot water relied on the stove fire being lit, so she shoved her clothes back on and waited by the fire.

"Fucking working from fucking home." She grumbled.

...

Eryn had always been a steadfast believer that there was nothing that couldn't be fixed by a good night's sleep, it is why she felt such envy for anyone able to get a good night's sleep in this godforsaken village. She felt that her house was an island in a vast dark expanse that seemed only to emit flickers of light from farmer's houses, with some extra light when the moon fought hard enough to get through the clouds. The darkness was filled with a series of horrific sounds as the animal kingdom's natural ballet of murder and fucking played out non-stop all night long. She lay in bed, eyes wide open until the noise of farmers beginning their work day roused her out of bed so early that she could only presume the cows were hosting Good Morning Wales and needed to set up the radio equipment.

After an uninspiring breakfast of a single serving box of cereal, Eryn decided to walk into the village and see what amenities she actually had at her fingertips. The store was useful, a small attachment to the petrol station that served the finest foods in brands she had never heard of, alongside whatever overstock the nearby farms wanted to palm off on them. She was uncertainly optimistic the eggs and meat would be nice.

Wandering among the chocolate box houses she spotted a few other shops over the hill and investigated further. There was a nice bakery that made her lament getting 'happy shopper plain loaf' from the petrol station. There was a greengrocer with drastic differences in freshness between the local produce and the 'imports.' There was a pub and a church, each held with equal reverence by the locals. And finally there was a little art shop that seemed to mainly stock paintings by the church arts and crafts group, made from painting supplies the shop sold to them the previous day.

Eryn reached the edge of the village and just kept walking, to the passing observer she could be some wild rambler taking in the unspoiled splendor or rural Wales, but in reality she was desperately hoping that over the next hill a coffee shop or an internet cafe had gotten as lost as she was. She returned to her house at lunchtime and ate a nice bacon and egg sandwich with bread that disintegrated immediately.

An afternoon arguing with the internet company meant that Eryn's day was over quickly and she once again found herself standing naked next to a bath before swearing and going to light the fire. Eryn didn't even bother to dress, she just stood in the dark house, her naked body illuminated by the fireplace as she thought through what she was going to do with her life while she was confined to this village.

She needed a good coffee (the espresso machine was on the way), something to do with the long nights (internet due soon and TV in the post), she needed to get laid (...).

Eryn dwelt on how she hadn't gotten much sex recently, but even that was better than being stranded in the countryside without even a vibrator for company. When she got her internet installed she could hit up the dating apps, see if some tough but sensitive stable hand from a lifetime movie was hiding round the corner. She could take the risk with the pub, maybe she could somehow wrangle someone who didn't bring the smell of the farmyard along with him.

The fire started to dwindle, interrupting Eryn's chain of thought with another bout of swearing. She was new to lighting fires but had cockily assumed she could get the job done without firelighters given how successful she had been the previous night. The scant kindling doing nothing to catch the logs as the newspaper burned to smouldering ash. Without thinking she ran to the back door preparing for a trip to the wood store at the end of her garden. As she picked up her first welly, she realised what was wrong with the situation, she was still naked in anticipation of her bath. The darkness whirled outside, inviting in its opacity while the sputtering fire added urgency to her situation.

"Fuck it."

It was a cloudy night so Eryn was stepping into almost complete darkness, the light from her dwindling fire fighting through the house and out of the back window providing only a slight glow while irrational fears welled up inside her and her eyes adjusted to the black. She also felt a strange sense of silliness wearing nothing but a pair of green wellington boots. The wind just seemed to nip at her nipples as she took her first step away from the house.

As her vulcanised rubber sole hit the ground with a muddy squelch all of Eryn's fears and doubts suddenly vanished. She no longer felt silly or afraid, just extraordinarily at peace as she swam naked through the night. The darkness became her friend as she felt her body sway and twirl in the breeze. She wasn't sure what had finally gotten to her but the feelings of frustration and outright hatred she had stewed in for days seemed to wash away on a tide of nighttime. She grabbed more kindling from the woodstore and drifted back inside to a fire that had long gone out waiting for its creator to finish languishing naked in the Welsh countryside.

...

With the internet engineer still figuring out which day to sacrifice to make the long journey to the countryside, and still no signs of her packages, Eryn decided to spare the car and try another walk through the village and into the countryside, hoping to get some semblance of being 'settled' into her new surroundings. She saw the same sights as before, the same shops and locals that her mind categorised as basically the same to the ones she saw previously. She didn't know how she was going to keep herself sane if nothing ever changed around her. The only new thing she saw on her walk was a new painting for sale in the art shop, a painting that took her several steps to process before stopping and running back to the shop window.

The canvas was dark, blacks and dark grey's had been used to create a landscape at night, swirling into the distance with hills towering high. Subtle blue had been added to the dark paints so the sky was differentiated from the land and stars could twinkle in the darkness, the moon absent from view. But what drew Eryn's attention was a being of pure light shining in the centre of the canvas, a naked woman in a pose of sheer delight as her body shone into the darkness. What caught her eye was that this woman had a similar build to Eryn, moderately tall, quite busty, with the same asymmetric shoulder length hazelnut hair with blonde highlights, and the same muddy green wellies. Eryn dived into the shop but managed to compose herself as the shop owner turned around.

"Oh, hello!" The elderly woman exclaimed, startled at Eryn's sudden looming presence. "I'm Gwen and welcome to my art shop, you're that new girl aren't you, the one who's moved into the old Rees' cottage?"

"Hi I'm Eryn, I think I remember the house deeds having Rees as the previous owner. Anyway the picture in the window..." she began.

"Oh marvelous isn't it. Anwen has really outdone herself this time hasn't she?" Gwen interrupted, bursting with pride at her newest acquisition. Eryn tried to find a way to ask further without tipping her hand that she thought she was the woman in the painting.

"She paint a lot like that?" Eryn asked, trying to be nonchalant.

"Inspiration seems to come and go for our Anwen, but her themes are always about freedom and breaking free. Makes sense considering her condition." Eryn cocked a confused eyebrow. "Oh you don't know, I guess you haven't met her yet, she's often around the village. Although she does live a bit out of the ways for someone in the old Rees' cottage." Eryn cocked an impatient eyebrow and Gwen got to the point. "She's blind dear, hasn't been able to see since birth, but her paintings don't suffer for it do they?" Eryn's mind whirled with questions but at the end of the long pause only one came to mind.

"How much for the painting?"

...

Eryn was grateful that Gwen had wrapped the painting so she wasn't parading it around town, but still regretted cutting her walk short to lug the thing back. It wasn't heavy but its size made it unwieldy and people had to step into the road to avoid being barged to one side by it. She had no idea what she was going to do with this voyeuristic study of her body, only thinking her actions through as far as getting it out of the shop window. As Eryn approached her home there was a woman standing calmly outside her front door, a serene grin on her face.

"Hi there." She called out. "Can I help you at all?"

"Oh no Eryn, I just wanted to pop by." Replied a thick welsh accent. Eryn immediately jumped to the conclusion that this was one of her neighbours who had decided to introduce herself. She was a bit too short and a bit too round to be threatening but something about this woman unsettled Eryn, which she was able to put her finger on very quickly.

'How do you know my name?" She asked, not intending to sound as threatening as it came across.

"Oh I know lots about you." The woman began, opening her eyes wide and staring deep into Eryn with grey cloudy pupils. Eryn broke her stride in unease. "Gwen hasn't shut up about you since you bought my painting." Anwen broke into a chuckle that disarmed Eryn and soon she was being invited in for tea, Eryn guiding her through the house arm in arm.

Once the kettle was on the stove Eryn joined Anwen by the falling apart dining room table that came with the house, determined to get answers from the bubbly blind woman.

"So are you here with anyone. I noticed you don't have a cane or a dog." Eryn asked, wondering if someone else could have seen her and given Anwen the idea for the painting.

"Oh no I live on my own. When you live in this town as long as I have, and it changes as little as Cwndol does, eventually you can navigate on muscle memory alone. If I have to travel elsewhere for medical appointments or somesuch one of the nice ladies from the church helps me, although then I have to put up with hours of Jesus talk, I never minded the man but his followers do tend to be intolerable." Anwen chatted, settling down as if nothing was strange.

"So nobody helps you with your paintings?" Eryn pressed hoping to get some illumination on the situation.

"No I just sort of visualise the images and let my hands follow the vision. Then I pop them in the shop and Gwen overcharges people like you. Between you and me I think you could have haggled her down to half what you paid for it. But I'm getting paid and I suppose I do add a bit of artistic licence of course..." Anwen explained while Eryn rolled her eyes. "For example in that painting you can see the stars, but in reality it was cloudy the night you walked to the woodstore naked." Eryn had to rerun Anwen's words through her brain to realise what had just been said.

"Wait... how did you..." she sputtered.

"Your kettle is boiling dear, and I feel like you're going to need a well stewed tea for our little chat."

...

Eryn angrily dipped her teabag, staring at her houseguest who was having a grand time sipping her tea and collecting her thoughts.

"How much did you read into the town of Cwndol before you decided to live here?" Anwen asked, Eryn felt like she was changing the subject but humoured her.

"I looked into the retail value of the house and that was about it." She spat.

"I see. People think witch hunts are an american tradition, but like with a lot of rotten American things the Brits beat them to it. The town of Cwndol was founded by a lady who escaped such hunts, and afterwards, for generations rebellious women just seemed to have a way of ending up in Cwndol."

"So you get to spy on me naked because you are a 'rebellious woman?'" Eryn spat, having no patience for fairytales.

"I'm just telling you what I know and what I see. I'm a blind lady only given sight through visions of my mystical village, so I don't have the same luxury of scepticism as you do." Anwen glibly remarked. "As you stay in this village longer you'll feel it too, the pull, the desire to throw aside inhibitions and indulge erotic desires. From what I can gather that was the will of the village founder and a will that strong can last long after death."

"So every time I have a dirty thought I'm being controlled by a ghost, and as a bonus I can look forward to another painting in Gwen's window for the whole town to see?"

"Oh no dear, if you set up a direct debit I'll bring the paintings straight to you. Mind you Gwen won't be happy but I have a fair few paintings of her that will keep her on side." Eryn's eyes widened and her face contorted into a scowl.

"I see what this is now. This is a blackmail ring. You have someone watch my house and then one night I rush out to the woodstore naked and boom! you have a customer for life. Well screw you and your mystical fairytale extortion." Eryn screamed, opening the door to show Anwen out.

"This usually happens, Cwndol does attract the strong willed." Anwen mumbled, draining her mug of tea and shuffling towards the door. "Give it some time and when you're more convinced come to Thatcher's Cottage, it's on the lane after the bakers, and I can guide you more in what has been revealed to me."

...

Eryn spent the night in a rage, the internet guy still hadn't arrived so she once again found herself falling into a routine of making dinner, lighting a fire and waiting for the water to heat up enough for her to have a bath. Before she lit the fire she did venture out to the woodstore, but fully clothed and holding two middle fingers high to anyone who might be watching her.

What made Eryn most angry was that she had a libedo like any woman, and now every time she had an errant thought about sex, her mind became infected with thoughts of the spirit of Cwndol hovering outside her window and willing her to go streaking. All kinds of ideas would suddenly be vetoed as Anwen's words held Eryn's sexuality hostage.

"I know why I'm restless." Eryn said to the house. "I was only ten minutes into my walk when that painting and that woman stopped everything. If I go for a nice long walk it will tire me out and clear my head." She reasoned, grabbing her coat and wellies and walking into the night.

Eryn took a deep breath of the cool night air and scanned the horizon under the clear moonlight. Down the road there was a meadow she had passed by that she decided to explore. The meadow was bordered by a thick and old forest, trees that had seen and concealed more than Eryn could ever know beckoned her to explore. As she was walking Eryn began to warm up, she regretted bringing a coat and unburdened herself of it, folding it neatly over her arm as she reached the edge of the treeline. The forest slowly lit up, something Eryn ascribed to her eyes adjusting to reduced light as she began to slink between the trees.

Eryn could have sworn the March night had been colder when she stepped out of her house but now she found herself taking off her jumper and folding it with her coat across her arm as she ventured further into the forest. Eryn occasionally caught a glimpse of a faint glow in the distance, it shimmered and flicked around the trees, like a sheet caught in the breeze. Pulled by some inexplicable need Eryn headed towards it, her mind dull to the unnatural situation she was walking towards. As she followed the beckoning spirit, she felt her body continue to heat up, pushing forward with warm cozy energy.

The flicker danced among the trees before resolving itself into the reflection of the moon on a crystal clear lake. The lake was inviting, too inviting. The way the forest yielded to it, the swirl of silence and night that protected the sliver of moonlight, it was like a new world had been placed there just for Eryn. There was no residual sanity left in Eryn to plead for her not to place her coat and jumper on a nearby tree, freeing up her hands to begin to strip down. Had Eryn possessed any more reluctance it would not have been able to do a thing as she slowly pulled off her clothes and hung them on the tree.

The ground was surprisingly dry, no mud assaulted Eryn's feet as she stepped towards the lake. The night was still and pleasant, no goosebumps breaking the unbroken smoothness of Eryn's skin as she began to wade into the lake.

Ripples shimmered away from her shins, the lake was refreshing but not cold, like a glass of water on a parched mouth. Eryn looked down and saw her body reflected in the shimmering mirror, the moon looking down on her and lighting her way as she crouched and elegantly dove forward into the welcoming embrace of the night. As Eryn floated and looked up at the moon, her arms began to trace the outline of her body, feeling totally detached and completely connected at the same time. There were no trees, no animals, no grass, no village, no cottage, just the moon, Eryn, Eryn's hands, and every part of Eryn's body that the hands wanted to probe.

As her hands graced her pussy, it was like a bolt of lightning struck from the moon to her clitoris. She floundered in the water and her splashes broke the tranquility. She swam to the bank and sat with her legs apart, marvelling that the lake was somehow clearly reflecting between her legs despite the impossible angle that required. Her hand once again probed between her legs and the shock of her clit was no less intense. Her fingers began to twitch and shake as she unashamedly moaned at the top of her lungs, the darkness smothering the sound and preserving Eryn's world. As one hand played with her clit, the other found itself pulling apart her labia and allowing her fingers to probe deep inside of her, she even felt her little finger tickling the outside of her anus and was overjoyed with the sensation.