Of Cog Railways and Witches

We got to the cog rail station 15 mins before departure to make the hour long journey up Pikes Peak. You’d think we weren’t meant to go because of the hassle that it took to get there. We left with enough time to spare, or so we thought. Our Airbnb was roughly an hour and a half away from Pikes Peak and the GPS indicated that traffic was clear. Getting to Manitou Springs was a breeze. It was getting through this small community that presented issues.

On the day that we decide to go, there was a Wiccan festival so the streets were full of people dressed like witches, walking around with sage and herbs hanging around their necks. Some carried black cats and wore talisman while others sold potions and trinkets in booths. Traffic was at a complete standstill when one of the festival goers tapped on the passenger window. When I turned to look at the person tapping, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. There stood a small, fragile looking old woman with eyes so sunken into her face that I wasn’t sure that she was alive. She could tell that she’d freaked me out so she smiled, showing one little nub of a tooth, the rest gums. As I tried smiling back we began inching forward, making our way closer to the entrance of the cog railway.

Once we were parked, I asked my husband if he’d noticed how strange the old lady looked. As we made our way to the train we were surprised to see that the woman from the festival was sitting in the seats opposite ours. Now we weren’t sure if this was coincidence or if by some odd chance, the woman had followed us to the station. Because she’d freaked me out, I was hesitant to take our seats and there was no way that I could sit in a different seat because the conductor mentioned that it was a full house as we entered. When taking our seats, my husband sat in front of the witchy lady and I sat on the inside by the window. Her cat sat in the seat across from me. Which was weird because who brings a cat on a train.

When it’s time to start the journey up the mountain, the train conductor goes over the do’s and dont’s while on the train and once we get to the top. We’re told that we have roughly 30 minutes to shop, take pics and use the restroom once we make it to the top. The warning horn would sound three times to ensure that everyone made it back in time. If you didn’t make it back, you were left to figure out how to get down on your own. Because we were on the last train of the day that meant calling an Uber or hiking back down.

Throughout the ride the conductor told us fun facts about animals, landmarks and tales from the railways early days. He let us know that the powder on the aspen trees could serve as great sunscreen and that the population in the mountain area was about three which consisted of the family that lived in a small white house not too far from the stations depot. They were there to maintain the waterline that powered some of the small “waterfalls” and water supply for the railway station. This family had a 60 mile driveway from their home into town. They only left once or twice a month because the commute was tedious.

While we’re trying to enjoy the ride, the old lady and her cat don’t stop staring at us. A few times the cat tried getting closer to me and I tried ignoring it but each time it got closer the woman would start muttering words. As soon as she started muttering, I would turn my wrist and she’d stop, start smiling and pull the cat back into her lap. On my wrist I wore a bracelet that had an eye of protection and a small piece of black tourmaline. I wore this bracelet daily but never thought I’d actually have to use it to ward off evil. Interacting with the lady was out of the question so I’d planned on exchanging seats with another couple on the way down.

As we approached the top of Pikes Peak, the old lady stood up and said something inaudible to the conductor. While everyone is standing to deboard and head to the gift shop and restrooms, the conductor looks at us and smiles. My husband grabbed my hand and we got off on the opposite side, away from the lady and conductor. Once we were inside while trying to shake that weird feeling and the awkward ride up the mountain, we browsed the gift shop. I picked up some souvenirs for my mom and brother while he browsed the handmade knives and hiking gear. Back home we were novice hikers which was part of the reason we vacationed in Colorado. They had specialty climbing ropes, collapsible titanium hiking sticks and more. My husband purchased two hiking sticks, a rope bundle, and two water filtering canteens along with a buck knife with a leather case.

The first horn blares and we make our way to the lounge and cafe area to use grab snacks, use the restroom and start heading back to the train. Walking to the restroom I felt her eyes following me. As I looked up, our eyes locked and it felt like I was frozen in space and time. She begins mumbling like she did on the train. The hair on the back of my neck is sticking straight up and it feels as if all of the air is being sucked out of the room. Her cat starts walking toward me as I attempt to break away from the trance. I tried closing my eyes but they wouldn’t shut. Tears start running down my face. The cat gets closer. I will myself to make someone notice me but they keep walking past as if I’m invisible. The cat is now 6 feet in front of me. I try moving the wrist with the bracelet that seemed to detour the cat earlier and it won’t move. The cat’s paw is about to touch my shoe when my husband comes out of nowhere and punts it across the room.

The old lady releases the eye connection that she had with me and begins shrieking. Once that connection is broken, my husband scoops me into his arms as I’m gasping for air. We go to an empty area in the lounge and as I’m trying to calm down we hear the second horn. At this point we have to decide if we want to risk getting back on the train with this weird old lady who is obviously some kind of witch or if calling an Uber would be the safer option for us. An Uber up the mountain and back to our car at the depot would have been $200. I decided that we would go ahead and head back to the train, speak with the conductor about how uncomfortable we were sitting with the old lady and hope that accommodations could be made.

As we headed back to the train, the last horn blares. The old lady had picked up her cat and gotten on before us. She was talking to the conductor as we approached our car. She’d told him that my husband had kicked her cat and that she didn’t know why he’d done that. The conductor asked if she wanted to file a report with the police to which she laughed and said that she’d just have a long conversation with us on the ride down and see if we could come to some kind of agreement on how things should be handled. To this my husband told the conductor that we didn’t feel comfortable sitting with her and asked if there was an option for us to sit somewhere else on the way down. The conductor laughs, the same way he did when the old lady was whispering to him, and told us to get to our seats or deboard the train.

As we got off the train and booked our Uber, the old lady and her cat got off as well. At this point I think it’s best for us to call the police because she’s basically been harassing us all day. Because we’re at the top of a mountain, there’s no reception so we step inside to check for security or to see if they have a landline. The workers inside tell us that the old lady is harmless and that she does this from time to time so we had nothing to worry about.

At the beginning of this story, I told you that we were on the last train for the day. It’s now 7 pm and the sun is setting. We have no reception and no one seems too concerned about this lady. The Uber is an hour away and the gift shop and cafe are closing up as the train pulls away. We’re left to stand on the road at the entrance to wait for our ride. The old lady is standing a distance away and waiting with us. As time passes on, we see the workers leaving and wonder if we should just cancel the Uber and catch a ride with them downhill. As the last associate pulls out my husband starts to ask him for a ride and I feel a small prick on the back of my neck. Just before my eyes close I see my husband being pulled into a truck.

When I opened my eyes I knew I’d be waking up from a nightmare, in our hotel room, shaken up but safe. No such luck. As I opened my eyes, it looked like I was in the gift shop but it was so poorly lit and I was partially blindfolded that I couldn’t be certain. With bound hands. I felt around l for my husband when something brushed my arm. I froze because I thought that it was the lady’s cat. Whatever touched me froze too. Moving slightly in the opposite direction I felt around again and grabbed what felt like a leg. Without thinking, I whispered my husband’s name. “Channing, is that you?!” No response. I moved up the body to find the person’s face, checking for breath. Holding my breath, I waited to hear respiration. When the person inhaled it was ragged and sounded a bit painful but they were alive.

Because my hands were tied in front I was able to pull the mask off to have a better look around. Turns out, we weren’t in the gift shop but an empty inn that hadn’t been used in years. Outside I could smell a fire burning and voices, speaking in hushed whispers. The light from the fire allowed me to get a good look at the person beside me. It was Channing with a bloody nose, black eye and what sounded like a broken rib or two. After examining my him, I scanned the room for something to cut the restraints. Our backpacks were placed on the check in counter near the door. Without making too much noise I crawled toward the counter and just as I was grabbing the bags, a cat jumped on mine and gave a deep, long purr.

It wasn’t the cat from the train. This cat had a big fluffy tail and was white as snow. It’s eyes were a greenish blue and they almost seemed human like. Hesitantly, I reached out to pet it and surprisingly it didn’t pull away. The cat leaned into my touch as if it knew me. I rummaged through Channing’s bag and found the knife that he’d bought at the gift shop. After cutting the hand ties I put my backpack on and grabbed my husbands and the cat off the counter. As I’m crawling back to Channing, the door swings open. It’s the worker from the cafe that we were asking for a ride when I passed out. He has a sinister look in his face and begins walking toward Channing. When he gets to him, he realizes that I’m gone he yells outside to those gathered around the fire. If I said I knew what he said to them, I’d be lying. It was a mixture of clicks, whistles and sighs.

There were five people who entered, including the old lady. They all had the same sunken eyes that she had and wore similar talisman around their necks. As they entered the room, the air grew colder and the white car snuggled into the nook of my arm. The creepy cat prances in and walks to Channing. He sniffs around his head then licks his face. This makes Channing stir finally. When he opened his eyes the gift shop worker walks toward him with a glass of water. He takes it cautiously, slowly sipping and then he asked where I was. The gift shop worker smirks and tells him that I was safe and waiting for him outside. My husband, knowing that I would never go anywhere without him raised his eyebrow, in that tell-tale way that let me know he didn’t believe that. He went to stand but realized he couldn’t move the lower part of his body. That’s when I knew he had a spinal injury. That’s why he didn’t feel it when I touched his legs.

Channing called out my name. I wanted to answer but I didn’t want them to know that I was still inside the inn. The more he called out to me, the more I wanted to run to him. Whoever these people were I don’t think they wanted to keep us alive for long. The old lady stepped forward and rubbed what looked like ash on ton Channing’s forehead and whistled. The place where she’d put the ashes began smoldering and turning red as if on fire. He cried out in pain. This was a trick to lure me out. It worked. As I stood up, the white cat transformed into bright blinding light. I took this as a chance to grab Channing and run. Getting to him was easy, willing his legs to move was the harder task. It was like his body was under the same spell the old lady had me under at the gift shop. Thinking quickly, I wiped his face where the cat had licked him and checked his pockets for any signs of talisman. In his left pant pocket there was a piece of dried chicken foot wrapped in oil soaked twine. Removing it with the end of my shirt, I flung it across the room. The light from the cat was starting to dim so I knew our time was running short.

He began wiggling his toes and then his legs. As I helped him up the light grew more dim. Once we got to the back door of the inn, the light was out and the white cat was running toward us. Once we’re outside I see the 60 mile road that we saw while on the railway. If we stuck to the road, we’d be walking targets so we had to use the trees as camouflage. I remembered the hiking sticks and and ropes that Channing bought in the gift shop. We could use these on the hike down and as weapons in case the sunken eye group followed us. 60 miles takes roughly 15 hours to walk at a normal pace. We still had no cell reception (the cell phones were in our backpacks) and had no clue what these people wanted. Staying alert for wild animals (wolves, coyotes, bears) and others we stopped each time we heard a branch snap.

We’d been walking for two hours with no sign of the group when the white cat came to a stop. He began hissing and arching his back. From the dark, the old lady steps out. She says “There’s no point in trying to run because we will always find you. You’re our family and family always returns home”. This was a shock to me as I knew I was adopted, I had no clue I was from Colorado. I’d lived in Los Angeles my entire life and was told that my parents died in a car accident. I was raised by my aunt and uncle as their own. Who is this woman to me? Is she telling the truth or is this a lie to make it easier for her to kill us. All these questions were running through my mind that I didn’t notice my hand twisting around creating light in the palm of my hand. This light sparked the old lady’s interest and the others from the group started to emerge from the shadows. Even Channing was surprised because 1) what the heck was going on with my hand and 2) could I harness some kind of magic?

My hand stops circling, extends forward and light blasts from it toward the group. Hitting two of them the others begin chanting in unison. The earth starts to shake and trees are uprooted. As this happens the white cat transforms into a white leopard that’s the size of an elephant. The giant cat crushes two more of the members of the group. The old lady and the man from the gift shop are left. The old lady’s cat comes steps from behind her and transforms into a leopard similar to the white cat but he is thinner, more stragglier looking with a crazed look in his eye. Our leopard cat motions for us to get on its back. As we began to climb on, I remove the ropes from Channing’s backpack to create a harness that we could tie around its neck and hold on to. The gift shop worker starts chanting hysterically and the trees become animated. The limbs are like arms, reaching toward us and our leopard.

The white leopard pounding through the woods so fast it was difficult to hang on. It headed for the road to have a clear path with no chance of stumbling over tree roots. The faster it ran, the harder and faster the old lady’s cat ran. At the 45 mile marker we had to slow down because our friendly leopard was growing tired. The old lady and cat seemed to vanish when we stopped. It was odd because they were pursing us for so long and then disappeared once we stopped. This made us uneasy and while we wanted to jump back on the cat, it needed a break. We rested for about an hour while still on edge.

As we packed up and started walking toward the house of the family that lived on this stretch of land, we heard the all too familiar chanting. This time my hands instantly lit up. It’s almost like the chanting triggered the hidden power within me. With both arms extended toward the sound, I willed the energy to flow at will. Tentacle like arms of light spilled from my hands and began strangling the gift shop worker. I could feel the veins in my arm stinging but the flow of power was a welcomed pain. Channing had to touch my shoulder in order for me to realize that the man was dead. The old lady stared at us, got on her cat leopard and went in the opposite direction.

The next 15 miles we rode in silence. We processing what has just happened and Channing, practically ready to piss his pants, wondering who or what he’d married. When we see the house a feeling of relief washes over us. That feeling dissipated almost instantly when we saw the old lady and her cat standing at the front door. Instinctually, I began chanting words I’d never learned but picked up ok from the others, and the light began igniting my entire body. I could feel the power surging through ever ounce of my being. The old lady, chanting as well began to light up too. Maybe she was a relative that shared the same blood as me. Our arms shot up at the same time. Light colliding and climbing over each other she says, “there’s no need to fear or fight. We are one with the light. Neither of us will win because we are kin”. As she tilted her head back to laugh, a flick of the wrist caused her light to grow dim. Her body began contorting until she finally went limp. As soon as she dropped we made a dash for the door.

After knocking on the door frantically, someone finally opened. As the door swung open a bright light poured out into the dark night. Squinting, I willed my eyes to adjust to the figure standing in front of my. Just as their face came into view I felt a hard thump of the back of my head. As my head hit the ground my eyes flew open and I was back in the car in the middle of the Wiccan festival. We were creeping along heading toward the railway station. It was all a dream, I thought feeling relieved that we were okay. We sat waiting for the crowd to thin out, and all of a sudden there were three knocks on my window. I turn my head slowly and it’s the old lady with the sunken eyes and toothless smile. My wrist twitches and I tell my husband that we have to get out of here, now. He finds an opening in the crowd, turns the car around and heads for the highway. While rubbing my eyes and trying to explain the dream that I had to my Channing, I look in the rear view mirror and there sits the old lady and her cat, in the backseat of our car. Brakes squeal to a screeching halt. My head hits the dashboard. I wake up, in our rental, in a crowd of people dressed as witches.