The Witch of the Woods

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window.

Mary inched closer, the lantern in her hand suddenly going dim. Her hand shook, and the metal of her lantern rattled. Her body kept moving towards the dilapidated building, even as her heart and mind argued whether to stay. She was too close now, close enough that anyone inside could just fling open them door and run after her, yet she couldn’t stop moving.

There were three creaky wood steps that lead to the small porch at the front of the cabin, and in one of the front corners of the porch there was a tree growing through broken wood. She begged herself not to raise her feet and climb those crude steps and yet there she was, standing on the porch and now facing the front door. The door slowly opened and Mary continued to step forward, now almost completely through the threshold when she was nearly knocked back by the strong stench of death. A scent so strong it curled up in her nostrils and made residence. She gagged and raised her free hand to her mouth to stifle her gags as her other hand still shook around the lantern handle.

A shadowy figure moved from the back of the cabin, and before Mary could properly focus on the figure by candle light, it was right in front of her face. She tried to open her mouth to scream, yet not even a breath could escape. Every hair stood on the back of her neck as if felt like the figure attached itself to her and looked her in the eye. The face was so frightening though her mind refused to form a picture of it and she only saw darkness before intense light.

"Mary?"

Mary gasped and sat up, clutching at her chest.

"Are you alright?" The voiced asked, and Mary turned to face her girlfriend Violet with a sigh. Sweat caused her night shirt to cling to her skin and she pulled at the collar.

"Thanks for waking me up, it was like...I had no control over my body again," Mary lamented as she tried to run her fingers through tangled bed head.

"You were stiff as a board, but your foot was moving so erratically it woke me up," Violet stated with concern, curling into Mary's side. Mary just stared at the ceiling for a moment, grateful for morning, grateful it was just a dream. A horrific dream, but at least it wasn't reality.

"I really need to talk to someone about this sleep paralysis thing," Mary groaned. "I can't even begin to explain what it feels like... but I don't wish it on anyone, even my worst enemies. It felt so real, I could feel the humidity, smell something awful....see the ugliest most awful face I'd ever seen."

Violet made a face, "Oh no, what did it look like?"

“That’s the strange thing… I don’t remember, I just know it was the most horrifying thing I’ve ever laid eyes on.”

“Weird,” Violet responded, furrowing her brow. Mary nodded and sighed again before Mary decided it was a good time for a distraction. She sat up and smiled, “How about I make us a little breakfast and coffee before we go?”

“Sounds perfect,” Mary smiled, stealing a kiss before Violet slipped out of bed and off towards the kitchen of their shared apartment. Mary sat for a moment, her mind trying to replay the dream that seemed far too real to merely be something in her mind. She kept trying to remember the face but there was only a memory of fear that came to her. She only knew it was the most terrifying thing she had ever seen, but she couldn't actually describe it. She sighed as she pulled herself out of bed and stopped to take a look at herself in the vanity mirror. The bags under her eyes were just as ready for her upcoming vacation as she was.

Mary and Violet had some fried egg sandwiches for breakfast and finished off a pot of coffee together before they got themselves together and started loading the car. Mary looked down at the tent under her arm and back to Violet, "Apparently this tent is like, the best of the best. We will be camping in luxury!"

Violet shook her head and laughed, "I don't exactly count any place with countless bugs as luxury but...sure!"

"Listen, no bugs will be entering our nylon fortress!" Mary exclaimed.

"We'll see about that," Violet retorted. The duo finished gathering everything for their trip and closed the back of the SUV, pleased with themselves.

"Let's get our camp on!" Violet laughed, jingling the keys and heading to the drivers side. Mary herself climbed in the passenger side and it wasn't long before the urban jungle they called home was merely a fleck in the rearview mirror. The further they drove, the further away from civilization they became. The were surrounded by greenery and that was exactly what both of them wanted, a weekend escape from the worries of the modern world. They both decided to stay off their phones and just spend quality time together enjoying the scenery and each other. They found disposable film cameras from at a drugstore before they left and planned on capturing memories like they did when they were little girls growing up in summer camps. They had bonded early in their relationships that they regularly spent part of their summers at camp when they were kids and so they always found time to camp together every summer. They’d make a campfire and laugh by firelight, cooking camp food and counting the stars in the sky. That was arguably one of their shared favorite things about camping, that they could actually see the stars without all the urban light pollution.

Violet turned off the main road to a dirt road and nodded her head, “Pretty sure this is right.”

“Pretty sure?” Mary asked, raising a brow.

“Marshall said it was the second dirt road off of that road, I only saw one other dirt road so… like I said, pretty sure!” Violet nodded again and Mary shrugged. As long as they could set up the tent, make a fire and not be bothered, she didn’t truly mind where they made camp.

The dirt road ended at a grove of trees and to the driver’s side of the car was a decent sized clearing and even spots where there had clearly been previous fire pits.

“Looks good to me,” Mary said, undoing her seatbelt as Violet parked the car. It didn’t take them long to set up the tent and start their fire, and before long they were cooking aluminum foil packets of food on the fire and trying to make each other laugh. They made s'mores before laying out a blanket and cuddling together under the stars. They pointed out their favorite constellations and kissed by moonlight before they decided to head into the tent for a night. They snuffed out the fire and made sure it was actually out before climbing into the tent one after another. They were both about to change into sleep clothes when they heard what sounded like footsteps on leaves. A distinct crunching sound they'd heard on their own adventures around the campsite. Violet raised a brow and looked to Mary, who shifted closer to her and whispered,

"Did Marshall say he was coming up here?"

Violet shrugged and sighed, "He didn't say anything earlier."

"Check your phone!" Mary groaned, digging through the bags to find it and throw it to her. "Fuck the no phones rule."

Violet looked down at her phone in confusion, "He texted me five minutes ago but I don't have signal..."

"Texted WHAT?" Mary growled in a hushed yet annoyed tone and Violet just turned her phone to show what he had texted.

BEWARE THE WITCH OF THE WOODS.

Mary rolled her eyes and dug through the bag again, grabbing a flashlight and a small black box she held up, "I brought my taser, I'm not playing games."

Violet held up her hands and then brought a finger to her lips to quiet her partner. The footsteps seemed to grow faster, as if someone were running circles around the tent.

Mary groaned and unzipped the tent, climbing out quickly and jumping to her feet. She held the tazer in front of her and tried to make out what was happening by moonlight.

There was no one.

Violet tried calling her friend Marshall, but she had no signal and it never could dial out. When she tried to send another text to him, asking for explanation, she was greeted with another red exclamation point and that her message couldn't be delivered.

She climbed out of the tent after Mary with a deep sigh, and lit up the campsite with the flashlight of her phone.

The clearing was empty aside from them, their campsite and their car.

"It had to have been an animal..." Mary shrugged, confused.

Violet shook her head, "It didn't sound like an animal."

"Look, neither of us are zoologists, you never know. Where would a person go that fast here?"

"Where would an animal?" Violet retorted.

Mary threw up her hands and motioned towards the tent. "Let's try to get some sleep, it was nothing!"

Violet flashed her phone around the campsite again before climbing back into the tent.

Mary paused for a moment, squinting through the trees. She swore she saw a light flicker but immediately chalked it up to Violet's phone and her eyes adjusting.

She shook her head and crawled back into the tent, sitting with Violet, who still seemed distressed.

"Hey, it'll be okay, it's probably just Marshall teasing you," she said, taking her hand in hers and squeezing it.

"Yeah but...the whole witch thing like, that's a real thing! There's all sorts of stories about the woods around here, I would google it and show you but...no signal," she said as she held up her phone and shook it lightly with a sigh.

"Woods always have a creepy story, but it's just a story, I promise. Let me guess, something a friend of a friend saw? The cousin of a coworkers uncle?"

Violet sighed and threw up her hands, "And even if it's a story....creepy things still happen in the woods all the time."

Mary nodded and shrugged, "Alright, I'll give you that."

She curled into Violet before the two girls were startled by a low hum. Mary and Violet both shot out of the tent and looked around the campsite as their eyes adjusted to the darkness. The hum echoed through the woods strangely, as if a low hum like that could even be loud enough to echo through the trees.

That's when they both saw the light in the woods, a tiny flicker, almost like a lone firefly.

Mary walked around the tent and reached inside to grab her phone, illuminating the campsite.

Violet was gone, and Mary was alone but a rustle in the trees. Shadows danced amongst the trees and Mary found herself wandering into the woods after Violet, phone flashlight her only illumination aside from bits of moonlight that broke through the trees.

She moved closer to the light flickering in the distance, leaves crunching and branches breaking beneath her feet. She approached a dilapidated building that seemed to be an old cabin, abandoned for years.

Mary froze in her steps.

It was the very cabin from her dream, and the air stilled in her lungs as every hair on her body stood at attention. Every detail was exactly as she dreamt, including a tree growing through the front right corner of the small porch.

"Vi...Violet...?" She managed to squeak out.

She begged herself not to raise her feet and climb those crude steps and yet there she was, standing on the porch and now facing the front door. The door slowly opened and Mary continued to step forward, now almost completely through the threshold when she was nearly knocked back by the strong stench of death. A scent so strong it curled up n her nostrils and made residence. She gagged and raised her free hand to her mouth to stifle her gags as her other hand shook with fear, the light of her phone dancing against the cabin.

A shadowy figure moved from the back of the cabin, and before Mary could properly focus on the figure by candle light, it was right in front of her face. She tried to open her mouth to scream, yet not even a breath could escape. Every hair stood on the back of her neck as if felt like the figure attached itself to her and looked her in the eye.

It was Violet. At least, it seemed to be some form of Violet. Her skin was wrinkled and drooping, and her joints creaked with every movement. Her once luscious hair now thin and white. She had aged decades in a matter of minutes, and yet her frail, elderly body clung to Mary with everything she had. Another figure moved from the back of the cabin, and Violet shook, trying to form words before her body began to break away and turn to dust.

Mary was yet again frozen in fear, unsure of what just happened and unable to fully grasp that the dust coating her body was once Violet.

The figure loomed over Mary, sitting on her stomach before their eyes were mere centimeters from Mary's, eyes she recognized as Violets. Mary could barely make out the shape of the face, but realized it was becoming Violet.

And before Mary could even form another thought or even scream in fear, the figure became Mary.

And Mary became the witch of the woods.

Here in the woods,

I hear her whispers

and wonder on her past.

They call her the witch of the woods,

in solace she lived,

in solace she died,

buried in judgement,

covered in lies.

She never chose to marry,

nor bring her own child to life,

she was no one's mother,

never anyone's wife.

She kept to her woods,

protected the trees,

the flora were her fortress,

the fauna were her family.

She never harmed those,

who didn't balance their karma,

and never wished pain

on good souls.

The world found her strange,

they lacked understanding.

The burned up her home,

with her in the flames.

They spoke ill of her spirit,

and on her they lay all their blame.

Her spirit still wanders,

wondering and hoping,

that kind words and understanding

will sing her bones to sleep for once.