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The Witch From Cypress Creek

An urban legend from the town

By Anna cruzPublished 2 years ago 6 min read
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The Witch From Cypress Creek
Photo by Lisandro Leonardi on Unsplash

It was a dark and stormy Halloween day when Stella arrived at Cypress Creek. Stella was late meeting with her friends, Tina, Charlie, Chris, Laura, and Abner. All of them met up to tell stories by a campfire at the creek every year. The day’s weather was horrible so the boys set up a small tent to wait out the storm. They all barely fit in the tent when they began to share their creepy stories with flashlights in hand.

Tina began by stating “I have a story” shining a light on her face. “It was a dark and stormy night when the bog man was born.” He comes out of a swampy bog exacting revenge on those that placed his body in the swamp after his murder”. Charlie interrupts and says “that story isn’t scary enough, I have a real story designed to make your hair stand on end”. Tina, defensively says, “If you think you can do better, okay let’s hear it”. Charlie asks everyone if they heard of the legend of the Witch of Cypress Creek. Everyone nods their heads side to side in unison and says “No”. Charlie begins to tell his tale with anticipation and a light to his face. “In the 1600s there was a beautiful woman named Mary Whitmore. “The woman in the town was jealous of her and soon rumors began that she was a witch”. Soon, hysteria set in around the

townspeople, and Mary were accused of witchcraft. The townspeople took Mary to Cypress Creek and drowned her. It is said till this day, Mary’s spirit haunts this creek. Abner interrupts and asks “ t….this creek, Cypress Creek?” Charlie replies “yes this very same creek". “It is said if you call out her name three times she will appear by the creek”. “The townspeople have seen her in a flowing white dress and bright shiny eyes”. “Mary is seen as a peaceful old soul”. “Would you all dare to invoke her name right now?". Everyone agrees except for Abner who is really scared by this story. “Don’t worry, Abner it’s only an urban legend “ says Charlie Abner reluctantly, joining the group by invoking Mary Whitmore’s name three times. The group repeats “Mary Whitmore, Mary Whitmore, Mary Whitmore won’t you show your face”.

Suddenly, the rain stops and the group comes out of their tent. Cypress Creek is only yards away from the tent so they notice an elderly woman staring at them from across the Creek. The group notices that the old woman is wearing a 16th- century costume as they wave at her and say “Hello”. The old woman continues to stare and says “who dares awaken me from my sleep”. Everyone begins to look nervously at each other, and Stella says “We’re sorry if we made any noise to disturb you”. The old woman angrily says “who called out Mary Whitmore from her bed”. The group looks around at each other, and nervously replies “ We did” but it's an old urban legend, it’s not true”. The Old woman starts to angrily shout “not true, my death was not true.” “You mean you have awakened me for nothing”. Everyone in the group starts to become afraid as they realize that the old woman is Mary Whitmore.

The old woman gets angrier and angrier and starts to scream and make an awful shrieking noise. She loses control and starts to say “ I’ll get you, I’ll get you all”. In an instance, the old woman starts to levitate, as she hovers over the creek.

The teens in the group start to scream and run through the woods mindlessly and with no sense of direction as to where they're headed.

Stella screams as she sees the Witch approaching them flying high in the air. “We will never outrun her, we need to break apart into two groups”. Stella, Laura, and Abner run together in one direction; Tina, Charlie, and Chris run in the opposite direction through the woods. The Witch starts to chase Stella’s group through the woods, the teens run so hard and fast it feels like hours and not minutes. Laura gets a cramp in her leg and has to stop but Abner and Stella don’t stop before they realize they have lost Laura. After a few minutes, Stella and Abner see the Witch overhead with Laura screaming. The Witch drops Laura onto the ground from a very tall height; Stella and Abner have no choice but to witness in horror what happened to Laura. They scream and keep running until they run into Charlie’s group, Stella tells them about Laura.

Abner starts to say “ We shouldn’t have called her name at all, what a dumb idea that was”. Charlie says “ I thought it would be fun, I didn’t think it was real”. “ The legend told of a beautiful woman who was peaceful”. Stella interrupts and says “Nevermind who's to blame, we need to stop her” “Do you know how to stop her Charlie?” According to the town librarian who told the tale, Mary could only be stopped by finding her bones and showing them to her”. “No one knows where she was buried”. “We need to find her bones, Charlie”. Stella says. “We have to think where would the townspeople bury her bones, it would have to be somewhere close by the creek”. Abner says “What about the cemetery?”. Tina replies “ if they thought she was a Witch they wouldn’t bury her on the consecrated ground if at all”. “ We need to come up with a plan, one group looks for the marker in the woods and the other group will divert the Witch’s attention,” says Charlie.

Chris yells out “ Look the Witch is here”. The Witch hovers over them in the sky and then she swoops down and stands in front of them and points to Chris. The Witch starts to speak in Latin pointing at Chris. In an instant, she turns Chris into a Stone figure. The group freaks out and starts to run through the woods, Abner and Tina divert the Witch’s attention while Stella and Charlie run to find the marker in the woods.

Charlie and Stella race to find the marker, they figured that the bones must be in the woods near the Creek since she was killed there. They search along the Creek for about half an hour and they find what looks to be a dilapidated wooden cross next to a Cypress tree. They start to dig and locate Mary's bones in a shallow grave. Tina and Abner are running through the woods as fast as they can. Tina falls behind but Abner grabs her hand pushing her along to run faster. As twigs snap and branches fall off, they can hear the Witch approaching overhead. After running for so long Tina and Abner are about to give up, they are cornered with no way out. The Witch is about to cast another spell when Stella and Charlie arrive with the bones in hand. They hold up the bones in front of the Witch and she starts to scream and disintegrate as she turns to ashes. Tina and Abner are relieved. Chris and Laura return with no memory of what happened since the Witch’s spells were undone due to her demise.

The group casts the bones into the creek and they decide to never speak about the events of that Halloween day at Cypress Creek.

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About the Creator

Anna cruz

I like writing short stories and poetry. I like to blog about thrifting and many other subjects. I hope you enjoy my writing. Read my blog at www.savingshouse.blogspot.com and visit my website at www.vintageoldtreasures.com

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