Written for @promptsforthestrugglingauthor Friday Night Fights.
There were always tales, of course. Stretching as far back as the original founding of the city, probably. About the evil witch who lived out in the woods, cursing and entrapping anyone who dared to venture too deep into the forest. It had probably started as a way to make children behave.
'Don't go into the woods near sundown, or the witch will eat you!' Naturally, in those sorts of tales, there was never really a witch, but wolves and bears were just as happy to snack on clueless kids as they were deer if they were hungry enough.
But still, the sheer insistence that I could remember my grandmother in particular having, that there really was a witch in the forest had gotten me curious, and so, smartphone in hand, a little bit of food and water in my backpack, and a camera strapped to my chest, I set off on Saturday morning. If nothing else, it would be a nice escape from the hustle of the city.
At first, the walk was pleasant enough. The weather was just right, and the light filtering through the canopy overhead got me some really nice photos on my phone.
Then as any semblance of path finally disappeared from the ground, my foot caught on a tree root, and I went face first into the dirt. When I managed to pull my face out of the soil, there was a small fox staring quizzically at me.
"Hey there, little guy," I said, pushing myself back up onto my knees, "did I disturb your home?"
The fox sat back onto its hind legs, almost like it was imitating me, but never broke its stare. With as much care as I could, I pulled my backpack off my shoulder, and opened it up, pulling out one of the grain bars I'd packed, and broke a section off, holding it out in my hand towards the little red fox. It just continued its staring until I held out the larger section of the grain bar, and took a bite of it myself. Then, and only then, did the fox nip the peice out of my hand, and scurry off into the trees.
"Must have smelled the food on me or something," I mused to myself, as I stood back up, brushing the leaves and dirt off the front of my clothes, and picked my smartphone back up, only to find that it was no longer showing the map that I'd been using.
Well, that was a simple enough fix. Just needed to reopen the page and...
No connection.
"Oh, come on, I had data thirty seconds ago, don't you pull this horror movie shit on me now."
A few moments of waving my phone around in the air, and I had signal again, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I pulled the map back up, and set off, deeper and deeper into the forest.
Several hours later, and the atmosphere had gotten noticeably colder. The canopy had gone from fairly open to completely covering the sky now, and with that came a drop in temperature, though it was still a pleasant enough atmosphere, as long as I kept moving.
The sound of running water broke my train of thought for a moment, and I remembered that I hadn't had anything to drink in a while. I dug my water bottle out of my pack, and gulped about half of it down, and decided to see if I could find the stream that I could hear.
It didn't take long before I stumbled across it, almost literally. I barely caught my footing on the bank of the stream. I knelt down, and dipped my bottle into it, it burbling as it filled up. A snap of a twig whipped my head up, and a growl sounded behind me.
As slowly as I could manage, I turned my head, and right behind me was a wolf, much bigger than any that I'd ever seen. It didn't seem to be moving to attack, so again, moving as slowly as I could, got back on my feet and began to back away. A hop and a skip took me over the stream, but still the wolf didn't make a move to attack, but continued to growl. I took one step up stream, and the wolf's growling increased.
'Must have its den in that direction,' I thought to myself, but just to confirm, I took a step down stream, and the wolf's growling decreased in volume.
Another step, then two, and the wolf was content to simply stand there and glare at me.
As fast as I dared, I headed downstream, firstly just hurried walking, but eventually breaking out into a full run, trying to leave the wolf as far behind me as I could.
------
It was only once I noticed that the ground underneath my feet had changed from loose, grassy soil to hard-packed earth that I stopped running. I had found a path, and a check from my phone revealed that I was quite deep in the woods. I glanced around, and began to follow the path, which lead alongside the stream that I'd been running besides. A few moments later, the path put me at the doorstep to an old, partially overgrown log cabin. A small water wheel rested in what was now a small river, slowly turning. Maybe it was some weird nature retreat or something. I still wasn't convinced that there was an evil witch feeding on the souls of wandering people out here, but I made sure that the camera on my chest was still recording, and knocked on the door.
For a moment, nothing happened, then there was a slight shuffle, and the door creaked open slightly.
"Who's there?" croaked a voice that sounded like my chain-smoking aunt's if she'd lived to be a thousand years old.
"Hi," I said, still slightly out of breath from my flight from the wolf, "I was wondering if I could stay with you for the night. I was out hiking, and then I had to run from this wolf, and I don't want to make the trek back in the dark."
The forest had only grown darker and colder as the day had progressed. I couldn't really see the sun, but my phone was getting low on battery, and the clock was telling me that it was about seven at night right now.
"Of course," croaked the woman, "I think I can spare a room for you for a night."
"I'm happy to pay you if you want, or help out or something if you need it."
"Oh, I think I can think of something for you to help me with," said the old woman, opening the door fully. The inside of the cottage looked almost exactly what I would imagine a witch's cottage would look like. Herbs and plants that I couldn't even begin to identify littered every single surface, the shelves around the room were packed full of books. The only thing missing was a big cauldron, but there was only a wood-fired stove.
The old woman shuffled through a door, and came back after a moment, beckoning me to follow her.
"You can sleep in here for the night," said the woman, "and I'll get your help with a few tasks in the morning."
"Thank you very much," I said, my mouth stretching out into a yawn. Guess running from that wolf had taken more out of me than I'd thought. I was asleep basically the second I hit the slightly scratchy matress.
------
The chanting was what woke me up, and I suddenly found that I couldn't move. Glowing red symbols lit up the room around me, and the old woman was at the end of the bed.
"What are you-?" I managed, before the sheets animated themselves, and stuffed one end into my mouth.
"I wondered when one of the newer generations would get curious about the legends," said the woman, her voice suddenly much stronger than it had been previously. "The forest has enough innate magic for me to sustain myself on nearly indefinitely, but not enough to stop me degrading into this decreipt husk. Fortunately, you are just the right kind of person."
I struggled against the sheets, but to no avail as the witch pulled out a knife, and made her way up to my side.
"You see, I've been watching you, judging you. You're trusting enough to share food with a fox, and not for an instant think that it was anything but a fox, and gullible enough that a simple illusion of a wolf could fool you into running straight to my cabin. You are, in short, the perfect person for this little ritual."
The sheets retracted from my mouth for a moment.
"Why are you doing this?"
"You've heard the stories, I trust? About the evil, terrible witch who lives alone in the forest, taking anyone who lingers too long in her domain? I am pleased to tell you that all of those stories are true, little one, and now you're going to help me keep them alive. Sadly for you, you'll have to die for that to happen, but I'll use your lifeforce to keep me healthy for a good century or so."
"I could keep you company!" I blurted out, "it must get lonely out here, by yourself. Must want someone to talk to every now and again, right?"
"Ah, you're bargaining, I see," said the witch, "but unfortunately for you, I'm rather stubborn. Farewell, child."
And with that, the knife thrust down, and my last sensation was a sharp pain, and something being sucked out of my body.
"If you look closely enough, you can see the curve of the earth."
That was what he told me, four days out to sea, on a piece of junk boat that should have been scrapped or sold for parts years ago. I sighed, and simply turned my head back out to the horizon. I hated when he got weird like this, because there was absolutely no way that he was just saying that. There was always a hidden lesson in everything.
The clouds sagged overhead, and my mind flicked back to the weather report from before we'd set out. There was a big storm cell on the way-big enough that some people were talking about declaring it a hurricane. But out here, all I could see was grey water and patchy grey sky, no sign of the huge storm that was supposedly out here.
'Weathermen,' I thought, 'Can't trust them at all.' the boat pitched as it hit a wave, and water sprayed up over the bow of the ship, soaking me. I could have moved, but instead I just stood there, shivering and swearing at the sea. Out on the horizon, directly in front of us, was a darker patch of sky that seemed to meld with the sea.
"It's raining up ahead!" I called back to my companion, who simply nodded.
"That's what we're looking for! You may want to put on a raincoat!"
Of course. Of course we were heading for the bad weather. I don't like rain-never have.
--------
Two things I have learned today. One, the rain over the ocean is freaking cold. The kind of cold that makes you want to curl into a little ball in anything that looks remotely warm. And two, my companion was legit crazy. No one sane would go out to the middle of the sea, in a storm, and then hang around one particular area for four hours. I retired to below deck the second I was able to. He, however, had simply stayed up there, in the freezing rain and with the grey sea and sky, looking for something only he knew about. I heard a cry from above, and as I walked to the ladder leading up to the deck, there was a second yell, and a splash, followed by several gun shots, and I hastened my pace.
Under my feet, I felt the engine of the boat rumble back into life and I burst back out onto the deck of the boat just in time to see my companion pull the trigger on an ornate revolver, aimed at a giant monster with six arms.
The monster fell back, leaking black blood into the water, uttering a hellish scream, and my companion re-took the helm.
