First day of @torque-witch #witchtober2024 has completed. My prompt is a little late as I got busy last night but I will be trying to do a short story for each, which I will put under a read more.
So without further ado
Day 1: Witch of The Woods
She knew this day would come. She’d prepared for it for a decade. Ensuring she had the spell correctly crafted and mastered before the fateful moment that would change a young girl's life forever.
Every fairy tale came to this point. A nasty witch living in the woods all alone. Casting spells and brewing tinctures from the land she tended, with the help of the Green Mother. Only those foolish enough, or desperate enough, for however different those two were, would ever visit her. They would wander down the ner traveled path that they had been told by their Nona’s or Grans to avoid at all costs. Get lost in the woods for what seems like days, and just when all hope is lost; when they are at the end of their rope and are close to giving up, there it stands.
A cobble and wood “hut” standing almost picturesque in the middle of the forest. Except they know, this magical abode housed a sinister being. They’ve been told so since they were old enough to understand good and evil. So why would they choose to travel to such a place? Maybe they were wrong to come here. Maybe their life wasn’t as messed up and fallen to pieces. It was all in their head. And if they headed back now they could continue with their life as they always had. Regretting knowing they could have changed it, for better or for worse, and not knowing which would truly be better.
And just as they gain the confidence to go back to whatever cruel and disastrous life they left on the other side of the woods, something calls out to them. A tug, on their soul, telling them to step closer to the house. One foot. And then the other. Raise your arm. And. Knock.
She’d gotten used to the routine. Though it didn’t happen too often. In fact she looked forward to the company. The human company that is. A life alone in the woods can tend to make the mind go a little mad. She’d even decided early on she would ease every soul that came to her. Greet them with a smile, initiate as much small talk as possible. Sometimes she would even learn the things that were going on in the old city she once called her home. Although much of the news she already knew.
Her visitors however always seemed keen on leaving as quickly as they came. So she tried to make it as painless as possible. Hear out their needs, Love affairs, ill children, lost jobs. It was always the same. She would cast a spell, or conjure a charm or two and on their way back through they would rush. She would watch every time staring down through the densely packed woods.
Today; however, was different. She knew this day was coming as if it had been divined. She had been waiting for this specific visitor for 10 years. And when the four small knocks resounded through her home she felt a wave of relief marinated in the bitter-sweet anguish that was a decade of perfecting a witches craft work just for Her.
She exhaled slowly, this was the first time she’d ever gotten cold feet on this side of the door. But like the tug on the souls of those who approached her home, she too felt a pull to answer. And so she did. Hands steady and posture welcoming she opened her gnarled wooden door looking into the face of a young girl, no older than 16. The witch knew her face well.
The girl attempted to speak, only able to get out a few soft spoken stammers and half words.
“Worry not my child,” the witch assured her. “I know why you have come.”
“You do?” the girl replied with wonder in her eyes. She’d heard the stories of witches, with their divinations, and the powers of the dark.
“Of course. Please come in and have a seat. We have terms to discuss.” The witch led the girl to a comfortable chair upholstered with old scraps of fabrics, all mish-mashed in flowers and stars of various colors. The girl sat with nerves apparent, but showing no signs of fear. After all she had been through, she didn’t think she could fear ever again.
The witch set a pot to boil before taking a seat of her own in front of the girl and began. “Your life has been. Well, some would call it interesting. Mishaps and unfortunate events from a young age. The loss of the lives of those around you. Disasters in homes you set foot in,” The girl looked away at this claim. “Worry not, my home is protected. Shadows watch you, and no one will so much as speak to you any more. Is all of this correct?” The girl nodded her head. “You have just recently discovered that your Uncle, the Duke, through trickery and loopholes, sold your soul at infancy for a deal with the devil, a deal that took the life of your parents. And now that he is about to secure control of the entire town, he chose not to care for you knowing you are no longer a necessity and cast you off into the woods to die.”
The girl’s eyes were wide. How did a stranger know so much about her life? She wanted to respond, and affirm all these claims. To plead with the witch to show her how to be cured of her curse, who she should be. How to get back at the man who ruined her life. But as she took a breath to begin her pleading she felt her head spin. The room filled with a pleasant herbal scent, the girl slumped back into her chair.
“Worry not. I will grant you everything you need to protect yourself from the malice of the devil himself. You will learn the crafts of a witch and how to help those in need instead of hurting them. And you will get your revenge on that man,” The witch looked at the girl with compassion and understanding before letting out under her breath “sooner than you would imagine.”
“Now do not fight the urge to sleep. When you wake, your training will begin. I am sorry I cannot stay with you, and thus you will wake alone. But you will find everything you need to begin learning in this house. When the time is right you will figure out the most important spell you will ever learn. Master it as if your life depended on it, and in ten years, another will approach you for help. Do your best, I know you will be brilliant.” A tear began to form in the witch's eyes.
As the young girl’s eyes faded into slumber she finally let out the words she needed the most. “How do you know?”
The witch of the woods smiled at her lovingly. “Because. I was you.” and at that the girl was asleep.
The witch let out a soft sign, stood up and placed a blanket over the girl, etched with sigils and laced with all manner of herb and vine. She performed a short enchantment before stepping away grabbing a large tome and her cloak. She swiftly exited her home, and as she shut it she whispered “I’ll be back, I have something I need to attend to. Watch over her journey,” and began her trek back into the woods.
