Andy Crow's Fantastical Summer

The Witch of Fairton Hill (Part 1)

A DWELLING WHOSE LOCATION had been protected by a spell of concealment, Fairton Hill was then invisible, intangible, and unplottable from those who had the blood of a witch unless permitted by its inhabitant.

For five years, no one with witch blood ever set foot on the hill. Only the Outlander and his eccentric companions ever made it this far.

The hill was green from outside the barrier—freshly mown grass made the air heavy, sickly sweet. But looking past it, Fairton was as good as dead like a dried-out land, deprived of rain for tears to quench its thirst.

Andy, Hex, and Chip clambered up the cracked earth of the balding hill, their feet crunching over the crisp, brown grass (the only sign apart from the mansion that once there had been life). Ernie, the drake, reduced himself to his average size and was left standing at the base of the hill in case of an emergency escape.

It wouldn't be long until the village guards alerted the Chief of an unknown group approaching the hill, said Hex as he led them up the slope. A giant drake flying over Hearthstone's sky had surely caught not only a pair of eyes but a dozen or more so.

"Well, the better we have some reinforcements coming," said Andy, shivering. It was as if they had entered a different dimension. The once beautiful cerulean sky and clear, bright day were shrouded with the ominous black cloud the village residents feared. There was a dark void in the center, emitting a sound that could either be a giant's rumbling or howling as if an unknown monstrous entity was hiding, waiting for whoever might be sucked in there. And a flash of lightning appeared here and there, their sounds drowned by the unseen source of the howl.

The mansion was shrouded in a pale mist that leaked from its cracked panels and splintered beams. With every cloud of swirling vapor, the house seemed to be breathing deeply, like a dragon with smoking nostrils. Outside, clumps of rotten leaves clung to the house's base, and a few clawed hands scraped out of the dirt and up the wall.

As they approached the house, the old musty smell of the house constricted their air passage like a strangling wraith. The floorboards creaked as they stepped on the front steps. With every step, it seemed like the creakings were getting louder.

Andy rapped a hand around the dusty door handle and slowly pulled open the unlocked door. The inside looked like one straight from a horror movie. Cobwebs lingered in every way, and antique furniture layered with dust sat perfectly arranged in the living room. Cautiously, they walked further into the house to explore. With every heavy step and pressure on the floorboards, it felt like the house would collapse on them.

They made their way into the kitchen. An old wooden table sat in the corner, along with matching chairs. Water dripped out of the faucet in the corner. Andy opened a cabinet big enough to fit a child inside, hoping to find Elsie, but there were only more cobwebs. Anxious to get to Elsie as fast as possible, the three exited the kitchen but stopped dead in their tracks. Andy's heartbeat increased as he intently listened to a hard pounding noise that appeared to be getting louder by the second.

Bang! Bang! Bang! He and Chip crouched behind a nearby staircase. Meanwhile, Hex never seemed fazed, wending his way to the stairs in a fashionable gait. He paused for mere seconds to throw the two a pointed look before continuing upwards. The two shared glances before following through.

The windows upstairs were covered with large, black curtains which flapped along as the gust of wind rushed through the windows. All the walls were covered with cobwebs. The floor creaked under their feet. That corridor had even more doors that led to unknown rooms, and they started to hear a voice—or were those voices? Someone was hurrying inside the door at the farthest end of the hall.

Andy was shocked and shivered with frightfulness. "Elsie?" he whispered, and his voice rippled in the silence.

Quiet! Hex hissed.

But Andy wasn't listening. His footsteps were as light as air as he inched closer to peek inside the room. The hushed yet frantic whispers he heard when they were ascending the stairs were now louder and clearer, coming from inside. But he could not make sense of every word as it appeared that the person was speaking in some other language he had never heard of.

He peered inside the room, which reeked rotten eggs and dead rats. Andy's eyes watered, and his insides burned, clawing their way out.

The room's interior seemed to be out of place with its bricked walls that hosted many strange objects. And the longer he stared at them, the more anxious he felt.

The billion-fold hiss of water came from a rusty black cauldron suspended over a fire. It bubbled slowly, leaving the most infernal and rancid vapors—bits of frog legs, bat wings, and eyes of newts scattered all over the floor.

Andy was barely aware of the presence of Hex and Chip as they joined him to peer at the small gap between the door and its frame.

Fear turned to horror as he found the source of the murmur in the distance. She was hideous in appearance. Her hair was lank and lusterless, falling around her face like strings of rotting straw. Her lupine eyes, savage and cunning, only came to life when she muttered certain arcane words from a spell. Her wheezy, cackling voice rose higher and higher as she neared the end of her incantation.

And then, from the old witch, Andy's tearful gaze transfixed upon the object levitating just to the hag's right. Elsie was sleeping so soundly with an ever peaceful face like a baby being lulled by her mother. She was encased in a sphere, floating in the air, and was starry, transparent, making it look somewhere between a glittering cage and tank.

Chip almost ran inside, but Hex managed to stop him with all his might. Andy bit his lip to suppress the urge to cry. However, a tiny sniff escaped from his already pinkish nose. That one tiny sound made the woman stop all her actions, and it was their cue to run into one of the rooms as the old, evil hag waddled towards the door after a suitably spooky pause.