The Coven

Chapter 1

God damn trees everywhere! Not a lick of sunshine, not a piece of building and not another car in site. Welcome to semi almost middle America where people live in forests, apparently, and have no cell reception for miles.

In Lilly’s case, the no cell phone reception was a huge problem at this point. It had been raining for several days in the state of Massachusetts and her car had hit one of the muddy spots in the road and was now stuck. For almost an hour she had been trying to find some bars to call, simply giving up waiting and hoping someone would drive by.

Unlikely. She was in the middle of a forest going to Willow Creek, a small settlers town in the middle of the woods, forty-five minutes from the nearest town, two hours from the nearest city. She lived in Boston, wonderful, populated, rich in history Boston.

She had grown up in Boston, living with her dad and step mother, actually Betty was more like her actual mother as she had never known her real one. She left her husband and child shortly after Lilly’s birth, running away back to her hometown.

Lilly’s dad had never gone after her, he just continued living his life and eventually remarried and had two more children with his lovely new wife. And where did that leave his first born child? Well she finally had a family with a mother who loved and cared for her, held her when the kids at school were mean to her, helped her through becoming a woman, talked to her about what happens when you are a woman, and comforted her when the boys broke her heart.

Betty Neace was the only mother Lilly had ever had, and the only mother she would ever love. Not the woman who carried her for nine months, not the woman who gave birth to her.

Though that woman is the reason why she was stuck on a muddy road in the middle of the Massachusetts forest. Norah Neace, also known as Norah Essex as the letter informed her, had passed away about a week ago and her friends and family in Willow Creek had contacted her daughter and ex-husband informing them of their loss.

Lilly felt little for the woman, yes it was sad she had died at the age of thirty-seven and left behind nothing but a small store and some friends, but this woman had abandoned her when she was a baby and now she was expected to say goodbye.

It was her dad’s idea to go to Willow Creek, he told her she needed to know more about where her mother came from, meet the other members of the family and have a base in her mother’s life.

For days they fought about it, she did not want to go but he insisted. Norah had no one in her life and everything was left to her only child, and it was only fair that if this woman was leaving her everything that she should go and see her, say hello and then a quick goodbye before she was put in the ground and all the dirt poured on top of her.

And look where that landed her. In the middle of nowhere, stuck, waiting for some townie creeper to pop out of the bushes with a machete and a hockey mask there either to kill her or to bring her back to his underground layer where she would bare his murderous children so they may continue his legacy.

She really needed to stop watching horror films, she thought as she walked back to her car. The late 90’s convertible Mercedes matched the scenery around her in its light green colour. Everything around her was green and brown, though some of the leaves were changing to fall. It was the beginning of August now, soon this whole area would be a colour mass of fall leaves.

The sun went away again, not coming out from behind the thick and creepy dark clouds ahead. Lilly sighed and looked down the winding path, her only option at this point would be to start walking, though if rain was about to fall and night was going to come faster than normal she may end up getting lost in the woods.

But she couldn’t wait by her car, what if no one travelled down this road? What if she had taken a wrong turn somewhere and she was on some sort of unknown road leading off a cliff and she was going to die waiting for rescue? Unlikely as that was, her dad would have the state police, coast guard, army and probably the president out there looking for her the moment he knew something was off.