Writetober 2019 Collection

Day 13: Wacky Witches

There is one thing you must understand, magic is real. All myths, legends, mysteries, cryptids, the whole lot are real and in our world. Just not in the way you would think. I believe it was Robert A. Wilson who once said," All phenomena are real in some sense, unreal in some sense, meaningless in some sense, real and meaningless in some sense, unreal and meaningless in some sense, and real and unreal and meaningless in some sense." This is the story of how I found out the truth, that gods and monsters, witches and devils are real.

I suppose it all started one autumn evening as I was walking along with a friend of mine. She and I were deep in a conversation of some kind or another and the time finally came that she had to go home. She said good-bye and went her own way. That's when all heck broke loose. I started off towards home and decided to take a shortcut through a graveyard.

As I walked along in the gloom and mist, I thought I heard cackling. I, being the foolish young man that I am, decided to investigate. I followed the sound of the haggard laughs and talking until I came upon several shapes dancing and chanting around a large black cauldron atop a blazing fire. In the cauldron I could see that there seemed to be a strange mist, all full of colors and swirling, much like you would imagine a portal to be. As I crept closer I did my best to stay hidden.

As the last twilight of the day faded the surface of the cauldron started to move uncontrollably until the surface exploded and the shape of what could only be described as a devil from the very pits of Tartarus seemed to appear. At that I was startled and took a step back, causing a branch behind me to snap. The hunched figures spun around and looked right at me. Now that they were facing toward me I could see the details of their faces which were just as you'd imagine a witch from a fairy tale to look like, all green with moles all over their faces with hooked noses. The demon-like shape roared something that I could not understand and the witches came toward me.

I was nearly paralyzed with fear, scared out of my wits because of what I had stumbled upon. Then, as the disgusting hags were nearly upon me, I heard a trumpet horn blow in the distance. Out of no-where, there came half a dozen people in hoods seemingly melting out from the shadows, with swords and bows and all manner of seemingly primitive weapons. They quickly leaped into action and quickly incapacitated the witches. Soon they were around the cauldron and the demon. As they gathered around I could see that the daemon was becoming quite agitated. One of them pulled from their neck a pendant with a crystal that seemed to be made of pure light.

The person held the pendant to the shadowy form and said: "in the name of all that is good and light in the world, I banish you back to the realm of darkness from whence you came." The form shuddered and then seemed to look right at me, its dark face seeming to penetrate my soul. At that moment I heard a voice in my head saying," You have not seen the last of me, the darkness will rise and mankind will be destroyed. There will be a curse and none but the chosen shall break it!" And just like that, the monster disappeared with a mighty roar.

Now that the beast was gone all the attention was on me. The figure who had used the pendant came toward me. In the light from the pendant, I could see that it was a girl. She was pretty, with brown eyes the color of chocolate, black hair that seemed to flow around her, and the sweetest looking face you ever could see. Then she punched me and my world went black.