Blood Creek Witch Read online

  Jack made an exasperated sound, and marched a few feet away. He knocked on a door that Jenny hadn’t noticed several seconds ago. Three nails, dirty but still bright, projected part-way out of the door as points of an inverted triangle. The attached house seemed old-fashioned and boxy. Grime had accumulated on the windows, and weeds grew large along the walls, but otherwise the house appeared well-kept.

  Jessabelle gasped. “That house weren’t there a minute ago.”

  Jenny looked at Jessabelle and nodded. “It’s weird. It’s like it was there the whole time, but I couldn’t get myself to focus on it or notice it.” When Jenny turned toward the house again, she couldn’t see it. She focused on the area next to Jack, and after a few moments the house returned to plain sight. It was like looking at 3D stereograms. Once she knew what to look for, she could see the house, but until then her eyes slipped over it and her mind ignored it.

  Could a person do something like this? Could this work on something that didn’t stand still? While it wasn’t exactly invisibility, her mother would have loved the ability. There were many times in Jenny’s life she would have done anything to make herself magically unnoticed.

  Jessabelle stood. “I think I know…” she started, but then stopped and helped Jenny to her feet. Pain flared again, and Jenny clenched her teeth to fight it back. Jessabelle looked at Jenny’s back and said, “You might be bleeding from your shoulder again. That wound looks pretty bad.”

  “It hurts pretty bad.”

  “We’re gonna have to get Aunt Hattie. I don’t think you ought to be going any further like that.”

  “Aunt Hattie is a doctor, too?”

  “Not exactly. She is pretty good at fixin’ folks up, though.”

  Jack jiggled the door knob. “I don’t s’pose either of you know how to pick a lock?”

  Jessabelle said, “I’ll go ‘round back and see if I can’t find another way in. You stay here with Jenny.”

  The three nails driven halfway into the door transfixed Jenny’s attention. The longer she stared at them, the more she became aware of a faint electric blue glow around them. It flickered a bit, and could only be seen as a razor-thin nimbus of light around their edges. Was it her imagination, or did the bump on her head damage her vision? The glimmer didn’t appear over the door handle or anything else but the nails. She turned to Jack, about to ask if he could see it too, when the door opened. Jessabelle stood in the doorway, beckoning to them.

  Jack helped Jenny inside.

  Dim, smoke-colored light filtered into the house through the grimy windows. The room smelled of dust and mildew. A tattered couch sat against the opposite wall of the living room. Jessabelle made a face. “This place ain’t been dusted in years. Ain’t no place clean to set her down. I’ll go see if I can find any towels in the hall closet that ain’t dirty.”

  “What closet?” Jack asked. “Do you know this place?”

  “Sure do. It’s my grandmother’s place. Um, our grandmother’s place, I suppose. It’s been a long time since I was here. It seemed a lot bigger then. I reckon I was just a lot smaller.”

  Jenny’s heart pounded faster. “Grandmother Annabelle lived here? You stayed here with her?”

  “Sometimes, yeah. This is where our parents grew up. Hattie too. I’m going to go fetch some towels.” Jessabelle disappeared around a corner into the hall.

  While Jenny knew it was only her imagination, the room seemed to grow brighter. She imagined the old, boxy television on the stand turned on, with her family watching whatever was on television back in the 1970s and 1980s. Maybe they watched Bugs Bunny cartoons together. And they all ate at the tiny wooden table in the kitchen opposite the living room, over linoleum that might have been off-white when clean and lit.

  “You gonna be okay, Jenny?” Jack asked.

  “I think so. Once I get bandaged up and get some rest.”

  “I’m really sorry.”

  Jenny dusted off the couch with her uninjured arm, but it just filled the air with more dust—not the most hygienic environment for an open wound. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t know about that thing. We’ve got to give it a better name than not-a-giant. An ogre, maybe?”

  “That fits. I’m still sorry.”

  Jessabelle came back into the room, bearing towels. “The ones down the stack were in good shape. Good enough to give you a clean place to sit at least.” She draped the towels over the couch and helped Jenny sit down.

  Jack glanced out the door. “Coast still seems clear for now. Jessabelle, can you shoot a shotgun?”

  Jessabelle shrugged. “I don’t know. I never tried.”

  “I’ll leave it with you. You stay with Jenny.”

  Jessabelle put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Who put you in charge? No, you stay with Jenny. I can get there faster than you, without getting squashed by that thing.”

  “I know the woods better. And it’s my fault for suggesting this whole thing. I should go.”

  “You hoping to repent by getting yourself killt? No, you stay here with the shotgun. Jenny needs help soon, and we gotta get her out of here before dark, when that snallygaster starts hunting again. I’m fast.”

  “Not fast enough to outrun an ogre!”

  “Yes, I am.” Jessabelle looked at Jenny and back to Jack. “We ain’t got time to argue. I need to swear y’all to secrecy.”

  Jenny shifted uncomfortably. Her shoulder was already stuck to the towel draped over the back of the couch. “Secrecy about what?” she asked.

  “What you are about to see. Swear it!”

  Jenny glanced over at Jack. Jack shrugged and nodded. Jenny said, “Sure. I won’t say a word.”

  Jessabelle stood in the open front door. She looked over her shoulder at Jenny, and said, “I’ll be back with Hattie soon. I promise.”

  With that, she squatted over the threshold. Her body and clothing transformed into a great black cat in a fluid motion that took little more than a second. Her tail twitched as she sniffed at the air, and leaped out into the forest.

  Jenny would have fallen over if she wasn’t already slumped on the couch. Jack stood in the doorway, staring at where Jessabelle had vanished. Neither of them said anything for a long minute.

  “Well, ain’t that something?” Jack said as he closed the door.

  Sean gaped at the monster while it sat calmly, staring at the jagged, mountainous horizon. Evelyn motioned to Sean to join her. Every bit of survival instinct screamed at him to flee, but he drew closer. He tried to speak, but he couldn’t form words.

  “You may go ahead and speak now,” Evelyn said.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “I had to charm you both so that it’s safe. I’m sorry to do that to you, but while I was seizing control over the ogre, I couldn’t risk you interrupting me. Now we’re all perfectly safe.”

  “That thing is an ogre? How do you know?”

  “Yes. I’ve met one before.”

  Sean shook his head. “Met? Who are you? What are you? What did you do?”

  “I’m a witch. I charmed this beautiful monster so that he wouldn’t kill you. I believe one of the best ways to deal with an enemy is to make them your ally.” She smiled brightly at Sean. “How does it feel to be friends with a witch and an ogre, Sean?”

  The creature opened its mouth wide. Sean went cold with dread, staring into the snaggle-toothed maw, but realized it was only yawning. That didn’t comfort him much. “Um, I don’t really know.”

  “But this isn’t your first time dealing with strange people, is it?” She said, maintaining the sweet expression.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Rumor has it you’ve been all over the northern half of the state researching a ghost.” Her smile took on a menacing look, and he gulped. “I was out looking for you last night, you know. That’s why I picked you up.”

  His world seemed to swim. “How did you hear?”

  “I have my sources, sweet boy. I specialize in findin
g things. Including people. Sometimes dangerous people. I help convince them to come along peacefully.”

  “You control their minds? That sounds bad.”

  “It just saved your life, Sean. Be more respectful.”

  He exhaled deeply, suppressing a shudder. “I’m sorry. So you are a little bit like a witch bounty hunter?”

  Her smile became bright and cheerful again. “Yes. Yes, you could say that.” She tugged idly at the course hair on the sitting ogre’s head. It half-lidded its eyes, and made a cooing sound with breath that reeked of dead flesh.

  “So why were you looking for me?”

  “Because I wanted to ask for your help.”

  “That’s it? How can I help?”

  “Can you see ghosts?”

  Sean shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve seen only one that I know of.”

  “But you saw it clearly?”

  Clearly? He’d kissed her. They danced together. He’d obsessed over her for weeks. Weeks? He was still obsessed over her. He knew all too well that there was no way this story could have a happy ending, because half of it had ended in tragedy before he’d been born. But still he pursued it. When he thought about it, he didn’t think these were the actions of someone who saw anything clearly.

  “Clear enough,” he said.

  “Good. That’s what I need. That’s a weakness of mine, and I need someone clairvoyant enough to assist me. In return, I will assist you in finding whatever it is you are looking for.”

  He hesitated. He’d read enough folklore to know that in the old stories, making a deal with a witch or similar supernatural creature rarely led to anything good. Evelyn was a real woman from southern California who drove an SUV and had cold cereal and milk in her house. This was just an agreement between real people. The folklore was cautionary tales for superstitious people. They were just stories.

  But then, witches, ogres, and ghosts were only supposed to be stories, too.

  “I suppose I could help you out,” he said. Was his hedging obvious? “When would we do it?”

  “Tonight, if…” She glanced at the ogre, and absently stroked its shoulder. “Actually, we’d better plan on tomorrow night. I’ve got to find food and lodging for our new friend, here. That might take me a while.”

  “What are you going to do with him?”

  “I have friends that can take care of him eventually. For the short term, that’s another story. Anyway, take this.” She pulled a key off a key ring and handed it to Sean. “Here’s a key to the house. It’s late afternoon now. Whatever you do, return before dark. The ogre isn’t the only dangerous creature in these woods, and the other one hunts at night.”

  He nodded. She obviously meant the panther. It didn’t terrify him nearly as much as the ogre, but it remained a real threat. He imagined even chances that the cat was smashed and dead along the trail. If not, the animal should be fleeing to the next county by now. Animals were smarter than humans that way.

  Evelyn turned to ogre. “Okay, big boy, let’s see if we can find you a place to stay for the night.”

  The monstrous creature stood and shuffled along behind her. Even as he watched, Sean had trouble believing his eyes. Until a half-hour ago, the ghost of Debra Arnot had been the strangest thing to happen to him in his entire life. Suddenly it seemed mundane by comparison.

  He glanced back the way he’d come from the woods. After being chased and nearly killed by the ogre, he just wanted to go home and hide and sleep for days. But what was home? His old college apartment? A witch’s house? His father’s house? Another cheap motel room? None of them sounded appealing.

  The ogre’s heavy footsteps left an easy trail to follow. He’d heard gunshots. Were there more people up the mountain? Were they okay? Could they tell him where to find Granny Norton’s house? He was out of other ideas for finding Debbie’s ghost. He had little else to go on. If he could find her and talk to her one more time, then maybe he would know what to ask Evelyn for as her part of the bargain.

  He made his way back into the woods, following the ogre’s trail.

  Sean made it much farther before getting lost this time. He tried to retrace his steps, and succeeded only in getting lost in a different place. One might think it’d be easy to find something as big as a house, but Sean already knew how tricky it could be to find anything in the Appalachian Mountains, with or without the heavy woods.

  “I really suck at this,” he said out loud. His voice barely carried over the constant insect drone. His shirt stuck to his sweaty skin, making every sliver of sticker or dirt that found its way through the fabric scratch at him all the more. The sun was still a couple of hours away from sunset, even in the mountains. The potential relief of the coming darkness came with Evelyn’s warning. But would he be more likely to find Debbie’s ghost at night?

  “Debbie, if Annabelle really was your best friend, where did she live?” He didn’t expect an answer, and none came. He struck out in a new direction, vaguely in the direction he thought he’d come from, but a little higher. Fifteen minutes of struggle and growing frustration was finally rewarded when he stumbled upon a path.

  The game-trail was faint and seemed rarely used, but better than nothing. He opted to take it in the downward direction, as it was more likely to lead back toward town. Ten minutes later, he encountered two figures coming up the path.

  “Hello there!” he called.

  “You!” one of the figures said, a teen-aged girl with dark black hair.

  “Um, me?” Sean said.

  The other person, a middle-aged woman carrying a backpack, put her hand on the younger girl’s shoulder. “Hello young man! You are wandering around these woods awfully late. It’ll be dark soon. Do you need help?”

  “I’m trying to find a house up here.”

  “Nobody lives up here.”

  “I was told I could find the home that used to belong to Granny Norton and Annabelle Rose up this way.”

  That got a reaction from both of them. The girl looked angry and accusing as she stared at him. The older woman seemed more surprised. She spoke. “Nobody lives there anymore. I’m Annabelle’s daughter, Hattie Rose. And this is her granddaughter, Jessabelle. And who are you might you be?”

  “I’m Sean Williams. I’m a student… or I was a student… at UWV. Did Annabelle move? Where can I find her?”

  “She’s been gone for many years, Sean. Maybe I can help?”

  Jessabelle burst out. “Don’t trust him! He’s got some control over that monster that tried to kill us! It stopped and it sat down in front of him and that new lady!”

  Sean stood in stunned silence for several moments. His best effort at explanation came out as “Uh…” Hattie glanced between the two of them.

  Jessabelle added, more softly, “I saw him.”

  Hattie leveled her gaze at Sean. “I think that means we have a lot more to talk about, then. As a matter of fact, we’re heading to the house ourselves, but we won’t be staying long if we can help it. We need to be back in town before nightfall.”

  Sean nodded. “I know. There’s a panther or something prowling around here, if the ogre didn’t kill it.”

  Hattie glanced sideways at Jessabelle. “You say it was an ogre? Interesting. Well, I don’t reckon the ogre got that panther yet. But, I’d be interested in hearing your story. Were you the one that stopped it?”

  “No, ma’am. It wasn’t me.”

  “Then it was that lady that done it!” Jessabelle said.

  Hattie nodded. “Evelyn Rodriguez. Is she a witch, too?”

  Sean said nothing. ‘Too?’ How many witches lived in Maple Bend?

  Hattie continued. “Time’s a-wasting. Let’s take care of Jenny and get back home, and then there’ll be plenty of time for talking.”

  Jenny snored faintly. In spite of being worried for her, Jack thought that was funny. His mother snored, too, but those sounds were anything but faint. To him, old and overweight people snored, but not pretty girls. However, Jenny w
as injured and sitting with her head tilted over the back of the couch. Under the circumstances, he made allowances for her tiny little snores. They were kind of cute. He felt bad for thinking about cute snoring, because he knew she was in pain, but he couldn’t help it.

  He peered out the dirty window one more time for a sign of Jessabelle and Hattie. Doubt and anxiety nagged at him. His woods had become very dangerous in the last twenty-four hours. Or had they always been dangerous, and he’d spent the last five years convincing himself otherwise?

  Once upon a time, Jack had seen a giant. He had told everyone. Young and naive, he had believed he could protect his neighbors by warning them. Instead, they had laughed at him. The other kids at school had started calling him “Lyin’ Jack.” Even Sam Colton had called him that, behind his back. One day, Jack had overheard. He and Sam hadn’t really talked much after that. Until that moment, Jack had thought Sam might be the one person who believed him.

  Now Sam was dead, killed by another monster from the woods.

  Then Jessabelle, a girl he’d seen around almost his whole life, turned out to be a cat. Or could turn into a cat. He didn’t really know what that made her. At least folks acknowledged some general superstitions about her whole family. She might be dead now too, for all he knew.

  Yesterday, he’d gone into the woods wishing he could be far away from this stupid place, where everyone thought of him as a liar and a loser. Twenty-four hours later, he realized he’d never be able to return. Physically, Maple Bend might still be there, but his entire world had changed since he’d discovered this house.

  A knock at the door broke him out of his reverie. Jenny woke, blinking, as Jack opened the door. Hattie and Jessabelle stood in the doorway, with another young man around Jack’s age. He had light-brown hair, jeans that looked like he lived in them, hiking boots, and a clean shave. Jack stepped aside to let them in.

  Hattie took in the room with a quick gaze. “I see mama’s spell isn’t working on this house anymore. That was bound to happen sooner or later. Now Jenny, let’s see about getting you fixed up. We don’t got much time.” She knelt by the couch, and pulled out a Mason jar half-full of yellow-brown liquid and floaty bits. The young man stepped inside, scanning the house with obvious fascination. Jessabelle came in after him, glaring at him the whole time.