Page 72 of The Neighborhood Witch

Johanna satin her high-back chair looking out her living room window. The drab and dreary gray December sky blotted out the setting sun. A light blanket of fresh snow on the ground covered the slumbering yellowish grass beneath. Desolate trees lined the street. A few cars passed by the window. She sipped her cup of tea. Her eyes always kept a watchful vigilance over her neighborhood street, as was her daily ritual. She glanced up and down the street, but hereyes focused on the real threat. The black door of the purple house across the street.

She took another sip of her steaming Earl Grey tea.

There was motion. The black door opened. Johanna set the tea cup down in the saucer dish she held with her other hand. She placed them both on the stand next to the window. She sat up straight with her eyes focused. They widened as Alice emerged from the door and jogged down the steps. Alice continued across the street. Alice held a small, red box in her hands. Johanna held her breath. Alice continued past her parked, black SUV.

This is it, Johanna thought as she stood up and pulled the curtains shut. She hurried over to the display table that held her dark tools, the ones that would help her exact her revenge.

Josiah Newes pushedhis way through the crowd. He tried desperately to save his daughter bound and tied to the tree.

“Please. Please stop this,” Johanna cried out. “I’m not a witch.” She screamed. Her body went limp, head buried into her chest. Only the ropes kept her body upright.

“Behold,” Thaddeus proclaimed. He removed his oversized tricorn hat, lifting it high into the air. “The amulet of witch’s fire claims yet another witch!”

The crowd erupted in cheers of jubilation.

Josiah pushed further toward the center. “No! No! Not my daughter,” he yelled as he finally broke free of the crowd. “Not my Johanna. She’s no witch.”

He rushed to her side. He removed the restraints, catching her limp body as it fell into his arms. He was an older gentleman, not particularly muscular, but he was able to lift her body and carry it. The crowd hissed and booed as he picked up her lifeless body.

“My friends. My friends. Our deed is done,” Thaddeus yelled to silence the crowd. He turned his attention to Josiah. He smiled awicked grin. “Besides, we are not mad barbarians. Let him take her to give her a proper burial.”

Josiah carried her body to a horse-drawn cart. He struggled to place her onto the back of the cart. His grip nearly slipped. He lifted his knee to help push her lifeless body as it rolled onto the wooden platform. Josiah ran to the front, climbed aboard, and whipped the horse to ride off. Thaddeus smiled and placed his hat back on his head.

The horse pulled the cart as fast as it could. Josiah jostled with every rut and bump in the road. He whipped the reins, begging the horse to run faster. It felt like an eternity. The road went on and on with no end. He glanced back to Johanna’s lifeless body. It rocked back and forth. Faster and faster, they went down the path until they arrived at a walking path hidden off the main road.

Josiah pulled back on the reins; the cart struggled to come to a full stop without wanting to plow through the horse. He leapt down from the seat and grabbed Johanna’s body. He ran with her down the dirt walking path. Deeper and deeper, he ventured into the woods. Her body was heavy. The amulet waved around her neck. His grip slipped as he stumbled over tree roots. He nearly fell, but he was able to hold himself upright. His lungs burned. He wanted to stop, but he kept going deeper into the woods.

There was a cabin in a clearing of the woods. He ran up to the door and kicked it. He waited. It opened outward. Standing in the doorway was an elderly woman. She wore a black dress covered in dirt. Her gray, curly hair was matted and tangled in knots. Her face was unwashed. Her skin was old and leathery from working the fields in too much sun.

“What happened?” she asked in a panic.

“They burned my daughter,” Josiah replied as he carried Johanna’s body into the cabin.

“Set her on the table. Quickly!” the old woman exclaimed. She rushed to a shelf of bottles and jars, grabbing a few in a hurried pace. “How long ago?”

“Not long.”

“She’s dying. We don’t have much time.” She went to her fireplace. A black cauldron of bubbling water hung above the fire. She removed the cauldron and handed it to Josiah. “Empty this outside. I need to start fresh.”

He rushed to the door and dumped the contents onto the ground. He brought the cauldron back. She hovered over Johanna’s body. She worked to remove her black petticoat. Each button resisted. She pulled and tugged before all eight buttons were undone. The white undershirt was now fully exposed with a black, charred burn mark.

Josiah covered his mouth to prevent himself from throwing up. Tears gathered in his eyes. “What have they done to my daughter?”

The woman tore at the undershirt. A similar black burn mark festered out in spiderweb like patterns across Johanna’s chest. Their black veins grew and clawed their way outward across her breasts right before their eyes.

“We might be too late,” she said. “I don’t have enough time to make a potion.”

“Please, Willow,” Josiah begged through his tears. “She’s all I have left. Please. We have to try something. I can’t lose her. I can’t lose anyone else.”

Willow examined the amulet of witch’s fire. Her fingers ran over the ridges of the jewels. She touched Johanna’s face. She nodded to Josiah. “I can try something. It’s not perfect. I can use magick on the device that did this to bring her back. But if I do this, she’ll forever be tied to the fate of this amulet. As long as this amulet exists, so will she.”

“Do it,” Josiah said. A solitary tear flowed down his face. “Anything to bring her back. She’s all I have. Please.”

Willow pulled out a leatherbound grimoire. She flipped through the pages until she found the needed entry. She held the amulet of witch’s fire with her right hand. She placed her left hand over Johann’s heart and recited an incantation. The language and words were foreign to Josiah. The spiderweb mark slowly retreated into theblack mark until both disappeared. As she finished, Johanna sprang up and gasped for air.

The memoryof the gasp jolted Johanna back to reality. She wanted the satisfaction of finishingthatmemory, but it was for another time. She prepared herself for what was to come. Johanna turned the brass key in the center leaf. The locks clicked. Johanna double tapped her pinned cloak clasp before opening the left drawer. She withdrew the black, twisted wand held within.

There was a knock at the door.

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