The Witch

The sky lit up for a moment when the lightning struck a huge tree standing next to the road. Tiana didn't even flinch from the sight or the sound of thunder that followed soon after. That was quite surprising as she was just 500m away from the tree and the sound was deafening. She didn't care. She was just happy to feel the rain on her skin. Her clothes were soaked but she could still feel dried blood on her skin even though it was long gone.

Tiana saw lights in the distance which meant she was approaching a village. The young woman felt her money bag next to her belt and hoped for an inn. The little town seemed friendly - some children were playing in the puddles and when they saw her, they stopped and waved. Tiana smiled and waved back. There indeed was an inn - it was called "Three Pigs". The town's people joked that it was named after three fat sons of the inn keeper lady who spoiled them as much as she could. She stepped inside and a little bell announced her entrance.

"Well, hello there, how may we be of service?" the inn keeper greeted her.

Tiana flexed her shoulders and neck a bit before answering with a question: "Do you have a room available for the night?"

"Of course" the inn keeper answered "But you'll have to pay now."

Tiana took out her money bag. "Not a problem." and paid the lady for the room and some food as well. 

The inn keeper counted the money twice before talking again. "Name's Myrtle, like the flower, if you'll be needing something, I'm here all night. Now let me show you your room."

They went upstairs and Myrtle showed her the room. Tiana thanked her and the inn keeper went to tell the cook to prepare dinner. "What a weird young person" Myrtle thought to herself while going down the stairs. She didn't ask for the name as it was not necessary (if you had money, you were welcome in Three Pigs no matter who you were). She thought that the guest looked like a young man, but the voice... it was tired for sure, but it sounded like a girl's. "But what would a girl be doing all alone at this time of night?" she thought to herself and stopped wondering about it.

Her trip was soon interrupted as a man ran into the inn and asked for a doctor. "Quickly! There is a man bleeding!" Two more men carried in the wounded person. He was missing an arm and was all covered in blood. They laid him on the table and the town's doctor who was finishing his second whiskey that night ran to him. He ripped his shirt and some more blood burst out like a small fountain.

"I need water!" he yelled to Myrtle. "Quickly!" he added as she ran to the kitchen to grab a bucket of water. But it did no good, as the man regained consciousness for one second and screamed "Witch!" and fell back again. The doctor checked the pulse, but it was gone. The inn keeper returned with the bucket of water but now it was just used to clean up the blood on the floors.

After some time she brought a meal up to Tania's door. She tried opening it, but surprisingly it was locked. Not many people who stayed at the inn locked their doors. She knocked and heard a grumpy "What?" from the other side.

"It's Myrtle, brought your meal!" she said. She heard boots stomping through the room and the door being unlocked. Tiana opened the door and Myrtle brought the food and drink and put it on the table. A sword, lying on the bed attracted her attention and she remembered the poor man who died.

"Thank you." said Tiana in a ruffed voice and Myrtle again thought she might be a girl. She decided to strike up a conversation.

"By the way, I didn't quite get your name."

"I didn't tell it."

"Well, might I know it?"

Tiana stood silent for a few seconds. She decided to tell the truth. "Tiana."

"Tiana? But that's a girl's name!"

"Yes, well I am a girl. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to eat now." she motioned towards the door.

"You know they brought in a man with his hand cut off." she saw Tiana stiffen up.

"Oh, really? What happened to him?" she asked trying to seem careless but she couldn't as the memories came flooding to her head again. Four men about to tie her up, approaching her... it was a good thing she woke up as she would have been a goner. One of them was already unbuckling his pants as he was approaching her. She cut off his hand first. Others attacked. She killed all of them. Well apparently, not all of them.

"He died downstairs on the table. He said a witch did it. Didn't you hear the screams?" Myrtle asked.

"I did, but I figured it was none of my business. Now if you excuse me, I'd like to eat my meal." Tiana said and shut the door in Myrtle's dace. She heard the lock click again.

"Hm, a witch..." Tiana thought to herself. "Well, if you could call my sword a wand, then I guess indeed I am a witch." She smiled and sat down to eat.

Myrtle went downstairs and went to the table which had the doctor and the men who brought in the poor guy in around.

"You're not going to believe it." she said. "There is a girl with a sword upstairs, she paid for the night and she arrived shortly before you did."

"What's a girl doing with a sword?" one of the men asked.

"Well maybe she's the witch." the doctor said.

One of the men put down his cup, stood up and pointed to the stairs: "Well, let's go and ask her then!"

They ran upstairs and knocked on the door. Tiana again asked "What?" before opening it.

"We'd like to ask a few questions if you may." the doctor said and one of the men punched his arm.

"What are you doing?" he whispered. "She might be a witch."

"Well, you can ask them through the door." Tiana's voice could be heard.

"We'd like to see the person we're talking to."

Tiana went up and opened the door. The men came into her room. "Well?" she asked. "What would you like to talk about?"

"Where does a girl get a sword?" one of the men asked.

"I'm just carrying it for my husband she answered, he's waiting for me in the next city." she lied hoping they would get off her back.

"Oh, really?" the man who brought in the wounded person said. "Where are you traveling from?"

"Aerdath."

"So you had to take the path through the woods?"

"Yes."

"Did you happen to see a murder happening there?"

"A murder? No, I didn't see anything of that sort." Tiana kept a straight face.

"I think you're lying."

"I am not."

The men stared at her. "We will have the priests figure you out." one of them said before leaving the room.

"I'll be right here." Tiana sat back and continued eating.

The men went downstairs and started plotting against the girl. They decided that the best time to strike is early morning as that would be the time when witch's powers would be the weakest.

In the mean time Tiana locked her door and decided to sleep before she would have to run again.

Early morning came and people gathered next to the inn as rumour spread there was a witch inside. A priest showed up as well, ready to condemn the sinner and the men ran upstairs to get the girl. They kicked the door, but it didn't give in. Tiana woke up from the kicking and quickly gathered her things. As soon as she was done, the door gave in and the men flooded the room, trying to grab her. Tiana took out her sword and yelled "Stand back!" to which men laughed and continue approaching her. One of them grabbed her shoulder and he soon lost the whole arm. He started screaming and the whole bunch stood speechless for a second before beginning to attack her even more vigorously.

Tiana did circles with her sword and jumped from one foot to the other. Her craft was amazing and if it was a fight for show, many would have stood in awe. But they were here not to admire, but to capture her and give her to the priest who would perform as the court of God. Blood was flowing and Tiana was slowly approaching the window. Men laughed as they thought that they have cornered her. Tiana did a few half circles with her sword  to distract people by wounding them and before anyone noticed she put the sword behind her and climbed through the window on top of the roof. The people watching from the ground started shouting and whispering and throwing whatever they could at her, but it was no use. Tiana was running through rooftops as if she was flying and that prompted many people start chanting "Witch! Witch! Witch!". She ran out from the village into the woods, hearing that men were going after her with horses. She ran into the woods and instead taking the path, she climbed the closest tree and after jumping a few branches to climb the trees deeper in the forest decided to stop and wait for her followers to retreat.

She heard the panting of horses and men shouting but they couldn't find her. She was close to the top of the trees, so she looked at the horizon. The rain was traveling South and she could see a rainbow in the sky. She put her head down again.

"She probably made a deal with the devil and went underground!" one of the men shouted.

"Lousy witch. Well at least she'll never go to Heaven."

"Yeah, let's go back. She's been lucky this time."

She heard the horses go back and she laughed to herself. She decided to continue going through the trees and not the path for a while, so that nobody would see her. She still had some money, but it didn't seem it would rain soon, so that meant she could stay off villages for a while. That was a good thing. Tiana didn't like explaining herself, why she traveled and lived like that. It wasn't the first time she was called witch as well. But these little incidents amused her as well sometimes.

"Sure..." she thought while climbing down the tree and stepping on the path. "A young woman in control of her life must surely be a witch." Tiana smiled and started whistling.

Locks are for a reason

"It's locked!" Marie whisper screamed.

"No way." Kip said to her. "We came all this way, it can't be just locked."

"D'uh, of course it can be locked. You come to an abandoned prison and you think every door will be just open as you wish?"

"Well...yes."

"Think again. I guess we'll just have to go to other rooms, or..." Marie knelt down to the door. "Hold my flashlight."

"What are you doing?" Kip asked.

"What does it look like? I'm trying to pick the lock."

"Have you ever done it before?"

"No." the door lock clicked. "But I guess I have beginner's luck."

The doors opened. What they saw was an operating room. It was full of tools, as if nobody ever cleaned this room, as if everybody just dropped what they were doing and ran. Some of the instruments had dried blood on it.

"Well. This explains why it was locked." said Marie while looking around.

"Yeah, but this is exactly why we came here, now isn't it?" Kip said with a small smile.

He shined on the table. It was messy, instruments were on the ground and on it, they were rusty and old.

"Do you think I could take something as a souvenir?" he asked.

"Gore just attracts you like a magnet, doesn't it?" Marie asked.

"Yeah..." Kip said and lifted a scalpel.

"Ew, don't touch it, it might be infected or something." Marie said. "If you want a souvenir, better take this."

"What is it?"

"Looks like a doctor's ID or something."

"Cool. What do you think happened that they all just ran away from?"

"Dunno, alien attack?" Marie asked with a smile.

"Yeah suuuure. Hey, what's there?" Kip shined a light to the end of the room. There was a little door and it was a little ajar.

"Well, if it's ajar, it's open for everybody. Let's go see." Marie said and marched towards the door.

She opened it. What she saw completely took her aback. Her face became pale as if somebody changed it with a wand. Kip went closer to see what scared her so much. He started swearing when he saw was inside. Probably there was a cult formed between the surgeons or some bloody games were happening among them as there was a pentagram drawn out of what appeared to be already old and dried blood, there were candles all around the place. There was a skull in the middle of the pentagram. Kip went inside, careful not to step on the blood. The room was not big, but what caught his attention after he got used to the amount of blood on the floor was a huge crack on the wall opposite to the door. He went close to it and traced his fingers over the crack.

"That's weird." he said.

"No shit, there's a skull in the middle of the pentagram made out of blood!"

"Yeah, but the crack. It's hot."

"What? How can it be hot? Even if there is a heater behind it, nothing works here anymore."

"Well, that's why I'm saying that it's weird."

"Ok, dude, I think it's time for us to go go. It's not some dice game anymore."

"No....it's much more interesting than that" Kip said while tracing the wall. "Maybe they opened some kind of portal and that's why they all ran away."

"But how come they didn't see this sooner?" Marie asked.

"I don't know. But I ain't leaving without pictures." Kip took out his mobile phone and photographed various details of the room.

"Shit, Kip, I think I hear somebody coming here." Marie said.

"It's probably the guard. Let's go!" he put his phone into the pocket and they started running.

"Hey, who's there?!" the guard shouted, but he couldn't see them, he just heard their steps.

They ran out and didn't stop until they reached the city. They went to their place where they checked the pictures before sleep. It seemed like screenshots from a horror movie set. They had a beer to celebrate their good night and went to sleep.

The next morning Marie woke him up.

"Kip, Kip! Wake up, they're showing the prison on the news!"

Kip bolted awake. There was a news reporter standing next to a sad looking man who apparently was the guard they outran last night. He was saying that happens sometimes, that people break into the prison, but they couldn't believe they found a closed off room. The news crew showed the room they were standing last night. They blamed it all on them, that they showed up and trashed the place at first, but then the forensics team told the blood and the skull was at least ten years old. The news reporter said the police is on the case right now and that probably some cult was being followed in the prison, probably among surgeons, that's why the room was next to the operating room.

"You can follow our story at our website, where you will also find the photographs and further interviews."

"Isn't that cool?" Marie said.

"Something was odd in the room they showed. Can you give me my laptop?"

"Sure." She brought his laptop to his bed. He went to the news website, found the article and clicked on pictures. He found the one where the whole room was photographed. He took out his phone and found a photo shot from a similar angle. He put those two together. He kept looking to the phone and back to laptop comparing them.

"Is something wrong?" Marie asked.

"The crack."

"What about it?"

Kip turned the laptop and the phone towards Marie so that she could see both of the pictures. "It's gone."

"But how can that be?" Marie compared the pictures. The crack was indeed gone.

"I don't know. But hopefully we didn't release the thing that scared off all the surgeons."

"Yeah, hopefully." Marie agreed.

At the same time, the person, who we saw as the guard at the news was changing his clothes in his work room. He buttoned up a nice suit he found in the closet and put on a tie. At last he looked in the mirror and smiled.

"It's good to be back."