A Soul to Take

A SOUL TO TAKE

By Lisa Batchelor

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. The air is crisp and fresh. I love to watch the leaves fall from the trees. This time of year has my favorite holiday: Halloween.

I live in an old 180’s house. I have no neighbors, a very secluded area. There is a lonely dirt road to get to my home. Needless to say, I have never had trick or treaters here. That is okay though. I make my own Halloween.

The house and yard are decorated to the max. I also have a yearly costume contest for adults who are brave enough to attend. Everyone loves to come so that they can see the latest addition to my decorated house and yard. I plan for this year to be one of the best years yet.

What no one knows is that my family goes as far back as the colonial days. I have heard many family stories about the witch trials. My family was part of those horrible days of witch trials where we were murdered. Yes, you guessed it. I am a witch and so were all the women in my family. It is not something that anyone knows, and I will never tell. My pet is a very loved solid black Persian cat. Willow is my loyal companion and protector. She is my familiar. She sees and hears all that happens around me. She gives me energy and calms me.

For each Halloween season, I always start my outside decorating with pumpkins. I do not just go and buy them on the side of the road or in a store. No, no. I love to go to the pumpkin patch and find the perfect pumpkins that I will carve myself and surround my home. The pumpkins must be perfect for their evil faces that I will carve into them and then light them. My pumpkin flames never die until I am ready for the flames to extinguish. Part of the wonderful art of magic.

I spent many nights carving my pumpkins. There are about fifty pumpkins in all. The scarier their faces the better. They just look so evil when they are lit up for all to see. You may think that fifty pumpkins would take forever to carve but they do not since I have nothing else to occupy my time other than spells and forecasting futures.

 I have my own business as a fortune teller and healer. No one realizes that I know what is coming for them. Being a witch has its advantages. Always knowing what is coming and being able to heal as well. I hate to say that I have put curses on a number of my enemies too. Those are fun. People are clueless about what is happening to them, but I do. Pays to not make me mad. I have started doing less and less healing and leaning toward the darker side of my craft in order to keep my powers strong.

I love decorating the outside as well as the inside. You already know about pumpkins but there is so much more. I acquired a nine-foot air inflated skeleton that glowed in the dark last season and will be used again this year. Very eerie looking when you come up my 2-mile driveway and are greeted with the skeleton. You just do not know what else you are going to encounter on their journey.

Around the exterior of the house, I have a cemetery filled with headstones. No one realizes that these stones came from some incredibly old cemeteries. I have moved them to my home over many years. I am 90 years old and have the appearance of a 20-year-old woman. That is the power of being a witch and a curse put upon me.

The headstones are placed in several areas to portray vast cemeteries. There is a natural fog over the entire cemetery. Very scary and amusing to me to see the reactions that people have when they come within site of the yard and house. I just love to see the look of horror on all their faces. Makes for such a good night at the costume party.

           There are ghosts floating around the yard as well. The actual bones are from their real graves The ghosts have their bones buried beneath their headstones and are real. No one knows that these are very real spirits that I called to appear each year. If I were a normal person, I would be terrified to get out of the car. I am sure that I have had a few potential guests tuck their tail and run in the other direction. I let the spirits act as they want. I only ask them not to hurt one of the spectators, at least until the costume party is over. Just one of my many spells that I am able to cast for the season.

The inside of my house is also decorated for the occasion. I always make sure that my spell room is locked so that none of the nosey guests can enter. I have my book of spells as well as many potions. That is all I need for my secret to get out. I remember from my ancestors, from the past, what happens to witches. We may not be hung or drowned, on burned on pyres anymore, but there are so many other ways to kill our spirit.

My downstairs is decorated as an eerie castle. I have vampires, witches, and other horror characters all around. The lighting is of a red and green hue depending on which monster is on display. I have called all my scary friends who willingly come and pretend to be fake. They love the chance to scare people and take one or more victims later in the night.

Dracula has his coffin that he stays in during the day. He comes out at night for our party. My werewolf friend is the hardest to control at the party. He always ends up turning at least several people into werewolves during the party. He just cannot be controlled when he changes into a beast. I should not invite him to the future but cannot seem to refuse him his delights. Several of my witch friends also join us for the night. They have their cauldrons and potions for their spells that they cast onto the unsuspecting guests. I find this very amusing and let them do their bidding. As long as I get what I need by the end of the night, to each their own as far as I am concerned.

At dark, the guests start arriving. The costumes are great this year. The costumes have gotten better and better over the years. People look like the creatures that they portray.

 There is a contest for the best costume at the end of the party. They think that they are going to get a big reward for their efforts. Little do they know what they are really going to be my next victim. Amusing and gullible how people can be when they think that they are going to be rewarded. There will be no reward for them but instead for me and my glorious youth and beauty.

We have an apple bobbing barrel that is filled with bright green and red apples. There is a special apple in that barrel for one person who is luckiest to find it. It is really not lucky, but it is for me. When the right apple is found, a spell is cast. I will have their soul to take for my youth. That person who finds the lucky apple will age exceedingly faster than normal. Their young bodies will nourish mine for many years to come.

Everyone seems to be having an excellent time. There is plenty to imbibe in both drink and food. I circulate the room to make everyone feel at ease. I also look at all the costumes and people in them to make my choice of who will my sacrifice tonight. They have no idea that they really do not want to win the contest.

At 11:00 in the evening, we will be choosing our winner for their costume. I must have the soul by midnight. After then, I will have to wait another year for a chance to take another soul. I really do not want to wait and so far, I have not had to prolong my process. Keeping my fingers crossed that this will be another good year.

There are many characters to choose from this year for the contest. We have a witch, vampire, Frankenstein, red ridding hood, a ghost, doctor and nurse, serial killers, pumpkins, ghouls, and so many more to choose from. I am having a tough time deciding and time is running out quickly.

After much debate, I have chosen the witch for my winner, and not because I am a witch. She was just convincing. Her makeup was done with a mole on her nose. Her dress was long and black. She had a hat that was just like mine. She also had her broomstick to ride. I will say my broomstick is more authentic than hers, but it was still good.

 She had a poisonous apple in one hand. I wonder if that was the apple out of the barrel. Could be since no one has dropped into a coma from the apple in the barrel. That would be awful if it were the apple, and she were to take a bite before midnight. I am not sure that I will recover my youth at all but perish from being 90 years old. That just would not do for me.

I announce the winner, she does not seem surprised that she has won the contest. She is told that she must wait upon everyone leaving to win her prize. She seems more than okay with this rule. I tell her that her prize is incredibly special and for her eyes only.

           After everyone leaves, I call her to come forward to my cauldron so that she can be rewarded for her fantastic costume. She comes forward and I tell her that this year is the best year so far for the prize. I ask her does she wants to lay her broom and apple down so that her hands are free. She tells me that she is fine and that she would rather hold her items.

I tell her that is fine. As she walks towards me, she laughs in a shrill tone, and she tells me that her costume is real and not from a store and as she said it was and laughs with a hysterical laugh. She tells me that she is a powerful witch with souls to take. She is a beautiful woman indeed. I would love to steal her youth. She throws me a curve though and I can already tell that this is not going to go well for me this year.

She tells me that the apple in her hand is indeed the apple that she retrieved from the barrel that I had placed in the room. She tells me that she is over one hundred years old and that she had heard that the winners of my contest never return to their normal lives. No one knew what had happened to them. But she knew their destiny. She knew the prize because she also needed to capture a soul for her youthful age. And a soul was also needed by her as well. Oh my, I have been outplayed this year by no other than another real witch.

As she approached me, she took a small bite of the apple knowing that she had already placed her own spell upon the fruit. She knew that she would not perish or go into a never-ending sleep from partaking of the apple. She laughed so hard knowing that my end was near.

When she bit into the apple, I felt life drain out of me and I fell into a deep sleep. Sleep was the curse that I had put on the apple. I would remain in the coma for as long as she wanted until a soul she could take. My well thought out plan for many years has backfired on me. She would remain a beautiful woman and not me.

THE END