Witch's Regret

Halloween night. Both the best and worst time of the year for Leona Van Yodel. Being a witch had its downsides, and it's perks.

For starters, Leona hadn't always been a witch. It all began one fateful night two hundred years ago to this very night. Leona was an only child, raised by her mother and father in a small village in what we now know to be Massachusetts. In those days, it was something else entirely.

A storm was brewing on the horizon this night, and the village priest had warned the villagers not to leave their homes this night. There was a strange air about. Mist was gathering over the horizon and the crows cawed in warning as they passed. Leona, being 15 and wild, wanted no part of these rules. She was stirring a pot of stew over the fire when her friends came knocking.

knock knock knock. Leona, are you home?

Leona's mother and father were outside gathering firewood at the moment. She swung the front door open and was met with the smiling faces of her two best friends, John and Sarah. John had a particularly devilish look in his wide green eyes tonight.

"We found something." Sarah whispered.

John nodded, leaning in closer and looking over Leona's shoulder to make sure they weren't being overheard.

"What did you find?" Leona whispered back.

"In the woods. You have to come and see!" Sarah said.

Thick swirls of black clouds were gathering overhead as the children ran through the thicket and away from the safety of the village. All the time they ran John and Sarah laughed, but Leona couldn't shake the priest's warning to be careful tonight.

After a few more moments of running and dodging snake nests, the three children came to a clearing in the woods. In the very middle of the clearing was a campfire. Unlit, so it was just a pile of mildly damp logs at the moment.

"You dragged me all the way out here for this?" Leona whined.

A bolt of lightning lit up the sky, making the children jump. Curiously, no rain was falling.

"It's not just any campfire," Sarah said. "Watch this!"

Together, Sarah and John linked hands and stared intently at the pile of wood. After a moment, Leona could see red hot sparks forming in the centermost part of the pile.

"Come on and join us, Leona!" John said. "With you, we'll be able to get it started!"

"How exactly are you guys doing that?" Leona asked.

Stepping closer, Leona took John's hand and John gripped Sarah's even tighter.

"Concentrate," Sarah said. "Look into the pile of logs and imagine it bursting into flames! Beckon it to come down! Imagine it is the only thing in the world that you want, for this campfire to rage it's fiery wrath!"

John let out a wolf-like howl and Leona began to concentrate. She blocked out the persistent warning in her head from the priest and focused, trying to copy the stern looks of her friends, not breaking eye contact with the sparking log pit.

Suddenly, the pile of logs caught fire! The children whooped and cheered as lightning struck a tree right next to them. Leona jumped and Sarah screamed. The tree, as well as the campfire, were now blazing red hot. What was worse was when the tree began to speak to them.

"CHILDREN!" The tree boomed, it's voice like thunder echoing off the forest floor so loud Leona thought her ears might burst. "I am Gaia, goddess of these woods! You have been meddling in powers you do not understand, and destroying sacred ground!"

The children trembled with fear, huddling close to one another as the tree continued.

"Punishment is upon you! I curse thee, to be eternally as you are now and to never age another day! You must also atone for your sins, every October 31st from now until the end of time you will become witches! Horrid, ugly, wrinkly things, with sagging flesh and warty noses! People will scream in fear, they will run when they see you! This is the punishment for your transgressions!"

For a split second Leona thought she saw the priest, standing at the base of the flaming tree with his arms spread wide and his head tossed back, yelling something at the sky. But after a moment he was gone, and Leona decided it must have been a trick of the light.

All at once the tree went silent and the fire died out, as did the campfire. The children sprinted as fast as they could back to the village.

From that day on Leona, John, and Sarah remained eternally fifteen years old and every Halloween night they turned into horrid beastly witches.

...Present day...

It's Halloween again. Leona is hiding in her hut in the woods. She lives somewhere in Virginia now. She moves around every few years or so, every time she gets shooed out or too many people move into the area.

Leona is stewing. She is trimming her gangly green toenails when she sees a shadow approaching. She is in her witch form today and she looks positively ghastly.

A small boy, maybe six or seven, has found her hut in the woods. He is wearing a superhero mask and cape and is clutching an orange treat bucket tight in his fist.

"H...Hello." Leona croaked, her voice was scratchy like a dying record.

"I... I think I'm lost." The boy began. Leona saw one fat tear begin to roll down his pudgy cheek.

"You're not... afraid of me?" Leona asked, stepping out of the shadows a bit so the boy could see her.

The boy shook his head. "Can you help me get back home?"

Leona looked around. No parents or anyone seemed to be nearby searching for the boy, so gently she took his little hand in her wrinkly one and led him to the closest exit to the forest she knew, which happened to be the street of a neighborhood.

"Is this where you live?" Leona asked.

The boy nodded. Before running off towards his house, he thrust a candy bar into her hand. Something with peanuts in it. As he turned to go, he said something that changed Leona forever.

"Gaia forgives you!" He shouted.

Before Leona had a chance to respond, he had disappeared.

She never turned into a witch again after that day.