House of the witches
Short Story : House of the witches.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark ( Horror Story)
By Prabir Rai Chaudhuri . All Copyright Reserved 2018
My name is José Eduardo, I was born in the state of Nuevo León, I live in Monterrey, but in my adolescence I lived in a town called Ramones.
At the time I am telling you, it was a small town.
Like all boys of that age, he had friends and although we lived far away from each other, we were inseparable and together we lived many adventures that we will never forget.
We didn't have any money, but the truth is that friendship was the most important thing for us.
We were three friends. I was the middle one, twelve years old, my friend Juan was the oldest, thirteen, and Hector was two and a half months younger than me.
We were in the evening shift at the only high school around there.
It was a small school, but the teachers were good and kind. We were always tremendous and we were very interested in learning new things and adventure, going everywhere, but without getting into trouble and without bothering anyone.
Since we were always together, people at my friends' houses already knew me and people at mine knew them.
One time we decided not to go to class and we went on a sneaking spree, which is what they say here when students go out in secret. We wanted to get as far away as possible so that no one would see us and gossip about us at home and punish us, since at that time our parents were very strict, like everyone else.
Obviously, in such a small town there was nowhere to go, so we took to the hills. We walked and walked for about two hours. We didn't realize how far we had gone, because, as always, we were joking and laughing about anything.
We were remembering funny things and laughing again, suddenly we heard a very loud thunder and we realized that it was very cloudy and everything suggested that a strong storm was approaching.
It was about three thirty in the afternoon, but it was winter, and it looked darker.
A strong, very cold wind began to blow, as if announcing that the storm was coming, and after a few minutes it began to rain cats and dogs. We ran back, but soon the water prevented us from seeing and the path with so many puddles was slowly disappearing.
We ran aimlessly through the bushes, there were plants with thorns that tore our uniforms, but we kept running. We just tried not to lose sight of each other so we wouldn't be alone in that vast forest.
Completely soaked, the cold was even more noticeable, and there was no doubt that we were already lost, but we kept moving forward.
We had already run for about ten or fifteen minutes, when it became impossible to move forward.
Suddenly we saw a house in the distance, and we ran towards it. As we got closer we noticed that it was a very old building, all made of wood and very tall, with the windows covered with pieces of wood, and the house was not painted.
It looked scary, but at least I was more afraid of my father's punishment than an old house.
The place had a fence made of slightly rotten logs and barbed wire, although in some parts it was already fallen down. We hesitated for a second whether to enter or not, and in the end we did.
The truth is that the thunder was heard increasingly louder and more frequently. The house had furniture inside, but it was very old, ugly and full of dust, as if that place had been uninhabited for too long. It also had a very unpleasant smell and, to top it off, it was cold inside.
There was no food to be seen anywhere, but there was a pile of herbs.
My friend Juan asked several times in a loud voice if anyone was there, but no one answered. Just being inside gave us the creeps. After checking the ground floor, we climbed those old wooden stairs, which creaked as we went up, threatening to fall.
Upstairs everything was the same, completely empty, except there were a lot of old photos on the walls with very strange people and also a lot of cobwebs.
Outside it was still raining very hard and the water, as it fell, also entered the walls and it sounded very eerie.
We didn't know what to do anymore, fear and nerves had already taken over us.
Rubbing his hands from the cold, Juan said that we had to wait a little longer because it would be impossible to find our way back.
Already tired and desperate, we sat on an old wooden bench that was in that room. We didn't know how much time was left before everything outside became dark. Hector, full of fear, began to repeat over and over again that we had to get out of that house. He seemed very nervous, as if he had suddenly remembered something about that house, as if he knew it.
We didn't pay much attention to him.
After about half an hour, we heard some barking, and our eyes met, as if with a feeling of relief.
We peeked through some cracks and it was no longer raining so hard, but it was still very cloudy.
The barking was heard closer, it was two huge black dogs, who were accompanying a woman whose silhouette looked very strange.
My friend Juan was amazed by the woman's appearance and said something about the rumour that there was a witch in the middle of the forest who liked to feed on children. We looked at each other. We were already scared, but now we were even more so. We also asked him why he didn't tell us that before we went in there. He simply shrugged his shoulders.
I peeked through a crack again and saw the huge dogs barking towards the side of the house where we were.
Hector was almost paralyzed with shock, when we reacted we decided to run away from that place.
But just then we heard noises on the ground floor, without making any noise, we went down some steps and we saw two horrible women, who were whispering things in low voices that we did not understand, while they were preparing a potion with herbs in a very dirty pot.
We were even more frightened when the crying of a child was heard very loudly, another woman came in carrying a baby, about three or four months old, who did not stop crying.
He held him by his feet and placed him on the table, just like that, without any care, as if it were just any old thing, a dirty rag.
The child cried even harder, but they paid no attention to him, they just let out a loud laugh.
So, panic-stricken, we climbed those old steps again, but very carefully so as not to be discovered.
We entered the room again, imagining that the devil or something would appear to us. We closed the door of the room very carefully.
We didn't know anything about witches, but everything suggested that they were preparing a meeting or something like that and logically they expected more witches.
A door opened and then closed. We peeked through the cracks again and saw the women standing outside around a pile of logs, where I suppose they were making a bonfire or something.
We felt that this was the opportunity to escape because there were already eight or nine witches downstairs.
We were able to see that they had two dogs tied up, and they had the baby in a box.
In addition, one of them was trying to form a pentagram with some sticks.
We wanted to run out of there, but when we opened the door to get out, we got the scare of our lives. A hideous woman was waiting for us on the other side of the door. We were so surprised that we were speechless.
The worst thing was when we recognized that woman, it was our friend Hector's mother, she looked at us with her eyes wide open, almost out of their sockets, then she pointed us in a direction, making it clear that we had to run there to return to the town.
We desperately went down the stairs that creaked under our weight, but that didn't matter, we were already on our way out.
José was in front of me, and I assumed Hector was coming behind, so at first I didn't bother to look at Hector.
Even though it was almost dark, we found our way back. After a while, I realized I wasn't listening to anyone behind me. I turned around and what a surprise I got when I discovered that Hector wasn't coming with us.
Shocked, I shouted to Juan to stop, and when he realized that Hector was not there, he told me that we had to go back for him, that we couldn't leave him.
Trembling with fear and cold, I shook my head and said no, I couldn't take it anymore.
Hector was my friend, but it was already nighttime and we would get lost again, and whether we liked it or not, he was with his mother, and they wouldn't hurt her.
It was already very late and I convinced Juan that the best thing was to return to the town, we no longer had the strength to continue running so we just walked quickly.
When we arrived at the village, relieved, we went home without even saying goodbye. For my part, I wasn't worried that they would scold me, I really didn't care, after all I would be safe with my family.
From that day on we never saw Hector again. People in town say that he went with his mother to live in another town.
I still have nightmares to this day, many times I have dreamed of being inside that old house.
We never stopped by that sinister place again, in fact, we don't even know exactly where it is.
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