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Category:
Young Adult/Teen
Publisher: Shannon L. Buck
Type: Fiction
Pages: 35
Copyright: September 16, 2016
Price: $3.99 (eBook)
A community rises up to get rid of people they don't think belong. Witches aren't welcome, even though they've known them for so long. Once the secret is out, residents do anything to get rid of them.
Through a twist of fate, the young find out they can see a ghost. And that ghost wants to help the witches. Why? How does he know they are in need of help?
What tragedies bring this group closer together? Find out in this story, as friends stick together to do what has to be done.
Excerpt
Abby pointed out the window of her father’s beat up '69 blue Chevy truck. “Look at all the fireflies, dad.”
“Nice,” he replied as they drove by the cemetery into which his daughter was pointing. “Do you still visit Charlie’s father’s grave often?”
“Once a week,” she said quietly.
“Okay. Have you ever seen anything... unusual while there?”
Looking at him quizzically, Abby replied, “No. What do you mean by 'unusual'?”
“Well, I've heard there are ghosts in that graveyard,” he answered mysteriously. Abby just looked at him. Sometimes her dad made things up. Right now he was probably laughing inside, thinking she would be scared of the cemetery now. He was wrong.
She got out of the truck when they reached the rundown trailer they lived in, and headed inside to change before she left to meet Charlie and Joe.
*****
Sitting in the cemetery, Abby and Joe were on either side of Charlie at his dad’s grave. They were eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that Abby had made, barbecue chips Charlie brought, and drinking cream sodas Joe found in the refrigerator at his house. It was a filling dinner.
They were discussing how Charlie’s dad would always take them out into the woods for hikes when he was alive. How he'd point out the different types of plant life, explaining them in detail. They'd always been a little scared of the woods, because they were so little, but Charlie's dad always knew how to take their fears away. He had been a kind and patient man, and guided them gently every step of the way.
Abby looked up, just in time to see someone (something?) walk by the other side of the gravestone. She thought she was seeing things. “Um... guys.” Charlie and Joe looked up and could not believe what they were seeing, either.
As quickly as the being had been there, it was gone. The three young teenagers rose slowly, standing for a few seconds, before quickly walking out of the cemetery.
“Did you see that?” Abby asked.
“Yes,” the boys answered in unison.
“Was it what I thought it was?”
They guys looked and each other, then answered in low voices. “Yes.” They walked her to the door of her father’s trailer before heading to their own homes.
*****
“I didn't expect you back so soon. Seems like you just left.” Her father was looking at her intently. “Is everything okay?”
“Dad, I just saw the weirdest thing. I wouldn't even think it was real, if Charlie and Joe hadn't seen it too.”
She looked into her father’s knowing face and said flatly, “Tell me what you know.”
“Have a seat, Abby,” he said, motioning toward the seat next to him on the couch. “I've been waiting, thinking maybe he was gone. I guess I was wrong.”
Abby looked at her father wondering what he'd been hiding from her. “Who is 'he'?”
“When I was your age, a local boy was murdered. We never knew who had done it, but the incident was a brutal one. The boy, his name was Thayne, was only thirteen years old. He and his mother lived deep in the woods. The locals believed the woman was a witch, and wanted her to take her son and leave the area, but she wouldn't go. There were only two of us who didn't want them to go. Me and my best friend, Andrew. Thayne was our friend, and his mother was such a nice lady.”
“Did Grandma and Grampa want them to leave?”
“Yes,” he replied sadly. After a moment, he went on. “Thayne and his mother lived in a little clearing out in the woods, in a cottage with only one room.”
“I'll bet that was the clearing we used to visit with Charlie’s father. He brought us there and taught us about all of the herbs and other plants in the clearing.”
“Mhmm... Joe's father and I asked him to do that. The plan had been for him to tell you about Thayne and his mother at some point, because he and Charlie are cousins to them. His family moved here to be with Thaynes mother after her son was killed, and moved up the road a year later, when she committed suicide.” He sighed. “ But he never got to that point. We didn't want history repeating itself.”
“But I've known Charlie my whole life. Why didn't he tell me this before?”
“Charlie doesn't know. We didn't want to scare you all when you were young. Many of those people are still living in this area.
When the three of you became teenagers, we heard murmurs from a few of the elders. They were wondering about Charlie and his father. Wondering if they were witches. We decided you must all be told, but wanted to build up to that point slowly. So you wouldn't be scared.
“He would take you to the clearing to teach you about the plants, about that clearing, as a way of leading up to the truth. The plan was for the three of you, him and his wife, Joe’s father, Andrew, and I, to fix up the cottage and build a couple more. We wanted to get away from the elders, but not to leave the area.”
“Then Kevin was murdered as well. I guess Andrew, Olivia and I were just afraid of what might happen to us; to you kids. We never continued to teach you what we should have.”
“Oh. Why did you start to talk about it on our way home?”
Her father shrugged. “I was curious. I heard two of the elders mention Olivia and Charlie. When I walked toward them, they clammed up. Looked at me real weird.” He rubbed his eyes, and said “I'm worried they may go after one of them next.”
“Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Was Thayne's mom a witch?”
“Yes. They both were.”
“Scary.”
“Not really. The scary witch stuff is not real. Witches are kind people, with a love of nature, the Earth, and other people. They would never harm anyone. Charlies' dad never hurt anyone. Olivia doesn't hurt people either.”
Abby trusted her father fully, so she didn't question his belief in any of these people now. “How can we help?”
“I don't know. I have to talk with Olivia. Maybe you could talk with Charlie. He doesn't know his mother is a witch, that his father was, or that he is.”
“Will do.”
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