The Witch's Ghost

Because We're Friends

My name is Ellen. I was born with a horrible disease.

My eyes bleed. My legs hurt when I walk. I'm always cold. I feel nothing but pain.

No one played with me, because I was sick. My father and mother didn't love me.

So I killed them. I lived in this house ever since.

A lot of kids came to my house after that. They were frightened of me. Because I was sick. I killed all the friends who came to my house.

I don't like illness. Because it keeps me from going outside. Because it made no one love me.

...Then a girl came over to play... A cute girl with golden braids...

Lightning flashed in the dark sky, thunder shook the earth. Viola ran, her heart racing with fear, her sandaled feet splashing the muddy forest floor with every step, her braided hair a dark soggy gold. The forest was no place for a 6-year-old girl. But it was so pretty from the outside, why couldn't she go in? The sky was swallowed in clouds, but she ignored them, too. Now it was dark. Storming. Every flashing bolt that shone in her emerald green eyes, she thought would be her last glimpse of light. She was in so deep. Where was the exit. There was nothing. There was no one. "DADDY! DADDY, HELP ME!"

A flash, and Viola ducked under a tree. Where was her big strong father to protect her, shoot monsters with his shotgun. No, she was all alone. The heavy rain and thunder drowned her voice in the depths of the woods. As she ran, she felt like she was going into infinity, darkness, the forest that never ended. Then she flew forward when her foot hit an unseen root, her face drenched in mud.

The lightning flash lit the mass of darkness before her. Viola never would've seen it at first. A mansion, at least 5 stories tall, few windows lit. How far had she come. Who lived out here, deep in the darkness. Viola didn't know, she didn't care. At last, shelter from the impending blackness.

She threw open the house's front door and slammed, the sounds of pounding rain grown fainter. A black cat's green eyes gleamed in a flash of lightning before she entered, but passed it off. She gasped for breath, soaking the red carpet with the rainwater her body gathered. She wondered when the owners of this house would check the disturbance caused by their slamming door, and hoped they would show her mercy.

A gentle tune broke the silence of this home. A jingle that sounded it could be from a music box. It was coming from the second-floor walkway of the foyer, and through the darkness lit only by the candles of chandeliers, she saw someone through the railing. It was a child that appeared her age, with long violet hair with a red bow on top. She wore a white blouse under a red dress that ended above her bare legs. She glared at Viola with golden catlike eyes, holding the pink music box in her left hand. "Who're you." She asked tonelessly.

"M-My name's... Viola." The child stuttered. "I was lost in the forest, so I..."

"You picked the wrong house to go into. You do realize this is the Witch's House, right?"

"The...The witch that kidnaps kids?" In fact, Viola heard the story from her father, but she questioned if the tales were true. That's why her father told her not to wander in there, but she couldn't imagine such a pretty place...

"Yes. And you're-KUH, KUOH!" She coughed suddenly and fell backward, the music box hitting the floor. This was followed by heavy, eerie wheezes, her breath failing.

Viola gasped, and listening to her kinder nature, she ran up the stairs and by the girl's side. "M-Miss! Are you- hu?" Her young legs were rusty, the purple veins showing, and blood-red was clear around the bulging eyes.