Ella stormed out of the house. Her parents had been yelling at her for no apparent reason, so she was going out. Where she was going she didn't know. She just wanted to be alone.
After about ten minutes, Ella found that she had left her village and was heading into the wood. Continuing to walk, she realized that she was drifting towards Hangman's Hill. The trees grew thicker and the air grew colder, and Ella began to feel very uncomfortable. She considered turning back, but her mum and dad's shouts and glares were too fresh in her memory, and anyway, her feet were almost walking without her command; she clearly needed the exercise.
However, as she approached the top of the hill, and the clearing with the Hangman's Tree standing solitary in the centre, it became clear that her body wasn't under her own control. She walked faster and faster, and Ella was getting desperate. It took all of her strength to whimper "Help..." under her breath, there was nothing else she could do. No-one was around to hear her even if she could have shouted.
The gruesome history of Hangman's Hill had been lingering in the back of her mind, and now it was practically dancing in front of her eyes. She saw the condemned prisoners standing on the tree's branches. The Hangman tied a rope around their necks, one by one, then secured the ends to the branch they were standing on.
Ella knew that these were figments of her imagination, but why was she imagining this? This wasn't how hangings were carried out! And still she was walking. She desperately tried to banish the thoughts; squeezing her eyes shut tightly. Her legs stopped. Ella wondered if she finally had control of them, but when she tried to move them nothing happened.
Slowly, she opened her eyes, and screamed! The Hangman had vanished, but the men were still standing on the branch, the tree groaning and leaning with their weight. And now she knew these weren't her imagination, and maybe they never were.
A nursery rhyme her mum used to sing to her entered her mind, and she smiled faintly as she recalled the lyrics to "Ten Green Bottles". But then, looking at the men, it all went horribly wrong. Because the prisoners were the bottles, and the tree branch was the wall. Which meant at the end of each verse... Ella shuddered.
It seemed like it couldn't get any worse, with this scene in front of her, and being unable to walk away. But then it did. From somewhere, something began to sing "Ten Green Bottles". At first Ella thought it was the men, but the voice was too high, and sounded quite feminine. It was almost a familiar voice... Once again she tried to escape, but she might as well have been glued to the ground. She really couldn't move. And still the voice continued.
"Ten green bottles,
Hanging on the wall.
Ten green bottles,
Hanging on the wall,
And if one green bottle,
Should accidentally fall..."
And as the voice sang the word "fall", the man at the far left of the tree branch rolled forward and hung at the end of the rope. Ella screamed again, louder this time, and there was silence for a second. Then the singing continued And as she listened with fascinated horror, she was sure that she knew the voice, but where from eluded her.
"Then there'll be nine green bottles,
Hanging on the wall."
The voice paused between verses, and all was quiet. Then it resumed.
"Nine green bottles,
Hanging on the wall.
Nine green bottles..."
And so it went on. Every time the voice sang "fall", the man furthest to the left who hadn't already sacrificed himself fell. Ella watched this, horrified but unable to move. As the song reached five green bottles, she began to walk very slowly once more. Somehow, she was sort of unaware of it. At four green bottles she had reached the tree and began to climb it. By three green bottles she was just reaching the branch they were standing on. She came to her senses, and saw what she had been doing, but couldn't stop it. The man beside her tied a spare rope to the branch, and handed her the end.
By this time the song had progressed to two green bottles, and then Ella saw it. There was only one other man on the branch. The voice was singing two green bottles. And she was tying the rope tightly around her neck. She made one last, unsuccessful attempt to break free, before giving herself up to the song. The man beside her plummeted towards the ground. The rope around his neck caught him, and he was instantly still. She was alone.
"One green bottle,
Hanging on the wall.
One green bottle,
Hanging on the wall.
And if that
One... green... bottle...
Should accidentally...
Fall..."
And as Ella fell, her last thought was that it was her who had been singing all along. She was jerked to a stop by the rope, and she spun, round and round, the rope tightening, suffocating her. Yet still she sung.
"Then there'll be
No green bottles...
Hanging... on... the... wall..."
So this is my first story and I know it needs editing, but please like it and comment what you think needs improving.
Please help me!
