The Witchtale

The Sinking Crow

We shuffled along the dusty bridge, the smell of mouse droppings, algae and moss made me cover both my mouth and nose as tightly as I could without smothering myself. The sound of the river flowing distantly but directly beneath us drowned the sound of our own steps, at one point I could almost feel the vibration of the sound of river flowing beneath the bridge hitting the floor, I immediately got the flash image of me and Zach falling through the weakened bridge floor into the river. I gulped and said, "You know, encountering a witch should be the least of our problem here... why did you decide to come here alone like that? I mean – it is dangerous in more than one way."

"Ally, if you want to go back – you can still do that." Zach snapped somewhat irritated for no good reason "You know the way and I won't stop you."

I didn't say anything back although I had a few ego crunching retorts ready at the tip of my tongue but well – I knew when to shut up. Besides as far as I know Zach, guilt will coax him better than all the reasons in the universe.

We reached the other end of the bridge and Zach tested the iron bars before alighting them.

"Alright – I'm going up. Watch out for dust when I open the door – it opens inwards" He said.

I took a few steps back without saying anything.

When Zach was safely out of the door I started climbing up.

"Ally."

No reply – yeah I know it is a little immature but its effective and I've used it several times to get Zach do what I want him to.

"You know, if you are not comfortable in coming with me, we can go back and I'll come some other day." Well – I didn't expect this.

"Alone?"

"Well – yeah." He sounded a little frustrated now.

"Why does it matter so much to you? I don't understand."

"I've my own reasons to do this."

"Then I too have my own reasons to follow you." I said climbing out of the door and dusting myself. Although I hadn't the foggiest idea what they were myself! If one could kick himself – I'd have killed myself by doing that for all the stupid things I've said and done.

"You're scared." Zach said flatly.

I stared at him and then turning away looked at the surrounding darkness that greeted us. Damn right, I was – I was pretty much in the mood to jump down that hole and rush back to the safety of Jamaal chacha's warm little hut. Then I looked at Zach standing there cross armed, almost guessing my thoughts and I knew that I cannot leave him now. Not if that meant regretting it for the whole of my lifetime later.

So I took a deep breath and said, "If you will tell me why you are so hell bent on coming here without telling anyone, I won't scream every time something creeps me out."

He chuckled and said, "Alright."

One thing about me and Zachariah was that we had no façade between us, while I was the spoilt adored to death girl of my family, Zach was the only person who would have none of it and he was known to be the wild child of his family but I knew that more than anything else he had a keen sense of his responsibilities. He acts like he doesn't care but right now the one thing that irks him more than anything else was that he was involving another person in his own mess and that troubled him.

We watched as the forest hung silent in front of us, there might be wild animals in there – I thought. The river seemed to berushing louder now and in the light of the moon Zach spotted what he was looking for.