Julie and the Monkey Witch

Chapter 1

It was nighttime. Pitch black, although the moon provided some light over the rainforest canopy, with stars dotting the sky all around it. It would be quiet if not for nocturnal animals providing the sound, like the squeaks of bats looking for food or wild cats doing the same thing. The tropical rainforest is a hive of animal and human activity, whether at day or night.

There was, of course, some light. A young woman, hailing from the native Teo tribe, walked through the foliage, holding a torch in her hand. The woman, named Hani, knew the area surrounding the tribe's village and usually went out at night to gather materials to decorate her hut. She was prepared, armed with a slingshot and a knife. With all these dangerous predators in the area, it was best to be.

There was a plant that caught her eye. It was a palm that she hadn't collected yet. She gently pulled it out of the ground with her knife, inspecting the roots and putting it in the bag she collected it in. Grabbing the torch, she turned back towards the village.

A sound caught her ear. It sounded like a snapping branch. She spun around but saw nothing. The jungle can play tricks on the ears of an unsuspecting person. It was best to keep moving, as the village was only steps away. Now that she was thinking about it, perhaps going out at night to forage for hut decorations was a bad idea. "I'm never going out at night again," she said.

She heard the snap again. Her heart was racing, and her breath quickened. She looked around — still nothing. "I have to be going," she said as she quickened her own pace.

Her skin was slick with sweat, not just from the physical exertion, but her fear. Even though she took the same path back to the village as she came, it felt as if the village was getting further and further away. She couldn't panic; she had to make it!

The rustling of leaves caught her by surprise. She fell face-first onto the ground, while still holding the torch safely above her head. She got up. She looked around. She could see the large wall surrounding the village now. She was so close!

Then, she heard a scream. Her scream mixed with the other cry, until she saw what it was. "It's just a monkey," she sighed in relief.

One of the monkeys native to the island had perched itself on top of one of the tree branches. "Go away! Shoo!" she said, waving her hand at the simian. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

It was typical of her luck that the monkey would not even bother to notice her. Monkeys couldn't understand human speech, anyway.

But the monkey instead turned towards her, and to her horror, smiled evilly at her, making her blood chill. As the pimples stood up on her skin, more chattering was heard.

A larger shape emerged from the brush. Were her own eyes deceiving her? Did it just change shape? What was once a simian form now looked humanoid.

Hani raised her torch at the person, who was now raising their finger and pointing at her. "Impossible," she said, her face losing all of its colors. "Why are you—"

"Kill her."

The monkeys all chattered loudly and jumped on top of her, drowning out her screams. The torch fell to the ground and was snuffed out.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

"Damn mosquitoes," Gina Robinson said, slapping her arm to kill said mosquito. Gina, a 35-year-old researcher from the University of Auckland, the largest in New Zealand, looked around the surrounding foliage of the island code-named Greystoke, after, guess who.

"Maybe you should have put some bug spray on," said her friend and colleague, John Tamou—a Maori Australian citizen and University of Victoria researcher.