The Hanging Girl's Tree

The Girl of the Hanging Tree

(A/N: Credit to the original owner of the picture!)

The tale begins in days of old, back when people still dressed as they would in the Victorian age, only slightly more plain, in a small village, somewhat stuck in the age of the past.

Within the outskirts of a small village, there was a small house, in it, lived a young girl alone. She rarely ventured from her home, unless she had to. When she did, the people quivered in fear, even if it was for an errand, they would give her looks. The girl had no name, but ignored the people and just went on with her day.

One day, that seemed like any other, a fire broke out in the village, two people were found dead. Many houses lied in ruins by the time the fire was put out. As they investigated, they found a trail of ash leading to the girl's house with a flint and steel at the end of the trail, she was immediately taken in for questioning. The girl denied ever doing it, saying that she was in her house, minding her own business as she always did, but none believed her.

Because of the reputation she developed in the people's opinions, they had no doubt that she was a witch. The people that feared her took the opportunity to get rid of her, and she was declared guilty. The people and judge sentenced her to death by hanging, fortunately for the girl's luck the gallows was in major need of repairs, but unfortunately for her, and fortunately to the people, the decided to use the Great oak tree in the forest.

They prepared her for the execution, usually she wore a beautiful dress, but now she wore a prisoner's dress, which was torn and gray. She was barefoot as well. Her hands were bound behind her in chains, as were her legs. She was forced to walk to the place of the execution on a chain leash around her neck.

She walked up the stairs that were built to a miniature gallows. She did not look up and the judge read her so called crimes, he asked if she had any last words.

All she said was this.

"You are all making a grave mistake! I did not cause the fire that struck your village. In 100 years, I will return to take my vengeance on your descendants! They will pay for you crimes with a great price!"

As she finished, it only made the people want to hurry with the excecution. The noose was placed on her neck and she was pushed from the platform she was on. There was crack as the rope tugged on the poor girl's neck. Her neck instantly broke and blood came from her mouth, people gasped at the sight, looking at her in disgust. She was later taken and buried in the town cemetery, her grave was marked: Unknown.

~~~

100 years have passed, and her tale was forgotten, until mysterious things started to occur.

It started with several young girls having nightmares, then fits of madness. Later, the girls starting disappearing at night, some were never seen again, the only trace of them were trails of footprints leading to the forest. The town officials followed the foot prints and found a horrendous sight.

Hanging from the trees were the missing girls. All dead. The town officials could not believe what they were seeing, they instantly wanted to know; why did this happen? Who did this? Did the girls do this?

Unfortunately, their questions were answered in a way they did not expect. Sitting on a branch, was a young girl in a black Victorian dress with long black hair, she were a beautiful hat that covered her eyes. But she could be seen smirking.

"You wish to know why this has happened? I will gladly tell you. 100 years ago, I was executed for something I did not do. I was hung from the mighty oak that still stands today. Chopping it down will do you no good. I will continue to kill your prescious innocent little girls until my vengeance is satisfied. Which will take a very, very long time." She disappeared as she finished.

Several of the officials did not take this lightly and kept searching the forest, they came across a small house that they assumed was where the ghost lived. They went in and looked for information as to what happened. They found a journal, and in it was all that happened 100 years ago. But there was something else.

There was a journal entry about the girl who was hung.

Entry number 66.

I don't know how things have gotten this far, but I've managed to flee from my old village, if they find out that I have been cursed, I would have been killed. I hope that nothing will happen here in my new home, I hope that I will not be accused wrongly of anything, if I am, then I will certainly come back and take my revenge in a century's time. It might be most likely that no one will believe me, might as well live a quiet life.

It ended there.

The men couldn't believe it. It seemed to be the only explanation, but now they had to find out what to do in order to stop this from happening. The decided to evacuate the town and leave it abandoned until they find out what is it that will put at peace the wrongly accused spirit.

Even if the town was evacuated, people still came to try to find out what could put the girl's spirit at rest, but they found nothing. Not even the girl's ghost wanted to tell them when they confronted her again. They gave up and left with the rest of the town.

As time past, people have accidentally come across the town, and if they were a young female, it would be most likely that they would not come out alive.

What could ease the girl's pain? No one seemed to know. Until several years later, no female was found in the forest of the dead, not even one. It seemed that the girl's spirit only wanted solitude for a while to ease her pain in order to finally rest in peace.