The Witch's Toy ✔

1: a little drummer boy

Thank you for stumbling across this story. ❣️

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The October air caressed my bare skin with its icy fingertips, making me shiver in my nightclothes. I didn't think they would go this far. I didn't think they'd make an effort to actually wake me up past midnight and drag me out of my bed to force me into something I didn't want to do.

I squeezed the gold pendant that hung around my neck, wondering if it really was a charm to ward off evil. No matter how superstitious it sounded, when my grandmother gave me this and told me to never take it off, I listened. If only the pendant warded off all types of evil, it would be useful. As of now, it did me no good. Mina and the other girls who had dragged me here weren't gone. They were still here, trying to demurely suppress their giggles and smiles behind their hands.

I almost wanted to roll my eyes and let out an annoyed sigh — to stare at them and scoff. They always acted as if some Prince Charming were in their midsts and ready to whisk them away at a moment's time.

"Why are you just standing there, witch?" Mina shoved me forward, towards the famed haunted mansion that loomed over us, the dark of night wrapping around it.

"Witch," the others repeated, exchanging grins with one another.

"I told you to go in there, didn't I?" She pushed me forward again, enough to make me stumble over my own two feet and fall onto the asphalt ground. "Haunted places shouldn't scare witches like you."

I gritted my teeth, curling my fingers against the ground despite the stinging pain from my palms that begged me to get up. If only I could just turn around and beat that girl to death, I would. But with my small frame and with Mina's girls always following her around, I never had the chance to, nor would I ever.

Pushing myself up, I brushed the gravel from my hands, trying not to wince in pain. My knees had taken the worst from the fall, now scraped and bloody. Blood ran in rivulets down my legs, coloring the ground even darker when the drops touched it.

I looked up, eyes traveling from the high steps of the haunted mansion to the large door that promised entrance. Ghosts filtered in and out, their bodies passing through the mansion with ease. They all looked forward, head slightly bent, eyes always holding that certain emptiness — that faraway look at made me shiver whenever I met their gaze unintentionally. If there was one thing that unnerved me, it was ghosts, and like my unlucky self, I was gifted with the rare sight to see them.

I swallowed, starting to really feel the cold and fear seep into my bones. But I still walked up those stairs, hearing the sound of Mina's own footsteps following close behind.

My fingers reached for the door, but it creaked open by itself. I hesitated.

"Go in," Mina commanded.

My throats went dry and I shook my head, refusing. "N-no, I-I can't. I —"

Before I could say another word, she forced me in and slammed the door close behind me. It clicked shut, somehow locking by itself. My heart leaped to my throat, the roar of blood rushing in my ears and waking my hidden fear completely. I pounded on the door, desperately begging, "Mina, please! Open the door!"

"Why don't you cast a spell, witch?" She taunted.

The others were laughing freely now. I could hear the wicked smiles in their laughter.

"Mina!"

I pounded on the door again, over and over and over again, but she didn't respond. Their voices and footsteps had already faded away long ago, leaving me alone to the haunted mansion.