Waterfall Witch
“Mr. Shadeson! Mr. Shadeson!”
The three boys chanted as they crossed the threshold into the library and ran up to my desk. Billy, Cyrus, and Benny had been coming to the library every day of their summer break for the last two months for one thing and one thing only.
“Tell us a story!” Benny said, loud enough, that the head librarian Mrs. Vivar looked up and gave a sharp “SHHH!”
“Now Now boys, first we respect the people in the library so keep your voices down. Secondly, you three have been here every day this summer, don’t you boys play sports or video games?”
“Coach said practice starts next month” replied Billy with a wide grin.
“Plus, you can only play Minecraft so many ways before the boredom sets in” said Cyrus, obviously the nerd of the group.
“And!” said Benny in that loud, annoying voice again. “Our dads are taking us camping this weekend so we want your scariest story so we can scare the underpants off them!”
“I don’t know boys, I don’t think I have any stories left to tell.”
“C’mon, Mr. Shadeson! Please! Just one more story and we’ll leave you alone for the rest of the summer!”
I sighed, “We both know that’s a lie, however since you’re going camping, I might have a good one for you. Are you guys going camping down by the waterfall?”
“Yes!” the boys replied, their excitement like an electric current filling the air.
“Then I guess the most appropriate story to tell you would be-
The Waterfall Witch
At the end of every summer my dad and my two friends’ dads would get together and plan a camping trip for us. Just the boys though, as my dad would say, no moms or sisters allowed.Which means they’ll be drinking all day, and we’ll have to fend for ourselves. Over the years that’s gotten easier though, Cyrus went to a boy scout camp one summer and learned how to make fires and shelters while Billy learned how to fish and cook. Unfortunately, my parents didn’t have the money to send me to boy scouts, and they straight out refused to teach me how to cook ever since I caught the microwave on fire, so my skills were abysmal compared to theirs. I did know how to swim though, and I could make a bow and arrow out of sticks and string. While we normally went to the campgrounds or to the lake, this year the adults decided to take us to the smaller campsite by the waterfall. It didn’t matter to me though, being around with less people meant that we could play without worry. Over the past couple of months, me and the boys have been doing some research into local legends. We investigated the bogboys, the mermaids in lake wiseman, the ding dongers on Abbington Row and even the mothman, but they were all just stories. As we were complaining to our dads over smores about how all the supernatural is fake, Cyrus’s dad finally chimed in.
“What about the waterfall witch?”
“The waterfall witch?” I asked, “Sounds about as fake as the bogboys”
Cyrus’s dad gave a small chuckle.
“The waterfall witch has a deep history here in Shadyvale. She was the first witch to be drowned back during the Shadyvale witch trials and was considered one of the main reasons for all the drowned children that showed up in the following months.”
“Drowned children? We didn’t see any records about drowned children when we were deep diving in the archives.” Said Billy, his hands started to fidget, one of his nervous ticks.
“Well of course not, you really think they’d mainstream the fact that over 28 kids drowned in a six month period? They were trying to build and expand the town, not implode it.”
Cyrus’s dad said with a chuckle. He looked down into the fire, deep in thought for a second and then said.
“Our family has written records from that time, passed down from generation to generation to keep the history alive and unaltered. You know, our three families were there when they drowned the witch. It’s crazy how we’ve always been a close-knit group.”
“So where did they find the kids?”
Cyrus’s dad pointed to the waterfall in the distance; the roaring of the falls could be heard over the forest ambience.
“At the pool under the falls, every single one of them.”
The next day we hiked the surrounding trails while the dads drank and went fishing. We sharpened sticks and played like we were Romans defending from the Greeks, granted we had to take turns in our roles since there were only three of us. We had dirt wars and even looked for tiny crayfish in the lake. Even with all that, we were still pulled to the falls, the roaring drawing us in as the moths helplessly flitted to the zapper. The falls stood about 50 feet and delivered hard and fast streams of water that crashed down on the rocks below. Steplike structures were built into the rock leading up the falls letting hikers experience the cascading water and get to the top if they didn’t want to go around. Halfway up the falls was a platform, it was built not to interrupt the water but large enough you could sit down in front of it if you wished, mostly it was used for families to get pictures in front of the falls. Cyrus’s dad said that if we were to sit on the platform and gaze into the curtain of water long enough, we would be able to see the witch’s cave behind the falls. It’s bogus obviously because we checked behind and it’s just stone, however my friends wanted to try it anyways, so I agreed. Cyrus went first, bounding up the steps and plopping down on the platform. Me and Billy stayed on the ground to give him an “authentic” experience with the witch, whatever that meant. After a few minutes Cyrus came down and simply said “Myth busted”.
Billy went next and ended up staying there for around fifteen minutes before coming down, when I asked him why he stayed up there so long he replied “Just giving the witch some extra time to take me, she didn’t show up though. Bet you five dollars you won’t stay up there for thirty minutes!”
“You’re stupid, that would be a huge waste of time”
Unfortunately for me, my words caused my two friends to go through an extreme metamorphosis into a couple of squawking chickens complete with arms folded into mock wings. The squawking intensified as I tried to get them to stop, Cyrus now fully committed to the act with eyes crossed as his face went red from shouting. Luckily, they didn’t sprout feathers, or they’d probably try to fly around me.
“Fine!” I shouted at them, finally getting them to stop. “But you better have my five dollars ready for me.”
I marched up the steps and plopped down in front of the curtain of water. The spray from the falls coated my skin, a cool relief from the harsh sun that stalks the summer months. I sat and gazed into the water, waiting for the minutes to go by. It was really calming, listening to the water crashing down under me like a thunderstorm hitting a metal roof as you float away into the abyss of dreams. I heard Billy’s alarm go off and I went to stand up, smug that I had lasted the longest and proved once again that none of this had any merit when something caught my eye. As I stood up, the reflection looking back at me stayed sitting. Silently watching me behind the curtain, the figure cocked its head to the side as if it was trying to understand something. Its eyes glowed a deep blue as it rose to meet my height, the sound of the waterfall tapered off until the only sound that could be heard was the blood roaring in my ears. I watched as it raised a hand to the curtain of water and trailed its claws over it, first just a low shine emitted from the cuts but with a small pop! The claws broke the surface tension, and it lunged for me. I stepped back with a startled yell and found only air beneath my feet. The sound of my friends’ screams filled my ears as the world crashed back into me as I crashed into the pool of water beneath the falls. Kicking and fighting to the surface of a pool that was only a foot deep but moments before now felt like miles of unexplored ocean and darkness. As I struggled, I happened to look down in time to see a hideous old hag grab my ankle and start pulling me deeper into the depths, her blue eyes shining like illuminated sapphires against the unending abyss. The last thing I remember is letting out one last bubble of air before I succumbed to the darkness.
-
I looked up from my book in time to see the clock cross over to four. The smooth brass that made up the arms of the clock silently ticking away, completely unaware that they count down the seconds to death. The library was silent at this time of day, too late for cram sessions and too early for the night owls to begin their nocturnal missions. A chill entered the air, and my attention was drawn from the bane of man to gaze into the lobby. A figure standing on the second floor caught my attention. The man in the mask, no, it wasn’t a mask. It looked like a pillowcase, grey and faded in color. It bore no eye or mouth holes, but I could feel his eyes on me as he leaned over the railing of the second floor. The stranger was getting a little too close for my comfort, a little too familiar with my town. I stood up to confront this nullity, but the lights started to flicker across the library, as if Landon had wrapped his car around another light pole. I glanced away but for a moment and when my eyes returned to the second floor the figure was gone. No scenes of him running down the stairs, sword raised with a mighty scream of valor, no cool escape shenanigans, what a bore. I sat back down as the lights finally sorted themselves and noticed three very familiar faces coming my way.
“Well, well, if it isn’t my three favorite story chasers. Tell me, how was the camping trip?”
“It was amazing! We did some fishing and swimming, Cyrus got tore up by some mosquitoes!” Billy exclaimed, clearly tanned from his long exposure from the sun.
“Shut up man!” Cyrus shot back, embarrassed. “At least I didn’t scream like a little baby when a snake came close the tent!”
The boys bickered for a few more minutes before I finally shut them down. They chattered a little longer regarding their trip before announcing they were going to the arcade. I bid them a quick farewell and watched them leave, as they got to the door I called out to the three.
“Oh, by the way, what was the outcome of the investigation for the waterfall witch?”
The third member of the group turned to look at me, her sapphire blue eyes sparkling under the light. She smiled and said with a wink.
“Debunked, just like all the rest of those stories.”