The Woods of Withern

Others Stories | Mar 22, 2017 | 8 min read
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The Woods of Withern

The Woods of Withern

By Zach Scribner

"No way that can not be true." I said.

"Oh yes it is and you better believe it." said my friend Brian Thomas.

Brian had always told me about his horror stories that were apparently based on true stories and it was at this moment in time that he had conjured up the idea of a witch who had been known by the name Withern. The legend spoke of Withern and how the curse upon her forest called the Woods of Withern had come to be. Apparently she had a pet cat and one day that cat was killed on accident by a boy who lived in the village beyond her forest. This angered Withern which drove her to putting a curse on the boy in order to bring him sickness and death. Then on the day that the boy died of an unknown sickness, all of the villagers marched up to the house within the woods of Withern and hung her from a tree. But before her demise, Withern spoke of a curse that would come upon the village following her death.

"I am death." Withern had said.

"And I now see all of you for who you are." Withern had hissed.

And then withern spoke of the curse.

"A curse upon all of you. I curse you all with a curse of suicide op he who walks alone in my woods and I place a curse on he who walks with others with the curse of murderous madness and bloodlust." said Withern.

Soon after this curse was placed upon the villagers, people in the village began to kill themselves in droves and many of murderous intent began to come about in the village killing many with bladed weapons of all kinds. Soon there was nothing left of the village or the woods of Withern but people still say that if you enter the woods of Withern and you challenge the Curse of the Witch named Withern that you too shall come under the curse of death that she so pessimistically placed upon the villagers.

"I'm not so sure if that is true Brian." I said.

"Well Timmy...you know that I would never lie to you." said Brian.

Then my other two friends piped up. Laura and Dora.

"You know that there is a small documentary competition going on." said Laura.

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"What are you saying Laura?" questioned Dora.

"What I am saying is that we might be able to make a small film out of this so called curse." said Laura.

"I don't know...it sounds kind of scary to me. Maybe we should just leave well enough alone." said Dora.

"Oh come on sis. Dad always said that we should go on more adventures together." said Laura.

"Maybe we should try and make a small documentary….a little extra cash could not hurt at all actually." said Brian.

"I guess so. But I'm only doing this for the money." I said.

"Well that's alright...or maybe you are doing this because you know deep down that the legend is true." said Brian following with an jokingly evil laugh.

I rolled my eyes at his stupidity.

"Right...so how do you want to get this thing started Brian?" I asked.

"I got a selection of cameras at my home...maybe we could use those." said Brian.

"That's all well and good. But if we are going to investigate the whereabouts of Withern and her curse upon the village….maybe we should go to the library and see if we can find some information on Withern and her forest of certain horrors." I said.

"You know what Timmy...that's a good idea that you've got there. Okay guys, let's meet at the library tomorrow and twelve in the morning." said Brian

We all then went on back home to get ready for our little mission.

Later that night I awoke to a pounding at my door. When I got out of my bed, I noticed that my mom and dad were not up and it struck me as odd due to the fact that whatever the time was, they would always answer the door.

"Who's is it?" I called as I made my way to the door.

But this did not cause the pounding to cease not just one bit at all. As I made my way closer, the pounding intensified and even the door had begun to shake as did the door knob look as if it was about to snap off.

Then as I approached the door, it flew open and I could see a body lying in the doorway. It was a girl. As I took her in my arms I noticed that her whole body was covered in cuts. Though they were no ordinary slashes. Upside down cross and pentagrams cut into her body as if somebody was marking her for something.

"Please please....she's coming for us." shrieked the scarred girl.

"What are you talking about? Who is coming for us?" I said.

"The woman of darkness...the lady of the shadows….from the rivers of blood and out of the forest of rot and decay she comes for our souls….Withern" hissed the scarred girl.

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And then a cackle of horrific incarnate of torturous intent shrieked from the north.

Then the scarred girl snapped her head in the direction of the cackling laughter. Then I heard a voice whisper in the wind in a hiss that should not exist. I heard woman of darkness hiss. I heard the lady of the shadows whisper. From the rivers of blood she called and from the forest of rot and decay she hissed.

"Fear me for I am the curse which hides within the shadows waiting to close in on my prey. Know me for I am the evil that lurks within the deepest and darkest corners of your mind. Denounce me for I am the unknown. Hold terror of me within for I am the unholy….find me to be true for I am WIthern...that once was of peace yet not I hold bitter and pessimistic horrors

against all who enter my forest...the woods of withern is where all come looking to before for their own wealth and gain." hissed Withern in the wind.

I then seen a shadow of darkness begin to come closer to my home from the north. Terrified, I pulled the scarred girl into my home and slammed the door shut. I then turned to see the scarred girl. Tears ran down her face of pain and terror as she weeped.

"Who...who is that?" I choked out in fear.

Then the scarred girl grabbed a hold of my collar and looked me dead in the eyes with her bloodshot pupils.

"She is the dark woman….she is Withern," cried the scarred girl.

Then a pounding came to my door. I saw a shadow of darkness begin to fill the windows in the door and front of my home. The door began to shake to its very foundation. Then as the door began to look as if it was about to bust down, I took the scarred girl in my arms and ran upstairs to my parents room only to see the most unimaginable of all my horrors. I saw my mother laying in a pool of blood with her throat slit ear to ear. In horror I gazed upon my father cackling in laughter and covered in blood standing over my mother with a knife tightly gripped in his hand.

"What have you done?!" I screamed in horror.

My father then turned to me still gripping the knife.

"I'm sorry son" whispered my father.

My father then placed the knife at his throat and pulled it across tearing his throat open. Before he hit the floor, I heard a whisper in my ear.

"I'm coming for you." said WIthern.

I awoke with a yelp. I looked around my room in search for any sign that I was still in the nightmare. Though at the moment, all I could see was the sun shining through my window. A warm feeling of sunlight warmed my stomach and made the thought of the cold nightmare go away. Though I still questioned what had caused the nightmare. Was it really the Witch named Withern warning me of her curse. That I should not dare enter that damned forest, or else...or

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else something terribly awful would happen...something grave….something grim...something

evil...something of sin. I then realized that it was almost time to meet the others at the library. I

got up and dressed myself and headed for the library. I walked till I made it to the library. I saw Brian, Laura and Dora standing outside by the steps.

"Hey Timmy!!!" said Dora.

"Hey what's up guys?" I said as I made my way over to them.

"You ready to study?" Brian questioned.

"As ready as I'm ever gonna be." I said.

"So what are we supposed to be looking for?" asked Laura.

"Books on witches...curses...and if you can find it, books on Withern." said Brian.

"Alright..so you guys ready?" said Dora.

Laura nodded.

"Yep...how about you guys?" said Laura as she looked at me and Brian..

Me and Brian nodded in agreement.

We made our way into the library and met by the computers.

"Alright guys. Let's split up and see what kind of information we can find." said Brian.

"Alright you heard em girls...let's get to it." I said.

We all split up for an hour to see if we could dig up any information about witches, curses and maybe even Withern herself. An hour later, we all met at the tables in the left wing on the second floor of the Library. We all sat down and placed our books on the table. I had found a book that was named "The Legend of Withern and her curse." Laura and Dora both found a book on curses and Brian found a book on witches.

"Alright guys. What did you all find?" I asked.

"I found a book on curses." said Dora.

"Me too." said Laura.

"I found a book on witches." said Brian.

"So what did you guys find in your studying?" I asked.

"I found that during the salem witch trials that in order to tell if someone was not a witch that they would tie and big rock to them and throw them into a lake." said Brian.

"And how did that tell if they were a witch or not?" I asked.

"That's the stupid part. If they were innocent, they would drown and if they were a witch...they would break free from the ropes and float to the surface." said Brian.

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"That is quite stupid." I said with a follow up of rolling my eyes.

"And you girls...what did you find out in your studies?" said Brian as he turned to face Dora and Laura.

"We found that the curse of a Witch can never be broken and that the only escape...is death." said both Laura and Dora in a sarcastically scary tone.

"How nice." said Brian sarcastically.

What did you find? Laura asked as she turned to me.

"Well I found out a lot but the most interesting thing that I found was that there was two sides to the curse of Withern. One if you are with someone, you will become bloodlusted and will kill everything that you see and two...well if you are alone, you will simply kill yourself." I said.

"So what do you guys make of this?" said Brian.

"I think that we have gathered some good information. So you guys want to go tomorrow?" I asked.

‘I am not sure really...if this really is true, our fate could be quite ill." said Dora.

"Oh come on sis. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity." said Laura.

Dora sighed.

"Oh alright." said Dora.

"Cool so let's move out tomorrow." said Brian.

"Alright cool." I said.

We all then went back to our homes. I went to sleep but awoke in the middle of a forest. A woman I saw in the clearing of the woods. She pointed at me.

"If you so dare enter my forest, you shall become a monster...just like me." said the woman.

I then awoke. I did not know what to think of the dream. I got up, got dressed and headed for the forest to meet my friends. Once I made it to the woods of Withern and saw my friends, I was overcome by a feeling of hate and depression.

"Hey dude." said Brian cheerfully.

"Hey buddy." said Laura and Dora.

And then that is the last of what I remember. I remember hearing screams. So many screams. And then I awoke by a lake of blood. I saw my friends dead bodies in the water. But that was not all. I saw my reflection in the water. My eyes that were once blue were now completely black and sunken in. My skin that was once tan was now ghostly white. My once smooth hands were now rough and had long claws. I was once human but now...I am monster.

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