Witch: A Horror Novel (The Cursed Manuscripts) by Iain Wright (nonfiction book recommendations TXT) 📕

They walked for a few minutes, and suddenly the woods seemed unfamiliar. Ashley wondered whether she might have got it wrong. She expected Jude to chide her for getting them lost, but then she spotted something she recognised.

NO TRESPASSING.

Moss and dirt obscured a majority of the sign, but there was no doubt it was the same one they’d seen yesterday. It meant the farmhouse was near.

Ashley found the gap in the bushes where they had pushed through and pulled the branches aside. She waited for Jude to make his way through.

This is his noble quest. Let him be the one to go first.

Inch by inch, the two of them made their way through the bushes. They reached the clearing on the other side and looked around. Ashley almost expected the farmhouse to be gone, but there it was, just as before, crumbling brick and a missing roof. The weeds and vines still filled every gap, and the entire building was cast in shadow.

Ashley froze in place, unable to move.

What the hell am I doing back here?

Jude was a few steps ahead, but when he realised she wasn’t following, he stopped and looked back at her. “It’s okay,” he said. “We can do this. Everything is going to be fine. One down, two down, right?”

“One down, two down.” Ashley took a tentative step forward and got herself moving. She caught up with Jude, and the two of them approached the farmhouse together. The clearing was silent, no birds in the trees and certainly no screaming naked women. There was, however, a dead squirrel – the same one Jude had stepped on yesterday. It was oddly comforting – a confirmation that events had happened as they remembered them.

Jude moved through the clearing until he reached the uneven steps that led inside the farmhouse. He waited for her to join him and then took the first step. Ashley waited for him to go inside and hurried in behind him. As with everything else so far, it was exactly the same as before. The stone-floored room was empty aside from the old fireplace, and the door at the other end was still open as they’d left it. It was hard to see inside the next room without getting closer, but Ashley noticed shadows moving back and forth in the doorway.

Jude wasted no time. He marched forward, hands swinging at his sides. Ashley had never seen him so determined before, yet she also sensed a tension in him. She needed to be ready in case his bravery ran out.

The shadows in the next room continued to move.

Ashley hurried to keep up with Jude. They reached the doorway to the next room and both saw the woman. Both of them gasped. The woman gawked at them, bright green eyes wide and disbelieving.

Wait, weren’t her eyes blue?

Jude stammered. “Sh-She’s here. I knew it! How did… How did the police not find her?”

Ashley was speechless. She looked into the woman’s eyes, and they stared at each other for several moments. Then she looked away and her eyes fell upon something else.

What the fuck?

Dead animals littered the room. Small species, like rats, birds, and squirrels. All of them were torn open, their insides exposed. The smell in the room was unbearable.

“We’re here to help you,” said Jude. “We’re sorry we left you yesterday. You must’ve been so—”

The woman lunged forward, yanking at her chains, which were still attached through her ankles and hands. The bonds tugged at her flesh and caused the wounds to bleed. She bit at the air, jaws snapping closed over and over. She seemed intent on attacking Jude, hissing at him like she hated him.

“What’s wrong with her?” said Jude, backing away. “Why doesn’t she understand we want to help her?”

Ashley grabbed him and moved him back into the other room. “I think it’s you. You’re a man. She’s afraid of you. I think… I think I need to stay with her while you go get help.”

“I’m not leaving you here, Ash. Something’s wrong about all this.”

“Yeah, no fucking shit. Look, take a picture of her and get the fuck out of here. Call the police, and this time drag their useless arses here yourself. I want a big fat apology from PC Riaz.”

Jude managed a slight chuckle despite the bloodcurdling screams coming from the next room. He glanced back through the doorway at the woman. With a nod, he said, “Okay. You sure you’re going to be okay here? There are dead animals everywhere. So many of them… Where did they even—”

Ashley cut him off. “None of this makes sense, so let’s not waste time trying to find answers. Just go, all right? Before I chicken out.”

Jude pulled his phone out of his pocket and held it sideways to take a snap of the woman. She started yanking on her chains and trying to get free. Like a zombie, her mouth snapped at the air constantly. If not for her vibrant green eyes, she could’ve been mistaken for a reanimated corpse.

I swear her eyes were blue.

“Hold on,” said Jude, fiddling with his phone. “I want one with the flash on.”

Ashley waited patiently. Jude’s hands shook as he messed with his phone, and he was clearly panicking as he tried to take the picture. Eventually, he got the settings right and took it.

There was a blinding flash.

Ashley gasped and staggered back.

The woman stopped screaming and growled.

Jude looked at Ashley. “What? What’s wrong?”

“N-Nothing. Just get going. It’s fine. Go.”

Jude went to look at his phone to see the picture he had taken, but when Ashley shouted at him, he put it in his pocket and hurried out of the farmhouse. Then he was gone.

Ashley was alone.

She tried to make sense of what she had seen when the camera had flashed. Her mind could have been playing tricks on her, but if not…

For a split second, almost too fast for her brain to register, she had seen the room change. In the blinding light of the LED