Witch: A Horror Novel (The Cursed Manuscripts) Read online

  Ashley shielded her face with an arm as airborne twigs, stones, and weeds pummelled her. She shouted out to Jude, “We need to bury the locket.”

  “How? She’s here. She’ll kill us.”

  Ashley dared to move her arm away from her face to look for Rose, but the woman had gone.

  Ashley sensed movement to her left.

  Rose was standing right beside her. She stank of rot and decay. Parts of her flesh were hanging loose. Her bottom lip was split and bloody.

  Jude shouted out a warning and pushed Ashley aside. By the time he turned to face Rose, she was already throwing an arm out to strike him. She caught him in the temple and sent him spinning to the ground.

  Ashley cried out. “Jude! Jude, are you okay?”

  He was dazed but managed to crawl away through the dirt and leaves. “I… I’m fine,” he said. “Stay back from her, Ash.”

  He didn’t need to tell her twice. Ashley hopped backwards and put distance between herself and Rose.

  Rose gave another of her unnatural smiles, and the contents of the ground beneath her feet seemed to die. The moss and weeds shrivelled up and turned black. “Girl,” she whispered. “I knew the moment I met you that you would be the one to free me. I visited you in the night, calling out for your return, and you did return. I see you. I see the darkness inside of you. The rage, it is exquisite. Let it feed.”

  Ashley continued backing away, moving towards the farmhouse. “Fuck off, bitch.”

  Rose cackled. The sound echoed off every tree.

  The gale continued to blow, making it hard to see or even move. It was like being struck by a horde of flies, small constant assaults all over Ashley’s body – the twigs, stones, and everything else lifted into the air by Rose’s fury. Barely any moonlight made it into the clearing.

  There was movement at the centre of the clearing. Rose wasn’t pursuing Ashley, but she continued to cackle. Ashley fought the urge to just plain run the hell out of there. Jude was back on his feet fifteen metres away, but still dazed. In the centre of the clearing, a new person appeared, someone with wild, frizzy hair right down to her waist.

  Lily. What the fuck?

  Lily appeared out of the darkness and staggered towards Jude with jerky, inhuman movements. She was a puppet pulled along on uneven strings. Her eyes were ruby red and her mouth was a massive, cavernous hole. She appeared to have no teeth, but her tongue was three times the length it should’ve been. It flapped around and licked the air.

  “Little help here,” Jude cried out.

  Rose was standing between Ashley and Jude, but Ashley desperately wanted to be at her friend’s side. If this was how they died, then they should do it together. So, using an athleticism she hadn’t even known she had, she dodged to the side and spun around Rose. Then, with some space, she raced to Jude’s side. He grabbed her arm and squeezed it tightly, almost like he was checking to see if she was real. “We need stone,” he said. “We have to finish this.”

  Ashley nodded. If there was any way out of this, it was by doing what Rita had told them to do. They needed to bury the locket. “You find some stone. I’ll deal with Lily.”

  To her own astonishment, Ashley took herself towards Lily. The vicious bully was now a shambling zombie – or a human slug – and there was no way she could still be alive. Rose had corrupted and reanimated her corpse. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer person, but Ashley still pitied her former tormentor. There was no intelligence in Lily’s glowing red eyes, and her twisted body looked like it had been forged from agony itself.

  “Always thought it would be me that killed you,” said Ashley. “Guess I’ll have to satisfy myself with killing you the second time.”

  Lily jerked towards her, quicker than expected. She made no sound except a strangled moaning noise. She reached out for Ashley, but Ashley ducked beneath her outstretched hands. Then she turned and threw a punch, striking Lily in the centre of the chest and sending her ghoulish body stumbling backwards. Ashley grimaced as her fist returned to her caked in gore. She wiped herself on her T-shirt and spat in disgust.

  It’s literally like hitting a corpse.

  Ashley glanced over her shoulder to see Jude scurrying around near the bushes. He needed to hurry the hell up and find some stone.

  Does it need to be a big stone? Or will any do?

  This is so fucked up.

  Lily came at Ashley again. This time, she moved even more quickly. She caught Ashley across the cheek with a clawed hand, and Ashley sensed blood on her face for the second time that day. Familiar rage bubbled up inside of her, and she clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. Without thinking, she lashed out and kicked Lily in the stomach. Lily doubled over. She quickly straightened up, but her torso was distorted, broken and damaged where her foot had landed. Lily’s body was barely held together, but she appeared to feel no pain. She struck Ashley again, this time on the other cheek. Blood poured down her face.

  “You. Fucking. Bitch!” Ashley bellowed in rage. Lily had terrorised her for the best part of three years, and she was still doing it now after she was dead. She was tired of people pushing her around and making her feel bad just for being who she was. Why didn’t the world just fuck off? What was so bad about just being Ashley?

  Lily raised a hand to strike again, but before she did, her head came apart like a dandelion. Scraps of flesh and bone floated away on the wind, and her headless corpse toppled backwards to rejoin the earth. Ashley gasped. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the locket, knowing it had just made her wishes come true.

  No, not my wishes. My anger. It made my anger come true. I can feel Rose’s hatred inside it.

  Ashley turned to check on Jude but found Rose standing directly in front of her. She raised her hands, which had turned into sharpened claws. She hissed, a narrow tongue like a strip of beef jerky flicking out between her bleeding lips. “Give me what is mine.”

  Ashley cowered, too terrified to move.

  Jude raced to her side and quickly got Rose’s attention before she swiped a claw at Ashley’s exposed throat. “Hey, bitch, you’ve got something behind your ear.” He reached out and punched Rose right in the side of the head. Then he pulled his arm back to reveal his gold plastic coin. “You’re a real treasure.”

  Ashley broke out of her terror enough to groan. “I always knew you were made of money. Seriously, Jude, we went over this.”

  Jude groaned. “Damn it!”

  Rose’s head snapped back into place, and she grabbed Jude around the throat so quickly that he never even made a move. His eyes bulged in his head and he started to gag. The gold coin fell from his hand and landed in the mud.

  Rose scowled. “Men made this world, but it is for women to inherit. We must give birth to our power and make manifest our rage. We shall not be servants and whores any longer.”

  “What do you want?” Ashley cried. “Please, just leave him alone.”

  Rose tossed Jude to the ground, where he lay choking. She whirled on Ashley, her green eyes pulsing. “I want it all. I want everything the world can give me. Power. It is intoxicating. Return what is mine and I shall reward you, girl. You feel powerless, but I can change that. Give me the locket and see your hopes and dreams realised.”

  Ashley looked at the piece of jewellery that was threaded between her fingers. It was open, and inside she could see the photographs of Rose’s dead children. Rita had made the locket to punish Rose, to keep her trapped forever, but Ashley realised now that it had also benefited the child murderer. “You can never die if you’re wearing this, can you? That’s why you want it back.”

  “Yessss. Rita’s curse is a gift. Now that I am no longer bound by Gaia’s triangle, I am free to leave this place. But without the locket, my time is short. Give it to me, girl, and I shall see all your wishes come true. I shall share my power with you and help you harness that burning oil searing your veins. We are women; we are powerful. Be my daughter in this.”

  Ashley imagined wha
t it would be like to be powerful. Rose had torn Lily Barnes apart like a child pulled apart a spider. To have such power, to be so unafraid… it seemed impossible.

  Can Rose really give me power? Could I be like her? Could I tear apart my tormentors without breaking a sweat? No more beatings from bullies like Lily Barnes.

  Or my dad.

  I could be powerful. I could be strong.

  Rose was grinning, her broken teeth glinting in the strangled moonlight. She reached out a skeletal hand to Ashley, begging for the locket. Ashley held it up in the air between them, making her mind up about what to do.

  Power.

  I want it.

  Jude called out to her from the ground. “Ash! Get away from her. Throw me the locket. We need to bury it.”

  “Silence, boy!” Rose hissed and stretched out an arm. A bloody gash opened across Jude’s cheek and he grabbed his face, screaming. Rose looked back at Ashley and sneered. “Be my daughter in this. Say the word and I will show you what real power is. I’ll show you what women like you and I can do to men like him. Give me the locket, girl.”

  Ashley was still holding the locket up in the air. Seeing Jude hurt was unexpectedly satisfying. Anger filled her as she recalled the many times he hadn’t stood up for himself. He was weak and she was strong. She had always been the strong one. Perhaps he deserved to die. The rage inside her almost demanded it.

  All these years, he’s been holding me down.

  One down, two down.

  How strong could I be without him?

  She saw something glinting in the mud at her feet. A silly gold plastic coin. Part of Jude’s dorky, childish magic tricks.

  Ashley knew what she needed to do. She grinned at Rose and offered the locket. “Here, take it.”

  Rose grinned, her lips splitting apart and bleeding. “Yesss.”

  But just as Rose reached out to take the locket, Ashley yanked it away with a shimmy of her arm. She followed it up with a spin and a kick that would have made Michael Jackson proud. “Think I’ll pass on being your kid, Rose. I don’t want to end up like your last ones.” With that, she pulled the locket up and over her head and let it fall onto her chest. Immediately she felt a burning sensation, even through her T-shirt. Her fists clenched in agony and her jaw set tightly. Her entire body cried out in pain.

  Then the pain stopped.

  Fury flowed through Ashley’s veins, but for once it was comforting. It no longer had control of her. She had control of it.

  Rose’s mouth opened wide and the decayed flesh of her diseased body turned jet black. Her rotten teeth fell out one by one, as did her hair.

  With a shrug of her shoulders, Ashley said, “Fuck off and die, bitch.”

  “Fool!” Rose spoke between mouthfuls of thick black tar. “Wretched little bitch. I… I see you. I see your heart and it is putrescent. There is no victory in this for you. I shall seize you in your nightmares and squeeze your insides until you pop. Every night, I shall… I shall be with you. Stupid… child.” She reached out to snatch the locket, but Ashley kicked the weakened woman in the leg and sent her to her knees.

  “Stay down. It’s over.”

  Rose glared, but something in her eyes made it obvious that she knew she was finished – she was afraid. As a final defiant act, the dying woman threw out her arms like Christ on the cross and stared up at the night sky. “Let the devil take me, but no man will shall own me. I shall make Hell tremble.”

  Rose’s body burst apart and scattered on the wind. In a second, she was gone, her evil finally at an end.

  Ashely bent over and took deep breaths, her heart thudding against her chest.

  It’s over.

  I did it. I beat her.

  The oppressive air of the clearing went away, leaving behind only the pure scent of the woods. The moon grew brighter above the treetops.

  Jude stood nearby, clutching his face and moaning. Blood covered his face, but he was relieved when he looked at her.

  She picked up his plastic coin from the mud and took it over to him. Seeing it on the ground had reminded her of how innocent and pure her best friend was. He lived in a world where magic was only pretend and was supposed to put smiles on people’s faces and make life a little more fun. He wasn’t a coward or a wimp. Jude was a kind and gentle soul who had the strength to say no to anger. The Rickys, Lilys, and Roses of the world would never be enough to change him. He would never sink to their level by letting in anger and violence.

  And if it wasn’t for him, my anger would take over me and I would have nothing good left inside me. I need Jude, because without him, I’m alone.

  Jude took his muddy coin and examined it. “Thanks, but I think I’ve had enough of magic.”

  She cupped a hand against his wounded cheek. His blood was hot against her palm. “Let’s never come to these fucking woods again, yeah?”

  Jude nodded seriously. “The warrior princess and her trusted mage agree to retire. Never again will they dare the perils of Devil’s Ditch.”

  The two of them shared a laugh, but then Ashley noticed something that wasn’t funny at all. When she pulled her hand away from Jude’s bloody cheek, his wound had miraculously healed.

  Jude was still hurting, so he had to lean on Ashley as they made their way out of Devil’s Ditch. It was late, but his watch was cracked and broken, so he had no idea how late. For now, he was happy to enjoy the gentle breeze on his face and the complete silence of the woods as they trudged through the undergrowth.

  The woods felt different now. He had never realised before how thick the air had been, but he could breathe deeply now. There was no scent to the air, and the trees and bushes swayed gently. Ashley’s hand was on his back beneath his T-shirt. Her touch was hot and it soothed his aches. They both knew what they were walking into, but he was glad they were doing it together. “Ashley?”

  “Yeah?”

  “What happened back there? How did you beat Rose?” He also wanted to ask how she had healed his cheek, but he could only think about one thing at a time.

  Ashley didn’t answer for a moment. Then she removed her hand from his back and placed it around the locket on her chest. “Rita told us that decades of Rose’s hate and anger were inside this locket and that it has power. I used it as a weapon and sent it back at Rose.”

  Jude kind of understood. It was clear that the locket had power – he had seen it when Ashley had destroyed Ricky’s hand – but its main ability seemed to be hurting people. “Maybe you should take it off now.”

  She nodded. “As soon as we’re out of here and safe, it’s the first thing I’ll be doing. I can feel it on me. It’s like having a hot coal against my skin.”

  “It’s evil,” said Jude.

  “Maybe, but it saved our butts, so I’m keeping it until I know we’re outta the woods.” She nudged him and smiled. “Get it? Outta the woods.”

  He grinned, but he couldn’t manage a chuckle. “So what do you think comes next?”

  “Probably the worst telling off of our lives followed by a lifetime grounding. The police, my dad, your mum; they’re going to rip us to shreds.”

  “I’m not looking forward to any of it. It’s going to suck, big time.”

  She put her hand back under his T-shirt and rubbed. “Yep, but then it’ll be over. They can’t punish us forever, and whatever happens, you and I will always know the truth. Nobody is ever going to keep us apart, Jude. One down, two down.”

  He nodded. “One down, two down.”

  “I think I see the footpath. Thank God. Let’s put this place behind us.”

  “Yeah. I’m starving. Maybe we can manage to get something to eat before the police find us.”

  Ashley smirked at him. “I bet we can.”

  The police found them as soon as they left the woods.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Jude lay back in Ashley’s bed and stared at the ceiling. It was the last day of summer and school started tomorrow. With everything that had happened, he wa
s more than thrilled to go back. Suddenly, maths lessons and Shakespeare were more enticing than they’d ever been. He couldn’t wait to be bored.

  In the ten days since they’d dealt with Rose, things had first got worse and then slowly got better. PC Riaz questioned them relentlessly about Lily Barnes, popping by each morning to get answers. No one had seen the girl in over a week, and no body had been located. Her family was on the warpath, and they wouldn’t stop until they drew blood. Ashley and Jude did everything they could to stay out of the family’s way, and fortunately, the police hadn’t shared their names. If it ever got out that he and Ashley were the ones who had reported Lily’s death, though, they would probably have to go into hiding.

  As much as PC Riaz had been left irritated, confused, and eventually angry, he could not find any evidence of a crime. In the end, he had given both Ashley and Jude an official caution, and threatened them with a full-on prosecution if he heard one more word about a farmhouse in the woods. Funnily enough, the farmhouse itself no longer existed. Zosimus Sphere, the company that owned it, had moved in with equipment to flatten it. Jude hadn’t gone into the woods, but there were caterpillar tracks all the way through it where a bulldozer had driven in, and he had seen the bricks and timbers being removed by a tractor and trailer.

  The saddest part of the last week and a half was when Jude had opened the local paper and read about a freak incident in the posh part of town. A ninety-six-year-old woman had suffered a heart attack at the exact same moment as her forty-year-old grandson. Neighbours found them both dead, lying side by side.

  Peter and Rita Glendale, just two more casualties from Jude and Ashley’s actions.

  Jude struggled with the guilt more than Ashley did. In fact, a weight seemed to have lifted from her shoulders, and she was happier and more confident than ever. She kept reminding him that Rose was the only person to blame for what had happened, and that they’d had no way of knowing the consequences when Lily and Ricky had chased them into the woods. He knew she was right, but he still kept thinking about all the misery their actions had caused.