Chapter 2: The Witch

Jason fell, tumbled, over and over again, through some kind of syrup-like, but not sticky, substance. Quickly he lost his bearings; up and down was impossible to discern. His mouth shut tight, lungs begging for air. Tumbling, he felt himself moving through the substance, wondering how much longer he could hold his breath. His lungs burned.

Jason didn’t know where he was going; his eyes were still closed and, by the way the black liquid surrounding him felt, he was going to be falling through it forever.  Aaron made it through this then you can too, Jason thought to himself, if he did make it out.

He stopped tumbling. The strange liquid seemed to have disappeared. As his lungs were on fire, Jason could no longer hold his breath. Jason opened his mouth and sucked in as much air as he could, taking a chance that the liquid had indeed released him. Each breath was a savory treat.

Once his deprived lungs were satiated, Jason began to notice his surroundings. A warm sensation swept across his eyes, and out of sheer curiosity he opened them. He was no longer falling through the strange liquid. Jason was, instead, lying on a bed of grass and flowers, surrounded by what seemed like several hundred trees—all tightly packed together with a mixture of vines and moss covering most of the tree trunks. He had never seen so many plants in all his life.

“What are you doing?  You’re supposed to be looking for your brother, not studying the plant life.”  He scolded himself.

Jason stood and saw for the first time that he had fallen through a doorway.  But this wasn’t just any door: It was a doorframe that held a black shimmering substance; the very same substance Jason had found in the entryway of his home. 

“Jason, help!”  Jason stopped looking at the door. His heart stopped.  While he knew that Aaron had just screamed for his help, Jason didn’t know which direction it came from.

“Aaron!  Can you hear me!?”  Screaming in the middle of the forest was not the smartest thing to do, but Jason needed to find his brother.

“Jason!”  Aaron’s voice was getting further and further away but this time Jason could tell the direction it came from.  He took a deep breath and plunged deeper into the forest. “I’m coming, Aaron!” 

As Jason started running, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched.

*    *    *

The forest was thicker than he had first observed.  Jason was not just walking through the forest, he was weaving his way between the trees like Aaron would whenever he played on the jungle gym, moving his body into positions that he had long forgotten were possible.

An hour seemed to pass and Jason was still finding his way through the forest.  Every once in a while he would call out to his brother but had heard nothing since standing by the doorway. 

“I can’t believe I’m doing this. Walking through some forest after falling into some black tile looking for my brother.  I never thought in a million years that Aaron’s phobia would have come from something real.”  Just then Jason remembered: Aaron wasn’t scared of the black tile he was scared of the old woman in the tile.  Jason moved faster through the forest.

Another hour went by and Jason decided to rest for a few minutes before going on.  He tried to sit on the ground but found there was very little ground to sit on and so he decided to find two trees that could support his weight.  Once this was accomplished he squeezed himself in between two trees and prepared to rest his feet for a minute. However, this was not what happened. Jason suddenly found himself falling, landing flat on his back, hard.  He stood up and found that the trees that were supposed to be supporting his weight appeared to have moved a few inches.  That’s impossible, he thought as he rubbed the back of his head.  Jason could have thought longer on how those trees moved, but he was interrupted by the sound of screaming.

The scream came from his left and as he turned he noticed the forest wasn’t as thick in that direction, more light was seeping through the trees and the smell of baking reached Jason’s nostrils.  It smelled like cookies baking, or maybe pies, Jason wasn’t sure.  The only thing he was sure of was that he heard a scream in that direction, and it appeared that someone was living nearby.  Forgetting about the moving forest, Jason walked towards the thinning trees.

Jason stopped at the edge of the forest and found what he expected, a large clearing and a small cottage. 

There was something wrong with this cottage; it wasn’t cute and adorable like most cottages Jason had seen—not that he’d seen all that many.  It was old and looked as though it was going to collapse with a stiff breeze. Jason watched as it swayed back and forth; he listened as loud creaks broke the unnatural silence. The windows had sharp, irregular shapes as if someone tried to destroy the cottage but had failed and who ever lived there had tried to fix the jagged hole by putting a window there. 

Jason was scared.  Somehow he knew that Aaron was inside the cottage and he wasn’t alone.  He heard the scream again; only now that he was closer he noticed that it wasn’t a scream at all. Someone, or something, was laughing.  

Jason got down on all fours and started crawling through the tall grass, hoping that whatever was in that cottage wasn’t going to see him.  As he got closer to the cottage, a voice was heard talking and then laughing.  Jason made it to the swaying cottage undetected and quickly moved to one of the weird windows; he took a chance and peered through the window.

He gasped. Aaron was there tied to a chair, a red fabric stuffed into his mouth; he was crying.  A large black object obstructed his view and Jason crouched lower beneath the window hoping that whatever it was did not see him, but it didn’t, at least not that he was aware of.  He raised his head and peeked into the window again; the black object was smaller now because it was closer to Aaron.

And then the black object spoke, “So are you going to stop screaming now? I hope so ‘cause my ears can only take so much, and I would hate to cut out your tongue. No, that’s a lie. I would love to cut your tongue out, poor Esther hasn’t eaten anything fresh for days.” Jason shivered; this was not the voice of anything natural. It was scratchy and cold, as if it hadn’t been used in years.  The creature leaned over Aaron and after a second walked away, out of Jason’s view carrying a red cloth. Jason took this opportunity to get Aaron’s attention. Aaron was just about to start screaming again when Jason waved through the window and placed his index finger in front of his mouth; Aaron closed his mouth and gave his older brother a tear-stained smile.

“What are you smiling at?”  Croaked the creature.

“Nothing.”  Aaron tried to sound strong but was unable to hide his fear. Jason couldn’t blame him.

“It’s not nice for little boys to lie. Do you know what happens to little liars like you?” The creature towered over Aaron, blocking Jason’s view.

“They grow big noses?” Aaron’s voice cracked a little. Jason smiled.

“Big noses!? What nonsense!  Where did learn a stupid thing like that?  No dear boy, liars like you are turned into food.”  Jason’s heart stopped.  He needed to think of something quick; Jason may not have liked his brother but whatever Aaron did, he didn’t deserve to be turned into food. 

Jason looked for something to use as a weapon.  He crawled around the cottage, hoping to find something, anything. Jason found his answer at the back of the cottage: an ax lying on the ground next to a large tree stump.  Keeping low, he ran and grabbed it, returning to his spot underneath the window. 

The creature was still standing over Aaron, whispering something in Aaron’s ear.  Now was his chance. 

Jason moved to the front door and slowly pushed it open, just enough to see inside.  Aaron’s captor hadn’t moved.

“You’re a mean, ugly old monster!” Hearing Aaron yell out against this creature Jason felt a sudden surge of pride fill his heart.

“Ugly? Old? Those things I may be, but you’re a spoiled little brat who never brought anything to his family but trouble.” He opened the door enough to squeeze through, trying to be as quiet as possible. Once Jason was inside the cottage, he noticed that the creature’s voice was deep and scratchy. He hoped that Aaron could keep the old monster’s attention a little longer.

“You’re lying.  My family loves me.” Aaron spoke out.

“Do they?”

“What?”  Aaron’s voice grew weaker. Jason moved closer, yet he couldn’t help feeling like he’d been hit in the stomach.

“You are a stupid little boy. Always whining and crying about this and that. It’s a wonder your mother hasn’t left you on the side the road. I’ll tell you something. Before you were born your family was happier. They were whole.” Jason could sense the creature’s smile behind these words and hated the thing even more. No one talked to his brother like that—except him, of course. He stood up behind the creature torturing Aaron and prepared to swing.

“And what about your brother, Jason?” The creature continued. Jason stopped.  “I’ve never seen him do anything nice to you. He’s always scaring you, hiding behind corners, turning off all the lights, moving your precious rug… the only thing that protected you from me.  Tell me, does he love you?”  Jason wanted to swing, all it would take was one swift move of his shoulders and arms and everything would be all right; but he hesitated, wanting to hear Aaron’s answer.

“Y. . .y. . .yes.” Aaron’s voice quiet unsure.

“Y. . . y. . .yes what?”

“My brother loves me.” His voice was even quieter.

“You don’t sound so sure. Jealousy is a wonderful emotion, don’t you think? You should hear what he says to himself at night.  Terrible things, I couldn’t repeat them.  You are a terrible little monster. Jason has never loved you.  I’m doing him a favor by taking you away, and soon they’ll forget you ever existed.”

“That’s not true.” Aaron was beginning to cry again.

“Oh, yeah. Prove it.” The only sound Jason heard was Aaron’s sobs.

Jason couldn’t take anymore.  He swung.

The ax never made contact with its target. Jason felt as though he’d hit concrete and then the ax was ripped out of his hands. He only had a moment to wonder at this before he was flung against the wall by an unseen force.  A cold sensation surrounded his throat, trying to choke the life out of him.

“Stupid boy! Don’t you think I know what’s going on in my own house!?”  The creature whirled around and faced him.  Jason would’ve screamed if he could.  There in front of him was a horrible monster, red flashing eyes surrounded by a face old enough to be a grandmother a hundred times over.  Her skin—Jason knew that she was a woman despite her haggard appearance—was grey and populated by thousands of wrinkles, like crumpled paper; her hand was stretched out pointing at Jason as he was lifted higher above the floor, scratching at the invisible force around his neck.

“I haven’t lived three hundred years to be out smarted by the likes of you. What were you going to do? Kill me? You don’t have it in you.” The icy force loosened its grip. Jason dropped to the floor gasping for air. He was only aloud a second of recuperation before was again thrown through the air into a chair.  As soon as he landed into the wooden chair, vine-like tentacles surrounded his arms, legs and chest locking him into place.

Inside the small cottage looked like something out of a nightmare. Sure it had everything a normal cottage would there were subtle differences. A roaring fire burned in the fireplace that took up an entire wall, but Jason did not remember seeing a chimneystack on the roof when he was crawling towards the cottage. One large, brown puffy chair was positioned next to the fireplace, but far from inviting, it looked kind of like the face of Frankenstein’s monster, patched together with stitches. Jason guessed the material wasn’t leather. The one room cottage was filled with a multitude of tables, varying in height. But like everything else, these were not your normal tables. For instance, one table had only one leg; it swayed back and forth, threatening to fall over.  On these tables were all sorts of glass containers filled with stomach turning objects: lizards, bugs, and severed limbs from unidentifiable animals. All the containers had chips, cracks, and disgusting liquids seeping out onto the tables.  And hanging from the ceiling was a large wire cage. Inside that cage was the biggest, ugliest crow Jason had ever seen.

Yup, Jason thought, right out of nightmare. 

In the center of the cottage was a large black pot that could hold four people comfortably; its lid was leaning on the wall closest to the pot.

Jason didn’t want to linger on what the pot was used for and instead started trying to think of a new plan, hoping that it worked better than the first one.

“What took you so long to find us?  I hope the forest didn’t give you too much trouble.  My trees do like to play with young boys like you.”  The Witch’s voice clawed at Jason’s ears.

“No problem. Just thought I’d take my time.”

Her lips thinned. “I see now where your brother gets his sharp tongue.  But it doesn’t matter now that I have you both here with me.”  The Witch smiled and moved to one of the cabinets hanging over the large silver lid.  She opened it and looked at the hundreds of bottles that filled the cabinet, she grabbed two bottles and closed the door.  With a wave of her hand a fire erupted beneath the large black pot.

“Hungry are you?” Jason said.

“No I ate a couple of hours ago, just before I grabbed your brother.” She looked at Aaron who retreated as far back into his chair as he could. “What do think I’m going to do, eat you?”

“Isn’t that what witches do?”

The Witch laughed but to Jason it sounded more than a little unsettling. “You read too many stories. I’m not going to eat you or your brother.”

“Then what’s with the big pot?”

“Oh that?  It was the only one left at the market.  All of the good cauldron’s had already been bought. Esther here,” she pointed to the enormous, grotesque crow in the wire cage, “didn’t wake me up early enough.” Esther cawed at the attention of her master.

“So what do you plan to do with us?”  Jason asked.

“That’s a surprise.”

“I don’t like surprises.”

“You’ll like this one, I promise.”  The Witch poured the contents of both bottles into the steaming pot and stood back as the fire engulfed the entire pot. She grumbled a curse at her stupidly large pot, waved her hand, and the fire receded to a more manageable size. 

Jason looked around the cabin; desperate to find anything that could help them get away from this horrid creature. Aaron was staring at the large pot, eyes popping, transfixed by the sounds emanating from inside. Jason decided Aaron was not going to be much help and couldn’t risk talking to him without the Witch overhearing.

It was at that moment that Jason saw a slight movement of the vines holding his brother into the chair. He blinked and looked again. Yes, they were moving. Then Jason noticed a tightening around his own arms and saw that the vines holding him in place were adjusting to his movements, preventing him from leaning further out of his chair. Could these things be alive? He tried to lift his arm up and sure enough they tightened their grip. What if these things could feel pain? Stupid, Jason was sure, until he heard whispering behind him.

“Would you two shut up!? I’m trying to concentrate.” The Witch continued hovering over her pot mixing different ingredients. She grabbed a small wooden spoon and leaned into the pot stirring the mixture.

Jason wanted to respond but thought it unwise. He relaxed a little so the vines would loosen their grip, and they did.

The whispering continued. It was coming from the chair.

This was Jason’s chance. He used his feet to push the chair back so that it was on two of its four legs and leaned all his weight in the direction of the tipping chair. Jason and the whispering chair fell to the ground.

A loud, muffled screech broke through the air and the vines that were holding Jason into place released him, flailing in the air. Jason moved for the ax on the floor, grabbed it and swung at one of the legs on Aaron’s chair. It screamed and released Aaron.

“Oh my leg!  My leg!”  The chair screamed so loud Jason almost felt sorry for it.

“What the. . .?”  The Witch turned from her pot but didn’t have a chance; Jason heaved all of his weight into her stomach and shoved her into the pot.

Her scream pierced Jason’s eardrums.

Jason grabbed Aaron’s hand and dragged him out of the front door, brandishing the ax in front of him in case any other inanimate object decided to come to life. The Witch was still screaming from within the cottage.

As they made it to the edge of the forest Jason ran into a new problem: There was not enough room in between the trees to allow either him or his brother to pass.

“Put down your ax, Jason.”  Aaron said, his voice returning.

Jason did as his brother instructed and placed the ax on the ground.  Immediately the trees shifted, revealing a path. 

“I’ll kill ‘em! I’m going kill ‘em! I swear!” The Witch was still alive, and very angry. They didn’t have long.

“Come on, hurry.” Jason said as he and Aaron ran into the forest.

The trees closed in behind them.