The witch was
the witch
was
the witch
was the witch
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Notes:
1. Written on July 28th, 2023
2. I think
3. (I forgot to date it at the time)
the witch
Tales From The Town #78: In The Woods In The Early Autumn
1. The witch only celebrated palindromic birthdays. 101 was her favourite so far. She didn’t consider the single digit years to truly count. Even the two digit ones seemed a little suspect, but she forgave them simply because otherwise she’d have had none before today.
2. An exodus of dolls at dawn. Crawling, walking, tottering, skittering. Past the cherry tree and the swing and the well and the hollow and the copse and the abandoned boat.
3. Not for the witch a present given. Instead, from her a promise extracted. Cackles of glee, watched by eyes wide in terror.
4. Up above, the crows circled above the hill like vultures. In the trees all around squirrels whispered secrets to each other like sentient social media accounts. And down below, cats patrolled the woods like, well, cats. Anything that moved was pounced upon with the utmost glee. Prisoners subsequently released purely so they could be caught again, tormented some more.
5. On their return, the children couldn’t help but notice the way the doll’s dresses were covered in jam, the way their lips were smeared with icing, crumbs speckling their hair like dirt. No amount of questions would make the dolls admit where it was they had been, nor what it was they had done, why it was their eyes were tinged with so much shame.
6. All they would say was that it was done now. There was no turning back.
7. “What does that even mean?!” Claire said loudly.
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Notes:
1. Written on May 17th and 18th, 2022, and also a little bit extra on October 7th, 2022
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“There, there, little one,” the witch said. “All done now.”
The doll slowly raised her stiff little arm up and touched her stiff little face with her stiff little hand. She blinked and winked and chuckled. She had a new eye! Now she wouldn’t look so creepy at all!
“It suits you,” the witch said, as the doll fluttered those stiff little eyelids at her. She leaned down and wiped a droplet of blood from the doll’s cheek. “I don’t know where the crows find them. And still fresh too. I bet you could cry now if you wanted to.”
The doll shook her head and gave an eerie little giggle instead. She was too happy to cry.
“Now, let’s talk about my fee,” the witch said. “I hope you’ve got a good secret for me, dearie?”
The doll nodded her stiff little head and then stood up on her stiff little legs and tottered over to the edge of the table and whispered her secret into the witch’s ear.
“Ooh, that is a good little secret,” the witch said. “A good little secret indeed!”
In the queue by the door, the other broken little dolls all strained to hear what their sister said. They hoped her secret wasn’t the same as theirs. The last thing a doll wanted was to be in debt to a witch.
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Notes:
1. Written between the 4th and the 6th of May, 2021
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