Salem, Massachusetts
7/13/2017. One month before The Great American Eclipse
It was the best thing ever to have a slumber party with Cass, my best friend. We watched movies that night. When it ended, I got up to the bathroom. I was washing my face, but I couldn't stop thinking about the strange feeling I had this evening. I finally turned 16. It was so overwhelming and suffocating. My eyes went dark when I thought about who I would be. My mind was lost in it, and I saw that darkness again. Suddenly, I could feel... something was behind me, it seized my shoulders with its sharp claws. Screaming in pain, I turned back, it was just Cass. "Cassandra! Why do you always do this?", I kept hitting her and she just laughed harder as if she could only hold her belly and crawl back to bed. I gave a long sigh, rolled my eyes, and turned back to the sink. I was startled. The reflection was not me. It was a woman with antlers on her head. She was staring at me with her yellow eyes. I turned away, but I still felt her behind me. "It has begun.", she whispered in my ears.
15 days left
I woke up, realized that I was not in my bed. I was buried with full of dead leaves and branches. I tried to get up in the pitch black. Knowing that I was in a forest, I groped around to find a way out. Then the wind suddenly blew, she was there. I could not go any further, I had to hide or she would know. I could hear the rusting of the dead leaves and howling wind following her movement. The wind started blowing my hair. The more she came closer, the harder the wind blew. I thought I would die. She was standing right behind the tree I was hiding. She made a freaky laughter. My body was trembling, my heart was drumming, and my mind was repeating the prayers. In that scariest moment, everything went deadly silent, no sound. She was gone, I closed my eyes and breathed out to calm myself down. "Boo!", she whispered in my ear.
I startled up. It was that nightmare again. I didn't know how many times I had dreams of that woman in the forest. Why was this keep happening?
I came downstairs, wondering why I was still so exhausted. "Claire, did you have a rough party last night?", my mom asked. "What party mom?", I walked toward to the table like a zombie. "You didn't come to her house? You said you would have a night out with Cassandra!", her face started changing. "Wha... Oh! Yes! I did. It was so fun mom!". I did not. I was at home all night watching movies and then passed out. But what was that movie? Oh no... I went out? What did I do? This could not be true... But the impossible thing was, my eyes turned to yellow when I saw a stray cat on the window. I made it screeched and ran away. What was wrong with me?
13 days left
The school bus arrived my house. I quickly packed my stuff and got in the bus. Cass left a seat next to her for me. We were so excited about this overnight camping. However, everything was like a horror movie. The trip would end up well if that bus did not go through the forest. At first, I saw a nobleman on the roadside staring at me. Then, I started feeling dizzy, the sounds and voices in my head did not stop squeaking. Falling off from the chair, I held my head and didn't stop groaning. At that moment, a raven crashed in the window, then two, and three, and countless of them. When the bus got out, everything just stopped, those dead birds mysteriously disappeared. My headache was also gone.
After getting off the bus, everyone on the trip gave me a disgusted look, they blamed me for what happened, they called me "witch", "freak" and they even cursed me. Unsatisfied, they started hitting me, throwing stones at me even when Cass made every effort to defend me. I could not bear it anymore. I rose up, screamed at their face, and fainted.
...
I woke up in my bed and Cass was still there. I asked her what happened and she said: "You freaked us out. I still don't believe in my eyes. How could you lift all of us up in the air, and moved to a tree with just a wave of your hand? You bound us with the branches came out from the trunk. Then you made some strange voices, suddenly all animals showed up from nowhere in the forest. When all of us thought that they were going to tear us apart, you made them run away because you had convulsions. Tell me, Clarissa. Is it true that you're a witch?".
I told her everything that happened to me, and she thought I was possessed. She continued: "But there's more. When you were lying there, I saw your vessels swelled up, they started turning black and moving as if there were thousands of worms moving under your skin. Then that black liquid gathered round your face and burst out of your eyes. Ugh...". She gave her phone to me: "Someone's recorded what happened there and it's gone viral on internet. It will be better if you see it with your own eyes."
I played the video. That was me, lying there and convulsing. Unexpectedly, I got up, I flew through one by one. Then I stopped at Cass, I put my finger on her neck and said: "Maybe I should slit your throat first." But I stopped. I convulsed again, in a short moment, I groaned: Help...". My voice at that moment seemed to be interrupted as I kept convulsing: "I wi... help... will... help me... slit... your throat... HELP ME!!!". The convulsions became more intense. I fell on the ground. I was on the froth, but instead of the foam, it was worms and larvae. At last, I fainted. I was speechless, Cass was still palming her face. Suddenly, she sat up with her eyes full of hope. She said: "Maybe it's not too late. Did you hear your distorted voice in that video? That was you fighting back the witch! I believe that there is a chance. If you can fight her, then I believe that my friend is strong enough to defeat her". She pulled me out of the bed and we found out the answer on our own.
...
After days in the library, we found out none. Frustrated, I fell asleep and woke up immediately. I saw that woman again, but she couldn't see me. We were in a shrine. She opened the door for the nobleman named Joseph Michaellis. He came to make a deal. She had to let him build a mansion in her forest and he would tell no one that she was the witch of the woods. She accepted. However, his greed made him break the deal, he snitched her. She was condemned to the stake. On June 3rd, 1742, the eclipse happened during the execution. She made a cursed under the eclipse that his soul would be kept in this world to watch all his female descendants suffer her possession. She also swore she would revive in his last descendant's body once the eclipse shone on this land again. When the fire took her over, the vision faded, left me in the shrine with that woman.
"It seems like you have your answer", the witch said, her hand was stroking a boar. "So what now? Today is the day. Are you going to kill me?", I asked. Before she said anything, she ripped the boar's heart out. "You know... this forest, is just a reflection. I am a reflection. It's not real and neither am I. Even if I am, why do I have to harm myself?", she ate the heart as if it was an apple.
I opened my eyes, and screamed. I was holding a bitten heart in my bloody hand. I looked for Cass, but she was right here, lying on the floor with the chest ripped open. I wanted to screamed, but I screeched like a cat. Then I looked at my reflection on the window, my nails were sharpened, my canines grew longer and sharper, and something like the antlers were on my head. The cursed was completed.
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