Page 10 - 201210 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - October 2012

Top 10 Scary Halloween Stories # 10 - Axe Murder Hollow # 9 - Bloody Mary will tear their bodies to pieces and rip their souls A Pennsylvania Ghost from their mutilated bodies. The souls of these unfortunate ones will burn in torment as Bloody She lived deep in the forest in a tiny Story cottage and sold herbal remedies for a living. Mary once was burned, and they will be trapped forever in the mirror. retold by S.E. Schlosser Folks living in the town nearby called her Bloody Mary, and said she was a witch. None # 8 - Burnt Church dared cross the old crone for fear that their cows Susan and Ned were driving through a would go dry, their food-stores rot away before wooded empty section of highway. Lightning winter, their children take sick of fever, or any She was sophisticated, poised, and flashed, thunder roared, the sky went dark in the number of terrible things that an angry witch cultured. In retrospect, this should have made torrential downpour. could do to her neighbors. them suspicious. A teacher like her should be “We’d better stop,” said Susan. Then the little girls in the village began presiding over a girl’s school in London or New Ned nodded his head in agreement. He to disappear, one by one. No one could find out York, not seeking a position in a small town in stepped on the brake, and suddenly the car where they had gone. Grief-stricken families Georgia. But at the time, they were too started to slide on the slick pavement. They searched the woods, the local buildings, and all delighted by her application to ask any plunged off the road and slid to a halt at the the houses and barns, but there was no sign of questions. bottom of an incline. the missing girls. A few brave souls even went “It will be good for our daughter to learn Pale and shaking, Ned quickly turned to to Bloody Mary's home in the woods to see if some culture,” the attorney’s wife told the check if Susan was all right. When she nodded, the witch had taken the girls, but she denied any pastor’s wife. Ned relaxed and looked through the rain soaked knowledge of the disappearances. Still, it was “And our boy may find some table windows. noted that her haggard appearance had changed. manners at last,” the pastor’s wife responded “I’m going to see how bad it is,” he told She looked younger, more attractive. The with a smile. Susan, and when out into the storm. She saw his neighbors were suspicious, but they could find School was called into session in the blurry figure in the headlight, walking around no proof that the witch had taken their young local church shortly after the arrival of the the front of the car. A moment later, he jumped ones. teacher. And soon, the children were bringing in beside her, soaking wet. Then came the night when the daughter glowing reports home. “Teacher” was special. “The car’s not badly damaged, but we’re of the miller rose from her bed and walked Teacher taught them manners and diction as wheel-deep in mud,” he said. “I’m going to outside, following an enchanted sound no one well as reading, writing and arithmetic. All the have to go for help.” else could hear. The miller's wife had a children loved teacher. Susan swallowed nervously. There would be toothache and was sitting up in the kitchen The parents were delighted by the no quick rescue here. He told her to turn off the treating the tooth with an herbal remedy when progress their children were making at school. headlights and lock the doors until he returned. her daughter left the house. She screamed for Teacher had been a real find. A God-send, said Axe Murder Hollow. Although Ned hadn’t her husband and followed the girl out of the the preacher’s wife. said the name aloud, they both knew what he door. The miller came running in his nightshirt. But not everyone in town was so had been thinking when he told her to lock the Together, they tried to restrain the girl, but she satisfied. The local ne-er-do well – called Smith car. This was the place where a man had once kept breaking away from them and heading out – had more sinister stories to tell. taken an axe and hacked his wife to death in a of town. “That woman ain’t natural,” he told the jealous rage over an alleged affair. Supposedly, The desperate cries of the miller and his blacksmith, waving a bottle of whisky for the axe-wielding spirit of the husband continued wife woke the neighbors. They came to assist emphasis. “I seen her out in the woods after to haunt this section of the road. the frantic couple. Suddenly, a sharp-eyed dark, dancing around a campfire and chanting in Outside the car, Susan heard a shriek, a loud farmer gave a shout and pointed towards a a strange language.” thump, and a strange gurgling noise. But she strange light at the edge of the woods. A few “Nonsense,” the blacksmith retorted, couldn’t see anything in the darkness. townsmen followed him out into the field and calmly hammering a headed iron bar on his Frightened, she shrank down into her seat. saw Bloody Mary standing beside a large oak anvil. She sat in silence for a while, and then she tree, holding a magic wand that was pointed “They say she’s got an altar in her room noticed another sound. Bump. Bump. Bump. It towards the miller's house. She was glowing and it ain’t an altar to the Almighty,” Smith was a soft sound, like something being blown with an unearthly light as she set her evil spell insisted, leaning forward and blowing his boozy by the wind. upon the miller's daughter. breath into the blacksmith’s face. Suddenly, the car was illuminated by a bright The townsmen grabbed their guns and “You’re drunk,” said the blacksmith, light. An official sounding voice told her to get their pitchforks and ran toward the witch. When lifting the hot iron so it barred the man from out of the car. Ned must have found a police she heard the commotion, Bloody Mary broke coming any closer. “Go home and sleep it off.” officer. Susan unlocked the door and stepped off her spell and fled back into the woods. The Smith left the smithy, but he continued out of the car. As her eyes adjusted to the bright far-sighted farmer had loaded his gun with to talk wild about the Teacher in the weeks that light, she saw it. silver bullets in case the witch ever came after followed. During those weeks, a change Hanging by his feet from the tree next to the his daughter. Now he took aim and shot at her. gradually came over the school children. The car was the dead body of Ned. His bloody The bullet hit Bloody Mary in the hip and she typical high-jinks and pranks that all children throat had been cut so deeply that he was nearly fell to the ground. The angry townsmen leapt played lessened. Their laughter died away. And decapitated. The wind swung his corpse back upon her and carried her back into the field, when they did misbehave, it was on a much and forth so that it thumped against the tree. where they built a huge bonfire and burned her more ominous scale than before. Items began to Bump. Bump. Bump. at the stake. disappear from houses and farms. Expensive Susan screamed and ran toward the voice and As she burned, Bloody Mary screamed a items like jewelry, farm tools, and money. the light. As she drew close, she realized the curse at the villagers. If anyone mentioned her When children talked back to their parents, light was not coming from a flashlight. Standing name aloud before a mirror, she would send her there was a hard-edge to their voices, and they there was the glowing figure of a man with a spirit to revenge herself upon them for her did not apologize for their rudeness, even when smile on his face and a large, solid, and terrible death. When she was dead, the villagers punished. definitely real axe in his hands. She backed went to the house in the wood and found the “And my daughter lied to me the other away from the glowing figure until she bumped unmarked graves of the little girls the evil witch day,” the attorney’s wife said to the pastor’s into the car. had murdered. She had used their blood to make wife in distress. “I saw her punch her younger “Playing around when my back was turned,” her young again. brother and steal an apple from him, and she the ghost whispered, stroking the sharp blade of From that day to this, anyone foolish denied it to my face. She practically called me the axe with his fingers. “You’ve been very enough to chant Bloody Mary's name three a liar!” naughty.” times before a darkened mirror will summon the The last thing she saw was the glint of the vengeful spirit of the witch. It is said that she (Continued on Page 11) axe blade in the eerie, incandescent light. []