I ran out of the church, not caring about the rain or anything. I wasn’t even outside for ten seconds, and I was drenched. I ran into the woods, slipping in puddles. That didn’t stop me. I kept running. I found this run-down cabin in the woods. Only having one window, missing siding, and rotted. But I didn’t care. I went right in and sat on the floor curled up. All I could hear was the rain pouring and slamming onto the door.
Suddenly the rain stopped. A beam of light shined through the only window and landed right on me. The door cracked open, and a faint voice asked, “Who is in my house?” That was the Witch. “How did you get in?” As I was about to tell her who I was she walked and asked again, “How did you get in here?”
I responded, “I’m Vince, and I just walked right in the door was open.” I started to stand up again, keeping my eyes towards the floor, and said, “I’m sorry for intruding, I was leaving my mom’s funeral. I’ll get out of your hair.”
The Witch responded and told me with a gracious tone, “I understand, there is no need to leave. You can sit back down. Now tell me, what is bothering you?”
With a little hesitation, I said, “Well, I left my mom’s funeral because I was overwhelmed with losing her. I was told to say something, and I couldn’t and ran off. I’d do anything to bring her back.”
“You know I’m a Witch, right,” she said. “I could bring her back very easily.”
“Can you actually do that? That would be great. Yeah. Bring her back,” I said, confused at first.
She responded, “Yes, I can do it easily. The only thing is… there is a catch.”
As soon as I heard her say that my heart sank. I had a feeling that there would be a catch. But at that point, I thought I had nothing else to lose. I asked, “What’s the catch?”
“If you want to get your mother back, you must kill someone in return. A soul for a soul. That’s the catch.”
For some reason I wasn’t surprised. There is always a catch when it comes to something like this. I responded, “Why a soul for a soul? You’re a witch, you should be able to just bring someone back.”
“That is not how this works. If you want her back, you have to kill someone in return.”
I had to think about it. I decided to go through with it. The Witch handed me a knife and told me to use it on whoever I decided to kill. I already felt ill about doing it, but I knew it had to be done if I wanted to see mom again.
I left the cabin. It had gotten dark outside. I was going to use that to my advantage to sneak up to someone and do this quick. I walked through the woods until I noticed a park across the tree line. As I walked through the tree line, I saw him. The man who made himself the easiest target. Literally sitting on the park bench, not even looking towards me.
I walked towards him. With each step I took the more I was shaking. The more real this started to become to me. The knife was trembling in my hand. I was about 2 feet away from the man and I couldn’t do it. I dropped the knife and walked away. I couldn’t take a life. I know it’s what I was told to do but I couldn’t go through with it. Who am I to decide who lives or dies? I went back to the church, now just my mother and me. I said my goodbyes.
Zachary LaFever is a Cuban-American who was raised on farmland in New Jersey. He now resides in Orlando, Florida.
