Witch of Apple Hill ~ Part 3

Making her way to the top of Apple Hill, where her house stood, she turned and faced the town below. She closed her eyes and rolled her wrists to where her palms were face up, then she began chanting.

First a spell to make her voice echo on the wind. She wanted to make sure that each and every household would awake and hear her. She wanted them to tremble in their beds and hide under the covers.

The spell complete she repeated her words she had used on the night she made the curse thirty nine years ago. “Get out! Leave my valley or every generation of your families that stay will endure my wrath. You think that it is I that is evil, but the evil lies in your hearts and it will soil my land no longer. Leave by the week’s end or pay the consequences.”

She rolled her wrists again in a quick trust pushing her words and the winds through the town. The cursed gale flew through the town knocking over decorations and streets signs. Windows burst out of businesses as a mini tornado tore at the town shouted her curse.

Watching, she smiled as the lights of the town started to flicker on and worried townspeople peeked out of their doors to assess the damage. She heard the sound of the lone police siren, trying to comfort the people. As if that one man could contain her wrath? He was overweight and rarely worked a case bigger than a missing garden gnome or someone’s missing cat. He was not one of the town’s founders, just another stray that had wondered into her valley.

The worried words of the townsfolk wafted up to her house, causing her to chuckle. She flicked her wrists one more time, transplanting the shrine’s mums into her own garden and making the mums at the shrine appear black and dead.

With a satisfying sigh she went inside for tea.

Chapter 2

Elise walked toward the library and worked hard to put a look of concern on her face as she greeted the townsfolk who were busy cleaning the mess she had made the night before.

“Morning, Elise,” said Mayor Garver. He sat down a rake he’d been using to gather up litter and hurried over to her. “Don’t worry the library is okay. I checked on it first thing. Did you fair okay in last night’s storm?”

“Storm?” Elise cocked her head. She knew full well the library was fine. She would never hurt her precious building full of stories and knowledge. “I must’ve slept right through it. Weird, though, not a leaf out of place up on the hill.”

“I think it was one of those microbursts,” said Mayor Garver.

“Microburst?”

“Like a tornado, but smaller and in a more concentrated area,” explained Mayor Garver.

Elise bit her lip. Some silly weather phenom was getting credit for her work? “We don’t get tornadoes in the valley, Mayor Garver. It’s too cold up here.”

“That’s why it was a microburst,” said the mayor in a tone that made Elise feel small. “It’s okay if you don’t understand it. I’m just glad you and the library are okay. It’s probably a good thing you’re retiring and moving to Paris.”

Else felt a smirk tug on her lips, but pressed her lips together so it wouldn’t show. “Why is that?”

She was sure Mayor Garver was going to tell her it was because the valley was haunted and he didn’t want her to be cursed like the rest of them. Sure that he was going to tell her about the warning that flew through the valley the night before. She just knew that he was going to confess that the valley was haunted by a witch and she didn’t want to be anywhere near her wrath.

Author's Note: I'll be spending quality time with my family over Fall Break. The next episode of Witch of Apple Hill will be on Tuesday, October 22nd.