The Witch of the Woods

“Come with me,” said the witch, “if you want to live.”

Margaret touched her hand. “Yes,” she said, between heaving breaths. “Help. Us.” Next to her, John looked back toward the dark woods trembling. They were far from home and near panic.

The witch moved the children behind her and scanned the woods. She caught movement, a red-white bloom in the infrared. Her eyes whined as they narrowed. It was here.

“Stay here, children,” she said in a voice flat and deep. “I’ll be back.”

The witch drew her wands just as The Stepmother howled and burst from the tree-line.

Two things. First, I know I’m late to the writing prompt. This past week proved more exhausting than I had reckoned. Without going into great detail, I had to spend more than a couple hours this week visiting a sick loved one. The hours in the hospital, or driving back and forth running necessary errands, were hours I could not spend writing or “recharging”. it took a couple days to get the brain back to a semblance of normal habit. I hope this story is worth the wait.

Second, the story is the first written on a wonderful little device called the AlphaSmart Neo2. It is, essentially, a portable (and quite durable) word processor. I got it as a birthday gift last year but hadn’t figured out quite how I would use it to write. Last night, I figured I might as well do *something* with it, since other things I had tried weren’t working. I sat in bed, put the keyboard in front of me, and commenced to tippy-typing. A half-hour later, I had this. Neat, huh? I’m going to try it again. This thing may just be magic!

Oh! One last thing. I did try to be a little clever in the story, by mixing one famous story with another. Did it work for you? Let me know, please!