On a cold, dark Halloween night in Ruckersville, my son Bryan asked if I could take him and his friends trick-or-treating around Groverfield, which is a small town with a population of about 2,000 residents. I told Bryan previously that if he went to school every day until Halloween night then I would take him around town as I know how important this night is to him, so without hesitation I agreed. Afterall, this seemed to be a good reward for him not missing a day of school, and I was ready to have some fun with him and his friends on Halloween…or so I thought.
As Bryan and his friends Maddie, Rico, and Jackson gathered around my living room anxious to get the night started, I wanted to start the night with some memorable pictures of them in their best Halloween costumes. Bryan loves to play baseball so he decided that he wanted to dress up as the most athletic baseball player of all-time. I took a look around and saw just how differently his friends viewed their version of dressing up. Maddie had the neatest Little Red Riding Hood outfit that her grandmother made specifically for her; Rico was dressed as a Safari guide with his Halloween bucket decorated with all kinds of animals; and Jackson was in a pirate costume with his red headband on and the plastic sword in his left hand. Pictures went great, and all of the kids acted normal for a few of them with their best of smiles, but they had to get some goofy ones in, of course.
After the pictures, everyone was ready to go so they each grabbed their trick-or-treating buckets and headed out of the front door. Piling up in my car, all four of the kids wanted to ride in the back: Rico and Jackson directly behind me, and Bryan and Maddie in the extended seats behind them. To get to Groverfield from Ruckersville, it’s about a twenty-minute drive so we rode and listened to some Halloween music while the kids started acting silly to some of the songs. We passed by a sign that said we were about two miles from the town of Wickham. No one ever talks or goes to the town of Wickham due to its graphic history.
Sometime back in 1832 there was this rural estate that brought many different hopefuls into witchcraft, and it was led by the most powerful supreme witch of all, Evanora Caster. Evanora was so powerful that once you were in her coven, the only acceptable way out was by death. Legend has it that whenever the people of the town found out about this monstrosity (mainly some of the parents), they immediately took some action upon themselves and burned the entire estate to the ground, even if it meant letting their children burn with it. The townspeople gathered around the estate while Evanora stood outside the front doorway. She knew what was about to happen so she led her coven to recite a curse on the town that if anyone passes by or even looks in the direction of the estate, she will appear with vengeance to all of those who pry. Grief and hate filled this rural town due to the horrors of what still resides there after all of these years.
Wickham is about eight minutes from Groverfield and things decided to take an eerie turn for the worse. As soon as I passed by it, I started to taste and smell differently as if something was burning. Out of instinct, I checked my car’s gauges to make sure there was nothing wrong with the car. I had this very uneasy feeling suddenly when my eyes directed me to look into my rearview mirror, and what I saw put every bit of terror in me: Bryan and Maddie were staring at this figure sitting in between them. They couldn’t move or speak, almost as if they were lifeless. This woman-figure looked as if she was burned alive. Most of her body was charred down to the bone and some of her skin looked as if it was still burning, and there were only a few strands of hair on her head. This cremated woman then let out this blood-curdling scream which frightened all of the kids and led me to slam on my brakes and force my car into a 180-degree turn. The scream was so powerful that it shattered all of my windows and it had the kids all shook up from the horror they just experienced. The kids. All were present except Bryan, who was nowhere to be found. I looked all around the inside of my car with no luck. I decided to flip on my headlights hoping that Bryan was running away from the scene for being so scared. To my surprise, Bryan was right where I was hoping he would be…except he wasn’t alone. Standing behind him was the charred woman and she had the most terrifyingly sinister grin on her face. She slowly started to wrap her scaly, charred hands around my son’s neck as if she was going to break it. Referring back to the legend of the Wickham estate, they say that if in any weird circumstance someone comes face-to-face with the supreme witch, you are to speak her name with clarity and power and condemn her back to Hell. Remembering this, I screamed with such fright, “EVANORA! Let my son go!” She laughed in the most sinister way she knew how and started tightening her grip on my son’s neck. I yelled, “EVANORA!! I command you to return to Hell and never come back!” She screams in such a demonic way and my son immediately falls to the ground. I rush to meet him and find that he is alive and breathing. He starts coughing uncontrollably and then sits up. I feel a touch on my right shoulder and when I turn around, I am greeted by Maddie who is with Rico and Jackson. Maddie asks if I could take them home to which I do not hesitate.
We head back to the car and I make sure Bryan is sitting up front with me this time, and I tell the other kids to sit directly behind me. I start driving back to Ruckersville, shaking from all of the terror I just witnessed. We are about five minutes away from my house whenever I start feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I am drawn back to the rearview mirror and find Evanora in the very back of my car surrounded by Maddie, Rico, and Jackson. Their eyes are sheer white and they start reciting some sort of spell in a whisper-like tone in a completely different language. The spell seemed to last forever to recite, and then within seconds, all four of them let out the strongest screams to where I could not remember seeing anything but darkness.
Next thing I know, I am being woken by two men in what look to be white scrubs shoving clear cups in my face with pills in them. I must have looked so confused because one of the orderlies asked me if I knew where I was. I shook my head and he said that I am at the Ruckersville Penitentiary. What am I doing here? “How long have I been here?” I ask. “About three days”, answers one of the orderlies. I walk out into the main hall where a bunch of patients are gathered around the TV; the news is playing and they’re talking about some freak accident. I see a picture of myself appear on the screen and the anchor proceeds to say that I acted in a manner of suicide when I drove my car straight through a gas station and hit one of those giant propane tanks. She then goes on to say that I immediately jumped out of my car right before it exploded. Inside the vehicle were four children who seemed to have been burned alive. Police found me hysterical and ended up bringing me to this asylum whenever I started telling them the story of Evanora.
Every now and then I still see her…roaming the halls, watching me sleep at night; it’s all in my head, or isn’t it? People say it’s a myth about Evanora Caster, but I have seen her. She’s frightening. She’s horrifying. She’s real. She’s the witch of Wickham.
Bio:
Jesse W. Melton is a resident of Sapulpa, Oklahoma. One of his favorite hobbies is writing short stories; more specifically within the horror genre. Jesse has a distinct imagination and applies those imageries within his writing style. Having such an itch for writing, he applies determinate details to his stories to catch the eyes of many readers.