Disclaimer: I do not own anyone from Bonanza. I only own my OC Vanessa Jones. I apologize for any mistakes that are in this story. It was written for a board I used to be on.
The Beauty who's a Beast;
"Joe, what's that over there?" Adam asks his youngest brother spotting a strange looking building on an island.
"Looks to be an old house, but I wonder how it got there since it wasn't there last week, either was the island," Joe replied and they steered their horses in the direction of the building.
When they got there Sport and Cochise wouldn't go past the fence, "Come on Sport," Adam coaxed and Sport started walking backwards away from the fence. Adam got off his beloved animal and tied him to the tree near by. Joe did the same with Cochise.
"I wonder what's spooking the horses," Joe said to Adam petting Cochise on the side of the neck.
"Who knows, these two are normally jumpy at odd looking places," Adam said and took his rifle out of the holder on Sport.
"Yeah most of the horses are," Joe replied following suit and getting his rifle out.
"Well, let's go investigate what's up with the strange house suddenly showing up," Adam told his brother and took the lead.
Joe nervously followed Adam as he took in the soundings of the darkness of the trees around him. He ducked when a bat flew over his head at a low swoop, "damn bats, came from no place," Joe said angrily.
"No, they came from the top attic type part on the house over there," Adam said pointing to the attic.
"Well, let's cross this odd, old looking bridge and get to the house since the house is on that island," Joe said not really wanting to walk across it.
"Yeah, let's, um, go, watch where you step little brother, I don't want to save you from the bridge attacking," Adam joked making Joe chuckle as they slowly walked across the bridge.
Half way across the bridge Joe stepped on a weak board but moved quick enough so he didn't fall into the lake.
"So, what would you do if there was a beautiful lady living in the old, creepy house?" Joe asked Adam to make small talk and to get the silence gone.
"Be shocked, someone like that would live in a house like ours, here would be an old widow who has a pet rat," Adam replied and jumped when he heard a wolf howl from inside the house.
"Or a pet wolf," Joe said chuckling.
They got to the island and after Joe was off the bridge it was gone, "what the hell?" Joe said and waited to be scolded by Adam.
"Who the hell knows, this place is creepy already," Adam replied making Joe chuckle, "what?"
"Not once have I heard you cuss like that, even if you get mad enough at Pa you don't cuss," Joe said and followed his brother closer to the house.
"Um, Joe," was all Adam said pointing towards a young lady, about Adam's age, in the back yard of the house picking some yellow flowers that were there.
"Whoa," was all Joe could say, "She's a looker."
"Yeah, and to old for you," Adam said.
"Whatever Adam, well, let's um, go talk to her and find out how this house got here along with the island," Joe said and they both slowly went over to the lady.
She jumped and looked at them when she heard a tree branch get broken that was on the ground, "who are you and what do you want?" she asked scared.
"Sorry to scare you miss, we were riding our horses and noticed this house which wasn't here a week ago and we were just wondering how it got here," Adam told her and she slowly let a breath out she was holding.
"This island is my personal Island, I have people who work fast and built me this house," she replied simply.
"Oh," was all Joe could say when he saw a black wolf walking up to the lady.
She turned and saw the wolf, "Midnight, enough, guests are welcome to visit," she told the wolf who snarled and went back the way he came, "he's harmless unless someone hurts me."
"Okay," Joe said, "I, I'm Joe Cartwright, this is my oldest brother Adam."
"I'm Vanessa Jones," she greeted kindly in reply, "would you like some coffee?"
"Um, sure," Adam said, "sorry to be a little nervous miss, but this place is a little creepy."
"Sorry about the creepiness, I just like darkness and daylight bothers me some, but nothing here will hurt you," she told him and thought 'except me.'
The boys shared a scared look but followed her into the house, "Have a seat and I will make the coffee." They nodded and sat down in the eerie living room.
Vanessa was in the kitchen preparing the coffee for her two, needed, guests. She grabbed a bottle labeled pumpkin sleeping powder she added a little to one cup and more into the other cup. She stirred the cups, got herself a plain cup of coffee and put them and sugar and cream onto a tray. She took them to the boys and gave Adam the one that has the most sleeping powder in it and Joe the other one.
"I brought cream and sugar in case either of you needed it," she told them, "It's not often I get guests here."
"Oh, and why's that?" Adam asked taking a sip of his coffee, "is that pumpkin I taste?"
"Yes it is, it's a mixture I made to give the coffee a flavor instead of the normal taste," she replied, "and a lot of people are scared to cross the bridge to visit. I guess they all think an evil witch lives here when it's just little old me here."
"Alone?" Joe asks.
"Yes, alone, my mother and father were killed in the lake, their boat tipped over and they were taken down by the current," she said and wiped a tear off her cheek.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Adam said with a yawn. She glanced over and saw that Joe was yawning also.
She nodded, "thank you, would you like a cookie?" she asked, knowing that after one cookie and the coffee both boys will be asleep.
"Sure," both boys replied and watched as she went to the kitchen.
Joe looked at Adam and whispered, "Let's get out of here, this house is creepy."
"We can't just up and leave," Adam said and glanced up when he heard something he saw Vanessa just entering the room with a small plate of cookies both boys took a cookie and she took one and slowly ate it. Not another word was said as the three sat there un-comfortable and ate their cookies and drank their coffee.
The boys finished their coffee and with in seconds were asleep. Vanessa smiled as she snapped her fingers and all three of them were now in her basement. Adam was hanging over a larger sized cauldron with his shirt off and a gash across his stomach. The blood was slowly running out of his body and dripping into the cauldron. But Joe on the other hand was tied to a chair with some thick rope so he wouldn't run and get the sheriff or anyone to help save Adam.
A few minutes later Joe moaned in pain from his head hurting, that was one bad thing about the powder, it made your head ache really bad, "he's awake," a soft voice said and Joe opened his eyes more and saw Vanessa in a dark purple cloak that looked to be made of velvet.
"What do you want?" he asked then saw a sight he hated to see, Adam hanging from his arms above the cauldron, "let him go!" Joe shouted.
"Shout all you want, no one can hear you from down here," she told him laughing.
"What do you want?!" Joe demanded.
"The blood of a young, healthy man," was all Vanessa said in reply.
"Why the hell do you need that?" Joe asked.
"Tisk, Tisk, what a bad mouth you have," she said and snapped her fingers and a gag appeared over Joe's mouth, the middle part was in Joe's mouth to keep him from screaming more, "the reason I need your brothers' blood is the simple fact I would like to stay alive and young for more then a week."
Joe gave her a questioning look, "to answer your question," she snapped and she turned into her older self, "I'm an old witch of the lake, I live inside the lake in this house. No one can see it but its there." She snapped and turned young again.
He glared at her and she snapped and the gag was gone, "you know there's other ways of living," he told her.
She ignored him and went back to working on her spell to stay alive and young. Joe was working on getting the ropes off his wrists.
"Take me instead of him," Joe said and she laughed and kept working.
"You're not worthy of my time, just sit back and relax and you'll have your time with me," she tells him and he smirks a little.
"How about now?" he asks softly as he got his hands untied.
She didn't answer just kept working on the spell. Joe smirked and took his gun out, well went to and found out it was missing.
"Sorry kid, weapons aren't allowed in here," she said in an evil tone as she left the room to another one behind a door. Joe quickly got up, ran to the door, blocked it with a big, heavy chair so she couldn't, well he hoped, she wouldn't get out.
He glanced around and found a knife and grabbed it, rushing to the railing of the stairs he climbed up and jumped onto Adam to untie his hands, praying they'd at least land in the cauldron and not on the edge and break ribs or anything.
"Sorry big brother," Joe said softly as he cut the last bit of the rope and they went tumbling into the cauldron.
"Hmmmm," Adam said painfully, "Joe, wh-what's going on?"
"Shush, we're in trouble and I'm getting us out," Joe said softly and got out of the cauldron ever so slowly.
Once he was out he looked around and there stood the Evil Lake Witch of Nevada.
"Now that I'm back for good my dear, you're NEXT!" she hollered in a high pitched voice. She quickly took some of Adam's blood, snapped and she was next to the potion she was making. She added four drops of blood, it puffed a green smoke and a high pitched scream came from it.
"Perfect," she said in her witchy voice and went to find the glass jar she had ready.
"Joe, dump, dump the potion," Adam whispered to Joe who nodded and climbed a net that was hanging off the stair railing. He got up there, swung over the top railing and right when he went to knock the potion over the witch grabbed him.
"There's no way to kill me except for one small thing," she said in a whisper and Joe about gagged because her breath smelt like rotten fish. She lightly kissed his cheek; he was surprised on how soft her lips actually were.
"Soft lips, pretty girl, nasty breath," he said chuckling and that made her chuckle a little also but she grabbed a knife and held it to his throat.
"Now my dear, allow me to live forever, you may join if you'd like," she said and Joe moved just right and knocked the potion off the table it was sitting on and it fell to the floor and drained into the lake below the house.
The two of them wrestled a little and he grabbed the knife and stabbed her in the stomach. Adam's cut healed enough for him to move when the potion went into the lake.
Adam climbed out of the cauldron and saw Joe standing next to something. He slowly made his way up to Joe and saw that Joe was standing next to an old sea hag.
"Who is the old lady?" Adam asked.
"The girl we first met," Joe replied and took the knife out of the lady.
"What? No way that is the same person," Adam replied.
"It is, she's an old Lake Witch and needed your blood to stay alive and young forever," Joe said, "Be thankful that I saved you."
"Oh I'm thankful for that little brother," Adam said, "well, shall we head home?"
"We shall," Joe replied and the two brothers walked out of the house. The bridge appeared and they crossed to where their horses were at. Once they were on their horses the bridge went away again.
"Well, this will be one day I'll be trying to forget," Adam told Joe with a chuckle.
"Yeah really, but she was a pretty girl before she turned into the Lake Witch," Joe replied.
"Yeah she was," Adam replied and they started backing their horses away from the house which started to sink back into the lake.
They turned and left, not knowing this will not be the last time they see the beautiful lady who's really a Lake Witch trying to stay alive.
They got to some rocks and stopped for a minute to look over the lake. A tail of a big fish came up and went away.
"It can't be, can it?" Joe asked.
"You never know after the night we had Joe," Adam said and they rode off to the house with out looking back to see if the house they left is gone or not.
~The End~