Disclaimer: The Charmed Characters are the property of Aaron Spelling and Constance Burge. I just borrow them for your enjoyment and my writing addiction.
Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y'awl's neighborhood
And whosoever shall be found
Without the soul for getting down
Must stand and face the hounds of hell
And rot inside a corpse's shell
The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the thriller
Have you ever really wondered what Vincent Price was talking about when he laughed that deep evil laugh at the end of that song? Well. If you are brave enough to learn. Stay tuned for a Halloween Thriller of our own. As I venture into the world of the truly evil...
The Haunted Past
The screams could be heard throughout the dark valley. They didn't even seem to come from any one place, but those that lived there knew where they were coming from. The moon was nearly non-existent as the screams continued, but as they silenced they waited for the sound that would come next. The howls. Howls that would go through the night. Howls that would only stop at the dawn of the next day.
The night, when the moon was it's darkest, the sounds would fill the valley a few days before and after. But that one night it was the worst. Some had lived there all their lives and it still filled them with dread. They had heard stories passed down through generation.
--- ----
He ran through the field with the fog surrounding them all. It was a game they liked to play; hide and seek in the fog. It was so thick you could hardly see anything until it was on top of you. They hadn't even heard the cries. If they had they would have run back towards the safety of their homes. To the caring arms of their parents.
"William!! Wait for me!" He heard his sister cry out to him. He knew the combination of the night and the fog scared her, but he kept his distance enough that she couldn't find him. He didn't want her to come anyway, she had followed him out earlier that afternoon when he went to play with his friends, she had run after him.
"I'm not waiting for you." He hollered back as he continued to run home.
He entered the small cabin he shared with his sister and mother.
"William where have you been? You know better then to be out at night. Especially when the moon is at its darkest."
"I'm sorry Mother. I was just playing. We forgot."
"Go wash up and tell your sister dinner is nearly ready."
William froze. His sister. He had left her out there.
"William."
"Mother I'm sorry. I left. I forgot about the darkness. The moon. I'll get her."
"What? William how could you? You know what they will do if they find her." She grew near hysterics as she watched her son go back out the door into the darkness. Into the fog.
She stood at the door calling to him. The night reminded her of one many years before. The same dark moon. The same thick dense fog. One where someone could be right beside you and you wouldn't even know it.
Her son had grown so much since that one night. When was it? Six years ago. Her baby girl was just over two. She had lost so much in that one night: she had lost her father. Yet their baby girl was everything to him, and he was her light. But then, in one night, everything was different. The screams and howling could be heard for days after and then nothing.
She wasn't sure if she could go on, but friends had helped her through everything. She had been through so much, but there was more to her and her friends then she would ever let on to her children; at least not yet. It was something that she would share with them when they were older. Or at least she would with her daughter. She wasn't sure yet on where her son would fit into the family past. The baby she was certain of, but her son was still some what of an anomaly.
Her husband was not exactly the marrying type for her. But they had loved each other despite what her family thought of him. Despite the fact that he was evil.
---
William ran back to the field calling for his sister. He could hear the nearly quiet sobs coming from just in front of him.
He placed his arm around her lifting her up to her feet. "I'm sorry. Come on. We must hurry." he said as he guided her back the way he had come.
Reaching their home he hurried through the doorway into the waiting arms of his mother. He watched as his sister quickly went to her, as everything seemed to slow for him. To his mother, his sister was everything. She could do no wrong.
She huddled her children close to her as the clouds cloaked what was left of the moon. She knew all her neighbours where all huddled close to home. It was that one night of the month in which they all feared most.
She sat with her son and daughter curled up beside her.
"Mummy?"
"Don't be afraid honey."
"But."
"Ssshh. We are fine, don't be afraid." She assured them, though she herself was not certain.
She heard the footfalls outside the small cabin but she couldn't move. They had come for her husband years before. Now all she had left where her 10 year old son and her eight year old daughter. She knew what they wanted, and she would not let them succeed.
The door crashed open as the pale light of the dark moon shone through the door. They locked eyes for that split moment. She had hidden her children quickly. Though she would face them herself.
"What do you want?"
She hadn't really expected an answer. They were the servants of evil. They approached her as one quickly grabbed her by the neck snapping it at once. They scanned the cabin, knowing what they wanted was there somewhere.
He moved fast and accurate ramming the pitch fork into the leg of the one that killed his mother. But they soon had him in his grasp.
"Let me go." He screamed
With one more glance around they turned and left, leaving her alone to watch helplessly as they killed her mother and took away her big brother. Melinda Warren was alone in a world that she knew nothing about. A world filled with evil.
14 years later:
"Melinda you need to do this. It is the only way for you to be free of your past. You can start a new life in America."
"But Aunt Constance. I can't go. I still need answers."
"You and your husband will find the answers you need. But you need to start fresh for your child. Go now and she will be born an American. The first of our family. You're mother would want you to do this. There is something higher in store for you my dear. More then any of us could ever imagine. And one day you will understand. Be safe my love."
Melinda hugged her Aunt before turning to her Husbands arm and started up the gang blank for the long journey to America.
"One more push my dear. She is nearly here."
Melinda wanted it all just to end. The pain was more the she thought possible. Then she heard it. The loud cry of her daughter. Taking in her first breath.
"Here you are Melinda. Your baby girl." The mid-wife handed the baby to her mother. "Do you know her name?"
"Prudence. Prudence Warren."
2yrs later:
Melinda turned at the sound at the door. She didn't want to answer it. She was afraid of who it would be. Her husband had been missing for a fortnight now. Everyone in the village had nearly given up.
But as she opened the door and saw Matthew there, it was as if she knew what he would say. He was her husbands friend. She held her hands to her mouth as she started to cry. He was gone. He had left her with her two-year-old daughter. What would she ever tell Prudence?
She sat there knowing what would come. She watched her daughter playing in the corner near the fire. Her mind drifted back to the one-night four years before. They had followed her from her home. Somehow they had come for her. History was repeating itself. Once again taking away the father of a two-year-old child. A child possessed with a magic she knew nothing about.
"Melinda Warren, in the name of God you are found guilty of witchcraft. You will die at the stake." The gavel came down. She didn't even fight what was happening. She couldn't for the sack of her daughter and all her line to come.
"One day the Warren line will bring about the most powerful witches the world has ever seen. The Charmed Ones will save this world of the evil that dwells in its earth." She proclaimed as the flames consumed her.
The scream could be heard throughout the land. The witch was dead. Everyone sighed as the screams subsided. But what she felt and meant would live on forever and they would never know.
The perspiration ran down her body as she bolted up. The same nightmare again. How far would her powers grow before she saw everything in the past and the future? And whose would she see? How much more could she bare to watch? Her screams of pain weaved themselves throughout the home she lived in.
She held her legs to her chest and rested her forehead on her knees. Her sobs turning more into a soft whimper.
She hadn't even noticed the door open and the light shine inward to her, yet she melted into the arm that went around her, holding her close. Letting her know she had someone to rely on. Finally getting her back to sleep the two of them curled up together. Waiting for what tomorrow would bring them. For what tomorrow would tell them.