It was Easter and we had gotten back from church earlier that morning. My parents told me to look for the eggs outside so I skipped off into the back yard. I was so proud of myself when I found the blue egg hidden in the flowers and the yellow one which I had to climb up a tree to get. After about a half an hour of searching I was about to go back inside when a yummy smell came from the woods near my house, my parents had always told me never to go in to the wood without them because that was where the bad people lived but I thought that just once it would be okay. After a while of stubbing I came across a building off the road where the smell was coming from. I knocked on the door and a lady in a veil open the door to me. When she saw me she offered me some treats so I reached out my basket to ask for treats like you do at Halloween. She turned around and began removing her headdress saying it prevented her from getting the candy for me. She turned as the veil dropped and my last sight on this earth was an ugly face with serpentine eyes surrounded by writhing snakes.

Being turned into stone does not hurt. All of a sudden it is like something takes hold of you and you are frozen but there is no pain. What people do not know is that even as a statue I can still see and think for myself. I am not lifeless, I am just frozen.

Over the years I have seen many people reach the same fate as I have. There was a man a few years after me who came in weak with starvation. He asked the woman while she was preparing his meal if she thought that the world could be a better place where humans and nature coexisted harmoniously. To this she laughed and as she laughed she slowly unraveled her veil. I wanted to scream to him to turn away and run as far as he could. He shifted nervously and mentioned something about the smell of monsters. He got up suddenly and started to retreat but it was too late, he was already frozen. The strange thing about this man was that he seemed to have the bottom half of a goat. The woman moved him to the far corner of the room muttering "Stupid Satyr".

The next victim I saw fall into her spell was a majestic bear following the scent of a free meal. He had made it up the steps and was sniffing around the base of frozen satyr, as the woman called him, but when he saw the woman he reared on his hind legs to attack. Quicker that lighting she whipped off her veil and the bear was stone before he could even finish he growl.

The next I saw were a couple who appeared to be the poster people of happy young love. The man was handsome and the woman was beautiful. They had walked in explaining how their car had broken down and they were asking if they could borrow her phone. As the woman turned around to 'get the phone' the man turned to the woman and brought his face close to hers to whisper "Soon our family will be settled in the new house and everything will be perfect". While saying this he rested his hand on her stomach and smiled. The woman smiled back. They were too caught up in their moment to notice the woman with snake hair watching the scene with jealousy blazing in her eyes. I wanted to help. I wanted to stop them but like the times before my voice was lost. Stuck like a rock in my equally frozen throat. The woman apparently saw the reflection of the monster in a nearby mirror and gripped the man tight. The man turned and stepped slightly in front of the woman as if to protect her but there is no protection form this kind of monster. Still in an embrace they were quickly frozen and then moved to the side to make room for the next victims.

Many people and animals followed and I had to suffer watching them freeze knowing I could never do anything to help.

Finally about 10 years after the couple came in a small group of three kids went through the door. The first to enter was a boy of about 12 with dark hair and sea-green eyes. He seemed to be more affected by the spell then those who I have seen come before him. Following him was a girl of about the same age with wild curly blond hair and intense grey eyes. They were followed by a nervous looking boy with a terrible limp and a goatee. They were all caked in mud and had rips in their clothing.

The last boy who entered said something about monsters to the other two but they ignored him and kept following the woman deeper into her trap. I wanted to agree with the boy and get them out of here as quick as possible. This time the woman actually gave them food and had a conversation with the new comers. I knew as soon as the food touched the dark haired boy's lips that he was a goner while the blond was not far behind. The boy named 'Grover' didn't eat anything and kept warning his companions to leave.

Soon the girl realized something was up as well and both were now trying to convince the dark haired boy, their leader I assumed, to leave with them. The woman seemed particularly intent on this kid since he arrived here.

She asked the group for a picture and the boy foolishly agreed even after the warnings from his companions. As they posed the girl had a look on her fact from which you could tell she was thinking hard while the 'Grover" looked at the statue of the goat man saying "That sure does look a lot like uncle Ferdinan( spelling- sorry)". Soon after he leaped into action with the girl while the dark hair boy stayed frozen, I was holding my stone breath waiting to see what would become of them.

The boy named Grover grabbed a large branch from the ground and with the shout of "Mia" rose into the air as the girl pushed the dark haired boy to the ground. Even with the pleas of his friends he still was frozen in front of the monster who was unmasked and waiting for her prey to approach. He seemed to be trying really hard to fight something, I would guess that it was the spell he was under that lured me here long ago. They appeared to be having a conversation but I was too far away to hear what they wear saying.

Suddenly the flying boy lunged forward to attack the monster which caused the dark haired boy to finally move. The flying boy hit the monster multiple times with his eye squeezed shut so to not to see her face. But his luck could not last forever, all too soon her hit him back causing him to crash into the rearing bear. The girl confronted the dark haired boy and handed him a glass orb while pointing to the couple frozen in horror in the corner. Soon after the boy started moving toward the monster with a sword in his right hand and an orb in his left, looking like the angle of justice come down to earth to save the people from this evil being. The monster allowed him to approach but all of a sudden she lunged at him when he was in arms distance. I wished to close my eye so I did not have to see the upcoming blood shed but sadly frozen lids do not close. The boy reacted quickly to save himself, while looking through the orb he swung his sword up ward and severed the head of the beast.

The head was picked up while the group took care not to look at it. After a brief but heated argument between the dark haired boy and blond girl the dark haired boy disappeared inside, after a paused he came out holding a medium sized box. Placing the severed head in the box he sealed it and wrote an address on the top. After that was complete he filled the small sack with shinning gold coins and the box disappeared. They turned and left the shop and as they did so I heard the dark haired boy say "I am impertinent". They were free and had stopped the monster from harming more innocent people who happened upon this store in the middle of nowhere. I was happy for them to have been able to escape the fate of all the others. I had been wanting it to happen for a long time. But even with the monster gone I was left still suffering, frozen forever.