Chapter 3
The Witch

Over the course of the next few weeks, I found opportunities to wonder around the woods alone. Summer was not far off and school would be let out more frequently to help with farming and other important projects, so there was that to be grateful for. If I was sly, I could occasionally trick whatever caretaker or babysitter was in charge of me by saying I'd be at the community playground for a while and then sneak into the woods to experiment more with this strange power.

What I was certain about was that walkers somehow didn't come near me. If I made noise or whatever it would attract them but the moment they caught sight of me, they would turn away, entirely disinterested for one reason or another.

I still didn't understand why though, other than concluding I had some kind of superpower that made them turn away, the same way I was sometimes able to see people that no one else could see. What did this mean?

I soon found that other things, like wild dogs and animals, were not so swayed away from whatever magic I held over the walking dead.

I remember the first time I heard those howls in the distance and the sound of the pounding feet that raced towards me. Heart in my throat, I sprinted in a direction, tripping over branches as I made my escape. They were right behind me though and I could feel the snaps of their jaws as they attempted to take chunks off of my legs.

Running almost blind I passed something like an enormous shrine. I didn't get a good look at it, not at all. I was more concentrated on fleeing for my life. But I do remember the crowd of stone people as I threaded through them to escape the dogs. Their faces were gaunt and haunting, like the walkers but unlike them, none moved.

The dogs followed through the frozen dead, searching for a way to cut me off. I kept running. Suddenly the ground disappeared beneath me and I felt myself falling. A cry left my mouth but it was cut off as something caught me shakily. It bobbed and swayed and when I looked up I realized it was a boat in the water. I could hear the dogs' padded feet beating the ground as they charged forward.

Frantically, I searched for the oars but there were none; nothing but a long rope connected to a ring nailed into the wood. Thinking quick, I tugged on it and the boat began to move forward. The dogs came into view just then and one was going so fast it missed the same drop I had, only the boat was not there to catch it as it had done for me.

I watched the others barking on the stone fixture that may have been a bridge at one point, but had now crumbled away to form an awkward sort of dock. The one that had fallen into the water barked helplessly as the strong current carried it down stream. My little seven year old heart reached out for it, despite its intentions of making me dinner moments prior.

I continued to tug on the rope, not just because I had no other option but also out of curiosity to know where the end of it was. While I continued, I saw things in the water. More statues like the ones in the strange stone crowd, only these seemed to be reaching out, frozen in their desperation to break free of the strange haunted waters.

The boat must've traveled not much over a hundred feet before I knocked against something.

It was the other end of the dock… or bridge really. This was where the end of the rope was connected to and as I climbed up onto the stone the mist that was gathered around the river and the statues began to thin a little bit. I followed a path and walked up it. The further up I got to wherever this trail led, the more I began to see and hear. The smells carried on the wind were heavenly and rich with vegetation and the air seemed to get warmer somehow.

Then the mist broke completely and I found myself standing in a garden. The most beautiful garden I'd ever seen.

There were flowers and trees and plants of every kind. Not just that but it looked like I had stumbled on the ruins of a long forgotten church since there were odd stone fixtures like the remnants of pillars and arches. There were fountains and little ponds and more statues here as well. Maybe they were saints or bishops like the ones Father Gabriel sometimes talked about. Most of them were of women though, so maybe they were nuns, but they were much different from the nuns I'd seen in pictures. In fact these people didn't wear the veils and dresses of average celibates. They seemed much more fairy-like and well… exposed. There was even a mermaid in one of the fountains, so maybe it wasn't a church so much as a temple.

When the light hit just right, it filtered in through what was left of colorful stained glass windows at the far end and created even more rainbows on the ground.

Where was I?

I turned about, wondering how I could have gone through such a foreboding forest, only to wind up here. I felt like Belle's father from the tell old tale of Beauty and the Beast when he ran through the haunted forest to find himself in the magical palace.

This was not a palace, not in the typical sense at least; well it did have a tower, but even I knew it was nowhere big enough to be considered a proper castle. Instead it was a cottage covered almost every inch with ivy vines and morning glories, but that didn't dispel its enchantment; only enhanced it.

More fascinated than ever, I neared the cottage and slipped inside peering around. It probably wasn't a good idea to enter a home that was so obviously inhabited, but my interest to know if there was anything our town might need inside, drove me forward.

I found myself in a place just as peculiar as the garden. It was a large living area with a Victorian décor. It had a couch, recliner and a matching coffee table littered with papers, books and writing equipment all over its surface. An ancient looking gramophone stood near the assembly with records propped next to it.

Off towards the far end was a very dated kitchenette complete with a cooking hearth holding all manner of iron pots and pans as well as utensils. Beside it were shelves and counters covered with various ingredients and recipe books. Just to the left of that were the doors of a glass green house leading off into the garden outside.

There were odd tomes that rested on near every shelf, little crystals here and there, totems and drying plants that hung from the ceiling and walls, and inscriptions written and carved over the wooden boards.

The more I studied this odd building the more curious I became.

"Where am I?" I asked to no one in particular.

I wasn't expecting someone to answer me.

"Well this is a surprise."

I turned sharply and saw an old woman sitting in the chair where I knew she hadn't been a moment before. My heart leapt in my throat and I jumped right off the step I was on in surprise. Even if the old woman smiled kindly at me, I was still set on edge.

Strangers were dangerous, even more if they were friendly.

"I don't get many visitors here and I wasn't expecting anyone to drop by."

"I… I didn't know I was on private property." I stated quickly, moving towards the door. "I'll leave."

She waved it off. "Not private anymore I'm afraid."

"But… this is your house isn't it?" I gestured around the very nice cottage.

"It was."

"You… you gave it away?" I asked noting the past tense.

"Not exactly. I just don't have any need of it anymore."

I frowned, totally confused. "B-but it's a really nice house, and it's a really nice garden, and it seems to be well protected if there are no walkers around. Why wouldn't you have need of a place like this?"

"Well it's not entirely walker-free now is it?" She pointed behind me just then and I jumped once more to see a dead-eyed body staring right at me. But when I turned around she seemed to wander away, looking for an alternate escape route from the house.

"Look at that fool." The woman commented, tilting her head sadly as she stared at the sight of it. "See how she stumbles around, swatting at the curtains, clawing at the window? Nothing but a car without a driver she is."

I had to do a double take as I looked from the woman to the walker, twice over. "But… that's you! You're that thing!"

She chuckled. "Yeah, go figure. I obviously slipped on the bathtub floor as I was getting dressed, knocked myself out and drowned in the water. Brain wasn't damaged, just put me to sleep long enough to do the job. Show's you just how close all of us are to an accident."

This was strange, I knew she was a spirit, but spirits didn't tend to act like her. They didn't act like normal people. They were fickle and came and went as they liked. Most acted as if they were sleep-walking a lot of the time. I only saw our friends occasionally, and they spoke in few words. Hershel and Dale were the only two that really talked to me in complete sentences but even those were brief and rare.

This woman was much different from usual ghosts, though.

Curiously, I turned around in the cottage. "What is this place?"

"My home, where I live—or lived I guess."

My eyes floated toward the herbs hanging to dry, the old tomes on the shelves, the crystals, the symbols carved into the woodwork, and the charms scattered around. "Are you… a witch?"

"To some I was, at least."

That may have explained why she acted so different from typical spirits, but it also turned up a lot of confusion for me. I looked around a bit more, searching for something I didn't see. "Well then where's your broom? And your cat? And your wand?"

She scoffed. "You think I'm like those fairytales you've filled your fluffy brain with?"

"Well… they are witches aren't they?"

"They are stories!" She turned back to her stumbling hungry body. "My, my. I've never seen the dead ones bat away from a person before. Usually it's quite the opposite," She examined the response of her animated corpse as it worked to find escape from the house and from me, "but she does not like you."

"Why not?" I asked her."Why do they try and run away from me? Why am I different? Is there something wrong with me?"

"Not sure. You might be an evil they're trying to escape from. You might have an invisible bubble around you that burns their brains, or you might just stink an ungodly foul to them." Then she shrugged. "And in any case why question it? You are protected from them. They don't want you and you don't want them. Consider yourself lucky, Child, and don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

I continued to walk around the cabin examining the items strewn about with deep fascination. The spirit of the witch continued to watch her struggling walker as it lurched this way and that, always trying to remain the furthest distance from me.

Absently I picked up a crystal and turned it over in my hands. "Do you know any spells?"

"Some."

"And magic?"

"In a sense."

I turned to the ghost. "Would you teach them to me?"

She scoffed. "Why would you want to learn that nonsense?"

"You didn't think it was nonsense. Otherwise you wouldn't do it."

She chuckled darkly. "You don't believe in magic."

"Yes I do."

"Not anymore!" She declared with undeniable certainty, and the look she gave me just then was as if she were looking straight into my soul. "Not since that man came and broke your father. Not since that man killed your friends. Not since all you've been able to do lately is watch the lives of the people you love most fall apart around you. You've lost the magic!"

"But I haven't." I said stubbornly, swallowing back a sea of tears. How could she have known those things about me? Well she was a witch so she probably knew a lot about me just by looking at my face. "It's in me! That's why they don't bother me. I cast a spell of protection and I don't know how, but it worked."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes."

She paused, chewing her lip as she looked away in thought. Only the moans of her undead body were heard as she debated something. After a moment she slowly looked back my way. "Are you sure you want to learn? The magic I wield isn't like Harry Potter. There's no dueling or wand waving and no magical school of wizards and witches. It'll just be you, me, and this hut every day. If you go forward, you don't stop. Do you still want to learn?"

I didn't need to think about it. "Yes."

"Fine." She said getting up for the first time. "But first, we put that poor wretched beast out of her misery."

I turned and looked at the body, moaning and growling for a way out.

"What? You mean kill it? But she won't let me get close enough. And I'm not even tall enough to reach her skull and… I've never killed something before."

"Now you will." She pointed to the ceiling. "Go upstairs. There's a revolver in my bedside table. Get it and bring it here."

I knew what was coming but obeyed anyways.

"Have you ever shot anything?" She asked, both of us turning to the scrambling meat shell.

"No."

"Now you will."

She instructed me on how to hold it, where the safety was, and how to aim. It felt strange to hold a gun. I had seen them before, but my no one would let me hold one, not yet at least.

"Wait." I stopped before I pulled the trigger. "If I do this, won't you be gone?"

"I'm already gone, child. This beast is just a suffering wondering shell, unsatisfied and always hungry. It pains me to watch what was mine being turned to this. Have you ever felt like that?"

I looked down sadly. "…Always."

It took three times before I finally managed to strike it in the left cheek. The shots were loud and woke all the birds in the garden. When the bullet hit its mark, the body hit the ground and it hit hard.

The witch's spirit did not disappear as I had expected and she looked upon the lifeless thing now with partial indifference.

"That's that then." And then she looked me up and down, scoffing once again that day. "Gods you're puny. I hope you're stronger than you look, child."

Upon her order I was made to drag her corpse all the way out of the hut, inch by inch. When I finally got it to the place the witch instructed she pointed to a shovel leaning against the shed door.

"Have you ever dug a grave?"

I wiped my brow and panted. "No."

"Now you will."

I dug the way I had seen the adults do, but in the end it didn't look very straight and was near impossible for me to climb out of once finished. I was about to roll her in but the witch stopped me.

"Wait."

"For what?"

"Go inside, find the pliers on the table and come back out again."

I hesitated, uncertain what would entail but after a sharp "now" from the witch, I obeyed.

"Open the mouth and take a tooth."

I was appalled. "What? Why?"

"When we are buried we must be at peace, for those of us who are at peace with their death. I am at peace," she announced, "so when the last grains of dust fall on me I will be gone, but should you keep a piece of me, I may return to teach you as often as you need."

I wasn't totally sure what the rhyming was for but it made me hesitate even so. "Does it have to be a tooth? Can't it be a lock of hair?"

"No." She said sharply. "Bones are stronger, bones last longer. Take a tooth."

I didn't want to put my hands anywhere near the mouth, but I did as she instructed. It was stubbornly uncooperative. I'm sure it must've taken well at least ten minutes before I finally worked it free with a sickening sticky pop.

I grimaced at the bloody mess, wiping it off on her shirt and was prepared to stick it in my pocket.

"Do not put it with the rest." The witch announced, gesturing to the other charms around my neck. "Leave them out of these affairs. Keep them safe from further harm." Then she stood and moved towards the cottage once again. "And you best be getting used to seeing blood. You will see much of it."

And with that she left me to fill her grave alone.

I didn't see her again as I was leaving in the boat once more. The dogs were thankfully gone when I reached the opposite bank but it was late and I knew I had to get home before my father noticed I was not in town. Sometime while I was running for my life, I had gotten turned around in the forest, but by following a herd of walkers they led me to the road that I hoped would lead me back to Alexandria.

It was later than I had wanted when I returned home and when my father found me walking down the road from the apartments I was in trouble for not coming when he had called. I had worried him but thankfully they hadn't sent a search party out for me.

When he asked where I had gone I told him I went looking for hiding places the next time Negan and his men showed up.

That seemed to quiet my father and he sighed. I knew he wouldn't want me near those men again and didn't discourage the idea of hiding the next time they were in town. It seemed like a proper enough excuse then next time I needed one so I kept it in mind for later.