Later in the month, when Alex had become more clever in dealing with her relatives, she was able to spend most every hour of available daylight in the woods. All she did there was sit and think. She was, in reality, an easily corrupted, weak mind, who didn't care about anything, especially her own body. The results of this were her involvement in occult religions, drug abuse, losing her virginity at the age of twelve and several succeeding pregnancy scares. Suicide and self-mutilation were never out of the question, however, suicide was impossible for in her religion it was matched with a thousand bloody deaths in the afterlife and self-mutilation was part of the Purification Rituals. She followed some variation of Wicca she discovered by accident in her hometown when she was fifteen. July 10th was the eve of some Wiccan holiday. Alex never bothered much with the names because of the pronunciation. That Saturday morning, Alex took her backpack and, again, walked down the path to her little clearing in the woods. She had been in a terrific rush that morning, throwing on the clothes she had worn the day before. Alex stopped by the largest tree in the place most open to the sun. She dumped the contents of her bag onto the sand. Selecting the five red candles out of the pile (red for blood, let for humbling, closeness to Mother and forgiveness of wrongs) and set them out in the shape of a pentagram and lit them with a match. Softly chanting to herself, Alex slipped off her clothes and stepped inside the circle, taking a straight razor in her right hand and a small bowl in her left. She set the bowl on the ground beside her and slid the blade across the crook of her left arm. A thin stream of blood welled up on the cut, and it began to drip into the bowl. Later she offered a prayer to the Goddess and buried the bowl within the pentagram as to "connect her more to the Earth". The next day after breakfast Uncle Josiah gave Alex a ride to the Burkittsville Public Library. The place was magnificent and out of proportion to the little town, with two full stories of nothing but books. When she walked inside, Alex met the heavy stares of many of the town's residents. They seemed to be everywhere, just looking at her. She just calmly walked away, searching for an empty corner, but there were none. Finally she found a room that was empty. A sign with "Burkittsville Room" embossed in white letters hung over the door. Having nowhere else to go, Alex glanced quickly over her shoulder and walked in, making no noise. The room, with drab gray walls and a few old shelves piled with dusty old books, seemed musty and forgotten. Alex selected a book entitled, The Full and Complete History of Burkittsville, Maryland, sat down in an old, spindly chair and opened it. She flipped through the pages of the little town's seemingly irrelevant history, through the A's, B's, C's, H's, I's, J's... But when she reached the K's something caught her eye. Photocopied newspaper articles shouted "DISAPPEARED INTO THE WOODS: Local Girl Goes Missing" "MORE CHILDREN GONE: No One Is Safe In This Town" and "KEDWARD CONVICTED". "Kedward?" Alex murmured to herself. Suddenly curious, she began to read. "Today has given great relief to this once frightened town. Elly Kedward, Burkittsville citizen, has been convicted of the murders of three local children and the torture and abduction of five others. This morning she was taken from her home and placed in the custody of local law enforcement." Alex chuckled at the absurdity. "In this town?" She thought to herself. "Nothing cool like that could ever happen here." Still smiling, she lay her head back, closed her eyes and softly fell asleep. *~*--The place was dark and silent. She could barely make out the stars in the sky and the silhouettes of the naked, gnarled trees around her. Suddenly there was a continuing crashing noise coming from behind her. Heart beating faster, cold sweat, throbbing fear... Ten or so of the neighborhood boys had come to visit her. "Hello children," she croaked, and with her dry, thin lips she managed a smile. All they did was stand there and laugh at her. "Oh, you've brought your dogs to visit me too! How lovely.. Come here puppies, come he---" She could feel the canine teeth ripping at her flesh. She was screaming, screaming, but no noise could some out. All she heard was the growling and laughing and taunts of the boys... Cries of Witch.. Blair Witch...--*~* Alex woke and found herself covered in sweat, breathing heavily. "Are you okay?" A girl and three others walked into the room. "We heard you screaming."
"Uh.. Yeah. Just fine. Hey, I'm new here. Could you tell me who the Blair Witch is?" Alex asked, slightly embarrassed.
The girl laughed. Tugging at the many bracelets on her wrist, she explained. "Its a really old story... There was this lady that lived in this town in 1785. Her name was Elly Kedward. Supposedly she killed some kids and tortured some others too, and the townspeople tied her to a tree in the woods. They say some neighborhood boys sicked their dogs on her and she died from blood loss.... But her body was never recovered. Elly's spirit is supposed to haunt the woods, just because some freaky ritualistic murders have happened out there. Like this little girl drowned in the river, and there was that little incident at Coffin Rock...." She was still smiling. "Oh, now I've explained the Blair Witch Legend to you... And we haven't even been introduced! My name's Rachel. And you are...?" Rachel offered her hand. Alex took it.
"Yeah, thanks. I'm Alex."
Rachel continued. "Hey Alex, have you got anywhere to stay?"
"Yeah, with my Aunt and Uncle."
"Can you stay with us? I think you'd have fun. Its a real life-changing experience. We're from the Blair Witch-Hunt group... We take people into the woods and we look for the witch. Wanna join us?"