Info: This was created for a Science project at my school. My science teacher loved this story and has read one of my others.
Disclamer: I don't own the info. about the Great Earthquake of 1906; the info. underlined, or the 'Woogyman', or the spell to banish it.
The First Time
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was always scared of a monster that I thought was under our house. My mom always told me there was nothing to be scared about, she told me it didn't exist. I was scared of a monster that didn't exist, but I wasn't scared of demons and warlocks because it was my job to fight them. My mom always told me and my cousins a story that would banish a demon named the 'Woogyman', the wiccan version of the boogyman. My cousins never believed in this story and forgot it as they got older, but it always stayed with me.
But on April 18, 1906, my cousins and I were going to find out how true that story was. Shortly after 5:00 am, an earthquake did great damage to San Francisco. We weren't home at the time but there was a great change when we got back from visiting my grandparents. When we got back, we got the shock of our lives. The electric power lines and gas mains were broken and many fires were burning wildly, and many building wrecked. Our house was destroyed! My mom looked sick. Yes the Book of Shadows was with us, but something else was scaring her. My father looked like he'd seen a ghost. I knew something was wrong.
We found out later, that the wild fires couldn't be stopped because of damaged water lines. Hundreds of people were killed. The ground for more than 270 miles along the San Andreas rift had broken open.
I also found out from my white lighter that there was an evil that was growing in San Francisco. My mom and I had been looking for that evil even before the rebuilding of the city had started almost a year later. When our house was being rebuilt, the men that were helping us, the ones that were working in the basement started turning mean and nasty toward my family and the other men that where working on the upper and outer parts of our house. Mom mumbled something like 'We've found our evil', and dad was getting upset. He was hoping he would be able to get the business up again, because he was getting tried from traveling back and forth for Spreakels.
About two days later, my cousins came over to play. When we overheard my dad being mean to my mom, he was threatening to tell everyone that she was a witch and I knew that the evil had gotten a hold of dad. I was mad at this evil! Now its personal!
My cousins and I went down to the basement and saw a very dark shadow. I gasped. The monster I was afraid of and the 'woogyman' were the same thing! My cousins told me to stay back because I was the youngest. But they didn't remember that story on how to banish him, only I did. The 'woogyman' said with a mean and nasty voice, "Soon all of the Halliwell line will be underneath my control!" They tried so hard to fight this demon with an incomplete spell, and they were losing. Now I was even more upset and frightened. I was just a 10 year old little girl, who was scared of the monster that lived underneath my house yet I was San Francisco's only hope of stopping this monster.
"You can't stop me, young Halliwell, no mater how hard you try!" The dark shadow was laughing at her.
I started to recite the story I knew so well, "I am light
I am one too strong to fight
Return to dark where shadows dwell
You cannot have this Halliwell
Go away and leave my sight
And take with you this endless night"
The 'woogyman' started to scream in pain as it was sucked back into the crack, when it was back where it belonged the cracks that where made by the earthquake were gone!
"I guess that wasn't a story after all." One of my cousins said. "We need to remember that spell to tell to our children, in case there's another bad earthquake like the one a year ago."
We went back up stairs and my mom and dad were waiting for us, My dad hugged me and said, "Thank you, my little witch." I was smiling when he called me by my favorite nickname. My mom was also proud of us. When my aunt came to pick up my cousins she said to them, "See why it's important to remember some thing that might be a fairytale, it might save you life."
I remember asking my mom why does the 'woogyman' live under our house. She said, "The property that we live on is called a nexus. This property will always be wanted by evil. All we do is protect it."
For now I felt safe knowing that the property that we lived on is good because we live there. But that monster, which I'm not scared of any more, will always live underneath the house. Living on a magical battleground isn't so bad, you just need to know how to defend it.
I never understood why our house was built on a battleground for good and evil before that day. This earthquake had done more damage then the mortals would ever know. But one thing is for sure: this earthquake scared the demons and warlocks out of town for awhile! (Almost 2 years to be exact.)