The Witch’s Brew

It was a dark, stormy night. Lightning flashed and thunder roared through the black night sky. The gods were angry the people, their tears of anger and hatred spilling from the heavens as rain.

A woman’s cackling laughter rose up from the darkness, shrill and grating. She stood in front of a bubbling black cauldron, singing an ancient song; the song of the gods. A crow as black as the woman’s heart was perched on the rim of the cauldron, its throaty squawk lending its voice to her words.

Soon she spoke softly in English, anger dripping from every word. “The gods need me tonight.” She said, stirring the murky liquid. “They need their revenge. They will have their revenge. I will make sure of it.”

She bent low, inhaling the aroma that rose from the pot. She spoke again, naming each ingredient as she did.

“The scream of a sleeping child, the dying breath of an elder, a tear from a tortured soul, a piece of insanity from a deranged woman, the courage of a freedom fighter, and the skeleton of an infant. Bubble and boil, steam and roil!” Her voice grew louder as the thunder rumbled closer. “Churn and burn, my bubbling brew!” cried the old woman. She leaned close to the fire; blowing it, strengthening it.

Her features became illuminated in the fire light. Her coal black eyes glinting, her crooked nose casting a slanted shadow across her pocked and scarred face, her crooked yellow teeth. Combined these features clearly stated what she was: a witch from an ancient race sent to punish the people for their misdeeds. From burning her people at the stake to denying the truth of their very existence; they had angered the gods. But now she would make them pay.

The witch strapped the steaming cauldron onto her broom. As she kicked off the ground and sped off into the chaotic sky, she let out a cackling scream.

“Tonight is the night when all will know that I am real. Tonight, on Hallows Eve, the night where you people disguise yourselves and mock my people, all will learn of their mistake. You will all pay!”

She sped through the night, the contents of her cauldron spreading to all the corners of the earth, turning the people in the very things they despised.