I was 10 when my mom took me back to my grand ma's house. My Mom's village is a remote place from where we live and it took us almost a day to reach. I used to live there but when I was 6, my parents took me to live in a city as my father got his job transferred. My parents also did not want to raise me in that village not get into a school. Every time they are in a serious conversation and I enter, they stop talking about it immediately and many times I asked them wha's the matter, they always said it was about my dad's job.. I stepped out of vehicle onto the ground for the first time in many years and I had a nice but also weird feeling inside. My parents went inside and I was picking my suitcase from the car when I heard "Jake!!!!!!" I heard my voice being called and turned around to see my best friend Macky standing near my house. His name is Mathew but we all call him Macky...
Macky came running towards me and I also dropped all my luggage on to the ground and jumped onto him to hug him. He is like a brother from another mother to me. Surprisingly, we share the same birth months and When I was young, Macky is the only person with whom I used to hangout with. We had a massive pond behind our house and we always used to swim and had a lot of fun, eating a lot of food. I remembered everything I did with him as I hugged him and I told him "I missed you Macky, how are you? how's Mom and dad?" Macky was too excited and he almost stammered "I'm f f f fine...Mom dad also fine.. y y y y you can meet them later". I laughed aloud and asked him "Since when do you stammer?" we both laughed and gosh, it was nice to be back. Too sad though I gotta be back to my city after my vacation here..
I took some rest inside my house all day and the next day Macky came to my house and stood in front of the house and refused to come inside... he seemed like he was in a hurry.... maybe hurry to play with me haha....he said "let's go to our regular place.." I looked at my granny in the kitchen and asked her to send me to the pond who said out loud "Nope... you can hang in here or in your aunt's house.. But I refuse to send you near the pond." I tried to convince gran but she downright refused. My mom came in and when she knew where we wanted to go, she exchanged a glance with granny and she also refused to send me near the pond. We got frustrated and we decided to go to my aunt's house. As we reached the end of the street, if we take the left, we would go to my aunt's house and if we take right, we would go to the pond. We looked back to see if anyone was observing us but nobody was looking at us.. So, we sneaked in and took right and jumped in the woods to run towards the pond. We shortly reached the pond and removed our clothes and jumped in the water.
It felt really nice as and when the water touched my body.. I almost shouted "Ahhhhhhh" and Macky noticed the happiness in my face and smiled at me as if he read my brain.. "It's nice to be back huh?" he said and I smiled.. yes, it was nice to be back. We cannot find such kind of peace in cities... they are filled with pollution, vehicles and swear words... not like this peaceful nature that brings you calm. We swam for God knows how many hours and ate lot of fruits hanging in there.. we are quiet used to that place and know exactly what to consume... we finished hanging out and we did not realize to look at around us when we noticed it was getting dark real quick. "Oh crap.... if our parents found out, we are dead meat!!" Macky said and I agreed with him. My granny specifically insisted of me avoiding this place... we wore our clothes quickly and started walking, more like pacing back to our place. We could literally reach our house in 5 mins because it is that near and hence weren't worried.. our only worry was not to get caught.
We reached the trees near the woods when we both suddenly noticed a new path that we did not saw ever before.. I swear to God, there is no new way. Our house has only one path/road/street whatever you call us that connects to the pond but now, we have a new one.. Macky and I looked at each other and I was going to the path that takes us to our place when Macky said "where the heck did this new road come from?? what does it lead to?" I looked at Macky who really wanted to check out the new path that appeared out of nowhere and myself being grown up in the city and knowing about stranger danger, I refused to go in the wrong way. By that time, it is almost pitch black around us. I was getting irritated but Macky dragged my hand and pouted so hard and ughhhh I did not want to sadden my friend for being meeting him after 4 years and we took the other path.
As we walked in, we did not see the exit to where the road leads as it kept taking us in and in... Usually, we reach our house from the pond in 5 mins but I'm pretty sure we have been walking for 10 minutes into that road. I was getting creeped out when Macky pointed out to something, it was a structure... I observed that place and it was small creepy looking hut. Macky ran into that hut without even a warning and I shouted "Damn it Macky".. He stood in the middle of the hut and looked back and stared at me. I stood near the entrance and freaking refused to go inside the hut. he kept looking at me and also glanced constantly to the other corner of the hut. I had this weird gut feeling that somebody was watching me from the hut and even though my brain kept screaming no no, I peeked inside.... What I saw would remain in my thoughts for the rest of my life...
Standing in the corner, there lurked a creepy old woman, back hunched down and was giving me a weird smile from ear to ear. She had massive eye bags underneath her eyes and she almost did not have any teeth. She had perfect pitch black eyes with the white part almost invisible which made her look so creepy. Her face was also deformed. I was observing her when she whispered in her raspy voice "Come inside child....I have been waiting for you" my gut feeling convinced me this time that if I do not make a run, i would probably die here and ran afar the hut... I screamed for my friend "Macky!!!! come out you fool..." Macky just stood there staring at the old woman...and me... I shouted for Macky for hundreds of times and he did not move an inch.. And.....the worst thing happened... I saw two shadow figures lurking inside the hut which I did not notice before... I wanted to run away but those shadows slowly approached my friend Macky and held their hands on his shoulders... "Mackyyyyy" I screamed thinking they would harm him and the shadow figures started to manifest into human forms.. It was none other than Macky's parents.....none of this is making sense to me...
I was utterly shocked to see this and my heart seemed like it was about to burst within seconds... I heard the old woman's voice again... "Come here child... you can have a lot of fun with your friend here. You can eat a lot of delicious food..come inside" and she extended her hand when I noticed she was holding a deer's skull... I puked at looking at the freshly killed animal and ran towards the path's entrance which is thankfully not closed... I took the path that leads to our house and by now, my parents were super creeped out and were searching for me. They saw me running towards them and my mom gave a huge sigh and hugged me tightly. I hugged her back and told her and everyone about what happened completely... My grandma, Mother and neighbors and everyone who heard this kept their hand on their mouth to cover up their shock and my father, uncles and all the other men took fire torches and walked towards the woods...
I looked at my mother to ask for details and she understood me before even asking and looked at my granny... My granny said "it's better if we told you the truth..." I exchanged my confused glance towards my mom and she said
"years ago, you were sick one day and Macky went to swim in the pond alone as usual even though his parents asked him not to go alone...and whatever you have explained happened to you today, has exactly happened to Macky the same way 4 years ago... The old witch caught Macky inside the hut and she gave him as a child sacrifice to please the devil. She then later appeared in the dreams of Macky's parents to tell her what she did to her Son and they both killed themselves because of the trauma of losing their son to the witch... before they committed suicide, they wrote a letter to your granny to never to send you alone to the pond ever, as the witch promised to take Macky's best friend too and this is why we moved out of the city... not because of your dad's job.. I did not tell you all this because I did not want you to know your friend is no more"
I was shocked to hear to this and screamed "but Mom, Macky greeted me yesterday when I stepped in the village... he was with me today the whole day, how is that possible??" My aunt, who was also a psychic, told me that the witch might have assigned the job to Macky's soul to bring you towards the pond and my aunt was so glad I was wise enough not to go inside the hut whatsoever... All the men came out of the woods as we were speaking and said "We found nothing.. there was no other path other than the one that takes us towards the pond.. the HUT VANISHED this time as well" My granny said "I kinda expected that... it's all the witchcraft" and she hugged me tightly...
My parents insisted to leave the place the immediate day and my granny accepted it and said "I will come visit you, you better never come back to this village ever again" .. we all packed our stuff and I entered my car and I thought about my best friend Macky and I started to cry. My father consoled me and he took the driver's seat and we started to drove off when I saw Macky standing near the edge of the woods with his parents and they all are smiling and waving at me saying "Bye" .. Macky seemed genuinely happy that I was leaving and won't become a prey to the creepy witch....at least the witch won't bother them anymore... Bye Indeed, Macky... Rest in peace my friend...
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