Ghost of a Witch -Revise- 2021

Chapter One: The Old McAiden House

Ghost of the Witch

Westville, Virginia 1992 - The Old McAiden House

Cat's wide dark brown eyes darted back and forth upon hearing theold house creak and moan as she sat at the dining room table with herfamily,her fork shaking slightly in her hand as it hovered over herplate, the items upon it half eaten as her mouth hung open a bit.

"Jeez Cathryn close your mouth before flies go in"Cat's older brother Max mocked as he chuckled a bit at her.Their mother Libby sighed giving Max a slight look that madehim shut up and go back to eating his food as she looked back to Cat,

"Sweet heart it's alright, I told you, it's only thehouse settling, that's all.. There's no need to be scared,"Said their mother as she gave her daughter a reassuring smile before taking another bite of her food. Libby had always been abig time optimist and she didn't believe in superstitiousthings, so to Cat, she rarely ever seemed to get scared. To her momit didn't make sense to be scared unless you had a justified reason,so the house being creepy and said to be haunted wasn't enoughof a just cause to be frightened.

Cat just nodded slowly looking at her mother and then to Max whoshe caught looking around the place a little nervously himself, Catknew she wasn't the only one who thought this new house was creepyand she didn't understand how, out of all the houses in Virginia,their mother had to pick one of the oldest, most creepy looking 19thcentury houses in the area that was way too big for the three of themto make a 'new start' in, but Libby said she had been 'drawn' to thehouse, like it was calling to her which made Cat find it all the morecreepy, not to mention the price was a big red flag to her, but Libbysaw it as a god send. But there was nothing that said God to Catanywhere with this house or the creepy woods behind it.

Max scarfed down the rest of his food, but instead of taking hisplate and taking off from the table as he used to at the old house,he just sat there looking at Cat's plate and then his Libby's, aslight look of hesitation crossed his face as it was clear he waswishing he hadn't ate so quickly like his mother had asked countlessof times not to do..Cat watched him as he slowly picked up his emptyplate and got up from the table hesitantly,

"Well I um... guess I'll head to my room now,"he said pausing which was strange to see, since in the oldhouse Max could never wait to be rid of his family, and would takeoff before his mother could stop him. It had gotten that way sincetheir father Patrick, had died nearly four years ago. Before thathappened Cat remembered a nice, sweet brother who was very differentthan the one she now had. So the way he was acting now was verystrange...

Libby had noticed Max's behavior as well but clearly didn't knowhow to respond to it."Okay honey, just ...clean yourdish before you go okay?" She said with a light smilebefore going back to her food, Cat watched her brother's face as hegave their mom an annoyed look before mumbling something under hisbreath before speeding off into the kitchen. Cat slightly frowned asshe looked at her mother, was she just not noticing that Max wastrying to get out of leaving them right away? Why wouldn't she take achance with that kind of opportunity? It didn't make sense, but Cathad been noticing that Max wasn't the only one acting strangely sincecoming here, their mom also hadn't been acting too much like herselfeither since leaving the old house, but seemingly for completelydifferent reasons than what she could figure out.

Sitting there for a moment she contemplated on what was shesuppose to do? Were they both just as freaked out about thehouse as she was and just acting like they weren't or was thisbecause hey left their old house? She wasn't sure... Yes she wasattached to the old run down yellow house with brown shutters, butmaybe just not as much as Libby and Max, was that really what wasgoing on? Well that would be just perfect., Just another disadvantageof being the youngest, or at least that's the way she was seeing it. After dinner, it was Cat's turn to reluctantly go up to her own roomas she prayed the entire way that no ghosts would come out and killher, though she wasn't so sure that ghosts could really kill, but shewasn't looking to find out... Could a ghost scare you to death? Couldshe get so scared her heart would stop beating? In any case she keptone eye closed shut as she walled down the creaky, shadowy halls, asif by having only one eye open would keep her from seeing with theother eye if something did pop up.