THE HAG

Lisa Sherwood grew up in a quiet village, mainly isolated from the rest of civilisation. The people of the hamlet were kind and the elders kept old traditions alive, often keeping the peace by personally settling the ever-rare disputes. Lisa was particularly fond of the charms they taught her to draw for safety and good fortune. One night, as she was walking home through the woods, a terrible storm struck without warning. Howling winds whipped at her hair as she stumbled through the swamp, her rain-drenched dress plastered to her skin. In the slick, wet mud she lost her footing, careening backwards and striking her head against rock. Slipping in and out of consciousness, she strained to identify the dark shapes approaching her from between the trees. That's the last thing she could remember.

Her kidnappers kept her chained to the wall in a flooded cellar. Though dimly lit, she could see others whose large open wounds swarmed with flies. It took merely a day before they returned, carving chunks from the prisoners' bodies with rusted blades, consuming their very flesh down to the bone. Most she saw did not survive long once the cannibals targeted them but somehow, deep within, Lisa persisted. Starved, infected, and mutilated after several weeks of torture, her gaunt arms became loose in their shackles. She pulled hard, the metal tearing through skin and muscle until she was free. Her flesh oozed viscous yellow pus and bones were visible beneath gangrenous wounds. She could go no further. Delirious, she thought of home; she thought of the elders. With her dying breath, she etched the symbols they had taught her into the floor using what remained of her fingers. Almost in response, a dark hunger stirred inside her. It yearned for blood. In oath, she chose vengeance.

The village's search party eventually brought them to an old shack in a swamp. Inside, its previous inhabitants had been viciously dismembered and devoured by an unidentifiable animal. In the cellar, amid rotting corpses and disconnected flesh, the elders’ charms were scrawled in blood on the floor. Lisa’s body was not among the bodies and was never found. The village was never the same again.