Kimberly Rodriguez

The Witchcraft

Tiana woke up to a voice crying for help.

“Who’s out there?” she said. She looked outside her window and saw a creepy shack that had never been there before.

“Hum,” she thought. “I never saw anything like that outside my house. Maybe I should check it out.”

Before she went, she called Clarissa, her best friend, and asked her to come over. As she was waiting, she heard the voice again.

HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME! PLEASE!

It sounded like it was coming from the shack. Tiana got scared and called Clarissa again.

“Clarissa, please hurry up. I’m hearing voices. I think someone’s here!”

“Tiana,” Clarissa said, “calm down. Maybe you think you hear voices because you’re by yourself. Your mind is playing tricks on you. I’m down the street, be there in 5 minutes.”

“What took you so long?” Tiana said when her friend finally showed up.

“Sorry, my mom wanted a good explanation for why she should take me to your house this late.”

“Come with me,” Tiana said, grabbing Clarissa’s hand and tugging her outside. “Please tell me you see that huge shack.”

“Is this why you called me?” Clarissa said, frowning.

“Yes! I’ve never seen that thing in my life, and I’ve lived here since I was in my mom’s belly!”

“What’s the big deal?” Clarissa said. “Maybe somebody built it.”

“I think I’d know if construction people came and started building something right outside of my own house. We need to go check it out.”

“Are you crazy?” Clarissa said, shocked. “That thing looks like a place where you walk in and see dead people.”

“I have to see why it’s here,” Tiana said, thinking of the voice crying for help. “If you’re coming then come. If you’re not then stay here. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

“I’m not letting you go in by yourself,” said Clarissa.

“Okay,” Tiana hissed. “Come on before my mom sees us.”

Clarissa and Tiana went inside. BOOM! The door slammed shut behind them.

“OMG, Tiana! The door closed by itself! I think somebody’s here with us!”

“This was a bad idea!” Tiana said. “We need to get out of here, now!” As they tried to open the door, they noticed that even though it wasn’t locked, it still wasn’t opening. “Clarissa, I think someone is going to kill us.”

“You think or you know?” Clarissa yelled. “We should have never come here.”

“I’m sorry! I was curious! Is that so wrong?”

“Yesss, now look where you got us!”

“Okay, let me try and open the door.” Tiana ran and tried hitting the door, but it opened before she got the chance to break it down.

“Let’s get out of here now,” Clarissa said, but as they walked out, they noticed they weren’t in front of Tiana’s house, anymore. There were fire and demon skulls all around them.

“Tiana, where are we?”

“I’m not sure. I think the shack transported us.”

“Do you think that’s why the door slammed? I’m scared. This was a bad idea.”

Tiana looked around and saw something walking toward them. “Clarissa!” she yelped with wide eyes. “Run!” They ran as fast as they could, and finally they ducked into a room full of heads with horns.

“What was that?” said Clarissa.

“I don’t know, but it was coming after us.”

“We need to leave,” Clarissa said, peeking out of the room. “Let’s go, the thing’s not there anymore.”

“You don’t know that,” said Tiana.

“Well, we need to get out of here! I’m not staying any longer. You got us in here, now find a way for us to get out!”

“Clarissa, I’m sorry, but you can’t go out there! What if the thing is waiting for us?”

“Then maybe it can help me get out of this creepy place.”

“No it won’t, it will just kill you!”

“You don’t know that.”

“Clarissa, it had horns! Anything with horns is not good! You of everyone should know that.”

“Tiana, I’m leaving. If you don’t want to come, then stay here.”

Clarissa stormed out. Tiana peeked out of the door to see if she got far and noticed something creeping behind her.

“Clarissa!” she yelled after her friend. “Clarissa!”

“What, Tiana?” Clarissa said without even turning back. “What do you want? If it’s for me to come back, I’m not.”

“Clarissa!”

“What, Tiana? I’ve had enough of--” Before she could finish, a man with horns and dressed in all black took her.

“Noooo!” Tiana screamed. “Clarissa! Why did you take her, why!? Please bring her back! Take me! I’m the one that got her into this mess!”

As she was yelling, the horned man came back and hit her, and everything went black.

***

Tiana woke up in a dark room. “Where am I? Heeelp! Clarissa, Clarissa, is that you?”

As soon as she spoke, a dark figure appeared beside her. “Hahaha! I wouldn’t look too closely if I were you.”

“Who are you?” she said. “What do you want? What did you do with Clarissa?”

“You mean what did you do to Clarissa. Hahaha!”

“Leave me alone, let me go!”

“I will,” he said, grinning an evil grin. “As soon as you complete your... mission.”

“What mission? I will complete anything as long as you let Clarissa and I leave!”

“Okay. This is the mission: kill Clarissa.”

“What!? I’m not killing my best friend. Just please let us go!”

“You can’t leave until you complete your mission.”

“Why do I have to do that?”

“Because his choice was you.”

“Whose choice? Is this some kind of joke?”

“Michael chose you.”

“Who is Michael?”

“The devil.”

“The what!? No, you have to be kidding! I’ll never do that!”

Days passed. The whole time, Tiana heard Clarissa getting tortured.

“One more day to do the mission,” the man in black said. “Or he will kill both of you.”

“I can’t do this,” Tiana said. “Please don’t make me do this.”

A large, dark figure appeared, and the man in black vanished. “Hello, Tiana,” it said in a deep voice.

“Who are you? Where is the other guy?”

“My name is Michael. I bet you’ve heard of me.”

“Please let me out! Please!”

“Oh, stop that. He already told you the deal, and he told me that you’re refusing.”

“I am not killing my best friend.”

“Oh, but you will. Look at the screen.”

Tiana looked and her body started to lift, her eyes rolled back and she was not Tiana anymore.

“Okay, Sydney, now you are in Tiana’s body. Go to Sy-Sy and kill Clarissa.”

“Tiana!” Clarissa yelled when she saw her friend. Tears streaked her eyes and there were cuts all over her body. “OMG please get me out of here! Please!”

“Oh shut up, Clarissa.

“What?” Clarissa said. “What’s going on?”

“I said shut up, Clarissa. You are so full of yourself.”

“What is going on with you, Tiana?”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up! You never learn!”

“Stop, Tiana! This is not you.”

“You kissed my boyfriend, Clarissa. I should kill you for that.”

“I didn’t kiss Jason! Where are you getting this from?”

“All my life you’ve been putting me down. Always thought you were better than me, but you aren’t. Nobody likes you, and if I kill you nobody will miss you.” Sydney grabbed a bat beside Clarissa.

“Tiana, please put it down, you don’t want to do this.”

“Oh, but I do.”

“Please, no. Put it down Tiana, you don’t want to kill me! This place is getting to you, the man in black is getting to you.”

“No, you are getting to me.” Sydney hit clarissa with the bat and killed her.

“You are free to go,” a voice said. Sydney transported back to Tiana’s house. After a few hours, Tiana woke up in her bedroom.

“Tiana, where have you been?” said her mom, rushing into the room. Jason and Rafael, her brother, followed right after.

“I’ve been calling you,” Jason said.

“Where is Clarissa?” her mom said.

“She dropped her off here,” said Rafael. “Why do you have blood on your shirt? Tiana where is Clarissa?”

“Something is not right,” said her mom.

Rafael turned on the TV as her mom was cleaning Tiana up.

“OMG, Mom, you have to see the news,” said Rafael

“Hi I am Shelby on Fox News, here to report another dead body found in an abandoned house on Christine Street. A 16 year old girl name Clarissa Mendez went missing on Monday and was later found today. She was taken to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.”

“Who killed her?” Mom said.

“I don’t know,” Jason said, “but I think Tiana maybe has something to do with this. Tiana, what happened to Clarissa?”

“I don’t know. Why are you asking me?”

“Tiana,” Rafael said, “what happened? Why do you have blood on your shirt? What happened to Clarissa?” Tiana went to the kitchen and grabbed a knife.

***

A few months later.

Tiana went to an asylum full of shatterproof windows and a small bed for her to sleep on.

“Hey,” said Jason and Rafael. “How are you doing?”

“Good,” Tiana said. “why am I here?”

“You tried to kill us.”

“Where is Clarissa? Why didn’t she come?”

“Um, Clarissa passed away a few months ago.”

“What?” Tiana started crying. “Why did you guys come here?”

“We think you might know something about what happened that night.”

“I don’t know anything.”

“Yes, you do,” said Jason. “Please tell us. We need to know.”

“I don’t remember.”

“Try to remember.”

“I only remember some things.”

“Like what?” said Rafael.

“I remember a house… a shack, and after, we were in this place, and we got into an argument and she left and some man in black took her and I never saw her again.”

“Did you kill her?”

“No.”

“Tiana, are you telling the truth?”

“I said I didn’t kill her!” Suddenly the glass from the windows shattered and Tiana’s body started floating.

“We need to get out, now!” said Jason.

Jason and Rafael left, and Tiana was left in the dark, when suddenly she heard a faded voice from outside.

HELP ME! SOMEBODY HELP ME! PLEASE!

Through the window, beside an old oak tree, she saw a shack. She swore that it hadn’t been there yesterday.

Kimberly Rodriguez is a sophomore at CTRA from Manchester. She says, "I like to write because it keeps me calm and it motivates me bring out my thoughts and ideas."