The Odd Family's Book of Bedtime Stories

Graveyard Witch

Things could get out of control at sleepovers pretty quickly. The more kids there were, the worse things could get. At every sleepover Danica had ever been to, they had eventually gotten around to telling scary stories. She had heard nearly all of the usuals- the hook hand, the babysitter, the dog. Danica loved scary stories. This time, they told one she didn't know, and it was local too.

The other girls claimed that the cemetery a few blocks away was haunted though Danica knew that they always were. That's how ghost stories worked. A woman who had been burned at the stake for witchcraft was buried there. They said that she had been so powerful that she had been seen moving things with her mind. Now, because she had been burned alive, the witch wanted revenge. It didn't matter who she took her rage out on, all they had to do was walk across her grave. As soon as they did, she would reach out and grab them. The witch would then drag the person down into the grave with her.

Danica thought the story had an awful lot in common with an old horror movie she had seen, Carrie. She told the girls so but they weren't buying it. Everyone knew someone who knew someone that it had happened to. Then they challenged Danica to stand on the grave. She wasn't afraid so she decided to go. Since they would alert the adults if they went with her, Danica had to go alone. She took a kitchen knife with her, to stab into the grave as proof she had actually done the dare.

But when Danica got to the graveyard, things changed. Cemeteries were scarier at night, and even more so alone. The rusty gate creaked loudly as she opened it and slipped inside, careful to watch for a caretaker. There was no moon that night so the only light Danica had was from the street lights and the further she got into the cemetery, the less they helped.

Everything was eerily silent. Even the wind was still, as if it were waiting for something. There were no bugs, no birds, not even a car in the distance. The graves were eerily dark. Danica tried to reassure herself that it was only so quiet because it was so late, but it didn't help. Still, the young girl pressed on, searching for the exact grave she needed. The back of the cemetery had ancient graves from when their town was first founded. Most people didn't go there. Danica imagined she was the only visitor to that section in a long, long time.

As she walked, she began to worry. What if the witch had been real? Her mother had told her that a lot of scary stories had a grain of truth or a lesson to be learned. Danica didn't want to be that dumb girl in a horror movie that ended up getting herself hurt or worse. She reached into her pocket to feel for her inhaler just in case. Of course, it wasn't there. Still, she pushed on.

Finally, the grave she needed came into view. It looked exactly how they said it would. Danica took a few deep breaths to steady herself and walked onto the grave. She stomped around a few times first, ready to jump away at a moment's notice. Nothing happened. Danica laughed at how silly she felt and shook her head. Then she kneeled on the grave and shoved the knife into the dirt there. It was packed and dense, and she struggled to get it all the way down.

When she stood, Danica screamed in horror. Something from the grave had a tight hold on her dress. She screamed again, tugging at it but it would not let go and she was too deep in the cemetery to be heard anywhere else.

The next morning, when the adults discovered the young girl missing, they immediately got to the bottom of it and rushed to the cemetery. They found Danica laying on the witch's grave, her eyes staring blankly at the headstone. In her rush to leave and get back to the sleepover, Danica had driven the knife into the bottom of her skirt. She had pinned herself to the ground.