Short Stories

Dried Roses (Part 1)

Welcome to my new story, Dried Roses! This story is a three part story. Parts 2 and 3 will be posted as soon as they're written. Enjoy!

‼️Warning: Images of death by drowning and minor cursing‼️

Witching Season: Week 1

"Every year, when the first frost falls, Witching Season begins and lasts for three weeks. Three couples don't make it out alive. It all begins with the first victims. The morning after the frost, two people will wake up with dried roses on their doorstep. They're the first to go, usually by drowning. Two more people will find roses. Too many poisons grow in our forests. The last two people will find their roses. They will see the Witches rising from their graves. They'll try to run; they always do. Off with their heads."

I shove Moses away as he runs his finger across my throat. "That's just a dumb superstition. It can't be real."

"Can't it?" He doesn't stay back for long. "You forget that I've lived here my whole life. I know every inch of this town and every inch of those woods. I know all of the legends and lores. Tatterbend has too many secrets to count."

I raise a skeptical eyebrow. "And yet you know them all?"

"My parents are the town historians, remember?"

"Right. So these Witches kill three couples over the span of three weeks?"

"One couple a week."

"Why?"

He smooths his brown hair back into a short ponytail. "For revenge. The Witches were a young couple themselves when they died. They were falsely accused of witchcraft and got their heads cut off. He was twenty four and she was only twenty, I think."

"Why don't they kill people of their own age? You told me that all of the couples are our age." I was finding his story hard to believe, obviously. I'd only lived in Tatterbend for a few months. Moses had been one of the first people I'd met and we'd quickly hit it off. Within two weeks of meeting, we'd started dating.

"Legends say that she was pregnant when they were killed," Moses explains. "They kill young couples now for two reasons. One, to murder young love, and two, to take away the chance of a long life. Neither of which, they or their child got to experience."

"Hm, sounds creepy. You should take me to their graves sometime." I lean closer to him, smirking.

He laughs and sprawls out in the leaf splattered grass. "That's the real trick, Wren. No one knows where their graves are. The only ones to see it are the third couple and they're dead before they can tell anyone about it."

I lay down too and prop myself up on an elbow. My long braid, a darker brown than Moses', falls over my shoulder. "Who do you think the couples will be this time?"

"Personally, I hope it's Jeffery and Madison."

"Ugh." Jeffery and Madison, the typical cheerleader/jock couple that you find in any high school. They're preppy, smart, overly dramatic, and unashamed to show some major PDA. Not to mention, they're both complete jerks. I can't say that I blame him for that choice. "Who else?"

"Lucas and Neveah, and Sage and Remembrance."

"Why them?" From the minimal times I'd interacted with them, I'd found all of them to be charming. Remembrance especially. I consider her a friend.

"Lucas and Sage are cheating pricks. Neveah is Madison's lackey, obviously. Remembrance is too innocent for the evil of this world. She'd be devastated if she found out that Sage is cheating on her."