THE WITCH IN THE WOODS
It was early morning of the winter when people got to hear about the incident and they came running to the hills of the border of the village which connects to the jungle, people were watching on the ground with shock on their faces where corpse of a pregnant woman was lying on a green grass who was missing from the village since last 2 days.
Madel was a small village on the west side of the Pravah kingdom, this kingdom was also known as God’s land because of belief that this land was once ruled by the God himself. Madel was not much popular in kingdom because of many reasons like it was situated at end of the border and had very low contribution to the taxes laid by the King. About 200 families were living in the Madel whose major occupations were farming, pottery & labor. Revkal, The king of Pravah had chosen 5 local people for each village and town for maintaining law and order, the chosen ones were called “The Elders”.
Villagers gathered at the place of Elders’ meeting, below the peepal’s tree, kids & women had also came there along with men. People of Madel had seen many dead bodies in last 2 years near jungle, they have witnessed bodies of young boys who were sacrificed to goodness, young girls whose hearts were pierced ritually and were thrown in the wells but people have never seen such horror before in this small village, no one was ready to believe that how can human kill a pregnant woman by slicing her womb open and dropping stones on their heads!
One man was crying loudly in the meeting, he stood up and spoke “I want justice for my wife and child, whoever had done this cruelty need to be punished with death.” His name was Kanji.
Other man who was sitting on the left side of kanji stood up angrily and spoke in a loud voice “we had failed in the past to take actions and that is the reason why people are still being killed, we all know who was responsible for killing children in past and what happened today must have been done by her as well, that witch needs to be killed immediately.”
One of the Elder who was sitting on the bench of wood said “I agree with you that must be witch’s doing, people have found the clothes and belongings of the woman in the jungle, she must be killed while she was running from the jungle to the village, she had big red round symbol on her forehead similar kind of we had seen on Biyal’s house door before his boy was kidnapped from the jungle and found dead there. We don’t know any human capable of doing that in this village.
A young man named Trushil about age of 21 asked to speak in the meeting and said “My town is Godaal. I came here before 4 days for the purpose of colleting woods from jungle to build a boat for my people. When I was deep in the jungle, I had found this gold earning with blood on it, I think it was hers (he handover earning in the hands of Kanji, by seeing the earring, tears began flowing from Kanji’s eyes). In my town there was a story of the witch who sacrificed kids & pregnant women to gain Satan’s power and gold but eventually we killed that witch, I think you should do the same before she kills another kid or pregnant women.”
When in the past people of Madel had found the first corpse with red gulal which was looked like ritual sacrifice, they wanted to kill the witch but they were afraid of the king’s order. King Revkal’s father Verat was told by the priest that for every killing of one witch one man from the royal family will die and eventually this will bring hell to the kingdom, So Verat had made the rule that people can not kill any witches who lives in jungle, if they still do, they have to voluntary sacrifice one child from the village to the goodness.
In the end of the meeting, Elders decided that they will ask the king Revkal for his support to kill the witch but Elders knew that they have done this earlier and did not receive any positive response, Elders have said this to the villagers just to keep calm the community but this silence was for just few days.
A corpse of a young boy about age of 7 found naked with red gulal on his forehead and without heart inside him, it was near the location where previous corpse of pregnant women was found. Villagers were getting angry from what they were witnessing, in Elders’ meeting, under the pressure of villagers, Elders decided to kill witch and began preparation for it, they have also decided to get gold from the witch and use half of it for village’s welfare and other half will be offered to the king as compensation for breaking the law and perhaps they will be spared from punishment.
On the next day in the morning, Elders, Kanji, Trushil and big crowd of villagers marched inside the jungle to look for the witch, People were carrying axes, sword and sticks in their hands, they divided into a small groups to find a location, they have never been so deep in the jungle before, because of the bushes sunlight was hardly reaching to the ground.
Trushil saw a small wooden black house from the distance, there was one old woman in a white sari, she was walking in backyard of the house by the support of the stick, animals were roaming in the backyard, they were mostly cows, goats, dogs, cats, monkeys and horses, many of them had physically defects, some cows & dogs had leg injuries, some horses had only one eye sight, some monkeys had only one hand. It was impossible for anyone to see all such animals living at the same place without any hitches.
By seeing all this one man from the group of Trushil said to others “See, that witch had crippled all this animals for the rituals, if she could do this to so many animals guess how many people she must have been killed”
Within some time all the villagers gathered around witch’s house and tide her to the nearest tree with the ropes, First villagers cut her tongue because people believed that if she could manage to speak any black magic verse they will be doomed. Trushil went inside the wood house and bring one small bag of gold and offered to the Elder who was standing at the door. The Villagers beat the witch with sticks and threw her into the house while her whole body was flowing from blood. Kanji poured kerosene on the house then Elder set the house on fire, A great wave of fire arose, but there was only silence in the nature, there was no sound from the inside of the house, animals were abandoning the place, people were watching the fire with the relief that they have taken revenge while some had relief that murder spring had ended. In the evening there was only ashes on the ground, people took bones of the witch and buried it on the same ground.
The next day morning, Villagers and Elders met below the peepal’s tree, where one of the Elder whose name was Hari presented gold for people to see, it was about 10 vala gold equal to value of 2 year wheat income of the whole village, it was more than they expected. Second Elder named Rishad noticed that there is imprint on the gold coin which is same that had seen on Bilal’s house before his son was killed. Elders decided that Veerju (one of the Elder) will go to the king’s landing with 5 vala gold and will offer to king as compensation and Rishad who is also the Elder will keep the half gold and will use it for village’s welfare in coming years. Veerju agreed to go and said that he will leave tomorrow. Elders gave red bag of gold coins to Veerju & Rishad and meeting got over and everyone left for their home and for work.
Veerju left Madel for kings landing as decided but he chose to go along with his wife who was 2 month pregnant at that time, Veerju was very young when he had lost his parents during the war of Anami when Gelvan people attacked and killed all the villagers of Reva except the children whom they had used as a slave after sometimes somehow Veerju managed to reach at Madel and set his small farm. Veerju was a gentlemen and noble person but he was poor and was hardly meeting his family’s requirements.
It was 13th day from the day when the witch was killed, it was mid night when people again found corpse of a young boy naked covered in a blood, he was stabbed to chest and he had the same gulal symbol on his forehead that people have seen on the gold coins and corpses. In the next morning the same symbol was appeared on the door of the Elder, Rishad. Elders called the meeting where people argued that “the witch came back from the grave to take her gold, Gold is cursed, We need to bury the gold at that same place where we buried her bones otherwise we all be killed.” But everyone knew that it is too late for that perhaps right now half of the gold coins could be in the possession of the king. It was decided in the Elder’s meeting that half of the gold which is in the possession of the Rishad will be buried with the corpse of the witch but corpse’s location will be changed to protect the secrecy of the location and only Elders will know the location. After 2 days Rishad and 3 other Elders went inside jungle and reached at the place where witch was buried, her bones were removed and reburied few meters away with the 5 vala gold, while standing on her grave Elders swear to the gods that they will never come here again and they will never give information of this place to anyone.
It has been 3 months since witch was buried with gold and fortunately no one gotten killed since then but people suspect that Veerju and his wife might have been killed by witch’s ghost because they have never reached to the king’s landing and no any information has been received from them even though search was carried out from king’s palace, when king heard what have happened in the Matel, king forgave villagers from the punishment in exchange of higher taxes on whole village for next 2 years.
Next year Elder Rishad had left Matel for nearest town Jrelkha with his wife and parents, people heard that he had bought huge land in that town but after few months he was killed by the thugs while he was travelling. There was also rumor that he had never given up gold instead he had made duplicate copies of coin with yellow metals and buried it with the witch without letting anyone know the secret and he had used that same gold coins to buy the land.
Trushil had left the Matel immediately after the incident of witch, He was now living in a Naakar, a one of the big beautiful town of the kingdom. He had become one of the top lenders in this town within few period of time all thanks to Matel from where he had found his treasure of gold. Trushil was walking in his house in the lights of candles, the light was falling on the luxurious expensive items which have been kept in this big house. Trushil sit in a chair in the corner of the room and began remembering the days when he used to collect woods from the jungle.
Once Trushil was in the jungle of Matel, he was loading chopped woods in to the carts when he was attacked by Tiger, the wild animal had killed bulls and left Trushil half dead in pool of blood, he felt unconscious and closed his eyes.
When Trushil reopened his eyes he was in the small black wood cabin and one old woman was applying herbs on his body. That women told him that he was in a dip sleep for 3 days and she found him while she was searching for Retu (while pointing toward a brown dog sitting at the door). Tushil lived with her for almost 10 days until he was fit to walk but during this time he had learned a lot about this place.
The old lady’s name was Devki, she was living here peacefully since last 15 years, she was born in Ubal and was married in the same town, when she was young her husband died with fever, her husband was very rich in the kingdom but she was unable give him child so she did not had anyone to care, She was tagged as witch by the family of her husband and was forced to live her home, one night she gathered some coins from the house and ran into the jungle. She was strong women in her younger age, she had built herself a small cabin, she used to spend her time in taking care of animals, Nearby villagers used to free animals in the jungle to be killed by wild animals, Among the free animals they were cows who were unable to produce calf or give milk or near the end of her days, bull calves and male goats who have no use for people, bulls who had met leg injuries in the farming, horses who had lost eyesight. There was also dogs, cats and monkey living nearby, old lady used to treat injured animals with herbs and provided them food and shelter. All animals were living behind the house.
Tushil was amazed by seeing the backyard of the cabin, and he noticed that Devi has gold coins in her possession which she had hidden inside the hole of the cabin floor, Devi used to give small part of the gold coin to Sayur (who was cripple from leg and living in nearby village) to buy large quantity of food for herself and for animals, Sayur used to come 2 times in a month with the stock of food without letting anyone know. When Tushil recovered from his injuries he left the jungle for his home by thanking the lady for saving his life.
Trushil reached at his home in Godaal and continued to build small boats but he was hardly making money out of it. When his mother got ill he could not afford the cost of travel to Karwa where high class medical facilities were available and eventually her mother died, after few weeks the same thing happened with his younger sister, while her sister was on the pyre, he decided that he will do whatever it takes to be rich and will not let any loved one die because of money shortage, Trushil left for the Matel’s jungle but when he reached on the spot where he was treated, he saw there was only silence, no wooden cabin or animals were visible. He thought they must have been left for some another place so he decided to stay in village Mital and set a goal that when he finds Devi, he will steal few gold coins from her without harming her and by that he will establish business in Naakar.
Even after searching for almost one month in the jungle, he could not find the woman but when he got to know that villages can help him to find her, he hide the truth from them and led them into the jungle. While it was chaos when people gathered around Devi’s house, he wanted to help her but he knew that she can’t be saved from the hands of the fools, he had a choice either to save her or gold and he chose the gold. he managed to get inside the house when people were cutting her tongue, Trishul find out the same spot in the cabin where gold was hidden before. Trishul took 4 bags and hid it under his upper cloths and kept 5th one in hand to offer the Elder who was standing at the door, after the incident he immediately left from Matel.
With time, Kanji got married with his previous wife’s younger sister, he was now a father of a beautiful girl and he had named her Laxmi in the memory of her dead wife. He is happy with the family but he still remembers the day when in anger he had killed her innocent wife & unborn child, when in nights he wakes up from the scene of horror he keeps himself believe that it was only accident, he clearly remember how they died and how he had arranged the scene so it looks like a killing of witch but he don’t remember why he was angry that night that led him to do that.
It was the day of 3rd year celebration of witch killing in the Matel, one man who was in his 30s asked for a meeting with Elder and villagers to report a crime of child killing which had happened before few years. People gathered below the same the tree, he stood up and came in front of the people who were sitting on the ground and said “My name is Prana, you all have known me for my entire life, what I am gonna tell you might shock, surprise or anger you. I have been silence for so long because I feared for my life, but now I don’t have fear, all I feel is anger towards all of you”
Prana kept going “Elder Rishad whom we had chosen to deliver justice, choose the money over it. When the last corpse of child was found before 3 years in the night, I had seen Rishad drawing the symbol on his own door after news of corpse. I have seen him with my own eye. Almost half of the people sitting here have gone to the jungle to find the grave of witch to get gold but no one could find the location because only Elders knew it, but what makes you think that Elders have never been there, again!, out of 5 Elders 2 had left or died outside of the village, rest 3 have gone there separately I have seen them all in the nights but when they reached there, they had met with the disappointment because the grave was already dig out or perhaps you believed that witch awaken from dead, I have followed them that’s why I know the location where the witch is buried. But was she a witch? We all know the answers but we chose to remain silent because we don’t want to portray ourselves a monster, you tell the stories of witch to your children how she ritually killed children and animals, Truth is that she never killed the animals but she was saving the ones which we were sending to be killed in the jungle by the hands of the wild animals, we had many reasons like that’s how wild animals don’t come out of the jungle to look for the food and by that we were also getting rid of the unnecessary burden, We were choosing the animals who can live with us and who needed to be killed. We all have recognized our animals in the backyard of that cabin but none of us spoke about it, they were all in good & healthy condition in comparison with the time when we had send them in the jungle, the woman who was not killing injured animals how can kill children or pregnant women who were probably physically stronger than hers”
“Tomorrow, there will opening ceremony of the Ram temple but before few years, you all might remember the days when Shiva’s temple was built in the village, Pandit and Elders had ordered the whole village to contribute a small amount for it and so we all did but that was not enough for them. I had Minti at my home, she was pure white beautiful cow, I had spent my half of life in taking care of her, she was the only family I had, and she was like my child. One day Pandit came to my house and asked me to give him a cow for the sacrifice in the opening ceremony of the Shiva temple but I had refused and he was not happy with it. on the day before the ceremony Pandit came again with the Elders and ordered me to give up her but I answer was clear, they forcefully taken her to the temple and killed her on the steps of the temple on the ceremony day. I was ready to live this village but not before teaching them a lesson, so after 8 months I killed one young boy, the Pandit’s only child and drag him in to the jungle and portrayed it like it was a doing of the witch but today I think I was not the only one who have killed and blamed it on a witch. Today I am not afraid of death, I am afraid that tomorrow we might find corpses in the jungle because today you are scared to look in to yourselves.”
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When we look for the witch, All we want to see is old lady in a black or white clothes with dirty hair, living in the wilds, but in reality witches lives among us, it could be anyone, man, women, young or old, it could be wearing any color, orange, green, red, black or white, It could be king, queen, Prince, Priest or Imam. The truth is we create the witch in our mind to point out someone else as a monster to hide our real face.
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