The Devil’s Mouth
written by: Michelle Lee Stuart and you : )
It was a day like any other day for Alice. She woke up, ate a piece of buttered toast, brushed her teeth, shoved her school books into her backpack, and headed for the front door in less than 20 minutes.
“Be careful on your way to school today, honey,” her mother yelled from the kitchen.
“It’s very foggy out this morning, so don’t take that shortcut you and Jesse always take.”
“O.K., mom,” Alice shouts back and rolls her eyes, wishing her mom would worry less. Now that she is thirteen, she knows how the world works.
A thick fog enters the house as Alice opens the door, surprising her. She freezes as it envelopes her and slithers into the house and along the floor until it fades away up the stairs.
Creepy, she thinks.
Taking a deep breath, she turns on her cellphones flashlight and makes her way through the thick mist. The streets are eerily quiet, and she wonders if perhaps school is canceled today and her mom forgot to tell her.
“Jesse?” She calls as she makes her way slowly down the block, heading to the corner where they always meet in the morning. As she gets closer to their meeting spot, she sees a bright light coming toward her.
“Hey, Ally…is that you?
It is Jesse. He is waving his cell phone light in the air so she can locate him. He sounds freaked out. It is good to know that he is just as weirded out as she is.
“This is crazy; I can hardly see my hands in front of me, “Alice says and laughs nervously, reaching out until they meet, hand in hand. She pulls away and apologizes as a hot blush fills her cheeks. Good thing he can’t see my face, she thinks.
Then suddenly, out of nowhere, there is a ferocious growl!
“What was that?” Jesse squeaks.
They grab each other’s hands again; this is no time to be shy, not when something is about to eat us, Alice thinks.
“Let’s stand back to back and flash our lights in front of us; that way, nothing can sneak up on us,” Alice says.
“Good plan,” Jesse says, and fumbles and drops his phone. Alice shines her light on the ground, and they spot it, “There it is, “ she says; Jesse goes to grab it, and a large black paw with razor-sharp claws lands on top of the phone, crushing it under its weight, and then it lets out another blood-curdling growl.
“Run!!!” Alice screams, grabbing Jesse by the arm of his jacket. They can hear the heavy panting and low growl behind them; then the beast grabs Jesse dragging him backward, screaming, and disappearing into the fog.
“Jesse!! Alice screams. But there is nothing. No noise. Just dead silence. She turns in a circle, looking for anyone or anything, but the fog is thicker, and her phone is dying. Finally, shaking like a leaf and on the verge of panic, Alice runs blindly toward her house. If I get my mom and maybe a knife, I can hunt down whatever took Jesse.
A moment later, she hears Jesse screaming her name to her right.
“Alice…HELP!”
She quickly turns towards the sound, walking toward Jesse’s voice, and even though she cannot see a thing, she knows she is stepping into the woods across from her house. The path they often take to school as a shortcut. The one, her mom warned her against taking.
“Jesse?? Keep talking. I’m coming to get you. I will follow your voice.”
“O.K.,” Jesse yells back. “Be careful that thing is in here with me. I don’t know where it went! hurry!”
Alice makes her way through the woods, one hand holding the light, the other straight in front of her as she maneuvers through the thick trees. The leaves and twigs below her feet crackle and snap, a sound she usually loves in the fall, but now she feels is making her a target for the beast in the fog.
Alice finally reaches Jesse, and they hug each other tightly.
“I thought I would never see you again,” Alice cries. “How did you get away? What happened?”
“It dragged me into the woods, I tried to scream, but I couldn’t…I was so scared. Jesse replies. “I thought I was a goner, but then something must have scared it because it dropped me on the ground and started whining and backing away.”
“What could have possibly scared it?” Alice asks, terrified of the idea that something more frightening than the enormous beast that stole her friend could exist.
“I don’t know, but we shouldn’t wait around to find out,” Jesse says
Suddenly they hear the rapid crunching of leaves, and a sharp voice pierces through the silent woods. “ What do you two think you are doing out here?”
The fog makes a small clearing,
bringing them face to face with …the town witch…Hettie Nox.
Miss-mary-quite-contrary: Photographer: Hannah Radley Bennett Emma George: Portraits
Only five feet tall and as pale as a skeleton, Hettie is dressed in her usual custom attire: black on black…on black. Her hair is twirled up on her head in a big gray bun, and her bright green eyes shining brightly, mislead you into thinking she is kind and caring. But don’t be fooled…
Alice and Jesse begin to back away from the old witch…
She looks them up and down and snarls.
“I am trying to save our town against the dark forces that have crept in during the night,” Hettie says as if this news is obvious.
“There is a curse on this town that goes back centuries. Once every thirteen years, on the night of the first harvest moon in October, an evil spirit unleashes his hell hounds on our town to chase the children into the middle of these woods. Then at midnight, the evil spirit appears amongst them and chooses three children whose souls he consumes, and the rest are left to the hounds like scraps of meat.”
Alice and Jesse look at each other, eyes wide with the realization that something evil has genuinely arrived in Shallow Lake, and Hettie Nox may be their only hope.
“How do we stop this evil spirit?” Jesse asks, stuttering his words as his teeth chatter from the adrenaline pulsing through him. “One of the hounds carried me here, but something scared it off.”
Hettie Nox smiles, revealing a yellow-toothed grin, “There is one thing that Hell hounds fear more than their master, and that is a powerful ancient witch like myself. Who do you think summoned this fog to confuse the hounds, and who do you think did this…she swirls her hand in a rapid motion. The fog clears, revealing a hellhound impaled on a significant wooden stake, its tongue hanging sideways out of its mouth, its eyes wide, yellow, and dead.
“That’s the one that grabbed you, Jesse…look,” Alice tiptoes over, afraid the hound might wake from its eternal slumber, and pulls something off one of its sharp fangs…” it’s part of your coat!” she exclaims.
Jesse looks at his sleeves, sees where his coat was ripped, and discovers he is bleeding from a deep gash in his arm, and at the sight of this…Jesse immediately faints and plops onto the ground.
“Jesse?” Alice kneels next to him and takes his hand in hers.
Hettie approaches and swirls her hands above Jesse’s body as if conducting an orchestra while whispering a spell; then, the leaves start to move in unison, covering Jesse entirely in a blanket of gold and red.
“He will be safe here,” Hettie explains to Alice, who is now in a state of absolute panic.
Another scream and more growling can suddenly be heard deeper into the woods. They can hear the sound of children crying. That is why it was so quiet this morning; Alice whispers to herself… all of the kids have been brought here to die.
Alice begins to pace back and forth. “ What about my mom? Should I go get her? is she safe?”
“Alice, I am going to tell you something about your mother, and it isn’t going to be easy.” Hettie takes a step closer to Alice, who backs away suspiciously.
“What do you mean? What is wrong? did something happen to her?' Alice is now on the verge of sobbing.
“I have to tell you for your protection. Your mother is a powerful witch in my coven.”
“Ummm..that is impossible,” Alice replies with poorly hidden revulsion. “My mom is a dental hygienist, and she wears floral patterns,” She motions to Hettie to make her point. “You make candles and teas, read tarot cards, and dress in black all the time.”
Hettie begins to laugh, or rather, she starts to cackle…just like the witch SHE is, and Alice’s mom is not.
“Your mother would be furious with me for telling you this, but she, and therefore you as well, come from a long line of witches who were a bit boring, if I am honest,” Hettie smiles mischievously.
“What?” Alice replies, mouth agape.
“We weren’t boring, Hettie; we were wise.” Alice’s mom suddenly appears through the trees and clears the fog with a swish of her hand.
“Mom?” Alice runs into her arms. “I am so happy you are O.K. Jesse was attacked and….”
Her mom puts her hand on Alice’s shoulder and says,” I know, dear. I have been watching. You and Jesse are going to be just fine.”
“What is going on, mom? I am so confused right now. Is this some kind of nightmare?” Hettie pinches her, and Alice yelps, “Ouch!!”
“Hettie laughs, “Nope, you’re awake.”
Alice’s mom gives Hettie a stern look.
“Sorry, Maggie, I’m just having a little fun.” Hettie shrugs her shoulders.
“Fun, as you call it, is what got us in this situation in the first place Hettie.” Alice’s mom takes a step toward her,”… and now my thirteen-year-old daughter is at risk.”
Hettie hangs her head down. “I am not responsible for what happened in the past, Maggie,” she says and looks up at Alice.
“Many years ago, a witch, one of my ancestors by the name of Lillith, made a deal with the devil. She had three small children who were very ill, and there wasn’t a thing anyone could do to help them. They were going to die. Lillith had heard of a well hidden in the woods, where men would go to make deals with the devil. They would climb into the darkness and meet him in his dwelling of fire and despair. One by one, these families started to grow beautiful crops on impossible land and in impossible weather. This area was filled with wealthy landowners who did little work for great wealth. Lillith decided one day to go into the woods, these woods, and find the well herself. She climbed into the pit of hell and made a deal. If the devil saved her children's lives, she would bring him three other children in exchange and throw them in the well. It was a horrific plan, but she was so desperate. The devil, manipulative as he is, told her that he would only save one of her children, for that is all her offer was worth. But, knowing her powers, he told her that if she would like to save all of her children, then she must put a curse on the town, and every thirteen years, for the rest of time, he would be freed from his pit and unleashed upon the town for one night, and he would consume the souls of three children. Lillith agreed. She gathered her coven. She promised them that if they helped her, their children would be safe, so they agreed; they used all of their power and cursed Shallow Lake for all eternity. The devil rose, and he brought his hellhounds with him. He kept his word and saved her children, but he took the souls of her covens children and set his beasts on the rest.”
Alice is about to say something when the wind blows furiously, and the sky becomes pitch black. The three of them grab onto the trees to steady themselves.
“He is coming!” Alice’s mom screams above the roaring wind. We must get to the center of the woods and help the children!"
“What about the well?” Alice shouts as a roaring thunder shakes the ground below them, causing Alice to get closer to her mom and into her arms. “Can’t we stop him from rising?”
“No one has ever found it. Hettie yells, “After Lillith made her deal, it disappeared. People have lost their minds looking for it.”
A pile of leaves explodes from the ground, and Jesse climbs to his feet. He stands, pale and terrified, looking around at the chaos around him. Then he looks at Alice and says…
“I know where the well is. I have seen it before. I will take you there.”
This revelation should be good news, but Alice’s mom notices something…jesse’s eyes have a dim red glow, and Hettie seems suspiciously upset.
“Let’s go” Alice pulls her mom's arm, and they begin to follow Jesse through the woods.
Maggie waves her hands to clear the fog as they go. In the distance, they can hear the dreadful sound of the children, sobbing and terrified. Alice wants nothing more than to run to them and tell them it will be O.K., but she doesn’t know that it will be O.K. She has no idea if they can stop the devil from rising from his pit.
“Wait!!!” Alice shouts suddenly, and everyone stops to look at her. “Maybe we should split up! Jesse can lead my mom to the well since she is more powerful, and Hettie and I can go to the children in case…(she takes a deep breath)..in case we can’t stop him. We can’t just leave them alone like lambs for the slaughter.”
Jesse smirks, and Alice looks at her mom, who clearly notices it, too; Jesse’s eyes are now glowing red. They take a few steps back and look over at Hettie, who is now crouching behind a tree.
“Jessie, umm..what is going on?” Alice manages to force the words out. She feels like her heart has stopped. This isn’t Jessie. This is something evil.
“O.K..you guys are going to laugh when I tell you this,” He says, as his entire demeanor changes and his body seems to shift right in front of their eyes. He is shockingly several feet taller, and his arms and legs stretch out like long alien limbs, with large clawed fingers and toes. His entire body is covered in dark black fur, and a large tail stretches out behind him, thick yet sharp as a whip. When the grotesque mutation is complete, he whips his tail around and wraps it around the tree that Hettie is hiding behind, tearing it violently from the ground and tossing it into the night sky, with poor Hettie shrieking as she is flung along with it, ensnared by the roots that have wrapped themselves around her.
“Hettie!!!” Maggie screams.
Alice looks at the monster. Then, petrified but stern, she asks, “ What did you do with Jessie?”
“I am Jessie,” it responds with a deep, bellowing voice.
Maggie whispers to her daughter, “keep talking to him; I am going to try a spell” Alice squeezes her mom’s hand as her mom stands behind her, hidden, and begins to silently and rapidly whisper her magic.
“You are not Jessie!!” Alice screams, tears burning her eyes, but her anger outweighs her grief…she is pissed!!!
“Your big crush Alice, the boy you walked to school with every day? That was me, you stupid girl. You see, Hettie Nox and I made a little side deal 13 years ago. She was tired of being insignificant and made fun of in this pathetic little town. She knew she was getting a little long in the tooth, and she wanted to make sure she left behind a legacy of her own. Something better than being tied to Lillith and her curse on this town, so she proposed a deal. Heddie would find a baby for me to inhabit for the next 13 years so that I wouldn’t have to go back into the pit of hell. People think that I like to be down there, but I have to be honest with you; it is boring. Everyone is constantly screaming, being tortured, and begging for mercy; It’s exhausting. So in exchange for Hettie using her witchcraft to help me possess little Jessie’s soul, I showed her where the well was and agreed that in thirteen years, on this night, I would allow her to banish me back into the well in front of the entire town, and she would become the town hero. But…I changed my mind; I like it here; Hey,..did you know that children taste better if you eat them when they are terrified?”
Alice is shocked into silence. She cannot find the words because she cannot comprehend that what she is hearing and seeing could in any way be the truth. But she remembers the story of how Hettie was a midwife and helped bring Jessie into the world, and she would often babysit him when his mom needed help. She was the only person who trusted Hettie.
“Alice,” Maggie whispers, “on the count of three, I want you to fall flat to the ground onto your stomach and cover your ears, O.K.?”
Alice shakes her head yes and whispers back to her mom,” I love you. You can do this, mom.”
“I love you too, honey,” Maggie's eyes fill with tears, “I will always love you.”
They both take a deep breath, then Maggie shouts, “ ONE, TWO THREE!”
Alice dives for the ground, covering her ears tight as she can.
She can feel the ground vibrating and cold and heat colliding in the air…she can hear rumbling and cracking as if she were lying on top of an earthquake. Suddenly she feels a sharp pain in her head; something has hit her hard…so hard…that everything goes dark.
When she opens her eyes, Alice finds herself sitting on the edge of an old well with Jessie. He is no longer the monster..it is the Jessie she has always known and loved. Alice looks at him, but he won’t look at her, he is looking into the distance, and she notices that he is much younger than his current age; he has to be only 8 eight years old. She reaches out and takes his hand…he finally looks at her, and his eyes have a dim red glow.
“Jessie, it’s me, Alice…where is my mom?” she asks, her hand trembling and cold in his tiny warm palm.
“I’m sorry, Alice,” he responds without a hint of emotion on his sweet face. That face that she has seen laugh whenever she told him her dumb jokes, and the face that she has seen crinkle up and cry when his dad left him and his mom and never came back. The same little face that was terrified, eyes wide, when he told her he could hear someone talking to him in whispers in the middle of the night and it makes him do bad things. She always thought it was an excuse; he needed someone to blame for his trouble-making ways…but what if…all this time…he was…
“Alice?” he whispers to her, “You know that I love you, right? You will always be my best friend…but I have to go.” with that, he lets go of her hand and falls backward into the pitch blackness of the ancient well.
Alice screams.
Suddenly someone grabs her arms and pulls her into an embrace. She pushes them away, screaming Jessie’s name, as the world around her starts to shift and change until she finds herself sitting up in bed. She is home, waking from a nightmare, and her mother is trying to calm her down.
“Honey, take a deep breath, ok? You are fine, everything is fine, you are safe, it was just a bad dream.”
Alice can’t believe it. “Mom? You are ok? I thought..” she tries to gather her thoughts, unsure of what she should say next. Uncertain of what is real and what isn’t.
Alice’s mom puts a cold face cloth on her daughter’s forehead and gently helps her lay back down in her bed, bringing the covers up to her chin.
“You had a fever this morning, sweetheart; you have been sleeping all day. I kept you home from school. Jessie was sick as well; I just spoke with his mom. It is that flu thing that’s going around.”
“It was all a dream?” Alice asks.
“It would appear you had more of a nightmare, you were screaming Jessie’s name..but it’s ok, whatever bad dream you had, you don’t have to worry because Jessie is just fine, at home tucked in bed just like you.” She kisses Alice’s forehead.
“I am going to make you some chicken noodle soup. How does that sound?” She asks
Alice nods enthusiastically as she begins to feel a big swell of relief and, with that, an awareness that she is starving!
Alice’s mom leaves her room and shuts the door. Alice sits up and grabs her cell phone, and texts Jessie.
Hey jessie heard you are sick too!
I had the craziest dream last night! can’t wait to tell you all about it, it was so bananas!!
you were the devil…LMAO!!
She can see that he is answering her text right away; she smiles, and tears begin to fill her eyes. She has her best friend back, and her mom is safe. That is all that matters.
Jessie responds;
What do you mean I was the devil?
Alice rolls her eyes …clearly, this is going to be a joke between them now;
lol..you are a devil obviously, but in my dream you were the actual devil..like lucifer himself.
Jessie responds;
let me guess, I was eight feet tall with a body of black fur with red glowing eyes and a tail? LMAO
Alice is confused. How would he know that?? Did they see it together in a movie?
HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT?
There is a long pause where he doesn’t respond at all. Then, her heart rate starts to pick up again.
JESSIE? HELLO? WTF?
finally…he responds;
Sorry Ally..gotta go. ttyl
Alice puts her phone away and shakes her head as if she is trying to loosen things up in there. Hoping she can make some sense of all of this.
Later that night, after her chicken noodle soup, a hot bath, and several cups of tea, Alice falls back into a peaceful slumber.
This will all make sense tomorrow, she thinks, as she drifts off.
The following day Alice wakes up and feels fantastic. She heads downstairs to make her toast, and her mom sits at the kitchen table with a bowl of porridge.
She looks at Alice with a concerned look on her face. “Good morning, sweetheart. How are you feeling?” she gets up to give her a big bear hug.
Alice happily accepts the embrace, “ I am great. I feel great. I have never been so happy! I am going to go meet Jessie, and we are going to walk to school together.”
She kisses her mom on the cheek and is about to grab her toast and run when her mom stops her. She is upset about something. She asks Alice to sit down so that they can talk….and Alice can feel her stomach drop to her feet.
“Alice, do you remember when you and Jessie used to take that shortcut in the woods on your way to school?”
Alice looks at her mom, dumbfounded by this strange question.
“Yeah, mom, obviously, we still take it.”
Her mom takes a deep breath at this, and a tear trickles down her cheek. What is going on? Alice wonders as her mom reaches out and places her hand on top of hers, offering a light squeeze like she is about to be told something terrible.
“Do you remember that one day when you guys were eight years old, and it was very foggy outside? You and Jessie were walking with his mom to school, but the two of you snuck into the woods and got lost?”
A bolt of electricity stabs Alice in her heart as a painful memory begins to surface from deep within her. She cannot speak. So her mom continues.
“The two of you ended up deep in the woods and found an old well hidden from the trail. Jessie wanted to climb inside and explore, but you were smart, Alice; you realized it was dangerous, and you tried to retrace your steps back to Jessie’s mom, but the fog was too thick…”
Alice’s face begins to crumble into despair, and she finishes the sentence her mother started….
” … and when I went back to the well, Jessie was gone.”
“yes,” her mom whispers in response, her tears now flowing heavily down her cheeks.
Alice continues, “ Oh my god! I remember now; they found his body at the bottom of the well!! . Oh my god, he is dead!”
Her mother grabs the box of tissues and puts them in front of Alice.
“He wasn’t the only one in the well Alice. There were two other bodies. They were missing children from the area.”
“There were three?” Alice asks, shocked.
“Yes, that’s right…three little souls over thirteen years just gone. It was terrible”.
“it devoured them,” Alice says quietly, remembering her nightmare…
Later that afternoon, Alice walked into the woods across from her house to look for the well that had taken three children’s lives. Her now unsuppressed memories lead her back to the scene. She takes a note out of her pocket that she wrote for Jessie; she kisses it, holds it over the black hole of the well, and lets it go.
She notices a wooden sign on a nearby tree with the words The Devil’s Mouth painted in red with an arrow pointing towards the well. She rips down the sign and spends the next hour covering the well with branches and leaves, doing her best to ensure no child ever falls into the devil’s mouth again.
xo
Michelle Lee Stuart ( your co-author)
Let’s write a ghost story together...
Thanks for bringing your story full circle Michelle. I especially like Alice doing something positive at the end! It kept my attention throughout. Keep on writing. Missed a pic of Lucy this time 🐕