The Witchwood

Phillip’s camera made cheerful chirps as he scrolled through the menus. A few paces ahead of him on the trail, Tom’s feet scraped lightly on the dirt as he walked. All around them, the forest creaked and cawed and snapped as unseen wildlife went about their business of building nests and gathering food.

The two young men shared a similar build at six feet and one inch in height, a subject which had been hotly discussed due to the cameras strapped to their heads. High definition cameras recorded each of their steps from their own viewpoint which, due to their height, risked looking warped if they did not plan appropriately. Phillip, the less rugged of the two, sported a slighter build and fairer hair. Despite having only been on the trail for an hour, his blonde fringe already matted to his forehead with sweat and the pervading moisture of the forest. Up ahead, Tom’s darker features of black hair, sunken eyes, and a short black beard put him in sync with the shadows of the forest. The two wore similar outfits — shorts and light jackets while carrying heavy backpacks. Tom navigated, using a gnarled staff to match his steps, while Phillip spent most of his time snapping photos or fussing with the camera on his head.

Tall pines with grey bark loomed over them. The canopy of thin needles allowed plenty of the fading sun’s light to filter down to the forest floor. The air was wet, but chilled as tendrils of winter wind shook the leaves from the trees. The two men’s step along the ill kept path filled the air with crunching that sent birds fluttering and squirrels scampering up trees. Tom stopped a moment to check a map against a small GPS locater attached to the strap of his backpack. Satisfied with the result of his inspection, he carried on, marching forward into the thickening forest. Phillip followed behind, stopping a moment to take a picture of antler rubbings on one of the pines.

They walked in silence, both content with the serene noises of nature. As they walked, they passed several signs noting their location and the direction out of the forest. Phillip learned about the installation of these signs in his research for the hike. The nearby town of Yatesville ordered them installed after a rash of disappearances in the forest during the previous decade. Pott’s Woods was notorious for this type of local legend. As far as he’d been able to nail down, the disappearances weren’t disappearances so much as petty theft. Students from a nearby college would rent hiking equipment from the Yatesville shops and never return it. These incidents were conflated as the students going missing, and the overblown stories made the rounds through the local papers.

Those circumstances aside, Phillip also learned of several actual disappearances in the forest. In the past fifty years, seven people went missing in Pott’s Woods, including Mr. Pott’s son, William. The older disappearances like William Pott happened during hunting ventures. It was assumed that William suffered some type of injury and took shelter before succumbing to exposure. More recent missing persons were attributed to carelessness or alcohol. The forest did hold some danger. The wood remained one of the oldest undisturbed forests in North America and carried with it all the folk legend and local superstition that it earned over the years. Things like its more colloquial name, the Witchwood.

The two men took a sharp turn to follow the path. As they did, they saw the cast iron sign for which Tom had been searching. The sign was not ancient or spooky or anything other than a factory made, weather worn sign. It was bolted to an iron rod that seemed to be in the process of sinking into the forest itself. Brown vines snaked up the post to grasp at the lettering, slowly covering up the last warning of the civilized world. “Warning: final point of rescue. Forest Exit Due South.” The message was simple and unnerving. In all their travels they had seen many such signs. The most mundane had been out west alongside the highway. A sign there warned of no more gasoline for several hundred miles. To pass that sign, even prepared with extra fuel and water, could unnerve even the most stalwart of people. It was an admission from society that beyond awaited a world that unbent to humanity’s rules. The Witchwood’s warning sign had gone up after a search and rescue effort led to the further disappearance of two of the rescue team.

“Wanna turn back?” Tom asked.

Phillip clicked several photos of the sign. “Nope.”

“The cabin is about two hours walk from the sign. If we keep up this pace anyway.”

The path ended. They stepped beyond the sign and crunched on into the overgrown forest. The forest thickened. Underbrush pulled at their clothes and scratched at their calves. They pressed on, undeterred by the increased difficulty of their trek. Both had made their way through worse. The two friends met during college and remained close after the bond of school faded. Their shared love of the outdoors was enough to keep them casual friends, but they did not journey into the wilderness for nature alone. Each of the two held a deep fascination for the lost parts of the world. They sought out places that humans had been, but abandoned for whatever reason. Phillip liked to photograph the remains of whatever life had been led in the abandoned place while Tom simply liked returning to places others feared to go. Since college, the two had planned and completed several excursions. On one, they drove across the desert to an abandoned mining town. On another, they ventured underneath old New York to find abandoned subway lines. Phillip fancied the idea of compiling his photographs into a book, but rarely got around to working on it.

The combination of setting sun and thickening forest quickly winnowed the remaining light. While they intended to get an earlier start, Phillip accidentally left his spare camera batteries at the hotel, and they’d been delayed while retrieving them. They both had flashlights equipped on their helmets alongside the cameras. Tom flicked his on as they climbed through a particularly gnarled area of vines. Emerging on the other side, he helped Phillip navigate through until they both stood in a small clearing. Their eyes went to the same small object, a small, cornhusk doll. The doll hunched forward with its arms propping it up, and its head lolled to the side. The area around it had been disturbed, but how recently they could not tell. They both stood very still and waited. Neither let so much as a breath slip through their lips for several seconds as their ears strained to hear anything out of the ordinary. Nothing but the sound of distant birds and gentle rustling of leaves greeted their ears.

Phillip stepped over to doll, bringing up his camera. Tom walked around the edge of the clearing, stepping lightly and gripping his staff a little more tightly than usual. The clearing was not dark, but had little light without Tom’s headlamp. “This is fucking creepy,” Tom said in a whisper.

Phillip nodded as his camera whirred. “Doesn’t it seem like something we’d do? Somebody comes all this way and leaves this thing behind to spook the next guy.” He looked down at the image on his camera’s display. In it, he noticed a red tint near the right shoulder of the doll. Carefully, he reached over to the bizarre plaything and lifted its right arm. A small, red bangle fell out and dropped to the forest floor. He picked it up and turned on his own light. The band was red and marked with lettering he did not recognize. Something about it made him suspicious of being watched.

“What’s that?” Tom asked.

“Dunno. It was tucked under the doll. Maybe this is some kind of misguided memorial or something.”

“Whatever it is, we need to keep moving. Most of the light is already gone, and we’ve got a good twenty minutes to go. This way.”

Phillip considered putting the bangle back, but at the last moment, he tucked it in his breast pocket. He got to his feet and followed after his friend.

Neither Tom nor Philip noticed the sudden quiet in the wood, but both could not shake the feeling that someone else was nearby.

They continued on. The air in the forest grew stale as the breeze died out. Their head lamps did an excellent job of lighting their way and chasing back the encroaching shadow. Though neither could forget the doll, the tension was broken when a raccoon decided to investigate their presence. The creature peered at them from behind a nearby log, interested but cautious. Phillip took a few pictures, but Tom altered their path so as not to disturb the animal or risk a bite. A few minutes later, Phillip’s stomach dropped as he looked into the distance of the forest. He couldn’t be sure in the dim light, but he thought he saw a woman. As he hesitated with his light shining off the path, Tom asked what was the matter. “Did you see something?”

“No, I don’t think so. Maybe a deer.” Phillip’s mind searched for some plausible reason to have seen the naked flesh of a beautiful woman in the middle of a forsaken wood. A trick of the mind was the best he could hope for. They waited and noticed for the first time the intense silence around them. Though night had set in and the birds had nested, no insects or nocturnal beasts stirred. Without a word, they resumed their march, picking up their pace slightly.

The cabin’s dark shape appeared at the top of a slight rise in the forest floor. Both felt relieved at the sight of it, even though it was ominous in its own right. The cabin had been built by the original Mr. Potts and maintained and modernized over the years by the Potts family. They donated it to the city of Yatesville in the 1980s and it had been under the government’s care and open to public use ever since. When Tom registered their use of the cabin, he noted that the ledger mentioned only three other names going back to 1983. Tom walked up to the door and started rummaging in his bag for the keys to the lock.

While he waited, Phillip once again noticed a glimmer of movement out of the corner of his eye. His head turned quickly and saw something. In the distance, just far enough to be indiscernible, he made out the shape of a woman. Her back was to him. Long, curled red hair flowed down her lily white back to stop just above her round, supple buttocks. Her legs were apart as she straddled something, her hips rocking back and forth as her arms explored her own body. Phillip could barely see any of it, but his mind had no problem filling in the blanks. He thought of yelling to Tom, but the other man would think him insane. A beautiful woman, naked in the middle of Potts Woods at night was precisely the type of nonsense the locals jabbered about. Something he had not heard of in the local legends was that the woman would have something with her. Something that was not human, not wholly. Phillip raised his camera and zoomed in to take a photo, but as soon as he looked through the lens, the woman and whomever or whatever she was with had vanished.

The loud click of the lock startled Phillip from his shock. Again Tom asked if something was wrong, “You’re acting funny. See something again?”

Phillip hesitated. He knew Tom well enough to know that if made a solid case, his friend would likely believe him. His hesitancy rooted in a fear of believing it himself. A carefree exhibitionist couple having a romp in the woods was one thing, but a vanishing woman was another. And he’d seen more. He’d seen the thing she was with. That was not something that he could believe in at all. “I think I’m tired or something. Probably need to eat. All this dim light and the walk are getting to me.”

“Ok then, come on.” Tom led the way into the cabin. Phillip, with one more glance into the forest, followed. He pulled the door shut behind them, relieved to hear it latch.

The cabin was sparse, but surprisingly tidy. A very light sheen of dust sat on the hard surfaces, but otherwise it looked as if it had been recently cleaned. In the main room, four cots lined the two side walls. The wall opposite the door had an open fire place while the center of the room was empty other than a colorful, if dated, rug. The room on the left was a kitchen, of sorts. It had a small wood burning stove and a table with two chairs. On the other side, a bathroom contained a large washing basin and a toilet. Tom checked the water in both, happy to see that the plumbing worked at least. They dropped their gear and started exploring the various cupboards around the cabin. Tom checked behind the cabin and found a large stack of firewood. Phillip rummaged around long enough to discover a set of candles that he placed around the cabin. While he worked, he took cautious glances out of the window and nervously watched any time Tom left the door ajar.

With a fire going and the candles lighting the darker corners of the room, Phillip finally felt at ease. He started warming his packed meal, and Tom soon joined him. “So what spooked you out there?”

Phillip shrugged. “Thought I saw somebody.”

“Naked woman?” Tom asked flatly. He didn’t look away from the fire as he speared the bits of instant chicken in the small plate.

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

“I saw her. Thought I imagined it at first. She was about thirty yards ahead of us. Looked right at me. I blinked, and she was gone.”

“When?”

“While you were messing with that doll.”

Phillip sometimes hated his friend’s taciturn approach to everything. “Do you have an explanation? If we both saw a hot naked red head in the woods, shouldn’t there be a reason for that?”

Tom turned to look at Phillip. His face had whitened considerably. “She was…old. Her hair was black and matted. She looked fucking terrifying. What the hell did you see?”

Phillip didn’t answer. Instead, he rummaged through his bag and pulled out a small video camera. He gestured at Tom’s helmet, and his friend understood. Tom took the memory card from the head cam and handed it over. The artificial light illuminated the room as Phillip started scanning through the footage. It took a few moments, but he found where Tom was looking at the corn husk doll. He let it play and they both watched. The camera scanned the tree line and then stopped, focusing on a dark area between two distant trees. The footage flickered. Phillip paused and took it back. He stopped it at the moment the image scrambled. The distorted picture told them nothing. Tom chuckled and shook his head. Phillip replayed it once more and still saw nothing.

Despite the lack of video evidence, both of them remained thoroughly unnerved. Leaving the wood was impossible. Even if they didn’t get lost, it would take until morning to reach civilization. If an old hag or a young vixen was lurking in the shadows, wandering around with a light on their heads would be no safer than spending the night in the cabin. Fatigue took its toll and despite their uneasiness, both were soon drifting off to sleep. Tom laid down on his cot, while Phillip remained propped against the wall. As his friend’s snores filled the air, he remembered the bangle in his pocket. He fished it out and held it up to the light of the dying fire. The lettering glimmered as he turned the band over again in his hands. In an instant, the band grew hot. Phillip dropped it, shaking his hand from the burn. The small band landed on the floor with a quiet clack. After a second, it started to slide. It gained speed as Phillip watched. As if pulled by an unseen force, the band flew across the floor and disappeared through the crack under the cabin door.

Phillip’s heart thudded rapidly in his chest. He checked his hand, but found no lasting wound. Had it been a burn or a shock? Seeing things made him doubtful and superstitious, but physically touching something quickly bolstered his skepticism. The bangle could have been electrified. A quick shock could easily been mistaken by the brain as a burn. A magnet of some type could have pulled it away. All of it was a prank, and he was determined to find it out. He grabbed a flashlight from his bag. For a moment, he considered waking up Tom, but if he found nothing Tom would only be irritated. Leaving his friend behind, he quietly opened the door and stepped out into the dark.

The beam of light scattered across the forest, searching for anything out of the ordinary. Phillip listened closely, but heard nothing other than the quiet snores of Tom from inside the cabin. He cast the light down and found the bangle only a few inches away from the cabin threshold. Retrieving it, he carefully examined it under the flashlight, searching for any circuitry or battery. Before he found anything, he sensed movement from the corner of his eye. Swinging the light up, he saw her again. The red head was walking away from him, further into the wood. Her round posterior sway seductively, despite the strangeness of the situation. He caught a glimpse of her face. She was smiling or laughing, he couldn’t be certain. Without hesitation, he followed her.

His steps were loud and clumsy in the forest. The woman remained several paces ahead of him, no matter how quickly he pursued. He lost track of time and his location as a mad desire to catch the woman seized him. If he had stopped for a moment to consider his actions, he would have been horrified. Yet with each bounding step, he managed to see a new hint of the woman’s form. The curve of her hip, the color of her lips, or the hinted shape of her breasts, each drove him on like a madman. He clutched the flashlight in one hand and the bangle in the other. His heart thundered louder and louder with each step. Limbs and vines snatched at him, pulling him and pricking him, as if the forest itself wanted to impede his progress. The woman disappeared entirely, and Phillip’s stomach plummeted. He rushed forward and tripped, falling face first into a clearing with a loud grunt.

His nose hurt, but that pain was quickly dismissed. His flashlight stopped working, but something lit the clearing. Calming blue light radiated from strange bulbs on nearby vines. The luminescent plant had been cultivated and curved to create a canopy which brightened the whole area. The twigs and leaves expected on the forest floor had been swept away, leaving a lush, green carpet of grass. Phillip marveled at the area as he rose to his feet until he noticed the woman sitting on the ground a few feet away. Her red tressed flowed down over her breasts to hide them from view while her legs were crossed to hide her sex.

Phillip readied himself launch accusations. He wanted to pull at the limbs and discover whoever else was lurking behind the joke. The woman looked at him with patient eyes. He brushed himself off and tried not to look at her nakedness, “Who are you?”

“I am the Witch of the Wood.”

“Who are you really?”

She frowned. “I am the Witch of the Wood. This is my home, and you have trespassed in it.”

“I followed you here. You —” He held up the bangle in his other hand, “This is yours.”

With a wave of her hand, the bangle floated from his grip and drifted through the air to her. She held it in her palm for a moment, before slipping it over her wrist. “The Other picked you. Would you like to stay?”

“What? What other? What are you talking about?” Phillip looked around, expecting to see someone else, possibly the thing he’d seen the woman with earlier.

The Witch moved slightly. Phillip unabashedly looked at her naked body. Perfect, lily white breasts rose out of her chest, topped with pert, rose colored nipples. Her alabaster skin shone with inner light as her legs parted, ever so slightly, to reveal a groomed patch of red hair above her petite lower lips. “Two own the wood. The Witch and the Other. The Other was first and struck a deal with the Witch. Strangers have joined them, always by two, one for the Witch and one for the Other.” As she spoke, Phillip managed to look away from her beauty long enough to see images floating in the air around him. The images showed other beautiful women walking through the forest, and somewhere behind them a creature not quite human. “Would you like to stay?” she asked again.

Phillip turned his attention back to the Witch. She had spread her legs wider. Phillip’s own confusion and fear were quickly being overridden by a growing lust. His cock ached in his pants, and the more he thought of touching her skin or stroking her hair, the less he worried about the stinging in his muscles or the pain in his legs. He wanted nothing more than to crawl on top of her perfect body. “What does staying mean?”

She smiled and ran her hands down between her legs. With little ceremony, she pushed her fingers inside herself. Her other hand squeezed her breast as she bit her lip. “It means you stay.”

Phillip gave in. He walked over to her and dropped to his knees between her legs. She pulled her fingers from her pussy and offered them to him. A sweet scent filled the air as he leaned down and took them into his mouth. She moved closer to him, bringing him in for a warm kiss as she stripped away his clothes. Phillip’s hands moved to her breasts and down the side of her thigh, eagerly groping. She smelled wonderful, like a field of fresh flowers after a rain. As her hand wrapped around his throbbing cock, he thought he might explode in her palm, but she clearly wanted more than that.

Leaning back, she spread her legs wide and wrapped them around Phillip’s back. He hovered over her, his cock teasing at the entrance to her pussy. His precum flowed freely and added her own lubrication by sliding slowly along her lips. Her hands scratched at his back, and her thighs squeezed against his. Her tits heaved up and down as she breathed against his neck. Phillip pushed forward, his cock slowly sinking into her hot folds. Ecstatic pleasure washed over him. The blazing warmth of her pussy urged him deeper and deeper. He groaned and she bit at his shoulder. He started to thrust in and out of her with building speed. He didn’t care about how he had come to be there or the impossibility of it all. Perhaps it was all a vivid dream, but he desperately wanted it to continue. He wanted to feel this type of unmitigated pleasure for the rest of his life. If that meant staying with the Witch and being her enslaved lover, then he would gladly pay the price.

His hand wrapped around her back as he started to pump into her slower. She sensed his orgasm coming and did not want to delay it any longer. Her hips bounced up to meet each of his thrusts, happy to feel his cock push slightly farther each time. The walls contracted around him, squeezing and massaging his cock, forcing more of his cum to build up in anticipation of his impending orgasm. He leaned back from her, grabbed hold of her legs, and pulled them out wide. He looked down to see his own cock embedded deep in the pussy of this forest creature and started to slam into her as fast and hard as he could. His eyes squinted shut as he shoved in one final time before erupting inside of her. He came and came and came. His cum gushed from him in waves that addled his mind with blinding intensity. He’d never cum so much in his life, perhaps in the sum total of his life.

Before him, the Witch convulsed and writhed in her own devilish delight. Her eyes flared a bright red, and she pushed Phillip away with a wet pop. A wave of emptiness seized him as the pleasure subsided. His body prickled and burned as if he’d been tossed into a patch of nettles. His chest bulged and swelled as hair fell way. His hips cracked and reshaped into a wide, feminine form. His hands came up to grasp the swelling flesh on his chest as he realized why he felt so empty. His hand moved down to where his cock had been, but found instead the top of a wet opening. His fingers explored further, pushing into the slit, and drawing a moan from his lips. Newly formed tit flesh spilled over his hands, and he knew his ass had swollen to a round, cushion as well. He looked with pleading eyes at the Witch.

***

The Witch of the Wood watched her newest conquest change. She loved the change from man to woman. She loved to see the shock as lust disappeared and confusion set in. She loved the female form and thought it got better each time she changed someone. The newest member of her coven would appreciate that soon enough, but first the Other’s price must be paid.

Tom stirred at the sound of the door opening. Sleep dissipated from his eyes slowly. The fire had burned out almost entirely, and the room was nearly black. He looked over to Phillip’s cot and saw it was empty. Reaching down, he flicked on the headlamp and light scattered throughout the cabin. Adrenaline flooded his system as he saw the young woman standing a foot inside the doorway. She was gorgeous with big, full breasts, wide hips, and a thick, round ass. She was entirely unclothed except for a red bracelet on her right wrist. Tom tried to remember what Phillip told him about the woman he saw in the woods. This woman was not a redhead, but blonde. The more he looked, the more familiar she seemed.

Phillipa moved into the room gracefully. Each step she made crafted perfectly by the centuries of sisters before her. She looked on the bewildered face of her old friend, happy he would be her first and her eternal. She lowered a hand to his bare chest, pleased by the feeling of his hot skin.

“What’s going on? Who are you?”

“Do you want to fuck me? Do you want to stuff that stiff cock of yours inside me? That’s what I want. I want you inside me so much. I’m so empty Tom.”

“How do you know my name?” Tom didn’t stop the woman from touching him, but also kept a wary eye on her hand.

“Do you not recognize me?” Phillipa asked. She reached up and pulled her hair into a bun behind her head. Tom gasped. “It’s me, Phillip.”

“What the fuck?” he whispered. His eyes moved down to her full breasts swinging closer and closer to his own chest. The nearest of such a beautiful woman had already had its physical effect on him and her hand squeezed the bulge in his shorts.

“It doesn’t matter. This is what I am now, and I love it. Every inch of me feels wonderful,” she took his hand and brought it to her breast. “Don’t you agree? You can have me. Tonight and forever. We can stay here, in the wood. There are others. But first I need you.”

Tom didn’t understand, but didn’t particularly want to either. Whether it was Phillip or not inside, on the outside Phillipa was more beautiful than anything he’d ever seen. Her soft flesh gave way easily to his hand as he squeezed her breast. She smiled down at him and started to unfasten his shorts. In moments, she had his cock out. She teased him briefly by blowing a cool stream of air over the engorged head. Then, with a quick smile that resembled Phillip’s all too much, she pushed Tom’s cock into her mouth. He groaned and any resistance he had, melted away. Her lips slid up and down his shaft quickly while her tongue massaged the underside of his cock. As pleasurable as it was, he wanted more of her.

He pulled at her shoulder and she took the hint. With a wet smack, she let his cock slip free of her mouth and scrambled up his body. Phillipa’s own desire was maddening and she wasted no time. While Tom’s hands groped at her ass, she took hold of his length and positioned it at her entrance. With a brief thought of the man she’d been moments before, she pushed down and felt Tom’s length fill her up. His cock jerked involuntarily inside of her as her warmth washed over him. His masculine hands pulling at her ass and breasts drove her wild. She started to rock her hips back and forth, pleased at the feeling of a cock sliding in and out of her new pussy. She ground down on top of him with each stroke, managing to stimulate her clit against him. She picked up her pace as he started to grunt. “Not yet,” she chastised. His hands moved from her ass to her hips, gripping tighter and tighter. She knew more than pleasure was coursing through his body, but she wanted to finish. She wanted nothing more.

With bizarre strength, Tom pulled her hard against him, sheathing himself to the root inside of her. A wave of frustration began inside Phillipa at the idea of being denied her first female orgasm, but as the first spurt of hot cum splashed inside of her, pleasure exploded throughout her body. She shuddered and went rigid as a new wave of ecstasy hit her with each gout o f cum. Her pussy massaged out each drop as Tom emptied himself inside of her. Finally, it stopped. Tom held her tightly, his face nuzzled in her breasts. Phillipa stroked his hair. She rose off of him, happy to feel his sticky cum sliding down her thighs. She took him by the hand. They walked out of the cabin, both naked, into the dark night.

Tom was surprised to find that he could see easily. More than that, he was surprised to see the group of women gathered outside the cabin. “Who are all these people?”

In unison, including Phillipa, they responded, “We are the Witch of the Wood.”

Tom ignored it. His attention was focused on other things walking out of the night. Lumbering monsters stepped out from the shadows. They stood taller than a man and broader of chest, one to match each of the other women. They had two arms and two legs, but beyond that, any resemblance to a man was lost. Some had lupine features, long snouts with canine teeth. Others had broad muzzles with thick noses and long horns protruding from their temples. They walked on clawed or cloven feet and were clothed only in thick, black fur. Their eyes were yellow and gleamed in the night. “What are those?” Tom muttered. Pain splintered throughout his body and understanding followed. Tufts of black hair grew on the back of his palms. His mouth felt full as new teeth crowded out the old. He looked up at Phillipa, his once friend, with desperate eyes.

She touched his cheek gently. “It won’t take long. Two own the Wood, the Witch and the Other. I am the Witch of the Wood and you, Tom, are my Other.”