Lori, dressed in black except for her red skirt and that pink streak in her hair, was the one who had dared them to come visit this place after school on Halloween. Samantha, bright in her blondeness and her white coat, was game.
Beth and Tameika, on the other hand, didn't like it.
It was cold and eerie and getting dark too soon. The house looked old and hauntedโespecially compared to the nice houses they were used to in this suburb of Yorkville. Plus, there were signs at the gates and the door warning them to stay away or face a curse.
"Come on, you wussy pussies!" Samantha said to her friends.
Beth was fearful. "Eww, no. This looks like the kind of weirdo Goth shithouse that Lori probably grew up in. No wonder she brought us here."
Lori, with her puffy eyes, didn't say anything. Samantha laughed but glanced sympathetically towards Lori.
Tameika was even meaner. "I'd kill myself if I grew up in a place like this. All out of the way. Lori probably brings her guys here to fucking blood suck and fuck them..."
She laughed, but even Beth thought it went too far.
"Leave her alone, guys," Samantha said. Wanting to take the attention off poor Lori, she said, "Let's explore!"
The girls protested as Samantha opened the gate and snuck up the creaky steps of the house, an excited look on her young face. She ignored the signs and grabbed the door handle.
"Don't," one of her friends said.
She opened it anyway.
A gust of wind blew from indoors to out, making her close her eyes.
And it made her friends scream when she turned around.
Nearly twenty years of aging appeared on Samantha's nineteen-year-old face and her blonde hair was turning gray, but she was oblivious.
Crazier still was the old woman in the black Victorian-type dress creeping up to her from inside the house. Beth and Tameika screamed, whirled around, and ran, their hair and jackets and red plaid skirts blowing wildly in the wind.
Samantha shook her head at her shallow, scaredy-cat college friends.
"Thanks for not abandoning me, Lori," she said.
Lori remained at the foot of the stairs leading up the dilapidated house. The look on Lori's face made Samantha curious.
"What? What's wrong? Why'd they run?" Samantha laughed.
Lori could only point to the old woman looming behind Samantha.
Samantha turned and yelped as the old woman grabbed her and pulled her into the house. Lori ran up the creaking wooden stairs and into the dark house.
For a condemned house, the inside was well-furnished and lived in.
"Let her go!" Lori yelled at the woman. She could see more of the old woman with her wrinkled skin, gaunt eyes, and a hole where her nose should be.
The woman had a hold of Samantha, touching her aging face, smiling at her with an evil grin, peering into her eyes.
"What? What do you want?" Samantha said. "Bitch, let me go."
"Abandon hope now that ye've entered here," the old lady said in a sing-song voice.
The girls heard a chattering of laughter echoing throughout the room, like a swarm of noisy crickets giggling.
"For ye've been cursed an aging death, I fear," the old lady continued.
"She thinks she's a fucking witch," Samantha said. "Lori, smack her!"
The door closed by itself behind Lori, making her jump.
The lady continued talking. "To find relief, ye must perform one deed..."
"Open the fucking door," Samantha said. "We'll get out of your hair. You're scaring us, okay? You got us. Yay for you. Now end this."
The old woman grabbed a handful of Samantha's blonde hair angrily. "Stop interrupting me."
When Samantha tried to pull away, the old woman slapped her a little, and pulled her back into her arms which she had around the girl's waist. Samantha tried to pry herself free, but the old woman was surprisingly strong and ferocious, breathing out loud. Her hands were also on Samantha's ass, grabbing them hard, lifting the uniform skirt.
"One deed," she repeated with an evil laugh. "The lusts of my three monstrous boys, ye'll feed."
"Oh, hell, no," Samantha said and struggled harder. The cackling laughs began again.
The witch let her go, and Samantha rushed over to Lori by the door. They held each other, while the laughing continued.
"I don't know what the hell is wrong with you," Samantha said to the witch. "Or 'ye' if ye prefereth. But we've gotta go, you fucking nut."
She grabbed Lori's hand, but then she saw her own wrinkled hands.
"Oh, God." She looked over her arms. "Oh, my God." She touched her face. "Oh, my fucking God." She grabbed her hair and some of it fell off. "No, no, no, no!"
"Feed my boys," the witch sang turning away from them. "And the curse is lifted, the transgression forgiven."
"I'm not feeding or fucking anybody, weirdo creep!" Samantha said, fighting with the door's many locks.
The witch floated away down the darkness of a hallway.
Samantha was starting to cry and stomping her foot. "Come back, bitch."
"Wait," said Lori.
The witch whipped around in surprise.
Lori looked at her only friend's deteriorating face and said to the witch, "I'll do it."
Samantha stopped and stared at Lori. The creatures deriding them with laughter suddenly gasped and whispered.
"Will it save her?" Lori asked the witch.
The witch stared at her with fascination and began floating back towards them.
Lori inched back. Samantha kept shaking her head.
"It'll save her," the witch said.
"Then take me instead," Lori said.
The witch touched Lori's face with her bony fingers. "How noble," she said. She caressed Lori's face and neck, while peering into her eyes. The witch grabbed both of Lori's breasts and then gasped suddenly.
"Dark," she said. She rubbed Lori's stomach. "Tainted." Then she ran her hand under Lori's skirt straight up to her crotch and grabbed her between her legs. "Interesting..."
Lori grabbed the old woman's wrist but couldn't stop her.
"Stop it, you disgusting pig," Samantha said.
The door suddenly opened.
"Get out," the witch said to Samantha.