Attached Link: http://www.randyellefson.com

This is a edited down version of a ghost story from the novel, "For Once & Ever More", I'm currently writing. "The Beheaded Witch", 497 words, 2002 Randy Ellefson Feeling watched in the woods that were rumored to be haunted, the hunter finally lost his nerve and went home. He was a religious man by all accounts, but superstitious and distrustful of the supernatural like many in those parts, and having just escaped what was in his mind a fate of supernatural horror, he was quite upset upon discovering his wifes apparent activities at home. None know for sure what she was really doing with the pot over the fire, the various herbs spread about on the table, the candles, the chalk marks upon the floor, or the open book from which she was reading aloud, but her husband took one look at her long disheveled hair, the loose gown she wore, and a holy medallion he forbade her to wear on the grounds that all talismans are evil, and flew into a rage. He pulled his sword and stormed in. She must have been terrified by the sight of him coming for her, his sword beheading her with one blow. Everyone believed this the way to stop a witch from rising again. He threw her head into the fire as he dragged her headless corpse out to dig a shallow, unmarked grave, where he left her before returning. Asleep hours later, he woke to the sound of shuffling feet moving in the cabin. A figure covered in dirt was moving to the table where the book his wife had been reading still lay open. This it ran one finger over as if tracing a passage before closing the book, tucking it under one arm, and turning towards the fireplace. It knelt to seize the skull with its remaining bits of charred, black flesh. It then placed its decapitated head back on its bloody neck before turning to the door. It was all of two paces from the doorway when he sat up more in bed. Thats when the figure saw him and slowly picked up his sword. He was too horrified to do more than stare as she decapitated him. None know for sure what happened afterwards, as the seers who investigated sensed from the walls that this much had transpired, but once the two corpses had left and disappeared into the woods, the trail of information vanished. There was no sign of either body or the book. The bloody sword, the first clue that something had happened, lay upon the floor. Friends would later say that his wife was no witch, just a cook who preferred plants to the meat her husband brought home, and so had them when he was away hunting. She somewhat secretly worshiped the goddess of agriculture and wore her medallion. The chalk marks were just indications of what plants she had already added to her soup. While these friends didnt dispute her murder, they could never believe the story of her returning from the afterlife, despite the empty grave near the cabin and that neither was ever seen again.