The Eerie House within the Forest: Alternative Ending

A repeat of when the two characters, David and Ben first arrive to the Witch's old, errie house.

You don't have to read it and just skip to the part where the Witch, David and Ben are at the sacrificial room. Really it's near the part where Ashe's mouth couldn't move nor make a sound. That is where the alternative ending will start.

.....

Ben who was leading the way stopped and David stopped as well.

"The trail ends here." As Ben turned his neck to David.

David nodded and walk in front of Ben and said, "Let's see where this monster has taken us."

The duo opens up the branches and clearing showed up in front of their eyes.

The trees and grass were withered, but that was not what caught their eyes. It was an Eerie House in the middle of the clearing. Only a single light was lit up on the front door. The house was unwelcoming.

The two bravely walked up to the house [6]. David opened the door.

Creakkk

David looked at Ben and Ben looked at David. They understood what will happen if they entered the house from this point on.

They walked inside. When they step foot inside of the house, the door slammed behind them.

Inside was the corridor with three doors on each side and one door at the end. It was dusty with cobwebs around as if no one took the time to clean up.

Walking to each of the doors on each side, David and Ben tried to open them. It was pointless as the doors wouldn't budge. The only the last door was left [7].

The both them walk towards the door. Each step making a creak or squeak.

Arriving in the David turned the door knob [8].

Creakkkk.

In front of David's eyes was a library with shelves that stack as high as the ceiling.

"Woah! This place is huge." Ben exclaimed how tall the shelves reach towards the ceiling. David nodded to show his agreement with Ben.

"Come on Ben, let's look around the place. Maybe we will get some clues on this house and the monster.

The two rummaged around for books with the answer to their questions. Surprisingly, there were also old newspapers here and there as well.

One by one books and some readable newspapers with titles such as: History of Witchcraft, Alchemy 101, Experimenting with Specific Combinations on People, History of Demons, Eternal Life, The News Daily: The Witch's Forest, and Strange Disappearances -- where some of the books and newspapers that caught their eyes.

For sure, there is a Witch living here in the forest and the strange monster must've been the Witch's experiment.

David and Ben were not surprised, but curious on why the Witch wanted to do the things she had done.

"Did you boys find the answer that you've been looking for?" Abruptly, a voice sounded behind their backs.

Chills went down their spines and they turned towards the sound of the person who chatted with them in a friendly, grandmother's voice.

In front of the duo, stood an old lady with pitch black eyes and a wrinkled but weathered face. She is also wore a white and black patterned dress.

Still with chills on their spines, Ben answered to the old lady, "You're the Witch aren't you!? Why did you do all of things to those innocent people?"

She chortled at his response before responding with a grin to Ben, "Didn't you read the books you've read before? The answer is obvious. I want eternal life. Experimenting on people was just a side hobby. Seeing them struggle with grief, agony, misery or any other types of emotion fascinates and pleasures me of my boredom."

David and Ben's words were stuck in their throats as they have no words to speak about how inhumane she was.

David still asked, "But why? Why would do all of that for eternal life?"

The Witch was silent before stating her reason of why she did the things she has done, "I didn't have time to live... [and] I wanted to live longer, but I needed power to do so. I made up my mind and my wish came true. I made a contract with the demon by giving half of my soul as the price. Instead, I bargained with the demon by giving it souls of virgin girls. Your friend, Ashely, was the last person I needed to complete my end of the contract. I'm thankful to you boys."

David showed angered but disgusted look before saying to the Witch, "You sick , fu****g monster within a human's flesh."

Ben clenched his hands tightly wanting to give a punch or two to the Witch's face.

The Witch frowned at the two boys, "I don't like the look on you two boys. Let me change that."

With a two flicks of her hand, something appeared on her hand and a crack can be heard from one of the boys.

"Arrrggh!!!" David clutched his bleeding eye socket. While Ben right leg was bended forwards shaped like a 'V'. Both screamed in pain.

The Witch smiled like an innocent child, "This is so much better and music to my ears. Come you must see the last of process of my ceremony!"

With a snap of her fingers, the two boys and Witch were transported into the ceremonial room.

Ashe was in the center of the room on an alter- naked with strange symbols on her forehead and navel [9]. Her shoulder, where her arm use to belong, had no wound and was completely healed with no scar.

Ashe blinked her eyes and looked around and saw David and Ben. She exclaimed in surprise, "David, Ben! You came to rescue me."

"Hush child. No one is saving you." As the Witch looked at her in amusement.

Ashe wanted to talk, but she couldn't as the Witch put a spell on her mouth. Ashe could only cry.

"Come here!"

Before the Witch started the ceremony, she called her pet to watch over the two boys. She didn't want to be distracted in such a special ceremony.

Rumble, Rumble.

The door opened and voices could be heard in different tones.

"Master!"

"You called?"

"Is it time to eat!?"

"Can we play?"

"David, do you miss me!?"

David turned around to see the monster's-- or rather, Vee's face looking at him. She grinned and was happy to see him.

Ptui.

"You're not Vee!" David was spitted in anger by the monster whom has taken Vee's face.

All the monster's faces frowned and grabbed David by the waist. Pulling him towards the monster's main mouth.

"Stop all your nonsense! I have other uses for him and the other boy as well."

The monster understood and stopped what it was going to do to David. It pinned David down to the floor. The monster also did not forget about Ben before it pins him down to the floor as well.

"Good, good. Now let's begin the ceremony!"

The Witch grabbed a sacrificial knife next to the alter and chanted as she begun to cut open Ashe's chest were her heart belonged.

Ashe wanted to struggle, but it was futile. Tears flowed out faster out of her eyes. The Witch ignored her struggle and continued chanting for almost ten minutes. A vague shadow appeared next to Ashe's head.

The Witch saw this and became excited. She chant even faster to speed up the ceremony's process.

Twenty more minutes passed and the shadow's figure became firm and solid.

The Witch finished the last line of the chant before saying, "I have done my part of the contract. Give me what I asked for Gaz'gozen Durgokach."

The demon was quiet before it answered to her, "As you wish."

The demon not forgetting what it came here for. It grabbed the air. 1) Ashe felt pain from her chest; 2) Ashe felt as though her blood was going to come out of her; and 3) she felt as though she was growing older.

A blue wisp came out of her chest. The blood started to flow out and drip onto the ground. While, Ashe's face, body, skin, and hair aged quickly. Only an empty husk with skin and bones were left behind.

Ashe died a vain death.

With a wave of it's hand, black smoke flew to the Witch. With every breath the Witch took, the younger she became.

If anyone were there at the scene, they would be slightly surprised to see the Witch growing back her youthfulness visibly. Since, it isn't scientifically possible to be youthful in a matter of minutes.

Puaahhhh.

One last exhale of air, the Witch felt the changes of her body.

Her skin on her face didn't have anymore wrinkles nor any other skin damages; her hair reaching down to her shoulders wasn't grey and looked more platinum in color; her body became curvy in all the right areas; her skin tone became somewhat of a light/medium tan [1], etc.

Well, except her eyes, her eyes remained pitch black in color. She was at the peak of her beauty once again.

"Perfect! Now for you two boys." The Witch was satisfied with herself before she looked at the boys.

She snapped her fingers and teleported in front of the boys. She commands the monster, "You can clean up the trash on the alter."

The monster looked at the empty husk in disdain and slowly walked towards the alter to eat up the corpse.

Crunch, crunch [2].

The Witch smiled and grabbed the two boys' shoulder. She snapped her fingers once more and they were at a different room bigger than the library by two times the size. It's the alchemy room that the Witch has taken them to.

Half of the room was filled with bottles, books, herbs, bones and other unknown materials used for experiments and making potions of all sorts. The other half of the room looked like it contains a testing room.

"What are you going to do with us!?" David already knew the Witch's answer, but still asked anyways.

The Witch giggled, "You're going to find out in a minute or two."

She walked up to her potion shelf and grabbed a random potion. Walking with the potion in her hand, she walked in front of David and uncorked the potion.

"Drink up." The Witch stuffed the potion into David's mouth. David did not want to drink the potion, but he noticed he couldn't move nor control his body.

Audible gulping sounds can be heard.

The potion was emptied and before David could say anything to the Witch. She already snapped her fingers and placed both David and Ben into the testing room.

Ben looked at David and asked him about his concerns, "David, are we going to be okay? We're not getting out of here any time soon, huh?"

"Yeah --" David replied back, but abruptly clenched his stomach and groaned in pain.

Ben grasps David shoulder and asked anxiously, "Are you okay, David?"

Before Ben can receive David's reply back, he saw David's body become bloat and mutate in different areas of his body.

"Graaaaa, guhhh!!!" David couldn't describe the changes within his body. Not long after, David's body finished transforming. Only forty seconds past since David drank the potion.

David's body became a caterpillar. In this caterpillar form, it retain the same height as his human form, 6' 3" or 190.5 cm. Nonetheless, the caterpillar's head still had David's face and eyes; but has six large, pairs of ocelli [3] on the side of his head; while his mouth became sharp mandibles.

"G-g-get o-out he-re, Ben." David could barely talk back to Ben.

It was not long before David lost control to his new instincts as a caterpillar-- the desire to devour food.

Ben cried a little before David's mandibles bit Ben's head off.

Crunch, crunchh, crunchhh, crunch [4].

The Witch watched the whole ordeal like it was not her problem.

Moments later, she walks back to her alchemy room to collect materials to do another ritual.

Having collected half of the materials she needed for the new ritual. She heard the thunder and rain outside of her house [5].

She frowned and disliked the thunder and rain. It reminded her of her turbulent past.

...

The Witch's History: Part 1

You could hear the laughter and giggles of a little child running around the meadow. The little child was the Witch when she was younger.

She had striking platinum hair, violet eyes, and she wore a simple brown dress with different colored patches all over the dress.

Two people were watching the child happily at their cottage's door. They also wore simple clothing with patches all over their clothes too. They were the mother and father of the Witch.

"Come on dear! It's time for supper!" Her mother called out.

The child stop what she's doing and turned to her parents' direction. She called back, "Okay, momma!"

She ran back as fast as her little feet could carry her. As soon as she was back at the cottage door where her parents were, she hugged her father's leg. Her father picked her up and pulled her into his embrace and they all laughed a little before heading inside to eat supper [6]. Their family of 3 was harmonious.

---Two whole years passed----

The girl is now six years old.

The family's and much like any other family's daily lives would be:

The father would go to the large fields to plow/hay, make roads, etc. whatever he's needed for; the mother would do the clothing and tend the livestock with her daughter, cook 3 meals a day, collect wood for the winter and go to the village to talk/gossip with other women in the village. While, the mother also brought her daughter to play with the other women's daughters as well.

No women or girls cared about the strange hair color of the Witch as they have gotten use to it. They even thought it was a pretty color.

The boys --not so much-- as they still picked on her from time-to-time. As they thought of her as a strange creature or monster.

The other girls protected her, especially this one girl name Cateline and the Witch's best friend. Cateline was only 9 years old, but she was also the tallest and strongest girl out of the bunch- around 5' or 152.4 cm tall-- she could even pick up and throw boys around her age like a rag doll.

No boy would want to mess with her when she's around.

The Witch was content her life and wished that life would continue being happy and bright.

Nothing stays the same all the time. It was a false sense of security.

---One day, the news of war abrupted ---

The Nobleman who owned the large land heard the news and came around his land to ask all the men, "All the abled men have to be foot soldiers in the name of Lord Rothhall's army! In three months time, you men have to be ready to leave! We have to march for two weeks time to join the main army!"

All the men knew what would happen to them in war. They either had to buy or create their equipment out of fine hard wood as well as saying their goodbyes to their families.

Day-by-day time passed in a blink of an eye. The men prepared/checked their equipment, sharpened their arrows/daggers, and had some time to do basic training of simple formations and commands under the Nobleman.

Not before long the three month deadline has come to an end.

Both mother and father kissed each other and the father lowered himself to kiss the little Witch's forehead. As he had to leave the cottage to meet with the other men in the village center.

The little Witch didn't understand why her papa had to go somewhere wearing a thick tunic, a small buckler on his left arm, a dagger holder on his right leg, and a bow w/a quiver of two dozens of arrows. She couldn't help but ask her momma, "Where is papa going? Will papa be okay, momma?"

Her mother gave her daughter a smile and told her, "Your papa will be okay and come back home to us. The War Gods will bless him on the battlefield."

"Really? You won't lie to me, momma?" The little Witch couldn't help but ask her mother if she's lying to her. Usually her parents would be talking and be in a more joyful attitude. Now everything seemed odd and weird to her.

Her mother smiled gently and nodded. She gave her answer to her daughter, "Mmm-hmm, I speak the truth."

The mother couldn't help it but lie to ease both her daughter's emotion and her own worried heart. As most men who have gone to war don't come back alive.

All the women, the elderly and young children came to see the men one last time as they departed. They didn't know how long the war will last.

"Men march, we have no time to lose!" The Noble shouted and commanded the men to march.

The men marched slowly.

As they knew that there's was nothing they could do for the men going to war. Most of the women and elderly went back to work or their homes, and the most of the children disburse from the crowd to play with their friends.

Though some of children, women, and elderly stayed behind until they could see the men off into the distance anymore-- the little Witch whispered "... Be safe papa."

The little Witch left with the village center along with the other villagers to do their duties for the days, weeks, and months' time to come.

--- 14 day time skip ---

The men marched for 14 days, while camped for 13 nights. They had little to no issues and reached their destination, Rothhall's main army, on time.

The Noble came to report his numbers of men he had around his territory, "Report! I have a head count of 2793 abled men with me."

The soldier stationed there wrote down the number and asked, "How many of each type of men you have?"

"I have 2473 men who know the way of the bow; 231 men who know horsemanship; 34 cooks; 5 blacksmiths and 50 men who tend for the carts of provisions." The Noble recalled and answered the number of men who are in their specific area of expertise.

"Noted, you can wait for your orders. Next!" The soldier wrote down the men in area of expertise and yelled out for the next Noble to report his numbers.

This continued on for the next five days when all the Nobles and their men came to the main army Rothhall's army consists of a 120,000 men strong-- 66,000 were archers; 12,000 light calvary and 12,000 heavy calvary; then the infantry mix consisting of 10,000 light infantry 10,400 heavy infantry and 9,600 spearmen-- excluding the 30, 000 men who do other tasks (blacksmiths, cooks, transportation, etc.); and several siege weapons.

All the men gathered because of the signal and headed to the center of the camp.

Lord Rothhall appeared before them. He was a robust man standing more than 2 meters (6'7" or so) or 200+ cm. The armor he wore is more bulkier; red, black, and gold in color, and the helmet is not closed all around. It has a visor that can be opened. The armor also has scratches here and there meaning that it's been used for a long time [7].

Lord Rothhall opened his visor showing his face to be stern and tough. His scar on his left eye and aura made him more menacing to all the newer men on the battlefield.

With a wave of his hand he made all the men quiet down.

Lord Rothhall projected his voice to all the men, "Men! You have heard and know that there is going to be war! Foreign enemies have invaded the border of Eclium! We must defend our borders from these Barbarians! Otherwise, you know the consequences of these savage men will do to our lands! We will push these savages back where they came from!"

Lord Rothhall became slient and the quiet started to cheer, "Hurrrahh, hurrahhhh! Hurrrrahhhh, hurrahh!!"

After a while, Rothhall waved his hand again to quiet down the men and projected his voice to say his final saying to the men, "We begin marching to Alran Plains in a week's time! After that, we will march to Fortress StoneHeart in a two week's time. That's all!"

Lord Rothhall left afterwards and the men began cheering once more. Their morale is extremely high.

--The next day came--

All the men packed up all their equipment and marched towards the Alran Plains with Lord Rothhall leading the way.

Once night came, Lord Rothhall would discuss strategies with his assigned officers what they could use for skirmishes on the Plains.

This continued on for the next few days until they arrived to the Plains.

On the other side of the Plains, Lord Rothhall and the other men see a large number of men with a rough count of 60-70,000 men.

Reaching 700-500 yards of the army, Lord Rothhall signalled the drummers to beat the war drums and the horn blower to blow the horn to signifying the start of the war.

"Men! Let's give them hell!!" Lord Rothhall shouted.

In return, the men cheered and boosted their morale to get rid of their tension within their hearts, "Hurrah, hurrahhhh!!"

He commanded one of the banner holders to give the signal of a symbol men without armor on horses. Meaning light calvary would charge to chip off the enemy forces littleby little.

Clomp, clomp! Clomp, clomp!!

The light calvary began their charge.

The other army's lord didn't flinch and countered these light calvary with spearmen in a messy "V" formation.

Blood splattered everywhere. Horse neighed and men groaned in pain as the spear impaled them. Some the horses and men fell on top of enemy soldiers.

That didn't stop the light calvary from picking off a few men with their own spears before retreating back.

Lord Rothhal continued marching forward with his army and reached the 300 yard mark. Rothhall orders another banner holder to raise a flag with arrows. Telling his archers to let their arrows rain down upon the enemy.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Cries of men can heard being hit by arrows. Some men got hit by the shoulder, in the eye and brain, the knee or their backs when fleeing.

The other army's morale dropped and Lord Rothhall saw this chance and ordered the infantry skirmish with enemy troops.

Neither side stopped and the enemy lord used his own archers to shoot their arrows towards the skirmish.

Friendly fire was bound happen.

What seemed like a long battle was just a short ten minutes. Lord Rothhall wanted to end this skirmish fast. He ordered his heavy calvary to mow them down the enemy's left flank.

Some of the enemy army's men saw this and turned around to flee. It was a big mistake to do such a thing.

Enemy men were either trampled to death or impaled and skewered from behind.

The enemy lord saw that he was losing too many men, he signaled the order to retreat for all his men.

Though there were some casualties it didn't make Lord Rothhall's men's morale drop instead their morale raise. Thinking that they succeeded in repelling the enemy army and that they were the best army there is.

Lord Rothhall commands a few hundreds of men to gather all the equipment on the battlefield that can be used will be distributed among his men; weapons that have been broken will be smelted by the blacksmiths; and the leftovers that can't be carried back in their carts had to be destroyed.

He didn't want enemy troops to be able to use equipment that can be used upon them when they retreat.

A soldier came to report what has happened to both their side and the enemy's side, "M'Lord, I have a report for the casualties on our side! We have lost roughly 7,000 men and 4,000 men wounded in this skirmish, while the enemy army lost 13,000 thousand or more! We suspect that they are Cedraybar as seen from their insignia. We also collected 3 thousand short swords (daggers), 1 thousand spear, 1.2 thousand armor pieces, and 5 thousand useable arrows on the battlefield!"

"Good, you may go and tell the commanding officers to tell their men within their command to replenish their equipment." Rothhall nodded and made the soldier tell his commanding officer the news.

Lord Rothhall's intuition told him that something was wrong. He kept on being wary of his situation and his men as well.

Nonetheless, the battlefield was very large and he and his men didn't have time to scan all of his surroundings. They had to reach Fortress StoneHeart as reinforcements.

At night most of newer soldiers were being a bit festive as they won their first battle. Others, were not as they have seen such gore. While, the older soldiers could only shake their heads. Amateurs.

Like the Witch's father, he was the one of the men who didn't become festive. As he did not see some of his fellow villagers come back to the army camp. They must've died from the skirmish earlier today and he didn't have the appetite to eat his meal or drink.

Unknown to them, a few Cedraybar soldiers who survived the skirmish waited for the right opportunity at night. They disguised themselves as Eclium soldiers and knocked out some of the cooks preparing the meals for the army's first campaign victory.

The Cedraybar soldiers then took off their disguises as Eclium soldiers while taking the cooks' clothing to disguise as them.

The Cedraybar soldiers did not forget to tie up and stuffed all the unconscious cooks' mouth. They didn't want anyone to wake up to warn the others.

The Eclium soldiers wouldn't be able to tell the difference if they don't notice the small details. The Cedraybar soldiers, now, disguised as cooks poured in a fast acting, but tasteless and odorless poison in the pottage.

"Meal time! Come get your meal, while it's still hot!", said one of the Cedraybar soldier disguised as a cook.

More than half of the men came to happily, eat their meals. It was enough to damage to Eclium's army.

Patrolling the camp, Rothhall knew something was wrong when he heard his men groaning in pain.

He came checking the situation and saw that most of his men had either paled faces, clutched their stomachs, or held their heads.

The sounds of arrows could be heard in the night.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

Rothhall's intuition instantly told him something was wrong. He quickly raised and angled his round shield over his head.

Clunck, clunckk. Arrows hit his shield.

Cries of men getting hit by arrows could be heard. Much like the scene they have done earlier with the Cedraybar army.

"Enemy attack! Men, arm yourselves!" Rothhall shouted to his men. Only handful of new recruits could arm themselves, while the veterans had their equipment next to them can fend off the enemy.

Rothhall slayed twenty men before regrouping with his men and ask one of veteran soldiers, "How many men do we have here!?"

"Not much M'Lord. We can still hear the screams of our brothers either fighting to death or they're already dead from the raining arrows! Should we surrender, M'Lord?" The soldier replied back, while keeping an eye of his surroundings.

Lord Rothhall sighed, "I was too careless and should've known to be more cautious. "

Clap, clap, clap.

Lord Rothhall and his men looked at a silhouette coming closer and closer to Lord Rothhall and his men they saw a scholarly-looking man.

"Ah, Lord Rothhall. I heard so much about you and your feats of defeating many armies during many campaigns over the years. Oh, how old you've grown, Lord Rothhall. Tsk, tsk", said the unknown man.

"Oh, and forget to introduce myself, I'm Hyen Drard, the Cedraybar lord's tactician", said Drard as he slapped himself on the forehead.

Rothhall remains silent before dropping his weapon and shield. All the armed men too drop their weapons and shields as well.

They knew they couldn't win and fighting a meaningless battle would not get them out of this situation.

Rothhall begins to speak and negotiate with the tactician, "What are your terms?"

"There are no terms. You're our prisoners now." Drard chuckled a bit and gave his answer to Rothhall.