NNTV Original: The Witch Hunter

In place of this week's scheduled episode of Iconic Assembly, NNTV presents a Flash Fiction piece, written by Chris Voyage.  Consider this as a sort of "Pilot" Presentation for a possible series.

The Witch Hunter

by Chris Voyage

Harriet crashes through the bedroom door in the rickety old house, splinters of wood slicing her face and into her side. As she picks herself up a hot surge grips at her from her side. Blood rushes from her midsection, where she removes a large shard of glass.

Her pursuer, a hag woman with long, grey hair, tainted red, creeps toward the door. Harriet forces herself up, rushing to the stairs. “You’re going to diiie,” the hag says.

“But I’m too young and pretty. I should at least wait until I look like you,” Hariet says.

As Harriet struggles down the hall and reaches the stairs, the old witch strikes her in the back in a flame from her hands. The girl plummets down the staircase, crumpling into a heap at the bottom. Now blood drips from a gash on her forehead, and a cold, stabbing feeling rushes up her leg, causing her to collapse the instant she begins to get up.

Colette, a younger girl with short, blonde hair, rushes to Harriet’s aid and helps her to a secluded corner. “Didn’t…I tell you…to get outside? Or are you content being…a living sacrifice?”

“Shush!”

The creaking of floorboards begins to ring down the stairs. “Dropped…my gun.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be the one protecting me?” She dashes back to the staircase and grabs the gun. The instant she looks up, she is staring the witch in the eye. Her body trembles as the hag smiles a smile filled with rotten teeth and a chill surges up her spine.

“Hello, dear.”

As the old woman reaches for Colette with her hand of hooked nails, the girl bashes her across the face with the gun and tries to shoot her, but it never fires. The hag reels from the blow and Colette rushes back into the room where Harriet rests in the corner. “I think it’s empty,” she says as she slips off her boots and leaves them behind the curtains by the window.

“Did you cock the gun?”

“Did I cock the...“ Harriet holds up a hand and mimes the motion of preparing the firearm. Colette looks the weapon over and cocks it, then stares at Harriet. “I’ve…never used one of these, before.”

“I never would have guessed.”

Doors open and close around the first floor. Floor boards continue to sound off like sirens. Creak…Creak…Creak. The doorknob begins to shift and Colette hides in the closet as Harriet kneels and hides next to the easy chair in the corner. The hag walks into the room and seems to sniff the air. Creak…Creak…Creak. She turns to the window and begins her approach the shoes, visible from beneath the curtain.

Harriet, her body shaking, struggles to hold up the gun and steady her aim. The time between breaths shortens.  Her legs begin to buckle as she attempts to balance herself. Then she can’t move at all. The witch turns around and, with power invisible to the naked eye, pins the girl to the wall. “Blood has a very distinct smell, hunter. Tell me. Where is the frightened one?”

Colette steps out of the closet with a shotgun in hand. “Look what I found!” Then she unloads and the witch is blown away, crashing halfway through the window. If the shot doesn't kill her, then the impaling shards of glass do.  She helps Harriet up as she collapses back to the floor. “I cocked this one. Better?”

“Yes, better…pumped, by the way,” she says, tapping the gun barrel with her gloved hand. “Now, let’s get out of here. I’m tired of saving you.”