Cameron To Candy

Long ago, when Gloamwell was still a small village surrounded by dark woods, the people marked the beginning of Fearmonth by ringing the watch bell three times at sunset. At the first bell, children were expected to come indoors. At the second, every door was locked. At the third, the curtains were closed, and no child was permitted to answer a voice from outside until morning.

Most children obeyed, but some remained by their windows after the third bell. They whispered to friends across the lane, watched the lanterns move through the fog, or waited for something frightening enough to make the night interesting. Those were the children the witches chose.

The first to enter Gloamwell was Valeria, the Veiled Witch. She wore black and dark red, and a long veil concealed all but her eyes. She walked from house to house after midnight, tapping once upon each window. Whenever a child looked out, Valeria spoke the child’s name and asked a simple question.

“Are you awake?”

If the child answered, Valeria wrote the name in her book with ink made from soot and blood. By morning, every name had disappeared from the page, but it had not been erased. It had been carried to the second witch.

Mabrina, the Briar Witch, waited beneath an ancient tree beyond the village wall. She wore green and gold, and her hair was tangled with thorns. For every name Valeria sent her, Mabrina planted a black seed in the ground. Before dawn, thin vines crept from those seeds, crossed the fields, climbed the walls of Gloamwell, and slipped beneath the beds of the children who had answered. The briars did not bind their hands or feet. They wrapped themselves around the children’s shadows, holding them in place while their bodies slept.

Then Avelora, the Wailing Witch, entered the village. Avelora wore a gray mourning dress with pale ribbons tied around her throat. She stopped in the center of Gloamwell and released a cry so terrible that milk soured in sealed jars, birds fell dead from the rooftops, and every clock in the village stopped at the same moment. The adults covered their ears and heard nothing more, but the bound children heard Avelora calling each of them by name.

Their souls rose from their sleeping bodies and passed through the walls like smoke. One by one, they drifted out of Gloamwell and followed the witches into the woods.

The following morning, parents found their children cold and still in their beds. They breathed, but they could not be awakened. Their eyes remained partly open, and their lips gradually turned gray. The village healers warned that if the souls did not return before the next sunset, the children’s bodies would remain empty forever.

The three witches carried the stolen souls to a ruined mill deep in the woods. There they poured them into a great iron basin and lit a fire beneath it. Valeria read from her book while Mabrina tightened her briars around the glowing children. Avelora circled the basin, singing softly as she prepared to boil the souls down into a potion. It was said that one mouthful would preserve a witch’s youth for a hundred years.

Captain Harlan Frosthall had been patrolling the northern road when he heard of the sleeping children. He returned to Gloamwell, examined the black vines beneath their beds, and followed them into the forest. He carried an iron sword, a watchman’s lantern, and a small brass horn used to summon the village guard.

Valeria met him first. She stood in the road and lifted her veil just enough to speak.

“Turn back,” she told him. “The children disobeyed. What happens to them is no concern of yours.”

“They are children of Gloamwell,” Harlan answered. “That makes them my concern.”

Valeria opened her book and attempted to write his name, but Harlan drove his sword through its pages. The book split apart, and all the stolen names flew from it in a cloud of burning letters. Valeria’s veil caught fire, forcing her to flee blindly through the trees.

Mabrina attacked next. Her briars rose from the ground and wrapped around Harlan’s legs, cutting through his trousers and piercing his skin. He hacked through them with his sword, but every severed vine divided into two more. At last, Harlan seized the largest vine and tied it around the trunk of the ancient tree. When Mabrina pulled, the tree pulled back. Her own briars wound around her arms and legs until she could no longer move.

Harlan reached the ruined mill as the first child’s soul began to sink into the boiling liquid. Avelora stood between him and the basin. She drew a breath and screamed directly into his face. Blood ran from Harlan’s ears, and the lantern shattered in his hand. Still, he remained standing. He raised the brass watchman’s horn and blew one clear note into Avelora’s cry.

The two sounds struck each other with enough force to crack the millstones. Avelora’s wail was thrown back into her throat, breaking her voice and knocking her to the floor. Harlan then raised his iron sword and brought it down upon the witches’ basin. The basin split from top to bottom. Every stolen soul burst free at once, filling the mill with light. They raced through the forest, crossed the village wall, and returned to the bodies from which they had been taken.

Throughout Gloamwell, children awoke gasping in their beds. Their parents held them tightly, even those who had disobeyed, and the healers declared that every soul had returned before sunset. The witches were never seen together again. Valeria vanished into the northern woods with a scorched veil covering her face. Mabrina was dragged beneath the roots of her own tree. Avelora escaped into the fog, but she could no longer speak above a whisper.

Captain Harlan returned to Gloamwell wounded and half-deaf, carrying a piece of the broken basin as proof of what had occurred. The villagers placed it beside the watch bell, where parents could show it to children who complained about coming indoors before dark.

That is why the people of Gloamwell still ring three bells at sunset during Fearmonth. It is also why wise children close their curtains and never answer when a stranger speaks their name from outside.

For although the Three Witches of Gloamwell were defeated, some say that a child who remains awake after the third bell may still hear a woman tapping once upon the glass and asking, very softly, "Are you awake?"