Spooky Story 1

Written: Early 2011.
This was a (failed) attempt at a birthday gift.
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    There’s a place tales are told of. Where the plains meet the forest; far to the north, beyond the furthest trails and roads; a small cluster of houses sits.
    Within each house lives an outcast; an individual driven from their home who has only found a place to belong here, so far from the rest of civilisation.
    The first house is the abode of a witch; a caster of curses and hexes. The magic her words carry caused her, and others, grief. When it was discovered that she was the source of the many ills plaguing her town, they cast her out. Angered, she cursed them all – and all that remains of the once proud town are ruins.
    The second house stands empty to mortal eye, but is truly the domain of a silent ghost. Trapped, and unable to ever complete his business in this realm, he eventually came to the one place others could see him, to find companions in his eternal wait.
    The third house consists only of a single large room. In the centre of this room, amidst a mess of gadgetry, tesla coils, wires and steel, lies a body. It speaks through the machinery that surrounds it, maintaining its long, unnatural life. The machine, and the one kept alive by it, are the end result of a life spent pushing the boundaries of science without regard to morality or sanity.
    The fourth house, the final house, is the home of a revenant. She died in a tragedy, and was dragged back from death by her husband. For many years she stood by him, unchanging. Rumours abounded, but her husband was powerful, and kept them in check. But when he died, many years later, she was driven into the woods by a mob ready to destroy her out of fear.

    All four know much of things no others know; the witch is the eldest of her ilk, sought out for her knowledge of curses and hexes. The ghost knew of many things it had seen in its wandering, and would tell it to those who could ask. The body in the machine knew much of strange technology and science. The revenant kept her husbands books, within which lay many secrets of necromancy that she shared.
    Many sought them out over the years, but none would stay for long. All feared them, and the knowledge they gave more often was a curse than a blessing (occasionally literally).