Some people dismiss amulets as superstition. But if youâve ever crossed paths with something truly dark, you know better. You donât wait until itâs too lateâyou wear protection always.
This is what happens when you donât.
(Based on true events of witchcraft.)
During a difficult time, medical volunteers were urgently needed in a struggling rural town in the Midwest. Supplies were scarce, and experienced professionals were in short supply. Our team of six doctors and nurses, all from various parts of the country, arrived in early March, ready to help.
The town was still relatively easy to access, and we crossed the state border without much hassle. For safety reasons, however, we werenât housed in the main town where we worked, but rather in a small village about twenty-five miles away. Each morning, one team would be driven to the clinic while the other rested. Our shifts were gruelingâthirteen to fourteen hours a dayâbut we had no complaints.
The village itself was quiet, almost forgotten by time. When we first arrived late at night, we barely had a chance to look around before being taken to our assigned homes. I was housed with my colleagues, Natalie and Grace, in a small but cozy cottage owned by an elderly woman named Mrs. Ellen. She was about seventy-five, frail but sharp, and she agreed to house us in exchange for a modest fee. Our stay also included breakfast, dinner, and the luxury of a hot bath every night.
For the first five days, everything went according to plan. We worked exhausting shifts, returned past midnight, bathed, ate, and collapsed into bed. Our days off were spent catching up on much-needed sleep. The other half of our medical team was staying further down the same road, in another house, following the same schedule.
On the eighth night, something changed.
I woke up to the sound of terrified screams. My heart pounded as I sat up and saw Natalie and Grace huddled together on the other bed, clutching each other, their eyes wide with pure horror.
âWhatâs going on?â I demanded, rushing over.
Neither of them answered at first. They just pointed at the far wall.
I followed their gaze. Nothing but an old rug and a dusty clock hanging above it.
âWhat are you screaming about?â I asked, still groggy.
âDidnât you see it?â Grace gasped.
âThere was⌠something crawling on the wall,â Natalie whispered, her voice shaking. âNot a man. Not a woman. Something else.â
I frowned. âYouâre exhausted. You probably had a nightmareââ
âI know what I saw,â she cut me off. âIts eyes⌠they glowed blue. Like headlights in the dark.â
A chill ran down my spine.
Still, I tried to be rational. âYouâve been working too hard. Come on, letâs step outside, get some air.â
They hesitated but eventually nodded. We tiptoed past Mrs. Ellenâs room, where I peeked inside. She was sound asleep, undisturbed by the commotion. That, more than anything, unsettled me.
Outside, we lit cigarettes with shaky hands. The cold air felt grounding.
âMaybe it was a trick of the light,â I suggested, watching their pale faces.
Neither of them responded, but I could tellâthey believed what they saw.
When we returned inside, Mrs. Ellen was already awake, sitting in the kitchen, sipping tea.
âI thought I heard a ruckus,â she said, glancing at us over her cup. âSomething the matter?â
Natalie and Grace hesitated. I sighed. âThey thought they saw something,â I admitted. âSomething crawling on the wall.â
Mrs. Ellenâs faded blue eyes locked onto mine. âAnd you?â she asked.
âI was asleep,â I said, shrugging. âI didnât see a thing.â
Her gaze lingered on me for a long moment before she turned back to her tea.
Four days later, something worse happened.
That morning, we were back on duty in town. Everything felt normalâuntil Grace walked into my ward, looking deathly pale.
âI donât feel right,â she murmured.
I placed my hand on her forehead. She was burning up. When I checked her temperature, my stomach twistedâ103.6°F.
I immediately suspected an infection. We rushed her to the main clinic, where I found Natalie already in a bed, covered in angry red welts. Her fever was even worseâ104°F.
My mind raced. A viral outbreak? A severe allergic reaction?
I rushed around, gathering supplies, preparing for tests. We needed antibiotics, IV fluids, blood workâ
Then, without explanation, both of them began to recover.
By afternoon, Graceâs fever had vanished. Her skin had returned to its normal color. Natalie, once covered in welts, now had clear skin and a normal pulse. Within hours, both were completely fine.
Later that night, as I helped them settle back into bed, I saw Mrs. Ellen standing in the hallway, watching us with a knowing expression.
âStrange, isnât it?â she murmured.
I met her gaze. âWhat is?â
âHow some people can see things,â she said softly. âAnd others⌠canât.â
She turned and disappeared into her room.
I didnât sleep that night.
There was no time to dwell on what had happenedâwork kept me busy.
During lunch, Aunt Marthaâthe cleaning ladyârushed in and said, âGive me the girlsâ laundry. Iâll wash it at home in my machine. You donât need to lug water back and forth in that village.â
âThank you! Thatâd be a huge help.â
I handed her a small bag of their clothes. Since the clothes were bulky, we decided to split them into two bags. As we started turning everything inside out, I suddenly yanked my hand back in pain. Something had pricked my finger.
I examined the garmentâGraceâs sweater. Inside the collar, tucked into a stitched seam, was a small, rusty needle.
âWhat the hell?â I muttered. âHow did this get here?â
Aunt Martha took one look at the needle, grabbed it from me, held it over an alcohol burner until it glowed red, then walked outside and threw it all the way into the hospitalâs garbage bins.
Something in her expression unsettled me.
She turned back and started checking Natalieâs clothes. In the pocket of her pants, she found a clump of orange furânot human.
âOh, sweetheart,â Aunt Martha said, her voice laced with unease. âThat old woman youâre staying with⌠sheâs bad news. Are you sure no oneâs been in your room?â
âNo one that we know of. Our room doesnât even lock.â
She sighed. âYou need to get out of there. People will take you inâthere must be other homes in that village.â
On edge, we decided to check my clothes tooâjust in case.
Inside my bag, we found a small bundle of feathersâlooked like they came from a chickenâs chestâtied together with red string.
Aunt Martha and I stared at each other.
âWhy didnât it affect you?â she asked.
I had no answer. âMaybe it hasnât had time to work?â
We made up our minds to move out, but work got in the way, and we kept putting it off. We didnât mention anything to Mrs. Ellen. What if she wasnât behind it?
Just to be sure, we casually asked her if anyone had visited while we were away. She said no.
One night, we were on our way home when a male nurse hitched a ride with us. He and Natalie had a thing going on, and Grace had been flirting with our driver. I was the third wheel, so when we arrived, I got out while they stayed in the car, talking.
By the time I had showered, had tea, and changed into my pajamas, Mrs. Ellen was hovering near me.
âHow was your day? How was the bath?â she asked.
She never showed this much interest in us before.
Then she asked, âWhere are your friends?â
âTheyâll be here soon.â
But as the minutes dragged on, I started to wonder. It had been over three hours. Where were they?
I grabbed my coat and went outside. The car was gone.
Had they decided to go for a late-night drive? Maybe.
I went back inside. Mrs. Ellen was still watching me.
Something about the way she looked at me made my skin crawl.
I decided to check on our colleagues who lived a few houses down. Maybe they had seen the girls.
When I walked in, there they wereâGrace and Natalieâsitting on the couch, pale and shaken.
âWhat the hell?â I blurted. âIâve been waiting for you! Where have you been?â
They looked up at me, wide-eyed.
âWe couldnât find the house.â
âWe got out of the car and⌠it wasnât there,â Natalie whispered. âThe other houses were in place. The alley was the same. But ours⌠it was gone.â
âAre you drunk? Did the guys give you something?â
âNo! We barely sat with them for twenty minutes. We got out, walked toward home, and⌠it wasnât there.â
âThen how did I find it?â I asked.
Just then, their landlady came out of her room, overhearing our conversation.
âOh, that explains it,â she said, nodding. âYour landladyâsheâs a witch. No one goes near her house. No one takes anything from her. I donât know why they put you there. There are plenty of other homes.â
That was it. The girls refused to go back. They stayed the night with our colleagues.
I, however, had no choice. My things were still there.
I walked back into the house, looked Mrs. Ellen dead in the eye, and laid it all outâeverything I knew.
She didnât deny a thing.
She just sat there, resting her chin on her hand, listening with interest.
When I was done, she tilted her head slightly and said, almost to herself, âStrange. It worked on all of them⌠but not on you. Why not?â
Then she narrowed her eyes.
Her gaze flickered to my chest.
I instinctively touched my necklace.
A small, silver pendant of Ganesha hung from a chain around my neck. But what she couldnât seeâwhat no one could seeâwas the tiny steel capsule embedded in the back of the pendant.
A long time ago, in Rajasthan, an old man had given it to me as protection. He told me it was a Kali Kavachâa shield of the goddess Kaliâmeant to block any deadly curse. He had given me a new name, one I was never to know, and told me that as long as I wore this, no spell, no evil eye, no manipulation of fate would touch me.
I had never taken it off since.
Mrs. Ellenâs expression darkened.
âI donât understand it,â she murmured. âI tried⌠but I canât touch you.â
I stared at her, ice creeping into my veins.
I cussed her out in a way I didnât even know I was capable ofâlong, elaborate, vicious. The kind of profanity that could make a sailor blush.
She just sat there, listening, tapping her fingers on the table.
Then, at the height of my furious rant, I yelled out a word I had never used beforeâsomething bizarre and old-fashioned. It rolled off my tongue with strange familiarity.
And just like that, I stopped.
A heavy silence filled the room.
Mrs. Ellen tilted her head again, looking at me with something almost like admiration.
Then, without another word, I turned and went to pack my bags.
She didnât try to stop me.
Maybe she had realized something.
Maybe she knewâshe had lost.
