I’ve always had this strange fascination with witches. Not the kind of fascination where I want to become one, or actually meet one. I’m actually terrified of them, but I love to hear these stories that involve them. Where I live (Monterrey, Mexico) there are loads.
I remember once when I was around five or six, my aunt took me and my brother for a walk to a park. By my grandmother’s house there’s this park that is totally fucked up (or was, anyway). There’s like, a tiny playground there, and the rest is all forest and a river that goes through a part of the city. It’s guarded by fences, though, and back then you had to pay to go in.
In this park there were the usual families with small children. I mean, no one looked actually menacing, but I still had heard legends about witches wandering around when it got dark.
That might’ve been adults lying to us so we didn’t go out. I don’t know.
So, yeah, that day we stayed in this park until it darkened, and when it did, I remember we were walking along the river and we were heading to the gates when suddenly we saw a big, perfect orange pumpkin floating in it. It looked so beautiful.
My aunt was like, “Hey, wait here, okay?” She went into the river and took it out. She was actually thinking of making some pumpkin empanadas, lol.
When we got home, my grandmother cut the thing open and found witchcraft in it. I don’t remember what there was in it other than soil and chicken intestines and claws, ew. I think there was also a picture of a woman, but I might be wrong, because they never let me see it or go in the kitchen when the thing was there.
For the following month my aunt developed something weird in her arms. She said they felt numb and like they weren’t hers. That was fricken weird, but she got okay when the month passed.
I think that’s when I started really getting terrified of witches. Besides, when we (my cousins, brother and I) were small, we used to go to my grandmother’s garden when it darkened and sometimes we could hear whistles coming from the trees. Grandma always said they were witches, and that when it darkened we had to stay inside.
And another thing: my other aunt once told us this story, when she was around twenty. She and my other aunt (the one who found the Pumpkin, I’ll call her Aunt #1 :P) used to share a bed in a small room, where all the girls slept. My family from the side of my mom is quite big.
So, once, past Midnight, they were talking. Aunt #1 had her back towards a window, and my other aunt was facing it. This window fronted the street and by the sidewalk there was this really big tree.
At some point, Aunt #2 saw something on the tree and stopped talking. She said it was a huge thing that resembled a bird: body full of feathers, like a bird’s, but it was too big for a bird, and it had the face of an old woman, and bright red eyes. I think what caught my aunt's eye at first were the eyes, because they glowed.
Paranormal things always seem to follow her, and my other aunts (and uncle) always say she’s a liar and she’s paranoid, but I don’t think she is. I actually know she isn’t, and so do they (lots of stories, lots of proof, but that’s a whole other subject).
So, she kept staring at the bird-woman-thing thinking if she looked away the thing would disappear and no one would believe her. She started shaking aunt #1, and said, “What is that on the tree? Look at it! It has red eyes.”
Aunt #1, being the total scaredy-cat she is, closed her eyes shut and said, “No, I don’t want to see anything!”
Aunt #2 said the thing outside didn’t move or anything. It just stared back at her. Finally, she got frustrated and she wanted to know if she was imagining it and mistaking it for another thing on the tree or there was actually something outside, so she stood up and ran to the light switch and flicked it on, and then the light bulb exploded.
Weird.
She screamed, and everyone woke up. My mom says she was hysterical, but my grandfather went out to check, and there was nothing on the tree.
That was in the late 80’s / early 90’s.
Then in around 2005 or 2006 there was this story in the local news about a cop who had seen a “witch”. He called it a witch, but this is how he described it: dressed in black with feathers, and black claws instead of feet. And red eyes. And a week or so later another cop saw something similar, and said it flew. He said it was something that looked like a bird, but it had a woman’s face.
They made a spoken portrait according to the description the first cop gave them, and they drew this:
So, yesterday my brother and I were reading stories in Paranormal About, and we found this one. And just… seriously, this is insane. All of these stories happened where I live, and the descriptions pretty much fit.
I know there are a lot of ‘curanderas’ and things like that in Mexico. (Curanderas are like white witches, supposedly.) I know not all witches look like morbid birds. Some of them are sweet-looking little old ladies. I’ve seen those kinds, but the one in the picture is just bizarre.
So, do you believe in witches? Have you ever had an encounter with one, or with something paranormal? TELL ME! I love those stories!