From the moment the Dixon family moved into the house in Willow Creek, the two Dixon children believed there was something strange about the house next door.

“Look at it, it looks old and creepy, and I read in a book that’s where witches like to live,” 12-year-old Alyson exclaimed with a worried look on her face.

Cheryl Dixon turned and studied the old two-story house next door that looked as if it was on its last legs. From where she sat on her back porch steps, she could see it hadn’t seen any serious upkeep in years. The exterior walls and roof were weathered to a faded grey and dirty brown. Although it still had windows, they were so streaked with dirty and grime, they probably hadn’t been cleaned in years.

The yard was so unkempt, it resembled a jungle. Grass and weeds were knee high and the row of lilac bushes that separated the properties was a tangled mess that hadn’t been introduced to a hedge trimmer in years.

Cheryl had to admit the place was a total disaster, but a haven for witches, hardly? She turned back to her daughter. A tall, skinny tomboy with short brown hair who loved reading books about witches and ghosts and thought maybe it was time she started reading something else.

“Nonsense,” her mother laughed. “I think you’ve been reading so many scary books, you’re starting to see witches and ghosts everywhere.”

“But what if a witch really does live there?” Ten-year-old Bobby Dixon moved to defend his sister. It wasn’t because the short, stocky boy believed in witches, it was because the house looked so spooky, there was something sinister about it. It left him caught up in his big sister’s fantasie.

“The trouble with you kids is that your imaginations are running wild. For the last time, there’s no witches in that old house,” Cheryl assured her children as she went back inside her house.

Their mother’s refusal to believe in witches, did little to change Bobby and Alison’s minds. The more they looked at the old house, the more they believed a witch lived there, and they were determined to find it.

“So, what do you think we should do?” Bobby asked Alyson. She was older of the two, and he hated taking advice from her, but he decided it was okay this time because he didn’t know anything about witches.

Alyson tried to remember all important things about witches she had read in her books and came to a horrifying realization. Very few, if any were good witches, most everyone she had read about were evil, eager to punish people with terrible curses. She looked at the old house and shivered in fear. If an old witch did live it, there was little hope it would be a good witch.

Just the thought of it, made Alyson think she was going to be sick. She was about to tell Bobby that it might not be a good idea to go hunting witches, when he replied.

“I know, tomorrow morning let’s sneak up to the house and get a closer look at it.”

Alyson stared at her brother. Didn’t he know anything about witches? If they got caught by one, it would be sure to put an evil curse on their family. One they could never escape, no matter how hard they tried.

She desperately wanted to tell Bobby to forget about it, but on the other hand, there was no way she wanted him to know how scared she was. He would laugh and tease her about it for ever.

Alyson gulped and nodded. “Okay, but we got to be really careful to make sure a witch doesn’t catch us.”

The very next morning the children saw the witch for the first time. They had made it through the dense bush that bordered the property, and were slowly creeping towards the old house, using the knee-high grass and big mounds of weed-filled dirt for cover, when they heard a strange sound.

Ever vigilant because of her superior knowledge of witches, Alyson heard it first. She tapped her brother on the shoulder and urgently whispered: “Stop, stop.”

“What?” Bobby snapped in irritation. “We can’t stop now we have to get closer to the house.”

“Wow, talk about stupid,” Alyson groaned. Her brother might be a little braver than her, but there was one thing for certain. He would never survive an encounter with a witch unless he got a lot smarter.

“Do you hear that? It might be a witch. Maybe it’s watching us,” Alyson warned.

Bobby listened, his heart began beating faster when he heard a tapping-like sound and something like a soft groan, or moan that was barely noticeable through a sudden gust of wind that shook the branches of the bushes behind them.

“What the hell?” Bobby mumbled. He didn’t believe in witches near as much as his sister did, but then she always had her head buried in books about them. He was more curious about the eerie old house, and wanted a closer look at it, but maybe his sister was right.

Cautiously he raised his head and stared at the house.

“See anything?” Alyson asked. She was so worried and scared, she stayed hidden in the deep grass and let her brother have a look. She had a strange feeling that somebody or something was watching them. Was it the witches? She hoped not.

“No, nothing, I think you’re imagining things,” Bobby replied.

He was just about to resume sneaking towards the old house, when a face of an old woman suddenly appeared in a window, like an apparition. He stared at it briefly, gave a startled gasp and dropped back to the safety of the deep grass.

“What?” Alyson demanded.

“The witch, it was there, I saw it?”

“You sure?” Alyson asked in alarm. It was just as she suspected, there was a witch in the old house. Hadn’t she sensed its presence a few minutes ago?

Bobby nodded, his face white and body trembling. All his bravo was gone. Up until now, he didn’t believe in witches, but now that he’d seen one, he quickly decided it was best to let his sister handle the situation. She was the expert, and he didn’t want anything to do with them.

“It was staring right at me from the window. I ducked back down right away, but I think it might have seen me.”

Alyson solemnly nodded. Her worst fears confirmed. She was undecided what to do next but thought the first thing she should do was confirm her brother’s sighting. If it were real, they would do nothing to disturb the witch any more than they already had. She and Bobby could sneak back home where she could consult her books to learn how to handle witches.

She cautiously raised her head and followed Bobby’s shaking finger. “Yeah, right about there, that’s about where I was looking when I saw it. The witch’s face in the window.”

Alyson’s body stiffened and she stifled a scream, at the sight of the ghoulish specter in the window. It looked positively eerie. Through the years of grime and grease that blackened the glass, was the face of an ugly, old hag. Long strands of straggly grey hair partially hid its bony face. Lines and creases crisscrossed it, like it bore the ages of time, and a thin, evil smile was clearly visible, but it was the eyes that scared Alyson the most. They looked alive, alert and burnt into her, like they were possessed of an intense fever.

Alyson could barely hold herself together. She dropped back down beside her brother who was still shaking with fear and nudged him.

“It’s a witch alright. I saw it too,” she admitted.

“So, what are we going to do?” Bobby whimpered. “Maybe we should tell our parents.”

Alyson shook her head. “They won’t know what to do. Our mother doesn’t even believe in witches, so I guess it’s up to us.”

“Come on let’s get of here. I want to go back to my room and check my books, before we start confronting witches.”

Bobby was only too eager to agree. He turned and crept back into their own yard as fast as he could. Alyson was right behind him. Neither dared to stop and look back to see if the witch was still staring at them through the window.

“We’re not going back there again, are we?” Bobby asked his sister, his mind still full of the ghastly specter of their morning adventure. He’d seen enough. He wanted nothing to do with witches.

Alyson somberly nodded. “We have to. As soon as we finished lunch, I checked my books on witches, and I think I found something that might work.”

Bobby looked apprehensively at his sister. He hoped she was joking, but her face was dead serious. She must be crazy to want to go anywhere near that old house.

“So, what do we have to do?” He dared to ask the question, and his body shook in uncontrollable fear at the answer. He felt feverish, like he had the tremors.

“I read in one of my books how a little girl managed to get close enough to a witch, to recite a secret chant that took away all its powers. I want to get close enough to this one to try the same thing, because if we can take away its powers, it can’t harm us.”

Bobby shook his head. “Why would you want to that? It hasn’t harmed us yet, so why don’t we just leave it alone, and it will leave us alone?”

Alyson looked in disbelief at her brother. She didn’t understand how anybody could be so dense. “It too late, we already disturbed it this morning, so now we have to go back, and try and strip of its powers before it can do any evil. Don’t you see? Once It’s been roused, its spirit will not rest until it’s found another resting place. Maybe with our family, since we woke it, we are the closest to it.”

Bobby listened wide eyed to the explanation. If it had to be done, it was up to him and Alyson to save their family.

“Are you sure that secret chant will work? He demanded as he reluctantly followed his sister through the dense hedge that surrounded the house.

Alyson nodded, but she was feeling a lot less confident, than she acted, because she was putting on a good front for her brother. “If it worked for that little girl, on the evil witch she encountered in the Quest for the Golden Chalice story, it should work for us. I memorized it, and just to be sure I wouldn’t forget anything, I wrote it down.” She patted the side pocket of her jeans.

Since they had seen the witch’s face in a window on the side of the house, Alyson decided it was useless to try that approach again, because the witch would be waiting for them. She decided to try and fool the witch by sneaking up to the back of the house, where they would be least expected.