I stood next to my father. After my mother died, he hired Lucia
a neighbor who lived alone and was close to my mother to take care of
me. While he was working. One day a letter came to the house.
It caught my attention because of its dark color. The envelope was black
and the letters were white. Lucia received it and left it on the table.
When my father returned from work, he opened the envelope and read the
letter. For several times he was thoughtful. I could tell you smiled at
reading it, so I assumed it was good news right away. He sat
next to me. The sender of that letter was his father' s.
When I said these words, I asked him about his father I had never
met him. I always thought he was dead, but he told me that
he had not just a few days to die and it was necessary to go
that place for reading the will. After five days of my father' s
absence, he arrived in a rental car. As soon as I saw him
I ran to hug him without needing to ask him what had happened on his
journey. He told me that he had received a very large inheritance from his
father. Among the goods he left him was a house, a very nice
and very large house. He wanted us to move in there. I didn
' t like the idea of going away from my surroundings with all the memories
I had of my mother, but my dad was determined. He made the
necessary preparations to leave as Lucia lived alone. He agreed to go with us
from that day on, my dad' s character changed. He seemed very
excited about leaving town. The journey was long and heavy. I was hoping
the house would be in a closer place, but it wasn' t.
After several hours we arrived in a very nice village. When I saw him,
I thought it wasn' t all wrong. I loved the idea of
living in that town, but the car didn' t stop. He went
along the main avenue. We left the village and after a few minutes in
the distance I saw a large construction, a white painted house. My father
signaled me with his finger to tell me that was the house we were going
to live in. I didn' t love the idea of being this far
from the village. That' s why I reproached my dad had told me
it was a better place and that wasn' t. My dad was excited
to the point that he felt very happy like he had never seen him before.
He walked from one room to the other, showing me the huge windows,
the kitchen with decorated ceramic tile finishes. I didn' t like the
place. From the very first moment. The house was very big and beautiful.
I had a feeling there was someone else inside. My dad noticed that
he was rubbing my arms, so he immediately went to close the window,
as all the fresh air was pouring through him. Lucia was also not very
CONTENT she had the same feeling that I preferred not to make any comments.
She just watched and when I turned her to see her, she nodded as
I felt. I saw the pictures in the living room. There was a
thin- looking gentleman with a short beard and carefully combed hair. I thought
that might be the grandfather I never met. Next to her was a beautiful,
young woman in an intense red dress. My dad came down from the
upstairs rooms. I asked him if he knew who those two people were.
He told me the man in black suit was his father. Instead, the
woman in red didn' t know who she was. He was probably his
second wife, as he separated from his mother when he was very young and
never saw him again. My father was the only son my grandmother had after
many years of separation. My grandmother remarried. That' s when he had
my uncles and my aunts as soon as I heard about it. It was
one of the first surprises I met the first night we spent at the house.
I couldn' t sleep I tried without getting any results, I preferred
to get up and look at the small balcony I had in my room.
The land was so vast that there was still a great space behind it.
In the distance I could see the fences that delimited with the neighboring house,
but this one was distant. The Church was closer, which, according to
my father, was abandoned because almost no one in the village wanted to walk
so much to go to Mass. While watching the church still keeping its large
bell with its large wooden gate. I saw someone open it and go into
the temple. I was careful for a while without seeing them leave the church.
For a moment I thought it was all about my imagination, because from
where I was it was difficult to see clearly if anyone was in the temple.
The sky became cloudy and the lightnings announced the next storm. An icy
air started I decided to go in and close the window. The rain immediately
began to hit the window that had just closed. I started to hear some
sort of grunt outside the house. Then a sound I couldn' t identify
was heard outside. I wanted to see what it was about, but the
heavy rain didn' t let me. I was falling asleep when I heard
someone was outside my room. Every step I took to my father or Lucia
it was possible to hear it because the pain of the floor gave them away
I didn' t know when I fell asleep. I woke up very late.
Lucia told me that she listened to me when I was snooping around at
night and also when I lay next to her. It was freezing. I
told him I didn' t leave my room at any time. I was
awake because I didn' t get used to the new place. I also
heard the steps, but I thought it was about my father or you.
Lucia changed her expression by asking who was the person who was in her bed.
He thought it was a woman because of her thin complexion. At that
moment, Lucia began to tremble in fear. He was always a very nervous
and sensitive person, so his body was filled with chills. Lucia got scared
out of the kitchen looking for my dad who was collecting wood to set the
fireplace. A few minutes later they both came in asking me questions. We
were trying to give a logical explanation of what happened the night before, but
we didn' t find it. We left the matter unresolved and finally,
I went out for a walk around the house. I was hoping to find
a neighbor I could talk to, maybe a local person could explain to me
what was going on. Inside the house. I came to the Church.
Forgotten, I went in out of curiosity to know if it was possible for
someone to enter through the front door and exit through a back door, but
I did not find another door. The windows were too high. To think
someone went out the window was almost impossible. I sat on a bench full
of dust. I' ve been watching the remains of the remaining objects for
a while. The altar was made of stone. I approached that part of
the church. I was surprised to see without a chance at the sacred table.
What I discovered left me bewildered. There were inscriptions on her that I
didn' t understand. It seemed that with a pointed object they had made
engravings. I didn' t think it was vandalism or anything like that.
On the contrary, it was a language I did not know made by someone
who knew its meaning. I heard voices and went to hide behind a pillar
I saw several young people come in playing and talking, sit on one of
the steps and start smoking. His talks were about school stuff. After a
few minutes they left. When I felt safe I left my hiding place to
leave the place. I was headed for the exit. When I saw on
the corner of the altar a mooring of dried herbs burned with a muddy red
substance, it looked like fresh blood. I no longer wanted to stay,
but before I left, clearly ho today and as if some heavy object fell.
I did not imagine it because when I turned I saw the cloud of
dust that rose as I left the temple with the light of day, all
my fear went on walking looking for signs of something that would serve me to
find explanations. I didn' t like what I saw behind the church there
were several crosses. It looked like they used it as a cemetery, too.
I went back to the house that from the hill I was on looked
very pretty. I still couldn' t understand how my father was given that
inheritance or how my supposed grandfather had found us so many years and nobody told
me about him, not even my grandmother, with whom I had a very
good relationship. It was as if they wanted to erase him completely from the
family. Before I entered my house, I saw through the fence two heads
prowling from among the stones. As soon as they saw me, they crouched.
I went to them the girl with like grief. He told me that
they were curious to know who had gone to live in the house, the
one that had been abandoned for a long time. I invited them over to
the garden. More than a friendship, I was interested in being told something
important about the place. I went straight and asked them what they knew about
the house. They both turned to see before telling me the truth. The
first to speak was the girl named Mary. She told me that in that
house lived the one that was my grandfather, with a very young and beautiful
woman. I immediately thought of the woman in the painting. They never knew
where she was. Don José was known all along. He was always a
kind and lonely man, good boss. His business was the purchase and sale
of recesses. One day, during the patron saintly festivities, many people came
from nearby villages. She came from an unknown village. He went straight after
Don José, who was fascinated by that of his beauty. Within a few
months they got married, but after she entered the estate, the lord began
to change. Just as his health was affected and his wealth was less,
as dead prayers often appeared. The workers said without a trace of blood,
but it was never really known if it was true. Soon Don José died
and the woman simply disappeared. He was never seen again. He' ll
probably be looking for another man to take away his wealth. I invited my
new friends over to the house to keep telling me things about that woman.
We sat in the room while Mary was checking every object she found suddenly said
that she was the woman in the painting in red dress. She was the
witch who hurt my grandfather. The best thing was to get that painting out
of there. He said that at night he got out of there and went
all over the house. What Mary said seemed crazy, because George, the
other boy, told her to shut up, but Mary said it was true.
She was a witch, a horrible witch. Jorge and Maria were leaving.
When my father came in, they hurried away. My dad looked happy
different. I would say that even happy what I had never seen in him
before, he spoke enthusiastically of everything he was going to do, of the
workers he was going to hire and an infinity of plans he had to stay
in that place, but I did not see myself living there. I didn
' t mean it. I went back to see Lucia and I think she
also shared my point of view, because she was still terrified. I noticed
it in the movement of his hands. That' s what happened when she
was so nervous. She kept up all the time a movement she had no
control over, like a tick. While my dad was talking, she denied
it with a movement of her head. I didn' t want to take
away his enthusiasm. I' d better go to my room and try to
think about what I should do. My dad was already hypnotized by the place
and that wasn' t good. In the afternoon I asked my father to
take me to town. I wanted to get to know a little bit about
the place and investigate with other people about what was said about the house.
I didn' t want to keep what Maria and Jorge said. As soon
as my dad parked the car outside the church, a group of people were
leaving Mass. They all stared at us, saw us with a certain suspicion
and fear. My father went ahead with those people and presented himself as the
new owner of Don José' s house. He was his son. We
would see each other very often in the village the group of men and women
continued to see him with a certain distrust but my dad I don' t
think he even noticed anything. On the contrary, his happiness was not over.
To avoid doubting my perceptions, I asked Lucia if she also realized what
was going on with those people and my father’ s strange attitude. He
was so fascinated with the place that he didn' t realize anything. Lucia
replied that my dad was very strange since he received that letter, he was
no longer himself and worse, when they arrived at the house, very pretty,
very big and luxurious, but he kept something inside that he did not
like and what to say of the night before that it was surely the spirit
of a dead man who slept with her. If things went on like this,
very much to his regret he was going to return to the city.
He didn' t want to do it and leave us because we had become
his family, but live in fear. That wasn' t fair. As
the car went up the hill, I could see in the distance a woman
walking very close to the church, her figure was seen in the distance,
her hair was long, she was tall and thin, extremely thin. Then
it was lost among the trees. My father didn' t even notice his
presence. At night. Lucia came up with me. He told me that
he could sleep in my room or that I could sleep in his room because
he didn' t feel safe anymore. Before ten o' clock at night,
my dad and Lucia went to rest in their rooms. I stayed up
in the living room with just one candlestick. Everything was in perfect calm until
it was twelve o' clock at night. Again I began to hear that
someone was walking on the wooden floor I clearly heard some heels. I didn
' t try to see who it was. I only noticed when a shadow
slid down the stairs. It was dark when I picked up the candlestick to
see who it was. I couldn' t see anyone, but the steps
kept listening until I heard the gnashing of a door and when they closed it
at the first thing I thought was Lucia. I went immediately to his room.
I opened it carefully so I wouldn' t wake her, but she
was standing. As soon as he saw me, he asked me if I
had been the one with the steps in the hallway. I said no and
that' s why I came up. I ran to my dad' s
room. I tried to open his door, but it was locked I hit
him hard. On several occasions she did not open and did not respond to
my call Lucia. He told me there was a set of keys hanging inside
a metal ring in the kitchen. I ran down the stairs. I went
up with the keys and I didn' t know which one belonged to that
door. I tried several times until the door opened. She was my father
deeply asleep. There was no one with him, but he looked in a
drowsiness from which I could not wake him. I moved it several times without
getting anything. I got the impression he was high. I looked out his
window and I could see the same woman walking far away in a long dress.
The next day, my father got up very happy. I could say
he was overjoyed and even started singing and dancing with me. I didn'
t mean anything to him anymore. He seemed to be evading his reality.
Lucia was very worried. I asked him to calm down We were going to
do something. I didn' t know I went to the desperate room.
I didn' t want to spend another night in that house either because I
felt strange and watched by someone. At that moment I was looking at the
picture of the woman. I yelled at Lucia to come. Lucia came running
asking what was happening to me. I pointed him at the portrait. I
couldn' t believe what the woman in the painting saw. Now he had
a black dress. Lucia quivering told me it was true. That woman was
still living in the house. She was probably the one around at night.
I went in search of my dad I found him in the happy garden,
I took him by the hand and I took him in front of the painting.
It didn' t matter much. I asked him to see it again,
but he didn' t understand what I was saying, I explained the
dress. He told me it was my imagination. That couldn' t happen.
It wasn' t possible. It was impossible to do that, to
understand that we no longer wanted to be in that place. Neither me nor
Lucia. My father was convinced to stay in the house. I asked Lucia
to take care of my dad, I went for a walk so I could
figure out what I was going to do. Without realizing it, I headed
for the church to be abandoned. I sat there for a long time without
knowing what to do about it. I was determined not to spend another night
in that house. I knew my dad wouldn' t want to leave after
a while of being there I went out without any answers. I was already
at the church entrance. When I heard a strange noise like that of a
bird carefully, I walked to the altar part just under the consecration table.
There was a bird tied to its legs with dried herbs. The bird the
minute he saw me wanted to walk without getting it. I could hardly untie
the thin wire they tied her with. As soon as he could, he
flew away. When I got home, I found my dad different. It
seemed that he had come out of his state and was aware of what was
going on. He even told me it was best to leave the house.
He knew nothing about caring, encouraging, or maintaining a farm. A few
more days and we could leave again. I was my father again. At
that time I related my dad' s change to the tied bird I found
in the church and that by releasing the bird I also released my dad'
s spirit I asked him to leave that place immediately. Lucia also supported me.
Both of you. We asked him not to be there one more night.
He thought about it, he doubted it, but we convinced him.
In no time. We got our belongings in the car. We were already
in. When we started hearing a scary scream, it was a woman'
s. My father was paralyzed, from what we heard. I asked him
to start the car and leave immediately, but he didn' t. It
seemed like he was going back into a hypnotic state right away. He completely
changed his position, said we didn' t have to leave and went back
into the house. Both Lucia and I yelled at her not to do so,
but she ignored our pleas. Of course, Lucia and I never went
back into the house. We walked into town without knowing where to go.
Lucia was carrying money. We settled in a hotel that day. We went
out for a long walk and we were tired and we sat on a bench
in the park without knowing what to do. Mary and George saw us and
came to us without telling them anything. They asked me if we' d
seen her before. I just said yes. She' s a witch.
That' s what Jorge said and very powerful. The best thing is that
they don' t go back to that house anymore, because even after he
died, the lord of the house continued to see movement in the place.
She did not leave, but in the village it is said that she is
already dead and revives with the spirit and blood of another man. I wasn
' t surprised what Jorge said had more than evidence. I wanted to rescue
my dad without knowing how to do it. We stayed in town for a
few days trying to help my dad without getting it I approached with a healer
from the village. She did a holy stick ritual. Just to see the
smoke that changed from gray to an intense black color. She told me she
had used a powerful witchcraft. That woman had crossed the threshold of death.
It was very difficult to face. The lady didn' t want to do
the job, because that woman could reverse the spell and use it against her,
even with her family. We were in town for two weeks where people
were accepting us and trying to help, but there was nothing and no one
who could do it. Disappointed, we left for town on a Sunday morning.
As the bus moved on. I turned to see again that hacienda that
retained a black witchcraft spell in which my father stayed. I can almost assure
you I was going to run the same fate as Don José, my grandfather.
Story written and adapted by Adriana Cuevas