Laura Ebert - Part 3 - The Little Witch

Photo by Malcolm Lidbury (aka Pinkpasty) / CC BY-SA 3.0

Read Part 2 of the story Here!

Note: This whole story took place in a small, remote village in Eastern Germany.

Lisa Knaute was a stout, friendly woman in her mid-forties. She seemed so different from everyone I'd talked to yet, so much nicer.

I found myself on the couch in her living room a few days after Laura's husband had told me about her.

"I'm really not surprised you're here, you know? I heard Margarete’s daughter had been snooping around," she said smiling at me.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. I should've known that it was the same thing all over again. I was surprised to see Lisa laugh a bit when she noticed it.

"Oh, I know, I know, all that village gossip. Believe me, it's been exactly the same when I was a teenager. That's just how the old people out here are. Well then, you're here to talk about Laura, aren't you?"

I nodded. "My grandma mentioned the flower dance, but she was so scared, so I'm wondering what happened there. I heard you and Laura organized it together."

"I'm afraid I can't help you with that, Sophie."

I turned from her and an angry 'of course' escaped my mouth. So much for her being all friendly. I'd gotten my hopes up for nothing!

I was about to get up and leave when Lisa motioned for me to stay.

"Now don't be so quick. You're just like your mother, you know. I can't tell you a thing about that evening because I wasn't there. Laura and I had a bit of a... falling out. After that, I didn't go there that day."

"Oh, okay. Well, I guess, thank you for letting me in and all that."

"You really are Margarete’s daughter," she said and laughed. "You're here to hear about Laura, right? I'm sure no one told you a thing, so how about I tell you a bit more about her."

"Wait, I mean, yes please tell me!"

I was more than a bit surprised that someone actually offered to tell me more about Laura. Everyone had been so secretive.

Lisa nodded. When she spoke again, her smile turned sad.

"It's so wrong that no one bothers with her. Laura used to be so different. I've known her ever since I was a little kid. We used to be best friends for as long as I can think back. Things only changed after that night."

"She'd always been a bit of a strange one. You might think people only talked about her after the fair, but that couldn't be further from the truth. No one is going to admit it, of course, but people never liked her. Even as a teenager they were all gossiping about her and giving her curious stares. You know what they all called her? The little witch."

"The little witch?" I asked curiously.

"Mhm, I'm sure you know how devoted this village is. Everyone here is Christian, and everyone here goes to church, right? Well, Laura never was a fan of that. I don't know why, but she never warmed up to the idea of a single god whose laws you had to follow. Maybe it was due to her parents, they were quite... strict with their kids. Laura tampered in other things. Even during middle school I always caught her with books about mythology, weird old traditions, spirituality, paganism, and even witchcraft. It was sort of her thing, and I guess it's no surprise that people caught wind of it."

"Once we finished school though, that changed. Laura had been dating Robby for two years by then. The two of them were so in love, back then. To tell you the truth, I was a bit jealous of them. While I started my boring apprenticeship, they got married and moved in together. Laura was the happiest girl in the whole village. It was really something else. No one had expected her of all people to get married like that. There were still some calling her the little witch, but most people thought she'd changed, grown up so to say. She seemed to have forgotten about All those weird things she'd bothered with in the past. Instead, she'd become a full-blown housewife. Oh, how happy she was back then."

Lisa sat there, smiling to herself, but soon her expression changed again.

"Things aren't always meant to be, you know Sophie? It was the same with their marriage. After the first year, it quickly deteriorated. No one knows what happened between the two of them. Everyone knew Robby had a bit of a history with the alcohol, but in time it got worse. It soon started to impact their marriage. Their burning love turned cold, and the flowers that Robby brought home were replaced by bottles of beer. Laura's happy smiles were soon replaced by bruises and tears."

"Everyone knew it was happening, but people pretended not to notice a thing. After all, she was Laura Ebert, right? Laura the little witch. It had to be her fault. God knew what she was bothering with, and god knew it must be what drove Robby into his alcoholism. So when Laura suffered, people turned a blind eye, as always. Back then, even I ignored it. I talked to her, but I never offered help. Everyone said it wasn't that big of a deal, and it would get better eventually but, I don't know. Then the miscarriage happened."

"Miscarriage?"

"Yes, no one had known she was pregnant, not even her husband, most likely due to being drunk all day. When she arrived at my door though, I could tell something terrible had happened. I'd never seen her like that before. She was shivering, scared and so out of it. I let her in right away, and of course, I saw the bruises, but I couldn't say a thing. She only told me in whispers and between tears what happened. For day's she stayed with me and pleaded to not make her return to that man."

"When her parents arrived after a week though, there wasn't much I could do. I couldn't hide Laura from them. When my mother got involved Laura herself decided to return home with her parents. Then, after a few weeks, she was back to living with Robby. It was as if nothing had happened. Things were back to the way they were before."

"Why didn't she leave!?" I cut her off. "Why didn't she, I don't know, run away or move to the city? Why did she have to return to him? That's just-"

"Now, now, I know Sophie. I wish she did, but there was no way. Where should Laura have gone? What should she do? She had no job, no money, nothing at all."

"But there's always a way," I started, but broke up when Lisa was shaking her head.

"Things aren't always that easy, especially not for old-fashioned people like us. Well, and not everyone has Laura's parents. They always had it out for her. Laura was the bad apple of the family. She had made them the target of rumors and bad blood already, there was no way they'd let her do it again. Divorce was out of the question. It was such a terrible thing. Maybe I should've... I don't know."

Lisa broke up and was quiet for a while. "You know, she was my best friend, yet I," she took a deep breath, and for a while, I saw her hands quivering. Then she calmed down enough to continue her story.

"After that Laura found comfort in her old interests again. She was always out in the forest and the meadows on her own. She'd sit by the trees, dance around and read all those weird books she'd gathered as a teenager. I joined her a few times, and it was all harmless. A bit strange, sure, but strange was normal for Laura. To be honest, I was quite happy to see she was doing better and had found some joy again."

"It was during spring that she told me about the flower dance she wanted to organize. She said it was an anniversary fair after all and she wanted to be part of it. She'd planned it all out in her head. It would be her, a couple of our old friends back from school and me. She was so happy and excited when she talked about it. It was almost as if we were teenagers again, but things aren't always as they seem. It was Laura after all."

"The dance she'd planned was something else. I'd have thought all she wanted to do was a simple, dance routine, but I was in for a surprise. Laura had read up on all those strange old traditions and rituals, all her... well, witchcraft. Of course, she wanted to incorporate it into the dance. She told me we should make it different, hip, creative and of course, I was psyched. It had been so long since I'd done something like that. And I really wanted to help Laura."

"So one day Laura told me she wanted to show me a few things she'd planned. Of course, we couldn't do it anywhere, not with Laura. She wanted to show me in her special place. It was this small little grove near the forest. She said it was a place she felt at home and happy to be at. But out there, things got a bit... strange."

"What do you mean by strange?" I asked her, but Lisa motioned for me to let her continue.

"It was the dance itself. The way she moved her body was so different, erotic even. She twisted her body, almost threw herself on the ground and then she started to mumble to herself. It was so different from anything I'd seen. I felt strange watching it. When she began to make those weird, animalistic noises, I felt so uncomfortable.

"It was already late, and I could feel the area around us get darker, much darker. It was so strange, the sun was setting of course, but it felt as if it was a different sort of darkness. After a while, I almost felt as if we weren't alone anymore. I don't know what it was, but it felt as if I was being watched. I called out to Laura when I thought I saw something between the trees."

"What did you think you saw?"

Lisa sighed, then shook her head. "I'm really not sure Sophie. It was almost as if there were too many shadows between the trees? It was if they were moving and..." she shook her head once more. "No, it had to have been my imagination. With Laura's weird dance and the sun setting, but it was so weird."

The moment Lisa mentioned what she'd seen I remembered the evening I was out alone after dark. I was about to ask her if she'd ever seen anything like it again, but she'd already started to continue her story.

"I asked her why it was all so weird and sexual, but Laura said it was simply something she enjoyed. I think I eyed her a bit suspiciously after that because she got all defensive. She said we could still change it if I wanted to and it was nothing but a first little idea."

"After that day Laura went around to find people to join in with the two of us. I think six people in total agreed to join, but we never got together before all the trouble started."

"Trouble?"

"It was the church people. None of them liked the idea of having Laura organize part of their nice anniversary fair. They didn't want to give her a stage to do any of her weird things there. Rumors travel fast, especially those about Laura. Everyone knew what she was up to out by the forest."

"Some were more sympathetically towards her due to her home life. Others spoke directly against her idea. In the end, they allowed her to do her dance, but only late in the evening. It was clear why. At that time almost everyone would be inside of the festival hall for music and drinking. No one would care if there was some weird little dance going on and no one would watch it. They pretty much wanted to hide Laura's little act. Oh, and Laura, she was so mad about it."

"She almost burst into tears of rage when she told me all about it. Of course, she didn't care about their opinion, not one bit. Laura told me outright that she was now going to make the thing as weird and sexual as possible, if only out of spite. She wanted to play a joke on them and embarrassed them and their little fair altogether."

"The way she talked to me that day, her anger, it was so different. I almost didn't recognize my friend anymore. There was so much hate inside of her. It was then that I told her that I couldn't be part of this whole thing if she'd make it too weird."

"Laura didn't like it one bit. To be honest, I'd have loved to do the dance with her, but my family is so involved with the church and all that. My mom was even a volunteer at the Sunday school back then. If I'd join in with Laura's weird pagan rituals... well you know how this village is. The moment the word 'pagan ritual' was out of my mouth though, Laura exploded at me. I hadn't wanted to call it that, but the words had already escaped my mouth. We had this terrible argument."

"In the end, I didn't take part in her dance. I didn't even talk to her after that. I never found out who Laura actually got to join in with her and I didn’t care. I was so mad at this whole thing that I didn't even go to the fair that day."

"I was at home when... things happened to her. My husband had been there, in the festival hall when something happened to Laura. There was all that blood, people were screaming, but he couldn't tell me what actually happened. I was at Laura's house only minutes later, pleading and screaming at Robby to let me see her, but he didn't budge. In the end, I had to return home."

"At first no one sad a thing, no one knew what had happened. Then the rumors started. Laura had been flirting with a few too many guys, and one of them jumped her during the dance, hurting her in the process of... It doesn't matter. It can't be as simple as that, I know it's not. I'm not sure what happened but, but," she broke up shaking her head.

"In the end, the rumors about Laura continued to spread. They all had it out for her, and this was another bit that fit right into the image they had of her. The little witch had become the slut, the wench, the whore. It was no secret that she'd looked for love elsewhere, but really who can blame her with a husband like Robby. The things that bastard did to her!"

Once more I nodded.

"I wanted to go and talk to her. I wanted to, but then, I saw her again. I was so scared. She was out of it, didn't even recognize me. She was screaming and yelling at the air around her. And that moment when she stared at me, I couldn't do it. I couldn't talk to her, couldn't even look at her. She looked so different, so scary. I was so ashamed of myself, and I still am. I tried to approach her and talk to her so many times, but I never did."

This time I couldn't stay quiet. "That was almost ten years ago and yet you...” I broke up when I looked over at Lisa and saw that she was on the verge of tears.

"I know I should've done more! We all should've done more. I'm sorry Sophie, I didn't want to get all worked up like that. I just wanted to tell someone that Laura isn't who they make her out to be!"

"Yeah," I said nodding my head. For long minutes we sat next to each other, not saying a word. All I could do was press Lisa's hand as she tried to calm down.

"You know," she started after a while, "Laura gave me this little booklet back in the day. It was all about her dance and those things she believed in. I think she even wrote it for me! Tell you the truth though, I never got around to reading it, especially not after... well after our fight. Let me see if I can find it, you'd want to have a look at it, right?"

She went to one of the cabinets in the room and rummaged through papers and old envelopes. She soon gave up in frustration.

"I'm sorry Sophie, I'm telling you all about the booklet, and now I can't even find it. God knows where it is."

"No, it's alright! You don't have to worry about it."

After that, we talked a bit more. It was nothing but small talk though. Neither of us wanted to end this visit in so dark a mood, so we talked about simple things, like family and school for a bit. It was about half an hour later that I finally left.

On the way home I thought about Laura's whole story once more. The tears that Lisa had fought so hard to hide started to flow freely now. This time though, it was from my eyes.

There were such terrible things hidden away in this village.

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