The Wood Witch

In May of 2017, my husband and I, along with my two small children, moved from the big suburbs of Chicago to a house outside a little town in Rural Northern Michigan. Our lease was up on our small apartment and with two kids, we wanted out of the city. We had visited Michigan earlier that year to be there for my older sister’s wedding and while vacationing, an opportunity had arisen. A friend of the family had offered for us to stay in the vacant house that they had owned next door during our trip so we could save on a hotel. The house had belonged to her father (who was very close friends with my father and practically a relative) but he had passed away a couple years before and the house was sitting empty. We thankfully accepted and before the end of our trip, we had been offered to rent the small two bedroom house for a very good price. We returned to Chicago, packed up all our belongings, and left a week and a half later.

Of course, I’m sure that may sound crazy, but we were already having to relocate, and our housing hunt in Chicago was not going well. Also, we had been wanting to move back since my son had been born (he was two when we moved) and my parents live less than two miles away from our new house. The first few weeks were fine apart from some shenannigans from what I assume was the house's previous owner from beyond the grave, as he was always a jokester. I’d awake to find my refrigerator wide open in the middle of the night even though both children were still in cribs and unable to climb out and my husband was snoring. I’d close the fridge with a chuckle and go back to bed. One day I said “Very funny.” And from then on, it would be other things; TVs changing channels, lights being turned on that weren’t left on. Nothing I was scared about. At least...not inside the house.

Our house sits on a very quiet dirt road far outside of town. Most of the windows have curtains except for the huge windows that line one wall of my kitchen, these windows face the woods so I normally didn’t worry about the lack of covering. It’s far away from anyone and it’s generally a very safe town anyway.

One night, my daughter had awakened and needed a bottle. I walked into the kitchen to get one ready for her, but something felt really strange. I felt like I was being watched from the tree line. I hurriedly made her bottle and attempted to walk to my room (which was in the line of view from the woods), but I was so petrified of whatever was staring me down that I could barely move. I finally ran to my bed and hopped in and told my husband about the weird feeling. He chalked it up to stress and being unfamiliar with the new house and told me to go to sleep. After mentioning it to my landlord/friend, she said it was probably just an animal such as a deer or coyote but assured me that we were safe.

Weeks would come and go until I would get that feeling again. At one point I remember just convincing myself to ignore it and not to look out into the woods for fear that something would be looking back. In the middle of summer I got a cat and would feel much safer when he would follow me around at night, walking me from room to room. Summer ended and fall rolled around and the feeling of the mysterious watcher subsided.

One day during the fall, a friend who dates my landlord/friend’s daughter stopped by to see the kids and hang out while waiting for her to arrive home from college. This isn’t unusual, as they love the kids and we all spend a lot of time together anyway. We somehow ended up on the topic of the weird presence that lingers in the backyard. He told me that he had the same feeling multiple times. When I asked him to show me which part of the yard/woods he felt it the most, he described the exact same spot. He then went on to describe the first time he felt it.

“I was working with the neighbor on something at night when he asked me to come to your garage to get a tool. I went around the front to get it but decided to circle around the back on my way to give it to him. When I got to that spot, I suddenly got really spooked. I felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck and felt that fight or flight instinct kick in. I was so scared that I physically couldn’t move. I decided to run back around the front of the house instead of continuing through the back but I didn’t even feel safe turning my back, so I backed away until I felt safe and bolted.”

I remember feeling it watching me again that night. As if talking about it made it want to hang around, so I pushed it back to the corner of my mind and decided not to prompt anymore visits by giving the subject attention. One morning I awoke to a screen door that leads to a sunroom that’s visible from the kitchen wide open and slamming in the wind. The door behind it was thankfully blocked off and locked, but would’ve taken a lot of force for the screen door to open on its own, I called my neighbor who just shrugged and told me not to worry about it and that it probably just came unlatched or some other excuse while my friend checked my yard for any tracks, he found none.

Before I knew it, winter came. All was well and the snow in my yard made it easier to tell if someone had been around as their tracks would be a giveaway of their presence. Every morning, no tracks (other than the neighbors dogs that sometimes hang out in my yard). I felt safe again. I had even started joking with my cat who was severely obnoxious at night that I would give him to the wood witch if he didn’t calm down. That’s the name I had decided on for the watcher in the woods.

One night, my cat wasn’t following me around the house. When I went to look for him, he was sitting on my kitchen table staring out to the exact spot I always felt the eyes. He didn’t move all night. Didn’t sleep. Every time I went to check on him he was sitting, staring at the woods.

Now occasionally my son who is three and has a speech delay will stare out the window at that exact same spot like he sees something and then run away terrified. He can’t explain to me what it is that’s frightening him, but I have a feeling it’s the wood witch.

It’s started getting worse now. The feeling comes from different directions if I’m outside at night, like the presence is watching me. I’ve heard clear human footsteps in our attic crawl space (it has no outside entrance and has been checked. No one is up there). Even talking about it now makes me feel like I’ll be watched when I go into the kitchen. I don’t know for sure what the thing is, but it doesn’t feel like a welcoming presence. But also feels like it can’t come inside. God, I hope I’m right..