Toy Top

I lived in this house from hell for many years, from age eight to almost 30. Every day there was something always happening in this home. My cubits would fly open and shut, voices, singing and humming sounds and strange noises. Things would move around, nothing ever stayed where you put it. Often, I would be alone because my husband worked late in the hours of the night, and we had no children. I remember one night that really got me...

It started when I was working on cleaning out the closet of old junk. When I came across a strange toy, it looked like one of those old spinner tops... It looked like it was made in the early 1940's or earlier. I picked up the object and looked over it carefully. The toy was painted red and had a white stripes in the middle. While I was looking it over, I felt someone standing behind me, a dark feeling came over me. I quickly turned around, only to see that no one was there.

I had shrugged my shoulders thinking nothing of it. Later, I placed the toy on a shelf, thinking it was pretty neat.

I was going to show it to my husband because I knew he would love it. That strange feeling came over me again, someone was watching me closely. Whatever it is was kept presenting this sympathetic image to me. As if I was supposed to feel sorry for this dead spirit. I begin to wonder if I am just losing my mind. I injured the image in my head and went on with my day. As the hours passed by and things started to get worse, such as a picture of me and my husband fell off our dresser, or a voice whisper in my ear,

"Mama. Mama"' It said to me, I jumped thinking it was my husband playing a trick.

Yet, there was nobody there. I ran to my phone and called my friend over, I begged her to come over

"Please just come over, I am alone and I need someone."

She came over quickly. When she got here, I didn't tell her anything whatsoever about what was happening. As we were talking, she asked to use the restroom. A minute late she came out with a puzzled look on her face.

"So, there's a man in your bathroom?"

I looked at her confused, "What man? My husband isn't even home yet."

We both ran quickly out of the house. I called the police, thinking that a man was hiding in our home and the toy must have been his. It took forever, but the police finally came. They searched every corner of the house but found nothing or no one there. I asked my friend if I could stay at her place, feeling that perhaps the man, or whoever it was could come back. She agreed and I went over to her house until my husband came home. Four hours went by, eventually my husband called me on my phone.

He sounded very upset, almost yelling on the phone. "Where are you? Something has happened to our home!"

Never in our fifteen years together have I ever heard him so upset before, normally he's a calm, mellow man. I told him I'd be home in a minute. My friend drove me back home to my house. When I got there, my husband was shaking, and visibly upset. I asked him what was wrong, but he was only holding the toy top I have found in the closest.

"Where did you find this?"

I told him that I found the toy in our closet while I was cleaning. He begins to cry...Before he uttered the word

"It's.."

I placed my hand on his shoulder, "Tell me, what it is?"

"This toy, it belonged to my great grandfather. It was given to him by a witch."

I looked at him puzzled. "What do you mean by a witch?"

He looked at me with tears in his eyes,

"A witch that cursed our family, she cursed us that every woman we'd married would die a horrible death. All they had to do was touch this toy."

My heart begins to sink, I stepped back. I wanted to run away, I couldn't believe what I heard, I didn't want to think it was true.

My husband stood up,

"I am so sorry, I tried to hide it from you...I didn't want to lose you, but tonight the witch will come for you."

"No, don't say that, there is no WITCH!" I grabbed the toy and threw it across the road. It landed, and then started spinning and spinning towards me until it hit my feet.

My husband looked at me a blank stare before he uttered the words,

"I'm so sorry, I tried to keep it from you."

Finally, I ran from him, I ran back to my friend's house. When I arrived there, I knocked on her door, it opened and I stepped inside. I only found the house empty. Nobody was home...Nothing was inside the house, it was empty as if it was never lived in. I searched the whole house, still I found no sign of my friend.

Scared I called the police on my cellphone, only to get a dead single. Believing it was just a bad area, I ran to a store that was nearby. I tried again with my phone, again I only got a dead single. I then begged a woman who worked there to dial 911, that something happened to my friend, pointing to the house.

She gave me this worried look

"Sorry dear, but no one has lived in that house for years. In fact, they say a woman and her mom died a horrible death in that house many years ago."

She told me how the two women were killed, by another family due to a river war back in the early 1940’s. She then gave me the name of the family, who had supposedly killed them. When I heard the name, I felt myself getting pale, and feeling sick to my stomach. My husband had the same last name, was his family responsible. For a gruesome murder? I thanked her for the info and ran out of the store. Not wanting to go back home and face my husband. Instead, I had to find out the truth. I decide to investigate for myself.

The first thing I did was head to the library, when I got there I asked for any information on a murder at a certain home. The librarian asked for the address, and I gave it to her. Giving me a weird look,

"Oh that house...." She grew quiet, yet still she helped me find the paper article. I tried to ask her if she knew anything. However, she said nothing. She quickly removed herself from my presence.

As I was viewing the article, I saw a picture of what looked like to be my friend. My mouth dropped, I couldn’t believe it. I stared at the image, I felt like crying. It talked about how she was accused of murdering the river baby, the child had become ill with tuberculosis. The report said the family went to see the woman, for a cure. Instead, there baby had died a few days later. The family accused the woman of using witchcraft to kill a child.

The other family, my husband family, had burned her alive, in a wooded area. They found her body tied up, mouth gagged and her hands cut away from the wrist.

The report said it was the most gruesome scene they have ever seen. I read even further into the article, and it talked about how the two families were fighting since the early eighteenth century. There was even part that said (reason for the river murdering was unknown) after I was done reading the article, I left the library.

As I was leaving, the librarian stopped me. "Ma’am, I’d like to tell you something...."

"Yes?" I asked her.

"That woman you saw in that article, you’re not the first one to see her."

"People have come here before, other women like you, looking for information about the woman. What’s worse, is the fact they mentioned finding a toy top."

I asked her what happened to the women?

She only replied "they disappeared, no traces of them were ever found."

"I see, well, that’s not going to be me."

The librarian only laughed,

"Well, I do know for a fact, that most women like you ended up disappearing, but maybe you’ll be the lucky one"

As she said this, she got this horrifying smile on her face. I stepped back, slowly backing away, and ran out of the library.

I stopped for a moment to catch my breath. I begin to gather my thoughts,

"You got to calm yourself girl, just breath." My heading pounding, thoughts racing through my mind..

Then it hit me, I felt as if I had to find the burial site of my friend. I felt that it is what she wanted me to do. Remember what the article said, I knew the area wasn’t that far from my home. In fact, there was a wooden path right behind our house. My husband and I often walked that trail, but there was one area we’d never take. I never understood why until now. I knew that I had to go down that area, and see for myself the truth. I made my way back to my house, when I arrived my husband wasn’t even there. I called him on my phone, but still only a dead answer...nothing...not even a voicemail. I thought maybe he changed his number, because he knew I would be a goner. I also felt in a way he planned this somewhere, I just had to prove it.

The first thing I did was walk into my home, to search for the toy top. I found it laying on our bedroom floor. I picked it up cursed at it

"Your a stupid thing, you stupid thing…"

I wanted to to throw it across the room, but I knew if I did I could upset the spirit even more. After I got the top I went back outside, and straight towards the trail. It seemed like forever as I walked the trail, until I came to the one my husband warned me never to walk. I felt that heavy feeling again, an evil feeling; then I thought another woman’s voice telling me not go. It sounded almost like my friends voice. I only shook it off, thinking nothing of it.

I made my way through the trail the one my husband wanted me never to walk. With each step, my feet grew heavy like they were sinking in the dirt. This trailed was long, and curvy. The trees around it grew thicker and darker. Eventually I came to an open area, I saw an old shed. It looked like someone secret area, I felt I shouldn’t be here at all. However, I had to find out what was really had really happened. As I made my way over the the shed, I felt someone hands being placed over my mouth.

"Shhh, don’t scream...." The voice said.

I pulled away, drawing a knife I had brought with me.

"Whoa! Calm down dear, it’s only me." It was my husband.

I hugged him tight, so tight I was just glad to see him.

"It’s okay dear, it’ll be over soon." I stepped away from him, looking at him puzzled.

"What do you mean by that?" He grabbed me, forcing me to the ground, then begin to bind me up against a wooden post.

"What are you doing?"

"Sacrificing you of course…"

I screamed at him to let me go,

"You asshole release me now!"

"No, I know you already know, I saw you at the library."

"Yes, my family killed that poor woman."

He said as he dragged me closer to the shed. "I can’t let you tarnish our good name, I can’t let you expose the truth."

I yelled at him,

"All this time, I thought you was a good man, but now I see you come from a bloodline of lies."

He slapped me hard,

"Shut up! Just shut the fuck up!" He had this evil, and angry look over his face. He being to tie me up to a wooden post.

"Sorry dear, but I am only doing this for my family."

"I have to sacrifices you, every five years the men in our family must sacrifice a woman to please the witch who cursed us many years ago."

As he stepped away from me, he looked me over carefully.

"You know what, I had wanted to do this for years now. In fact, I never loved you, I only was using you because I knew eventually You’d find the toy top, I knew that you’d be dumb enough to pick it up.."

He laughed at me, as he picked up a gasoline can.

"Please, don’t do this, please" ignoring my pleas he begins to pour the gas all over my body.

My eyes begin to water, and the smell of the gas made me want to vomit. I tried ones more to reason with him

"Please, you won’t get away with this!" Hearing me, he bent down next to me.

"Dearie, my family has been getting away with this for years. We are in an area where no one can hear you scream, and when you’re all burned up, ashes and all. I will make sure to grind your bones and be rid of your ashes into the nearby river. No one, will ever know what happened to you, and you’ll just be another woman who disappeared."

He then stood up, and started to walk into the shed,

"I’ll be right back honey, don’t go anywhere."

I only could just wait, wait until my demise. He seemed to be taking forever, so I took this time to untie myself. I wasn’t long before I was free. Quickly getting up I ran so fast out of the area, and through the trail…not looking back. I made my way out of the trail. I went back to the gas-station, the same one from earlier. I begged the woman to help me,

"Help me, help me my husband is trying to kill me."

The woman behind the counter, called the police. When they arrived they asked me questions and I told them everything. They asked me to take them to the area, so I did. We walked down the trail, when we got there the shed, everything was gone.

"Ma’am, there’s nothing here." The police looked angry.

"But, but, I swear…" I even mentioned my husband name, the officer went back to his car. He then came out a few mines later

"Sorry, but we looked up your husband name, and there is no one with that name."

I grew scared, I felt like I was in a bad dream. The next thing I knew I was handcuffed.

"Don’t worry, we’re just going to take you to the hospital, we want to make sure you’re mentally stable."

I didn’t fight back. Instead, I went along with them.

As they drove me to the hospital, I noticed we was going the wrong way. "Umm, officer we are going the wrong direction."

"I know."

"But, the hospital is that way."

He didn’t say another word to me, I only thought he was taking me to another hospital. We stopped in front of a house, it was my house....

"Why did you bring me back here?"

"He turned around and said…to end the curse."

I then saw my husband standing outside waiting for me,

"Thanks for bringing her back" I then saw the librarian, the gas-station woman as well.

"This time, make sure you get the job done."

"Yes, I will"

My husband nodded to them. He and the officer then begin to drag me back down the trail…. Back to that place…

The end.