The Hag Watches You

"Hurry up Suzy!" Came the unmistakable wine of my older sister.

"The party starts at 9:00 and if I`m late I may never get a chance to ask Michael out!"

There was one thing you needed to know about my sister. She loved Michael Mitchells. He was one of the most popular people in our school (I was in grade seven and my older sister, Patricia, was on grade nine) and she would take almost every opportunity to impress him, no matter how outlandish. Of course, I was used to the quirky nature of Patricia, though it tended to get on my nerves from time to time. Nonetheless, I was really excited about the big party that a girl called Angela Rogers was holding at a private institution to celebrate her fifteenth birthday. Seeing as my sister was her best friend, she was naturally invited, and Angela had said that I was welcome to tag along if I felt like it. Naturally I jumped at the offer, seeing as I had never been to a party with kids that were older than me, and I was interested to get some hints at how to communicate with others, and possibly throw my own 15th birthday party when I eventually got to ninth grade.

We left through the back gate and began our hike to the entertaining facility 3 blocks down. And all the while we were walking, my sister continually reminded me ' Don`t say anything stupid in front of Michael' or 'Keep your ears open and your mouth shut' and other things things that I was already aware of. Aside from that, Iw anted to see if I could perhaps befriend some of these senior students as I didn't have a surplus of friends in my current grade. Of course there was the odd girl, such as Lucy or maybe Ella. Despite the fact that they were not very popular, they had similar interests to me and I enjoyed chatting with them. Unfortunately I was nearing the stage of my life where someone to talk to was not enough. I needed people that would lift me up the social totem poll, and despite having a mini entourage of followers, my sister had a similar craving.

As we began to near the facility, which was dimly lit by a small light before a grand park entrance, I sighted a small, frail woman staring at me from across the street, lighted eerily by a street light even dimmer than the one near the facility. Her smile was so terrifying, tiny crackles of fear were sent down my spine. I began to tell my sister but at that moment, Angela opened the door.

"Hey Patricia!" she said in a friendly yet cool voice.

"Sup Ange?" replied my sister in that voice she always uses to sound cool. I rolled my eyes inconspicuously and we both entered. But to my surprise, no one had brought any presents.

"How come no one has brought a present?" I asked

"Little sister," began Patricia in that belittling tone of hers, "a teen birthday party doesn`t have presents and party games and all that wimpy stuff for kids.  Teen parties are casual. And everyone is expected to party hard, so if you tell me that you`re tired halfway through you`ll regret it!"

Of course this didn`t scare me. My sister was always blatantly threatened me with her bluffs. But it didn`t matter. I had made sure to take a short nap before the party so that wouldn`t be an issue. The party didn`t have much food, and there were no adults around, so I kind of followed my sister around as she was the only familiar face around, and aborted my idea of making friends with these girls as I felt slightly intimidated by them. But I did enjoy myself. The music was good and while Patricia was talking to Michael I recited my long rehearsed lines putting my older sister under a golden light and halo, while Patricia acted as though the compliments were unexpected. Sometimes I just really hated my sister. Then everyone gathered around for 'scary stories'. I was hardly intimidated by these, as they were all stories that I had already heard in my own social circle. But it wasn`t until Angela spoke that my heart began to beat more rapidly.

"On my way here tonight," she began, "I saw this super creepy old lady standing under a street light. Her smile was like, super creepy and as we passed her she stared straight at me.  It was like, super creepy."

I opened my mouth ready to say 'I saw that woman on my way here too!', but Patricia wouldn't have it. She stomped on my small foot with her heavy high heal and bruised it quite badly. She seemed proud of her success to keep me from talking, but her face dropped when she realised Michael had seen what she had did. She smiled her embarrassed smile and continued to listen to Angela`s story. But by now she began talking about the other cheesy stories that the other girls had spoken of, which instantly lost my attention. All I could think about now was that creepy hag under the street light before we came in. Who was she? Why was she hanging around here? What was with that creepy smile? These were the questions that haunted me all throughout the rest of the party, which lasted until 1:30 in the morning (it was Saturday night, mind you).

While the other girls were being picked up by their parents Patricia and I began our walk back down to our house.

"You really embarrassed me in there you little birdbrain!" she snapped.

"How?" I protested. "I made you look like a saint in front of Michael, I barely spoke to anyone and didn`t embarrass you all night. How dare you be angry at me!"

Patricia didn`t respond. She just continued to walk silently with the usual angry glare she got in her eyes when she was sour about something. Suddenly she stopped. She was staring at something not far in the distance. When I turned to look at what it was, I nearly fainted. It was the same old hag that I had seen before the party, as well as Angela.

Patricia began to back away.

"Is that th-th-the...thing you mentioned at the party?" she asked nervously

"Y-y-yes" I managed to stammer back. We both shared the habit of stuttering when we were scared. All at once, the hag let out a blood curdling scream and began to chase us. From the depth of her tacky old cloak, she pulled out a small dagger that was more reflective than a mirror. She continued her maniacal cackle and we began running back in the direction we came from. We had the good fortune to run into Angela, who seemed to have failed to hitch a ride from her parents. When she saw what we were running from, she began running with us.

"That`s the woman I saw before!" she exclaimed in a frantic panic.

"I know! I responded breathlessly.

Eventually we ended up backed into a small alleyway, and all three of us stared in horror as the hag continued to etch towards us.

"W-w-what do you want?" I managed to stammer.

The hag just giggled.

"The hag watches you..." she giggled.

She raised her dagger, ready to strike, Angela, Patricia and I all closed our eyes, awaiting the inevitability of our demise. But to our surprise, nothing happened. When we opened our eyes, the hag had vanished. We all exchanged worried stares, and began to hurry out of the alley way, half expecting to come face to face with the hag once more. But we didn`t. Luckily at that moment, Angela`s dad turned up in his Mercedes Benz, his high beams almost blinding us. We all got in and told him of our encounter with the hag. When we had told him what she had said to us, he said,

"The hag watches you? A woman who died in this town about five years ago uttered those very words before she died.  She had been put in a nursing home and the staff treated her really badly.  They referred to her as a 'hag' very often, and with her last breath she told them she was always watching..."

For a moment, he looked as terrified and wide eyed as we were, but quickly resumed his calm, confident look.

"But you girls are just putting me on. I`m more up to date with the scary stories you girls exchange than you think."

Once again we all stared at each other with hopeless expressions on our faces. Angela`s dad dropped us off at our house and we both hurried inside. We didn`t even bother to tell our parents. We both got ready for bed, but Patricia called me into her room unexpectedly.

"Look." she told me

"I have no idea what happened tonight. But from now on, we watch every step we take.  We never roam around on our own and we make sure there is an adult with us everywhere we go."

I noticed my sister had lost her usual confident look she usually had, which made me feel even more unsettled. Anyway, I went to bed despite my fear and had terrible nightmares. It was just me and the hag. She was chasing me and taunting 'the hag watches you! The hag watches you! The hag watches you!" I woke up screaming several times and despite my parent`s questioning of what was wrong, I didn`t even bother to tell them.  It would be of no use.

The next day, my father knocked on my door. He tossed an envelope on my bed.

"This one`s for you Suzy. It`s addressed to Patricia as well but why don`t you read it?" He said

With that he closed the door. I quickly called Patricia in, and we both anxiously opened the letter. There was just a stained yellow piece of paper, and in blood the words were written:

'The hag watches you'