In a quiet little village where Salem once was, the 24th of October, exactly one week from Halloween.  The town they lived in though a usually quiet place, was now bustling with life.  Though meanwhile, a small group of three children were tromping through the forest, until they came to a grassy meadow.  A fair skinned girl with pale gold hair suddenly collapsed by the edge.  “I’ve had enough walking.” She complained, as the only young man in the group sat next to her.  “Stop complaining Elizabeth, can’t we ever go for a walk without some sort of whine coming from you?”
Elizabeth stuck her tongue out at him, now turning to the younger girl.  “What do you think Anida?”  As true to her name, Anida sat down lightly, carefully folding the hem of her skirt.  “About what?  Us resting or your whining?”  She questioned, laughing at Elizabeth’s jaw dropped response.  Beth then scoffed lightly.  “Your not as dainty as you’d like everyone to think are you?”  She questioned, gently pushing her, smirking at Ace.  “And then we have him, our ‘fearless leader’ Ace.  Though we all know who the real leader is.”  Ace gave a playful growl, tackling her gently to the ground.  “You think you can lead?  I’d like to see you try!  You get scared at a spider, what makes you think you can handle anything else?”
“Well…” She smirked again. “Since you put it that way, there is a story I’ve been meaning to tell…” Anida blinked, giving her a confused look.  “We all remember Salem right…?”  Elizabeth grinned, enjoying the way the wind was whispering through the trees.  If she could time it right, her story would end right where the wind howled.  Ace and Anida bobbed their heads up and down in agreement, as Elizabeth continued.  “This is the only way I know it so calm down and deal with it okay?”
“Many of us know of this pond, but do we know what lies within?”  Elizabeth started out softly, causing her friends to lean closer in order to hear what she was saying.  “It’s said long ago, by the men of these lands, that a woman lies in yonder body of water.  A woman thought to be powerful, harsh, and cruel.”  Ace snorted, muttering something inaudible, though sounding awfully like, “Yeah whatever this is how they all start.”  Beth hit his forehead softly.  “Shush up and let me continue.  Now something was fairly strange of her though.  Strange things always happened around her, causing many of the villagers to point accusing fingers of witchcraft.”
“Witches aren’t to bleed if you cut them with a knife, so one evening; the townsfolk went to her house, demanding an entrance.  When she refused, they kicked down the door, one man catching her with his dagger by mistake.  The wound was deep, and life threatening to most, yet, not a drop of blood poured from her veins.”  Elizabeth paused; somewhat amused by the involuntary shiver Anida gave, before continuing.  “Immediately the men of the village accused her of witchcraft once again, though she dropped to her knees, begging for another chance.  As tears fell from her eyes, the minister took pity on her, telling her she had one chance, and if she survived this test, then she would be a safe soul.”
Elizabeth watched as Anida drew her legs up closer, then catching Ace’s eye as his eyebrows rose in interest.  “Well?  Are you going to continue?  I’m not patient Elizabeth, you know that.”  She laughed again, nodding as she continued.  “The next morning, cold such as this, the whole village walked out to this very pond.”  She walked over, standing near the edge.  “As they put the ‘witch’ named Wynn right here.”  She said falling to her knees, “As she fell to her knees, silent words passed over her frozen lips, barely caught to the ears which were to behold them.  ‘Have mercy’.”  She quickly stood, looking over her shoulder at them.
“Well we all know that the men thought it out of the question to listen to her, the minister stepped forward, ‘if you float to the top of the water, we know you are a safe spirit.  The water only rejects those pure.  If your soul is poison, you shall be seen nevermore’.  Wynn nodded, trusting that the water would keep her up, plunging into the water.”  She stopped when hearing a soft gasp, and then turning to see Anida with her mouth covered, her eyes silently urging her on.  Even Ace, at this point, was into the story.
“As soon as the water plunged, she quickly realized that she could not swim, rendering useless to try to save herself.  Silently, her eyes closed as the water pulled her farther and farther down.  Never to be seen again until every twentieth anniversary of her death.  Only then will she rise for three nights, avenging her mistaken death.”  Ace scoffed again, shaking his head out of the nothingness.  “And just when is that day that this is supposed to start?”  Elizabeth let a smirk fall back across her features.  “October 27th until the day of Halloween itself.”
Ace scoffed at her, half picking up Anida to get her up.  “Nice story Liz.”  She gave a slight twitch at that name, oh how she hated it, but yet, he was the only one allowed to call her that. “Amusing while it lasted, but,” He sighed, lifting Elizabeth back onto her feet.  “It’s time to go home.”  She nodded, watching Anida half run out of the forest, staring at them in horror.  “I’m never going to go past this pond again!”  Elizabeth laughed, rushing forward and locking her arms around her.
“Oh Anida it’s okay. The big scary ‘witch’ won’t hurt you!”  She teased, and then on a more serious note, “I won’t let her.”  As Anida’s brown eyes widened, Ace sighed.  “There’s no such thing.  Come on Liz, I thought we grew out of that years ago.”  Elizabeth, who had been already walking out of the forest with Anida, turned doing a half shrug, a smug smirk on her face.  “Oh.”  Anida suddenly said, causing all attention to fall on her.  “I’m having a get together on the 27th, on the other side of the graveyard.  It’s at my friend’s house.  Are you coming?”  Elizabeth’s smirk widened as she quickly nodded.  “Oh yeah, we’ll go!”  Ace sighed, rolling his eyes.  “I don’t get a choice?”  “It’s from five-thirty to nine okay?”
The night of the party was chilly and the cold air struck skin like a knife.  “You two be safe on the way home…” Anida sighed from the doorway, “Just because I’m staying here doesn’t mean you can do anything stupid!” Elizabeth waved her hand airily “Yeah, yeah. I hear you.”  She smirked, gripping Ace’s hand.  “Should we hold hands on the way ho~ome?” She questioned her, giggling lightly.  Anida gave a firm nod.  “That way you’ll stay together.”  Ace sighed, turning his head.  “Let’s just go.”  She nodded, following his lead through the graveyard, stopping at the edge of the lake.  Ace shook his head, “Come on Liz, let’s go.” Elizabeth turned to him, smiling.
“The moonlight looks pretty reflecting off the lake.”  She stated, staring up at him.  He nodded, and then looked curiously behind her.  “What?”  She asked curiously, turning and peering into the water, her eyes clouding in bewilderment.  “Uh.  What am I supposed to be seeing?”  She questioned, looking up at him.  Ace shook his head.  “Nothing.  Come on, let’s go home.”  He smirked, offering his hand to her again.  Elizabeth smiled, grasping it and walking away from the edge of the pond.  Suddenly, she turned, screaming when she looked into the water.  
Ace whirled around shoving her roughly behind him, looking wildly around, then staring back at her.  “There’s nothing there.”  He started, the anger clear in his voice.  “Do you think your being funny or something?  Screaming like that?”  She shook her head rapidly.  “No really!  I could have sworn!  I saw something moving in that lake!”  She pointed at the ripples in the water.  Ace sighed, grasping her hand tightly, “Probably just a leaf” He said, meaning to seem soft, yet his voice mixing to a growl.  “Let’s just go.”
Once arriving home, she swept past her family, claiming the fact that she was “very tired and just wants to go to bed undisturbed for the whole night.”  Elizabeth immediately went to the computer, searching until finally she found it. The trial time of Wynn Fairfax.  Her eyes widened slightly at this news, reading everything she could.  It was a real document and in fact everything she told in the story was the truth.  Including her final words.  Blindly Elizabeth reached over, glancing at the clock to make sure everyone was asleep.  11:30…plenty of time.  She held her breath until the phone picked up.
A sleepy voice answered the phone.  “Hellmph?”  Elizabeth blinked, staring at the screen as she waited for him to pick himself back up out of the pillow.  “Ace?”  “Elizabeth?  What?  Come on, I got up at three this morning…let me sleep…” She laughed lightly.  “It’s true.”  “I know it’s true I was there.”  He growled irritably.  “No, not that, the ghost story. About the witch?”  There was a pause, then the reply “Yeah.  What of it?  Do you want to go stake it out to see if it’s true or something?”  She grinned.  “I was hoping you’d say that.”
At 11:55 they met outside the pond, Ace grasped her hand, staring at her.  “If this is true, I-“ He broke off, looking away.  She nodded, “I understand.”  A soft smile crossed her lips, grasping his hand and pulling Ace out.  The walked over to a bush sitting behind it as Elizabeth shivered lightly, pulling her jacket around her shoulders more.  The sudden beep of a watch made them both jump.  They stared at the water, expecting a light show, or a mysterious fog to roll in.  When nothing happened, they both sighed.  “Well that was a waste of my time.”  Elizabeth mumbled.
Ace stood, helping her up.  “What would sitting here honestly accomplish anyways?”  Elizabeth looked up with a bitter smile on her face.  “Your right…” They turned, beginning their walk home, both silently vowing to never tell anyone about this.  “Hm?”  Ace suddenly asked.  “Did you say something Liz?”  She looked over at him, her pale skin turning an Ivory shade in the moonlight.  “No…why?”  Ace blinked, suddenly uncomfortable.  “W-well I thought I heard you say something never mind.”  She nodded, drifting back into her own thoughts, staring up at him.  “What?”  He asked, suddenly, could it be, self-conscious?
She laughed, just about to reply when she heard, “foolish mortals, taking me from my body, my soul still lives on, beneath this lake.  All I happen to need is a body.  Which seems to be…right in front of me…” Elizabeth turned quickly, seeing the form of a young woman with chestnut hair reaching out to her from the middle of the lake.  She stood, paralyzed with the fear, she felt someone grab her hand, call her name and pull her away.  “Elizabeth!  Snap out of it!”  Her body shook quickly realizing it was Ace.  She began sprinting back with him, only to find that their whole town looked like the colonial exhibit downtown. She screeched suddenly finding them caught in a corner.  She gripped tightly to Ace’s hand before the world suddenly went dark.  She collapsed next to him.
The next morning, Elizabeth awoke in her bed.  “Hmm?”  She questioned, looking around and finding herself in a very familiar surrounding.  Elizabeth drew a sigh of relief.  “It was all a dream.”  She smiled, bouncing out of bed and getting ready.  After walking to school, she saw Ace, hugging him insanely tight.  “Ace.”  She smiled, and then let go.  Looking around, she suddenly grasped some scissors, getting a far away look in her eyes.  She brought them up, then down sharply, on the edge of the desk where his arm had been.
“E-Elizabeth…?”  He stammered, as the clouded look left.  She stared down at her hand, then back up at him, dropping the scissors and taking three steps back.  “S-Sorry…I don’t know what’s wrong with me…” She forced a smile to her face, and then quickly rushed off as the bell rang.  Throughout the day, many more attempts were made on his life with just the two of them around.  As the final bell rang, she rushed out of the door, making her way to her home.
Elizabeth threw the door open, collapsing next to the counter, tears falling freely from her eyes.  “What’s wrong with me?”  She shouted, staring up at the sky, before falling back to her knees.  Suddenly she stood again, reaching into a drawer, grasping out a knife, bringing it close to her.  The door flew open, as Ace walked in.  “No!  Elizabeth don’t!”  She turned, staring at him.  “Don’t tell me what not to do!  Stop or you’ll come along with me!”  She said, slapping his hand away as he reached for the knife.  He reached again, the door shut, screams were heard.
A few weeks later, the families stood outside the graves.  They sadly looked at one another as they were placed side by side.  The wind blew, whipping around leaves and snowflakes.  If you turned your head in the direction of the pond, a cackle was heard, as the wind blew away the tall grass showing tombstones.  Upon the gravestones were the words; Here lie the bodies of Elizabeth Amur and Ace Meuse.  Late victims of the spirit of Wynn Fairfax, rest in peaceful slumber.