The Skull and Swamp Curse

The Skull and Swamp Curse

A Short Story

Written By

SpaceFaction

     A skull comes through the shallow small grave and floats up to the average height of an adult. This skull slowly looks around this swamp. It stops looking when it’s looking in the direction of at least two voices are coming from. They are too faint for this skull to tell if there are more than two voices.

     “It sounds like there are at least two possible bodies for me to choose from this time.” The jaw of this skull hasn’t moved, and no vocal cords. This skull shouldn’t be talking, but it is.

     This skull also shouldn’t be floating, looking around, or heading toward the direction of the voices they have heard. It is floating, though. As this skull gets closer to these voices, they are getting louder. This skull stops just before it sees a couple arguing.

     They stop arguing when the female sees the skull floating toward them. She starts screaming. Prompting the male to look in the direction of where the skull is coming from. This male steps in front of the female. The skull decides to go for the male instead. They stop just before he gets to this male.

##

     “Why are we here, and why are we here at night?” Kevin asks after she places his camera up to his eye. “It’s bad enough that you want to do this, but why do we need to do it at night.”

     “It’s because the skull is at it again,” says Jennifer as she takes a microphone out of her pocket. “This time, the victim has been a male. Why a male this time? It’s usually a female.”

     Kevin starts looking around this swamp with his camera. “Who cares if the victim is a male or a female? I don’t want to be here, especially at night.”

     “You should care since you are a male.” Jennifer starts walking through this swamp. “After all, you could be the skull’s next victim.”

     “Another reason why I shouldn’t be here, especially at night.” Kevin keeps looking through his camera’s eye lens as he runs to catch up with Jennifer.

     Jennifer stops walking. She looks at Kevin. “Give me the camera. If you’re afraid to be here, especially at night, I can do this alone.”

     “You can’t do this alone,” says Kevin. “I have no choice but to stay.”

##

     Kevin sets up his tripod to videotape the shallow graveside where this skull lives. Jennifer sits in a folding chair next to this tripod. After setting up his tripod and camera, Kevin sits on a folding chair on the other side of his tripod.

     “Now, what do we do?” Kevin asks.

     “That depends on if this skull is here or if this skull is looking for another victim.” Jennifer takes out some binoculars and looks at this grave with them.

     Kevin sees what Jennifer is doing and does the same thing. “What are you looking for?”

     “I’m trying to see if this skull is here or if this skull is looking for their next victim.” Jennifer stops looking at this grave and looks at Kevin.

     Just then, the answer to where this skull has been is seen by Jennifer and then Kevin. This skull is coming toward this grave. After this skull returns to this grave, it sinks back into this shallow ground. “Now that we know where this skull is, what will we do now?”

     “We wait until this skull leaves again,” says Jennifer softly. “Then, we will follow this skull to their next victim before they become a victim.

##

     “How long will we have to wait before this skull leaves their grave?” Kevin asks.

     Jennifer keeps looking through her binoculars. “Until this skull leaves their grave.”

     Kevin stops looking through his binoculars. “One of us has been here for the last three days. How long before we give up this waiting?”

     “I will never give this up.” Jennifer starts using her binoculars again. “If you want to leave, then leave.”

     “I’m not going anywhere unless it’s to get some more food, drinks, and snacks.” Kevin isn’t looking at this grave anymore. He’s looking in the direction of where some noises are heard nearby.

     Just then, this skull comes out of their grave and starts floating in the direction of where these noises are coming from. Jennifer grabs her microphone, and Kevin takes his camera off his tripod. They start following this skull, but they do it from a safe distance so that this skull doesn’t see them.

     Suddenly, Jennifer steps on a broken tree branch. It’s not very loud, and it doesn’t sound like it is that loud, but maybe it is. This skull has stopped and is looking in their direction.

##

     This skull steps up to an adult female about thirty, and the skull of this skull splits in half, and it goes on both sides of his female. It closes into a skull again. The head of this female is now trapped within this skull, but barely. It won’t be long before this head explodes, and it won’t be pretty when it happens.

     Both Jennifer and Kevin turn their heads when the head of this female explodes, but their camera doesn’t change. It’s recording everything that is happening between this skull and this female. “I knew these killings have been bad, but I never expected it to be this bad.”

     “We have what we have come to find,” says Kevin. “Now, we can leave here before we also become victims.”

     Jennifer looks over at this headless female. “We can’t leave yet. After all, we don’t know why this skull is doing this and how this skull is doing it.”

     Kevin is now looking at this headless female. “We already know why this skull has been doing this. It’s because of the Skull and Swamp curse. I don’t know how this skull is doing it, but I don’t care.”

####

     “Why have these two couples been doing here in this swamp, and why has it been at night?” Jennifer hasn’t asked anyone in particular at their television newsroom office.

     “We all know why they have gone there,” says Kevin. “It’s because they are after the treasure that is supposedly in our swamp somewhere.”

     Jennifer smiles. “Of course, we know they are after the treasure that may or may not exist, but we don’t know how these victims find out where to look for this treasure. I think the skull is somehow doing it to get their victims, and when they go looking for this treasure, they become victims of this skull.”

     “Now we know how this skull is finding these victims; what do we do to stop this from happening again?” Kevin asks everyone in this office.

     “I can think of only one thing we can do right now,” says Jennifer. “We need to release the video he has on the latest victim and how they became a victim. Hopefully, once everyone sees this video it will stop potential victims from becoming victims.”

     Kevin looks at everyone in the office. “I don’t think this will work, but what else can we do?”

##

     That evening, they broadcast the video of the latest victim of this skull and how this skull is getting all their victims. Almost instantly, they started getting phone calls and emails from their viewers. Most of these viewers want to know how this skull has been doing it.

     “We don’t know how this skull is doing it,” says Jennifer to everyone in this office. “That’s what we need to find out.”

     “It’s probably the curse,” says Kevin. “We need to find the witch who has put a curse on this skull.”

     Jennifer starts giggling. “This witch is almost a hundred and fifty. Do you really think she’s still alive?”

     “No, I don’t know if she is still alive, but she is a witch,” says Kevin. “She probably is still alive.”

     “How do we find her?” Jennifer asked. “Does anyone who where this witch is?”

     Jennifer addresses everyone in this office. “I want to know where this witch is if she is still alive.”

     Everyone scampered to their desks and computers and started trying to find this Witch. It doesn’t take long before they find out she’s still alive and where she is. Jennifer and Kevin head to her place to talk to her about this skull.

##

     “I was protecting myself when I used my witchcraft to fire flames from my fingers. Of course, I didn’t want to hurt her. All I wanted to do was stop them from lynching me for being a witch.”

     “When I caused her skin and hair from her head to create only her skull, I didn’t know her whole body would be taken away from her, or her head would float. I also didn’t know my flame blast would send her flying into the swamp behind them.”

     The witch took a deep breath before she continued talking to Jennifer and Kevin. “I panicked and placed a curse on her. She can’t leave that swamp until she finds another body. That’s not all I did with this curse. I showed her how to get that body.”

     “I could have done this to the about a thousand other townpeople who I could have done the same thing to, but she was the only reason one who challenged me. She was the ringleader of what was happening there. Besides, they backed off or ran away after what happened to her.”

##

     “Now, we know why there have been so many victims of this skull.” Jennifer points at the witch. “It’s because of her. She has been sending these victims to this skull.”

     Kevin is videotaping this confession. “She’s the one who has been getting these townpeople and Treasure Hunters to look for it.”

     “I’m almost two hundred,” says the Witch. “I need to make a living somehow.”

     “After all, I can’t live on swamp animals all the time. I keep a store in town. It is mainly for the visitors passing through, but I also sell to the locals.”

     Jennifer gets closer to this witch. “I can understand you are selling your witchcraft to the locals and visitors, but why are you sending them into this swamp to become a victim of this skull.”

     “Because this is what the visitors and the locals want, especially the visitors. They want to know where this treasure is. I warn them about the skull and the curse, but they don’t care.”

     “I believe in the skull and what it has been doing, but I haven’t believed in the curse until recently when I saw it for myself,” says Jennifer. “Thanks for the confession. At least the locals will hear it.”

##

     Kevin freezes when he sees this skull heading for him. He can move his body, but his head stops him from moving away from his eventful death. This skull stops just before it gets to Kevin. Suddenly, this skull splits in half and closes again after it surrounds Kevin’s head. It appears to be a perfect fit this time.

     “I can’t believe it, but I can still talk to you with this microphone on my neck. It doesn’t look like this skull knows I can do this,” says Kevin.

     All Jennifer can do is watch through the camera lens of Kevin’s camera. She only needs to wait a few minutes before they know if Kevin will accept this skull or die because of it. Kevin hasn’t lost his head yet. It doesn’t appear Kevin will be another victim of this skull.

     Kevin’s head starts shaking violently. Within a few seconds, this skull transformed back into the female before the skull ordeal and the curse, “I’m back and can leave this swamp.” This female walks out of the swamp. Almost instantly, she ages almost a hundred years and dies. Her head transforms back into Kevin, who is still alive.

The word count is 1,977
The prompt is “skull and swamp image.”