My eyebrows just shot to the heavens! We now know the Ancient Witch’s name! Katherine van Wyler. Pete is explaining to the Delarosas from last chapter (the new couple that just moved in) who this supernatural intruder of their house is. It’s hard to tell which pov we’re following at first, but the chapter settles on Steve, the first pov in the book.
“She [Katherine] lived in Philosopher’s Deep, in the woods behind where Steve and Jocelyn and my wife and I now live. It was in Black Spring that she was sentenced to death for witchcraft in 1664 – although, they didn’t call it Black Spring back then; it was a Dutch trapper’s colony known as New Beeck – and it’s here in Black Spring that she’s remained ever since.”
There’s our answer to who Ancient Witch Katherine is. The reasoning is boring enough, very Salem Witch Trials, but interesting nonetheless.
“In Highland Falls, Fort Montgomery, and of course The Point they all know that the hills and woods around here are haunted. They don’t even need to know the details. You can feel it because it’s in the air, like the smell of ozone after a lightning storm. But the witch is a Black Spring problem, and unfortunately we can’t do anything but try to keep it that way.”
I wonder what sort of hauntings these lands have…
Mount Misery: “It’s a nice walk. Completely harmless these days, as long as you stay on the trail.”
That could either be because of wild animals or monsters?
Wow…the superstitious townsfolk made Katherine k!ll her own son because they thought she resurrected him from the dead when rumors went around that he died of smallpox. That’s awful.
She did, indeed, just appear in their bedroom during shmexy time between the Delarosas. Now, I’m wondering if she visits people who are “engaged with each other” lol as described by Mrs. Delarosa. Like, the act of creating a child, life. Because hers was snuffed out, and she was forced to k!ll her own son to save her daughter (yeah she had two kids). Was she drawn there? Because of that? Again, sex as a horror trope is a bit worn and clichè, but this has a different lense to it if that’s the case.
Interesting, the town of New Beeck became a ghost town, and the people back then were so superstitious that they left it alone, thinking the land was cursed, which, I mean, they weren’t wrong per say. And the Indigenous peoples in the area at the time abandoned the land because it was now ‘contaminated.’ This is vague enough to be a La Croix whisper of irritation but overshadowed by how fascinating and lived in this feels.
Huh…in 1713, a midwife k!lled 8 children saying a woman came out of the forest and told her to choose, and she couldn’t so she k!lled them all. Yikes! We’re getting into Raw Cacao Nibs territory now, which I may not assign very often because I have a personal limit to how dark I’ll read. This is getting there, but not yet…we’ll see. It’s not happening on page presently, which makes it feel more folklore, ya know? Like, it could possibly be fake (and I understand the irony of this being in a fictional book).
The Evil Eye was mentioned a couple of times so far in this chapter, and now we know why Katherine’s eyes are sewn shut! The Elders of the Church (not sure which sect) went into the hills and did that to her to keep her from doing said Evil Eye stare! Yikes! All I can think of is, how brazenly brave…or stupid they were! They all died later in the year under mysterious circumstances, but they were apparently successful in closing her evil eye! So very creepy!
Ew…didn’t appreciate that implication…not sure I want to even quote it word for word, but essentially, Grim (fitting surname) says that she’s not an outdated ghost haunt that a neglected, irritating, and neurodivergent child would come up with. I find that in poor taste. If we’re supposed to find this character unpleasant, well, now I for sure do.
We know Mr. Delarosa did something to Katherine. He all but admitted it. What he did? I actually have no idea. Maybe he freed her? Who knows? Maybe we’ll find out soon enough, but what we’ve gleaned so far is that if you mess with her physically, you’ll pay.
And that’s the question of the whole book so far, “What does she want?”
I still have a good long chunk of the book left (I’m only like, maybe an ⅛th of the way done), so I imagine crap is about to hit the fan whether it’s slow and steady or in one giant catastrophe.
Grim saying not to mess with Ouija Boards because they’ll kill you is honestly so on point! I don’t necessarily believe in witches or whatever, but I won’t mess around with a Ouija Board. Ever. Never, ever, ever. No thanks!
The people of Black Spring have tried everything and everyone from the Vatican to the army to try and get rid of Katherine, and nothing worked. This is so very interesting in the scariest way possible! And they came to the same conclusion as I did with this question, “How do you stop something like that?”
You don’t. You only try and keep it from getting out. You contain it.
“Katherine is a paranormal time bomb.”
Horrifying.
And there it is. Mr. Delarosa didn’t do anything to Katherine, he heard her barely whispering from the corner of her mouth because her lips were sewn shut. He had the urge to commit suicide. Her spells make people do what she was made to do to herself. She was forced to hang herself “for repentance” and thus, she makes people in Black Spring, the people in that valley no matter the era, do unto themselves as she did. How very ironic and terrible.
Mr. Delarosa survived because his wife screamed and shook him awake. Oof.
Again, let’s pause for a moment. If any of my readers feel any form or have any thoughts of self-harm or suicide, please seek help. You are loved and will be missed.
Oh….and we are about to witness a filmed past attempt to open Katherine’s eyes and figure out what she wants…this is going to be awful, I feel it in my chest. I have a growing dread, which is a great sign that the author is doing a fantastic job.
Five people all died within seconds of cutting only one stitch from her mouth, the doctors that did it, three elderly people in town dropped dead. Phew. My shoulders are all tensed up to my ears! This is intense!
And before I end the chapter, the Delarosas want to leave town, and I’m like 99.9999999999999% positive they’re about to be told why that can’t ever happen now. What a doom to realize.
And ending on this?
“She’s not going to let you go. You live in Black Spring now…Welcome home…We have all sorts of great town fairs.”
Like that lessens the blow! Ha! Wow…what a chapter.
My rating so far:
•Distilled Spirits
•Jalapeños
•Trauma
•Checked Wikipedia Because My Anxiety Needed Soothing
•Small Chuckle
•The Author is a Menace
•Le Homemade Gourmet French Fries Pinky Up Eating with Aioli Fancy
•Swiss Cheese
•Autopsy
•Razzleberry Pie á la Mode
•Raw Cacao Nibs
•Orange Roughy à l’Orange
SnS 🌹💀📜🥤
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