The Spook's Apprentice by Joseph Delaney

be here.
    The Spook had told me that the other two witches were about twenty paces further on, so I counted my steps out carefully. That brought me to a second grave which was just like the first one. I got closer, just to be sure. There were the bars and you could see the earth just beneath them, hard-packed soil without even a single blade of grass. This witch was dead but was still dangerous. She was the one who had been buried head downwards. That meant that the soles of her feet were somewhere just below the soil.
    As I stared at the grave I thought I saw something move. It was a sort of twitch; probably just my imagination, or maybe some small animal - a mouse or a shrew or something. I moved on quickly. What if it had been a toe?
    Three more paces brought me to the place I was looking for - there was no doubt about it. Again, there was a border of stones with thirteen bars. There were three differences though. Firstly, the area under the bars was a square rather than an oblong. Secondly, it was bigger, probably about four paces by four. Thirdly, there was no packed earth under the bars, just a very black hole in the ground.
    I halted in my tracks and listened carefully. There hadn’t been much noise so far, just the faint rustlings of night creatures and a gentle breeze. A breeze so light that I’d hardly noticed it. I noticed it when it stopped though. Suddenly everything was very still and the wood became unnaturally quiet.
    You see, I had been listening to try and hear the witch and now I sensed that she was listening to me.
    The silence seemed to go on and on for ever, until suddenly I became aware of a faint breathing from the pit. That sound somehow made it possible to move, so I took a few more steps till I was standing very close to its edge, with the toe of my boot actually touching the stone border.
    At that moment I remembered something the Spook had told me about Mother Malkin...
    ‘ Most of her power’s bled away into the earth but she’d love to get her hands on a lad like you .’
    So I took a step backwards - not too far, but the Spook’s words had set me thinking. What if a hand came out of the pit and grabbed my ankle?
    Wanting to get it over with, I called down gently into the darkness. "Mother Malkin,’ I said. ‘I’ve brought something for you. It’s a present from your family. Are you there? Are you listening?’
    There was no reply, but the rhythm of the breathing below seemed to quicken. So wasting no more time and desperate to get back to the warmth of the Spook’s house, I reached into the basket and felt under the cloth. My fingers closed upon one of the cakes. It felt sort of soft and squishy and a bit sticky. I pulled it out and held it over the bars.
    ‘It’s just a cake,’ I said softly. ‘I hope it makes you feel better. I’ll bring you another one tomorrow night.’
    With those words, I let go of the cake and allowed it to fall into the darkness.
    I should have gone back to the cottage immediately but I stayed for a few more seconds to listen. I don’t know what I expected to hear but it was a mistake.
    There was a movement in the pit, as if something were dragging itself along the ground. And then I heard the witch begin to eat the cake.
    I thought some of my brothers made unpleasant noises at the table but this was far worse. It sounded even more revolting than our big hairy pigs with their snouts in the swill bucket, a mixture of snuffling, snorting and chewing mixed with heavy breathing. I didn’t know whether or not she was enjoying the cake, but she certainly made enough noise about it.
     
    That night I found it very hard to sleep. I kept thinking about the dark pit and worrying about having to visit it again the following night.
    I only just made it down to breakfast on time and the bacon was burnt and the bread a bit on the stale side. I couldn’t understand why this was - I’d bought the bread fresh from the baker’s only the day before. Not only that, the