Entry #1

Hi. My name is Jamie Sherval. Scottish 34 year old historian, detective, and paranormal investigator. And for a while I've been looking into an ongoing legend about what is presumed to be a witch who had been haunting the Rhineland-Palatinate woodlands of Germany since the second half of the 16th century. This old tale was never proven or disproven to be real or a hoax. The only thing pointing to this being legitimate over the past years were people claiming to see someone walking in the woods with a robe. There has been little to no photographic evidence. This has all been word of mouth for a long time. Coincidentally, there have been cases of missing children in Germany for many years. Whether or not there's a connection, is beyond my knowledge. What we know now is based on superstition and uncovered notes found in old boxes and desks that were almost lost to time. Buried for hundreds of years.

The story goes like this:

The legend goes that in Germany during the 1580s, a mysterious woman who wore a red robe snuck into a town called "Börfink". Said town was located in Rhineland-Palatinate and populated by trees. The anonymous woman had lured at least 30 unsupervised children away from their families into the woods with promises of toys and goods. The "toys" were said to be medieval stone figures, and said "goods" were baskets of fruit and bread. Her motives were unknown but her intentions definitely were not angelic, nor were they motherly in any way.

These were most definitely fabricated lies according to a young villager who bore witness to one of these occurrences. A young 16 year old boy by the name of Alexander Zimmermann II had alerted the citizens that someone had come from the forest and was taking unsupervised children away. At first, people assumed this was the boy's idea of a joke. But then some folks took notice about how their children had been playing outside for longer than usual. By the time the sun went down, the kids were presumed missing. This made the village all the more suspicious and took the boy's claims with a grain of salt. After much discussion, a search party was prepared hours later and they had decided to set out around midnight. The names of the villagers part of the ongoing search were Elze Schmidt, Victor Berthold, Minerva Holländer, Felix Hurst, and Marcus Franke. Some of them happened to be parents of the missing children so it was obviously reasonable to assume why they'd come along. With torches, flintlocks, and pitchforks in their hands as well as any kind of weapon they could get, they set out to investigate and find out what happened to the children. And hopefully put an end to this terror.

Alexander pointed in the direction of where the mysterious woman took the children and a number of villagers followed him. After an hour of walking, they came across something curious, yet horrifying.

In the middle of the woods was a truly disturbing sight to see. The trees they came across were "decorated" with toys and candles that were apparently laid out next to them and had already been lit when they got there. They had been arranged accordingly, as if someone left them here this way in the middle of nowhere. The stone toy figurines were standing upwards and lined up facing away from the trees. There could be no other explanation. Someone or something was here. The most unnerving part about this were the body parts of dead animals being strung up by branches and dangling like decorations. One of them was a rabbit head with blood dripping onto the dirt. This slaughter was very recent. It was at this point that the people who followed the boy had believed the boy's claims were factual. The only rational explanation Alexander could think of was that the lady he witnessed may have been a witch. This made the group's blood run cold and hold their weapons close to them and tight. Preparing for the worst to come.

After a few more minutes of investigation done by the group, it had started to get foggy. The air had become as cold as a winter day. The candles in front of the trees were blown out by the sudden strong wind. The villagers who had occupied the young man were too afraid to think rationally and remember where the original path was. Berthold, beginning to slip into a state of fear, asked the others where the trail was. They were just as lost as he was. The map they brought on the way was hardly of any help due to every direction being severely clouded with white. Without thinking, Berthold tested his luck and made a run for it. Screaming into the fog the name of his child. He had to find his boy no matter what. Praying to God it was the right path. Praying it got him away from whatever was out there. Praying that he wouldn't have to die here. His prayers fell on deaf ears.

What happened next could only be described by Alexander as "the work of the devil himself".

An inhuman shriek rang through the air and Berthold started screaming in sheer horror as if he was being dragged by demons into the gates of hell itself. The screaming got farther and farther away, until it was coming from the sky. His screaming was immediately silenced by the sound of what may have been tearing. It was dead quiet and everyone present was frozen in fear of what had just happened. Their internal thoughts and assumptions of the situation at hand became a reality soon after.

Something fell from the sky and rolled over to the group. What they saw almost made their hearts stop. It was the bloody decapitated head of Berthold. His wide lifeless eyes were staring up at them. That was it. The boy couldn't take it anymore. Without warning, Zimmermann ran and abandoned the group. He couldn't bare another second to stand there. He had to get out of there as soon as possible. Not once did he stop to think or care if the others were going to try and escape too. Right behind him were the sounds of gunshots accompanied by utter agony. Screaming and the tearing of flesh and bone. It was like he had the misfortune of being forced to listen to the damned be tossed into the lake of fire. Minerva, Elze, Felix. All of them. Gone. The rest of the group had become the monster's newest prey. As sickening as it sounds, their demise gave Alexander enough time to run to safety while the beast was distracted. If he had stopped running at any point in that situation, he would have been forced to join them at the hands of the unholy creature. It wasn't worth the risk to go back. It wasn't worth dying over. What mattered the most to him at that moment was survival. He regretted thinking this would have gone well. He ended up bringing those people to their graves. Their blood was on his hands. Even if he ended up taking the blame for this until the end of his days on earth, it would've been a much more preferable fate than whatever that beast would have done to him if it caught him.

Alexander had finally run until he was out of earshot and the sounds were finally gone. It was dead quiet now. but he couldn't stop now after the experience he just had. After many minutes of running, he finally came across a familiar site. It was Börfink. His home. God himself may have given him the gift of luck and mercy on that day. Immediately when he arrived back home, he alarmed everyone to get back in their homes and stay in until the fog clears.

A look of fear and seriousness on the boy's face was enough to convince them he was very likely telling the truth. All the men grabbed the hands of their spouses and children and ran back into their homes. And Alexander did so too. Every door was locked. Every window was shut. He wanted this nightmare to be over and prayed every second that he was safe. The fog had cleared the very next day and things were slowly turning back to normal. The families of the victims mourned but didn't want to risk losing more people and possibly spilling more blood. Any call to a search party was immediately shut down and everyone went about their daily lives. The children who had been taken away were legally claimed "dead" as well as the missing occupants that aided Zimmermann. The aftermath was almost exactly how Alexander predicted it. Some of the folks impacted by the tragedy had lashed out at him for bringing the people to their doom. Some of them felt this was something that needed to be discussed further before taking immediate action. They were right.

The only piece of evidence to prove the existence of the creature were pages, likely from the young man's desk that was found and archived many years later. The entire message is yet to be found, as the other pages are missing. Those notes were definitely made to tell the story about a monster who caused the people to live in fear for years. They had claimed it was a witch with magical abilities beyond anything their mortal eyes had seen, and dubbed her an executioner. A monster with unholy intentions. What her true intention is, is still unknown. Some say she came to punish sinners. Some had claimed she dragged disobedient children to hell. Her true name was never revealed or discovered. She had become a mystery for decades and speculation of her existence or what she looked like went on for decades due to a lack of any photographic evidence. All people had to go off of were assumptions. To this day, the tale is shrouded in mystery. A blur between "myth" and "history". An urban legend passed down from generations. The names of a majority of other people from the village in the story seemingly were lost to time itself because of a lack of context and detail given about Börfink in Zimmermann's diary. That, and there being not much archived information about the history of Börfink in general. Possibly to prevent people from looking into and going to look for the real deal. The likelihood of a witch still living and lurking in this day and age is scary to even think about.

As insane as it sounds, I want to investigate the location where it all happened. Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. I'll be sure to go prepared. I need to find some answers.

(To Be Continued)