It was a cold day in Salem, Massachusetts on October 19th. Jack, a 16-year-old compassionate and intelligent boy, was walking through the woods to the neighborhood lake. Jack just wanted to take a breath of fresh air and get his mind off of school and some of his other problems. He starts walking around the bright lake just staring off into the distance of trees and sunshine. As he is walking he hears something eerie in the woods next to the lake. It sounded like an echoed scream. Jack starts running away from the loud, echoing sound and trips over a big log. He wakes up and doesn’t know where he is or what happened. Someone comes running past him that sounds like they’re running for their life. He gets up off the grass and looks confused like the whole world was staring at him. Jack has no idea what’s going on or even what his name is. 

A couple minutes go by as Jack is just pacing back and forth by the lake when someone else runs out of the woods as fast as possible. Jack still doesn’t know anything. He doesn’t know what else to do so he runs off away from the woods. He gets to a trail and he realizes it might go somewhere safer so he follows it. Before Jack had lost his memory, the trail he was walking on is one he used to walk on a long time ago when he was a kid which was his favorite trail. Little does lost Jack know, this trail leads to the other side of the woods, away from where he needs to go. Jack continues on this trail and suddenly realizes there are more and more trees that just keep going in the distance. He decided to turn around and run. He keeps running and eventually gets back to the same spot he was before. Jack then decides to run towards the side of the lake with fewer trees and sounds of the cars rushing through. He then gets back to the sidewalk and sees many people walking like nothing has happened. 

Jack doesn’t know where he is but he finds his phone in his back pocket. As he’s trying to get a hold of someone, his mother drives past and sees him. She turns around and yells for him. 

“Jack! Is that you? Jack!” his mom yells. 

He doesn’t recognize the name or his own mother so he kept walking and didn’t say a word. 

Jack’s mom drives up next to him and puts her car in park. Jack doesn’t notice she’s running towards him until he looks up from his phone. His mom just stands there by the car and looks at him. They both just look at each other and don’t know what to say. 

Jack’s mom finally says, “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

Jack says, “Who are you?”

His mom is shocked and doesn’t know what to do. Her son doesn’t even remember who she is. His mom explains in detail that he is her son and that he somehow lost his memory. After lots of explaining, Jack decided to trust her and leave the park with her to go back to their home. 

On the way home, Jack’s mom couldn’t stop thinking about how it happened or maybe even who did it. There’s a myth around their town that about a week before Halloween, there are crazy witches that come out of nowhere and put spells on the town somehow. His mom was thinking that maybe it was the witches who cursed him and caused him to lose his memory. The witches are the ones who live in the dark woods over by the lake which would explain the kids running away from the woods, screaming. 

Jack’s mom asks, “Are you hungry? I can stop to get food somewhere.”

Jack replies, “No, I’m okay. I just want to know what’s going on.”

“I know. Me too.” Jack’s mom answers. 

Once they get back to the house, Jack starts to remember some things like his dog, Max, his mom comes back a little, and some of the details of their cozy house. The whole family including his mom, dad, sister, and dog all look very confused because some of Jack’s memories have come back, but not all of them. Jack still doesn’t know what his name is or how he lost his memory but his mom tells him to get some sleep and they can figure it out tomorrow. 

The next day, it was still a cold day in october. His mom takes him to the doctor to see if they could fix this problem. As they walk into the doctor’s office, there is more than one teenager in the waiting room. They all look like they don’t know where they are but considering Jack remembers some of the kids' faces from them running out of the woods, it makes sense. Although they all have lost their memory, Jack is the only one who can remember certain details of his life and other people. The doctor calls Jack into his office after waiting for a while. The nurse tells Jack and his mother to wait there for a minute while her and the doctor discuss some details. 

The doctor comes back into the room and starts discussing the questions he thinks are necessary to ask. 

The doctor asks, “Do you remember anything about where you were during this incident?”

Jack says thoughtfully, “Barely. All I remember is running, then I trip over something and then nothing.”

“Okay, good to know. You’re doing better than most. Some kids don’t even know where they are.” says the doctor. 

The doctor continues to ask more questions about Jack’s memory and certain details keep coming back suddenly. Jack stands up out of nowhere and just has a blank stare. His mother and the doctor stare back at him trying to figure out what just happened. While in Jack’s head, it’s a rushback of all his memories. He stands there, not being able to move in almost a trance like state of mind. 

Suddenly, Jack comes quickly back to reality. 

Jack screams out, “I remember! I remember everything!”

Jack’s mom is so relieved as well as the doctor. Jack looks around like he had just won the lottery with so much happiness on his face. Then, all of a sudden, he remembers the kids running, the screams, the dark woods, and what he saw. Jack sprints out of the doctor’s office and to the lake. He thinks to himself, I have to do something about these witches. On the way to the lake, he stops by the library down the street. He runs through the big, brown wooden doors to the back of the library. He finds the book about the witches and flips through the pages. He reads that the only way to fix this problem is finding the witches and destroying their potions. He runs back through the library and through the wooden doors. Jack doesn’t know why he was chosen to be the only kid who could get his memory back but he isn’t complaining about it. These witches have been an issue in his town for over a hundred years now but Jack is here to fix it. 

Jack gets to the lake after running for so long and has to move stealthily through the woods so the witches don’t hear him. He finally gets far enough to where he can see the big cottage in the middle of nowhere. Jack looks around and sees that the witches are coming outside through the back of the cottage. He sits silently behind the big tree so they won’t see him in the sunlight barely shining through the trees. The witches are going back out by the lake while Jack is waiting for them to leave so he can finally destroy them from his town. It takes a couple minutes, but then Jack runs faster than he has ever ran before and goes around the back of the cottage. He peaks through the tiny window and into the cottage. There’s a fire burning in the fireplace, the potions are scattered everywhere, and there are candles lit around the table. The cauldron is boiling with green and brown bubbles floating out of it. He looks around once more to make sure the witches aren’t coming back. Jack then goes inside slowly trying to find the right potion. He goes around the dark, round table to the burning fireplace. He looks around and sees a big sign that says, “DO NOT TOUCH” but of course, Jack looks at it immediately and grabs the potion out of the dusty, glass box. He reads the label as it says, “Witch Destruction”. Jack runs out of the warm, dark cottage with the special potion that glows red. 

After Jack runs all the way through the dark, eerie woods and back out by the lake, he finds the witches catching more of the kids. He looks them dead in the eye as they suddenly turn around gasping. He lifts up his arm, throws his arm behind his head and throws the potion on the small block of cement sitting in front of him. The witches wail as their life flashes before their eyes. The other kids start running back towards the lake and stand there staring at the witches while they vanish into thin air. Jack’s family runs over to him across the lake and they give him the biggest hug. The four witches are finally gone and out of the town forever.