• The year is 1855 and the story takes in the English countryside at the peak of autumn. In a small town you will not find on any map. What happened to it? Who knows that does not matter. What matters is the particular events that happened to one young woman. For the sake of the story I will call her Jane.
    Jane was known throughout the town as the town's sweet heart. Long golden locks, bright blue eyes, rosy cheeks, soft pink lips, and delicate porcelain skin. It was no surprise, once she became of age, suitors would line up from all around asking for her hand in marriage.
    Yes Jane was very beautiful...but she was cruel.
    From a young age she enjoyed tormenting the other children; beating them with sticks, spreading lies and rumors, and when she saw something that they had that she want, she stole from them. None of the servants would speak of it, but they often whisper amongst themselves that Jane was the reason why they found so many dead and mutilated cats.
    One girl in particular was Jane's favorite victim. The servant girl Wendy. They were roughly around the same age, and while Jane was radiant and the center of attention, Wendy was not.
    Wendy was always covered in soot and dirt covering her pale complexion, her long mud brown hair hung low and covered her face. She was a quiet girl and kept to herself, but she was kind. She would find stray animals and carefully nurse them back to health before releasing them, she would drop what she would be doing and help the other servants with their work,
    Jane would torment Wendy non-stop. Often ordering her to complete numerous tasks in under an impossible time, just for Jane to ruin it for her in the end. Jane would blame Wendy for the trouble she would find herself in. And poor Wendy would be punished horrendously if not by the master but by her tormentor as well. It was no doubt Jane took pleasure in Wendy's suffering, but everyone was too afraid of Jane to say anything. And so the abuse continued.
    One day while Wendy was tending the garden she heard something crying in the bushes. She dropped what she was doing and rushed over. There before here was a bright red fox with its leg caught in a bear trap. Quickly Wendy freed the fox, scooped the poor creature in her arms and made her way back to her quarters. For seven days she took care of the fox and nursed it back to health. By the seventh day the fox was already running about and was well enough to leave Wendy. But this was not the last the fox was seen by her. Each day she would spot the fox close by, watching her with its vibrant green eyes. As if to thank her the fox began to leave her presents at her doorstep. Jewels, silk, spices, gold, ivory, and many more. Wendy would use these gifts and share them among her peers when they had financial problems. She would especially thank the fox for these gifts by leaving a saucer of milk and what little food she could spare.
    One autumn day an invitation to a grand gala was sent out to all the lords and ladies. And of course Jane got to go. The spoilt woman beamed with pride until it was also noted for all to see that an invitation was sent out to Wendy as well. Little objection was made not just among servants, but also among the master of the household as well. It would be rude not to attend now that Wendy's presence had been called.
    There would be the most famous lords and ladies at this gala, handsome and eligible bachelors just waiting to find the right lady...the fact that Jane would be forced to rub elbows with a dirty servant, someone she did not even see as a human being, made her stomach churn.
    Jane vowed that she would do everything in her ability to make sure that...sow would never attend.
    Jane would berate Wendy whenever she could, in hopes to crush her confidence and spirit. What would Wendy wear? Her ugly servant rags? What jewelry would adorn her? Her hair is but an ugly mop! The only reason why she hides her face was because she was too dirty and ugly to show it! Jane laughed at her poking at all of Wendy's flaws. Wendy stood up and locked eyes with her tormentor.
    "Regardless...I am still going" she said in a quiet but firm voice.
    Jane grew furious at this point and locked Wendy in her quarters. She promised if she remembered that she would let Wendy out long after the gala was over. IF she remembers....
    Jane's laughter was heard through the closed door. Wendy dropped to her knees knowing that Jane won yet again. As hope was slowly draining from her, she heard scratching at the door. Slowly the door miraclously opened. There in the doorway was a tall woman with a hood pulled over her head, concealing her face. In her arms was the most beautiful ball gown Wendy had ever seen. The woman handed the gown to Wendy.
    "I am here to repay the debt on my master's behalf" the woman said in a low voice. At first Wendy rejected feeling guilty receiving such a lovely gift but the woman insisted. And thus Wendy gave up and allowed the woman to dress her.

    The gala was the grandest by far, in Jane's opinion. She gossiped with the ladies, flirted with the lords and their sons. Yes she successfully fooled everyone with her sweet mannerisims. She grew bored of the bachelors she was talking with and moved on. She stopped once her attention had been caught by a man she had never seen before.
    The man had broad shoulders, young and very handsome profile, rust colored hair and green eyes. Jane was smitten with the young man and rushed over to his side to 'get to know him better'. Alas the young man refused her advances and left. Jane however did not give up so easily and pursued him. Again and again the man rejected her. She could not understand...all the men at the gala were infatuated with her and competed for her attention, and yet this man was unaffected by her looks and charms. She was about to persisted further when the announcer spoke a name she dreaded to hear.
    "And now the arrival of Miss Wendy!"
    The lords and ladies stopped and turned to face the newcomer. Wendy, now dressed in a beautiful gown, her neck adorn in a simple yet lovely golden choker, a shiny bracelet, and crystal drop earrings. Wendy was no longer covered in filth, revealing much fairer skin compared to Jane's. Her mud brown hair was no longer in her face and was adorn in roses giving her an earthly presence. Her hazel eyes were as large as a doe and the freckles under them made her expression appeared all the more innocent and endearing. Wendy was with no doubt truly beautiful.
    Soon she became the center of attention and Jane was no more than an after thought.
    Wendy spoke softly and shyly to the men and women who approached her....and Jane stood in silence, her anger seething inside her. Fuel was further added to that roaring flame in Jane's heart, when the man she became attracted to, approached her rival and spoke sweetly to her.
    Jane watched as Wendy and the handsome man talked, she watched as they danced, she watched the two...fall in love.
    The last thread of her sanity snapped the moment the man asked Wendy to be his bride....and Wendy happily agreed.

    Once the party was over Wendy said her goodbyes to her new found friends and fiancé, threw on her cloak and made her way back home on foot with only the orange glow of her lantern lighting her path.
    She walked through the woods as a short cut. Most people would be afraid to walk through them alone, especially at night but Wendy never felt anything but safe in these woods. She played there with the other servants, she gathered acorns and food, she would meet the forest creatures that she had nursed back to health. She knew every plant, every animal, and every sound in these woods. Yes she loved the woods....but this time something felt different.
    The clouds shrouded the full moon choking it of its guiding silver light. The air grew cold and the chilling wind felt as if it were cutting right through her. The branches overhead were starting to look like black clawing hands of a corpse scorched by flames, making the young woman anxious. The branches scraped against one another frightening Wendy and she knew...something was terribly wrong.
    As if fate spat upon her fright Jane appeared out from behind a rotting tree and struck Wendy over the head with a heavy branch. Wendy fell to the ground and Jane continued her assault. Over and over she brought the branch down upon the servant girl she tormented all these years while screaming profanities at her.
    Wendy, broken and unable to flee, sobbed and begged for mercy from the cruel Jane. The weapon Jane had been using had splintered and shattered, forcing her to look for other means of disposing of Wendy. As if her dark prayers were answered Jane spotted an axe lodged in the stump of a tree. Huntsman looking for fire wood must have left it by accident...it was perfect!
    Jane greedily dislodged the axe and made her way back to Wendy. She stopped the poor girl from crawling off and brought the axe down upon her chest. Wendy gurgled trying to form words, and Jane continued her assault.
    The clouds parted giving light to the awful deed Jane had committed. Blood was everywhere, staining the earth in black under the moonlight. Jane dropped the axe and laughed proclaiming that she was Wendy's better and that she had won.
    Jane knelt down beside Wendy and proceeded to shred her lovely dress.
    "A dress like this should never be worn by filthy vermin!" she spat.
    She ripped out the adornments in her hair.
    "Roses are only for the beautiful!"
    She ripped off Wendy's choker.
    "A dog's collar should be more suiting for you!"
    She tore the crystal earrings from her earlobes.
    "These must be glass but then again you are too poor to afford even that!!"
    She eyed the bracelet and reached out to tear it from Wendy's wrist. But it was stuck. Jane ended up using the axe once again and chopped off the girl's hand. Jane just sneered.
    "How amusing you would cling onto this lovely even in death! Lets see how you'll do without that thieving hand!"
    She set her bounty in the folds of her dress and was about to make her way home when she heard a noise. Jane turned and saw a fox standing over Wendy's body, whimpering while licking the blood off of her face. It glared up at Jane and snarled. As it leapt to attack her Jane knocked it back slamming it into the tree. Its back snapped pralyzing the creature. Jane approached the fox and drove the heel of her shoe into its skull.
    Jane walked home without looking back at the bloody corpses she left behind.

    Jane stole away to her room and placed her newfound treasures into a wooden chest. She reached for the bracelet and realized she accidently took Wendy's hand with it. She laughed at her mistake and threw the hand carelessly out the window and into the woods. She locked the chest and went to bed.

    She woke up in the middle of the night hearing something crying from the woods. She ignored it and went back to bed.

    The next morning she opened the chest to gaze lovingly at her treasure. She shrieked and jumped back. The hand she thought she disposed of was back in the chest. Disgusted she threw the hand out into the woods again, however when she looked down she saw that it had returned. Fear crept inside her heart. She knew the longer she kept this the more suspicious people will become.
    Quickly she wrapped the hand in a hankercheif and went outside to find a proper site to dispose of it.
    As she made her way into town the townsfolk talked and whispered among themselves. Jane foolheartly thought they were talking about her...she quickly diverted their attention and asked about the handsome man she met last night.
    Now that Wendy is gone, she thought, he would be all mine.
    The people she was talking to looked at each other with grim faces and shook their head.
    They discovered his body in the woods along with Wendy. Apperently someone had drove an axe into his head.
    Jane went pale. A man? Clearly they meant a fox right?
    She fought herself to correct them knowing she would implicate herself.
    The townsman said that the young man must have been escorting Wendy home when someone attacked them.
    "It must be a jealous lover" Chimed in a woman. "A pretty thing like that would be bound to have many suitors lined up for her hand in marriage"
    Jane gritted her teeth. Even in death Wendy stole the attention from here. Jane stormed off into the town square where the well was. She knew she could not make it to the woods where she would bury this atrocity and so Jane chucked Wendy's hand into the well.

    Things got worse for Jane at night however...

    From her window Jane could clearly hear something scratching at the pane. As the nights progressed she heard the voices of something crying and the soft wails of Wendy.
    "My hand...please...give me back...my hand..."
    Jane would pretend not to hear her but these night activities persisted.
    "Why did you kill us...Jane? Why...did you take...my hand? Jane...give it back.."
    Acomanying Wendy's wails the inhuman cries got closer and closer until it sounded as if it were coming outside Jane's window.

    Jane's nerves were shot and refused to go outside. Many who thought she and Wendy were friends, believed she was frightend by her horrific death. No that was so far from the truth. The truth was Jane felt Wendy...she felt her spirit trying to reach out to her. And not just her. She brought something back with her to torment Jane.

    Worried their daughter was becoming a shut in, Jane's parents held a gathering at their home for Halloween.
    They held the party at the peak of night and spent the evening telling scary stories.
    While Jane did not enjoy the stories she felt slightly at ease knowing she was among other people.
    Her father asked who will be next to tell a story. An unfamilar voice broke out through the crowd.
    "I shall"
    The crowd parted making way for a tall woman dressed in black and autumn browns. She had long black hair tangled with orange leaves. She had her lower face concealed with her open fan making her feirce eyes stand out. She gaze upon the crown scanning the atendees one by one then stood at the center and told her story.

    The woman told her a personal story of a fox who disguised himself as a man. He was charming and handsome, lonely...but cruel. He would lure young women in with honey sweet words, lead him to his den. If they are not the woman he had hoped for he would tear the maidens apart and devour their hearts.
    But these women were less than innocent. Women who used their beauty, their status, their wealth...women who manipulated others and brought upon harm for no reason other than to watch them suffer.
    One woman who escaped his grasp seduced a hunter into trapping and killing all the foxes he could capture, and bring them their furs to her.
    The hunter, the poor love stricken fool, did as he was told and set up traps. And eventually the fox was captured. He struggled and screamed in pain, writhing in the bear trap. He heard a noise. At first he thought it was the hunter and panicked. But no! It was the kind face of an innocent maiden, who freed him and nursed the fox back to health.
    The fox would thank her by giving her jewels and fine items. But she was kind. She would sell them and help her fellow man. Occasionally she would set food out for the fox and be by his side when he comes.
    One day the fox decided that he was in love with the maiden.
    He shed his fox fur and stood on two legs. He donned the garb of a noble man and sent out an invitation to a grand gala where he proposed to her. She smiled warmly and accepted his offer.
    As the evening progressed he decided to walk her home...no young lady should ever be alone in the dark after all.
    The air was quiet and cold. The light from the moon was blocked by the heavy veil of the clouds. When suddenly...a fiendish woman pounced from the shadows and attacked the two of them. She beat the two breaking their bones, took an axe and buried the damned thing into the maiden's chest! To add insult to injury, the woman stole from the lifeless corpse, ripping her dress, stealing her adornments, chopping her hand off to steal her bracelet!
    (Jane starts to grow pale)
    The fox accidently started to walk on all fours, ran to his beloved but was too late. The woman turned toward the fox and stomped on his skull until it caved in!
    The wicked woman stole away into the night with her trophies. But alas no wicked deed goes unpunished...

    The woman stopped her story and glared at Jane.
    "Would you not agree?"
    Jane jumped to her feet and backed up.
    The others talked amongst themselves upon seeing the similarites between the strange woman's story and the recent murders.
    One man noted that they found a man, not a fox by Wendy's body.
    The woman nodded merely stating that she added something fantastic to the story to make it more intresting. She did not avert her gaze from Jane and pointed at her.
    "But you would know this story better than anyone!"
    Jane trembled with fear. All eyes were on her once again, but instead of adoring eyes, the guest cast suspicious glares at her.
    The woman explained that she and her son were merely passing through this town when he became infatuated with Wendy after seeing her tending a wounded animal.
    He sent the invitation to her hoping to meet her, but all the while that wicked woman attempted to seduce her son. When he would not give her the attention she desired she stalked both him and Wendy and murdered them!
    The woman reached into her bossom and pulled out a familiar object and threw it at Jane's feet. Jane screamed seeing the pale hand she had once disposed of.
    She screamed that she was sorry that she did not mean to kill them...when she collected herself she saw the room. All of their hateful eyes were on her.
    The woman stood up, not once removing the fan from her face. She pointed at Jane.
    "It was you! You murdered my son and his beloved fiance!"
    Jane muttered under her breath denying the accusation.
    The woman glanced to one of the man servants. She noted that Jane must have hidden the valuables she had stolen off of Wendy somewhere in her room, and for him to tear her room apart until he found it.
    Despite Jane's protest the servants stormed up to her room only to come out minutes later with her chest filled with the bloodied belongings.
    Jane pleaded with everyone that she could not have done this. That she was a good girl. She threw herself at her father's feet begging him to believe him. He turned away unable to look at her in the eye. The truth of who she really was came out. All the horrendous acts she did not only to the servants but to the animals.
    The punishment for taking a life was death.
    Jane ran past everyone and stormed off into the night screaming. A mob of angry townsmen and women in pursuit.
    Jane fled into the forest, branches tore at her dress and scratched her legs. She came to the spot where she murdered Wendy and dropped to her knees.
    She looked up and saw the woman that had in a single moment ruined her life. She glared down at Jane with those same feirce eyes. She fanned herself and chuckled.
    "Nothing wicked ever goes unpunished remember dear" she said stepping towards Jane. "You murdered my son, and that lovely girl who was to be his fiance...You will not escape from your fate so easily"
    Jane spotted the axe from earlier. Reverting back to the woman she was that night she swung it at the woman. The woman caught Jane's wrist and snapped it like a twig.
    "That's enough playing my dear, wearing this dress is ever so bothersome" she said.
    She snapped her fan shut. Jane looked upon the woman's face in horror.
    The woman had large sly green eyes, and her mouth was twisted into an inhuman grin, filled with cannine teeth.
    The woman smiled making her mouth grow wide. She opened her maw and buried her fangs into Jane's neck, chomping down hard.
    Jane struggled. She reached out to pull the woman off but instead tore off a peice of her dress and a soft warm pink thing that felt like flesh.
    The Fox woman pinned Jane down and proceeded to rip at the wretched woman's throat. She stopped half way and now tore at her chest exposing her beating heart. The Fox sniffed it and looked back up at Jane laughing.
    "You're heart stinks...it smells like the foul rotting thing you are. You're not even fit to fill my belly"
    Jane choked and gasped feeling her life drain from her body. And with the flick of her tail the Fox woman disappeared into the night.

    Jane was found the next morning, dead. The death appeared to be caused by a wild animal, a wolf or a fox perhaps.
    Next to Jane's corpse was the torn dress and fan of the woman from earlier that night along with what experts can describe as molted human flesh.
    No one ever saw that woman ever again after that night.