Luca was a strong man. Muscles bulged any shirt he wore and he had a head of thick brown hair that he cut regularly to keep it neat on his head. His hands were strong and everyone who knew him went to him to open jars they struggled to open. He had a deep booming voice and when there was a gathering that called for remarks to be made, it was always Luca who stood tall before the crowd to focus attention and his voice could fill any room.
His wife was a pretty woman, but very unassuming. She could often be found standing at his side or just behind him dutifully, and when she wasn’t with him, she kept a tidy home that was the pride of the neighborhood where they lived. The couple had yet to have children, but they were very young and seemingly had enough time ahead of them to fill the rooms of their two story home that Luca’s wife decorated for every season year round.
They lived in a neighborhood in a small town in North Carolina where COHH Inc had recently built a large southeast campus, and all of their neighbors were coworkers of Luca who worked in logistics for the company. The town was next to a dense forest and there was a farm in the edge of town that was surrounded by densely packed trees.
As Halloween approached, the neighborhood organized a block party, and in the lead up to the day, Luca held a meeting at his house. Most everyone from the neighborhood was there on the patio next to the swimming pool and Luca stood before the rows of lawn chairs with his wife.
“We are about two weeks out,” he said, “so we have three more planning meetings before everything comes together. Jim and his wife have organized hayrides, Tammy says the bounce house is a go, it’s all coming together.”
“Nora and I,” Luca’s wife said and smiled to a woman in attendance who stood from her chair, “will have to finalize the catering situation by the end of this week. Anyone interested in helping with the food can meet us at her house immediately after this.”
The gathering at Luca’s lasted for about an hour, and when it was done and everyone mingled as they said goodbye, Tanya, who owned the house two doors down and also worked with Luca, got his attention.
“Hey, buddy,” she said. “The wife couldn’t make it today, but I think she wants to help with catering.”
“I’ll let my wife know,” Luca said and then he cleared his throat into his large fist. “Sorry, throat’s been kind of dry.”
“You coming down with something?” Tanya asked. “You’re looking a little puffy under the eyes.”
“It’s nothing serious if I am,” he said and shrugged it off.
“Well be careful,” she said. “If you are stick, don’t ignore it, there’s something going around. I think it’s a flu or something. Get some vitamin C and plenty of rest.”
“Whatever you say doctor,” Luca said jokingly.
Luca’s wife moved up the date for the next neighborhood meeting and everyone was surprised that she was the one to welcome them to their house.
“Luca is waiting for everyone in the back,” she said politely to the gathering as she led them through the house.
Luca sat with his legs crossed. He smiled confidently and welcomed everyone with his booming voice that was somewhat muted. The meeting started shortly after everyone arrived.
“Sorry to change the date,” Luca apologized from his chair; he didn’t stand for the entire gathering. “I just figured the sooner we finalize everything, the better.”
“Have we decided on whether we’re allowing outsiders into the neighborhood for trick or treating?” one man asked.
“We’re voting today,” someone said.
“The costume contest rules were emailed out yesterday,” someone else said. “I made it clear that you have to live in the neighborhood to be eligible for a prize.”
The meeting went well, and everyone left with confidence that the event would be a good time for everyone.
“You look rough,” Tanya said to Luca as she was leaving. “and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you sit for so long. Is that makeup on your face?”
Luca strained to smile and he made a motion with his hand for Tanya to wait until the last of the guests had left the backyard.
“I’m really not feeling like myself,” he said and his voice sounded noticeably weaker than it had been when he’d addressed the gathering. There was sweat beading on his forehead and it was obvious that the time he’d spent with everyone had taxed him physically.
“You should go to the doctor…” Tanya said, but Luca interrupted.
“I’ve been, I don’t have the flu,” he said. “They said it’s exhaustion. I guess I’ve been having a lot of restless sleep lately, even though I go to bed earlier and earlier every night.”
“I got just the thing,” Tanya said, and she went home, then brought back bags of tea. “My wife has a friend in the tea business. This puts me out every time and I wake up feeling well rested.”
Luca and his wife thanked Tanya for her concern and Luca hoped that the tea would allow him to get a good night’s sleep after a week of his deteriorating health.
Tanya was slammed at work. COHH Inc had been hoping to expand its local delivery services for its online shopping business and Tanya was leading the logistics project to determine how many delivery people should be hired and how many vehicles were necessary. Normally, Luca would have helped her with the managerial work for such a large project, but his health has only gotten worse over the days since she had brought him the tea. Work had her frustrated and she wanted to be mad at Luca, but when she visited him, he looked pathetic, like he was wasting away under the covers of his bed.
“The doctors say that he’s exhausted,” Luca’s wife told Tanya as they stood in the living room before she went up to see him. “It’s like he’s running himself to death, but it doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t have the energy to move. All he does is sleep, and he has the worst nightmares. He says sometimes he’s fighting to wake up but he’s stuck in his dreams. I wish I could do something for him.”
Tanya shook her head. She’d heard of people being stuck in dreams. Her father used to say that struggling to wake up from a dream was a symptom of witch riding. He believed the old stories about people using magic to put curses on people, stories about witches that drained people of their energy while they slept. Tanya didn’t know if she believed those stories, but the world was a very strange place; in recent history, the world had been controlled by spores released from trees that turned people violent and caused chaos for more than a year. Anything was possible.
“You mind if I try something for Luca?” Tanya asked Luca’s wife. “It’s an old southern wives tale, my daddy used to say that putting salt around your bed keeps the bad things away. It’s just a superstition, but if nothing else is working, it can’t hurt to try.”
Luca’s wife agreed and Tanya took a large container of salt up to Luca’s room. The man could barely speak and Tanya asked him not to waste his energy. She poured a solid line of salt all around the bed on the hardwood floor, and even under the bed along the wall where the headboard was. As she left, she told Luca’s wife not to break the solid line of salt.
On her way home, Tanya stopped by the grocery store and bought several large containers of salt, and when she was home, she poured lines of it at all of the entrances including doors and windows. She figured that even if it was all just superstition, it wouldn’t hurt to protect her own family from the possibility of falling ill like Luca.
“Look at you!” Tanya said excitedly when Luca walked into their shared office. It was only a few days after she had poured the salt around his bed. He was still a pale version of the strong man he had been, but he looked much better than he had when she saw him in bed.
“I feel so much better,” he said, almost sounding like himself. “After you came by, I slept for two days straight. Nothing torturing my dreams. My wife told me what you did, the salt around the bed. After everything the doctors gave me and nothing working, I can’t believe that what you did helped, but here I am. It’s hard not to believe. How did you know to do that?”
Tanya’s heart sank in her chest. The delight at seeing Luca up and on his way to recovery melted away as she realized that her father’s remedy had worked because a witch had indeed been riding Luca in his sleep. Witches were real. A shiver shook her body.
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