The enchantment, a shadowed spell, had been cast beneath the twilight’s dying sigh,
Where ancient oaks had swayed in the wind like phantoms of the past.
A chant had echoed through the tangled woods, its cadence dark and deep,
Awakening spirits have long forgotten from the caverns where they had slept.
Amidst the stillness of nightfall, murmurs sighed endlessly,
As unseen eyes had glowed dimly beneath a starless sky.
The moon had hung low, a sallow face, pale as winter’s bone,
Illuminating paths of sorrow where the lost souls had roamed alone.
A mist had coiled through the midnight, cold fingers tracing near,
Wrapping around the weary hearts that had beat with ascending fear.
The trees, like crooked figures, had leaned closer to behold,
The place where time had dissolved away, and every tale was told.
At the circle’s heart, an altar had stood, adorned in faded lace,
And there, a book of fateful words had lain bound in death’s embrace.
With trembling restlessness, the pages had turned, each verse a dreadful sound,
As secrets had slipped into the void and spun themselves around.
The ground had begun to shake as shadows took their form,
Emerging from the depths below, a writhing, ghastly swarm.
Their voices had spoken in unison, a harmony of dread,
Recalling all the lives once lived and all the blood once shed.
Enchantments had surged through every vein, a venom cold and dark,
Binding all who had ventured there with no hope of turning back.
The winds had grown sharp, a biting chill that had pierced the very night,
And overhead, the idylls had burned with a pale, infernal light.
The spirits had danced in circles wide; their laughter had echoed grimly,
A dirge that sang of vanished days and all that might have been.
The ancient oaks had groaned softly as if burdened by despair,
Their roots, entwined with cursed soil, had held fast in the bewitched air.
The enchantment had deepened, drawing close, its tendrils ever tight,
Until the world had grown distant, fading slowly from all sight.
In the dark, the voices had faded, the spell complete at last,
And silence had reigned where shadows had fallen upon the haunted past.
Thus had lain the woods, forever bound by the magic’s cruel decree,
A place where none could have ventured forth nor ever truly fled.
Esther Elizabeth Racah