Little Children Beware



    Their traumatized hearts race as that of hummingbirds, ready to burst from their tiny bodies.  The children wander deeper into the nightmare forest.  Because they are entirely lost, going forward is the only action to be taken.  If they hold still, if they hide, the old lady will get them.  She will certainly be able to hear those pounding hearts.  And even if she can't, it is said that she could easily sniff them out.  They move faster, sharp branches tearing at their thin arms.  She is coming, yes, she must be coming.  Move faster!  But no, they are moving straight into her lair.  All hope is gone.
     In the hills of Leicester England, a monstrous hag still lives and kills.  She is known to the locals and especially the local children as Black Annis.  She often hides in her cave, hidden by overgrowing moss and bramble, but she often secrets herself in the confines of an overgrown bush near a trail leading to a local school.  Her skin is icy blue and each fingernail is a talon of iron.  She hungers for the taste of human flesh, especially if it is young and tender.  She keeps a trophy of each child taken: their tanned skin to decorate her walls.
     It is said that Black Annis is a remnant of an older race of demons or earth gods.  Very likely, the stories are rooted in Celtic or maybe even Germanic folklore.  She was mostly unknown beyond the central parts of England, however a poem by Robert Heyrick gave her a new fame:

"To view Black Annis' eye, so fierce and wild,
Vast talons, foul with human flech, there grew,
In place of hands, and features livid blue,
Glared in her visage, whilst her obscene waist
Warm skins of human victims close embraced.
Not without terror they the cave survey,
Where hung the monstrous trophies of her sway,
'Tis said that in the roc large rooms were found,
Scooped with her claws beneith the flinty ground."
     Some talented horror writers have added to the folklore in more recent works.  Aubrey Law borrows from the stories in her seven-part series of novels, beginning with Black Annis: Demon Hunter. 

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