The Countess

The inhabitants of Springvale are frightened to find the body of a woman after the lake's ice melted. The dead corpse's eyes still shine with desperation, its body shows pain. The farmers who found her slowly back away, and then rush to the town. No one goes near the lake for a few days, because the woman's dreadful expression disgusts every human creature. They are unable to decipher the body's origins, until an aged man arrives to the town. The tramp sits down, encircled by the houses and the eager faces of Springvale, revealing, he knows the story of the lady. 

"Not many of you crosses Freymoore Heights, but your eyes can see it from here" he begins, his rusty syllables slowly crawling into the ears of the people. "You're not from Ailville, otherwise you would know. I haven't seen it, but I already know its the Countess. 

"Once the Count of Freymoore Heights ruled the whole mountain, and the forests of Ailville, the meadows of Springvale all belonged to him. But the gentleman died one day. Leaving a charming Countess alone. Gossips of poison started in the meadows." He became silent, coughed, and continued: 

"It wasn't a month after, that the Countess, Yris, as I remember her name, started to like her servant. He was a poor, young boy, I knew his mother. The boy also seemed to love her, and the affair has begun. Weeks later, the mother found out about their relation. She insisted on moving away, far from Freymoore Heights, to leave his son's 'unearthly' love with the 'wicked witch'. But Yris could not let go. She forced her lover to stay, but when he refused, the blind rage of the wicked Countess drove her to take the life of the servant.

"She could not bear the void, which she left by her own deed. She left the fort of Freymoore, and stayed in the forests of Ailville. She ran, screaming in the night, wandered the frozen lake for years. She seldom went back to the fort, which was destroyed by the wind after the years. She wept there, among the bricks, still embracing the rotting body of the boy, which she carried along her way. Her hair and torn clothes scared the people; even when alive, she looked like a dead woman. Her scars and behavior made the people of Ailville stay in their houses during the brightest sunlight, afraid of meeting her somewhere.

"I'm surprised, that she found her death only after the many years of the suffering she caused everyone, even herself. Her body is solid now, and I know, it's caused by the icy stone, her heart, and not by the call of her fate"

The people of Springvale stood astonished at the end of the Countess's eerie story. They headed back to their work, but the next day, a few of them packed up, and set on the road. Soon, the houses of Springvale became the haunting place of Yris's spectre...