Renovating is an expensive way to become cursed.

13. The Malan Witch – Catherine Cavendish

Very short and very spooky. The Malan Witch is yet another warning to those who renovate. If you find something in the wall, like a child’s shoe, or a mummified cat, or…a very obvious poppet designed to keep an evil witch at bay – don’t remove it. Do you want to be attacked by the devil’s handmaiden? Usually the answer is no, so, leave that mummified cat alone- it makes your house a home.

In The Malan Witch, after Holly offers her sister Robyn Malan Cottage on the cliff of a very old small town as a place to grieve her husband and do things at her own pace instead of being pushed by the rigors of everyone else around her, Robyn takes the opportunity. And gets attacked by a crow and tries to follow some of the local superstitions once she’s aware of the cottage’s history before her sister renovated it, but that’s not enough to keep her from some serious evil. Or seriously evil smells.

 

Ozma’s version of a borrowed cottage is this cardboard haunted house. It’s not very secure against evil witches, but it does have a personalized pumpkin.