Stefanie blinked awake, and was confused to see almost nothing except the faint glow of a flashlight on its side. From that glow she could see that wherever she was, seemed to be made up of rocks, like the inside of a cave or cavern. She felt cold, damp, and more importantly, naked.
"What... How did I get here?" She asked the darkness.
She moved for the light, only for her hand to brush against something warm, which stirred. She froze for a second until the stirring shape groaned softly.
"...Nancy?"
Stefanie grabbed the light, and found that the shape was indeed her friend, just as nude as she was. She blinked awake in confusion as the light hit her face.
"...Um, where am I?"
"I have no idea." Stefanie said.
Moving the light around revealed it was indeed a cave, but apart from another flashlight that had been on behind a small rock hidden by the light of the first, there was no other source of light but what Stefanie held in her hand.
There was however a noticeable draft coming from one direction. It was rather unpleasant to their naked forms, chilling them.
"So... Which way to go? To the wind or away from it?" Nancy shivered.
"I think..." Stefanie began, only to hear a sound like running footsteps.
Soon, another light approached from the opposite way from the wind.. Before either of them realised it, another nude woman ran towards them, her face lined with panic.
"You... Run! It's coming!" She screeched, trying to keep running, only to trip.
The light of her flashlight vanished. Stefanie and Nancy both shone their lights on her as she stood.
"No! Don't come! Just run!" The woman shouted before they could even begin to move.
And then there was a dull rumble. And the woman lost what little colour she had in her face.
"Oh no... It's here..."
"What's here? We don't understand!" Nancy hissed.
The woman scrabbled to her feet, only to trip again and land facing the other way.
Two red eyes then glowed in the dark. The woman screamed. Nancy and Stefanie yelped in surprise, and then stared in shock.
The pale woman was turning even paler. Her dark hair turned alabaster.
"...That woman just turned into stone." Nancy said.
"I know..."
"But that's impossible..."
As if to dismiss the notion, whatever had been chasing the now-stone woman roared.
Neither woman had to be told twice.
They kept running, ignoring the slight discomfort of bare feet on less than smooth rock, stopping only when they could hear nothing behind them. They switched off their lights in an unspoken signal.
"What just happened? How did we get here?" Nancy wondered quietly. Even a whisper sounded horribly loud as it echoed.
"I don't know. The last thing I remember, we were at the swimming pool changing rooms..."
Realisation dawned.
"...There was some sort of fog or gas. It knocked some women out... "
The grey mist rolled along the ground as women, in their bathing suits, in the nude, or in various states of undress preparing to leave, slumped to the ground. Stefanie remembered her eyes closing as she too had fallen over, watching as a startled looking young woman had stopped shaking a fallen friend and began to turn pale...
"...If it didn't knock them out it turned them to stone."
Nancy blinked, but in the gloom, Stefanie did not see this.
"But how can someone turn to stone? That's just in stories! It can't happen for real, can it?"
"We did just see it happen... And I don't know about you but my feet don't feel like this is a dream..."
There was silence.
Silence broken by another scream from the cave. Both women turned their torches on to check the other, and then quickly down towards the scream.
They were both startled to see a woman. The same woman who had been running.
"You?! But you were..." Nancy began.
The woman giggled.
"Yes, I was. Sorry, that's a mean little trick I played. Of all the girls I caught back in the changing rooms you two got closest to the exit from here..."
"You were behind that gas?"
The woman nodded.
"Oh, and I'm behind this too..."
A pair of glowing eyes appeared behind her.
The pair fled without a further word, as the woman chuckled.
"I see daylight!" Nancy shouted.
This was somewhat inaccurate. The "daylight" was from the moon and the stars, making both wonder how long they had been unconscious in this cave. Hearing the sound of water wasn't a surprise - The pool hadn't been that far from a lake.
However, it seemed that there was another surprise in store. The pair slammed into nothing, but it felt like there was a wall there.
"What? There's nothing there!" Nancy yelped as she stared at the air.
Stefanie prodded the air, and felt the barrier.
"...This is crazy."
"Ah, not crazy. Just a little barrier spell. You see, I'm what you'd call a witch..." The woman's voice echoed.
"Close your eyes..." Nancy hissed.
"I wouldn't bother. I don't need to see you. Oh, and before you ran I was going to explain something. So, how about you two look right at me and listen?"
At these words, a strange desire to obey met both women. They turned, and looked right at the woman, a sudden lightness, like feeling somewhat drunk, overtaking them.
She had a parrot perched on her shoulders, with two small lights on its head. It made an impersonation of a roaring growl.
"...A parrot?" Nancy asked, somewhat slurred.
"Correct. Little Polly The Fifteenth here helped out tonight. I can turn myself to stone and back to play my little joke earlier... Oh, Polly will get herself a cracker or seven, don't worry. Now, as for where we stand..."
The woman grinned.
"...I don't look too bad for five hundred and twenty-three, do I?"
Nancy and Stefanie found they could not reply. They were too light-headed, swaying on their feet slightly now.
"See, I'm a witch, of course, but I found a trick to live forever. Well, a long time. I can still die, a friend of mine was doing this as well until she got burned at the stake in the seventeenth century, but she also had a trick to get better and possessed one of her statues before they all reverted..."
The swaying women were silent.
"What we do is, we petrify girls. Only pretty girls, because the looks of the statues affect the looks of us. My friend petrified some men once... She grew a beard. It kind of caused her to get burned at the stake actually. Anyway, what happens is, I petrify a girl, and for each girl, I stay as young as I am for all the years of their life they lived so far. Now, it's a shame for the girl, you two might think, since you'll be two of them soon, but think of it this way..."
The lightness faded. The fog cleared. And both women realised the threat and on reflexes, jumped to try and run, only to be frozen in place, feeling a chill across their bodies.
"...You'll be beautiful forever too. I have lived five hundred extra years and so have all my statues. They don't ever get cracked, dusty, tarnished, or erode. Stone forever, unless I get hit by a bus or something. Then I guess I have to possess someone. Even then she'd still live on, just we'd share a mind and I'd be in charge..."
Neither woman could respond any more. Their minds allowed them to, but their bodies would not, for they were turning to stone.
"...Well, that's for later. See, five hundred years, average age of twenty, I only needed twenty-five statue girls. But I like to try get some more every fifty years or so. I had forty this morning and I got another twenty this afternoon, you two included. I let the young ones and the ones not pretty enough go, and I'll admit I took a risk grabbing so many at once, but I was bored. And besides, the pool was full of so many pretty young ladies like yourselves..."
Silence met the end of this. For by now, Nancy and Stefanie were both stone.
"Ah, but it seems you're stone already. Well, you'll be asleep until I'm here to speak to you again. Don't worry, I try to come down every night... It's the least I can do..." She winked.
As she walked away, the two women turned statues felt themselves sleeping once more...