The Longest Night

The Longest Night

Bruno Roggen

Almost none of you will remember the winter of 1962–1963. You have to be quite old to have experienced it. This was the coldest winter in Europe since the end of the 17th century, together with that of 1829–1830. In many places it froze every day for almost three months in a row and everything was covered in snow all that time.

The snow fell slowly, but constantly, like small cotton wool flakes. Those snowflakes covered everything in their path with a thick blanket that remained for three months. In 1963, there was still a large forest on the outskirts of Hazelstead in an area called “Witches Mount” by nearby inhabitants. There were few houses in the wooded area at that time. Behind the dark Witches Mount forest, there was at that time a lonely clay farm, called “Cutters Farm” by the few inhabitants in that area. This typical clay farm was built in the second half of the 18th century, and was demolished in 1972 due to a division to build villas for rich people.

It was said that very strange things happened in and around Cutters Farm that instilled fear in people and that they attributed to witchcraft. However, it later turned out that the only irregular thing that happened in the farm was the illegal distillation of gin.

In the 1960s, Cutters Farm was still a warm and safe refuge in the harshest winters. The Samuelson family lived there at the time, with father John, mother Susanna and their two children David and Petronella.

John Samuelson was a robust man with a serene appearance. In those years he worked as a pipe caster at Kumbrick Works Ltd, and he had renovated the old farm with his own hands. There he lived with his family and the large sturdy building protected them from the elements.

Susanna, a caring mother who loved her husband and her family very much, with long dark hair and lively hazel eyes, was the embodiment of warmth and tenderness. Petronella, the thirteen-year-old daughter, was eager to learn, enterprising, curious and afraid of nothing, while her younger brother, David, was a nine-year-old boy with an infectious laugh and equally intrepid, even though he was so young.

That winter of 1962-1963 came harder than expected. The snow didn’t stop and caused the roads on Witches Mount, the Bannue neighborhood and the entire suburb of Keywith to be buried under an endless blanket of white, because at that time, no gritting trucks came there to make roads snow-free.

Then came the longest night of the year, the midwinter night. Because there was no way to leave the farm due to the harsh weather conditions, the Samuelson family decided to prepare for a night that promised to be the coldest of all. They piled firewood by the fireplace, warmed blankets with rubber bottles full of hot water, and made sure there were enough provisions. The bottle of home-distilled gin was also ready in case the cold got too bad…

But the night announced something more than just the cold. As the family sat down to eat dinner, a distant howl echoed through the forest on Witches Mount. Petronella asked with her insatiable curiosity:

“Dad, what was that noise?”

John, who wanted to scare his children a little, answered firmly:

“Probably wolves. They come closer to the houses when the winter gets harder.”

“You impostor, don’t talk nonsense!” Susanna reprimanded her husband. “Why do you want to scare the children? There haven’t been wolves around here for two hundred years.”

Susanna tried to change the subject to ease the children's worries, but it wasn't long before something more inexplicable than the alleged wolf howl happened. A loud knock made the front door tremble. David, who always had a taste for adventure, jumped up from his chair.

"I'll go and see who’s there!" he said, but a firm hand from his mother stopped him.

"No, David, you stay with me," she said. "We don't know who or what it could be."

John made his son sit down again. He himself took the heavy iron poker that lay next to the fireplace as a weapon and slowly approached the door. With every step, his heartbeat responded vigorously. He carefully opened the door partially and a figure wrapped in a pitch black cloak appeared before his eyes. She had the face of a beautiful young woman. John had never seen her in the area before. With a penetrating gaze in her beautiful eyes, she looked at John who stood there somewhat indecisively with the crock-iron in his hand. The eyes of the late visitor seemed to shine like fire in the winter darkness.

“Good evening,” said the young woman. “I got lost in the forest, and I am completely exhausted. I have nowhere to go. Can you offer me shelter for the night?”

Susanna had come to stand by her husband. John and his wife exchanged looks with their eyes full of doubt. They could do nothing but help the woman who had found herself in such an awkward situation.

They invited the unexpected guest to come inside, and the young woman gratefully went straight to the fire in the fireplace to warm herself. As John and Susanna talked to her, several details in the woman’s story seemed to be inaccurate, which increased the two adults’ suspicions. The children, however, were fascinated by the stories of the young woman, who introduced herself as Yula and claimed that she came from Boarmarsh, a village eight miles away from Hazelstead. She did not say her family name.

The darkness of the midwinter night enveloped Cutters Farm when a new sound appeared. An almost imperceptible whisper seemed to come from the walls. Susanna felt a cold shiver run down her spine.

“Did you hear that, John?” she asked.

Her voice sounded very worried. John nodded and set out to investigate what the sound meant. Again, he took the heavy iron poker with him. As John walked through the various rooms of the farm, the feeling of being watched became more and more intense. And then, from a window covered in frost, fierce yellow eyes shone in the darkness and stared at him. John quickly returned to the protection of the living room, deciding not to alarm the children and his wife.

“Everything is fine. It was just the wind…” he lied.

The young woman, who was watching him attentively, smiled with faint traces of mystery on her lips cracked by the icy wind.

“The midwinter night brings strange things,” she whispered, “and not always pleasant ones.”

An hour later, when Susanna put the children to bed, David snuggled under the covers and whispered:

“That woman… She knows what's going on outside, mam. I am sure of it."

Time passed, but for Petronella and David, sleep seemed elusive, they were too tense for that. John and Susanna, who were sitting by the fireplace, exchanged strategies to stay calm while the young woman was still warming herself at the fire.

When they decided to go to sleep after all, the children heard something unusual. It sounded like a distant, almost hypnotic melody. Petronella reacted first. She jumped out of bed and, in her nightgown, she followed the song like a sleepwalker. John and Susanna saw her walk as a zombie, and they ran after her, just in time to stop her before she opened the front door.

"Petronella, what are you doing?" her mother asked worriedly.

The girl mumbled with glazed eyes: "That voice..." and she fainted in John's arms.

Yula suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The young woman came closer and looked at the unconscious girl.

"Don't be afraid," she said in a strange tone to Petronella’s parents, "the midwinter night tests everyone, even the strongest, but also reveals the fiery hearts."

Amazed by Yula’s strange message, John and Susanna brought their daughter back to bed. The young woman then revealed her secret:

“I am a guardian of the forests, not only that of Witches Mount, but also of Williams Wood, the forests of Herchrode Abbey and those of Widow Castle. This midwinter night is not ordinary. There are forces that try to break the peace, and tonight their influence is heavy, but it is not impossible to counter them.”

John and Susanna's eyes met. They didn’t know what to make of what the woman had said. While they looked at each other, Yula changed behind their backs. She grew half a yard taller. Her mouth also grew larger and when she opened it wide, her long yellow teeth were visible. They ended in razor-sharp points, as if they had been deliberately filed down. Her fingers were also now inches longer and ended in long nails that, like her teeth, had razor-sharp points.

At the same time as Yula changed, a growing buzzing sound resounded in the farmhouse, as if thousands of wasps were suddenly flying around the house. The loud buzzing brought Petronella back to consciousness in her bed. She rubbed her eyes and then went to wake her little brother David.

“Come on,” she said, “we have to go help our parents. We are in great danger.”

Suddenly, David was wide awake. He jumped out of bed, put on his pants and sweater, and followed his sister into the living room. When the two children arrived at their parents, an incredible scene unfolded. They suddenly stood face to face with Yula, who had changed into a wildly grinning witch who threatened John and Susanna with her sharp nails.

The appearance of Petronella and David seemed to startle Yula. She quickly walked to the door and opened it. Before anyone could react, a large black dog, whose fiery yellow eyes seemed to spit fire, slipped inside. It was immediately clear that this was no ordinary dog, but a werewolf in the form of a large black Bouvier.

The young witch looked triumphant. She raised her arms in the air and began to cast a spell in an ancient language, screaming:

“Maajn khievr geyt aoys beysn di mener inne stroat aun baren di vaajber swoar enne fis…”

Nobody understood what Yula was screaming on top of her voice, but the Samuelsons paid no attention to it either. After all, the werewolf was growling menacingly and the atmosphere in the room became grim. John grabbed the heavy iron again and resolutely assumed a defensive stance. The werewolf jumped forward, but John managed to ward off the first attack with the iron. The witch laughed mockingly and continued her spell with all kinds of formulas, which only seemed to make the werewolf stronger…

Susanna had quickly taken the children in the room under her wing. John was a godless heretic who would go through fire and flame in defending socialist ideas. At Kumbrick Works Ltd, he was also a trade union representative for the communist union. But Susanna was not like that. Secretly, behind John's back, she had continued to hold on to the traditional faith that she had received from her parents in Splintbrook, as well as later at the Ursuline nunnery school in Herchville...

Without hesitation, she took a wooden cross from the wall and began to mumble prayers out loud. The witch Yula suddenly seemed to shrink again. She screamed and hissed at Susanna, but without any success because Susanna bravely continued praying Our Fathers and Hail Marys.

The prayers seemed to really weaken the witch, dulling her nails and teeth and loosening her grip on the werewolf. John and the two children let Susanna pray out loud. They themselves seized the moment to push the werewolf back. David, who had always been fascinated by stories of heroes and dragons, remembered a spell from an old book and began to say it out loud. What he said not only made the big black dog flinch, it also worked as a protection against the witch's dark magic. Petronella, who had found a bag of salt in the kitchen, quickly scattered a circle of salt around the witch Yula. Salt was a known repellent against snails, but also against evil forces. Petronella had heard that from her aunt Annie.

Yula screamed in anger as she was trapped in the salt circle. John gathered all his strength and struck the werewolf with the heavy iron poker. The beast was now clearly weakened by the opposing forces of Susanna's prayers, John’s heavy blows and David's spell.

With a final powerful leap towards John, the werewolf landed on the ground. He failed to grab John by the throat and bite it. After that fruitless attempt, the werewolf returned to his human form. Suddenly, in the farm living room, there stood a thin man of half fifty. He looked scared and confused. He had clearly been under the spell of the witch Yula.

Yula herself was now surrounded by the protective salt circle. She screamed in rage and disappointment, and she tried to break out one last time, but the family members stood resolutely next to each other, strong in their unity and ready to stop the evil that the witch could cause any further. With their collective courage and determination, John, Susanna, Petronella and David Samuelson managed to avert the disaster and survive the dark midwinter night on Witches Mount.

The witch jumped over the salt circle, ran to the front door, cursing and raging, and fled into the night, where she could no longer do any harm. The bewitched man, now freed from Yula’s curse, left the farm, promising John and Susanna never to return…

The family members looked at each other with a sigh of relief. The threat they had endured during that midwinter night was over. They realized that their strong bond and fearlessness had saved them from the evil that midwinter night had brought them.

© Bruno Roggen, Anhée, 2025