The pact and the price

🌊 The River Witch

Genre: Supernatural Thriller

Target Audience: Teen and young adult readers (ages 14+)

Tone: Dark, mysterious, emotionally intense

Protagonist: Amara Nwosu, a 17-year-old girl with ancestral ties to an ancient river deity

Setting: A remote Nigerian village surrounded by dense forest and a cursed river

Last Recap:

Amara discovered her late mother had hidden a secret: their bloodline is tied to Mami Nta, the River Witch—a being bound by an ancestral pact. In Chapter 3 ("Voices from the Water"), Amara heard whispers and had a vision of the past during a forbidden visit to the river. Something is awakening—and it’s The Pact and the Price

The village square was abuzz with drums and firelight. It was the Festival of the Waters, a ritual meant to appease the spirits and protect the village from drought and death. Amara stood silently behind the crowd, eyes scanning the elders' procession.

She didn’t come to celebrate.

She came to find answers.

Her grandmother, Mama Uduak, once a powerful seer, had retreated into silence after Amara's mother died. But tonight, she was back—in full regalia, leading the procession with white chalk streaked across her face and river pearls in her hair.

Amara knew she had to speak with her. Now.

Later that night, Amara entered Mama Uduak’s hut, uninvited but expected.

> “So. The river finally called you,” the old woman rasped without turning around.

Amara's voice trembled. “What am I, Grandma?”

> “Not what. Who. You are the river’s blood. The pact lives through you now.”

Mama Uduak explained the truth: centuries ago, their ancestor Adaora made a pact with Mami Nta to save the village from a deadly drought. In exchange, her bloodline was bound to serve the river spirit every third generation.

> “Your mother broke the chain. Now, the river wants what it’s owed.”

> “And if I refuse?” Amara asked.

> “Then prepare to lose everyone you love.”

---

The Dead Return

In the following days, strange things began happening. Livestock drowned in dry pens. Rain fell only over the river. And Amara began seeing her mother… at night… standing by her bed, drenched and silent.

No one else saw her. No one else believed her.

She sought help from the only person brave enough to speak of forbidden things: Obinna, the orphan boy who lived near the riverbank and was rumored to have died once—and come back.

> “I see them too,” he whispered. “The dead don’t rest here. Not when the river’s angry.”

Together, they planned to go deeper—to the Forbidden Depths, a part of the river where even fishermen refused to cast their nets.

Obinna warned her: “You go there, and you don’t return the same.”

Would you like me to continue with Chapter 6, or would you prefer we focus on:

Character development (like Obinna or Mama Uduak's backstory)

The rules of the river magic and spirit world

A map or visual of the setting

A twist or major  Whispers Beneath the Water

The river was quieter now. The storm that had swept through Willowmere left broken branches and soaked soil, but in its wake, it brought a strange calm — the kind that precedes something darker.

Ava stood at the riverbank, eyes locked on the spot where she last saw the witch. Her grandmother’s journal was soaked, but the ink held strong, revealing a single cryptic line underlined three times:

> "The river takes what the town buries."

She knew what it meant now. The town had tried to drown its sins — drown her — but the river didn’t forget. And it didn’t forgive.

The scar on Ava’s palm, where she had touched the water, was changing. It now shimmered faintly in the moonlight, pulsating like a second heartbeat. The whispering had returned, more distinct this time. Not just voices — names.

> “Maris… Helena… Tomas…”

Names of the missing. Names of the drowned.

Meanwhile, in the cellar of the old chapel on Birch Hollow Road, Pastor Rourke held a rusted iron cross over a map of Willowmere. He circled something — not the river — but a well, hidden behind the crumbling remains of the first mill house.

“She's waking up again,” he whispered, eyes wide with fear. “And she’s found a vessel.”

Ava.

He opened a leather-bound tome and flipped to a page charred around the edges. It depicted a girl — identical to Ava — standing knee-deep in black water, with crows swirling above her. Her eyes were glowing. Behind her, the drowned rose from the depths.

“She must not remember the truth,” he muttered. “If she does, it’s already too The Mill House

Drawn by dreams she didn’t understand, Ava found herself at the edge of the forest near the ruined mill. The wind didn’t blow here. The birds didn’t sing. It was as if time had stopped.

The well sat crookedly beneath the collapsed roof, half-covered in moss and shadow. Ava stepped closer, compelled by something deep inside her. Her fingers brushed the stone and suddenly — a memory not her own slammed into her mind.

She was drowning. No — being held down. Cold hands, ropes, firelight on the shore.

Then a face above her — not her mother’s. Not even her grandmother’s. It was herself, but older. Eyes like obsidian. The witch’s voice echoed from her own mouth:

> “We are the river’s daughters. And we never die alone.”

Ava screamed.

When she opened her eyes, she was no longer alone. The water in the well was rising — and from it, a hand was reaching The Binding"