I will never forget that night. It was so dark and stormy, the thunder shaking the whole house. I couldn't sleep, I was so scared. That's when I heard it, a strange sound coming from down the hall, like someone walking slowly and dragging something.

I pulled the blankets up over my head but it didn't help. The noise was getting louder and I wondered who would be up at this time. Maybe my mom couldn't sleep either because of the storm. I decided to go check on her, hoping she would make me feel better.

When I stepped out of my room, my heart almost jumped out of my chest. At the end of the hall was my nanny but something wasn't right. She walked funny, like her legs didn't work, and she was carrying something heavy over her shoulder. I couldn't see what it was because her back was to me.

As she passed under one of the lamps, I saw her face. It was pale, her eyes were dark hollows and her mouth hung open in a creepy smile. I tried to scream but nothing came out, I was too scared. She kept coming towards me, slow but steady. When she got close I saw what was over her shoulder - it was my baby brother, hanging limply.

I found my voice and started shouting for my parents. My nanny took no notice of me, just kept walking as if in a trance. My father came running and nearly fell over when he saw what was behind me. "Mary, what are you doing?" he cried. But she just walked on, her eyes staring straight ahead.

We followed behind her, unsure of what to do. She led us out into the courtyard where, in the middle of the pounding rain, she laid my brother down gently on the wet stone. Only then did she stop and look at us. Her mouth opened wide in a grotesque grin, but the voice that came out was not hers. It was deep and gravelly and it said "He is mine now."

With a crack of lighting that lit up the whole sky, Nanny clutched her head and let out an unearthly scream. When the light faded she was gone, vanished into the night. We raced to my brother and to our relief, though pale and chilled, he still breathed.

For weeks everyone was on edge, not knowing what evil force had invaded our home that night or if it would return. Nanny was nowhere to be found and the village elders could offer no answers. My parents wanted to leave this place but I was too scared to travel after what I saw. The storms continued to rage.

Then one evening, a visitor came knocking, a man from a nearby town who called himself a sangoma, a traditional healer. He listened intently to our story and examined the courtyard by the light of his lamp. After some time he nodded.

"This place has been touched by dark magic," he said. This nanny, I believe she may have been a changeling, a child taken by wicked spirits and replaced with an evil doppelganger. It sought to steal your little one's life force to prolong its unnatural existence. But it has been vanquished, for now at least, and the real nanny returned to the spirit world. You must cleanse this place and put protections in place so such a Thing cannot enter here again uninvited."

We did as he instructed, scrubbing the courtyard till our hands were raw, burning special herbs to smoke out any remaining curses. It was a relief to have some understanding, even if it did not fully heal our trauma. In time the storms passed too and a semblance of normalcy returned. But I never forgot that night, or the unearthly force I glimpsed behind the nanny's empty eyes. From then on I was wary of the darkness and whatever beings might stalk there, seen or unseen. Our village was never quite the same either.

Years passed but I never fully recovered from what I had witnessed that stormy night. While the other children played without a care, I was always watching, watching for any sign that the evil which had invaded our home might return. My parents worried for me and tried to reassure me it was over, but in my heart I knew that some things, once let in, could never fully be shut out again.

As I grew into a young woman, my fears only deepened. Strange things began happening around the village that the elders could not explain - missing children, wandering spirits seen at dusk, crops failing for no reason. I was convinced it was all connected to that nanny and the darkness she had brought with her. But no one would listen to my warnings.

Then one night, as the clouds again rumbled with approaching rain, they came for my little brother. He had wandered too far from home, curious as young boys are, and somehow slipped past the protective charms on our hut. I found his footprints leading into the jungle just as the sky opened up. Against my parents' pleas, I followed, calling his name above the howling wind.

Deeper and deeper into the tangled greenery I searched, getting soaked through but not caring. Lightning flashed, illuminating strange shadows flickering at the edge of vision. Finally I spotted my brother up ahead, standing perfectly still and silent staring into a clearing. My heart stopped - silhouetted against the pale sky was the unmistakable hunched figure of the nanny from so long ago.

She turned slowly as I approached, my brother limp in her grasp, and smiled that awful rictus grin. "Come to play?" she croaked in her unnatural voice. Something snapped inside me then - I would not let fear rule me anymore or allow this demon to harm anyone else I loved. I lunged at her with a feral scream, hands outstretched to claw.

What happened next I cannot fully explain, except that some ancient power seems to have awakened in me that night. As our flesh met, the nanny let out an inhuman howl and began to writhe and melt, her form bubbling and distorting into a roiling black smog that was sucked down into the earth, taking my brother safely with it. I collapsed, exhausted but triumphant.

When I woke the rain had stopped. Villagers found me and my unharmed brother and I was hailed a hero. The sangoma said I must have the gift, and began training me in the arts of divination, herbalism and spiritual protection. Now I use my powers to defend our people, and finally have some measure of peace. But I know evil never fully dies, only sleeps. I remain ever vigilant for its return.

I continued my training with the sangoma, honing the gifts I had revealed that fateful night. With each new skill I learned, I felt empowered in my mission to protect the village from unseen threats. The people came to respect my insights and no longer dismissed my warnings as the fears of a child.

Years passed and all seemed well, until one dry season the crops began to fail again with no explanation. I sensed a dark presence disturbing the natural rhythms of the land but could find no source. During my meditations, ominous visions came to me - shadowy figures dancing in the moonlight, strange mists swirling over the fields.

I consulted my spiritual guides but they were elusive, the future unclear. One night as evening fell, my thoughts were disturbed by distant cries of anguish. Grabbing my bag of medicines, I hurried in the direction of the sounds. What I found chilled me to my core - a family terrorized in their hut by a howling wind that had materialized from nothing, whipping around them with invisible claws.

Before I could intervene, the father was pulled shrieking into the air and vanished. I ordered the remaining family to take shelter while I confronted this new menace. Chanting protective incantations, I marched into the whirlwind and flung handfuls of sacred ash and herbs into its vortex. Slowly, it began to dissipate, revealing at its center a ghostly figure writhing in agony.

A victim of some curse, I surmised, who in turn wished to spread misery. Administering herbal draughts and an exorcism ritual, I laid the tortured soul to rest and recovered the missing father, restored but haunted by what he had endured. The spirit appreciated my mercy, and in parting offered a clue - "Seek the Old Place in the hills where the dark coven gathers under the waning moon."

I gathered a party of brave men to hunt for this coven with me. Following the spirit's cryptic directions, we climbed into the remote highlands beyond the village to a barren hilltop overlooking the land. There amid weathered stone ruins, we discovered a gruesome scene - robed figures dancing around a raging bonfire, hacking sacrificial animals to pieces as black magic emanated in palpable waves.

At the center conducting the ritual was a towering emaciated figure, its face obscured - but I recognized the dark power radiating from it all too well. It was the nanny, somehow returned from the spiritual abyss to exact vengeance. Before they noticed us, I loosed my spiritual guardians in the form of great eagles to attack the coven and sow chaos. In the panic, I confronted the nanny alone.

"You should have stayed banished, demon!" I shouted, summoning all my strength. A battle of wills ensued as we grappled in astral form, but my conviction and the spirits' aid prevailed. With an inhuman screech, the nanny dissolved once more into nothingness. The remaining cultists fled into the night. My work was done, and with the coven destroyed, peace and prosperity returned to the land at last.

The villagers honored me as their hero and protector. Though I have since passed my gifts to new apprentices, I know evil can never fully be extinguished. But as long as there are souls willing to stand guard, its shadow can be kept at bay. And so the cycle continues, each generation standing watch so that our people may live freely without fear of the dark forces that forever seek to prey upon humanity. This is the duty - and the privilege - we shoulder, so that future children may know only light.