A Witch's Balance

There was this strange clothes shop in our town that both manufactured and sold products within the town alone. What was strange about it was that no one who ever sought employment there ever resigned, no matter how many years passed. Young and old, it did not matter, for every employee seemed bound to the shop by an unseen force. The shop had a separate building for employees to stay, and they said that all their needs were met without any issues. The townspeople claimed that the shop owner was a witch, and that she was somehow enslaving those whom she saw fit to work for her. I myself felt a strange connection to the store, deep in my heart; it was something inexplicable. I just knew I needed to look into it, although I did not know why. My parents warned me against it, and when my brother once caught me trying to enter the premises at the age of sixteen, I was sent off to my grandparents’ house two towns away. There was something strange about the day they sent me away. A cryptic me...