This is an old story my mother used to tell me that scared the crap out of me. Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.

Sometime during the nineteenth century in Spain lived a beautiful woman named Maria. Though she had a comfortable home and two lovely children, a boy and small girl, she was very sad. Maria's husband had died many years ago, and with her two children and very little land and money, she had faced the fact that no one would ever desire or love her again. She loved her children deeply, but they did not bring her the joy of being in love and being taken care of.

One day, while strolling along the river near her home, Maria met a tall dark man on horseback named Carlos. He was a knight with the king's army, and he was very handsome and charismatic. Soon, Maria began meeting Carlos by the river daily, carrying out a secret and wonderful love affair. Slowly Maria learned more about Carlos, and he learned more about her, except the one secret she refused to divulge:her children. She loved him deeply, and was horrified at the thought of losing him.

After a few months, Carlos asked Maria to become his wife. Though she should have been happy, she was very upset because she had never come around to telling him about her two children. She knew him well enough to know that he did not care about her land or monetary circumstances, but he wanted Maria to travel with him from place to place, and had already expressed the fact that they could not have children until much later in their lives. Still, Maria agreed, racking her brain for the answer to how she could be with the man she loved.

After a fitful night, she decided she would simply bring her children and have Carlos meet them, and what would come would come. She dressed the two in their best clothes and took them with her to the river's edge that rainy morning. When she heard the galloping of horse feet, she felt terror in her heart as she realized that her plan would never work and Carlos would not want to marry her. Without thinking, Maria grabbed her children by the backs of their necks and stuck their little heads under water. She heard their gurgles and cries, and watched their disbelieving eyes as their little faces turned blue and finally lost life. She let go of their necks and pushed their bodies into the river, watching them go upstream.

Suddenly, panting, hearing the hoovebeats come closer, Maria realized what she had just done, and began to wail uncontrollably. She was happy for the fact that she could now have Carlos forever, but she had loved her children and mourned their deaths, even for the fact that she herself took their lives.

Besides, there was nothing she could do now. What was done was done. She picked herself up of the ground and wiped her eyes, only to look up at the fuming face of Carlos.

"You lied to me. I came to your house today, your maid told me you had left for a walk with your children! Why did you not tell me? I loved you, and I would have loved your children as my own! But I cannot marry a woman filled with a head full of lies and a heart full of deceit. You will not see me again, Maria." With that, he turned and galloped away.

Maria spent the rest of that night searching the river bank for her children's bodies, but she could not find them. She was overcome with the realization of what she had done, all for naught. She never returned home that night, and her bloated body was found on the river bank two weeks later, her face twisted in agony. The bodies of the children were never found.

Some people say that Maria's soul could not rest, and she goes on searching for her children, even in the afterlife. When it is dark and stormy outside, you can hear her wail and cry. When a child hears a tapping on their window, only to look and find no one there, it's her. Keep your children close, because sometimes, when a child walks alone through the stormy streets, she may come down from the sky and snatch them up without a trace. You can hear their cries mingle with hers, and then disappear forever.

Some people say it's only the wind, but I'm not taking any chances.