Page 27 of Damnation
“Come,” I bark, my strides purposeful and long.
He does as I speak, dropping his tool as he joins me on my walk.
“Where are we heading?”
“To seek out Martha Corey,” I speak.
“For what purpose?”
“She has afflicted my daughter, Ann. Poisoned her with berries.”
“Another witch? Are you certain?” Edward asks.
I look to him with a shake of my head.
“I am not certain of anything any longer.”
Martha was easy to find. She tended to her garden as if nothing was amiss. Edward and I left her little choice. He wrenched her up and threw her over his shoulder, hauling her to town as her husband, Giles, ran a fit. I warned him he ought not get in the way of village business, and he finally allowed us to leave.
We dropped Martha off with Reverend Noyes, Corwin, and Hathorne to be interrogated at the jailhouse before heading to Ingersoll’s. The pint before me remains untouched as I sit with Edward, Ingersoll, Preston, and Parris.
“We will be praying for your Ann’s recovery, Thomas,” Parris says.
“Thank you, Samuel.”
“I fear this be but the start,” he continues.
“What do you mean by the words you speak?” Preston asks.
“But a fortnight ago, the idea of witches in Salem was mad. Now…I fear the worst.”
“As do I,” Edward jumps in.
Parris nods like he appreciates the support as he continues.
“We must protect Salem as best as we are able, our souls are depending on it. We must honor and serve God, seeking out evil and banishing it at first bloom.”
The others nod their heads as indecision wavers through me. Their words speak to the truth inside me. I know it to be true. Evil is among us, and ‘tis coming for our children first. I stay silent because what words do I speak? The very thing we talk of destroying lives inside the one soul who truly calls to me. Or is that part of it all? Has it been a guise from the very beginning? An intention, a trick, a spell?
I so desperately want to think naught of it, but how can I not consider the possibility? I know not of Sarah’s limitations, nor her darkest thoughts. For all I know, she has been planning to seduce me for quite some time, and I was the fool to fall for her tricks.
No.
That doesn’t feel right, though. My heart and head cannot agree on such. So, I remain quiet while the others plot to seek out any and all wrongdoers. Instead, I remain at war with myself and what I am to do.
Chapter Eleven
Sarah
Afortnight came and went, but Thomas did not. On the first day of his expected arrival, I was hopeful and ready. By the second day, I was concerned something happened to him. By the third, I was smart enough to understand things clearly. He wasn’t coming for me. Fear, ignorance, or maybe something in between, has warped his mind, and he has abandoned me, perhaps even forgotten. The truth of that hurts more than any blow from William’s hand ever could.
More have been arrested and brought here since mine and Osborne’s arrival, and I fear ‘tis only the beginning. When the sound of the door opening echoes throughout this morbid place, I don’t pay too much mind to it. Until I hear a familiar cry. Leaping to my feet, I press myself against the bars as I see Dorothy in shackles, crying as she is being carried down the hall.
“Dorothy! Dorothy!”
The jailer is carrying her to another cell as I shout for him.
“Please! Please, allow her into here. ‘Tis my child!”
