Page 37 of Damnation
Everyone listens with bated breath when Sarah finishes fighting, her body stilling in a moment. She closes her eyes calmly, breathing in and out before what looks like fire burns beneath her eyes.
“You’re a liar! I’m no more a witch than you are a wizard!”
Gasps of outrage and horror echo through the crowd as Noyes’s face turns red with fury.
“If you take my life away, God will give you blood to drink!”
Noyes’s anger grows as he closes the distance between them as Sarah looks to me. All of the anger and outrage is still heavy upon her face, though the fire in her eyes has dimmed, drenched with immense sadness. Her mouth moves, though no sound escapes. I’m able to make out the beginning of it, though.
I hate…
The next moment, Noyes kicks the stool beneath her feet, and the sound of her neck snapping echoes in the air around us. I audibly gasp, though I was prepared for it. My body jolts as I see the woman I once thought I loved hanging by her neck, swinging in the breeze.
Still. Lifeless. Gone.
My eyes are still upon hers when I hear the sound of another stool being kicked, followed by another snap of a neck. Sarah’sface swings to face me once more, and I burn the sight into my mind before closing my eyes and turning away.
Without a word, I begin pushing through the crowd, moving to go anywhere but here. I hear several call out for me, but I ignore each as I move on. I allow the sight of Sarah’s hanging to be forever placed in my memories, right beside my sweet Mercy. I take every bit of the hurt I feel inside me and allow it to consume me. Anger. Pain. Fear. Rage. It all flows through my veins as I open my eyes, feeling more powerful than I have for all of my life.
After all, name a man who is more powerful than a man with nothing to lose.
Epilogue
Thomas
May 1st 1693
This sinful day, we have been delivered grave news. Governor Phips has ordered that the court of Oyer and Terminer be disbanded or treason shall be faced. We have tried to seek reason with the man, but he will have no part of it. No doubt he has been coerced or corrupt. Perhaps both. He does not know a thing, living his lavish lie in Boston. He does not know the evil we have overcome, the horrors we have faced.
Nineteen have met their just fate, and hundreds more are to follow. Though with the Governor’s order, I foresee the lot of them being set free within a fortnight or two. Even Dorothy.
That simply will not do.
Setting my journal down, I look around Ingersoll’s tavern, where I have asked those truly loyal to gather. That list has grown quite short as most have begged off or even slandered the name of what we are achieving here in Salem. Better without them all, I say.
The very idea of witches we know to be true being allowed to live? When Sarah was not gifted such? No, ‘tis all or nothing, and since we have begun, we must finish this. With or without the Governor’s approval.
“What hast thou gathered us for?” Hutchinson calls out.
Standing to my feet, I tuck my journal into my coat pocket as I begin pacing the room.
“Brothers, lend me your ear. We are at war. We are at war with a great and vile enemy. One that plots to destroy the very fabric of our lives. They are hungry for our town, our virtue, our souls, and we cannot allow it!”
Every man is solely focused on me, a feeling I have grown more accustomed to as I have taken over a lead position during these trials. ‘Tis a feeling unmatched by any.
“The Governor wishes us to abandon our beliefs, allow evil to run rampant among us, but I simply cannot, and I know you are all in agreement.”
Several heads nod in the tavern as I continue.
“Though the court has been disbanded, and our trials may be halted, I urge you all to hear me now. We cannot allow our work to stop; we cannot allow our guards to fall. We do not need a court or trials or the Governor’s damned permission for a thing!” I snarl.
“What does thou mean?” Walcott asks.
“A brotherhood,” I continue. “A brotherhood to watch over each other, over our town. A brotherhood that is thicker than blood or water. One that once entered into, cannot be brokennor weakened. In numbers, we find strength; in brotherhood, we find protection.”
“And what will our brotherhood be doing, Putnam?” Parris asks, ever morally just.
“Nothing God would not ask of us, Samuel,” I answer before addressing the crowd once more.
