Hi! How did you like the first chapter? I will tell you how I/we (Agent Striker and I) came up with the idea for this book. We were in social studies class and we were re-learning about the Salem witch trials. For our class work, we had to make a diary entry in first person as one of the accused witches or as an accuser. We both chose Tituba because we found her story most fascinating. However, this story is not about Tituba, it is about Nancy Drew of course! We got a small packet with information about each person and we both thought that it would be a fun idea to write a Nancy Drew book about the Salem witch trials, except, in modern-day times, which explains the title, The New Generation of Salem Witches. I hope you continue reading and I remind you to please review!

Chapter 2

Are We Being Watched?

Through the dark of the cold Massachusetts night, Nancy could see a silhouette of what looked like a man. As she peered through the transparent curtains she could see that there was a man cloaked entirely in black with a morbid smile on his face. Abruptly, a gust of wind blew through the window, and the man was gone.

"Bess!" George exclaimed.

Nancy rushed into the bathroom to help her helpless friend.

"Should we call an ambulance?" George asked with a fretful tone.

"Yes. I think that doctors will be able to help her more than we could." Nancy replied, but George was already dialing the number.

As George talked to the police, Nancy turned her attention towards Bess, who was still shaking violently.

"They're on their way." George stated as she knelt to the floor to aid her cousin.

The two girls had hardly done an iota for Bess and were relieved to hear sirens outside, indicating that an ambulance had arrived. Two paramedics bolted up the stairs to treat the young teenager on the floor. George and Nancy just watched as the doctors carefully lifted Bess onto the stretcher.

"It must've been some sort of seizure." One of the paramedics told the worried girls.

"But-but how?" George inquired.

"We have to get her to the hospital as soon as possible." The paramedic said as he and his partner wheeled Bess out of the hotel room.

"Nancy, I'm scared." George cried.

"Me too George, me too." Nancy said. "We should probably get some sleep, that way we can see Bess in the morning."

George silently nodded her head in agreement and both girls trudged to their beds. Both girls were exhausted from the incident that they were too startled to sleep, though their minds eventually took charge and the overwrought teens reluctantly fell asleep.

***********

In her dream, George was walking down a road. In the mist she could see the road winding up mountains and on bridges and it looked like it would never end. The young girl tried to tell herself to stop walking and to go to sleep but her mind told her otherwise. It told her to keep going, and to never stop walking the road no matter what. The sluggish girl was slowly being taken over by hallucinations as the sleepiness ate away at her. She couldn't bear it any longer and suddenly collapsed onto the ground shaking. Startled with fright, George awoke gasping for air. She looked at the wooden clock only to see that it was 11:27 in the morning only one hour after she had tried to fall asleep. Too alert to go back to sleep, George slipped on her robe and clogs and quietly crept towards the door and down the stairs.

The library was an old wooden room with plush couches and lively paintings. George didn't pay any attention to her surroundings and only focused on finding one particular book. Since it was late at night, the library was dark and abandoned except for the one lamp that shone on a dark haired girl searching through the shelves to find a commonly read book by tourists who came to Salem. As she focused the light onto a specific row of books, George finally came across the one she was looking for.

The Salem Witch Trials was a raggedy brown book that was almost completely torn apart. While skimming the table of contents, one particular chapter caught the girl's eye. It was titled The Accused Witches. George skimmed to the right page and began to read. A quarter of the way through the chapter, George felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand straight up, and an eerie feeling came over the girl who was alone in the library. She felt that she was being watched, alarmed, she slowly turned her head and stared into the emptiness of the library. Once she knew she was alone, she returned to reading her book.

Before she knew it, George had fallen asleep on one of the red chairs. She was suddenly woken up by Nancy, who said,

"George? George are you all right?"

"Huh? What?" She replied sleepily.

"I've been looking all over for you." Nancy told the dazed girl.

"What? You have? What-what time is it?" She asked.

"It's 9 o'clock in the morning." Nancy replied.

"What! No! How on earth did I fall asleep for that long!?" George panicked.

"What time did you come down here?"

"I don't know, about 11:30 I think."

"Okay, and what were you doing?" But Nancy's question was answered as she looked at the muddy book on her friends' lap.

"What's this?" Nancy asked as she skimmed through the pages.

"Just a book that I read last night. I had an awful nightmare and couldn't go back to sleep, so I came down here to find a book that might help us in finding out what happened to Bess. Oh my goodness! Bess! We have to go see her!" George shouted at the top of her lungs.

"We will, George, I promise." Nancy comforted, "However, the visiting hours aren't until 10:30, so how about you change and I'll get us some breakfast."

"Fine." She agreed.

Around 10:10 the girls headed out to Nancy's convertible. Anxious and concerned for her friends' condition, Nancy drove a little bit over the speed limit. While driving on one of Salem's more unused roads, George looked into her rearview mirror and saw that a beat up red pick-up truck was following them. After making several turns and driving on for another mile, George finally whispered to Nancy that she thought that they were being followed.

"Maybe they're visiting a relative in the hospital." Nancy suggested.

"I don't know." George mumbled.

While traveling near a large patch of trees, the girls noticed that the truck was still following them, and picking up speed. Nancy sped up just a tad while George watched the truck from the mirror. Again, gained speed and pretty soon was tailgating the sleuth's car.

"Nancy, I think that the car is following us!" George frantically announced.

"I think you're right." Nancy agreed. Suddenly, the truck gained momentum and rammed the convertible, giving the passengers inside a rough jerk.

"We have to shake him off of our tail!" George bellowed.

Not moments later, the red pick-up slammed into Nancy's car, causing them to veer to the left and off of the road into a large oak tree that was surrounded by mud. The girls sat in disbelief at what just happened. They looked behind them and saw the truck zooming out into the distance. Nancy tried to get her car out of this jam but was unsuccessful. After countless futile attempts to push the car out of the mud, the two tired teens sank to the ground, not minding that their clothes and shoes were all splattered with sticky gravy-brown mud.

"I knew it! I just knew it! I knew that someone was watching us!" George burst.

"Listen George, I don't think that we're solving a robbery anymore, I think that this mystery just got a lot more serious." Nancy stated.

"We NEED to see Bess!"

"I know…" Nancy replied nervously. "…but first we need to get out of this mess."

From a distance, the girls couldn't see the gray building that was covered by fog, but the man who was watching from the window could see everything clearly, including Nancy Drew and George Fayne's every move.