Chapter eight: Crime and Punishment

"Huh!" Grace gasped and sat up, breathing heavily like a fish out of water. She had awakened from what only seemed to be a nightmare. There were no angry townspeople with pitchforks coming for her. After a few seconds, her heavy breathing became calmer. "Good, no townsfolk with their pitchforks coming after me. But I sure hope none of them know I'm here tonight. That's the last thing I…need." She yawned before falling back on the hay for some more sleep. "Me and my imagination." Even when Grace thought she heard voices outside, she went on to assume that it was all in her head.

"Mayor Tucker, what's this all about? And why have you come here with all these officials?"

"Jeremy Arnold, there is a dangerous witch on the loose in the form of a cow and we have to stop her before she strikes. Haven't you even bothered to hear the news? Whether or not she's the one, we're taking her into custody for a while."

"Wait a minute mayor, there must be some mistake. How do you even know it's her?"

Grace froze stiff in her sleeping position, feeling the voices coming closer. She had to be dreaming again. But unless she was mistaken, heavy pounding sounded at the barn gates and her heart leaped in her throat. And that's when they slammed open to reveal Mayor Tucker standing outside with other men wearing red coats, black hats, white powdered wigs, black breeches, white stockings, and black shoes with gold buckles. Grace looked up in confusion and shock. And she saw Jeremy being held back roughly by two of the red-coated men. From the look behind his eyes, Grace saw that he didn't like what was going on after these men came on his property.

"There she is boys," Mayor Tucker pointed at the frightened Grace. "Seize her."

"WHAT?!" Grace hollered in a panicked tone as four of the men rushed toward to grab hold of her two front legs and drag her outside to hold her down on the ground, muzzle her, tie four ropes around her neck, and slap manacles on her front ankles. The panicked Grace attempted to struggle and pull back in protest, but it was no use fighting back against the strong grasp of the men forcing her to follow. "I haven't done anything!" Grace tried shouting through the muzzle, but no one could make out what she was saying.

"Silence you witch!" Mayor Tucker demanded in a fierce voice. He no longer was as friendly as before. "I should've known there was something odd about you when I saw the fear behind your eyes."

Grace was silent, knowing that shouting in protest was now useless. None of the men would understand a word with this muzzle attached to her. The poor heifer didn't know what was going to happen as she set out on the road leading back to Hollow Town. And no matter how Jeremy tried to help Grace out here, he just couldn't talk the men out of bringing her to the courthouse.


At the courthouse

The walk to the courthouse was a fearful experience for Grace when citizens rushed out of buildings and houses to see what the soldiers had brought. She winced as they shouted hurt and unpleasant words about her, after being told by the soldiers that Grace might be the one witch on the loose, despite the different color of the coat. Even though most of the animals in this world could talk, it was still known that evil witches, wizards, and warlocks could take on any form as they please and start creating chaos wherever they go. Not everyone here was loyal to Callie, but some towns and villages of this world, even in death, still lived in fear of superstition, local legend, and the practice of black magic. And back in the earlier days, animals were condemned and hung as witches, just as humans were.

"A witch in the form of a cow? I never would have believed it."

"Any witch or sorcerer can take the form of anything. But if that heifer is the one, I wonder how they'll get her to confess."

"I'll bet the witch was out corrupting other innocent folks around here into doing her bidding. And I can't wait until we hear of her sentence."

How was she going to get out of this mess with all these angry and accusing townsfolk around her? Grace wondered bleakly. Even the soldiers wouldn't listen to Jeremy's protests. This was not looking up at all.

"Don't worry Velvet; I'll get you out of there somehow!" Jeremy shouted before the doors to the courthouse shut before him.

Inside the courthouse, there sat a jury on the left side, and an old man respectable for his age, his white beard, even his gold spectacles sitting in the middle behind a large stand. He appeared to be the judge of the courthouse. And he would be here listening to Grace and the rest of the concerned citizens.

The soldiers forced Grace to stand before the judge, keeping hold of the ropes to her neck to make sure she wouldn't escape. Her manacles rattled as she shivered from fright, staring at the judges' stern expression. This was the first time Grace had been brought before a trial as an accused criminal…which only happened with humans. But here she was being treated and accused as a witch in disguise.

The judge looked down at her with a cold expression and announced. "The prisoner here stands before us in this trial accused of witchery, deception, and the use of spell casting to take on animal forms…in which she is doing this very moment as I speak."

"Mmmm," Grace mumbled to say she was innocent, but the muzzle clamped her words.

"I OBJECT!" the courtroom doors threw open with Jeremy rushing in, successfully resisting other citizens' urge to prevent him from entering. "Your honor, I think it's only fair for me to say that this poor heifer standing before you deserves every right to a fair trial. What if we are mistakenly condemning an innocent one without even knowing it?"

"Jeremy Arnold!" The judge spoke firmly. "I should lock you up for hiding and defending a witch in this courtroom." Then his tone became calm and understanding when he flipped a few pages through a black book. And according to the rules listed, he found Jeremy to be right. "But because you didn't know of this before, I will do no such thing. And yet I suppose you're right. You shall be her defender if you wish it. But I do hope you understand and know the penalty for protecting a convicted criminal." The judge looked at Jeremy with a mad glint in his eyes.

Jeremy froze in his spot. "Yes, your honor."

"Take your seat then," the judge ordered, watching Jeremy take an empty seat in the front row. Then he turned his dreadful gaze back to Grace. "And you, what have you to say in your defense?"

"MMMmm," Grace moaned through her muzzle, leaving the judge ordering one of the soldiers to remove it so she could talk clearly. "I'M NOT A WITCH!" She hollered angrily at the top of her lungs. "I don't even know a thing about spell casting, transformations, or mixing up potions! I'm just an ordinary dairy cow running away from a group of hideous old hags who want me dead for their own ceremony! You should be more scared of them than me, if you were any smart enough."

Gasps were heard among the crowd in the back of the courtroom, and Grace clamped her mouth shut, hoping she hadn't made a mistake with the mentioning Callie's minions.

"So you now admit that you're a fugitive on the run from other witches?" The judge questioned.

"Well when you put that way, I guess you could…"

"Answer YES or NO!" He demanded, pounding his fists on the desk.

Grace winced at this and answered, "Yes sir." Whether or not anyone believed her in this courtroom, this situation had forced her to tell the truth. "But I swear I'm no witch. I wouldn't hurt a fly. Alright, maybe I would if it was pestering me, but what I'm trying to say is I would never hurt anyone. Ask anybody in this room."

When no one in the courtroom spoke for her defense, that's when Jeremy stood up from his seat. "Your honor, although the prisoner here admits that she's on the run from somebody, I for one don't believe that she's a witch as everyone in this room believes her to be."

Well at least someone in this courtroom believes me. Grace thought proudly, glad that Jeremy was in here as her only defender. But I wonder if it's enough to get out of here.

"I mean did anyone in this town or in this courtroom actually see her perform a real spell before?" He turned to face the citizens and the jury before he saw them mutter amongst themselves.

"In that case," announced the judge. "We shall hear from the witnesses who will testify. And after that, the verdict will be left up to the jury to decide the prisoner's sentence. I call Mr. Hank Henderson to the stand."

Grace glanced over her shoulder and saw the librarian walk forward and climb up on the witness box. Staring in shock, Grace couldn't believe that this man who let her take a book was going to testify against her. How could he?

"Wait a minute, don't tell me you had anything to do with this trial," Grace said in disbelief and shock.

"Silence prisoner!" cried the judge, pounding his hammer. "We will hear from the witnesses." He turned to the librarian. "Mr. Henderson, when did you first notice anything suspicious going on in this town after the prisoner left the library?"

Mr. Henderson testified about how Grace came into his library searching for books on legends and myths and let her keep one for free. "While she was researching, I thought I had recognized her face on a WANTED poster in my office while I was going through some papers. I knew her coat was blond in the picture, but her face was a bit familiar. I was almost unsure if she was the one. But after she left, my eyes spotted a few stains of green slime on the table." The moment he held up his hand blotted in green spots, the whole crowd gasped in horror. He had not seen Grace cringe and shudder, then turned her face away fearfully. "Unfortunately, this stuff to me smelled more like paint than slime." When the crowd grew silent at this remark, he then swore. "If this heifer's coat is truly blond, then I'm guessing she either soaked herself in green paint or used her magic to transform her hide."

Grace had opened her mouth to speak and object, but Mr. Henderson wasn't finished.

"Once I realized this, I knew I had to tell the officials right away, but I also wanted to make sure I didn't accidentally bump into her on the way. So I had to sneak behind buildings quietly." He then turned to the helpless Grace, still held securely by the ropes around her neck. "In other words, I'm sure the heifer standing here is a witch who used a spell to transform her appearance so she wouldn't get caught!"

"Your honor I object!" Jeremy suddenly said, rising from his seat. "I had bumped into the defendant twice tonight and I did not witness her perform any sort of magic. Nor did she ever threaten me in any way. And why would a real witch use paint to hide herself instead of using her own magic for a different disguise? If the defendant admits that she was on the run from other witches out there, then I'm guessing she had a good reason to hide her coat in paint…to keep them from finding her. How does that still make her a witch?"

As the folks in the crowd whispered amongst themselves over this argument, Mr. Henderson shouted at Jeremy. "WITCH DEFENDER!"

"Order, order in the court!" The judge pounded his hammer repeatedly to bring everyone's attention. As soon as the crowd was silent, he maintained. "I now call Mayor Tucker to the stand!"

On the witness box, Mayor Tucker testified that he had not yet known of Grace as a witch or anything suspicious while he was warning her about the rumor of a dangerous witch on the loose. Not long after his discussion with Jeremy, Mr. Henderson rushed in his office minutes later with the soldiers to warn him that he believed to have spotted the witch in his library and witnessed her leaving town with Jeremy.

Grace broke out into a cold sweat, not wishing for Jeremy to take any blame for her guilt in this courtroom. Maybe if she just confessed herself and said Jeremy was unaware of anything, he would be saved. But then what would the townspeople do to her after that? And due to her fatigue from the lack of rest, sleep still lingered in her eyes, yet Grace didn't allow herself to fall asleep. She panicked even more when one of the soldiers was ordered to rub his hands over her coat and sniff his fingers. He had sensed it as paint.

"SHE'S A WITCH!" Mr. Henderson blurted, pointing an accusing finger at her.

"OBJECTION!" Jeremy stood up.

"OVERRULED!" The judge announced. Gazing around the courtroom, there hadn't seemed to be anything else to point as evidence, until he suddenly noticed the strange crystalline thing around her neck and asked. "Prisoner, what is that thing around your neck?"

Grace glared down at the guardian stone and the judge fearfully. How was she to explain this to the courtroom? Thinking quickly, she replied hesitantly. "It's uh…It's a gift from an old friend of mine. She said that these ancient stones were once believed to ward off evil spirits and protect me. I keep it around my neck for protection always. Because you never know what evil might be close by?" It wasn't the whole truth, but Grace didn't want to reveal any information about the Sioux tribe or her visitation with them in case anybody in this town was as mistrustful of Native Americans as they were of witches.

The judge eyed her with a cold stare, unconvinced. Now he was convinced of this heifer's guilt. "Any human or animal that wears an ancient glowing stone around her neck is in fact a witch. And I will ask the question one more time. Did you or did you not use your powers of witchcraft to bewitch Jeremy into helping you out of town?"

"FOR THE LAST TIME, I AM NOT A WITCH!" Grace screamed with utter fury in an angry voice almost loud enough to bring the whole courtroom down. Every citizen, including the judge, had their ears covered. Due to the ignorance in this trial, Grace cared less if they were taken aback. This was going too far, and she was fed up. "I deny that I'm a witch. I deny ever using magic to change my coat or bewitch Jeremy. He only offered me shelter when I had no place to sleep. I do not possess any powers within me. I think I already mentioned before that I know nothing about spell casting or any hocus pocus stuff. There are far more dangerous witches out there who are after me, and you scatterbrained fools are wasting your time condemning me for a crime I didn't commit!" Grace breathed heavily, her chest heaving up and down. "If there was one crime in this world I'm guilty of, it's being mortal and…"

"SILENCE!" cried the judge, covering his ears. "Somebody shut her up; she's making my head explode!"

Grace was never allowed to finish her speech when one soldier from behind threw the muzzle back over her snout. Now Grace knew there was no more point in denying everything if everyone kept on refusing to believe her story. All they ever cared about was getting her to confess. She felt like crying, but held back those tears inside.

"We have seen and heard enough," the judge announced and stared madly at Grace. "Since you have refused to admit your guilt, I order you to be flogged on the pillory until you confess. Take her away!"

Upon those dreadful words, Grace felt her heart skip a beat and pound loudly in her chest like a large drum. The judge was sentencing for her to be tortured, as she recalled from hearing those stories Jeremy told her recently, about how criminals were punished long, long ago. And it was a nightmare about to come true.

When Grace was pulled by a hard yank on the ropes, fear clutched her heart as she was dragged out of the courtroom and thrown into a cart for a ride to the gallows. The same crowd from earlier had been waiting outside the courtroom the whole time, waiting to hear of her sentence. Once the driver in charge of the cart announced the flogging, the crowd erupted in fits of laughter and amusement, holding torches and pitchforks. Everyone but Grace shouted in cheers as if it were a special holiday.

Why are they all laughing like it's a holiday? Grace thought, shocked by the cheers. And what fun is it to see a poor soul like me heading towards a harsh punishment? I find that absolutely unacceptable and ridiculous. These people should be ashamed. Her eyes gleamed with bitter tears, especially when she couldn't find Jeremy amongst the roaring crowd.

Soon the cart came to a halt in front of an eight-foot-high scaffold where a great wooden wheel perched atop at the center. This was to be the horrible torture that awaited Grace in order to get her to confess her guilt. But how would they get her to talk with the muzzle still on her? The soldiers dragged her out of the cart and led her in a daze through the angry mob, and up the rough, wooden steps to the platform. With her front ankles still shackled, two soldiers tied the ends of the ropes to the floor of the wheel, forcing Grace to sit on her haunches. The poor heifer made no move as one soldier removed the muzzle from her so that the crowd would be able to hear her screams.

And after a large, muscular, bare-chested, black hooded man mounted the platform, the whole crowd then turned silent when Mayor Tucker had also went up the wooden steps to make short speech before the torture could begin.

"The prisoner has refused to recant of her crime!" Mayor Tucker addressed the waiting crowd, holding out his hands. "She stands upon the pillory accused of the crime of witchcraft and bewitching a citizen into helping her. The judge has sentenced for her to be flogged until she confesses that she has helped every other evil witch put our souls in danger of spiritual entrapment."

"Spiritual entrapment?" Grace suddenly interrupted, staring at the mayor. "What do you mean by that? Did Callie do any…?"

"Don't interrupt me witch!" The mayor snapped, continuing his speech to the crowd. "I will count the minutes on my pocket watch to see how long it takes for the words to come out of this witch." He pointed at Grace, whose head was lowered close to the floor of wheel. "She and her minions shall pay for the crimes upon our lost children and livestock. And most of all, she shall pay for the crime against our once dear town." The crowd roared in agreement to this.

This is hopeless. Grace thought shamefully, her head facing the floor of the wheel. No one will ever believe I'm not a witch, no matter how many times I say it. How much pleading does it take for an innocent bovine to prove it to an angry mob of villagers? She stared fearfully at the cat o' nine tails held by the man, known as both the executioner and torturer, as he stroked the tails like the locks of a fair maiden. Grace whimpered and turned her head to the right, avoiding any more eye contact with that terrible device of torture. Her punishment was only seconds away, and she would rather not see how that device would deal every blow to her. It would be too unbearable for her to look at. Even though Grace had not yet been flogged, she could almost imagine every upcoming blow bite into her back. The imaginary pain went right at her head as she struggled to move her head left and right. This upcoming torture was really going to hurt. And it would take a real miracle for something to come and rescue her.

"And now that I've said enough," Mayor Tucker announced to a conclusion. "It's time for the torture to begin!" The crowds roared with delight and amusement. "It is the duty of this town to see that no crime goes unpunished!" He took out his pocket watch, and then signaled for the soldiers to start the wheel turning, so that all the villagers could see the condemned witch on all sides.

When her back was facing the torturer, the black hooded man raised his arm, the whips tresses flailing in the air like a handful of snakes. Then he began to bring it down on her shoulders. Grace shut her eyes in shock, pleading for this to be over and done with already. What she didn't know by now was seeing the crowds jump back in shock and bewilderment from something else.


At Jeremy's house

"If no one will listen to me, I'll have to help her escape out of town myself," Jeremy said to himself as he started packing some small sacks of tea, sugar, matches, pumpkin bread, muffins, and two bundles of blankets and pillows. "I don't care what the town thinks of me or her. I'll help her out, even if it means being banished from my own home town."

Unlike the rest of the citizens in Hollow Town, Jeremy was one of those people who weren't at all quick to judge a book by its cover, despite the rumor of the runaway witch. He believed that if a real witch wanted to fight back against the townspeople with her powers, she would have done it already. And so far, he saw that Grace did not possess any such powers. Riding atop a horse, he galloped back to Hollow Town.

AN: Had to do a little research on what crime and punishment was like back in the olden days, such as the Salem Witch Trials where many innocent people were condemned, hanged, and burned at the stake for witchcraft and sorcery. And sadly, that included animals. I even learned part of this from watching an old Disney documentary hosted by Walt Disney. What happens next? I can't reveal too much, otherwise the next chapter would have been too predictable to some. But this story will not end here.