Salem Village – 1693
(A young boy, Thackary Binx is awakened in the morning for no reason. He looks around the room for his sister, Emily.)
Thackary: Emily? Emily?!
(From outside he can hear the sultry voice of Samuel singing to the children of the village.)
Samuel: (singing) Come little children, I'll take thee away, into a land of enchantment…
Thackary: (going outside) Emily?
Sarah: (singing) Come little children, the times come to play…
Thackary: Elijah! Elijah, has thou seen my sister, Emily?
Elijah: Nay, but look. (he points to the Sanderson cottage in the woods where smoke comes from the chimney.) They conjure.
(Thackary looks and sees Emily following Samuel into the woods.)
Thackary: Oh God, the woods! (he runs closer to the edge of the village) Emily!
Elijah: She's done for.
Thackary: (grabs Elijah by the shirt) Not yet! You wake my father! Summon the others! Go!!
(Thackary follows Emily into the woods.)
Thackary: Emily!!
(Woods)
(Thackary manages to fall down several hills and wade through shallow creeks to get to the Sanderson home.)
(Sanderson Cottage)
Samuel: Come child.
(Emily follows Samuel into the house. Thackary looks in the window and sees Emily surrounded by the Sanderson Brothers, Samuel, Maurice, and Waldifrid. Waldifrid is the leader of the brothers, he has mid-length brown hair, a short beard, and dresses in shades of green. Maurice is next, he's a little on the plump side. He has brown hair and beard and dresses in shades of red. Samuel, is the final brother, and he seems a little ditzy. He has blonde hair and dresses in shades of green. They are all slightly old. Emily spots him and sits up. The brothers turn to the window but Thackary ducks out of sight. Samuel and Maurice go and look out the front door to look for Thackary, but he's hiding and they can't see him. Waldifrid throws open a window and looks around.)
Waldifrid: Oh look, another glorious morning. (pause) Makes me sick! Brothers!
Samuel: Yes Wald?
Maurice: Coming Wald. Right away. Sorry.
Waldifrid: Must have been an imp. (goes over to his spell book and talks to it like a child) My darling, my little book. We must continue with our spell now that our guest of honor has arrived. Wake up. Wake up, darling. (the book wakes up) Yes, well come along. There you are. Maurice!
Maurice: Right here, Wald. Right here. Sorry.
Waldifrid: (to book) Hello, hello.
Maurice: I notice brother Samuel isn't helping.
Samuel: I lured the child here.
Waldifrid: (grabs Maurice's ear) Leave him be, he has done his chore. (let's go of Maurice's ear.)
Maurice: You're right, I'm wrong. (He and Samuel make faces at each other.)
Waldifrid: All right. 'Tis time! (the book opens and flips itself to a certain page) There it is. (reading from book) 'Bring to a full rolling bubble. Add two drops oil of boil. (he moves to pick up the oil of boil but Maurice is there before him)
Maurice: I got it. It's heavy. You do that, I'll do this. (she adds the oil of boil to the cauldron)
Waldifrid: Six, but the hour with the herb that's red. Turn three times, pluck a hair from my head.
(Thackary sneaks inside the cottage and watches the witches from the second floor landing.)
Waldifrid: Add a dash of fox and a dead man's toe. Oh, a dead man's toe and make it a fresh one.
Samuel: Dead man's toe. (Begins singing about the dead man's toe.)
Maurice: (walks up with a bowl of toes and sniffs one) Fresh one. (she tosses it into the cauldron)
(Then Maurice and Samuel begin tossing toes at each other. Finally Waldifrid has had enough and steps in to stop them.)
Waldifrid: Will you two stop that? I need to concentrate.
Maurice: Sorry. (to Samuel) He needs to concentrate. (He pauses and takes a sniff of the air. He can smell Thackary.)
Waldifrid: (to herself) Newt saliva.
Maurice: I smell a child.
Waldifrid: What doest thou call that? (points to Emily)
Maurice: A child?
Waldifrid: Hah! Brothers, gather round. One thing more and all is done, add a bit of thine own tongue.
(They each take a bite of their tongues and spit them into the cauldron.)
Maurice: Oh, Wald, thou art divine.
Waldifrid: 'Tis ready for tasting. (takes a spoon and dips it in the potion) One drop of this and her life will me mine. (pause) I mean, ours. (to Emily while walking towards her with the spoon) All right, girl. Open up your mouth.
Thackary: No!
(The brothers look up in surprise.)
Samuel: A boy!
Waldifrid: Get him you fools!
Maurice: I got him! I knew I smelled a boy!
(Thackary manages to escape them and runs over to the cauldron.)
Waldifrid: Get away from my potion. (Thackary turns the cauldron over, and the potion spills out.) Ahhh! My potion!!
Thackary: Emily!!
(Thackary almost reaches his sister but Waldifrid hits him with blasts of electricity and he drops to the ground.)
Maurice: Wald? Wald, look.
(Maurice points at Emily who has somehow ingested some of the potion. Emily's life force is glowing around her.)
Waldifrid: Brothers, prepare thyselves. 'Tis her life force. The potion works. Take my hands, we will share her!
Maurice: Oh Wald, how generous of thee.
(The go over to Emily and begin to suck away her life force. When they are through Emily has grown very old and died. The brothers, however, are much younger now.)
Waldifrid: Brothers, behold!
Samuel: I am handsome! Girls will love me!
Maurice: We're young! (claps his hands)
Waldifrid: Well, younger. But it's a start! Brothers!
(The brothers begin to do a little dance.)
Maurice: Waldifrid, thou art a mere spring of a boy.
Waldifrid: Liar. But I shall be a spring forever once I suck the lives out of all the children of Salem. (spots Thackary) Let's view another batch.
Thackary: You hag! There are not enough children the world to make thee young and beautiful.
Waldifrid: Hag?
Mary: Uh oh.
Waldifrid: Brothers, did you hear what he called you? Whatever shall we do with him?
Maurice: Let's Bar-B-Q and filet him.
Samuel: Hang him on a hook, and let me play with him.
Waldifrid: No! Book. Darling, come to mommy. Yes. (the books floats over to him) His punishment must be more foolsome. More lingering. (to book) Dazzle me, my darling. (The book flips open to some pages) Amnesia, bunions, chill breaks, cholera. We can do better than that I think. (the books flips again.) Yes, let's see what we have…oh! Perfect. (he shuts the book and hands it to Samuel) As usual. His punishment shall not be to die, but to live forever with his guilt.
Samuel & Maurice: As what, Wald? As what?
Waldifrid: Jump back! (They do and she begins a spell. Samuel and Maurice say some magick mumbo jumbo in the background.) Twist the bones the back. Trim him of his baby fat. Give him fur black as black. Just…
Maurice: Like…
Samuel: This.
(They each hold their hands over Thackary and he begins to groan with pain. He shrinks down and we see that he has been turned into a black cat. Samuel goes to pet him and he swats at her. The others laugh. Suddenly there is a pounding at the front door. The other villagers have arrived.)
Man: Open! Warlocks! Sons of Darkness!! Open this door.
Waldifrid: Hide the child.
(Maurice covers Emily with a shawl.)
Maurices: Warlocks? There be no warlocks here sir.
Waldifrid: Don't get your knickers in a twist. We are just three kindly old spinster ladies.
Maurice: Spending a quiet evening at home.
Samuel: Sucking the lives out of little children.
(Waldifrid grabs her and tries to choke her.)
(The villagers now have the brothers out by a tree. The brothers have nooses around their necks, and are standing on barrels.)
Mr. Binx: Waldifrid Sanderson?
Waldifrid: Yes?
Mr. Binx: I will ask thee one final time.
Waldifrid: Yes?
Mr. Binx: What has thou done with my son, Thackary?
Waldifrid: Thackary? (thinks about it)
Mr. Binx: Answer me!
Waldifrid: Well, I don't know. Cat's got my tongue. (She and her brothers have a good laugh.)
Sarah: (in regards to the noose) This is terribly uncomfortable.
Waldifrid: Brothers, sing.
(The brothers begin to sing.)
Mr. Binx: Cover your ears! Listen to them not!
(A man holding the 'book' throws it down to cover his ears and the book lands right at Waldifrid's feet. It opens up and he sees the spell that it revealed to him.)
Waldifrid: Fools! All of you! My ungodly book speaks to you. On All Hallow's Eve when the moon is around, a virgin shall summon us from under the ground. Oh, we shall be back. And the lives of all the children shall be mine.
(Mr. Binx gives the signal and the barrels that the brothers are standing on are kicked out from under them. Thackary, now a cat, goes over to his father and rubs against his leg.)
Mr. Binx: Away! Away beast!
Thackary gives a mournful meow.
Woman: (voice over) Poor Thackary Binx, neither his father, his mother, nor anyone else every knew what became of him, those 300 years ago.