4. Of Witches
Thanks to ghoulghast, my faithful reviewer! Disclaimers and warnings as per usual. Hopefully a little lighter this chapter, though I don't think it's my best. Review anyway, please.
The midmorning sun shone through the canopy of a forest composed mainly of oak, maple, and pine. The air was crisp and clear, and already warm. It was summer. Birds and insects flitted around three young teenagers who had suddenly appeared in a clearing. They looked around, disoriented, and began talking quietly to each other. Suddenly the peaceful scene was shattered by a piercing scream and a rain of arrows aimed at the newcomers. The pale boy in the middle of the group placed his hands on the shoulders of his companions, and the group began to make their way across the clearing. The arrows went through them. When the teens had made it to the other side of the clearing and were safely surrounded by trees, they vanished into thin air.
The young girl who had been collecting firewood and climbed a tree when she heard the Indians nearby gasped, descended, and ran at full speed towards her home.
---
Danny, Sam, and Tucker ran, invisible, until they reached the center of a nearby village. They paused for a moment, panting, not even taking in their surroundings. Then Danny broke contact, and the three friends reappeared to the naked eye.
"I didn't think we had to read any books with Indians."
"First Americans. Indians are from India."
"Whatever."
"We didn't, but I think I know where we are anywhere. And I think we're in trouble if I'm right."
"Why?"
Sam pointed forward to where crowds of people dressed in black were staring at them. A tall, graying man stepped forward, brandishing a wooden cross.
"Be gone, vile creatures of the night! Your cunning can have no sway over true believers!"
"Um, Sam?" Isn't that Vlad?
"Don't say anything. They'll try to use it against us."
"Ummm, okay ..."
"Back, fiends!"
"We're not witches, sir. There's been a misunderstanding."
"Yeah, we're ghosts!"
"Tucker! Do you ever listen?"
"You are no ghosts! Only witches and demons, trying to subvert our faith. Take them to the jail."
Several men, clad identically to the other men in the crowd, stepped forward and clapped shackles on the teens. They were led to a wooden building and thrown into separate cells. Once their captors had left, Danny spoke up.
"Okay, Sam, start explaining things fast."
"We're in The Crucible. Salem Witch Trials. Our little appearing act seems to have made them think we're witches too. We're going to be put on trial, and it's kinda going to be hard to defend ourselves, so we'd better hope the Ghost Writer pulls us out before we get hung."
"Why's it going to be hard?"
"We're three teenagers. We very obviously have special abilities and some genius decided to tell everyone we're ghosts. These guys are trying to push their own agendas and everything, so they probably won't even listen to us, no matter what we say. We don't even know how far into the story we are, so we can't work with that either."
"So, basically, we're screwed."
"Yep. Our best bet is to find out what they're going to charge us with, so we can figure out ways to counter."
"And how do we do that?"
None of them had any idea besides asking someone. They sat in thought for a while, and then Sam decided to fill the boys in on what had happened in the story, since they weren't going to get to see it from the beginning.
She told them about how several girls had been dancing in the forest with a slave, and how one girl had fainted upon their discovery, and was comatose for a week. She told them that a girl called Abigail Williams initially claimed that they were only dancing, but later confessed to practicing witchcraft along with several other girls, though only after the adults had pressured them. Because of their superstitious and religious nature, the entire village was now convinced that the "witches" had to confess their sins to drive the Devil away from Salem.
Sam told them how Abigail cried witch on John Proctor, who she was having an affair with, as revenge, and then how he refused to admit to the court that she was faking the whole witchcraft thing, out of shame. The trials began, and anyone who was named, and many were, were thoroughly questioned. Proctor appeared in court and tries to prove that the girls were lying, but Abigail maintained that they were not. Proctor admitted his affair to try to bring Abigail down, but that backfired as well when his wife denied it. Then she cracked under the pressure and named her husband as the Devil himself. Executions took place in the fall, and Proctor died after refusing to confess at the last minute.
"And that's it, guys. No one is really a witch here. They're just trying to get revenge or save others. And they die for it. And the play's as confusing as Technus sometimes, so you probably wouldn't have understood it even if you had read it."
"Hey! I resent that!" Tucker, who had been playing with another PDA, looked up and glared at Sam. She grinned back. Before she could come up with a reply, they heard footsteps on the stairs and the gray-haired man appeared.
"Have you naught to say for yourselves, witches?"
"We're not witches. We're just children. We got lost in the forest."
"Now, now, girl, I know a witch when I see one, and you three are very definitely witches."
Sam sighed.
"Why?"
"You do not dress as God decreed, so are trying to lure the people of this village into lewdness. You appear out of thin air and I have a witness who tells me that arrows do not harm you. And whatever the slave has in his hands is clearly a magical device."
Tucker sheepishly hid his PDA behind his back.
"Due to the pressing situation, I have ordered your trials to take place tomorrow. Enjoy your day." The man smirked, and left them alone again.
"Great. Just great. Can this day get any better?" Danny buried his face in his hands. Maybe this whole book thing wasn't a good idea after all. I've already fought a demon and met Frankenstein's monster, and now they think I'm a witch. I'm not even a girl.
As the trio were sitting glumly in their cells, a voice spoke up from the shadows of the cell opposite Sam's.
"So, you're the people the town was talking about this morning. You certainly don't look threatening." The voice was proud and cruel, and vaguely familiar. A young woman appeared behind the bars. She was pretty but had a harsh light in her eyes.
"Ember?" Sam asked.
"What?"
"Nothing. You just reminded me of an enemy, that's all."
"My name is Abigail Williams. I'm in here because I've confessed to witchcraft. But you already knew that, didn't you, girl? How is it that you can see the future? Maybe you truly are witches."
"Umm, we're not?"
"But you know of things that have not yet happened. That is surely a sign of a powerful witch."
"They were lucky guesses!" Sam was actually sounding panicked. If Abigail was willing to sell out her friends for her vindication, there was no telling what she would do with strangers.
"They were also saying you appear and disappear, and that you cannot be killed."
"Tricks of the light! Illusions! Nothing real!"
"If you say so. You do realize they see denial as a good sign of a witch, right? And that I 'know' who the other witches are, and they listen to me?" Abigail sounded smug.
"Yeah. Got that part already, thanks." Sam decided to stop talking at that point, because Abigail was certainly more than willing to use anything she heard against them later. Danny and Tucker, fortunately, caught on and did the same.
---
That afternoon, Abigail was led out of the cell by one of the men who had thrown the teenagers in. They took advantage of her absence to plan an escape.
"Okay, so if we go invisible, Danny can fly us out of here. They'll probably figure out how we got out, but they won't be able to find us. If we don't leave, we're going on trial."
"Okay, so once we're out of here, what do we do? You're going to suggest we go to the trial, aren't you?" Sam grinned.
"You've gotta learn somehow."
"You enjoy this, don't you?" moaned Danny. But he did phase them out of the cell and into the church where the trials were held. They sat in an empty pew at the back.
Abigail was on the stand (figuratively, since this was a church), and the gray-haired man was pacing the floor in front of her. Apart from the young girls in the front row, the church was packed with hard-faced adults. The three teenagers watched and listened as Abigail was interrogated by the man and were taken aback by the vehemence of the cries that the girl incited. It seemed like Abigail was casting blame on everyone she knew, just for the fun of it. Eventually she was led away again and a man in his thirties was brought in. He was introduced to the crowd as John Proctor. His grilling was just as nasty as Abigail's had been.
Throughout the entire time, Sam kept having to bite back comments about "independent attitudes," "real witchcraft," and the like. Danny was looking a little unnerved, and Tucker was incredibly bored. They were greatly relieved when a man entered the church and sat beside them and they were enveloped by a familiar purple mist.