So new story, starting in 1692 at Salem Witch Trials, feel free to correct me for any inaccuracies.
I'm not sure who she'll end up with, so please do mention any ships you can think if you feel the need hit you.
Some parts may be harder to understand, trying to write this in the style of speech in the 1690s.
"For the crimes you have been accused of here today you, Isabelle Cullender, are sentenced to hang by the neck until death." I felt my life slip from my hands as I stared at my executioner. An past-husband and a murderer. I knew this was done simply to spite me, George was never able to take rejection well.
"On what evidence?" I scoffed, glowering at the man with ropes still tied around my frame. As though a women of my size could honestly escape from a hall full of fuming mothers and fathers who believed I'd caused their children's fits.
"That witch's marks on your arm, and! The touch test always proves the truth. May God have mercy on your soul, witch." He motioned with a mulberry and grey clothed arm towards my brown freckles and then to the four girls who had supposedly only uncurled their fingers when I touched them.
"LIAR!" I shouted, anger colouring my words and face. They'd unfurled their lying hands when anyone touched them!
"YOU'LL BURN. YOU'LL ALL BURN. " I shouted as I was hauled off by three men I'd grown up with. I'd even been friends with them. Maybe that was where my mistakes began, I was far too friendly with the men. But I'd thought Charles, John, and Frank were my companions, they'd visit the local taverns with me! Only after this do I find out that they'd actually contested against me!
I was thrown into the makeshift prison with nary a sideways glance from any of the three men. This prison of mine was simply a box outside with bare walls, a single bench for sleeping, and one bowl to both eat out of and to relieve myself. I would be doing no such thing with nothing to bar a particularly inquisitive onlooker!
So Isabelle, what could we have done better to end this mess before it'd started?
A few things, I suppose. Go to prayer more often, not allowed that idiot minister to touch a single garment of my clothing, though I'm still not sure as to how he recieved my favourite coif. And perhaps, I overdressed once or twice. I simply enjoyed embroidery. Was that such a crime? No. I suppose not. I think my true downfall was being married thrice.
My first died, that was no fault of my own though now I'm sure George will claim it was. Charles never had a good chest, he was always sick or cold. But then came along William, oh so dashing. Should have stopped at being a widow, I'd actually have kept my home if I had. Oh yes, I was swept off my feet by him. Although it proved rather easy for him to sweep women off their feet, and so adultery ended that marriage. That was no problem for me, I'd been given my grievance and moved on rather quickly, I seem to attract men easily.
A fault that apparently has gotten me to the point of being hung. For a crime as ridiculous as witchcraft. I should have been named Imbecile Isabelle. Or rather it was my own insistence to bring George's adultery out to the public. Not even a church official like him could stand an entire community of women's disapproval. His reputation could not be tarnished apparently, claiming that I'd bewitched him into marriage, into kissing his young cousin Anne. The same awful child that claimed fits to antagonize the church's beliefs.
I finally sat, watching women tsk as they went by. Well some tsked, others hurried as though I'd send the devil after their petticoats for lingering too long. I almost wish I could. If I were a witch escaping this room would be an easy task, surely.
Day turned to night, leaving me to sit here with my knees pulled to my chest. I'd been pricked and scratched after they'd found the freckles all over my arms. My pain was my damnation. Devil's marks they'd said, all devil's marks. Imbeciles. I was used as a means of escape from condemnation on their own selves. Usually I could talk my way out of just about any situation, persuasion was an easy art for me.
"Why are you in this box?" I jumped at the sight of a what at first appeared to be a young boy. This visitor was tiny, with lank, pale brown hair trimmed short and no coif to cover it. The body under what appeared to be a cloak—which was darker, almost black—was slim and untelling. But this child-like face was too pretty for a boy's. The wide-eyed, full lipped face would have made an angel appear as a troll in beauty.
I gave this child a foolhardy grin as I responded sarcastically, "Oh don't you know? I'm the great witch of Salem." I don't think I particularly cared who I shocked anymore.
"How was this decided?" She tilted her head, watching me press my chin to the tops of my knees. I could barely see her eyes despite the fact that they seemed to glow in the dim light.
"I was accused of course, given a multitude of idiotic tests, and promptly sent here to be hung in the morn." I snorted, improper as ever.
"On what accounts?" She continued to push, showing little reaction to my plight or my insolence.
"Oh, seducing men. Giving children fits." I shrugged, watching her as best I could. She was quiet for a good while, simply watching me. I stared back at her, wondering how in the world she'd found her way out of her home at night without her mother finding out.
"Alec." A single word was uttered by her, and there appeared another. A boy this time, though his beauty matched her own.
"What do you think?" She asked him with no one emotion clear in her voice.
"Are we picking up orphans now, Jane dear?" He seemed to be teasing the girl.
"Alec." She grounded what appeared to be his name out now, obviously not interested in his games.
"What is your name, girl?" He turned his attention to me, eyeing me with some interest.
"Isabelle Cullender." I replied slowly, realising these children were not from Salem. If they had been, they would have no only have known about the trials but also who exactly I was.
"And you've been accused of witchcraft then?" He raised a brow, eyeing me. I nodded slowly.
"She's only the fifth." Jane mentioned off-handedly. "There should be plenty more to choose from."
"No. I rather like her, and why wait longer here when we could be home already?" He disagreed on the idea of looking at others, apparently.
"Fine. Get her out." Jane seemed to sigh, waving a hand towards me. I watched them warily, up until I saw the boy bend metal with his bare hands. That was when I began to panic slightly. Maybe these were the witches, and maybe witchcraft wasn't such a preposterous crime. Well...at least I can perish knowing that I was right in assuming it'd be far more easy to simply break out of here being a witch.
"And where do you propose we change her?" Alec questioned as he held out a hand for me to take.
"We're here to save you, Miss Cullender." He looked back at me, a beautiful smile creased his face. I took his hand with a leery position. How much did I care about my soul anyways? I'd been damned already under the pure accusation of witchcraft. Might as well practice it now.
"The woods should do but should we need to travel we'll rely on you, Alec." Jane seemed to sigh, finding this to be a bother.
"Of course." He nodded, leading me towards the woods. I felt a little odd, following two angelic children into the forest. As though maybe this wasn't the best idea in terms of the greater image of God's will.
"This will hurt for only a little while." Jane smirked at me for a second as I quickly glanced back to the boy who seemed to pat my hand.
I opened my mouth when all of a sudden my words died in my chest. I felt unimaginable hell fire find its way from my wrist up to my shoulder in one swift moment. I could hear a faint scream and found it may have come from me when my mouth seemed to be open. My eyes glazed towards the boy as his mouth detached from my wrist in shock, I wanted to hit him. To defend myself against Satan's children here but...I just couldn't move.
"Please take away the pain." I whispered at him. My voice seemed to die away as I progressively couldn't hear anything either, or feel very much. My world turned black, leaving me with no sense of time or feeling in my limps.
Perhaps this is purgatory. You lie here for eternity, feeling absolutely nothing. I cannot see, nor hear, nor feel. I'm suspended in time with no concise notion of it passing me by. This is my punishment for the accusation of witchcraft. I will live here for all time, never moving, never feeling.
I had made my peace with this hell when it all seemed to fade away, little by little. Instead of the devil I was greeted by moving trees, I watched with some fascination as I could see each tree pass me by. I could hear fabric rubbing together next me, I looked over to see that I was being carried by the boy from earlier.
"She's awake, Alec." The girl called out, making him slow to a complete stop near a babbling brooke. Daylight glinted off the water and the children's skins. I tilted my head in confusion as I looked at my own arms when he'd set me on the ground.
"What happened?" I whispered, shocking myself again with the sound of my voice.
"We saved you." Jane remarked as though it was obvious. I tilted my head to the other side this time, noticing that my brown curls had unfurled themselves from under my wrappings.
"Our kind, is stronger, faster, smarter, than yours was. We elected to save a chosen few and you're the first." Alec added as an explanation of some sort.
"Take a look for yourself." He motioned towards the water as a means to prove their case. I took my steps carefully, wondering if they were simply going to drown me now or something of the sort. I peered over the edge to see my image form in the water's reflection.
Glittering red eyes sat in a heart-shaped face, like those of a porcelain angel, and greeted me with curiosity and hesitance. The lye that I'd used to blacken my hair seemed to have disapparated slightly, only hanging onto the ends of my hair with the blonde revealed near my scalp. Sin greeted my eyes with lustful gazes as I hit the water's surface to disrupt the image that had betrayed my vanity into showing itself...Or was that allowed now?
"You need not do that. Your beauty will simply aid you in your survival, Isabelle." Alec reprimanded me in an amused tone. So this vanity I'd found myself indebted to, was approved of in this new life?
"If I am so strong now, why does my throat burn?" I felt my lip pucker at that, glowering at each child. They'd done something to me, I could hear more. My old memories appeared foggy.
"You're in need of nourishment." He smirked, kneeling down to where I sat on the mossy floor.
"And how do we go about this?" I raised a brow, looking at both as my masters in this new subject. I was more than willing to learn. If anything, I felt like I'd been given a second chance, somehow.
"As we are the predators, Vampires and the like. We hunt our prey with speed, such prey includes humans of all walks of life." Jane began as Alec finished. It was obvious to me now that I was no longer a human. My heart beat no longer echoed in my ears, nor did the sound of my breathing. At 23 years of age, I found myself renewed with a new purpose, one that I had to engage myself.