Suffer a Witch

by Claudia Hall Christian

  “I didn’t have the skill to control them,” Em said. “There was no real guidebook. We picked up one thing here, another thing there. Anything we could find.”

  “A lot of it was trial and error,” George said.

  “Em put a spiritual section in Devorah’s mercantile,” Isaac said. “It’s the first religious bookstore in Boston.”

  “I thought it would be a good way to meet anyone who knew anything,” Em said.

  “Did you?” George asked.

  “Mostly charlatans and some people who knew a tiny bit of how things worked,” Em said. “Since I had all the time in the world, I started to put it together into something that made more sense.”

  Em fell silent. She could feel George’s eyes on her face. She smiled at Isaac.

  “While I’m deeply glad for it, I’m not sure why we’re here today,” George said.

  “Oh,” Em said. “I need a favor.”

  “Grandmother, I am always at your service,” Isaac said.

  “I need a human to join a group of ghost hunters,” Em said. “I’m going with Shonelle, but I can’t really go with a bevy of witches.”

  “Ghost hunters?” Isaac asked.

  “They are ghost hunting in Danvers, you know, where Salem Village was,” Em said. “They say they’ve filmed Bridget Bishop’s ghost.”

  “Have they?” Isaac asked.

  “Something I’d like to find out,” Em said.

  “They seem to have stirred up a kind of presence,” George said. “We think this shade is connected to Em in some way.”

  “Grandmother?” Isaac looked worried. “What is this?”

  “I don’t know any more than that,” Em said. “If I get more information, I think I can figure out what’s going on. But for now, I just have this devil or demon or. . . dark thing. . . and an annoying bunch of kids talking about putting the spirit of one of the witches to rest.”

  “Do you think it’s the same kind of apparition that caused all of this?” Isaac asked.

  “That’s the question, isn’t it?” George asked at the same time Em said, “No.”

  Isaac smiled.

  “When do they meet?” Isaac asked.

  “They are meeting tonight,” Em said. “They are going ghost hunting on Saturday.”

  “My eldest, Asher, and I will go,” Isaac said. “It sounds fun.”

  “Thank you,” Em said.

  “It’s my pleasure,” Isaac said. “Now, if you’re not doing anything, I was thinking about getting some breakfast. Interested?”

  Em smiled.

  “George?” Isaac smiled. “Let’s take this woman out to eat.”

  “As you wish,” George said.

  Isaac hopped to his feet. They went through the facility and went out the back. Em was standing with George while Isaac went to get the car.

  “Are you okay?” Em asked. “That’s a lot to . . . process.”

  “You realize these people . . .” George gestured around him, “they are human.”

  “Not really.”

  “Oh, yeah?” George asked.

  “They’re family,” Em said.

  George chuckled. She let him hold her.

  “I will tell you . . .” George started. He gave her a peck on the lips and let go.

  “Yes?”

  “I’ve learned something important,” George said. He walked away from her as he talked.

  “What’s that?” Em asked.

  “We were in suspension until you touched us,” George said.

  “What?”

  “You are the reason we’re immortal witches,” George nodded.

  “Me?” Em pointed to herself.

  George turned to look at her. She looked so surprised that he had to smile.

  “Why me?” Em asked.

  “It’s a good question,” George said. “Why were you able to awaken us? If Rebecca and John and George had been there, would you have awakened them as well?”

  Em shook her head.

  “No — why do you think it’s me?” Em asked.

  “You touched us, and we awakened,” George said.

  “But I don’t think I touched everyone,” Em said.

  “But someone you awoke touched someone else,” George said.

  Em made an exaggerated weaving motion to indicate that he was creating a big circle. He smiled.

  “I’ll tell you,” Em said. “If I made us witches, I should be able to undo it. I’ve tried for Alice.”

  “We’ve all tried for Alice,” George nodded. “It’s not straightforward — that’s for sure.”

  “It’s not even crooked,” Em said. “It’s some kind of inter-dimensional weirdness.”

  “Inter-dimensional?” George smiled. “Maybe it’s destiny.”

  Em shook her head.

  “I don’t think I was destined to be hated and hanged by witch-hysterical little girls,” Em said. “You, either.”

  “We’ll have to talk about it more,” George said. He put his head down and kissed her lips. “I’m glad I came this morning.”

  “You are?” Em asked.

  “Very,” George nodded.

  Em smiled. Isaac’s car pulled up. Em got in the passenger seat of Isaac’s SUV, and George stepped into the back.

  “Do you have a favorite place?” Isaac asked.

  Em shook her head.

  “I have just the place,” Isaac said. “I hope you don’t mind. I called the family and told them you’re here. They’re all meeting us for breakfast.”

  “Sounds nice,” Em said.

  “They want to meet Grandmother’s smoking-hot boyfriend,” Isaac laughed.

  Em turned around and looked at George. If she didn’t know him better, she would have sworn that he was blushing. He caught her look and smiled.

  “What’s going on?” Em asked.

  “Family,” George said. “It’s been a very long time since I was around the noise and chaos of family.”

  “Three hundred years?” Em asked.

  “A little longer than that,” George said.

  Isaac looked at him in the rearview mirror and laughed.

  At Isaac’s suggestion, Em offered to host the Salem ghost-hunting meeting at the Mystic Divine. Shonelle had called this John Parker, the young man running the meeting, to set it up. The young man and his group had the use of one of the upstairs rooms. The meeting was to go from eight to ten that evening. People began arriving more than an hour early to make sure they got in. By seven-thirty, Em realized they were going to have a problem.

  There were too many people and not enough space. Em and Shonelle set up folding chairs in the little sitting area upstairs.

  “Who knew the Salem Witches were so popular?” Em asked.

  “I knew! Look — the store is packed.” Shonelle leaned into Em. “And people are buying things. You should give me a cut of the profits for my brilliance.”

  “Sure,” Em said. “How much would you like?”

  “You could pay for my college,” Shonelle said. “Oh, wait — you already do that.”

  “How . . .?” Em opened her mouth with surprise, but Shonelle flipped her hair and went down the stairs. Em shook her head.

  “And you’re the witch,” Sarah Wildes said under her breath as she went by on the way to her class.

  Em had offered to pay for Shonelle’s college, like she had her mother, on the condition that Shonelle didn’t know. Clearly, Em needed to talk to Shonelle’s mother. She scowled after the girl before going into the meeting room. George was at the front of the room getting John Parker’s computers hooked up to the overhead. He caught her eye and nodded. They were all set.

  “Okay, it’s going to be tight,” the young man who went by the name “John Parker” said. “Try to find a seat.”

  People poured into the room. Em went to the doorway to make sure she was available if anyone needed anything. Every seat in the room filled or was being saved. There were people sitting cross-legged in the front of the room a
nd along all the aisles. A row of adults stood beside Em at the back of the room. Sarah Wildes threaded her way toward Em.

  “My class wanted to go to the meeting,” Sarah Wildes said. “I know there’s not room, but . . .”

  “We can set up the overheads to match.” Em waved to George to get his attention.

  “Like we do for the Wiccan holidays?” Sarah Wildes asked.

  Em nodded. George moved through the crowd toward Em. Knowing what needed to be done, he left with Sarah Wildes. John Parker followed them out the door. This Salem ghost-hunting endeavor had taken over the store. As if they knew them personally, people whispered the names of the Salem Twenty.

  “That was weird,” Bridget said in a low tone to Em.

  “What?” Em asked.

  “I passed someone talking about me,” Bridget said. “Did you know that I’m fantastic?”

  “No.” Em shook her head, and Bridget laughed.

  They watched Alice come in with her gentleman client. She moved the sweater Em had put down to save them a seat. He sat down, and she came back to say hello.

  “He wanted to come,” Alice said. “Turns out, he’s been interested in the Salem Witches since he was a kid. At least, that’s what he said. He’s become quite fond of me.”

  “Who hasn’t?” Em asked. “Did you hear Bridget is fantastic?”

  “Don’t worry, Em,” Bridget said. “They said you were a bitter old shrew.”

  “Isn’t that the truth?” Alice laughed.

  Bridget giggled, and Em shook her head.

  “Are you going to be okay with . . .” Em leaned in to Alice, “John Parker?”

  The young man came through the door at the exact moment. John Parker looked from Alice to Em.

  “Can I help with something?” John Parker asked.

  “My friend, Emogene, here was just telling me you were leading the meeting,” Alice said in her southern accent.

  Like most of the Salem Twenty, Alice gave off a radiant sexual energy. The young man flushed and glanced at Bridget, who gave him a sweet-but-sexy smile. To cover his arousal, he moved into the room without saying another word. Bridget giggled.

  “Anything?” Em asked Alice.

  “That’s no relation of mine,” Alice said. “He’s most definitely not the descendant of one of my children.”

  “You know all your children’s descendants?” Bridget asked.

  Alice pointed to her head to indicate that she used her skills as a witch to track them.

  “Don’t you?” Alice asked. She glanced at Em, who nodded.

  “Sure, I just thought . . . I wasn’t sure that was . . .” Bridget held her hands up to make quotation marks and said, “Approved.”

  “Try to stop me,” Em said. Alice laughed.

  “I do, too,” Bridget said.

  “Of course, you do, dear,” Alice said. She gave Bridget a light hug. In a low voice, she said, “Don’t let the bitter shrew get to you.”

  They laughed. Em watched John Parker for a few minutes while Alice and Bridget caught up. She touched Alice’s arm.

  “Could he be a relative of John’s?” Em asked. “He kind of looks like him.”

  “No way.” Alice shook her head. “I can smell my John on his relations.”

  “We think he’s someone who’s named ‘John Parker’ but has no relationship to you or John,” Em said.

  “I do,” Alice said. She looked at Bridget, who nodded.

  “I wonder why he looks like John,” Bridget said.

  “Good question,” Em said. She glanced at Bridget, “Don’t . . .”

  The time between Bridget wanting something and her getting it was always short. Before Em could get the words out, Bridget had cast a spell. Em watched tiny particles of yellow light fly across the room to the young man. The tiny particles circled the young man from head to toe before coming back to Bridget. John Parker continued talking to the co-owner of the group and didn’t seem to notice the magic surrounding him.

  “Plastic surgery,” Bridget whispered.

  “That’s not good,” Em said.

  “Why?” Alice asked.

  “He’s manipulating the situation for his gain,” Em said.

  “Con man?” Alice asked.

  She turned to look at the young man. She glanced at Bridget before nodding in agreement to Em. The lights dimmed, and her gentleman waved to her. Alice smiled and trotted forward to her seat. Isaac and his college-aged son, Asher, came in the door. Em pointed to two seats she’d saved for them near Alice. He stopped for a moment, cupped her elbow to say hello, and they went to sit down. Bridget found a stool and pulled it over to where Em was leaning against the wall.

  “Okay, let’s get started,” John Parker said.

  Em watched people settle in their seats and open their minds. There was a crackle of excited anticipation in the air.

  “Hello,” John Parker said. “My name is John Parker. Yes, that John Parker.”

  There was a faint rustling in the crowd. This crowd knew that John Parker was a fisherman who was married to Alice Parker. One of Sarah’s middle-aged yoga participants’ hand shot up in the air. A waif of a woman, she didn’t wait for his acknowledgement to speak.

  “Can you tell us about Alice Parker?” the woman asked. “She’s always been a mystery to me because there’s nothing in the books or websites about her and John. I did find a reference that John packed up his family and left Salem Village the very night Alice was hanged.”

  The crowd mumbled their agreement with the question. This John Parker wasn’t about to let the meeting slip away from him. He gave the women a thin smile and turned his attention to the crowd.

  “We’ll have time for everything,” John Parker said. “Let’s get started.”

  “That’s smart,” George said in her ear. Em startled at his voice. She hadn’t seen him come in. She turned her head to look at him. “He needs to let the knowledge of who he says he is linger in people’s minds for a while. Makes it more believable.”

  “He certainly knows what he’s doing,” Bridget whispered from the other side of her.

  George looked at Bridget, and they nodded.

  “We’d expect something emotionally charged next,” George said. “Either graphic violence or an emotional gut punch. Better to have both.”

  Scowling, Em nodded.

  “Can you get the lights?” John Parker asked. He nodded to Em.

  Em flicked off the light switch on the wall behind her. John Parker hit a button on his computer, and the drawing of Bridget’s hanging came on the screen. People gasped. Em looked at Bridget. She was scowling. Bridget gave a quick shake of her head. She leaned into Em.

  “I’d never wear that outfit,” Bridget said. “Look at the bows.”

  Em’s lips moved to form a smile. Just then, John Parker launched into a vivid description of Bridget’s botched hanging. A wave of nausea went through the crowd. Somewhere in the area outside the room, a woman began to cry. Em’s face stalled in her almost-smile.

  “Told you,” George said in her ear.

  “He’s performing magic,” Em whispered to George.

  George jerked with surprise. He turned his full attention to John Parker. Bridget stared at the young man in the front of the room. As the crowd slipped under his spell, Alice turned to look at Em. She nodded to Isaac and Asher. They were enraptured with this John Parker. Em gave Alice a slight nod, and Alice turned her hand over to surround herself, Isaac, Asher, and her gentleman with a protective bubble. The humans jerked awake the moment the bubble was completed.

  Tiny sparks of magic seemed to emanate from the area around John Parker’s head and surround him. The magic flowed over the crowd like a fog before flowing out of the room to capture every human in the store.

  The crowd was enraptured.

  Sarah Wildes came in the door and stood next to George. The line of witches openly gawked at John Parker. Somehow, he didn’t seem to notice. In fact, he couldn’t see the protective bubble
Alice had placed around Isaac, Asher, and her gentleman. As if he were a pawn to the magic, John Parker’s mind and spirit seemed caught up in the gruesome story he was telling.

  “What the hell?” Sarah Wildes said in a low voice. “Any ideas?”

  “None,” George said.

  “Ever see this before?” Bridget asked.

  George and Sarah Wildes shook their heads. Em kept her eyes on John Parker. Despite the intensity of her gaze, John Parker never looked in her direction. He kept talking. He gave a brief description of their trials and the eventual end in their hanging.

  “Possessed?” Sarah Wildes asked.

  George shook his head.

  “Under someone else’s power,” Em said.

  The demon appeared the moment the words left her mouth.

  Chapter Six

  He looked exactly as he had in her vision, down to his black leather chaps and top hat. As if he didn’t have a care in the world, the demon sauntered out from behind John Parker. Grinning at Em, he took off his top hat and put it on John Parker’s head.

  The room became silent. John Parker’s mouth was moving, but Em couldn’t hear a word he was saying.

  “Do you see . . .?” Em asked.

  Em turned to look at Bridget. Her face was slack and her eyes vague. She glanced at George. He looked puzzled by something in the front of the room. With her touch, his eyes lost their focus, and he fell into a trance. She looked past George to Sarah Wildes. She was entranced by this demon.

  Em’s heart raced with panic. She swallowed hard. The demon had taken control of the room. Em’s panic grew. George had to burn the vision to get rid of the demon the last time. The creature gave Em a cocky grin. She was alone this time.

  “I see him, Em.”

  The words appeared in her mind. She had no idea who’d said them. Em’s eyes scanned the audience.

  Alice stood up.

  “Be gone!” Alice screamed at the demon.

  The creature turned to look at Alice. His eyes went from black to glowing red.

  “Don’t look at his eyes,” Em yelled. “You can get caught in his gaze!”

  “Be gone!” Alice said.

  The demon hissed. Secure in Alice’s protection bubble, Isaac and Asher jumped to their feet.