by Lily Luchesi
The newest figure began to chant in Latin with phrases I’d never heard before.
There was no way I was going to be able to wing this because I had no clue what we were doing.
She threw her head up to the sky and screamed the next phrase. “FIAT!”
Lightning streaked down from the sky and sizzled along the ground around each of us.
It wasn’t apparent what kind of spell we were doing when nothing else happened.
Everyone began to put their clothes back on and I waited for Bethany to accompany me back.
Once out of earshot, I began to complain.
“What on earth was that for? Was there a purpose?”
“It’s to recharge our energies. To let ourselves and the world know that we are witches. A reminder during the dark times.”
“Isn’t this a little risky?” I couldn’t believe the stupidity of these women.
Bethany simply shrugged. “That’s what makes it so much fun, don’t you think?”
Not giving her an answer, I decided to ask another question.
“Who was the woman running the show today?”
“Oh, that was Bridget Bishop. Our coven leader.” She proudly proclaimed.
“Ah, I see.”
Her name was one of the first and more notorious in the Salem trials. She was scheduled to die the same day as my ancestor.
Maybe I wouldn’t have to do anything to these idiots. If I left well enough along they might just get themselves hung all on their own.
The sun was coming over the trees as we snuck back into town.
I had one thing left to do—make sure that Sarah Osborne lived.
* * *
Chapter 8
Time continued to move faster than I thought possible. Every day was filled with chores and then listening to the trial as more people were accused of being witches.
The trial records would have had modern-day witches in stitches due to the ridiculous nature of their accusations.
“Have you seen this woman doing witch things?” The man questioned pointing at the woman on trial.
"She has these things in her pockets and sometimes she takes them out and rubs them. When that happens, I'll get a headache because she's spelled me." The girl shuddered in horror.
“I got sick with the pox because she didn’t like the chickens my mother sold her.” A voice from the crowd shouted.
“All of our village did. She cursed us. Five people died because of her.”
Many people weren’t even waiting to testify anymore, they were going to take matters into their own hands if something wasn’t done soon.
In the commotion, I escaped outside for a bit of fresh air.
Sarah was sitting in the shade with the others that were accused, waiting for her turn.
I started walking out past where they were and doubled back making sure that the trees were hiding me.
“Psst," I whispered. “Can we talk?”
Sarah shuffled around until she was sitting almost out of sight and next to me.
“Is everything ready? I’m starting to get nervous.”
“I’ve got money for your journey. Can you ride a horse?”
She snorted, “Yes. Can’t you?”
"Sorry, no. It's not a big thing from my time." I should have realized that almost everyone could ride horseback in a day where they were the main mode of transportation.
“Where should I go?” She glanced at the village longingly. “Everything I’ve ever known is here.”
“Starting over is hard. So is not being alive.”
“That is true enough. How are you going to make them think I died?”
“I’m going to take your place. I have a potion that will make it appear as if I’m you. You’ll have one as well so you can be anyone you want. When you’re far enough away from here you can be yourself again and no one will know the difference.” I slid the small jar into her hand.
“Maybe don’t have the same name.” My wink had her smiling at me.
She reached over to take my hands, “Thank you for everything.”
“This is going to happen in the next few days so be ready. We’ll have only about a day to pull it off.”
I stood. It was time to go back in and see how crazy things were going to get before it was over.
* * *
Hetty had been at the trial each day standing at the back listening to all of the proceedings.
When the day was over, I tried to catch her eye as I was walking out. Hopefully, she'd come by and help me pull off my plan.
“What are you planning, child?” She questioned before the door had even latched.
“Um, how did you?” The words sputtered as I tried to think of a way to answer her.
“Some of us aren’t as blind as those men doing the trial. If those women were true witches they could have run away long ago. A couple of guards wouldn’t have kept them from leaving.” Her head nodded as if I’d been right that first day.
“You’ve noticed that Bethany is part of a dangerous group of women. They think they know what’s going on and how to use the few powers they were gifted.” She crossed her arms and tilting her head as if trying to figure out what my real game plan was all about.
“This has all been a very surreal experience. I just know that I’m supposed to find a way to keep my ancestor alive. She’ll have to do the rest once she’s free and far away from here.”
A lot of things had to go right before it could all get better.
“I need your advice. I’m having a hard time trying to decide if I should leave someone to their own version of karma or try to sway it to get the verdict that I want.”
“Bethany?” Hetty’s eyebrow lifted slightly. “That’s your decision. She’s up to no good. It wouldn’t be a terrible thing if she was accused of misdeeds since she’s always doing them.”
“Completely up to you and how you want to handle things.”
I pulled out the chair and took a seat. The weight of this type of decision wasn’t to be taken lightly.
“My thought is that left alone, she’s going to cause a lot of harm. If turned in, it may cause a landslide of accusations so that she can work her way out of the situation. Then again, she may just do that anyway just because someone looks at her wrong.”
“You’ll have to work that out for yourself. I can’t give you that advice on the fate of another’s life. She might surprise us, but I really don’t think so.”
“I’ll need to sleep on it. I was afraid that she wasn’t one of the good ones. It hurts all of us when one of ours goes against the good energies.” My thoughts were whirling as I tried to process the many ways this could work.
She squeezed my shoulder. “You’ll do what is right because you care. Just make sure that you don’t care too much. It can cloud your thinking.”
With that last piece of advice, she left me alone with my thoughts.
* * *
The next day when the trial began, I continued to fidget. It was going to be hard to do what came next.
“Are there any here that have information about the witches or where they are gathering?”
I stood and took a deep breath.
"Bridget Bishop and Bethany Wilson are both witches. They brought lightning out of the sky. Bethany forced me to come with her. I was so scared that they were going to kill me." My voice shook because that part was completely true.
Bethany sputtered in indignation. Bridget raised her hands and was tackled by two of the men standing guard in the room over the prisoners.
“Take them.” The presiding judge roared as others stood yelling all of the things that they had seen them do.
It only took until the end of the day to prove that Bridget Bishop was a witch who had cursed Salem with the pox about six months back.
“Bridget Bishop, you are hereby declared a witch and must be sentenced to hang by the neck until dead. The others that have been convicted will be hanged at noon tomorrow.” He ban
ged the gavel and everyone rushed for the door to tell those that weren’t in attendance that the first hanging was about to happen.
I had a lot to do over the next few hours to make sure that Sarah made it to her new life. There was no way to know what would happen if I did this and died. I might be thrown back into my life or I could really be dead with no chance to tell my loved ones goodbye.
* * *
The die was cast. I had accused two other people. One that I knew would die from history and one whose future I had no clue about.
Sarah was going to need clean clothes. We might not be the same size, but any clothing she had to use besides the one she’d been living in for three weeks.
There was a bag in the corner that would work to hold clothing and the supplies that she would need to start over.
All the cash that Anna had went into the bag except for the few coins I’d sewn into the cloak she was going to use.
Unsure if I should the potions and herbs, I decided that she might need them and it wasn’t as if she’d be stopped and searched. This wasn’t L.A. where they could make up stuff to look through your car to find drugs.
One more thing was missing- her spellbook from her home. I had to find a way to get inside and bring it to her.
In the two weeks, I'd been here, I'd managed to find out where all of the people lived. It was considered a large town, but considering what I'd come from it was really small. A couple of hundred people lived here and most of them mingled together regularly.
My hand hovered over the door. It was going to be difficult to explain what I was doing, but maybe they would buy it.
"Yes, may I help you?" A red-eyed girl asked.
“I’m sure you’ve heard about tomorrow. I’ve come to get a few of her things so that she can get cleaned up. If that’s okay?”
“Yeah, sure. Come on in.” The girl moved aside for me to enter. “Her stuff is this way.”
Her daughter, Elizabeth held out a dress, her hairbrush, and a personal journal.
Flipping through it, I could see that her words held spells that were hidden from the non-magic eye.
“Thank you, she’ll be glad to get this.” I turned to leave when her voice stopped me.
“Tell her we love her. Even though they are saying she’s evil, she’s still my mother.” She burst into tears.
My arms went around her and I patted her back.
“Honey, it's okay to love her. She’ll always love you. No matter what happens tomorrow, just remember that people are going a little crazy with all this witch stuff. Ignore as much as possible and try to live your life without her shadow hanging over you.”
She sniffled. “I’ll try.”
“That’s all we can do.”
“We’re all just doing what we can to make it to the next day.”
* * *
Everything was ready for us to switch over.
I approached the guard, who saw the clothes and let me inside.
Sarah and two others had been separated from the others so that they would infect the rest still on trial.
Bethany saw me and spit on my dress as I passed by.
Not like I could really blame her for her reaction. If someone had accused me of being a witch and it could get me hung.
“Hey,” I held out the dress and her stuff. “Ready to switch bodies?”
“Uh, I guess so.” She nervously fingered the potion in her pocket.
I took my potion out and took a drink as she did the same.
Our faces morphed for just a moment before I was looking at Anna’s face on Sarah’s body.
“That should give you a head start. There’s a horse all saddled and ready behind my house with a bag of stuff that you’ll need. I put money in your cloak and the bag just in case.” I wrapped my arms around her.
"Go in peace, my sister," I whispered in her ear.
“Peace be upon you as well.” She turned to go with only a backward glance.
Bridget snickered as I took a seat on the floor prepared to wait anxiously for the time of my death to arrive.
"Do you honestly expect that face swap to work?"
“It was the only thing I could come up with at the moment.” I looked around to make sure no one else could hear us. “You going to turn me in?”
She shrugged, “Can’t really do that. It’s not like they’ll believe me and you do have her face on.”
"We all have to live with the decisions we've made. I wouldn't have taken her place, but that's on you, not me." She turned away and was soon snoring.
I was left alone with my thoughts of self-doubt.
Had I done the right thing?
Chapter 9
This was the moment. I knew it was the way things were supposed to happen.
Peace filled me as I took a deep breath ready for the executioner to pull the trigger.
I'd read the history book. Someone had come in and taken the place of Sarah Osborne. She hadn't died but had taken on a new face. The spell work was intricate. It would have to be maintained or she would have to move around a lot to avoid being discovered. Either way, I had to die in her stead. That’s what the book’s story had told me. Sarah Osborne was the first known witch of our family line.
She had to survive to have the next witch that would be important later. Her daughter Elizabeth wasn’t a witch and might be a problem if it was known that her mother was still alive.
My eyes met hers through the crowd and I gave a nod. No one paid any attention to a woman dressed as a servant wanting to see the witches hanged.
Whoever’s spirit had lived in my body was either wandering around the town or would try to come back when I was dead. That would certainly convince all of the townspeople I’d been a witch for sure. Well, that Sarah Osborne had been a witch at least.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen to me. My spirit might go back through time to my body or it might not. There was no way to know, but this was something I could feel was supposed to happen.
The burning on my shoulder intensified as the breath I’d been holding was gone.
When the world turned black as the life slide from the body I was inhabiting.
* * *
A groan had me opening my eyes with a jerk.
Where was I?
The wood surface my body had fallen onto was cold and hard.
Had I been lying here for days while I’d been in the past?
With no clue as to anything going on in the present, I rolled over to sit up against the door trying to find my bearings.
My phone chirped from where it had slid across the floor.
“I must not have been out too long if the phone still has enough battery to work.” The words sounded strange after two weeks in the past.
The urge to pee had me racing for my bathroom. The comforts of modern life were amazing. Peeing indoors was always going to feel so luxurious after all that time going to the outhouse or using a chamber pot in the middle of the night.
After relieving myself, I eyed the shower. This body might not have gone anywhere, yet I suddenly felt the need to have hot water pouring over me to be clean.
An hour later after using most of the hot water in the building, I curled up on the couch with my phone.
The date was only two days from when I’d had my appointment. No wonder my bladder had needed to be relieved.
My stomach growled and my fingers flew across the phone’s keyboard ordering three different types of food to be delivered to my door.
Certain that I'd never wish to know more about the past, I pulled my robe closer soaking in the sounds of the twenty-first-century tv shows until my food arrived.
The phone rang with Laura’s ID flashing on the screen.
"Hello?" I wasn't even sure how to function in this modern world, but evidently, my reflexes knew what to do.
“Oh, thank goodness, you’re alive.” She chattered breathlessly. “I was so worried. When I got that warning, I couldn’t help bein
g concerned that you weren’t going to make it out. It’s so good to hear your voice.”
“Laura, your warning was perfect. It helped keep me alive. I’d love to tell you all about it, but right now I’m about to binge out on food and tv so that I don’t have to process anything.”
“Absolutely. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. Call me whenever you’re ready.”
“I really appreciate it. I’m just not quite ready to deal with the real world yet.” I cringed at the thought of what the real world meant anymore.
A knock sounded at the door, and I raced to open it forgetting about holding my robe together.
“Uh, here’s your food.” The delivery boy glanced at my uncovered bits before staring at the ceiling.
“Oh, sorry.” I pulled the robe together with one hand and scooped up the food with the other.
“Don’t mention it.” He grinned. “That was better than a tip.”
Mortified I went back inside. It really didn’t matter what he’d seen because it wasn’t like I was going to do it with him.
The smell of the food made my stomach growl.
“All right, I get it. You want food from the twenty-first century.”
Without waiting one more moment, I dug into the pork fried rice, pizza, and hamburgers on the table.
It was a good thing my phone rang again because I would have eaten more than was good for me.
I didn’t recognize the number so I answered in my professional voice.
“Hannah Gray, we drive the unwanted spirits away.”
“Uh, hi. Is this the Hannah that came to get the spirit out of my dad’s house a few days ago?”
“Yes, was there a problem? Did the spirit come back?” It rarely happened but on occasion, someone called to complain.
“No, oh gracious no.” He chuckled. “I know you said to wait thirty days, but I was hoping that you might change your mind.”
“Yes!” There wasn’t even a moment’s worth of hesitation this time. “I’d love to get dinner with you sometime. Give me a few days to recover from…”
How on earth did I tell someone about my time back in the past?
“…my recent travels.” That was true in the best sense of the word.
