Celeste: C I N's Puritan Series

by Christina Leigh Pritchard

  Celeste

  Story Five of C I N’s Puritan Series

  A Shorty Story by

  Christina Leigh Pritchard

  www.cinseries.com

  Copyright © 2010-2017 Christina Leigh Pritchard

  www.christinaleighpritchard.com

  Under Copyright Law: No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise (except for brief quotation in printed or digital review) without prior written permission of the copyright owner. NOTICE: This story is a work of fiction. All characters in this story are fictitious, unless otherwise stated in the ending credits. Any resemblance to an actual person is coincidental. Some minor characters, places, history, and dates mentioned in this novel are for historical purposes only and credited to http://www.lynnhistory.com/.

  Forward

  I didn’t like the pale-faced demons. They’d come through villages of sister tribes, causing devastation, and then, when they’d conquered; the white-faced demons would gather the living into camps.

  This is where my brothers and sisters went to die from diseased blankets.

  I was born from the pale-faced ones, but adopted by Chepi. She was a wonderful mother, full of life. She’d dance around the hut in nothing but rabbit furs and Father’s headdress. My sister Anna, who was the same age, would laugh at our mother’s performances, but I’d cry, uncertain of what was going on.

  Times changed. Eventually, there weren’t many of my people left and the pale-faced demons called themselves puritans, their attire ever-changing each decade. I did love their clothes and in the 1600’s, seamstresses became the only tolerable persons outside my hidden village.

  Anna warned me to stay away from them, that I may become fooled by their charms. But, I didn’t listen. I should’ve. If I had, maybe we’d never have developed secrets.

  In my defense, it was Anna who drove me away to the puritans. I thought, if she could do this to her brother, Sucki, what would she do to me, the one who was not related by blood? How far would my sister go to get what she desired?

  Sucki

  How it Started

  Anna sat in her throne, holding my hand. Her chestnut eyes, and olive skin shined when the sun appeared. She wore her traditional braids, that rested on her shoulders, and clothes made from animal hides, decorated with shells and pearls. I was her very opposite with my porcelain skin and long, wavy, hair and long, ruffled dress.

  “My dear sister,” Anna said. “I fear I must make a decision that has me quite troubled.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  She sighed, too dramatic to be authentic. “Sucki, he’s betrayed us.”

  “How?”

  “He’s become desirous of what I have. He wants to become the Oneida.”

  “He can’t, he’s a male.”

  “I feel it in my bones. He thinks because he has one gift that I did not inherit, that he is better than me.”

  “I’ve never heard him say this or even dare challenge you for the throne.”

  “Celeste, my darling sister, you’re so gullible and just do not see the darkness within our brother. He must be contained.”

  I could not swallow.

  “Bring Sucki to me!”

  Our older brother, struggled, fighting with the two warriors who dragged him to the center of the village. He glared at us, with such hate.

  Chepi, our mother, dropped to her knees, beside Anna. “Please, do not punish your brother! I beg you, my daughter!”

  Anna’s fingers loosened and her hand slipped away from mine. She turned, patting Chepi on the head. “Mother, if you had been more restrictive with Sucki, he would not need to be punished.”

  “He’s a coward, we all know he isn’t very strong.” Chepi’s bottom lip trembled. “Don’t you have enough power, darling?”

  Anna stood, her fists smashed down onto the armrests of her throne. “No! I need more!” She reached for Sucki, electric sparks shot from her fingers, attaching to his chest like leeches. His body rose, and he let out an agonizing cry.

  He went from a dark brown to milky white. His muscular build diminished so that all I could see were his bones.

  I screamed, dropping to my knees, clutching Anna’s garment. “You’re going to kill him!”

  Anna stopped, and Sucki’s body dropped to the ground, resembling an old man. She glanced from me, to him, and then back to me. She covered her mouth and tears brimmed in her eyes.

  “What have you done, Anna?” I could barely speak the words. “Where is my sister? Is she even still inside?”

  “I could not release myself from him. He had so much power and I meant to take just a small amount. You must believe me.” Anna reached for me and I recoiled, picked up the edge of my dress and dashed into the woods, towards my favorite seamstress.

  Mood’s Shoppe

  In one of the puritan towns of Lynn, most of the pale-faces were out by the beach, building stakes for a witch-burning. The Mood family did not have the luxury. They were the busiest tradesmen, due to their fine skills. I’d never found a single reason to complain about any of my dresses. The only thing I dreaded was the shop clerk.

  They were a married couple with a son named Obadaya. He was tall with sandy blonde hair that fell in his blue eyes, and to teach him responsibility, to my dismay, they made him the shop clerk.

  The shop sat in the center of town, made of wood planks. It had a sign chiseled right above the entrance that said ‘Mood’s Tailor & Goods Shoppe’. They also sold grains and farming tools. There was a great mix of men in dirty trousers alongside rich women with painted faces. It was one of the only places both persons of society intermingled.

  There was a long, oak counter on the left side of the store. Behind it, many barrels holding grains, flour, baking staples, and cooking spices rested along the wall.

  Obi, as I called him, leaned his elbows on the counter, his eyes, flirting with two students from his schoolhouse. They giggled and I rolled my eyes at their ignorance.

  “The poor pig!” One girl said, touching his wrist. “Will you be able to save him, Obadaya?”

  He let out an exaggerated sigh. “I’m going to do my best. He’s just not looking so well. I’ve been nursing him back to life, staying with him in the barn at night.”

  I touched various fabrics, displayed on the opposite wall. They were wrapped around tubes and displayed in handwoven baskets that sat on the floor.

  “We could stay with you!” The other girl offered, bouncing on her tip-toes. “Wouldn’t that be a grand idea?”

  He nodded, reaching for their hands. “That would be so helpful. We could take turns sleeping and I wouldn’t be so tired the next day.”

  I tried to hold back my disgust, but it came out in a loud laugh-cough. Obi narrowed his eyes at me. “Girls, I must get back to work. My mother’s favorite client is here to buy another dress.”

  They giggled, waving, holding their popsicles. “Good-bye, Obadaya! We will sneak out and help you tonight!”

  “I can’t wait,” he said, smiling broadly.

  As they left, I pretended to gag.

  He smirked, crawling from behind the counter. “How may I assist you, Celeste?”

  “I like this fabric. It’s soft to the touch but shimmers in the sunlight.”

  “Wasn’t your hair red last week?”

  I ignored him, glancing at another fabric. “Aren’t you going to charge me for my material?”

  He hovered, pulling a loose string from my sleeve. “Mother’s eyesight is failing.”

  “Impossible, I—”

  “You what?”
>
  How could I tell him that I fixed his parents so that they never experienced disease or ailments caused by old age? Yes, they’d age, but respectfully and without trouble. Their bones would not ache and they would not lose their vision nor their steady hands. I wanted to preserve them and their trade skills.

  “I love everything she makes for me. She’s divine and I must’ve snagged my dress on the trees.”

  He stepped closer, his arm brushed against me. “Where do you live? The town is talking about you being from the invisible barbarians in the valley.”

  I picked up another roll of fabric and handed it to him. “Have you ever seen anyone in the valley?”

  “No, but Jacob has.”

  “Is that so? What did he claim they looked like?”

  “Men with robes, covering their milk-white faces.”

  I let out a nervous laugh. “That is not how I’d describe a barbarian. Maybe they painted their skins to scare him?”

  “No, he said it was not paint, and that he saw you, sitting next to a true barbarian queen with long braids.”

  “I must meet this friend of yours.” I placed money onto the counter and forced a smile. “Do not destroy those two girls tonight like you did to the one who lives two farms away from you. That pig story of yours will not work forever.”

  Obi shrugged. “I know what I am doing, Celeste. It is you who I fear for.”

  I turned. “Please explain.”

  “You purchase beautiful dresses that accentuate every glorious curve of your body, but do not wear shoes, nor do you ever come to town with a beau. Such beauty—wasted.”

  “Good day, Obi.”

  He rushed to my side, touching my shoulder. “Am I wrong?”

  “You have such a way with women. No wonder only girls giggle at your attempts of charm.”

  He let out a hearty laugh. “Yes, Ma’am. See you tomorrow with maybe purple hair?”

  Remorse

  I went back to the hidden village of epochs and entered my hut. Anna lay on a mound of furs, sobbing. “I didn’t mean to take so much longevity from Sucki,” she cried. “Please forgive me, sister. I don’t know what is happening to me.”

  I sat beside her. She rested her head in my lap and I caressed her hair, picking her braids up in my hands, pretending they were hissing vipers.

  Anna laughed, then wept some more. “I’m a horrible person, aren’t I? You’ve even made my braids poisonous creatures.”

  “You’re my sister and best friend.”

  “Why can’t I be more like you? You’ve used your gifts for good, helping those less fortunate. You give and I take.”

  “There’s a boy in the town named Jacob who says he’s seen us. Do you know who he is?”

  Anna mumbled, her words barely audible.

  “What did you say?”

  She leaned up. “Find him and bring him to me. I’ll be able to know who he belongs to if I can just touch him.”

  “Do you think he is like us?”

  She nodded. “He’s either a fulgurite or someone in the village loves him and wants him to become theirs, and given him the gift of sight, to see us.”

  “If I find him and bring him to you, will that make you feel better?”

  Anna whimpered a weak ‘yes’.

  Pigs and Boys

  It was midnight and I stood in the rye, watching the two girls race into the barn, to meet Obi. He’d played this ruse on a few others, condemning them to shame. Tonight, one girl was being burned as a seducing witch, sentenced by her own father, who discovered she’d been deflowered when offering her to wed his business partner.

  Fire reached the skyline, and screams echoed in my ears. They’d begun. Crowds hollered and condemned the young girl, who begged for mercy.

  I’d met her. She was kind and loved animals. Her eyes were hazel and she wore her mousy brown hair in tight ringlets. Obi loved the gullible ones and Delilah would not even glance his way, that is, until his pig grew sick. She didn’t meet with him to become shameful to her family; she’d went to save a sick, helpless creature.

  Obi stood at the barn entrance, motioning for the girls to hurry inside. They giggled, sneaking in through the partially opened door. “She’s in the back, on the hay bales,” he told them.

  I winced with pain as Delilah begged them to stop. My fingertips ignited with sparks and lightning flashed across the sky.

  Rain came down in sheets, and the puritans screeched as lightning struck Delilah’s post. I couldn’t see anything except what my lightning hit, but I could imagine the fear in their eyes, as she stumbled, falling in nothing but soot.

  I’d fetch her later. Now, it was time to find Jacob.

  I kicked in the barn door. Obi had his hand on each girl’s shoulder, leaning over, glancing at his pregnant pig. “Obi,” I shouted. “I need your assistance right away.”

  He groaned. “Are you joshing me?”

  “The girls will watch the pig for you while we attend to my dress disaster. Do you wish for me to discontinue using your mother as my seamstress?” I placed my hands on my hips. “Well, do you?”

  “I will be back,” he said.

  “We will keep her safe and warm,” one girl said. “Hurry back, Obadayah.”

  Outside, he gripped my arm, his jaw clenched. “What is the meaning of this?”

  “Delilah is being burned alive because you took advantage of her, just like you wish to do to these girls.”

  He shoved me. “What do you want from me? Soon, the town will turn on you, and burn you as a witch.”

  “Where does Jacob live? I must visit him.”

  “Why?”

  “I’d like to ask him about the village he saw.”

  “It’s real, isn’t it?”

  “I know nothing of its existence. It’d like to find it.”

  “Find it? You’re the co-ruler of it! I’m certain you know it’s location.”

  “Obi, stop speaking falsehoods. Show me to your friend and I will let you return to your man-whoring.”

  He squeezed my shoulders, leaning his lips close to my ear. “I hope they do burn you.”

  Electricity ran through my veins, sending tremors into his fingertips. He jumped back, breathless.

  “What was that?”

  “Are you not at all remorseful for what you’ve done to Delilah?”

  He would not look at me. “Come, I’ll show you where Jacob lives.”

  Jacob the Half-Puritan

  We stood outside a makeshift shack at the edge of the railroad. “Jacob lives here?”

  Obi nodded.

  “He’s a railroad conductor’s son?”

  “His mother is a widower. She’s at the burning.”

  “Is Jacob there?”

  “No, he doesn’t attend such things.”

  “Thank you, Obi. You may get back to mission of deflowering maidens.”

  He mumbled something under his breath, disappearing into the woods.

  I rapped my knuckles on the door. “Jacob! Come out this instant!”

  A short, seven-year-old, peeked out. His eyes were black as pitch and so was his hair. I recognized him right away, my heart collapsing.

  “Jacob?”

  “Hello Celeste.”

  “How do you know my name?”

  “I heard the barbarian queen say it.”

  “When did you see her?”

  “I was hunting for foot mushrooms and saw your village, in the valley.”

  My stomach twisted in knots. “Who is your father?”

  “You mean, you do not know?”

  A sobering thought overwhelmed me. His father was Sucki.

  Jacob was my nephew.

  And, Anna would steal his longevity, too.

  “Why are you and your mother so close to the village? Do you not know what Anna will do if she finds you?”

  “She will kill me.”

  “Yes. So, why haven’t you run?”

  “Mother says Father is going to run away with us.”


  My fingers trembled and vomit threatened to escape. “Sucki cannot leave the village. He is sick. Please, tell your mother to take you far away before you become sick too.”

  “She hasn’t the money to make the move.”

  “You need to leave. I’ve told Anna about you.”

  Jacob’s eyes watered. “Why would you do that?”

  “I did not know who you were. Obi said you were from his school. I forget that there are different age ranges.”

  “She will find out who I am and punish Father!”

  “I’m going to plead with my sister.” I handed him my dress money. “Please, give this to your mother. It should help you with your travels.”

  Jacob wrapped his tiny arms around me, his face, hidden in my dress. “I am sorry for telling Obadayah about us! Please forgive me and do not send me away. I wish to meet Father and become a family.”

  Lightning lit the sky.

  Only, it wasn’t from me this time. My heart pounded.

  Anna stood, with her arms folded. “Always the one who does the giving, aren’t you, sweet sister?”

  “Please,” I begged. “He’s only seven, and he’s our nephew. Mother would love a grandson.”

  “She has Kimi. A female heir. My daughter.”

  “She’s mourning from today’s incident. This would mean the world to her.”

  Anna forced a smile, peering down at Jacob. “You have your father’s eyes.”

  He knelt, gripping her garment. “Please don’t kill me.”

  “You’ve given me little choice by spreading our secrets through the pale-face town.”

  “I’ve only told Obadayah!”

  I stepped closer. “And, I shall erase his pain.”

  Anna nodded. “Fine. Who will raise him?”

  I blinked, frozen.

  “His mother cannot join us. Are you to be his mother?”

  “I-I have a—well, Delilah—I saved her tonight.”

  Anna’s irises swirled with various shades of purples. “You did what? Celeste, how many times have I asked you to stop bringing home pets?”