Swords and Sabotage: A Collection of Short Stories

Abitha

Salem, Massachusetts, 1692
She could feel her lungs tightening as she ran, ran from the mob, her dress bunching up, slowing her down. She could just tell that they would catch her; they were too fast. But regardless, she didn't give up. What would be the purpose if she did? But then again, what's the purpose of continuing to try. She knew that they were relentless, that they'd stop at nothing to catch women. Simply because they assumed they were all witches. Everyone knew this, it was a common fact. That's why most women didn't even bother to fight it when they caught them; there was no point. But she had to keep going. She couldn't let them get her. Perhaps it was because she couldn't leave her best friend for life, Joan, but that didn't seem fully right. She didn't really know why, but there was just a force compelling her to keep running. Run until they can't see you, run until you're safe, it whispered to her. And she listened. Running was painful though, considering she had been running for at least an hour. And especially in those shoes and her dress, any proper woman could tell you that even simply sitting in these garments was hard, seeing as there were so many layers. Her dress billowed behind her, like a pale blue cloud. She could almost feel the wind on her ankles for the first time in years. Soon, the scenery changed, from a stone paved road and houses, to the beautiful forest at the edge of town. At some point as she fled, her legs began to stop hurting, suddenly, strangely, and she started feeling free. She could only hear the wind rushing past her ears, and supposed that, since the shouting seemed to have stopped, the mob may have given up, despite their ridiculous persistence. So she looked back. But she was very mistaken. Her eyes widened in fear as she saw how close they had come, their angry yelling racing back to her immediately. She ran faster, and faster, until it felt like she wasn't even running, like she was just floating, and made yet another mistake, the one of letting go of her skirt. It fell around her ankles and then under her feet, tripping her. She fell, hitting her head on a large tree, hard. The last thing she saw before everything went black was the blurry, but visible, surrounding forest, and the shadows of the looming trees blanketing her motionless body.

Salem, Massachusetts, 2017
Dandie was walking along the forest trail, their sketchbook in hand and their art bag in the other, when they came across a young woman lying completely still in the middle of the forest. The first, oddest, thing Dandie noticed about her was that she was wearing a light blue dress which looked to be from around the late 1600s to early 1700s. Odd, they thought. It seemed vintage, too, not a remake. The colour was slightly faded, and it was scuffed up everywhere, same with the woman's face. They stared in astonishment, frozen for just a second when it hit them that maybe they should go over and see if she's ok. And despite not particularly wanting to, they did anyway. The leaves crunched beneath their feet as they hesitantly walked over to the body and gently nudged it with their foot. They waited for a moment, and were about to leave since nothing happened, when the woman moved, groaning.
"Wh- where am I?" she asked weakly.
Dandie looked down at her, bewildered. "Whoa- Dude I literally thought you were dead!"
The woman stared up, utterly confused. "But... where am I??? What happened?? The last thing I remember was being chased by that mob..."
"You got chased by a mob?" Dandie asked. The woman nodded. "That is... weird."
"So are you," the woman replied promptly.
"Ok, rude. Oh, also, you're in Salem. Massachusetts."
"That can't be.. It all looks so different. And what are you wearing?" The woman stared at Dandie and reached out to pull at their cargo pants. "What is this? You look ridiculous. Only men can wear pants, and those aren't even correct."
"Huh??? Honey, this is 2017. We wear what we want now."
The woman stopped, her eyes filling with fear.
"Is... is it not 1692? How did this happen??" She pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her face in her hands. "What happened?? I want to go home.."
Dandie looked sympathetically at her, wondering the same thing. "Hey, it's ok. You can come with me and we can figure it out later. For right now, we need to get you cleaned up. I'm Dandie, by the way," Dandie said, offering their hands out to the woman.
She was quiet for a minute, then took Dandie's hand. "Abitha." The two stood up and walked out of the forest together to Dandie's apartment.