Alcingeria

Chapter Twenty: Witch Hunt

Chapter Twenty Witch Hunt:

Thursday June 24th 1690

There were a lot of unoccupied bunks, which made me think just how big this group had been at one time. Don walked over to the bunks on the right side and Macalister, Robert and I went to the left. Don climbed into an empty bunk and closed his eyes. I did the same and found an empty bunk. I climbed in and crawled beneath the blankets.

"You!" I heard one of the girls yell. "What do you think you're doing?"

It sounded like Stella. She was standing in front of Don's bunk with one hand on her hip and the other pointing right in Don's face. She was next to Erin, bearing much the same posture. Don just looked really confused.

"Sleeping. Do one of you want to join me? Hell, both of you can if you want to, the bunk might be a bit cramped though."

"No," Erin snapped indignantly. "This is the girl's side of the place, get out of here."

"You sure?"

Erin just stared. He looked to Stella, who seemed less certain but still remained as stout as she could.

"I'll scream," Erin challenged with a small grin.

In his haste, he tripped on the blankets and fell on his face onto the wooden floor. The two girls burst out laughing. Don stood up and brushed himself off like nothing happened, trying to regain his cool composure. His face was still bright red as he casually strode over to an empty bunk beside me and crawled under the blankets.

"Good night, clumsy." Stella teased.

Don groaned and pulled the blankets over his head further, and I saw Stella and Erin both climb into their beds. They were giggling quietly. I closed my eyes, ready to get some sleep. My back was a little sore from working in the fields. Sleep found me before I knew it, and I was unconscious within minutes.

***

Friday June 25th 1690

I awoke to the sound of men yelling. Puzzled, I opened my eyes, but found everyone in the bunk room looking just as puzzled as I was.

"What's going on?" Asked Erin while rubbing her eyes and yawning. "I think it's coming from outside."

She got out of her bed and went over to the window. The others got up and I followed them, stumbling out of the blankets. We saw an orange glow outside the window, to our left. It hadn't come into full view yet. The sound of men yelling still filled the air. In another few seconds, we could hear the sound of footsteps. There were a lot of them. There had to be at least ten people out there.

Almost all of them had torches in one hand. The few who didn't have torches carried muskets. It was an angry mob! I counted three men with guns in total.

The men who had torches in one hand also held farming tools in the other; pitchforks, shovels, hoes and even farming sickles. What were they doing? Ceberus, along with Martha and William were running across the room towards us. Ceberus held an old musket in his hands, looking angry and confused.

"Ceberus, what's going on?" I asked sleepily.

He hurried over to the window and looked at all of the men. His eyes narrowed.

"A witch hunt."

"Did I hear you right?" Don asked, taken completely by surprise. "Did you say 'witch hunt'?"

"This is the first I've heard of witches." Robert remarked. "Is this normal around here?"

"Are you meaning to tell us that witches are real?" I demanded.