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☽☽☽
"KENELM, I DO NOT care about my reputation anymore. All I want is for my daughter to come back home and for my sister to be shamed upon for her vile and sinful acts for the devil!" Piety sobbed in his arms, gripping his tunic. Kenelm rubbed her back softly, humming a quiet tune to her as she went on and on about Sarah and Reason. He wished, just as much as she did, that everything was back to how things were only a couple days ago. Ever since Sarah and Reason snuck out, things had been going very ill in the town. Crops were turning to rot, the water was contaminated, the animals are dying or they're trying to kill. Piety knew this was her doing. "I think I want more revenge on her, but I don't know what to do." she whispered.
Kenelm pursed his lips. "You could rat her out to my brother or I can put in word to my brother. He will have no other option than to ignore her and shame her." he whispered. "And there is something else you could do. . . you could write her name out on a stone slab and watch her yourself as she turns into a monster." he whispered.
Piety sat up, looking into his eyes. "That's. . . witchery." she gasped.
"Sarah has done the witching, not you. If you do this, you are no witch, you are getting your revenge for your daughter. I'm very sure the townspeople will see it that way as well." Kenelm assured her, running his hands through her brunette locks. "Will you do that tonight?'
"I would have to think."
"You said that last time."
"I'll think."
He nodded very slowly.
"Thank you though for the offer." she smiled up at him. "You are a good person to me."
"I hope so." he smiled back at her.
Piety suddenly got serious again, her face glowering. "Do you think, though, that Sarah resorted to witchery to get the things she wanted? Do you think she cursed this town? Do you think she cursed my mind to do that?" she asked him.
Kenelm sighed. "She could have. I do believe the Devil is within her. But. . . I think many other villagers do as well." he sighed. Piety frowned. She couldn't believe it. None of it. Yet here the proof was, right in her face.
A sudden scream tore through the town. Piety and Kenelm snapped their heads towards the door where it came from. Piety's heart dropped to the pit of her stomach, her nails digging into Kenelm's hand. What was happening outside her house. Piety got up from hervseat, ignoring what Kenelm was saying, and ran outside towards the church where other people had gathered. They were screaming at Cyrus to come out of the locked church with the children.
Piety realized he locked himself inside with them, doing only God knows what to them.
Everyone was trying to break down the door, their fingers and hands scraping at it as they screamed and wailed to get to their poor children. Piety looked at Sarah to see her younger brother, Caleb, was not there with her. He was inside the church. Piety pushed through the people. "Caleb!" she shrieked, the tears filling her eyeballs full.
The town was shaken by Cyrus. He was sick before the witches blight plagued their land. He wasn't himself anymore from what Piety was hearing from everyone in town. Even his wife and own daughter was yelling for him to come out, so he certainly was doing awful and horrendous things to the innocent children. Piety hit her fists on the door, pounding them over and over again. She only cared for her brother's safety.
Solomon Goode grabbed Piety's shoulders and moved her aside, giving her a nod of assurance everything was fine. Kenelm held her back in his arms. Solomon threw himself against the wall, over and over again until the door was thrown open with a loud bang. Solomon retrieved his pitchfork from his youngest brother, before he looked at the pair of them. "Keep everyone back." he instructed before he walked in.
Piety tried launching herself into the doorway, yet Kenelm kept her back. "My brother is in there!" she wailed. Kenelm took a deep breath, holding in the tears. He hated this just as much as she did.
More and more people tried pushing their way past Elijah Goode. They screamed at him. He continued to stay in the way as Solomon's voice echoed out of the church. The less he spoke, the harsher the townspeople got with pushing. At some point, they even pushed Piety and Kenelm to the ground, before they were able to wedge themselves inside. Piety didn't even try to get up and follow everyone else, she just sat there as she listened to the screams of the town calling out for their deceased children.
Caleb Fier was dead.
When Piety heard Sarah's screams, she turned into Kenelm and sobbed. He rested his head on hers, holding her. She held him as tight as she could, her eyes squeezed shut just in case she'd wake up and it would just be a nightmare that lasted a long while.
And now. . . the entire town was shouting witch for the madness that Cyrus Miller caused. He was one of the Devil's Advocates and now they wanted to find more of these advocates to get rid of the blight and to not let these death's go to waste.
