Default Title - Write Your Own

Questions

"What?" Salem asked confused. "What do you mean we were too late?" Salem knew that this hanging always had happened in history books. Was she supposed to have stopped it? The reason people were accused seemed to have been misguided or sometimes out of fear or just for someone to hold the blame for something. Who would have believed a random girl in weird clothes? She probably would have gotten hung herself looking so strange!
"Did you know someone who was hanged?" Salem asked adding a tone of sympathy.
"Yes" Eddie choked. "Alice, Alice Parker was a mother to me." Eddie did his best not to start crying again and looked away for a second to compose himself.

Something dawned on Salem and hit her like a ton of bricks, September 22, 1692 Alice Parker was hanged, her 13 greats grandmother Alice Parker. That was one of the reasons her family stayed in Salem Massachusetts. As a tribute to their ancestor who was hung. Her family did their best to make people aware of importance of that part in history by running the museum and gathering more information, artifacts and stories from that time period to inform people they knew and tourists. Her own great grandmother Alice was hung for being accused of the death of Mary Warren's mother and bewitching Mary Warren's sister and some other things that Salem couldn't recall.
Finally being able to asses the situation Salem pulled Eddie aside urgently and away from eavesdropping ears.
"What?" Eddie asked a little alarmed by her sudden behavior.
"Alice Parker." Salem stated. "So today is September 22nd 1692?" She said barely able to believe these words were coming from her mouth and she wasn't going crazy.
"Yes, and you are from the future?"
"Yes," Salem paused. "How did you know?" She was a little surprised, but Eddie already seemed to know she was coming from the future, or something to that effect. It was strange that he had this knowledge. How did he know?
Eddie seemed to sense her growing questions and looked around to make sure no one had really noticed them and motioned for her to follow him. He seemed to be growing more aware of the situation. "I need to find you clothes so you can fit in, I'll bring you home and get you up to speed."
Salem relented and saved her questions for a safer time to get them answered. Eddie did his best to sneak her around the outskirts of town and through a back door into a house. It was dark, Eddie lit a lamp and went into a nearby room and came out with some garments from his time period. She changed and when she came out of the room she found Eddie at a table waiting for her with a candle next to him. He seemed to be studying her as if to really decided whether she was real or not. Salem felt the same way. She felt like maybe this was either a very realistic dream or was hallucinating things- but for her to really be living something this crazy, something she probably would have seen in the movies, was, just crazy!
"You really are from the future." Eddie stated jarring her from her thoughts.
"Yes, and we are really in the past." Salem stated as if that somehow settled this bizarre matter.
Eddie sighed and seemed to be taking this reality in. "I wonder why," he said weakly, I tight you were here to save Alice..." Eddie trailed off.
"Well, if it helps, Alice Parker was my 13th great grandmother." Salem stated hoping this information was helpful.
"13th great grandmother?" Eddie asked confused.
"Oh," Salem realized confusing that was. She was used to when speaking about her great, great, great, well, 13 greats, grandmother, as 13th great grandmother. She was used to shortening it to 13 greats grandmother to save time.
"Alice Parker was, well, is, my great, great, great, great, umm, 13 greats grandmother." She explained lamely.
"Oh, yeah, I knew you were her grand daughter, I guess 13 greats granddaughter." Eddie said. "Alice said that there was a candle that if I lit it, it would send help from the future. I  tried to light it but for some reason it wouldn't light, no matter how hard I tried... it did oddly glow but I left and was pacing in the street trying to remember what Alice told me to do when you ran right into me. I could tell by your clothes it must have worked, besides the fact that you look like Alice in her younger days."
Salem was taken aback. So, her great, 13 greats grandmother was accused of being a witch, and was one? Or had made Eddie use sorcery of a sort? That didn't look good for her family if the towns people found out. Surely she would be hanged next!
"What about you?" Eddie asked taking her from her thoughts again.
"How did you get here?" He prodded.
"I, uh, went to visit my dad at, uh, his job and found a candle and lit it, I guess thats what, got me here?" Salem said hesitating to say those last words, she was in such disbelief that time travel was a thing.
"Oh, so you lit the candle and thats how you got here." Eddie said piecing things together as if this was a normal conversation.
"But why are you here? Can we bring you back in time to a couple weeks ago when Alice was accused of witchcraft?" Eddie pondered. He suddenly got up and went into a room and came back with a candle, it looked similar to the one she saw earlier, that she had lit earlier. He tried to light it many times and nothing would work. Salem tried her hand at it as well with no luck. Then they both gave up and just when they sat back down in despair, a door suddenly opened and an older man came in with a young woman.
The man stopped suddenly and stared at Eddie. Salem was worried that Eddie had brought them into a random house and they maybe shouldn't have been there.
"Eddie" the man said giving Eddie a knowing look. "You didn't." He said in disbelief.
Eddie got up swiftly and put his hands out to defend himself, "Now John, I know it was a crazy idea but I had to try, and it worked!" Eddie explained as if that should fix the fact that he brought someone back in time and was now stuck.
"Eddie." John said painfully. "Alice is dead. What can she possibly do to help?" John had one arm resting on the young woman who seemed to be following the conversation and with his other hand it was at the bridge of his nose, the most classic form of showing ones frustration when one is at their wits end.
"I don't know." Eddie admitted sounding small. "But she is stuck here, the candle won't take her back. Probably because she was the one to light it in the future which is how she got here and it wouldn't light for me when I tried to bring her from the future. So, ah, she's stuck here in the past for her."
John's hand flew from his eyes and his eyes got wide. "From the future?" He gasped then looked straight at Salem.
"Um, yes, I am from the future." Salem said. Her words hung in the air as John looked at Eddie in disbelief. The girl next to John jaw dropped. "Are you really from the future missus?" She asked in disbelief as if being told once wasn't enough for it to sink it for the young girl.
"Uhh, yes." Salem confirmed. "And in the future, Alice did die. It's probably a fixed point, probably can't be changed." Salem realized that if Alice hadn't died her family wouldn't have the museum or been in Salem at all, so she must be here for another reason.

Salem spent the better half of the night explaining where she was from, the museum her family had kept in the family in honor of all the poor women who unnecessarily died, namely Alice Parker, and they racked their brains trying to come up with either a way to get Salem home or come up with a reason why she was even there or how she could help. But to no avail. The four finally got too tired they ended up making sleeping arrangements for Salem and retired to bed resolving that they would find something in the morning.