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It all happened so fast.
One minute Lizzie was helping Beatrice to her feet, the four of them watching as Sarah was grabbed by the hair and wrapped in chains alongside Hannah, and the next they were being hauled to the large tree on the edge of town.
It was early morning by now, but the people of Union clung to their torches as they dragged the girls through the long grass. Sarah was still bloody, part of her skirt had been ripped off by her to use as a makeshift bandage on her wrist where her hand should be.
There were already whispers of what had been done to it. Beatrice didn't want to hear them.
In the light of the morning, black and blue bruises were appearing on Hannah's face and arms. They stood near the back, near Sarah's despondent father. He had lost his son not but three days ago. Now his only daughter was to be hanged in public.
Daniel stood by the front, along with Beatrice's father and Solomon Goode. Three men she deemed deserved to be hanged more than the two girls they had in chains.
Solomon and Sarah had been friends. An odd pairing, but friends nonetheless. Beatrice held no doubt in her mind about it; Sarah had gone to him for help and he had turned her in. Pretended in public to be so disgusted by the townspeople's actions, speaking out against them in the meeting house, locking himself away so as to not participate in the hunt. He had been the one to turn her in.
"The punishment for witchcraft," Elijah Goode tugged on their chains. Wrapped from their arms to their torsos and coming to a point around each of the girls' necks. "Is death by hanging!"
The crowd shouted. "Hang them!"
Beatrice felt like she was going to be sick.
The four of them watched from their places in the crowd, unable to do anything to dissuade the angry mob of people declaring their friends dead. Abigail nervous, Isaac enraged, Lizzie dismayed and Beatrice griefstricken.
"Confess!" Hannah and Sarah both looked exhausted. Resigned to their fates, they knew nothing they could say would make them any less guilty in the eyes of the town. Their town that had raised them from infancy. The people of Union weren't done. They didn't want eradication. They wanted an example made. "Confess your sins or burn in eternal hell." Elijah said the last part to Hannah specifically.
Goody-Goody Hannah Miller. The pastor's daughter. Known for her long blonde hair, her kind smile, her unwavering faith. She didn't take her eyes off Sarah.
Grace Miller stood at the front of the crowd, praying under her breath, but not doing anything to stop them.
Hannah didn't take her eyes off Sarah. She saw the exact instant her eyes changed.
Through the yelling, the crazed and hysterical jeers, Beatrice didn't catch it. But she saw Sarah's lips move, and that was enough.
