Trapped

IX

The first thing I noticed about my new arrangement was the bumping. Every so often, I would be bumped so hard I was practically thrown out of my seat. I grimaced and cracked one eye open, groaning at the pain of my achy head. I surveyed my surroundings. I was in a carriage, that much was obvious. I was sitting on the bench of it. I tried to move my hands and realized they were tightly tied behind my back with a thick rope.

My eyes scanned the rest of the carriage, until they landed on the three girls huddled in the corner of it, as far away from me as possible, watching me with wide and wary eyes. I cleared my throat, and they jumped, before averting their eyes. "Where are we?" I asked, inching closer to the trio.

"On our way to our execution, m'am," Lydia said, nervously. My jaw dropped down to my chest.

"No. No. No. No. No. This is not happening. How can this be happening? Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. What the hell am I going to do? No. No. No. No. We have to get out of here. How are we going to get out of here? Help!" I freaked out, basically yelling.

"Shh. They'll hear you," Greta whispered fiercely.

"Keep it quiet back there!" Someone yelled from the front of the carriage. I took a deep breath and opened the curtain at the back of the carriage. There were three men riding horses behind it, glaring at me and holding up guns. I gulped and lowered the curtain back down.

"Why did you try to save us?" Abigail asked, her eyes frantically blinking. There were visible tear tracks on her cheeks, breaking through the dirt that had accumulated on her face during her time in that cell. She wasn't crying then, but she had been before, that much was obvious.

"Because I know you're all innocent. None of you are real witches." I looked each of them straight in the idea in turn.

"How do you know?" Lydia asked.

"Yeah, everyone else thinks we're evil," said Abigail.

"I am just glad that someone at least tried to save us," Greta voiced, expressing something that they were all grateful for. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." I wasn't sure if I should tell them I was from the future and sent there to help them or not. "Just think of me as your guardian angel." I gave them a small smile that was kind of hard to muster up.

I needed a plan and fast. I needed to save these girls. It wasn't about me anymore. It was about them. They needed to grow old. They needed to get married and have a family. They needed to live. I didn't.

Before I could think of what to do, the carriage stopped moving. I swore under my breath. A the curtain was drawn open and four men stood outside of it.

"Let's go, whores," one of them said. He climbed aboard the carriage and grabbed Lydia, who was closest to him. She screamed, as he ripped her out of her seat and tossed her to the men below. They caught her and made sure she didn't get away. He threw the other two girls off, before coming to me.

His meaty hand wrapped around my arm. He yanked me up, almost pulling my shoulder out of its socket. I bit my lip to hold in my scream of panic. He pushed me out of the carriage. I hit the ground hard, landing shoulder first, before another man pulled me up by my tied up arms. I struggled against his grip, but he just held tighter.

"Let me go! I did nothing wrong!" I yelled. The guy holding me kicked me in the back of my knees. I would have dropped to the floor, but he yanked me back up.

"Stop the nonsense, bitch." He pressed his lips to my ear and harshly whispered into it. I cringed my head away and blinked back tears.

"Please, please, please," I mumbled. Someone walked by us on the street. It was a man. He was holding the hand of a little girl, probably about five years old. I looked him straight in the eye. He quickly looked away. "Help me! Please, sir! I've been kidnapped! Help! He-" I screamed at the top of my lungs, before the guard cut me off, by placing his hand over my mouth. The man just lifted his daughter up to his hip and kept walking, speeding up a bit.

The man that originally threw me out of the carriage walked up to me and slapped me straight across the face. I whimpered in pain and bit my lip hard, as my head flew in the opposite direction. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut, standing back up to my full height. I didn't want to show weakness. I couldn't let them know how afraid I was.

When I opened my eyes, Ebenezer was standing in front of me, his cold eyes glaring straight into mine. We made eye contact, and he looked away, as if he actually felt a slight bit of guilt at putting me in this situation.

"It is time. Come along," he said to one of the guards. We started walking down the dirt road.

About a minute later, we came to the center of town. There was a large crowd of people gathered there, ranging from babies and small children to the elderly, and everyone in between. It looked like the whole town was there. All of their attention was focused on one object that loomed in front of me. A big tree, standing high and mighty, with a rope noose hanging from the thickest branch. A wooden block lay beneath it. The noose swung slightly, hauntingly, back and forth, back and forth. I gulped and bit back tears. I was about to be hanged in front of hundreds of people.

The guards plopped us down into a fenced in area, almost like a cage, but without a top. They stayed close by us, but focused their eyes on Ebenezer, who was addressing the crowd.

"Finley? Wait! Finley! What is happening?" It was Elias, rushing towards me. He got to the point where he could almost touch the fence, before a guard grabbed his arm and yanked him back. Ebenezer hurried over to his brother.

"Calm down, Elias. It is where she belongs. She is a filthy, lying witch. This is the only way to keep our community safe," Ebenezer said, his hand on his brother's shoulder.

"This must be a mistake, brother." Elias looked at me, his eyebrows drawn together. I looked back at him, imploring him to help me out of there.

"There is no mistake. I saw her practicing witchcraft right outside of the jail. She was trying to get her fellow witches out. I am sorry, I know you trusted her, but I saw it with my own eyes. There is no mistaking that," Ebenezer lied right to his brother's face.

Elias looked at me with betrayal in his eyes. His lips parted in shock. "Is that true, Finley?"

I flung myself at the edge of the fence, but it did not budge. "No! He's lying! You have to believe me, Elias. Please!" I screamed, pleading with him, as tears filled my eyes.

He looked torn. He glanced at his brother, then back at me. Ebenezer stepped into his line of sight, blocking his view of me. "I am sorry, Elias. But who are you going to believe, your own brother, or the witch you just met?"

Elias gave me one last longing look, before he shook his head and rejoined the crowd. "No! Please, Elias! Come back!" Tears poured out of my eyes now. I no longer possessed the ability or energy to hold them back. My fingers curled around the fence, hoping against hope that he would turn around and come back, but he didn't. He was gone. I leaned my back against the fence and slid down in despair. My last hope at getting out of there was gone. What was I going to do now?