Witch Hunt #Wattys2018

Chapter 10

I slowly turned to face Seraphina. Her mouth hung open in shock and her eyebrows were raised so high they could greet her hairline.

For a moment we said nothing, until Michael appeared at Seraphina's side, "What are you doing here?" He asked

My voice returned to me, "I was going to the clearing. I wanted some time alone. I heard the two of you speaking and I hid. I heard you two talking. When you finished I tried to hide. Then Seraphina caught me." I rambled

The two shared a horrified expression, "How much of that did you hear?" Seraphina asked

"Enough." I blurted, "I know your mother's a witch."

Michael looked down defeated, "You might as well tell her the rest." He groaned

Seraphina looked up at him, then at me, and then began to speak, "She wasn't always.When we were younger our family was normal. Then while our mother was pregnant with our younger brother, our father died of fever the winter before he was born. After that, she started acting really strange. She would mutter stuff in her sleep, and under her breath. It got really bad when our brother died in childbirth. She locked herself in the house, and always talked about raising the dead. When I was ten she came clean. She said she had made a deal with the devil, and she was going to join other's like her. She gave Michael that necklace," The necklace suddenly felt heavy around my neck, I grasped the pendant, a small white stone, and squeezed it, "saying it would protect us, and then left." She paused to look at Michael, to see if he wanted to add any thing, instead of speaking he kept his head low, "We tried to hide the fact that she was gone, it wasn't hard at first, as she barely left the house any way. But after a couple weeks people started to get suspicious. It was Michael's idea to run away. We wandered the forests for a couple weeks, until we stumbled upon the Witch Hunters. We only told one person about our mother. Reverend Alden."

Reverend Alden was the Witch Hunter's reverend. He was a short slightly round man, with a friendly face. When I first met him, I first noticed how starkly different he was from Reverend Brusco.

Seraphina continued, "He told us our secret was safe, and found us trainors. The only other person that knows is Eliana. Michael told her after she told him about her parents."

Eliana, whose mother was more than likely dead, kept this secret. I had an inkling she was so willing to keep their secret because she knew what it was like to hide your parentage.

"Have you seen your since that day?" I asked

Michael shook his head, "I don't think so anyway, I doubt I would recognize her. You remember what the witches at the hollow look like."

I did. They looked like they had never eaten a thing in their lives. Their bones visible under their loose skin. I wondered what those people looked like before their madness hollowed them out. I wondered what Mira looked like.

Michael looked up at me, his eyes sparkling with tears, "Please don't tell anyone." He begged, "Our mother is a part of my life I wish I could forget."

I nodded my head vigorously, "I swear on my life I won't tell."

I followed the two back to the village, deciding alone time was not what I needed. I needed a distraction.

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"Rose!" Aliza called when I neared our cabin.

"Yes?" I questioned wondering was had made her so happy

"Rien just asked me to court him!" She said, with a bigger smile than I had seen her wear in all the time I'd known her. That being a big achievement

"Aliza! I'm happy for you!" I told her, placing a hand on her shoulder and giving her a smile.

"Imagine our wedding!" She sighed

I smiled and nodded as she rambled on about how excited she was, until she gasped, "I haven't told Eliana yet!" She turned to her, "Don't let her know I told you first!" She then turned and ran in the direction of the nurse house.

I entered the cabin, and lit the candle on my bed side. I found myself wishing Seraphina hadn't done all the laundry that morning, as I needed something to do. Anything to distract myself from the news I had been given.

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At lunch Aliza told Seraphina about Rien. As she rambled on about him to her I thought about how little she knew about her cabin mates. I had only told Eliana about my sister. She probably didn't know Eliana had told me about their mother, and only Eliana and I knew about Seraphina's mother. I felt bad for her, as she was so happy to tell us about her courtship.
After we ate, Aliza and I brought food to the nurse house, as they weren't allowed to leave during the day unless they were doing chores. When we peeked our heads in the room, she was helping a man with what looked like a fishing hook stuck in his arm. We hurriedly left the room and gave the other nurses and doctor their food. A nurse with blonde hair and green eyes told us she would bring Eliana her food. We left the small building to go find something else to do.