The Witch of Northester

We're Crawling on our Hands and Knees

I'm shoved to the ground, and the motion is jarring. The noose is around my neck. My wrists are tied in front of me, and I feel boot after boot upon my ass, kicking me as I crawl my way up the hill to the gallows. This is far more humiliating than my mother's execution, and I think that's the point.

My knees hurt, and I struggle to balance myself with my hands, but as soon as I start to reorient myself, another boot sends me sprawling forward in the mud. I look up and I see Old man Garrett. He doesn't look so happy, but he ducks his head and walks away, minding his own business.

Mrs. Potts won't be there, but Fresca's mom watches with her children from behind the trees in the red lane. I can just barely see their forms from the distance, the moonlight illuminating everything within the path.

I feel the heat of a torch as one woman bends low to curse me and then spit in my face. I duck, wiping at it with the back of my hand. Another boot. I collapse onto the ground.

A rough hand grabs the back collar of my dress, yanking my torso up before throwing me forward onto the ground. They're all chanting. They're all laughing at me.

They're all cursing me to my grave.'

Kelan is in the mix there, somewhere. The man I bore my heart and soul to. The man I thought would be my saving grace. Would bring me up and out of this town had betrayed me.

So had my friend and sister, Fresca. I am just like mom...

I am all alone, here. I lived alone even though I didn't know it, and I will die alone like the traitor they thought I was. The traitor who became betrayed.

The reverend pulls me up gently, as if he is determined to remain the saint in all this madness, despite being the very person who condemned me. "Have you anything else to say, child? Anything to repent of? Anything that God might favor when you go up to meet Him?"

I sneered back, determined to hold onto what little pride I had left, "I'll be sure to tell Him put you out of management."

He scoffed, as if the insult were nothing new to him, but I was a hopeless cause.

They throw the other end of the rope up into the trees, and I watch it dangle down to the other side. More whoops and hollers. These people are excited to see me hang. They want to see me dead.

And they're relishing in delight of it.

Tears course down my cheeks, hope for humanity gone. They've brought me to my basist level, taking away everything I had and not even giving me the common courtesy of a trial. This isn't fair. It wasn't fair for mom, it's not fair for me.

I look up to see Kelan, and he's watching coolly.

I look away, squeezing my eyes shut and clenching my hands as soon as I start to feel the rope tighten. I'm lifted off the ground, feet hovering. I struggle, my head cranked to one side. It's more than not breathing. It's pressure and bulging. It's blood burning at the back of your eyes and your chest thumping like a madman. Oh mom. Oh mom I did this to you!

Despite the loud commotion, the pain and the pressure...after a few minutes that felt like an eternity...I managed to pass out, and watched as everything within my vision faded away to nothingness.