1,321A/N: Happy Thursday, and welcome to a Halloween treat! ;)
This will be 12 chapters, updating daily and alternating between past and present. A quick bit of background history and answers to FAQs will follow in the closing A/N. I hope you enjoy it!
Prologue – The Burn
"It was better that ten suspected witches should escape, than that one innocent person should be condemned." – Increase Mather, Harvard University President, speaking against the Salem, Massachusetts Witch Trials. October 1692.
Andover Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony - 31 October, in the year of our Lord, 1692.
She leans in close and hisses furtively in my ear. "Isabella…was he worth the burn?"
As the torcher sets flame to the pyre, she backs away, concealing a surreptitious smile meant only for me.
Agony is instantaneous.
It commences at my feet, a sensation akin to one I once felt as a young child. The memory flits through my mind amidst the burn of a day long ago when I frolicked barefoot atop my family's hearth whilst a fire smoldered within the pit. Mother had briskly yanked me away, slapping at the embers clinging to my woolen skirt, their golden glow holding me rapt despite the pain. Mother then bemoaned the heavens.
Not for my stupidity. For said she, a stupid child I was not, even if she fervently prayed stupidity be blamed should others ever witness such rashness as she witnessed from me. Nay, what I possessed, added she, was tenfold more abominable than stupidity, for I was cursed with excess daring for a girl child. Certainly, too much inquisitiveness for mine own welfare. Mother feared for me should Andover village's elders discover my shameful secret. For 'twas known that girls should never display a taste for courage nor knowledge. Such is indecent, counter to God's law, and therefore, a doubtless sign of devilry at work.
Now, with my first scream, I wonder if that night, dancing close to such flames, was a harbinger of this night.
Indeed, although such acts as the one from my childhood – and, I suppose, several others since – may have foretold my method of end, nothing readied me for this torment, not even my full awareness that communing with him, that laying with him, was a damnable offense. Yet, how does one resist when Adam's very apple be set before you? How does one not drink from the cup when a creature seemingly created to quench that unquenchable thirst with which one was born offers himself to you? How was I to know that the price for gratification was departing the world aflame, with my thirst sated yet unabated?
Aye, here I be, a sacrifice, an offering to cleanse the village of its sins, conveniently all attributed to me. As the blaze grows and threatens my bare knees, I decide that night 'twas not an omen, for naught could have prepared me for such blasphemous betrayal as I have known. Yet even as I feel the hairs on my skin singe and smolder, even as the smoke rising stinks bewilderingly of charred flesh, I regret nothing.
For I know…
I know things no one in this village shall ever know.
I do not know things because I be the witch they claim I be. Rather, I know the fiery heat surrounding me be nothing to the scorch that consumed me when he took me, when he buried himself deeply, so profoundly that our bodies, if not our souls – for he claimed he possessed no soul – became one.
No beginning.
No end.
The mob surrounding me, those hurling spiteful curses, those praying for my sinful soul, even those weeping for my lost innocence, know nothing. The Goodwives bound to their frigid, hypocritically pious, and flaccid goodmen, these women repressed into equal dourness lest they be named devil's harlots by their own husbands, know nothing.
They shall never know the truths I learned with him. They shall never experience the freedom of sharing their thoughts aloud without fear of judgment or repercussion but rather as the recipient of awe and respect. They shall never know the incomparable pleasures of the flesh, the heights of ecstasy to be shared when two meet with the hunger of want rather than with the fervor of religion. They cannot fathom how a woman need not merely lay there whilst her body be used, with nothing to show afterward but pain, humiliation, and a babe suckling at her bleeding teat.
In our short time together, from him I learned mine own wants, mine own voice, mine own might. From him, I learned that even a woman as small as I can make a demigod as fierce as he fall to his knees in worship. Aye, my life was finite, my time with him even more limited, but it would never have been enough. Infinity would have been insufficient to quell the appetite he fanned within me.
And so, as the bonfire climbs, and my vision turns into a scarlet haze, as if I view the world through eyes as red as his, I answer her damnable inquiry:
"Aye," I grin between weeping, pleading, and cursing. "Aye, 'twas worth the burn. For he was the burn."
Then, I shout mine truths to them all. I tell them those things they shall never learn for themselves. And I assure them that, when they are asleep and warm in their beds this eve, happily convinced they have saved themselves from Salem village's lot and rid Andover village of its witch and demon's whore…they are only partly wrong.
I be no witch. And he be no demon.
But…I was his.
And though he be no demon, neither be he mortal.
And he shall come for them.
A/N: Thoughts?
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Twitter: PattyRosa817
Housekeeping items!
FAQs below will be followed by a short history lesson on the groundwork for the Massachusetts Bay Colony Witch Scare of 1692. Every chapter will have a short history blurb, and NONE will be required reading to follow the story.
FAQs
Q: How long will the story be?
A: 12 chapters – give or take. I say "give or take" because the story is mostly outlined/written out (I've got enough WIPs going on right now, so I don't want to add another one), so I know more or less where everything is going. My goal is to have it complete on or around Halloween. (Key words to take away from this answer are "give or take," "more or less," and "on or about." ;)
Q: Will the entire story take place in the year of our Lord, 1692?
A: No. We will alternate between the past and the present day.
Q: Will there be angst?
A: Yes. Lol. But there will also be love, laughs, thrills, and lemons. So, a bit of everything. :)
Q: Is there a posting schedule?
A: Yes. Daily. Unless I spill coffee on my laptop, and it crackle, crackle, pops!, and dies. Or something else comes up in RL that keeps me from updating. :)
Q: What should I do if I encounter a spelling/grammatical/research/factual error while reading your story?
A: Please let me know! Whether you do so in a review or a PM is up to you, but please note that I don't have (nor am I on the lookout for) a beta. Like most fanfic writers, I do this for fun and in my spare time (or not so spare time, but to keep myself sane in a topsy-turvy sort of world). I enjoy the freedom of posting whenever I'm ready to post without having to depend on anyone else's schedule. Also, like most of my fellow fanfic writers, my spare time is precious – as I know it is for most readers! But this means for me as a writer that sometimes, I miss an error here and there in my eagerness to post. If you alert me, I'll do my best to fix the error. Now, if you alert me via insults or while displaying an air of superiority comingled with disbelief that I'd make such a stupid mistake, I tend to leave the error just to be a petty, contrary bitch. ;)
Q: What should I do if I absolutely hate your story?
A: The answer to this question should be straightforward. In fact, it should probably be the easiest to answer compared to all answers here. Unfortunately, in all my time writing fanfiction, I've come to learn that, for some inexplicable reason, some people have a hard time figuring this one out. So, here we go. If you're not enjoying the story, hit the 'X' button and close the story down. Get it off your screen. Forget it exists. In fact, depending on your level of hatred for the story and your desire to express such hatred, you may want to forget I exist as well. :)
Q: Related to the question above, what are your thoughts on negative reviews?
A: While I won't lie and say I cherish them, obviously, requesting "reviews" invites positive and negative expressions. If you'd like to respectfully offer your thoughts, whether positive or negative, please don't hesitate to do so. I've started many interesting discussions over the years with reviewers infuriated with my characters or who have respectful critiques to offer me on my writing. Many of them are some of the best character studies and/or growth-through-critiques discussions I've had, and when done respectfully, I relish the discourse.
Q: What do you do when you receive reviews that are just plain old nasty/disrespectful/insulting/threatening?
A: Okay, so it's pretty easy for me to tell from just the first few words if/when I'm reading the aforementioned review. If the reviewer hasn't shown me the courtesy of signing in to discuss the review, I won't show the courtesy of reading the entire review. I delete it as soon as I see where it's going. It will never see the light of day, and that guest reviewer just wasted their time writing something no one will ever read. I've heard jokes about how nasty guest reviews up the review count as well as do positive reviews, so thanks and eff you, nasty GR. But nope, I won't even keep it around for that. Now, if the reviewer HAS signed in, I can't delete it, and how I deal with it depends on whether I'm pms'ing or not. ;)
Q: WHY are you starting a new story when you have a billion WIPs still to complete?!
A: Sigh. The answer to this one could probably be a novel in and of itself. Short answer: My frame of mind hasn't been the same since March 2020, as I know is true for many. At this point, when inspiration hits me, I take it where it hits (and hope it'll return where I've lost it). 3
Okay, I think that covers everything! If I've neglected to address anything, please let me know! And know that I try to get back to as many reviews as possible, but unfortunately, there are only so many hours in the day. I can't always reply, but please know that I love hearing from you guys, and I greatly appreciate the time you take to read and review. 3
A SUPER SHORT, UNOFFICIAL HISTORY LESSON ON THE GROUNDWORK OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY WITCH SCARE OF 1692
1692 was only a couple of hundred years removed from medieval times. Science was still in its herbals and "four humours" stage. King Phillip's War – a 14-month rebellion by Native Americans to defy English authority and stop colonization of their land, had ended only a few years prior. Outbreaks of smallpox were rampant. Rivalries were also rampant, pitting those with wealth tied to the ports against those who relied on agriculture.
The fall and winter of 1692 occurred less than three-quarters of a century after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. England had yet to sign a formal charter with the colony in Massachusetts, which meant the rights and privileges of the settlers were still up in the air. The winters were bitterly cold, there was little food or dry wood, and those "pesky natives," having been pushed off their land by these uninvited settlers, regularly aimed to reclaim it.
The only existing law was provided by the Puritan Church, which kept everyone in line through scare tactics. Preachers preached "Fire and brimstone" – the burning of your eternal soul for transgressions. The church demanded that individual sins be cleansed through public humiliation. Added to this, women were little more than property, and it was more than regular practice. It was custom to belittle them, to blame them when things went wrong.
Amid all these problems, it was easy for the Puritans to believe that the devil was always in their midst, just waiting for an opening to cause mischief. Of course, it would likely be the "weaker" sex who invited him in…
"See" you tomorrow!