CURSED; a fear street trilogy

Chapter three: A Sinner

I ENTERED THE DINING ROOM, ME MAM WAS SAT AROUND THE TABLE WITH A MAN AND HIS PARENTS. Their heads all turned to look at me as the last step creaked with my weight on it. Jacob was stood by the door that lead to the garden, he leant against the door frame with a sorrowful look.

"Mam, what's going on?" I asked, walking closer to the table.

She stood from her seat with a smile on her face. "Come sit, girl." She told me, opening her arms to me.

I looked from her, to the family at our dinner table and then to Jacob before looking back at Mam. "No." I shook my head. "I don't want to sit. What's going on?"

Mam hesitated before speaking, swallowing a lump in her throat. "We-we've made an arrangement, dear."

I shook my head slowly, my eyes twitching with tears building up. "No."

"Yes."

"No! I shan't marry!" I shouted at me Mam, catching her off guard.

She turned to the family who looked right back at her. The father spoke. "We shall leave you to discuss the arrangements together." My Mam nodded with a thanks as the family left.

"I'm not marrying anyone, least of all some boy you've found!"

Mam shook her head, clearly getting angry. "I wasn't asking! They have offered us part of their land and they shall share their money with us if you marry their son." She explained, expecting that to make a difference.

"They're not even from this settlement? So, we'd have to move? I'd be forced to leave me friends!" I raised my voice at her.

"Yes." Mam bluntly said back. "It's what's best for the family, I'm doing it for us."

"I'm the family too! I don't care if it makes you happy, I'm not marrying him!" I shouted, but my mouth was quickly tight shut as me Mam's hand met my face.

Mam had never properly hit Jacob or I. I heard Jacob's audible gasp that was followed with Mother's. My eyes didn't move from the wooden floorboards of our kitchen, no matter how much Mam begged me to look at her.

"Please, Elizabeth. Look at me." She pleaded, sounding desperate and as though she were about to cry.

But I didn't look at her. Not even as I left for the front door, quickly closing it behind me as I walked quickly away from the house. Mam didn't bother to follow, knowing I wouldn't go far and I was smart enough to not get into any trouble.

Once I was a fair distance from the house that's when I looked back, seeing mother stood at the door, watching me with a sad expression.

"Sin has been brought upon this town! For Sarah Fier and Hannah Miller lay together!" Mad Thomas bellowed throughout the settlement, catching the attention of everyone.

His words spiked an interest in me and ,without realising, my feet were walking me over to the filthy man. "What story are you twisting today, Thomas?" I asked him, tilting my head at the taller boy.

Thomas was always covered in dirt, sometimes you couldn't tell if it was his own filth or if it belonged to animals. His teeth were all black and his hair stringy and greasy, like rat tails.

"Haven't you heard?" He queried, putting his grimy face closer to mine. "The Devil is amongst us." Thomas lowered his voice to a whisper as he pressed his cheek against mine, talking into me ear.

Sarah and Hannah?

Getting too grossed out by Thomas' presence alone, I figured I should go find Isaac. He brought me great comfort in this crappy world we live in.

Once I had spotted him, doing his usual jobs, I made no hesitation to pace towards him. Issac's head lifted as he spotted me, a smile growing on his face as he waved to me.

I didn't wave back. Instead, I softly pressed my lips to his in a short kiss before pulling away. He looked taken back but in awe.

Isaac glanced over my shoulder, his smile dropping. "Your mother is at the window." He told me, knowing I was usually worried she'd see us.

I shook my head, smiling back at the boy. "I don't care."

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The rest of my day was spent doing small chores around Isaac's house, doing what I could to help out. I was currently washing fruit in the sink, feeling rather content at the moment. Perhaps these jobs were just a way of not letting my mind wander back to me mother.

I placed the fruit neatly in a bowl, heading over to the table to place it down. As I moved one of the other bowls on top of the table, I immediately dropped it back down.

The food was covered in mould and bugs; ants, beetles, flies and worms. You name it, it was eating its way through the food.

"Isaac!" I called up the stairs to him and he was soon jogging down.

I showed him the food bowl and he grimaced. "Ugh," he groaned. "This was only put out this morning."

Whilst he cleaned that up, I continued with what I was originally doing. I went over to the sink, picking up the bowl of fruit only for the same to have happened to them.

"What? I only just picked these." I said, speaking as more of a question to no one in particular. One of the apples had a hole going right the way through it.

Isaac and I shared a look. A look that was full of confusement and concern. Something was wrong.

"Come on." He nodded to the front door, taking my hand in his. "Let's go for a wee walk."

The two of us walked beside each other, going nowhere in particular. Isaac had taken an apple that looked fine from the fruit bowl before we left and he bit into it as we both nodded to Sarah.

The piece of apple that was in his mouth was then spat to the floor, the inside of the fruit being black. I gagged a little at the sight and the thought of biting into that.

"The dark one has come." Thomas preached, "to harvest the hitter fruit of the evil we have sown. To feast on our misdeeds. And yet you all smile, blind to the horrors around us. But you see it now, don't you?  He blocks our well,"

I took Isaac's hand, walking us closer to where people were fussing around the well, trying to take whatever had caught the bucket out. We stood with Abigail and Sarah.

"Clogs it with our sin. He takes our water. He takes our life blood!"

"What's happened?" Sarah asked the other girl.

"The buckets caught on something." Abi told her briefly.

I leaned closer to the others, "I'm getting proper tired of Mad Thomas' damn preaching." The others agreed with hums and nods.

The men at the well suddenly got the bucket loose, pulling it up as quick as they could. Thomas ran closer to the water source.

"A dead dog in the well!" Someone shouted. I slowly moved closer, seeing the stale dog. I gasped, reaching my arm back which Isaac took a hold of.

"Our water! It's poisoned!" A scared woman shrieked at the sight of the dog. Merryboy. Sarah Fier's dog.

"See? You have already drunk from the cup of darkness." Thomas continued. "This is the work of the Devil. He has come to stake our land. Who among you has welcomed the Devil to Union? Whose lust? Whose sin?"

"Oh, foolish Union. The Devil has come and cast his darkness over us. And his darkness grows within each of us like a rot."