CURSED; a fear street trilogy

Chapter five: The Meeting House

AFTER COLLECTING MYSELF AND WIPING THE NOW SILENT TEARS FROM MY CHEEKS, I stood from the old wooden flooring of my kitchen. I took in a deep breath, and then realised it as I wiped my hands down my skirt, smoothing it out as best as I could.

Mother wasn't going to leave her room tonight so there was no point in bothering to ask if she'd come to the meeting house with me. I left on me own, closing the front door behind me.

Everyone was stood cheering at whatever Mr Berman had just said from where he stood at the front of the room as I entered the meeting house. I quietly walked myself to where I saw Isaac sat and I slid into the seat beside him.

"What's going?" I whispered to the boy.

He turned his head to look at me, whispering back. "They believe there is an evil force at work. That something possessed the Pastor." He Isaac briefly explained.

Mad Thomas took his turn at the stand, leaning over it with his greasy hair falling in front of his face. "I saw some little lambs of our town...laughing, dallying on the full moon last!"

The majority of the crowd shouted at his words. Isaac was nervously bouncing his leg up and down with his hands twitching and shaking. Gently, I glided my hand into his and linked our fingers, giving his hand a soft squeeze as Thomas continued.

"There were some of us in the woods, but there was no...we drank Apple Jack. We danced. We are young that is not a crime!" Isaac tried to explain to the others in the room as he had his turn at the stand.

"Heathens!" The adults booed him.

Mad Thomas stood, pointing a finger at Isaac. "You have sinned! You have sinned!"

"Look upon your children!" Mad Thomas leaned even further over the stand. "For they will bear the Devil's Mark!"

The door to the meeting house opened and closed and the seat behind me was now taken by my own Mam. She decided to show up.

People chanted 'witchcraft' including my mother who now seemed more angry then anything else, very different to how she was earlier.

"I too fear a dark shadow has been cast upon us...." it was now my turn at the stand and me mother couldn't look less pleased. I didn't care though.

"But we cannot go pointing fingers wherever we wish and lay blame with poor judgment. Perhaps Pastor Miller was the origin of this shadow. Perhaps he had heard of one too many sins and decided to make us pay. Maybe, this is over now that the Pastor is dead!"

People booed me like they had Isaac but I continued, I was going to fight my argument whether they liked it or not.

I sighed heavily, resting my arms on the stand. "Are we really about to listen to a man we call 'Mad' Thomas?" My arm was held out with a finger pointed at the older boy who looked majorly offended.

"Yes, witchcraft. But just as my brother Solomon heroically expelled the darkness among us by killing our afflicted pastor, we too will punish and surmount this evil!" Elijah Goode exclaimed, how door where Thomas was once.

"Yes, we will!"

"As survivors, our faces always will remain toward the sun."

"I traced it on my patrol!" a watchman said, "this scourge centres on Union proper. I've searched the woods. It does not extend behind the settlement. It's here! It's in Union! We are being punished and I have a list of names!"

People shouted for it to be shown to us, and I looked around the room. Each person was just as angry as the other but that anger came from fear.

Mam placed a hand on my shoulder from behind me, making me flinch a little but she didn't remove it. My head turned to look at her from over my shoulder and there she was, stood up and shouting with the others.

Her eyes held a look I'd never once seen on her; rage, determination. She looked almost crazy. Like she would do anything to hold someone accountable.

Solomon Goode left his seat, standing. "Enough! Enough!" He shouted over the top of everyone to quiet them down. "Listen to yourselves! Speculation! Chasing shadows. Imagined curses! I ask...do you have proof?" Solomon pointed at the watchman. "No. Or you?" He pointed at Mad Thomas. "Or any of you?!"

Caleb stood abruptly, "I had proof!" He exclaimed confidently. "It was some nights back when the full moon had risen just beside the sun." He'd now moved to the stand. "As I lay sleeping, she came to me. She witched me and led me to the woods. She naked...and riding a red mule. The red mule became a horned man. And she made me watch as she lay with the Devil."

"Who?"
"Who was it?"

"As both of them lay with the Devil."

"Both of them?"

"Hannah Miller and Sarah Fier!"

Hannah's mam stood with a cry, "no!"

I gasped, not in surprise of them but at the fact they were being blamed for this. They'd be hanged. Sarah's father stood, then everyone else.

"Witches! Witches!" Mad Thomas shouted, sounding more crazy then ever but no one else would've agreed with me as they joined his shouts.

Isaac and I shared a worried look before the two of us hurriedly glanced around the room at everyone who was accusing our friends of witchcraft.

"I saw Hannah Miller and Sarah Fier."

"I saw Hannah Miller."

"I saw Hannah Miller."

"I saw Hannah Miller."

"I saw Sarah Fier."

"I saw Sarah Fier."

"I saw Sarah Fier."

It was only men. Only men accused the two girls of witchcraft as they took turns at the stand and my heart beat began to rise. Caleb turned his head, looking out the window at the front of the building.

"Witches!" He pointed a stern finger at it, "the witches! The witches!"

The men of the settlement stood, running out of the meeting house and chasing after the girls. I went to stand but was pulled back to my seat by Isaac.

"Where you going?" He asked with a very worried looked on his face. He already knew the answer.

"They're our friends." Was all I said before he loosened his grip and I left the seat once more and headed for the door.

Once I had managed to push past panicked people, I reached the door only for me mam to tightly grab hold of my wrist and pull my body into hers. "You go out there and you are no longer my daughter." She practically spat at me.

For no longer then a second I stared up at her, her grip tightening. I strongly pulled my arm away from her and took a step back. "Consider yourself childless." I muttered to her before running out the door.

A/N: I was gonna publish this yesterday but didn't get round to finishing it then, sorry bout that. :)

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