CURSED; a fear street trilogy

Chapter seven: Deal With The Devil

I SAT ON MY BED IN MY ROOM, MY MOTHER DOWNSTAIRS TALKING WITH ELIJAH. People were still looking for Sarah and I think some had gone to Solomon Goode's house to look. I may have been eavesdropping on my mother's conversation with Elijah.

"People want your daughter to hang for trying to help the witches." The man explained to my mam.

The side of my head was pressed against my bedroom door that was locked from the outside, my mother going to even further lengths to keep me punished.

"I don't blame 'em." Mam replied, no emotion evident in her tone. "I'm ashamed to be her mother. So if they want her hanged, let them hang her."

My heart felt like it stopped beating. My lips parted and my eyes grew wider at my mother's words.

"I can  get her out of it, so long as she doesn't bear the Devil's mark. Does she?" I heard Elijah ask her.

"No. She doesn't. But she might as well. She's a burden to me and to Union. If hanging her is what needs to be done to keep this settlement safe, then so be it." Mam told him, still not a peep of remorse in her tone.

I slowly backed away from the door, looking around at the wooden floor boards of my room with my hand pressed to my stomach. I felt sick from my mother's words.

I jumped at the sound of quiet tapping on my window that looked out at the clearing before the woods, my head jolting up to see Isaac holding onto the ledge. He looked as though he were struggling, so I rushed over and opened the window for him, helping to pull him inside.

"What the bloody hell are you doing here, Isaac?" I asked him in a hurried whisper, my eyes darting from the door to him after I shut the window again. "If me mam finds you here, she'll kill ya."

"I had to see you, Beth. I'm scared for Sarah and Hannah. The settlement will not have any mercy for them." He said, linking our hands together as he walked closer to me. "They'll hang them." This time his voice became quieter and weaker.

I nodded slowly. "I know. And I fear they may hang me too." Isaac looked confused. "People want me to hang for trying to help them. And me mam...she's just given Elijah the 'okay' to do so."

Isaac's face morphed from confused to sorrowful. "Oh god." He muttered. His hands cupped either side of my face, as he looked from the floor to me. "Then you must go. You must leave Union."

"No. Isaac, I can't."

"God," he muttered again, beginning to panic more. "Elizabeth, you shouldn't have left that meeting house. I shouldn't have let you." He said more to himself than me.

I sighed, looking at Isaac with guilty eyes. "I had to help them. I don't believe they did this."

Isaac looked back at me, his expression matching mine. "I know. Nor do I, or Lizzie or Abi. But we are never going to be able to convince everyone else of that."

"Then we don't try to. We just help Sarah and Hannah leave this place, get as far as they can. We can't let them die." I spoke quietly, still hearing the conversation downstairs. "I'm going out tonight. I'm going to find Sarah."

"You're crazy, Beth." Isaac told me, "but I admire that."

He then moved even closer, tilting his head as his face moved slowly closer to mine. Our lips met in the middle and it was sweet, soft, and passionate. It started as little pecks, one after the other and then morphed into long kisses that made us run out of breath.

Reluctantly, I pulled away first but our bodies stayed close. My hands were on his slightly revealed chest and his hands were placed nicely on my hips, our foreheads resting against each other as we lightly panted.

"Is there anything I can do to help you find Sarah?" Isaac whispered almost against my lips.

"No. Just keep yourself, Lizzie and Abigail safe. If anything were to happen to yous, god, I think I'd go mad."

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The woods spread wide and I could be out here all night looking for Sarah if I didn't know her well enough. Thankfully, I did and I knew if she were to go anywhere for help, it'd be to Solomon. The two were close, I knew that, and I also knew that after everything she has done for him, he owes her.

So Solomon's is where I went first, his house in the woods.

My fist knocked on the door with full force, desperate to get in to find Sarah but i didn't need to knock long for the door pushed open. It was already open?

"Solomon?" I called out as I walked further into the house. No sign of the man. "Solomon, you home?"

As I looked around, I noticed the door to the back room was open. Cautiously, I walked in but not before picking up a fire poker from the living area. Inside the room was a smaller door that was left ever so slightly open.

I walked through, keeping the fire poker in front of me body as I wandered down the stairs and into the dimly lit basement. It was full of vegetables and meat, pig heads hanging from the ceiling. At the back of the room was a smaller cutout in the wall, leading further.

Ducking, I went through. On the floor was carved a pentagram, beside it lay a goats head. Kneeling on one knee, I took a closer look, dipping two of my fingers into the carving and taking them out, my fingers now dripping with the blood of the goat.

I fell back at the shock with a gasp, sitting on me ass now and I spotted the book that sat beside me, open on an incantation.

Solomon made a deal with the devil.