The Virginian Love Massacre of 1871

Chapter Five

For the second time, I have locked myself in my room.

Willa would laugh at me if she saw how irritated I was at my bedroom walls. I have always been fond of the red wallpaper, but at this moment, I feel as though it is taunting me.

I have been staring at the blank pages in my journal for hours. Honestly, I've got nothing. No thought's have come to me because I am too angry with my family to think effectively.

Perhaps it is all very woe is me. Grim would tell me I am pouting like a child. That thought angers me even more.

It is ridiculous, really. How my family finds me too soft. Too kind, too gentle, too caring. Nobody else would think this, my second french tutor told my mother that if she loved me, she should not pray for god to banish any evil from our home, because I would be swept away with them.

I thought it was poetic, a little dramatic, especially because I was only twelve.

The look on his face when I asked him to learn undead summonings in the french language still fills me with bursting delight to this day.

Wesley Blair calls me a witch. He has since we were twelve, after our teacher asked us if we knew the significance behind our names.

"Alice Kyteler was the first recorded woman in Ireland to be prosecuted for witchcraft. I am named after her."  I told my class proudly. I remember the uneasy feeling I had when announcing it, I wasn't quite sure how people would react.

They reacted just as I suspected them to.

"The woman who killed her husbands and remarried each time before she was caught?"

I defended her, I felt as though it was my responsibility to. "That was hearsay, never proven."

"You're named after a witch."  My classmates shared an odd look.

"A woman who was condemned for witchcraft with no proof."

"She was either a witch or a murderer."

And because I had already answered that, I clenched my fist at my side and did my best to end the conversation. "And still, I am named after her."

"You Montgomery's are-"

"Thank you, Alice. Thank you for sharing."  I remember my teachers panicked face, trying to stop the children from offending his bosses daughter.

I remember how quickly he moved on to the next student. I remember how other classmates looked at me for the rest of the day. Witchcraft is a tricky subject in the religious town of Falls Church. After the revival, nobody dares to mention it.

I am named after a woman who was not a witch, but was unjustly condemned because of the fear she provoked on powerful men.

If there were any students who did not find me peculiar before that moment, they most certainly did after.

I remember the shrill voice of Sarah Wilton, telling  her friends that she was scared of me. I remember most of my classmates agreeing with her, vowing to leave me be and stay far away from me.

Wesley was amongst them, but I never heard a word from him in the conversation.

"Hello, witch."  I had heard from behind me.

I have known Wesley for a long time. Throughout our lives, he has shown many unpleasant feelings towards me. Fear has never been one of them.

"Pardon?"

Even at twelve, my glare was ruthless. He paid no mind to it and continued. "I would say it is quite fitting. Alice Montgomery, a witch or a murderer? A question I believe I know the answer to."