story ideas that you guys can use

idea 1

title i had chosen:

planchette

hook:

"you're not supposed to look through a planchette."

"and why's that?"

"i — i don't know . . ."

"well, we're both about to find out."

prologue that i wrote for it:

In the year of 1676, a baby girl was born in the village of Salem, Massachusetts. She was the product of an affair and the daughter of a goddess. Her father, a mortal man named William Phips, who was respected governor of Massachusetts, was seduced by Hecate, the Greek goddess of magic and crossroads deals. Because of this affair, she was given the name Scarlet, forcing her father to bare her as a Scarlet Letter.

As she grew, odd things began to happen around her. Her sisters became ill when she would get angry with them; a failed deal would come about when her father mistreated their mother; the town would have a famine when she wouldn't acquire a housewife skill. The instance that made her father realize she wasn't as innocent as a child should've been was when a boy, who was her classmate, had ripped her dress and bruised her neck. The next day, the town was buzzing about how "John Goodwin's eldest boy stole from that wretched washwoman Goody Glover." From that point on, his siblings began to become sick, becoming mentally unstable and showing signs of a disease the village of Salem had never seen. Soon, anyone who crossed Scarlet joined the siblings.

From that point on, her father began to hear rumors of witchcraft dance around the town. He was awoken one night by the sound of banging on his door, and the now 16-year-old Scarlet Phips watched through her window as her father rode away in a buggy towards the courthouse. Three women had been attacked and accused of witchcraft, and were seized by the people of the village and brought to the courthouse in a forceful attempt for action to be taken.

Her father watched as mass hysteria broke out around town, doing nothing to stop the people he governed kill innocent people. On May 27th, 1692, he formed the Special Court of Oyer and Terminer for Suffolk, used solely to prosecute witches, and every night as she watched her father ride away to view cases that he would do nothing to stop, her anger grew larger and larger.

On the night of June 10th, 1692, the day of the first female hanging, Scarlet was visited in the night by the spirit of the woman. Bridget Bishop was her name, and she was innocent. Her torn coat that was used to convict her was visible, and she pulled a large book out of it, placing it onto Scarlet's bed. Then, she was gone.

As the 16-year-old read through the book, she was scared of the fact she could read and understand everything within, despite it all being in Latin. With this book in her possession, Scarlet's anger toward her father became unbearable. Every time she was in the room with the man who killed Bridget Bishop, she felt the need to choke him.

On the night of the 5 hangings of more innocent women, Scarlet lost control. She snuck down the the basement of the home, her spell book wrapped in her black cloak. When she made it to the bottom of the stairs, she pushed the floor clean, and opened the window to let it be illuminated by the moon. A perfect circle and a ritual later, her father began to choke in the middle of the court room. Into his hand, he coughed up blood, rabbit teeth, and a piece of the family's broom's handle. As he died, the bowl she used for the ritual began to fill itself with a golden liquid. She used her finger to stir it, and dropped a piece of the torn page from her book containing the hex. It began to change from glimmering gold to shimmering silver, and it became a gas with a mind of its own, flying into Scarlet's nose as she inhaled it.

As soon as she heard the door above slam open and yelling ensue, she escaped out the window with her spell book, wearing her black cloak, and with immortality. As soon as her foot was out the window, she heard walking on the basement stairs, then the sound of another person choking over the hushed Latin whispers she let out into the dead, cold night.

background/my thoughts:

so this was actually fairly well researched before i even started writing. for example, all the people mentioned were real aside from Scarlet. but i know i'll never take the time to think out ideas for this and actually take my time writing them, so this is the first one.