Supernatural: One Year Gone (13 page)

Though she was often left behind by Nathaniel and the boys on some of their more dangerous hunts, Hannah always made herself useful. She was fluent in four languages, including the local Indian dialect, which had helped her learn some of their religious practices. Her father relied on her to figure out many of the spells and books that they referenced.

“So we know that Abigail Faulkner and Reverend Parris’s daughter attend a quilting circle with Anne Putnam and Prudence Lewis,” Hannah continued.

“And all four of those girls are claiming to be afflicted by witches,” Nathaniel said.

“Poor Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba. There will be a trial for those three I’m sure,” Rose Mary said. “Nothing gets Reverend Parris in more of a tizzy than the talk of evil. It is strange though, I’m sure they are just old women.”

“Are they witches, Father?” Thomas asked.

“I can’t be sure. I’ll try a marking spell on them, if I can get close to them at the trial. That should tell us for certain,” Nathaniel replied.

“I can’t imagine that those women are witches,” Hannah said. “Tituba seems like such a simple woman when I see her in the village.”

“Well then, who is afflicting the girls?” Caleb asked.

Hannah shrugged. “If I were a witch I wouldn’t be caught so easily. Don’t you think, Father?”

“The girls claim to be able to see the women afflicting them,” Nathaniel observed.

“Well, I can say a lot of things. I can say I see a horse with a lilac coat on in front of me. That doesn’t mean it’s true,” Hannah countered.

“I’ll try a marking spell on the three women. Then we’ll know for sure,” Nathaniel repeated.

“Do you think those women killed Abigail Faulkner?” Thomas asked.

Nathaniel thought about it for a moment.

“I think we can be sure that whomever killed Abigail is also afflicting the girls.”

* * *

A couple of days later, Reverend Parris’s servant Tituba, a slave he had brought with him to Salem from his time in the West Indies, was taken to the meetinghouse, along with the elderly Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne.

A great crowd gathered outside. Whispers of gossip swept through the people: four innocent girls were afflicted with horrible visions and manipulations by the women.
They must be witches,
the people murmured.

In the colonies, witchcraft was punishable by hanging, though in the past when accusations of witchcraft had erupted, no one had been hanged. But a particular fear struck everyone in the late winter of 1692.

All of New England was undergoing social and political upheaval and Salem had undergone a series of severe strains: The English and their impositions; as well as the raids by King Philip, the leader of the Wampanoag Indians, and his men, already had everyone on edge; and a smallpox epidemic had swept through much of New England.

On top of that, it had been a particularly cold winter and the people of Salem were desperate to escape their small smoky houses. Salem was infused with gossip and dispute, the people were restless and volatile and ready to believe the worst of their neighbors.

Nathaniel and his children pushed their way through the throng of people outside and managed to find standing places in the back of the meetinghouse. The interior of the building was carefully designed to instill fear into those being tried.

Along the far back wall two severe and imposing male figures, the judges, sat behind a long table. To the right of the table was a small platform with a banister, where the afflicted girls sat. The magistrates instructed the girls to face forward, toward them, but when the three accused women were brought in, the girls turned around and at the very sight of the women, started to writhe and scream. They pointed at the accused and cried that they had come to them as specters and asked them to sign the book of Satan. They claimed that when they refused, the women started to bewitch them.

Nathaniel, Hannah, Thomas, and Caleb carefully watched the young girls’ theatrics and observed the fear in the eyes of the accused women. The four girls seemed to be completely caught up in their own game. If one of the old women bent down, all the girls bent down and screamed that they were being forced to bend against their will. If one of them turned her head, all the girls screamed and turned their heads at unnatural angles.

To the crowd in the meetinghouse, watching with gasps of horror and mutterings about Satan, this was proof enough that the older women were witches. But the Campbell clan wanted further proof.

Nathaniel bent low and slipped two bags of herbs and oils into Hannah and Caleb’s hands.

“You’re going to have to get close to the women,” he murmured softly. “See if you can’t push your way to the front of the crowd. Place the bags under their chairs. I will then try to get close enough to do the rest.”

The children elbowed their way through the dense crowd. When they neared the front, Caleb burrowed his way forward until he was directly behind Tituba’s chair. He bent down as if to tie his shoelaces and quickly placed the bag in a corner of the chair spokes.

Being of slight build, Hannah managed to do the same for both Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, with ease. She then slipped back through the crowd to her father’s side.

As a fully-grown man, Nathaniel found it more difficult to get through the crowd. But eventually he reached the accused women. Trying to not to draw attention to himself, he began his chant, whispering just loudly enough for the marking spell to take effect.

“Nathaniel Campbell,” a deep voice called out over the din of the crowd and screaming girls, “are you also possessed by witches?”

Nathaniel looked up and caught the eye of his questioner, John Hathorne, who was one of the judges, though he had no formal legal experience. The man’s air was stately and his voice boomed over the packed meetinghouse.

“No sir,” Nathaniel replied, his voice calm and clear. “I am praying for the girls that they will be freed from their bewitching.”

This answer seemed to satisfy Hathorne and he nodded and turned back to the inquest. Nathaniel finished the chant. He then crouched down behind the women’s chairs and peered at the palms of their hands. There were no marks.

Satisfied, Nathaniel retreated and signaled to his children to leave.

They returned home in their cart through the village, which was semi-deserted since most of the people of Salem were still thronging around the meetinghouse.

“Those magistrates are idiots,” Thomas declared. “Can’t they see that those women aren’t hurting the girls?”

“Then who is?” Caleb put in.

“Do you think they are putting on a show, Father?” Hannah asked.

“I’m not sure if they are faking or not,” Nathaniel stated. “But I am sure that those three women aren’t witches. There was no marking spot on any of their palms. Which means either those girls are making it up or it is someone or something else harassing them.”

“But who would be doing that?” Thomas asked.

“I guess we will have to wait and see,” Nathaniel replied.

Less than a week after the hearing, Thomas and Caleb were walking home from town. It was late in the day so they decided to take a shortcut in order to reach home before dark. The land they cut across belonged to Constance Ball, a tall, well-spoken haughty woman who was known to be very wealthy. Some in Salem said she had colluded with the French and the Dutch, and those associations had brought her great riches; other townspeople whispered that she had had much more sinister beginnings.

Constance Ball’s land stretched for a couple of miles around the large and imposing house that she owned. The boys walked quickly and carefully around the tree line, wary, as they knew they were trespassing.

As they rounded the back of the property, the boys noticed the Ball family graveyard. Like many homesteads a graveyard was kept on the family land, but this one struck the Campbell boys as strange—they could see two unearthed graves on the small plot of land on the edge of the pasture. Knowing their father would want to learn more, the boys crept closer and saw two old headstones, each with a death date carved on it. Was someone digging up dead bodies?

Thomas and Caleb realized immediately that they had discovered something important. They ran the rest of the way home. When they arrived, Nathaniel was just taking his horse out.

“Father, we have something to tell you,” Caleb said, hands on his knees as he caught his breath.

“Not now boys. Another body was found,” Nathaniel said, pulling himself into his saddle. “I’ve got to go examine it and see if the neck is broken.”

“We cut through Constance Ball’s land and found two graves,” Thomas said quickly. “The bodies had been unearthed. The ground was all dug up.”

“Are you sure?” his father asked, leaning down from his saddle.

They nodded.

“Well then, that’s something else to investigate,” Nathaniel said.

“Can we come with you?” Thomas asked eagerly.

“Aren’t you two chilled to the bone? I won’t be back until long after dark.”

“I’d rather go with you,” Caleb said.

Nathaniel shrugged and hoisted Caleb up onto a small half-saddle that sat forward on the horse and moved off, Thomas jogged by their side.

When they arrived at Reverend Parris’s parsonage, Nathaniel sent the boys to the back of the house. He was going to try to convince Reverend Parris that he should be allowed to see the latest body, but if he could not, the boys would have to try and get a look at it another way.

Shivering in the cold and dark but eager to see the latest developments, Thomas and Caleb peeked through those windows they could reach.

Inside the house, Nathaniel spoke with Reverend Parris.

“Reverend, if I may, I’d like to see the latest body that was found.”

“Absolutely not. Can’t you see what disarray my house is in?” Reverend Parris threw his arms wide. Just then, a female screamed upstairs. “As you know, my daughter and servant girl are bewitched by those vile women.”

“But the women are incarcerated—has this not stopped the affliction?” Nathaniel questioned.

Reverend Parris stared at Nathaniel.

“Satan does not rest in one place, Nathaniel. He can live anywhere, bewitch anyone. There are more witches in Salem and I aim to find them.”

“And I would like to help you. But I can only do that if I see the body.”

“The dead man was a transient. No one in town knows him. He is of no use to you,” the clergyman said.

“How did Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, and your own Tituba, kill this transient then? If they were not familiar with him, how would they have done such a thing? They’ve been in the Salem Town jail since the week before last.”

* * *

Observing through the windows that their father was having little success in persuading the Reverend to let him view the body, Thomas and Caleb found their way into the root cellar beneath the house. There they found the dead body of the strange man lying on the straw floor. The cellar was dark and stuffed with cured meats and roots. A single candle illuminated the corpse.

“Feel his neck,” Caleb commanded his older brother.

“You do it,” Thomas said.

“You’re always saying you should get to do more things because you’re older. Now is your chance.” Caleb smirked.

Thomas crept reluctantly toward the body and gingerly reached his hand behind the dead man’s neck.

“He’ll get stiff now,” a small voice said from a dark corner of the cellar. “He’s been dead over an hour.”

Thomas stumbled back from the body. Caleb caught him by the arm before he crashed into a shelf of glass jars.

Prudence Lewis stepped out into the faint candlelight. She stared hard at the boys.

“You scared us,” Thomas declared angrily.

“What are you doing in Reverend Parris’s root cellar?” Caleb demanded.

“What are
you
doing?” Prudence shot back.

“We are here to examine the body,” Thomas said, taking control of the situation. “Why are you here? Aren’t you scared?”

Prudence shrugged.

“Are you still bewitched?” Thomas asked skeptically.

Prudence grinned. “Of course. Haven’t you heard what Reverend Parris said? Satan has come to Salem and is using witches to do his bidding. I’m afflicted. Just not right now.”

The boys left the strange girl in the cellar, climbed back outside and went around to the front of the house to meet their father. They waited pressed against the wall until Reverend Parris had shut the door on Nathaniel, then they approached him.

“Did you find anything?” their father asked.

“Yes. A dead body in the cellar and a strange girl,” Thomas said. He went on to describe their encounter with Prudence Lewis and the dead man’s broken neck.

“Well, I think we know who we need to try the marking spell on next,” Nathaniel said.

“Who?” Caleb asked.

“Prudence, you dimwit.” Thomas nudged his brother in the ribs as he spoke.

“What about the empty graves?” Caleb asked.

“We’ll have to investigate further,” Nathaniel said. “But we have to ask ourselves a question first.”