A Summer in Salem Ending

Hi all! Some context here: After Susanna rejected George's marriage proposal, he accused her of being a witch and she is tried in the Salem Witch Trials.

Chapter

“Burn the witches!”

“Hang them!”

“Rid the world of this evil!”

I stand before my community, high upon a wooden platform, with my three daughters beside me. Our hands are bound together behind our backs. As soon as we began the trek up Gallows Hill, I knew it would all end here. I look out and see the faces of my friends. The neighbors I have known for years now have turned against me and my youngest children. I pray to God that the court be lenient with my girls in exchange for my own life, but something inside me hints that more sinister deeds are in store. 

“Mother.” Eve attempts to face me, but the hangman violently turns her head back to face the crowd. “I am very scared, Mother. I do not understand why they want to kill us.”

I close my eyes and hold back tears. “They believe we are witches, Eve, and they are very afraid of us.”

“But I am not a witch! I know nothing but my love for God and devotion to his word!”

“I know you are not a witch. I pray the court will declare the same.”

“Silence!” The hangman smacks me with his whip and I feel the red hot pain spread across my back.

The crowd parts as the court officials make their way to our platform. In the hand of their leader are four scrolls which no doubt hold each of our fates. The group of men step to the front of the platform and silence the crowd. The leader unrolls the first of the scrolls.

“On the accusation of practicing witchcraft and pledging loyalty to Lucifer himself, we, the court, find Eve Abernathy guilty!”

My stomach drops at my daughter's name. I can hear Eve sobbing beside me. 

“No! I am not a witch! I pledge my loyalty and devotion to God!”

“For this charge, Eve Abernathy shall be hanged!”

The crowd cheers and each of them raise their pitchforks and torches. 

“No!” 

The hangman steps behind my daughter, my little Evie, and drops a noose around her neck. He pulls the lever which opens the door in the platform beneath her feet. Eve screams as her body drops and her neck snaps. 

I glance over and see both Margaret and Alice sobbing as well.

“Mother, I will be next! I am the next youngest! Please do not let them take me, Mother! I do not wish to die!” Margaret cries out. 

My lower lip trembles from the pain and fear I am feeling. One of my precious daughters is gone and the other two are still to follow. I know the courtsmen have done this on purpose. They have chosen to make me watch my daughters die before they decide to kill me, and there is nothing I can do to stop them. 

“On the accusation of practicing witchcraft and pledging allegiance to Satan, we, the court, find Margaret Abernathy guilty!

“Mother!”

“For this crime, Margaret Abernathy shall be hanged!”

“No! Mother please save me!”

The hangman steps behind her, tightens a noose around her neck, and pulls the lever. Margaret’s body drops through the platform and her lifeless body swings slowly in the wind. 

“I shall be next.” Alice stares down at the wood of the platform. “I love you, Mother. I shall be waiting when you arrive.” She smiles softly at me. 

“On the accusation of practicing witchcraft and following the Devil instead of our Lord and Savior, we, the court, find Alice Abernathy guilty!”

“I love you too, Alice. I will be with you shortly.” I smile down at my daughter, standing so bravely in the face of this ugly beast we call fear. I could not be more proud of the woman she was still becoming, but I know I will never see her reach full adulthood. 

“For this crime, Alice Abernathy shall be hanged!”

Alice holds her head high as the hangman puts the rope noose around her neck. She closes her eyes as the lever is pulled and she drops below the platform. 

I breathe deeply and ready myself for my own name to be called out.

“On the accusation of practicing the Devil’s Magic and being a witch, we, the court, find Susanna Abernathy guilty!”

The townspeople cheer.

“For this charge, Susanna Abernathy is to be hanged and her body burned!”

Momentarily, tears stream down my cheeks. I feel all the frustration and pain and loss well up inside me and suddenly I cannot control myself. I sob violently as the hangman lowers his noose around my neck. I glance beside me at the dead hanged bodies of my three beautiful daughters, all of whom were taken unjustly from this Earthly world.

I begin to pray. I pray to my God whom I know is here for me and will always listen. I pray that my three children have made it safely to His gates and they were welcomed with open, loving arms. I pray that my late husband was waiting there to take them under his wing and continue to love them in the afterlife. Suddenly, I am no longer afraid of death. I know that God has a divine plan for me and that He will protect me from the evils of the human world. 

The townspeople before me scream and curse my name. They spit upon my body and raise their pitchforks into the air, demanding that I be executed. 

The hangman grips the lever and I know that momentarily the platform will give way beneath me and my body will drop with such force that my sheer weight will snap my own neck, but I am not afraid. 

I think of Samuel and our children. I think of my five beautiful sons who are all grown with their own families to tend to. I think of my mother and father waiting for me up above. I even momentarily think of my favorite milk cows whom I used to spend every day with when I was a child. I think of the happy reunion I am about to experience and how my life will continue under God. 

This is it. The beginning of the rest of my life. I take my last breath and brace myself for it.

Author's Note

Please let me know your thoughts!

Reviews

[Ballpark Frank]

Oh my God. This was hard to read. I love kids and this is incredibly unjust. I do hope that Susanna will be saved and will be able to right a few wrongs somehow.

My preference would be that you change this and spare the kids. I have an active imagination and this write was hard on me although I don't know these kids at all.

[genocide]

Powerful story so many women were falsely accused hanged and burned during the witch trials.The 1600s I forget where this takes place is it Salem maaschutes

[RayLynn]

Yes, it’s in Salem

[wordman]

lol,i wonder how many christians killed these women picking roots and leaves to make medicine and such