"A Witch Killed"

When I died, my anguish had no bounds. I perished on my twenty-third birthday in front of my home in Massachusetts. I was hung by a noose in front of my family, who believed at the time that I was guilty of my so called crimes. As they put the rope around my swollen neck, all I could hear from my loved ones was, "Murdering W***e! Witch! Burn in Hell!" All I could see was their avid excitement of impending doom. 

My crime of witchcraft is false. I did not worship Lucifer or worship him around an open flame, I just grew a garden with a fire pit for roasting pigs and to have dinner parties. I had a respect for nature and did my best to care for it. 

My crime of adultery is false. The boy who was courting me at the time had my permission and my parents to take me on that picnic. He was kind to me and I to him, but when he wanted to have relations, I refused. He did not take my refusal well and the last time I saw him was at my hanging as he drunkenly cheered for my damnation. 

My crime of murder is false. I just witnessed the wrong action at the wrong time. I witnessed the corrupt judge of my village get extremely intoxicated and he then threw his drunken self in the street. He did not survive. When I was told to tell my fellow villagers of his "vigilant sacrifice" to rescue a child abandoned in the road, I refused. I told the truth. When asked, I told them that our judge had gotten into a violent fight with his wife after she decided she was finished with him and his many affairs.  Afterwards he came to the pub to drink himself into oblivion, and then flung himself into the active road when an inaccurate hallucination told him too. I was cleaning the horses outside during this public ordeal.

These crimes I did not commit. For the sins I was hung for greatly surpassed those basic biblical ones.  

I am guilty of the crime of self-educating myself and other young women in my situation. I admit to reading every novel, newspaper, and poem that crossed my path. I am guilty of the crime of furthering my mind and soul. For actively pursuing knowledge and truth. For doing what others had risked to do in the past. 

I am truly guilty for all those sins, but the ultimate action that secured my demise was questioning mind. I questioned the choices and actions of our villages leaders. I spoke out when others would not. I spoke against the fascism taking place and the laws and regulations that did nothing but hurt my fellow villagers.  

As a woman in America, I was not supposed to do these things. In my village, it was worse than an abomination. I had resisted the law of the land. When I began to do this, the charges began as well. After my first offensive, I was convicted in three days and hung in front of the village two days after that. This repressed, rigid, and simple village was hanging me for reading, writing, speaking my mind, having opinions, and questioning the supreme authority. 

I was killed at 1:24 pm after Sunday lunch on May 12, 2018. I died with sadness and despair in my heart that the world did not improve from when my ancestors were living two hundred years ago. I died with a roaring vengeance on my mind of my ill treatment of myself and the others that will come after me. For you see, I was the sixth witch hung that afternoon. 

After I died, they left my body displayed outside the courthouse with a sign nailed to my chest that read: 

"This is what happens when women leave the kitchen."

-President Donald J. Trump  

Reviews

[Agyani]

AEFord
This is a heartwrenching tale. And you've told it masterfully. All the words seem just right, and the sadness in them jumped out and engulfed me.
Everything in your story is so ironic, right from the title. A woman killed for false sins. It's like so many tales we hear or read of the common populace latching on to anyone who rises or tries to rise above them and not just bring them crashing them to the ground but often go so far as burying them! It's one of the things I hate the most. Just like I feel bad about artists or anyone else gaining recognition only posthumously. The fact that you chose to set this story in present times perpetuates the idea that people always surrender reason and cannot stand others shining because of their zest and desire.
A truly great story.
I hope you continue writing and posting your work here. :)