The Spirit

The kids learn of the spirit haunting the tree.

"I just want to know one thing," Daniel started, "How do you know all of this about the witch?"

"This journal!" Matt interrupted. "It has all of that written in it, save for the husband's execution. And that is in the newspapers over there on that desk."

Sean smirked as Daniel looked around at the multitudes of literature on witchcraft, the Thompson family, and the hangings.

Amy had grown uneasy with questions left unanswered, "Well, what about that tree, Sean? What's the deal with it."

"When Sarah arrived back home," he began answering, "she was not harmed. She couldn't have been the daughter of a witch on purpose, so they just let her go. When they did, she made her way out to the ritual site. That big tree. It wasn't very big then, though. Her parents planted it when he was born. I guess you'd say it symbolized her life and stuff like that."

"So why is it so creepy?"

"You sure you can handle me telling you this?"

"Yes."

"Alright. The tree has her spirit trapped inside."

"How is that?"

"When she made her way back out to it, she never left it. She stayed there for nearly two weeks. No food, no water, nothing. She just shriveled up and died. Never leaving the spot she first laid down on."

All of this all at once was becoming too much for the others to handle. What was the point in all of this? How had their small expedition turned into such a big happening? For the first time in her life, Amy saw Daniel speechless, and he the same. Matt seemed to be taking everything fairly lightly, which wasn't a surprise. He wasn't much of an emotional person. But it was more than that, he just seemed so perfectly finewith everything. Right along with Sean, which no one was surprised that he was fine with it. This was his adventure after all.

"So what are we doing out here if there's the spirit of a witch with us?" Daniel inquired.

"Well, hero," replied Sean, "we need to find a way to save her and release the spirit."

"How are you and this witch tied together?"

"Sarah's grandmother, Turner's mother, is one of my ancestors. Turner had a brother who was never caught in his witchcraft, so he was able to keep the family moving on."

"And how do you propose we save this spirit?"

"What do you guys know about the occult?"

Uneasily the family looked to one another. They'd been raised as Baptists. Daniel and Matt weren't so much religious, but they certainly didn't know about witchcraft. Amy tried coming off very strong in her faith, but most knew it wasn't very real.

"You don't want us," Amy was very quiet, "to perform witchcraft?"