History Repeated

In 1692 my life changed in a way that I never could have imagined. It felt like I had been made to take a sharp turn off the path of my life. I had no control over what happened the night of my eighteenth birthday. The night I would never forget started at a small get together I threw with two of my friends, my mother and my grandmother to celebrate becoming an adult. We laughed as we talked of our younger years and reminisced about the good times we had. We also talked about the fast spreading epidemic of the witch trials here in Salem. It was a devastating topic because the five of us have lost a number of friends because of accusations that were never proven to be true or not. No one else liked to talk about it, but my friends and I had a secret. A secret that if ever found, would lead to our imminent death. We weren’t about to take that chance.
It was a cool evening in late June as we settled on my porch for the celebration of not only my birthday but the Summer Solstice. The sun was tracing a line in the sky as it sunk down behind the mountains. We set out our supplies and waited for nightfall, the best time to praise the Goddess. We drank wine and enjoyed molasses cookies as we listened to the crickets strum their beautiful song. I could hear the wind whispering through the trees and dancing with the weeds. It was going to be a peaceful night… Or so I thought.
All of a sudden an uneasy feeling hit me in the stomach and I become unusually warm. It felt like my whole body was on fire. I drank glass after glass of water to try to cool myself down but it didn’t seem to help. Sweat rolled down my forehead as the last bit of sunlight disappeared over the horizon. That’s when I saw it. The haze radiating from the small wooden house I shared with my mother and grandmother. I looked over at my friend, Violet, and I could see that she also saw the haze dancing around the house. She looked just as confused as I was. The haze rippled as the wind blew but didn’t extend any farther than the perimeter of salt we sprinkled around the house for protection. What was going on?
My other friend Abigail saw that we were distracted from the setting sun that would tell us when it was time for our ritual to begin. It was evident that something was going on in front of the house that we were not aware of. My curiosity tickled my thoughts as I walked through the back door feeling like I was lost in a wonderland. The energy of the house had completely changed from the light, airy residue that we left on the house after our monthly cleansing. It felt as if the circle had been penetrated with darkness.
“What is it, Rayven?” My mother, Mary asked me.
“The house… It’s changed.” I replied in awe.
“I can feel it too, Child.” My grandmother, Catherine said, looking at the corners of the kitchen as if the source would suddenly appear.
I looked at the four of my companions and suddenly I could see them embraced in orange and red flames. I could feel the heat reaching from their bodies to intertwine with mine. The smell of burning flesh crawled up my nose and made me gag. I closed my eyes against the images, trying to keep myself from throwing up. I took a deep breath and when I opened my eyes the four of them were staring at me as if I had gone insane. We had to get out of here.
The fire had started so abruptly that I had no time to react before it had almost enveloped the whole house. The tendrils of smoke curled around me and bit at my skin. I screamed as I saw a flame consume my mother’s dress.
“Mother!” I ran to her aid, smacking at her dress to put out the flame.
“Rayven, you need to get out of here. Take the Grimoire and run as far away from here as you can.”
“But mother, what about you and Nana?” I said as tears welled in my eyes.
We both started coughing as the smoke became so intense it was getting hard to see. “We need to stay and try to stop these people. We will follow you when we can. Now go, you must continue the Eastwood name.”
My grandmother walked up to me and my mother. “Child, you must go. It is the only way.”
“Mother, Nana.” I said, shaking my head, refusing to believe what they were telling me to do.
“Rayven, you must go. They have place surrounded. If we don’t make it out, know that we love you and will always be by your side.” They both hugged me and shoved me toward the door where I picked up the bag of supplies we had ready on the porch for the Solstice.
I could see two silhouettes in the distance at the edge of the forest. Abigail and Violet had run from the house as soon as the fire started, thinking the rest of us had followed. I ran toward them and I could feel a sob building up in my chest as the realization of what was happening behind me, burrowed in my mind. I knew now that I would never see my mother or grandmother again. How was I going to get through this rough time without them? As I reached my friends’ side, I knew that we were all that each other had and we were going to need to keep each other safe.
When I reached Violet and Abigail’s side, I turned to look back at the house. It was like looking into the sun. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I watched the flames consume my past. It felt like a part of me burnt inside the house along with my family. The ceiling began to cave in and that’s when I had seen enough. Violet put her hand on my shoulder in a bout of comfort. I smiled back at her, thankful that I had a friend like her.
“Let’s get out of here.” I said.
As we turned to go, something moved beside the house. In the light of the flames I could see the silhouette of a man, facing the fire with an evil smile on his face. I knew that smile, that face. It was Angus, Abigail’s brother. My jaw dropped and I stumbled backwards, falling into the my friends. Pointing at the man I had known for so long and had fallen in love with, I felt another stab of loss in my heart. I couldn’t believe he betrayed us. As we stood there, I watched him watch the flames consuming my house. Another man joined him and they praised each other for the work they had completed. I felt that I was going to be sick and turned to walk deeper in the forest, not able to watch anymore. That night my two friends and I made our way through the woods with my family Grimoire, a book that held secrets of magic that the three of us couldn’t even imagine.
We had been walking through the forest for about two hours when Abigail finally broke the silence that had been following us since we left the house.
“Can we stop for a minute? My feet are hurting.” She didn’t wait for an answer and plopped down on a log next to her.
I sat in the grass and pulled out the Grimoire from the sack that I carried, the one with our supplies for the Solstice. I could feel another sob build in my chest as I looked at the leather cover of the thick book that was in every memory of my childhood. The cover was engraved with vines and leaves and the pages were wrinkled from being turned so many times over the years. I started flipping through the pages, looking at spells and potions that I had used so many times and others that I wasn’t so familiar with. The wind blew and I could smell the pine and the wildflowers that surrounded us.
Suddenly, the pages started to turn of their own accord. I watched in awe, wondering where it would stop. Then, just as suddenly as it started, it stopped on a page that I had not yet came to. As I quickly scanned the page, the words of the spell began developing a plan in my head. I understood why the book had landed on this page. It was part of my destiny.
“Violet, Abigail. Come here, we need to say this.”
“What is it?” Violet asked, standing next to me as I rested the Grimoire on a boulder near by.
“A spell to carry on what our ancestors started.” I replied.
We stood at three points around the boulder, looking at the words written in a hurried hand. We began to chant…
‘To live in a lie
To be on the run
Ends with the light of the sun.
Before its too late
Seal your fate.
Rise with the eternal moon
And watch your destiny bloom.’
A light flashed surrounded us with an embrace so gentle, it felt like being in a cloud. I felt alive and free, ready to take on the world. My friends and I stared at each other, all of us thinking the same thing. What was going to happen next?

Three hundred and twenty three years later, I sit behind a counter in a grocery store located in the middle of a small town in Pennsylvania called Crowswood. The summer sun sat in the sky, shining down as the black top rippled with heat. It was June twenty first, the day of my three hundred and forty first birthday and the Summer Solstice. Abigail, Violet and I had been on the run since 1692, keeping up with the times as we moved all over the globe. We made sure that we didn’t stay in one location for too long for the fear of being found out. We had so many secrets from the people we had met along our journey and it made it difficult to get close to anyone.
I watched strangers come in and out of the store, hurrying from the air conditioner of their car to the one that filled the store with a chill. The monotone beep of the scanner was tuned out in the back of my mind by the time I was ready to leave at three o’clock. I walked to my car thinking only of the celebrations that would occur the next day. Our house has been cleansed the night before and we had been preparing the lower flat for our yearly ritual. All the signs pointed to a beautiful evening and a clear sky that would allow the moon to shine right on our alter. Everything was going to be just right, but I still had an uneasy feeling that implanted itself in the bottom of my stomach.
For the past week, my dreams have been confusing to the point where I’m not even sure what to make of them. Flashes of lightning streak across my unconsciousness and I’m looking down on the flat, at the three of us during our ritual. The image flashes and I see another streak of lightning race across the sky, illuminating our faces as we stand at the alter. The moon hung in the sky, watching over our workings and suddenly the field is ablaze. Violet and Abigail scream in horror as their bodies are embraced by the heat of an old enemy. I see lightning flash across the sky again and that’s when I wake up in my room sweating profusely, just like the first time.
As I drove home from work that afternoon, images of the first fire played through my mind. I saw the haze that had danced around the house and when my mother’s dress was greedily eaten by the flames. I saw the tree line where Violet, Abigail and I stood after we escaped the house and watched it fall to the ground. I felt the pang of loneliness as I realized that I would never see my mother or grandmother again. It all came flooding back to me as if I was still right there. Remembering it all, made me determined not to relive that moment.
Later that night, we set out sprinkling salt around the flat, making sure our circle would not be broken. The uneasy feeling that was still imbedded in my stomach, progressed into a pain that made a bout of nausea hinder our preparations. I moved slowly, trying not to get sick. I would be glad when it went away.
Abigail and Violet finished the circle as I placed our tools on the alter. The sun traced the sky once again, leaving bright reds, pinks, and purples in its wake. It disappeared over the mountains and was followed by the face of the moon that stared down at us, bathing us in its silky beams. I breathed in the fresh, summer night air thinking only of the feeling in my stomach. It was going to be hard to concentrate tonight, but I was willing to push through. The weeds under our feet swayed in the light breeze, and the smell of the incense we had burning permeated through the trees. It was almost time.
As my two friends joined me in the middle of the circle, that’s when I saw it. The same haze that had surrounded my house the first time the three of us had been in this position. The same warm feeling enveloped my body and I was sweating even as the wind blew. I walked toward the haze that perfectly lined the circle of salt we had just sprinkled. As I got closer, I could feel the heat radiating from it, just like the first time. No, not again. I thought as I backed up to the alter. I began flipping through the Grimoire, looking for anything that would help. It was too late.
Orange and red flames burst into the sky, illuminated the faces of my two friends who stood opposite me in shock. The heat rippled around us as we began to panic. I flipped faster through the book, until the pages began to flip on their own. When they stopped, it was on the page that contained the spell we had said so many years ago. It was like we had been dropped right back into 1692 and were running for our lives once again. I heard something snap behind me and before I turned, I knew what I would see. Angus would be standing there, with a torch and an evil smile on his face just like he did the first time. But how?
I heard Abigail gasp. “Angus, how are you still here?”
He laughed, “Oh Abbie, you never really were a bright girl. You see, I followed you that night so many years ago. And when the three of you chanted the immortality spell, I was sucked into the light that had surrounded you. I wasn’t sure what had happened, but when my body denied me the aging process, I knew. That’s when I set out looking for the three of you. I knew I had to destroy you to gain the powers you possess.”
“Angus, you realize that if you kill us, you will die too.” I said, taking a small step toward the edge of the fire.
I could tell that he was not aware of this because the look on his face betrayed him. But just as suddenly as I saw the expression, it was gone. He didn’t reply, just watched us as we stood there, waiting for something to happen.
“What did you expect to gain the first time you tried to kill us?” I said, taking another small step toward the edge of the fire.
“The first time, I was trying to kill you because of the wretched beasts I knew you were. But when I saw what you could do with your powers, I wanted in on the secret, to be powerful. When the light has surrounded me that night, I felt a surge of concentrated power that I didn’t want to let go. It became my mission to gain your powers.”
He pulled out an athame from his back pocket and I recognized it as the Cumhact Scian, the Power Knife. In a duel, if the person wielding the knife stabbed their opponent, the wielder would gain their opponents powers. Suddenly, I knew Angus’ plan. He was going to trap us and then kill us with the Cumhact Scian to gain our powers. I looked up at him and he smiled, he knew I had figured it out.
At that moment, he launched himself through the flames, not one of them touching him as if he was made of fire himself. He came straight toward me with the Cumhact Scian stretched out in front of him. I backed up into the alter and felt for anything I could use as a weapon, coming up empty handed, I began to panic. How were we going to get out of this one?
Angus ran at me and at the last second I ducked out of the way, falling to the ground just inches from the ring of fire. I swung my legs, knocking his out from underneath him. He fell to the ground and I heard him grunt from the impact. Abigail ran up to him and kicked the knife from his hand and picked it up. Violet walked over to me, offering her hand to help me up. We walked to Abigail and she handed me the knife.
“You should be the one to do it. You’re the most powerful of the three of us.”
I took the knife from her and stood in her place. Raising the knife over my head, I looked into Angus’ eyes as he watched me.
“You won’t do it. You’re still in love with me.” He winked.
“You’re seriously mistaken.” I said and dropped the knife down with full force into his chest.
His breath caught and blood poured over my hands. I watched the light leave his eyes and the fire around us disappeared into thin air. A rush of power pulsed through my body as the powers he had accumulated over the years passed from him, through the Cumhact Scian and into me. There was no longer a threat on our lives following us through the centuries. We were free to live our lives how we wanted. The three of us smiled at each other, all thinking the same thing. We no longer had to live in fear. It was all behind us now.