Bloodlines (7 page)

“Have you got any commitments?” Tyler asked me.

“No, I don’t think so. I mean I have my house but it’s only rented. My granddad left his house to my mother so I don’t need to do anything with that.”

“I didn’t know that,” Lily said.

“Yeah, she wasn’t happy because that’s all she got; I got all the money and jewelry and stuff. But that’s been sorted out already. No wonder she hates me. I mean I got all that off my granddad and when my dad died he…”

“What?”

“Nothing, it doesn’t matter,” I said with a thoughtful look on my face.

“Go on,” Tyler pushed.

“No, there’s something I need to check before I say anything else.”

“Fair enough. Well, going back to Jake’s original question then, what do you want to do today?”

“I think we should show them around more, take them to where the trials were held and stuff,” Lucian said.

“That sounds interesting,” Lily said to me. “You never know, you may get some of the answers you’re looking for.”

“Yeah, I’m up for that.”

So we finished our breakfasts and left the café.

We decided to walk everywhere. It was a nice day, cloudy but warm. We headed deeper into the old part of town. It was mainly made up of old-style houses, some of which still had thatched roofs. Every few blocks there was a little shop selling tobacco and sweets. Old men and women looked out of their windows but quickly closed the curtains when they saw us.

“What is it with people around here?” Lily asked.

“Just superstitious. This place has a lot of history, don’t forget. Some of these families have lived here for generations and still live in the old days. They don’t seem to move forward with time,” Jake told her.

“Don’t worry about them, they won’t talk to you,” Tyler said.

“Good!” I said sharply. “Otherwise I may have to explain to them what the words rude and ignorant mean.”

“They’re harmless really.”

“Through here,” Lucian said, turning down a little alley.

We followed behind him. The alley smelled really bad and I couldn’t wait to reach the end. There were old clothes and bits of furniture thrown all over the place. If it had been dark it would have been hazardous walking down there.

“Oh yeah,” Tyler giggled, covering his nose, “I forgot to tell you – hold your noses.”

“Bit late for that… What
is
that smell?” I asked.

“Rubbish, damp materials… Oh, and remember how Jake said the people live in the past?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, they really do, they still throw pee and everything out in the street.”

“Err yuk,” Lily said, paying extra attention to where she was walking.

“Isn’t there another way?” I asked.

“Yeah but it takes five times longer to get where were going,” Lucian replied.

“Well, as long as we’re not walking back this way.”

He laughed to himself and kept moving forward. The further we walked the stronger the smell became; it was sickening. I don’t know how people could live there and not be ill. I looked up at the backs of all the houses; they were in desperate need of repair. Pipes were hanging off the walls, parts of the walls themselves were cracking and the windows looked as though they were made of stuff we used to make plastic wallets. Luckily five minutes later we were out of the alley and walking across a small cobbled street towards an old rundown house.

“This is where the trials were held,” Tyler said, pointing to it. “It’s the old meeting house; they used to hold prayer services here on a Sundays sometimes, instead of the church.”

“It was also used for the village meetings and anyone who was accused of practicing witchcraft was brought here. They would be examined in front of the judges and questioned. Then they would have their fate decided,” Jake added.

“What were they looking for when they examined them?” Lily asked.

“Any marks on their body that they could have said were made by magic or summoning,” Lucian told us. “They were also checked for possession. Say someone had developed an illness or passed away, a grieving relative may have believed the illness or death was caused by witchcraft. Standard practice was that they would go to the magistrate’s office and make a complaint against the supposed witch. If the complaint was seen as credible, the magistrate would order that the accused be arrested. Then they would publicly examine them, interrogate them and press for a confession. If the magistrates were convinced that the complaint was well founded, the person or persons accused would be handed over to the superior court for sentencing.”

“What did they do?” I asked.

“They would summon witnesses and have them stand before a jury, much like they do today. If there was a lot of evidence against a person they could have been arrested and taken to court on the same day. If they were found guilty they would be executed the same week,” Tyler said.

“There was one man, Corey he was called, who was tortured. They thought they could force a confession out of him that way. They lay him down and started putting heavy stones on his chest. They thought he would confess but he didn’t. They crushed him to death,” Lucian continued. “And you know these poor people weren’t even allowed a proper burial. The church wouldn’t perform one for anyone executed for using witchcraft. Their families would collect the person’s body so they could bury them themselves, normally on private land.”

“I can’t believe people were allowed to do that,” I seethed. “I wish someone had shown them what magic really was. I swear if someone tried to execute me, well, I won’t even say what I would do to them.”

“That just goes to prove that these people were innocent though, doesn’t it? I mean if you were a witch you could have done something to prevent it,” Jake said.

“Not if they didn’t want to reveal the existence of magic,” Lily suggested.

“God, it makes my blood boil. They couldn’t win,” I said, turning away from the house.

“Do you want to go inside?” Tyler asked.

“Is it open?” I replied.

“Tyler, no!” Jake said.

“Oh shut up! Keira, what do you say?”

“How do we get in?”

“Around the back. What’s the point of magic if you can’t use it?”

“Tyler, you can’t,” Lucian ordered.

“Piss off, both of you.”

We headed around the back; the others didn’t move.

“What’s wrong with them?” I asked.

“They take the whole power thing far too seriously. It doesn’t do us any harm if we use it so why can’t we have fun with it. As long as we’re careful, does it matter?” he said, throwing his arms in the air.

“I agree with you.”

“Fantastic, I like you even more now,” he smiled. “It’s about time I had someone to play with. They never just let go and have fun with it.”

“Well, it looks like we’re gonna be in their bad books a lot then,” I said. “Although I should hate you as much as Danny.”

“Why?” he asked, looking upset.

““Get the book!”“ I reminded him.

“Oh don’t be like that; I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“I’ll let you off,” I smirked.

“Good,” he said, smirking back.

We got to the back door and Tyler’s eyes bronzed over for a moment. That was one similarity between them and me that I took a mental note of. The door slowly and silently opened. We walked in and the smell hit us; it wasn’t horrible, just musty. The windows and doors must have been closed for years. The wooden floors were thick in dust and dirt and the walls were stained black and brown. There were old chairs pushed back against the walls in the hallway, their wooden frames rotting. It was really dark; the windows weren’t boarded up but the thick curtains, now black with dirt, were still hanging and closed. We both generated an orb to light the place up. We walked into a large room on the right side of the house. We were both upset, though, when we found nothing. Not even a scrap of paper. We looked in the other rooms but still there was nothing. We both looked at each other, disappointed, and made our way back out.

“Well, what did you find?” Lily asked.

“Nothing, the place is completely empty,” I told her. “Well, except for a few old chairs and a heap of dust.”

“Never mind, there’s still a lot to learn from us remember. We’ll have to go somewhere tonight where we can talk properly,” Jake said, trying to cheer us up.

“Yeah, he’s right,” Lucian agreed. “You can all come to mine if you like.”

“Yeah great,” Lily and I said in unison.

“OK, shall we move on?”

“Yes, but not the way we came thank you,” I said.

“OK,” he giggled. “We’ll take you to where the people were actually executed.”

“Creepy,” Lily said, shivering a little.

“Hang on, that’s quite far away from here,” Tyler pointed out. “Maybe we should leave that for another day and drive there.”

“That’s true,” Lucian agreed. “Well, we can go to the parsonage and the church. It’s only a bit further up. We can cut across the field; we’ll get there quicker.”

When we were halfway across the field Lucian shouted me over to him. He pointed out towards the open fields to the side of us.

“This used to be where people would run to try and escape; it’s just field after field for miles that way. Some got away too, but whether they made it to another town or not, I don’t know.”

“So are we going that way?” I asked him.

“No, but we can show you where people’s names are carved into the rocks – it’s only a little detour.”

We walked into the fields for a few minutes and then the rocks came into view. There were six of them, the largest reaching as high as my hips. We all went and stood around them.

“Who were these people” Lily asked.

“I don’t know. Some say they are the names of witches that were caught trying to escape. While others say they ‘re the names of the people who were put to death, but apparently their names appeared after they were executed.”

“Why do you think their names are on here?” I asked.

“I think it was done by the town’s folk, most likely the ones who had accused these people of witchcraft. It would have made them look as though they were right and these people really were witches,” Lucian said.

Everyone was quiet for a moment, staring and reading the names on the rocks.

“MWAHHHHH” Tyler suddenly shouted, raising his hands into a ghost-like pose.

Lily actually screamed. Lucian and I were nearly crying we were laughing so much. Bless her, she was shaking like a leaf. Jake threw Tyler a look that could have killed but he didn’t care. He was too proud of himself and laughing too much. Lily stuck her middle finger up at him then looked at me in disgust. I burst out laughing even more.

“Come on,” Tyler said to me. “Before Lily kills us.”

“It’s not far now,” Lucian said, still giggling.

He was right about it not being far; we only walked for about ten minutes. To my surprise the church was open, which meant Jake and Lucian couldn’t moan if Tyler and I went in. I was really starting to like Tyler; he had such a bubbly personality. Sarah was right about him too; he was really cute; he was about four inches taller than me, slim with quite an athletic build. His blond hair was neither long nor short, just a couple of inches in length, but long enough for it to fall over the side of his face just past his eyes. He had a baby face and the most gorgeous bright-green eyes I’ve ever seen.

When we got outside we all sat down on the wall at the entrance to the parsonage grounds.

“OK, this is the place,” Jake said, glaring at it as if it were somehow responsible for the atrocities committed there.

“Are you OK?” I asked.

“The Reverend Samuel Parris and his family lived here. The church,” he said, pointing to the right, “Was under his command. My family was shunned because he gave evidence that my ancestor had sent demons to attack his daughter in the night. The members of the church condemned him to death and left us in the state we’ve been in since,” he said, getting agitated.

“People were jealous,” Lucian explained. “If someone was prosperous and had a big family, a steady income and owned land – people didn’t like it. So what better way of getting back at them than to accuse them of practicing witchcraft? If they were found guilty but pardoned for some reason they would have all their possessions seized and be left with nothing.”

“Plus,” Tyler added, “The Reverend wasn’t a nice person. I remember my mother telling me a story once about a man who didn’t make it to public worship one day. He was pulled in for questioning and said that the night before the day of the prayers he had an accident. He’d fallen into the lake and when he got home and tried to dry his clothes he couldn’t light the fire. So he spent the next day in bed in the warmth while his one and only set of clothes dried. The Reverend found him guilty of sloth and sentenced him to a whipping.”

“That’s awful.” Lily gasped.

“Yes, well sloth is one of the seven deadly sins, isn’t it, so instead of thinking, “Well, this man needed to stay warm after falling in a freezing-cold lake, so he doesn’t get ill,” they thought, “Sloth, sinner – punish him!”“

Lily shook her head in disgust.

“Sometimes if the church was too cold for worship they would hold the service in the tavern. It used to be just over the road but the building became unsafe and was pulled down years ago,” Lucian informed us.

“Can we go in the church, please?” I asked. I wanted to go into the parsonage too but someone had bought it and moved in. Lucian and Jake looked at each other for a moment. I could tell neither of them really wanted to, and I knew Lily hated going inside churches so she wouldn’t want to. Then Tyler grabbed my hand and led me inside.

“It’s still used by some of the older people here but everyone else just sees it as a part of village history and that’s it,” he told me as we walked through the small wooden door. “Most people who want to pray go to the new church in town.”

“I’m not surprised. This is a horrible building”

“They were Puritans, don’t forget. They didn’t believe in decoration, in bright colors and the like. Religion was in the soul, not in things. The Reverend didn’t like anyone having even the simplest of pleasures and those who did were sinners.”