NIGHTMARE ⌗fearstreet

iv. i confess

long time no see :) i don't know if anyone will even read this chapter since i haven't updated in almost a year but if you see this, hello:)

"i will make a deal with the devil." sarah fier mumbles, "perhaps that can save us."

"the devil? are you mad?" hannah asks her.

"i don't fear the devil. hannah, i fear the neighbor who would accuse me. i fear the mother that would let her daughter hang. i fear union. they lead us like lambs to the slaughter and expect us to just follow. well they will see... i am no lamb."

before hannah had a chance to respond, someone in the distance yells, "sarah fier! come out!"

she turns back to hannah, "when this is over, we will leave this place. we will go far away and we'll dance every night then kiss in the broad daylight."

"i can't lose you."

sarah shakes her head, "you won't," she pauses, "if they want a witch... i will give them a witch."

sarah holds a lantern up to the open door, it's completely dark, she pulls her knife from its case and walks in. "widow?" she whispers. "mary?"

when she gets no response, she goes over to the box and lifts it open, her hands feel sticky. she looks down in the glow of her lantern and sees red.

blood.

a crow flies past her, squawking, she falls back, breathing hard as she lays on her back. as more and more crows come by she turns her head and is met face to face with mary, whose throat has been slashed, her eyes are wide open and her veins are noticeable in contrast to her pale skin, her head is slightly turned to sarah's and her body is covered in blood.

sarah screams, she jumps up and runs out. she runs through the woods and over the creek. she runs to solomon's house and as she bangs on the door; inside the house, he sits in front of the fire. "away, elijah!" he yells. but as her rapid knocks continue, he gets up and walks to the door, "elijah! i said enough!" he yells, opening the door.

"please you have to help me!" sarah exclaims.

"sarah?" he asks, turning to her as she pushes past him and goes further into his house.

"we're innocent, solomon. hannah and i, we didn't do this." she tells.

"you're bleeding." he reaches for her but she swats him away.

"it doesn't matter, listen to me, i went back to the woods, to the widow. she's dead, solomon! someone killed her! there was this.. this book.. with a kind of instruction, an incantation."

he looks confused, "an incantation? for what?"

"i think.. i think someone struck a deal with the devil. offering our town."

"our town?"

"yes. perhaps in exchange for power. solomon, i swear it. it wasn't me!"

"sarah," solomon starts before having a long pause, "i believe you."

he walks away, "who else knows about this?"

"no one." she tells him.

before they can discuss more, caleb comes to the door, "solomon!"

solomon turns to sarah, "go! go quickly! hide!"

sarah runs to a room and shuts the door. she slides to the floor as the bangs on the front door and the voices get louder. just as someone comes to the window she was at, she sneaks out. entering another room, she crawls through a small opening.

she was never meant to find this. she lights a torch and looks at the ground. a hogs head, a stone carving with blood in the gaps. the book. a simple exchange. she turns her head and sees solomon climbing through the hole.

"you! it's you!" she gasps.

"i'm still me. i've always been me. only i've grown tired of watching fortune turn a blind eye to me."

"how could you?" she asks, backing away as he comes closer.

"how could i what? take what we all want? what we all came here for? power, prosperity, legacy. consider, sarah... a single soul. just one. and in return, what no amount of praying could ever bring. one person every few years seems a small price to pay."

"one person? the pastor slew 12 children. my brother! innocents!"

"innocents. who's innocent? your neighbors hunt you, forsake you, curse your name, everywhere there is ignorance, dread, you resign yourself to it! they're afraid because they know you're different. and you are."

she is backed against the wall, she drops the torch.

he continues, "someone who refuses to settle for the rules of these who seeks more from the world. you're like me."

"i am nothing like you." she pushes forward, stabbing her knife into him and tries to run. he grabs a rock and hits her head with it. she hits him with the torch, he falls back. she crawls back through the hole, he picks up her knife and follows her through, screaming her name.

she's lost in the tunnels, "sarah?" he calls. he screams her name more, getting louder each time.

a voice whispers to her. she keeps running until she falls backwards and then she reaches a dead end. there's a hole in the ceiling. daylight peaks in. as she begins to crawl to the top, blood spilling from her head, solomon throws her from the spot.

"no! no! no! no!" she screams.

"stop it! please do not make me hurt you! i love you, sarah! i love you! stop fighting! i don't want to hurt."

⚠️kind of graphic gore description⚠️

she pushes him back, this angers him more than he already was and he stabs the knife into her wrist, her wrist goes limp and her hand is pushed into a rock. he pushes down on it, lifting his knife up to stab her, but his weight breaks her hand off. she screams louder. her hand falls to the ground.

⚠️ok gore over⚠️

as she crawls out of the tunnel, she stops to wrap her arm with a piece of fabric from her shirt to control the bleeding. she begins to crawl from the tunnel, grunting and crying. she makes it through and finds herself underneath a floorboard. she begins to kick and kick and it starts to break. she reaches up and begins to crawl through. she comes through the pulpit of the church. she stumbles down the stairs of the church.

she makes it to the door and walks out, she and hannah make eye contact, she offers her a small smile before her head lurches forward and she feels a sharp pain in the back of her head, "i found the witch!" solomon screams, grabbing a fistful of hair.

as the sun starts to rise, the town walks in a line to the tree, hannah and sarah's chains hit the ground. everyone knew the penalty for practicing witchcraft, but no one knew they were hanging the wrong people. two innocent girls who had done nothing wrong and as people screamed for them to confess their sins. there was nothing to confess. they had done nothing.

sarah smiles to hannah, a small smile that only hannah sees, before sarah whispers, "i confess."

"no! no!"

"i confess!" she yells.

"she's lying!"

"i walked with the devil! i lay with him! i bewitched the good pastor... and i bewitched hannah miller! i clouded her mind. it was me. it was only me."

a note from LT!

ok act 3 is done.

it's almost summer and
now all of a sudden i have
writing inspiration and
i've finally decided on how
i want this to end almost a
year later(:

act 4 coming soon