The Gibbet's Curse

    A crime is punished in very different ways. The harsh punishment does fit the crime when the guilty person is severely punished. However, when an innocent person is blamed for a crime then the punishment is nothing more than a sinister twist of fate. A long time ago in the year 1623 a young woman by the name of Julie Marder was convicted of murdering her brother Matthew Marder when in fact it was Julie's father Ezekiel that had killed Matthew by stabbing him after he defended Julie from her father's drunken wrath. It was her father that lied by stating that she was a witch and that she sacrificed her brother to an unholy power. Ezekiel Marder lost two children because of his reckless behavior and many people that lived in Northumberland knew that Ezekiel had a terrible temper and they suspected that it was in fact Ezekiel that killed two of his three children. His wife Margaret had locked herself in her room to protect the baby William Marder.

       Julie Marder was punished for her crime of murder by being sentenced to be trapped in a gibbet. A gibbet was in fact a gallows type structure from which the dead or the dying bodies of executed criminals were hung on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. Julie was mocked and ridiculed by many yet she always maintained that she was innocent. No one dared to help her while she suffered and before she died all that she wanted was for the justice that her deceased brother Matthew deserved. A year had passed since the death of Julie Marder and one dark night Ezekiel Marder was on his way back home and had gotten drunk. Ezekiel had a whirlwind of thoughts where he was going to arrive home to beat his wife. Just as he kept going on his way he could have sworn that he saw a gibbet laying there right in front of him. The gibbet made him think of his deceased daughter Julie and as he got closer he could swear that he heard the following words: "Are you ready for your punishment?" Ezekiel then saw that he was surrounded by a strange fog that came from all directions and then the form of a female woman was made by the fog which stood behind Ezekiel. Afterwards, Ezekiel was pushed inside the gibbet which closed by itself trapping Ezekiel. There was no one around to hear Ezekiel's screams and once inside the gibbet Ezekiel was constantly being stabbed by the vengeful spirit of his daughter who showed no mercy in having her own brand of justice. After all of that had occurred the vengeful spirit of Julia went back inside the gibbet. When the vengeful spirit of Julia returned to the gibbet the gallows type structure vanished as it seemed that the fog took it when it disappeared.

        Many centuries later a man by the name of Morgan Shaw had acquired the cursed gibbet through an antiques dealer by the name David Sternstein. Morgan Shaw had built a museum called The Shaw Museum in America of many antique historical artifacts and cursed objects which were on display and it was a very successful business at the time. One day the museum was having a group of students from Allens High School and all of the students liked to be a part of the field trip which was organized by their history teacher Robert Hall. Robert had organized the field trip with Maurice Howard who was the physical education teacher who was the other adult in charge. On the school bus there were two sisters, one was named Natalie Pickering Marder and Jessica Pickering Marder. Natalie was being secretly abused by her twin sister because the boy that she liked, Ted Roberts, was actually interested in Natalie since he thought that Jessica was too stuck up for her own good. Nathan Walters was Natalie's best friend and he suspected that something was going on with her yet she had never told anyone about it. Patricia Milash and Teresa Levin were friends of Jessica and Natalie and they thought that everything was fine since Natalie wore clothing that hid her bruises. Natalie wanted to tell her parents yet she did not want to cause a lot of turmoil since her parents were considering having a divorce.

     Once the school bus got into The Shaw Museum the kids were very eager to see what lurked inside the place. They were all greeted by a man by the name of Dustin Ennis who was going to be their tour guide. Robert Hall and Maurice Howard were both vigilant with all of the kids. When they entered the museum they saw a lot of interesting stuff and the tour guide gave a lot of interesting details of the history behind each item on display. When Natalie saw the cursed gibbet she felt strangely drawn to it. Dustin Ennis explained the history of the cursed gibbet and what happened to Julie Marder. On the other hand, Jessica felt a strange sense of dread when she saw the gibbet. Patricia and Teresa asked Jessica if she was all right since she looked very pale. Jessica then went to the bathroom after asking for permission from her teacher Robert Hall. Jessica went to see how she looked in the mirror and then the lights went out in the bathroom. Before she knew it Jessica was trapped inside of the gibbet she saw all of her classmates yet they could not see her there pleading for help. Nathan was talking to Natalie to see how she was doing. All that Natalie told him was that her parents might get a divorce. Jessica then felt a huge headache and her nose started to bleed. Later on, blood was coming out of her eyes and in the end she started to decay into a rotting corpse.

      Patricia went to look for Jessica and she found her in the bathroom. Jessica seemed fine as she went to join the rest of the class for the field trip. Natalie noticed that something was not quite right with her twin sister and she thought that it was odd that she was a little too nice to her. As the field trip ended the twins were picked up by their father when they arrived during the afternoon. Val Pickering asked how the field trip was and the girls told him that it was fun. Val noticed that it was strange that both girls liked the same thing. When they got home their mother Amanda Marder had cooked them dinner and then they all ate together. Amanda was surprised that her daughter Jessica did not touch her phone during dinner. After all of the family had eaten they went to their rooms. Amanda told Val that she wanted him to sign the divorce papers yet he told her that they should seek the option of marriage counseling to save the marriage. At that point, Amanda took out her gun and shot Val on the shoulder. As Amanda walked out of the room where she shot her husband she pointed the gun at Natalie by pure instinct. When Amanda got a look at Jessica's eyes she fell into a weird trance which was followed by Amanda shooting herself in the head and blowing her brains out. Jessica asked if Natalie was all right and then together they went to check up on their father who was later on taken to the hospital. After that the twins went to live for some time with their aunt Alice who lived nearby. Little by little, time went by and Natalie noticed that her sister had drastically changed since that day of the field trip and she never got to find out that it was her ancestor Julie Marder that inhabited her sister's body. This time Julie was not going to allow for anyone to harm her modern day family.

                                                                 The End