These Dreams

Phantom

The ropes were digging into Emma's wrists, leaving them raw as they pulled her along. The crowd was jeering her, jostling, poking and prodding at her as she went by. She flinched as a clod of dirt hit her on the side of the face, leaving her eyes full of tears and making it even harder to see. She stumbled, and went down to one knee in the mud, only to be kicked and hit with sticks and hands until she was pulled roughly back to her feet. She was barefoot, and wearing what looked like a tattered nightgown, as if she'd been pulled from her bed.

"Up with you!" a man's voice shouted. "You'll not delay us further!"

"What the hell is going on?" Emma screamed, pulling against the ropes and feeling the blood stream down her arms as her skin broke open.

"She opens her mouth and speaks of hell!" A woman screamed.

"Silence, witch!" Shouted another.

The man pulling Emma along leaned in, his fetid breath right in her face. "You'll be wise to guard your tongue, woman. Save your voice to plead for mercies." He yanked the rope again, pulling her up the stairs to a nearby building, hauling her in the door and leading her roughly through the assembled crowd to a platform set at the far end of the great room.

Emma looked up in confusion and realized Regina was there, bound just like she was, her clothing partially ripped and filthy. One eye was swelling, and she had cuts all over her hands and arms. Her lip was oozing blood.

They dragged Emma up the stairs to the platform next to her, and Emma looked out at the assembled crowd in disbelief.

"Regina, what the hell is going on?"

Regina swallowed hard. "Someone turned me in," she whispered. "I guess they heard about me teaching you magic and went after you, too." She looked out at the crowd, barely dodging a rotting cabbage thrown at the both of them. "The good people of Salem seem to have a problem with magic of any kind."

"Salem?" Emma looked at her askance. "Really?" She lowered her voice. "Can we get out of this? Use our magic?"

Regina shook her head, answering quietly, "I don't know what they did, but I can't use my powers. See if you've got anything."

Emma closed her eyes, concentrating, but nothing happened. She couldn't feel any sort of magic welling up inside her.

"Nothing," she said. "I've got nothing."

Regina opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, the doors opened near the other end of the platform, where a table and chair stood. There was a quill and ink pot on the table, and a small candelabra. Leroy stepped out in front of the doors.

"The honorable magistrate will now hear the case against these women!" he announced in a loud voice.

A magistrate pushed his way past Leroy, ascending the steps to the platform and taking his seat at the table, shuffling a sheaf of papers. He looked up at them, and Emma had to bite her lip to stifle her gasp.

Even with a long, powdered wig, spectacles and a robe, she recognized him. It was him. The man - the one who kept reappearing. She fought to keep her expression blank, so he wouldn't know she recognized him. She wanted to see how this played out without him blowing them all up again.

"Bring forth the accusers," the magistrate said, in an almost bored tone of voice.

"Bring forth the accusers!" Leroy echoed from down below. After a little jostling, the crowd parted, leaving Marian and Robin standing front and center.

"You may state your case," the magistrate said, looking down at them.

Marian stepped forward, straightening her shoulders and clearing her throat. "Thank you, your honor," she said with all due deference. She raised her hand, and pointed a finger at Regina. "That woman," she said, in a loud and carrying voice, "Bewitched my husband, turning him from his family. She is a known purveyor of dark magic, and has used her dark influences to cause calamity and harm to hundreds."