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"play with matches, you get burned"
-anonymous
song to listen to: eleanor rigby by cody fry
warnings: swearing, descriptions of violence, sobbing, mental breakdowns, descriptions of panic and terror/fear, descriptions of being burned alive, mentions of hanging, mentions of death, descriptions of death, grab the tissues, you will be crying this chapter
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The town of Union was splayed out before me in a messy half circle. The sun was just beginning to rise, but it didn't yet show in the sky, causing the spoken-about sky to be an unsettling in-between of blue and black. I spotted Thomas in the crowd, and standing only a couple of feet away from him was Abigail, Isaac, and Lizzie. Notably, Josephine stood apart from the rest of the town, sharing the same expressionless face as Mother.
My hands were tied behind my back by one rope, and a larger rope held me hostage against a thick log from a cypress tree. From my chest to my knees, a single silver chain was wrapped around my body. It was time to say my goodbyes, but what voice would I be given? What voice did I even have left? All eyes were on me. I should say something. I need them to hear the truth from me, even if they choose to not believe me, or call me psychopathic. One person will know the truth. One person needs to know the truth. I can't let this truth die with me like it died with Sarah, even if this is my final dawn alive.
"Rosette Peters is here before us today," Solomon Goode was shouting for the world to hear, not just Union. "Due to the charges of witchcraft, murder, and assault! Rosette," he turned to face me, and I glared him down. "How do you plead?"
Staying silent, I spat right in his face. The town gasped, and Solomon harshly seized my cheek-jawline area, and although I tried to jerk away, he pulled me closer. My face was flaming with pain, and my body shook with fright. Solomon repeated his words.
"How do you plead?"
How did I plead? He was asking a question for the ages, a question that I may never answer. Staying silent, I pondered this impossible question. 'How do you plead' is no question that a seventeen year old woman should have to find herself capable of answering. I needed somebody to know the truth. Somebody to know. One person to carry on the legacy. It needed to happen.
"How do you plea-"
"I confess!" I cried out.
Nobody said a word. There was perfect silence among the crowd-you couldn't even hear a million crickets chirping like they usually do. Expressions of horror, anger, sadness, and even disappointment was clearly displayed across every single citizen's face. They all believed my lie-of course they did. They also were most likely having complete and utter deja-vu to Sarah's confession. That was fine. To be quite frank, I don't know why I expected anything else. But this wouldn't be enough. I needed to feed them more. To make at least one person become curious.
"I lay with the Devil on the same night as my sister, Sarah Fier." I was shaking more than I'd like to, but that wasn't changeable. "I made a deal with him, I am as responsible for the misfortune of this town as Sarah is! I am the reason for Pastor Miller's possession, I am the reason for the Widow's death...and I am the reason for Thomas Slater's descent into madness."
That's when everybody began to scream and shout terrible things directly towards me. But acknowledging how those words hurt wouldn't let me be perceived as how I wanted Union to perceive me as in this moment-in my last moments.
"He tried to warn all of you about Sarah, about myself, it was obvious to all of you!" I cried out, making sure to lock eyes with several townsfolk. "And you were all oblivious until it became too late. You may think that this here evil will end with me, but it won't."
"No, no, she's lying!" Thomas' voice had never been filled with more emotion than it was now. "She's not telling the truth! She's lying!"
"The curse I placed upon him will fade after my last breath!" I shouted over his voice, choking on a sob that I didn't allow to be released. "I did it! I did all of it! All that you may accuse of me, I have done it-"
I needed to take another minute to soak all of it in. The silent uproar from the crowd, the sobs from my soon-to-be-former friends. It hurt like hell to know that I wouldn't be able to see their faces one last time, in a happier state than they found themselves right now. I'd miss their weddings, their children, I'd miss every single party to come. I'd miss the nights we'd spend dancing around the fire, telling ghost stories. I'd never have another night of star gazing with Thomas. It was all over. My world was ending now, and I'm sure that the whole world would end sooner than expected if I don't speak these words now.
"I am not the only evil in this small town." My voice was shaking with a mix of emotions that even I couldn't quite discern. "The other evil comes in the shape of a man, and I don't expect him to be revealed today, or tomorrow, or even in this same century. But the truth will come out one day, I'll see it through. And I will never let you go."
I'd be satisfied for those to be my last words. Sure, it was awfully close to Sarah Fier's last words, but to the town, Sarah and I were one in the same. It made sense-or at least, that's what I like to tell myself. It made me sick to my stomach, what these men were set to do to me in only minutes. They had no heart for a 'woman like me,' so I didn't necessarily understand what more I expected from them.
"May the light you fade into help your soul to find its way." Solomon offered a false hope.
He stared straight into my eyes as he dropped a lit torch onto the pile of wood and hay around me. The fire was quick to consume the wood and hay, and I was quick to feel the pain of burning alive. I let out a small whimper of pain, pressing my head back against the log as I did my best to not give any satisfaction to the men and women waiting to hear my screams. But it hurt so badly, it was the worst pain I'd ever feel in my life. This is how it ends? This is all there is?
The wedding gown became almost completely engulfed, the log I was tied to began to burn as well. I couldn't hold it back anymore-I needed to scream. And so I did just that. A scream of the guttural sorts came from my mouth, but it became cut off as I inhaled. I expected oxygen, but I only got a smoke that became thicker than molasses. I was choking on smoke, and I was screaming, and I was sobbing. It hurt so much. Why was it still hurting? Can't I just be killed by this already? Somebody needs to help me out of this. I'm not ready to die, no, no I can't die. I'm only seventeen. I don't deserve this. What did I do to deserve this? It isn't fair. I need him to help me.
"Thomas!" I screamed, truly desperate. I needed him. I needed his help. I want to be with him. I need him to be with me. "Tommy! Tommy, help, please! Please-please!"
Despite my repeated cries for help, I knew there was nothing Thomas could do. But I kept on calling for him. Every cry was useless, but I couldn't stop. I didn't want to die, I-I want to run from Union like Thomas and I had planned for all these years, I wanted to have three kids and a dog on an isolated farm, I wanted to live.
"TOMMY!"
"What the hell are you doing, man?" A curly haired man was asking Mia's boyfriend-a direct descendant of my Thomas. But this Tommy was long gone. "Tommy?"
The double-sided axe lodged deeply into Arnie's skull, splitting his head in half and making all three girls scream in pure terror. It shocked me as well, but I needed to protect the brunette I stood closest to. Mia Peters. My great-a-million-times-over niece. A descendant of my sister, Josephine.
"Go, run." I urged with a rather harsh tone. "Mia, RUN. RUN. RUN!"
The world cut from my vision faster than people think death would feel like. There was no film playing back of all my happiest memories, it was just suddenly all black. I couldn't breathe. I was suffocating on the smoke, and the fire was consuming my entire body. I couldn't do it anymore. I gave up. He couldn't save me. Nobody could save me.
"Save her." I urged the broken father of Jennifer.
He needed my help, and he would get it, but he'd feel terrible if anything really happened to his daughter while he had the chance to prevent it. I'd look after him. So, I followed him to the site of the crash. The night went on like that, and I stayed relatively silent. Jen was at her mother's hospital with two siblings-the Johnsons, I think they are. Her boyfriend and her crush were there too-Kate and Simon. Too little was happening. I could sense the curse sparking again. I needed to warn her.
"They're after you." I whispered. "Run."
She didn't listen until her mother died. She didn't tell them the truth until it was too late. I needed to get her to understand. She must understand the reality-must understand my story. So, Deena started seeing Sarah's life, and I started Jennifer on seeing my own.
"Never let them go."
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1666 words for rosie's final chapter do u hate me yet
i finally updated
it's depressing
is it clicking together yet
are you more scared for jen or for cam
btw next chapter you find out the state of cameron <333
imma add the banner later
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ily all