It was a cold late autumn morning. Sarah had been sent out to once again hunt down and lure children back to the cottage she shared with her two older sisters. They were determined that day to feast on a child's life and preserve their youth.
She lurked through the forest singing the usual song she used to bewitch and lead her unsuspecting young victims to their demise. Despite her efforts, no children seemed to be responding and wandering from the village and into the woods. Just as she was about to turn around and head back to face her eldest sister Winnifred's anger, she noticed something.
About a hundred feet away, across a clearing in the trees, she saw a small figure laying in the fallen, dried up, leaves. She crept closer to get a better look. As her view of it got better, she smiled wide. There laying asleep in the brush, was a young girl. She couldn't have any older than seven or eight. It was way too easy. All Sarah had to do was carry the sleeping child off to their home. Maybe she wouldn't even wake, and they could feed her the potion and suck out her life while she slept. When Sarah approached her, she knelt down and brushed away some of the reddish brown hair that covered her dirty face. Sarah examined her delicate features and lightly traced them with a finger.
She felt something different about this girl. She pondered hard for a minute before shrugging it off. She carefully hauled the child up, and excitedly took off in the direction of her home. The feeling she had about the little girl grew stronger as she continued on her way, but she ignored it. She was much too enthralled to bring home this prize.
When she reached the cottage, she ran up the fronts step and kicked the door with her foot. Her hands were much too full to open it herself.
"Sisters. Tis I." Sarah called.
She looked back down at the child in her arms, glad to see she hadn't woken her just then.
A moment later, her sister Mary opened the door.
"Sarah what..." she began before she saw what Sarah was holding.
"Ohhhh" she crooned, moving out of the way so Sarah could enter.
"Winnie!" Mary called excitedly as Sarah bounded in.
Winnifred turned around from where she was standing at the cauldron. When she saw the sleeping young girl in Sarah's arms, she gasped and her eyes widened. Her lips then turned into an evil smile as she began walking in their direction. Perhaps they could finish the deed with absolutely no struggle. They could simply open the child's mouth, slip in the potion and suck out her life before she even had the chance to wake. No need for restraining or fighting for compliance at all. It would be quick and easy.
"Lay her there sister Sarah!" Winnie instructed gleefully, pointing toward the settle bed near the fire. Sarah quickly and carefully did as she was told. Mary followed closely behind and helped her gently lay the girl down. Winnifred made her way over and sat down at her side. She grinned and placed a hand on the girl's cheek. Just as she did however, she gasped and pulled the hand back.
Mary and Sarah looked at her in confusion.
"What is it sister?" Mary asked Winnifred cautiously, unsure why her entire demeanor had suddenly changed.
Winnifred continued staring down at the girl.
"This be no typical child". She answered quietly. She then proceeded to place her hand on the child's face once more, this time on her forehead. A moment later she moved her hand away and shook her head.
She looked up at her sisters.
"Tis one of us". She she said finally. "I can feel the power within her".
"What?" Sarah asked in disbelief.
"You mean she..." Mary began before Winnie cut her off.
"Exactly what I said!" Winnifred snapped.
"I can feel the power of the craft stored within her. She is much too young to use it, but tis there".
Mary and Sarah stared at the girl in shock. Sarah knew she felt something different about her. However, the thought that this little girl could too be a witch, never crossed her mind.
"What shall we do with her Winnie?" Mary asked.
"Well we certainly can't kill her now can we?" Winnie barked.
"We shall leave her to rest. We can figure out what to do once she has awoken."
Her sisters nodded. Winnie once again looked back down at the girl and examined her dirty and frail body covered in a filthy tore up shift dress.
"Perhaps we change her from those rags first."
Winnie stated, breaking the silence once more.
She got up and walked toward the upstairs room. Sarah was only nine when the three of them fled from Salem Village to this cottage in the woods. Most of her old clothes from childhood were stored away in a trunk. While Winnie went searching for something clean for the girl to wear, Mary sat down on the edge of the settle bed and gently pulled the child up to try and undress her. She used one arm to support the girl from the front, and the other one to undo the ties on the back of the shift. That's when she noticed the blood stains seeping through the thin material. As she undid the ties, she revealed fresh looking gashes. They looked as if they were put there by a whip or something of that nature. The wounds were swollen and had newly dried blood crusting off. Mary let out a quiet gasp and looked up at Sarah who was staring down at them in shock.
"Th-these are fresh" she stammered.
Now that the sisters knew the child was a witch, their attitude toward her had shifted from malice to tenderness in an instant. She was one of their own and they couldn't leave her in this state.
Winnifred came back from the upstairs room with one of Sarah's old shifts. Her eyes widened when she saw wounds covering her back.
"The villagers must have already figured her out". She stated somberly.
Instead of hanging her, she was beaten and left in the woods to die.
By now Sarah had taken a seat on the other end of the bed.
"We must clean these". Mary muttered, gently pushing the child on to Sarah so she could get up and fetch a bowl of water and a cloth.
Mary quickly returned and sat back down. She dipped the cloth into the bowl and carefully began washing the gashes. They hadn't noticed at first, but quickly after Mary began cleaning her wounds, the girl woke. Her eyes darted around wildly as she took in her new surroundings. She then moved her gaze up to catch a glimpse of who she was leaning against. Her heart sped up as she began trembling. When she felt the wet cloth touch her tore up back, she let out an agonized cry. Sarah gasped and looked down at the child writhing in pain in her arms. She tightened her grip on her and used a hand to smooth the girl's hair.
"Shhhh all is well little one". She whispered.
Mary looked at her sister and shook her head.
"'Twas afraid of that" she mumbled.
For the next step in tending the wounds would be much more painful. Mary sighed and carried on. She lifted up a jar of herbal oil that would aid the healing and poured a generous amount onto the cloth.
She lightly dabbed the oil into the cuts, causing the girl scream and squirm in Sarah's embrace. She wailed and begged them to stop. Sarah was unsure of what to do so she just pushed the girl's head closer to her and whispered "shhhh" quietly in her ear.
This was one of the rare times the sisters wished they practiced white magic. That way, they'd be able to heal the wounds with a simple spell and avoid an ordeal such as this.
"Keep her until she sleeps Sarah".
Winnie ordered once Mary had finished.
"Twill be easier to dress and move her without starting that screaming up again".
Winnifred watched as the child whimpered into her sister's breast. Without actually realizing, Sarah had begun rocking her, which seemed to be soothing the girl quickly. When Sarah saw that her eyes were beginning to close, she gently stroked her cheek and brushed away the hair that stuck to it. Moments later, she used her fingers to close her drooping eyes.
"Sleep now child". She whispered "They cannot touch thou here".
Mary handed her a new damp cloth to wipe the dirt from the child's face. Her face twitched as Sarah ran the cloth over it, but she however continued to fall fast asleep. Once they were sure she wasn't going to wake back up, they continued to pull the old shift off of her and replace it with the new one. Sarah and Mary then proceeded to move her on to her stomach to not irritate the wounds even more. They left the back of the shift open and refrained from placing a blanket over her back to allow the injuries to breath. Once they had her settled, Mary and Sarah stood and moved to either side of Winnifred.
Winnifred stared down at the sleeping girl and processed the unexpected events that the morning had brought.
"Puritans." She scoffed.
"If they are the good and righteous individuals they claim to be, then how dost thou explain this?"
She looked back and forth between her sisters as they shook their heads.
"Even death by the Life potion is faster and more humane than beating her and leaving her in the woods to starve. At least she would have died instantly."
"Shh Winnie" Sarah said softly "Thou will wake her".
Winnie glared at her, causing her sister to sheepishly advert her eyes.
Winnie let out a low groan and turned her gaze back to the child. She felt her anger rise. Her and her sisters had also known what it was to be cast out by the Salem community, though they managed to leave unscathed, unlike the poor child before them.
The Puritans declared their upmost devotion to the lord, but as far as Winnifred was concerned, they used their religion to justify hurting the people they deemed different from them; those that dared to stray from the strict way of life dictated by the church. The sisters watched her sleep for some time more.
"She is lovely isn't she sisters?" Sarah whispered.
Winnifred nodded. Twas truly a beautiful child, which was not something Winnie thought lightly.
She had plans for this girl. She had already decided after she saw the lashes upon the child's back, that she would stay here and be raised in the cottage. And once she was old enough to use her powers, they would seek revenge. Not just for themselves, but for everyone like them.