OUR SECRET: By A. Martin
Monday, September 26th, 2011It’s not true!
Brennan, tell them!
PLEASE, GOD! IT WASN’T ME!
Caroline bolted upright in her bed. She screamed.
The bedroom door burst open. Her mother rushed to her bedside.
“Is it those awful nightmares, again?” Caroline nodded.
“They won’t go away,” she sobbed. “It’s always the same dream! Why won’t they go away, mom? Why?” Her mother placed a hand on her shoulder.
Since moving back to where her mother grew up, Caroline Cole’s otherwise peaceful mind had been plagued with faces she didn’t know, and screams that seemed to never end when she’d slept. Since three weeks ago, the shrieking cries of fear in her dreams had become more deafening and relentless.
“Caroline,” her mother sighed. “I’d hoped you would never know about this. But because of these nightmares, I think it’s time, dear. It’s time you know our secret.”
***
When her mother was done, Caroline sat in utter disbelief. Their family secret was of a blood relative, Judith Myers. It dated back over three-hundred years. Judith was one of many women in Salem—because they were seen as suspicious by nature, who’d been accused and executed in late July, 1692. The accuser—a former family friend, confided to officials that Judith was undoubtedly afflicted with the works of the devil. That her pregnancy at the time and the town’s unfruitful harvest that year was in fact caused by Judith deflowering her marriage to her husband, Brennan, with hoards of demons. And that her newest unborn child she was carrying couldn’t be any other than a mix-breed of human and hell.
Judith was soon yanked from her home. The fact flashed briefly in Caroline’s mind: Judith begging and pleading. Her husband, Brennan, forcefully held down by a group of large men and forced to watch. Their other two children also watched on as they stood in the doorway, crying helplessly.
Brennan!
Imprisoned, Judith gave a premature birth. She was then pulled from her cell and into the street that afternoon. With close onlookers, she was subjected to peine forte et dure when refused to plea. But no matter how heavy the stones became on her understandably weakened body, she never gave up. She never gave in to their taunts and snarls of paranoid hatred. She’d eventually become semi-conscience and quiet. And when Judith couldn’t squeak another scream, nonetheless plea—for what the blood-hungry hoped would be an apology for her evil deeds, she was hung. The baby girl was put up for adoption weeks later by Brennan, fearing if he didn’t, it could be given the same monstrous fate as an adult.
***
Quivering, tears tracked Caroline’s round cheekbones in obtuse trails.
“That really happened, mom?” Her mother nodded.
“I’m afraid so. We’ve hid this secret for a very, very long time. It was all to protect Judith’s new born. After it was taken in by a family from another village, it was given their last name.”
“Our last name,” Caroline said, thoughtfully. “Cole?”
“That’s right, dear. We’re true decedents of Judith’s only daughter. We’re on our inherited land. Our home is where the Myers’ original house once stood a very long time ago. Maybe that’s why Judith’s been coming into your dreams, Caroline. She wants you to know where you came from.”
Horrified, Caroline also came to learn that the tree in which Judith was hung on the very oak that still stood beside the town’s elementary school. Something had to be done, she reasoned. The town may have blatantly forgotten its inherited secrets of inhumane-policy, but she wouldn’t. Not now; not ever.
***
Caroline’s proud grin didn’t waver in the fall breeze as she waited for her mother. Either would her thoughtful gaze at where the big oak had once stood shading the front of the elementary school. A petition with seventy-eight local names took it away over a month ago. But the granite memoriam dedicated those falsely accused of witchery, she was sure, would stand forever.
_______________________________
©2009 A. Martin
A. Martin has had short stories published in such publications as AlienSkin Magazine, Twisted Tongue Magazine in the UK, and on MicroHorror.com. He has collected a pile of gruesome thirty short stories for his book, “Dead Conversation, Published and Unpublished tales of Science fiction and Horror,” due out in October, 2011, and will be available through Lulu.com and Amazon.com.
