The Things Betwixt...

The Girl of Pendle

"Daily Flash Fiction Challenge"  Entry 03/13/2016

It came upon the eve of Ostara that I found myself betwixt the scornful gaze of the Pendle locals. Since the trials in 1612 the folk there were noted as being quite inhospitable to wanderers such as myself. News reached me on the road back from York, that several villagers went missing in a short period of time. Given the history, I settled to investigate.

I came upon a ramshackle of a hamlet, lonesome upon the dead countryside, and shadowed by the hungering, cloudless dusk. I heard nothing of new witch covens in the area, but upon my arrival, I felt a hollowness; an iciness – a bitter contempt for my presence. Though it was beyond any coercion of mind to lay rest the trepidation that so eagerly swallowed me, I dismissed it with a rather arrogant vein. I say arrogant, for to dismiss a stern imploring of perception is unwise. I settled on rather an unsatisfactory conclusion that it was the bleak layout of the surroundings. Shadowy buildings betwixt the barren yew trees stood beneath the canopy of a hollow and starving sky. Such surroundings can thus affect us. As such I made way to the derelict hamlet.

I was greeted with scorn, wherein there was naught but cheer one would note in a graveyard. I crept through a gruesome ossuary noting a distinct malice. I found a child there, Alizon her name was. She was shaken but healthy. I removed her from that place, and back to the village. She tried hard to squirm away, dropping a notebook in the process, but I brought her back. Whereupon, they burned her. With a heavy heart, I retrieved that leatherbound book. Within, it held naught the runes and incantations of witchcraft, but a recollection… a diary of her innocence and escape.

Word Count – 300

Pendle is an area located on Pendle Hill, Lancashire, England, long famed for its severe hauntings, and a well documented witch trial in 1612, where the Pendle Witches, Samlesbury Witches, and five others were tried for witchcraft and sentenced to death by hanging. It is estimated that during the English witch scare between the 15th and 18th century as few as 500 witches were executed, this event was significant as it accounted for nearly 5 percent of all witch executions of the period.