chapter seven
sarah fier's hanging

IT WAS SILENT after Agnes made sure everyone was okay and went to go help other girls the men night prey on. They were using the excuse of checking the girls to undress them. Perhaps they really were checking them for marks, but they enjoyed themselves far too much as the girls struggled against them.

Cora and Harriet had both changed their tops and gave Abigail and Lizzie another to change into. Each of the girls felt disgusting, like they'd never be clean again. Harriet couldn't forget the feeling of the man's fingers against her skin.

Everyone was sitting on the floor. Harriet leaned against Isaac, his arm around her. She only felt a bit better but certainly much safer. Nobody could bring themselves to talk, all of the girls' minds were still on what had happened only moments before.

It was only when they'd heard a bunch of shouts that they moved. "What's happening out there?" Cora asked, already lifting herself to her feet. Everyone followed her actions, but half of them were unsure if they actually wanted to know.

Cora quickly opened the door and rushed out. Everyone was gathered at The Meeting Hall. She ran over, pushing her way through the crowd, her sister and their friends behind her. She gasped at what she saw.

Sarah was covered in dirt and blood, a red-stained cloth wrapped around her wrist. Harriet wondered what had happened to her, but she was also confused as to why, out of everyone, Solomon Goode was the one behind her, holding her up by her hair.

He couldn't possibly believe she was a witch. He certainly hadn't seemed to believe it at the meeting. Harriet slipped her hand in her sister's, making Cora glance over to her.

The sun was rising, signaling that Hannah and Sarah would now be hung.

All the people in the settlement had been led to the tree outside of Union. Guilt was eating up all of the other five teenagers. They wanted to say something, wanted to help their friends, but they knew if they did, they'd be hung right with Hannah and Sarah.

Hannah Miller and Sarah Fier stood in front of everybody, chains on their wrists and around their torsos. Catching Sarah's attention, Harriet sent her an apologetic look.

"The penalty for practicing witchcraft is death by hanging!" Elijah shouted, standing behind the two girls, immediately gaining everyone's support.

Harriet's eyes flickered away for a second before returning to Sarah and Hannah. Isaac placed his hand in hers, pressing a soft kiss on the side of her head, making her nod appreciatively.

"Confess!" Elijah demanded. "Confess your sins or burn in eternal Hell. Confess! Confess."

"Confess!" Mad Thomas screamed.

Sarah kept her attention on Hannah, blocking out the hollers of people wanting them to confess to something they hadn't done. Sarah said something that Harriet couldn't hear, but it made Hannah shake her head frantically. Sarah turned away from the Miller girl and raised her voice. "I confess!"

"No, she's lying-" Hannah tried. Elijah placed a hand over her mouth, forcing her to keep quiet.

"I walked with the Devil," Sarah went on. "I lay with him. I bewitched the good pastor, and I bewitched. . ." She faced Hannah, who was struggling against Elijah's restraints. ". . . Hannah Miller. I clouded her mind! It was me. . . it was only me. Hannah's innocent."

"Let her go," Solomon instructed as he walked forward. Elijah removed his hand from Hannah's mouth and worked to undo her chains. He dragged her over to the crowd and threw her to her mother. Solomon moved closer to Sarah as he put more chains around her neck.

"The truth will come out," Sarah whispered, but she was loud enough that most people could hear her. Harriet and Cora - and their friends - wondered what she was talking about. "Maybe not today. . . and maybe not tomorrow, but it will. The truth shall be your curse. It will follow you for eternity. I will shadow you forever." He locked the chains around her, barely paying any attention to what she was saying. "I will show them what you've done. I will never. . ."

"Hang her!" people in the crowd demanded, growing impatient at the wait.

Finally, Solomon wrapped the rope around her neck. Harriet's breath hitched. She wasn't sure if she wanted to squeeze her eyes shut or not. Solomon threw the other end of the rope around the tree branch and walked away, leaving two other men to pull down, lifting Sarah's body into the air when they were cued by Elijah. Sarah's eyes widened as the rope tightened around her neck.

When her body went limp, the men lowered the rope. They worked to get her out of the rope before digging a hole and moving her in it. Eventually, all of the townspeople went home, but the five teenagers lingered behind.

"Tonight," Lizzie lowered her voice. "We come back."

And so they had.

Cora and Harriet waited for their mother to fall asleep before they walked to the tree, meeting Isaac and Lizzie there. Isaac wrapped his arm around Harriet as they waited for Abigail. When she came, they got to work.

Isaac dug the grave open, while the girls sat on the ground. "We can't just leave her here, alone underneath this tree," Lizzie said. "She deserves a proper burial."

"Let's move her," Isaac suggested. "Bury her somewhere else. So no one else knows where she is."

"Except us," they finished in unison.

Isaac carved the witch forever lives in a rock that they put in the grave. They moved her body towards the rock, the one where most couples went to have alone time. Isaac carved Fier into the lock of the chains around Sarah while Hannah grabbed a flower crown and placed it on Sarah's head. Then, they all slowly began to fill in the dirt.

When they were finished, they all went home, carrying a secret they never dared to speak about. Eventually, Harriet married Colin Myers, Cora got sick a few years later, and Isaac ended up with a girl named Paige Matthews.

○●○

"DEENA!" HOLLAND SHOUTED, her hand on the girl's shoulder as she tried to get her to snap out of her trance. Finally, Deena blinked. Holland let out a breath of relief. "Jesus fuck, Deena. You scared the living shit out of me!"

"It's Goode!" Deena panted, her eyes still wide.

"No. It's not good, Deena!" Holland argued. "I literally just said you scared the shit out of me!"

"No," Deena shook her head. "It - it's Goode! It's Sheriff Goode!"

Holland and Simon shared a confused look. "What are you talking about?" Simon questioned.

"His ancestor - Soloman Goode!" Deena looked up at them. "He framed Sarah Fier!"

Simon and Holland didn't have enough time to process what she was saying before they heard sirens near them. Their heads snapped over to the small opening where they could see a cop car. They watched as Sheriff Goode got out, their eyes widening in horror.

"Shit!" Simon cursed, running a hand through his hair.

At once, all three of them bolted up. Holland could see Sheriff Goode pointing his flashlight at Josh, momentarily blinding the boy.

"Josh!" Deena yelled, grabbing her brother by the arm and pulling him back into the woods. Simon and Holland gripped hands, turning sharply around to follow their friends.

They kept running, stumbling slightly due to the dirt and small hills. The four stopped and hid behind a tree.

"It's him," Deena announced in a whisper. "His dad and his grandpa and his great-grandpa. . ."

"What?" Josh asked, his voice just as quiet. He glanced over his shoulder as Sheriff Goode tried to convince him that Simon, Holland, and Deena were all confused and delusional.

"Goode is evil," Deena told him.

"Take your shoes off," Holland instructed, making Josh tilt his head at her. "Just do it!" Quickly, the younger boy did as told. "Okay, on the count of three, we all get up and run to his car." Simon went to protest him, but Holland quickly shut him down. "Just do it, dipshit. Okay. . one. . . two. . . three!"

They all got up as quietly as they could and immediately took off towards the cop car. Holland got in the driver's seat while Simon took the passenger, leaving Deena and Josh to the back. "Dumbass left his keys in," Holland rolled her eyes as she stepped down on the gas pedal.

"I was back in time," Deena explained frantically. "I was Sarah Fier, and Sarah Fier was innocent. She isn't turning people in Shadyside into killers. She wasn't a witch."

"We have a 5150 in possession of car 961," a woman on the radio said, making Holland glance down at it. "Suspects are on their way-"

Simon reached for the radio. Holland slapped his hand away. "Don't. They have, like, trackers on the cars or some crap like that."

"Really?" Simon furrowed his brows.

"Guys, listen!" Deena demanded. "Soloman Goode-"

"Who?" Josh cut in.

Deena huffed, clearly tired of the interruptions. "Nick Goode's Pilgrim ancestor. He made a deal with the Devil, then framed Sarah to cover his own Puritan ass." Holland didn't bother to stop at the red light in front of her. The further she got from Sarah Fier's body and Nick Goode, the better. "The Goodes. . . they're trading us. People from Shadyside. Goode gives a name to the Devil, the Devil takes over that person. Then that person kills and murders and the Devil feeds on the blood of dead Shadysiders and Goode gets whatever he wants."

"She reaches from beyond the grave. . . to make good men her wicked slave," Simon recited under his breath. His eyes widened and he looked over to Holland. "It's not good men - it's Goode men!"

"All of Sunnyvale gets better and better," Deena went on.

"And Shadyside doesn't," Josh finished.

Deena nodded. "And the Goodes do it over and over, again and again. One Goode from every generation passing down the evil. Solomon. Solomon's son. Firstborn to firstborn. Right to today. . . right to Sheriff Nick Goode."

"So, Sarah Fier-" Josh interrupted once more.

"He framed her!" Deena exclaimed. "She's the only one who's ever figured out the truth. . ."

"Until now," Holland swallowed nervously.

"The killers came after us to keep us from uncovering it," Josh realized.

"So, what? Are all those fucking psychos going to come after us now?" Holland asked. "I had a perfectly fine life a few days ago, and now it's turned into some, like, horror movie or some shit."

Everyone was silent, trying to accept their new fate - or, perhaps, they were thinking about how drastically their life had changed since a few days ago.

𝒎𝒆𝒍 𝒎𝒆𝒍 !!