The night was cold and the wind was thick, it stuck in the back of little Dorothy's throat, she was growing ill from the winds.
So, she laid in bed curled in a blanket, her shoes by the fire for them to dry near the burning wood after they were soaked by wandering outside; her face was red, her cheeks puffy and her eyes were shut tightly as she slept numbly in her aunt's bed.
While Dorothy slept, Evelyn and aunt Lydia kept close to the bedroom's doorway in their own puzzlements as to how the little girl got soaked and how it lead her to become sick; at least, only Lydia was confused because Evelyn knew why.
"How could this happen, Evelyn?" Lydia asked, looming her head inside the bedroom with her shoulders still in the hallway next to Evelyn, "Dorothy never left my sight, Evelyn, you know this don't you?" Lydia sighed with her tone cracking under the pressure she was in.
Evelyn walked away into the open room behind her with a fast pacing heart that was racing inside her rib cages, her blood was pumping more as well because of how anxious she was of guilt.
Dorothy, I'm sorry to have done this to you... Evelyn thought with sorrow, Your breathing is starting to rasp and your hands are getting clammy..
Also, it is almost midnight and you've been sleeping all day and so it's too late for a doctor.
Evelyn's eyes darted in every direction for some sort of idea, but she couldn't seem to think of one that could help; all she could think of was what happened early in the morning yesterday when she tried leading her sister into the woods to find the hanging tree instead of going to their new school like they were told.
Yesterday that morning, there was no sun in the cloud-filled sky, all there was were roaring thunder clouds accompanied by violent bullets of pouring cold rain.
The girls wandered quickly in the woods where they weren't supposed to be, and they knew that because before they entered Evelyn kept watching that no one was looking their way as they entered.
Now, it was just the two of them in the new dresses Lydia had made for them just for school, were being draped with clinging mud and grass stains.
"Evelyn, it's becoming very dark in the woods..there is no sun today even!" Dorothy said with fear, "Can't you take me to school instead of going into the dark woods where the witches are?" She quired under her trembling breath.
Evelyn took the ends of her dress to tie them on her waist for better hiking, she did the same with Dorothy's dress then picked her up, "No, Dorothy, we are going to help someone rest out at gallows hill."
For Dorothy being only eight, she knew why they were going there and that is what disturbed her the most about venturing into the woods.
Although it was terrifying to think about, Dorothy still held onto her sister's arm so then Evelyn wouldn't get angry with her.
So, Evelyn kept hiking farther into the woods where she couldn't even tell which direction she had to go anymore, although honestly she never knew from the start.
Evelyn kept walking, her dress was being torn and snagged by tall brambles that now hungered for blood and so they dug into her legs which almost made her trip; the rest of her walk she realized it was painful, but it was when Dorothy and her started to hear voices in the woods that they realized, they weren't alone in the shadowed man's woods..the dialect was British like them, but the words were impossible to understand with their heavy breathing and muttering of words under a saddened tone,
"Rest now, kind soul. Let no evil find you again beneath this healing soil, of our God's clay can now heal you over the wounds they've left you so then no forgiveness because you are innocent in my eyes and in the eyes of our Lord. Rest now, lamb, return to our pastor in heaven." The voice mumbled low, now forming words in his grief that the children could understand.
Evelyn silently scrambled behind a tree then peered her head forward to watch this strange man because there was no other person out there beside her and Dorothy; her eyes then locked immediately on a corpse that she quickly gathered to be the final remains of Mistress Wilmot.
"Evelyn, I'm scared.." Dorothy whimpered.
"Who's out there?" The man shouted out to them.
"Hold on tight to me, Dorothy!" Evelyn warned her sister before breaking into a run back where they came, the man was coming close behind but she could tell he was growing tired and so the unidentified man stopped his running to return back to Mistress Wilmot.
"The woods know all, do not forget the white raven still flies like a spy in the sky!" He cursed to them in anger.
Even though the man wasn't there, Evelyn didn't stop running and so that is what brought her down in a ditch to only tumble into a large puddle with Dorothy rolling next to her which made the little babe cry in pain, "Dorothy, I'm so sorry!" She said sadly, "School is still going on..maybe we can go there after all since we've only wasted an hour and a half! imagine the friends we could make-"
"I'm cold, Evelyn...I just want to go home to auntie.." Dorothy wheezed to say, getting scooped up into her sister's arm then watching the place they were before drifting into something unfamiliar then into their Salem home, shortly after her eyes closed and then she drifted to sleep according to Evelyn's memory.
Now, Evelyn awkwardly moved to the wall as she tried to hold on until her nails slid away from the wooden walls then onto the glass of the window; her head spun in an uneasy cycle that she nearly fell sick after reminiscing everything that went on today.
Weakly, Evelyn closed her eyes in hopes to relax, but to the only toil, her mind is an even slower revolvement when her memories back stepped or quickened whenever she couldn't mind the right thought that she found was bothering her.
Finally, she realized since today was to be their first day of school, Evelyn never got a chance to explain to Mr. Bailey, or given an excuse as to why they never came to the schoolhouse.
For some reason Evelyn's head finally stopped its agonizingly, obnoxious reflecting she didn't need at the moment, yet she didn't argue because of what she assumed was an overly complicated headache ended to make her focus again on what to do with Mr. Bailey.
Perhaps I'll explain to my teacher tomorrow since it'll be just me going to school... She decided but then was thrown back into a plain of terror by the loud tapping of a hammer into wood.
Frightened, she gazed out the window in an attempt to find what was making that sound, up till she found a man nailing into a small wooden box under an oak tree.
Eventually, she pieced together what that man and box were for and that made her feel nothing but a chill up her spine after figuring out they were for her sister if Dorothy wasn't going to pull through this illness she had.
"Frightening, isn't it?" Lydia asked, her pale eyes locking on the child-shaped coffin, "Salem moves fast in what they believe in; either you make it to be a successful puritan with a bible in hand or you'll be put in a grave, coffin or none, death will take the damned to burn. One way or another, he'll get his due eventually..." She sighed, wrapping her arms around Evelyn to only be pushed off immediately.
"That's not right!" Evelyn protested, "Dorothy isn't going to die!-she can't and won't, I will not let her and neither should you!"
Lydia groaned then walked away into her room to tend to Dorothy, leaving Evelyn alone with her thoughts again, Someone else out there beyond this town has to be able to help my sister if no one else in Salem is willing to cure her. Evelyn expressed.
Almost in a daze, her eyes rotated away from the doorway her aunt left through then back at the window to spot the same puff of smoke she had seen her first day in Salem.
Except now, people were gathered outside with the same fascination with the vapor just like her, full of questions with the idea there can be much to explain because no one would be able to know the answer unless they were really willing to know; the woods were cursed, filled with danger, roaming with the shadower man and his conjuring assistants of witches.
Dorothy, tomorrow after I convince Mr. Bailey to excuse us I'll travel into the woods myself to not only meet that strange man again but to also find the origin of the smoke, She promised, Hopefully then Salem can become a safer home for us afterward. I promise we'll be safer here with our aunt now that I know she could be in danger of this place-
Suddenly, there was a scream that came from aunt Lydia in her bedroom, "Death is here, the white raven saw it too!"