The Black Witch

She lit an old candle in the carved turnip, and placed it by the cracked window, causing shadows to dance across the log walls. She squinted through the glass. A cold wind was pushing dying red leaves across the stone path. It was getting late! She'd heard whispers of a mandatory town meeting. Dressing in layers, she hoped to ward off the cold, and the gazes of her unfriendly neighbors. She knew what they would be discussing tonight...She knew that it was time to finally make her move.

Hayden Freedman moved to the quiet community of Chesterton, NY only six months ago. She was looking for a place to start fresh after the death of her mother from Alzheimer’s Disease. She wanted a place where no one knew her, somewhere she didn’t have to be known. Chesterton seemed quiet, quaint, and friendly from what she’d heard, so she took a chance on it. The home she purchased was small, and the storefront property that was three miles from it, was perfect for her to start her apothecary business. The health nuts flocked to her quickly, seeking tinctures to help their food digest better, make their headaches go away, reduce stress, or salves to make their muscles heal faster after an injury. She offered healing circles and individual psychic readings.

Everything changed when twelve-year-old Alanna Maynard, came into Hayden’s shop. The girl was being chased by bullies, and Hayden protected her when she ran into the shop. Hayden pitied the girl. She knew what it was like to be different, to not fit in. Little did Hayden know that protecting the child from bullies would expose her to an entire town of bullies herself. This is why she began walking the long road, past the ruins of the shop she loved, to city hall, which would be a veritable den of vipers.

Richard Maynard was the city manager of Chesterton. He was a lawyer, and was an intern for a powerful state senator when he was young. He had all the makings of a powerful politician, including a case of near virulent racism. When Hayden Freedman blew into town, she raised a lot of eyebrows. A single Black woman, with enough money to purchase a house and storefront property outright, was cause for concern. If she had funds like that at her disposal, and could plant down roots in town, then she was a threat. She could try to challenge him politically. When he found out that his daughter Alanna, had been learning about crystals, potions, and other witchy spells from Hayden, Richard instantly, and angrily decided that the voodoo woman should be silenced and stopped. There was no telling what kind of other black magic she was teaching his child. He just knew that he had to put a stop to it and to her, in the most painful way imaginable. It would happen tonight at the town hall meeting, in front of everyone. As he sat in his office, he could barely contain his glee. He was going to ruin Hayden Freedman. She would be destroyed.

Hayden took a seat in the packed room. She felt like she was being put on trial. She wondered what more these people could do to her, besides take her life. They’d already bombed her shop, and attempted to set fire to her home. Now, they wanted to make her a public spectacle. She was determined to represent herself well. To show them that she was not a threat. By the end of the night though, they would all know that they had crossed the wrong woman.

Richard Maynard, and his fellow cronies, walked in the room, haughty, arrogant, and cocky, the stench of their pride following. They were like a pack of wolves, surrounding a wounded lamb, mouths drooling, claws prepared for the slaughter. They would ruin this voodoo woman. Banish her from the town. Exile her from the state. Make it impossible for her to live anywhere near them. She had been blacklisted

with every real estate agency within four hundred miles. That’s how Richard used his power. He’d reduced her to nothing. Now, he was going to crush her bones to dust.

They wanted her to leave the town. They wanted her to leave the state. Hayden felt their words tear into her like a thousand daggers. If this is what they wanted all along, why did they have to destroy her shop in the process? She would have gone willingly. People fear what they don’t understand. They were so hung up on her blackness, so threatened by something that wasn’t even interested in hurting them, that they lost sight of the fact that she’d come to help them. It’s funny how prejudice works like that. They’re so hung up on the thing they don’t know that they don’t pay attention to anything else but that one thing.

Hayden left her crystals, and some instructions for Alanna on how to carry on with spiritual practices of her own, wrapped up on her bed. They thought they had the last laugh. They thought they had won. Little did they know, that before the meeting that night, Hayden came in and placed drops of a tincture that she’d made in their water pitchers. As they drank the water, while spewing their hate, a spell was transforming their bodies. Every person who spoke hatred to her, would wake up darker each day. They would be black and realize how their hatred would end up being their reflection for the rest of their lives.

When she was a little girl, Hayden remembered her mother telling her about the magic. It had been passed down from generation to generation, ever since their ancestors came from the motherland in chains. The magic was only supposed to be used for healing, but if they were wronged, especially by White people, they could use their magic to teach them a lesson, to make them understand that you don’t mess with divine people. As Hayden Freedman left Chesterton, a smile spread across her face. She would find a new home, away from these hateful and judgmental people, but Chesterton, would never, ever forget her.