Secrets of Salem: Prologue

I sit in the opulent dining room of the R.M.S. Titanic, listening with feigned interest to the conversation at hand. Mother is prattling on and I have no idea what she is talking about. There is the buzz of conversation and the clattering of dinnerware all around. My gaze is pulled time and again to various little girls around me. Each with perfect posture. Each with their corsets tight. It makes me wonder why all of this is required of us women. Why we should have to be reminded of our constant state of bondage as if all the rules were not enough. Why we should have to change the very makeup of our anatomy just to satisfy men, to attract them, to earn marriage. A pointless system, and for what?

The din around me gets louder, and I rub my temple, blinking a few times as if to clear my head of the weight of such heavy thoughts. I notice a new noise amid all the cacophony. Something soft, almost melodic, like a song? No… that wasn’t correct. It was a chant. A rhythmic cadence that nobody noticed. How could they not hear that? I look around and realize that I am the only one that seems to hear it. The room begins to spin as the chanting and all the other noises get louder… and louder. I begin to see faces swirling all around me. I am going to faint. A moment later, everything snaps into focus and I can see a young girl standing in the middle of the dining room.

I had seen her before. A girl in a colonial dress covered in blood. Nobody else notices her. She reaches a hand out to me; her eyes are rimmed with unshed tears. Her mouth moves soundlessly, but I can’t distinguish the words. She leans, stretching onto her tiptoes, still reaching out to me. I watch in horror as her face begins to turn a rich purple and her eyes begin to bulge, the blood vessels popping until she cries tears of blood. She keeps reaching for me, almost desperately. I jump up from the table screaming in terror, my teacup and saucer falling to the floor and shattering.

“She is walking toward me. She is choking! Why can’t anyone see her?!” I scream.

I begin to back away, shaking my head. I trip over my gown, falling to the floor and I keep skittering backward. I feel my back hit the wall and she continues walking towards me, her hands reaching. They are starting to swell, to rot. Her skin is rotting off her bones, falling off in chunks to the floor. I shake my head as I watch in horror, trying to deny this gruesome vision.

“SOMEBODY HELP HER!!!” I cry out, sobbing and covering my head with my arms. Everyone looks baffled, and more than a few of those upper-class bitches look down their noses at me. They begin to whisper behind their fans, and the chanting returns, intermingling with the whispers that surround me. I can hear the girl. She is a few inches from me and is rasping my name through her ravaged throat. The chanting is deafening now, and I clap my hands over my ears. I feel trickles of warmth against my palms and down my lip. I am bleeding. I begin to sob, but the tears are thick and alien. She is making me cry blood. I am going to die right here, in front of everyone. They will never know they will never see.

Blessed darkness, comfort me in my hour of need.

It is silent.

Follow me to learn the secrets of Salem, a world of witches, monsters, and magic.