Congrats! I shall keep you updated and will get you your promised signed copy! I can't wait to iron out these final edits and release my baby to the world! This is my baby, I have been working on it for over seven years. With that being said, it is STILL a baby which is why I'm going through these final edits. This is my first full length novel and to say that I have struggled with it is an understatement.I will continue to struggle though until it is perfect. I don't want you guys to read something that is sub-par.
For today I wanted to share with you a little "prequel" if you will to Summer's Hollow. This is the short story that I wrote back in 10th grade for a World History project that inspired my book. The year was 1645....
 |
| 1876 illustration of the courtroom of the Mary Walcott trial. |
Annora Pascal sat in the sitting room of her lavishly
furnished castle, staring at the picture on the coffee table of her late
husband, Grant Pascal. She sighed deeply as she swept a piece of loose auburn
hair out of her face. She looked out the big bay window down onto the serfs
working away below in the fields. She saw a man riding up on a horse, only to
be turned away by the doorman.
She figured
that it was another man wishing for her hand in marriage, or in other words,
wanting to control her land. She would never let a man control her land. So what if the men in the
village thought she was wrong to not have a man protecting her, she could
protect herself.
She smiled
proudly and stood up, the hem of her maroon dress falling to the ground as she
did. She walked over to the door, and walked out into the hallway with maroon
draperies all along the walls. Shortly after her husband died she had the whole
castle refurnished from the ugly puke green that used to adorn it.
She walked
to the top of the stairs, but stopped as she heard hushed voices below. She
couldn't make out what they were saying, but she recognized the voices
right away. One voice belonged to the knight Sir Radulfus and the other
belonged to one of the serfs that worked in the house.
“I don’t
see why she won’t accept my protection, she’ll be wiped out in an instant if I
don’t help her,” Radulfus whispered.
“Yes sir I
agree, but she claims she can protect herself,” the serf said, “Which makes me
wonder…”
“Whether
she might be a witch or not?” Radulfus whispered even quieter, “I was wondering
the same thing.”
“But how do
we prove it if she is?”
“If we can
catch her doing something out of place we can get rid of her and get a man to
be in charge of the manor, because she doesn’t seem to be interested in
marriage…”
Annora
gasped to herself quietly and rushed down the hall to her sleeping quarters.
Was this true? Did they really think her a witch, or, did they just not like
her to be in charge of such a large piece of land. She reached her sleeping
quarters and collapsed on the peach sheets of her canopy bed.
She heard
footsteps come up the steps and she heard them go down the hall to the sitting
room. She held her breath as she heard them moving around in the room. She
heard the opening of the chest, and moving of furniture, and then suddenly
everything went silent. Then she heard laughing, but not laughing at a joke,
triumphant laughing.
What could
they have found in there that could show that she was a witch? She listened
carefully, still lying on her stomach, on the bed; she listened to footsteps traveling
back down the staircase.
She
scrambled to the window next to her dresser and looked down onto the village
where Radulfus and the serf were running. The church was just letting out, and
the priest was standing at the door, shaking people’s hands as they left.
Radulfus ran up to the priest and handed him something; though Annora didn’t
know what it was. From what she could see, the crowd coming out of the church
stopped and looked back at the priest who appeared to be yelling at them.
She was
getting scared; what had Radulfus shown the priest? Why now was the crowd of
people running out of the village and up to the castle, led by the priest and
Radulfus? She turned away from the window, closing her eyes and breathing
quickly.
Her heart thumped in her chest as she sat down on the bed.
She heard thumping at the door, she knew the villagers had arrived.
She ran out
of her bedroom and into the hallway and looked over the banister at the crowd
that was now flooding in the door and starting up the staircase. Radulfus was
in the lead holding up a book as though it was the Bible. She suddenly realized
what it was: her journal. Women didn’t usually read or write, but her mother
had taught her at a young age in secret, but that was enough for them to think
she was a witch.
Radulfus
neared the top of the step, and Annora made to run, but stepped on the edge of
her long dress and fell forward. She landed on the floor and bit her tongue as
her chin thumped onto the carpet. She tasted blood in her mouth and she spat it
out. She felt a hand tighten around her ankle, pulling her backwards towards
the top of the steps. She turned around as she was being pulled to see that it
was Radulfus. She tried to kick him away, but he was much stronger than her for
he was a knight.
“Please
Radulfus!” Annora pleaded, “Don’t do this! You know it’s not true!”
“Not
true!?” Radulfus laughed maliciously, “I hold the proof in my hand.”
He extended
the journal above the banister so that the crowd could see it. They let out a
cheer of agreement as Radulfus seized Annora up by the neck of her dress and
held her draped over the banister. She winced as blood dribbled from her mouth.
“Is this
who we want as our ruler?” Radulfus yelled to the crowd.
“No!” they
all exclaimed.
“Should she
pay for her sinful practices?”
“Yes!” the
crowd exclaimed again.
“What
should her punishment be?” Radulfus yelled pulling her up from the banister,
still holding the neck of her dress.
“Burn her!
Burn her!” they chanted.
Radulfus
then started to drag her down the staircase by the neck of her dress so that
her legs thumped down the steps behind him. He treated her like a rag doll,
like she was worthless, the exact opposite he was taught. He was taught about
code of conduct, Chivalry, to respect women, to protect them, but that was all
thrown to the wind as he dragged her to the bottom of the steps.
The crowd
parted as he dragged her out the big castle door and across the drawbridge, all
while she struggled to get out of his grip. He dragged her all the way down to
the village square, while the crowd followed like a pack of dogs. He threw her
onto the pedestal in the middle of the square. A bunch of peasant men came out
of nowhere, carrying a large wooden post. They set the wooden post up behind
her and each of them took one end of a long piece of braided rope and tied her
tightly to the post.
She
struggled to get free, but the more she struggled the tighter the rope dug into
the wrists. They tied her feet to the post as children ran up to her and hurled
rotten fruit at her. She was quickly covered in rotten food and the flies were
attracted to the smell and began to feast on it.
“You ready
to watch her burn?!” Radulfus called out as he raised a torch out in front of
him.
“Yeah!”
they all screamed.
“Does the
witch have any last words?” he asked mockingly.
Annora said
nothing as she looked down at the wooden pedestal below. Tears fell from her
red eyes onto the weather beaten wood and the crowd cheered Radulfus on. He laughed
a hideous laugh.
“Well if
that’s all then why don’t we get it over with?!”
“Burn her!
Burn her! Burn her!” the crowd chanted all while Radulfus inched the torch
closer and closer to the wood that the peasants placed around her feet.
The torch finally connected with the wood and
the flames leaped from the wood to her dress, burning it away fast. She barely
heard the crowd chanting as the roaring flames covered her body, engulfing her
in a hellish bonfire. She screamed loudly as her flesh was singed away from the
bone, as her organs began to cook inside her. She screamed so loud, that they
could even hear her above their chants and the roar of the fire.
She felt
like this was hell, paying for everything she had ever done. But what had she
done? Nothing, she had done nothing wrong in her life. So why must she pay? She
felt everything drift away as if she was drifting up, up away from everything.
Pain still consumed every inch of what was left of her body. Everything went
silent as she drifted away, but she kept repeating one thing over and over in
her mind or what was left of it: God forgive them.
0 comments:
Post a Comment