She looked up and saw the church ceiling. And Caleb. She saw his beautiful face, looking down.
She knew she was dying. But despite everything, despite all the pain, she didn’t feel much sadness for herself. Instead, she felt sadness at the idea of not being with him.
“Caitlin,” Caleb said, sobbing. “Please. Don’t go. Don’t leave me!”
He cried as he rocked her.
Caitlin looked up into his large eyes, now a shade of black, and tried to focus on them.
Don’t go.
But she couldn’t.
“Caitlin,” he said, between tears. “I want you to know. I see it. I know who we were together. In our past lives. Now I can see it all,” he said.
Caitlin tried to speak, tried to find the words, but her vocal cords were closing up. Her throat was so dry, and the blood was garbling everything. She tried, but it came out in barely a whisper.
“What?” Caleb asked, leaning over close. “Say it again.”
He leaned all the way over, putting his ear to her mouth.
“Turn…me,” she said.
He stared at her in horror, not sure if he’d heard correctly.
With her last ounce of strength, Caitlin reached up and grabbed his shirt, pulled him as close to her as she could.
“Turn me!” she commanded.
It was the very last bit of strength she had.
As her eyes closed on her, she felt the world slipping out from under her.
And the last thing she saw was Caleb, getting closer, closer, his two front teeth protruding, longer, and longer, as he leaned.
And then she felt the exquisite pain in her neck, as his two teeth punctured her skin.
And then her world was blackness.
FACT VERSUS FICTION
FACT:
In Salem, in 1692, a dozen teenage girls, known as “the afflicted,” experienced a mysterious illness that led them all to become hysterical and to independently scream out that local witches were tormenting them. This led to the Salem witch trials. The mysterious illness that gripped these teenage girls has never, to this day, been explained.
FACT:
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s most famous work, The Scarlet Letter, is based upon the life of a real woman, Elizabeth Paine, who lived in Salem, and who was punished for refusing to reveal the identity of her baby’s father.
FACT:
Nathaniel Hawthorne did more than just write about Salem: he was a lifelong resident, and came from many generations of Salem residents. His great grandfather was one of the main prosecutors in the Salem witch trials. Hawthorne’s house is preserved, and it remains intact in Salem to this day.
FACT:
In Boston in the 1600s, Witches were hung on the hilltop of Beacon common.
FACT:
Elizabeth Paine is buried in the King’s Chapel burial ground in Boston. Her tombstone is clearly visible, in the first row of graves, beside the chapel.
The End