In the Forest of Light and Dark (29 page)

     “Yes, well… If, you and your family plan on remaining in Mount Harrison I feel that you’ll need to know the whole story, the
real
story. It would be best for your protection.”
     “For my protection?” I responded repeating Terra’s words while looking over at Katelyn for a crack in her exterior that would expose that this was all a joke the two of them were playing on me, but I’d received none.
     “Abellona Abbott’s real, Cera. And, I’m afraid that by you and your mother being in Mt. Harrison it’s going to bring out the worst in her.”
     “What do you mean?”
     “Just listen to what I have to say, my child, and then I’ll answer any questions you may have.”
     I just nodded in agreement.
     Terra opened the book laying it out before us. Its pages were old, tattered, and yellowed with age. I also had noticed right away that it smelled just like the decaying leaves and pine needles on the forest floor after a rainfall. The words spewed across its pages seemed written in an ancient calligraphy that was difficult to read. Parts of the book’s text were also accompanied by pictures that’d been drawn into the book by hand.
     Terra began, “In 1734 the residents of this village had cast a woman named Alcina Wilcott out into the forest that covered the slopes of Mount Harrison much the same as the forest still does today.” Terra then pointed to a drawing in the book of an old woman who I had assumed must have been Alcina. “You see, back then without the protection and security that the village walls provided it pretty much would’ve been a death sentence for anybody who would have ventured out to live in the forest alone.
     “The villagers had done this to Alcina because a few of the more, shall we say
gossipy
members of the community, a woman named, Nancy Fergusson, and her friend, Ester Laycock, had convinced many of the other women of the village that Alcina had been out to steal their husbands. Alcina had lost her husband five years before her exile back in 1729 when he had died during a lumber jacking accident out in the forest and now these two ladies—Nancy and Ester—had their minds set on Alcina having her mind-set on taking one of theirs.
     “At the time that the accident had taken place the village was busy gathering the lumber needed to build a new church. Alcina’s husband, who’d been working a cross-cut saw with another man was gravely injured when the saw buckled in a tree, causing the blade to kick back and run along the inner portion of his leg, severing an artery. He had bled to death out in the forest in mere minutes; there was nothing any of the other men could do for him.
     “After the accident Alcina became, withdrawn, keeping to herself in her home most of the day.
     “At first, most of the other villagers took pity on her and would look in on her a few times each day. But after a while, these two women, Nancy Fergusson and Ester Laycock grew tired of their husbands showing favorable attention and sympathy to Alcina. They had concluded that Alcina was a threat to them and their families and therefore she needed to go. So, the two women rallied up some of the other ladies of the village convincing them all that, in time, Alcina was going to make their husbands betray them too. And, the only way to make sure that didn’t happen was to eliminate her from the village altogether.
     “From the start of all this, most of the men of the village protested against Nancy and Ester’s irrationality. Them along with the rest of the women in the village, they’d managed to convince of Alcina’s machination. But in the end, even the men had finally acceded into throwing Alcina out into the forest if that allowed peace to come back to the village and their families. So, they collectively sent Alcina away to live alone out in the woods, in an old, run-down hunting lodge no longer in use at the far end of the forest.
     “The following winter after having cast Alcina out into the forest was a very harsh one for the villagers and thirteen people in their community ended up dying as a result. The following spring came forth yielding bad crops, as Root Borer beetles had infested and eaten away at the leaves of the plants. Hunting for food prospected no better returns for the villagers either, for the forest seemed suddenly devoid of animal life.
     “This lack of food, to which the villagers relied on to survive the next upcoming winter only added to their misery as they lost another eighteen people, mostly children, over the next several months due to starvation and diseases brought on by malnutrition.
     “All this hardship in the village had to be blamed on something—as it always does—so rumors sprang forth that it was Alcina who had done this to them. That she had become a witch living out among the evil spirits that dwelled within the mountain and was thriving successfully in the forest after having given herself to Satan. And together, she and the Devil had come up with ways of punishing the villagers for having cast her out of their community.
     “Up to that point, the villagers had had mixed feelings about Alcina living out in the forest all by herself. Mostly because they were a divided group between those that had believed that Alcina was just an old woman who they had
cruelly
and
unjustly
shed out into the forest to die. And those like Nancy Fergusson and Ester Laycock, who believed and encouraged others to believe that Alcina was the soul one responsible for their poor crop yields, or for the forests sudden loss of wildlife, and for the sickness that had swept through the village the past winter killing so many.”
     At this point Terra had looked up from the book at me as if to see if I was still following her. I then nodded for her to go on which she then did.
     “After Alcina had lived for some time out in the forest by herself. Nobody really knows how it happened, but she eventually meets back up with, Abellona Abbott, a local girl from the village. Along with some of Abellona’s friends, one of whom was, Emma Barrett, your ten times great-aunt, Cera. But, regardless of however it happened,
they
—the girls—had found their way out into the forest and had started visiting Alcina Wilcott out at her cabin regularly.
     “Of course, any knowledge of the girls transgressions by the village leaders would be dealt with swift punishment for all involved, and it ultimately did.
     “But as time passed, Abellona, Emma, and the other girls continued on visiting Alcina out in the forest, and only after having been caught doing so did they admit to having really grown fond of her. They eventually even confessed to Alcina having taught them many things about the forest, for she truly was a very knowledgeable woman and had been at one point a much respected member of their village community.
     “As the girls continued visiting Alcina. One day a village boy by the name of, Simon Gay, who was widely known in the village for being somewhat of a peeping Tom, followed Abellona and her friends into the forest as he spied on them. From his hiding spot perched up in a tree he saw the girls with Alcina, and he watched as they dance and played in the forest with her like they were suddenly possessed—under Alcina’s power somehow. Simon then took what he saw back to the village where he then informed the elders of what he had seen.
     “The villagers set off at once to find their children, but when they had arrived at Alcina’s cabin, they only found Abellona and Emma Barrett still there. For the others had left for home mere moments before the villagers had found their way to Alcina’s cabin.
     “At this point the village vicar, Joseph Baker, accuses Alcina of witchcraft and for having poisoned Abellona and Emma’s minds—who he then also accuses of partaking in the craft. All three were then subsequently arrested.
     “Alcina, who was given no trial, no defense, was quickly condemned to death by the vicar, her execution would be carried out by burning. He, had convinced the villagers it was the only way he, a man of God, could save her soul, and free the village from her dark magic. Purification by fire, he had called it.
     “Abellona and Emma were later questioned and then locked away in a shed that’d been used to store the village’s excess food supplies, but had recently, for the past few years at least, remained empty.”
     “Wait…” I then said, stopping Terra because I was becoming somewhat confused. “I thought Abellona was the only girl the villagers had arrested, and that they had put her in the stocks where Emma had then visited her during the night?”
     “No. I’m afraid not, Cera.” Terra said, and I then glanced over at Katelyn who just shrugged her shoulders at me saying, “I told you I didn’t know every detail as an absolute fact. And, your grandmother wouldn’t divulge that much to me.”
     “Oh, Abellona did have a visitor in the middle of the night, though it wasn’t Emma.” Terra then said picking back up where she’d left off. “It wasn’t Emma because she’d been locked in the shed with her. The visitor was, Victoria Barrett, Emma’s sister.” Terra then opened the book to a page which contained an etching of a family photo consisting of Victoria, Emma, and their parents. “Victoria had visited both Abellona and her sister in the middle of the night and had informed them that the villagers had executed Alcina by fire that evening and were planning on doing the same to the two of them at first sun up if they didn’t confess.
     “It was
Emma,
though, who had refused to believe that the villagers would do anything of the sort to her and Abellona. She believed that their parents would never allow such a thing to happen, and that the vicar and the rest of the villagers were just out to scare them as a form of behavior modification.
     “Abellona although, had taken the news of Alcina being executed much more seriously, and had begged Victoria to help them find a way to break out of the shed and escape the village. To which Victoria denied her fearing that she would only get in trouble and would then be accused of witchcraft as well.
     “After Victoria had left them, Abellona went on trying—for it was her only recourse—to convince Emma that they needed to find a way to escape. She told Emma that they could run to the forest where nobody would ever find them and that they could live out their days all by themselves like Alcina had. She’d been convinced that between what they had already learned from the village elders and what they had learned from Alcina about forest life, they would be just fine.
     “Emma, had remained inexorably stubborn and convinced that no harm would come to either of them come sun up. She even tried herself to convince Abellona, who by this point had worked herself into hysterics, that they’d be just fine.
     “Eventually, Abellona became angered and enraged with Emma’s refusal to accept what Victoria had told them the villagers had planned to do being true. The girls then argued most of the night away whiles Abellona worked feverishly to find a way out of the shed to which she ultimately failed.
     “Near morning, Emma had fallen asleep, and when Abellona had not been able to find a way out of the shed, she began to stare at the moon as she looked out the room’s only small window, and then she began to pray.
     “It is believed that at first she prayed to the good Lord for help, and when he hadn’t answered her prayers she began praying to Hecate the Greek goddess and mother of all witches from whom she had learned about from Alcina. But praying, to that deity also hadn’t provided her with any answers to her predicament. Then, just as the sun was beginning to break over the horizon, Abellona having gone delirious with fright began praying to Satan as a last resort, and in him her prayers became answered.
     “The fallen angel had appeared before her offering a deal, her soul in exchange for powers. Powers she could then use to protect herself and that she could also use to exact any revenge on the villagers that she wished.
    “Abellona reluctantly agrees to the deal, but then Satan tells her that because this realm that she currently resides in wasn’t built by him and that it belongs to God. He cannot do anything for her until after she is dead. For her soul belongs to her, but her body forever remains bound to the earth. He then informs her that once the villagers have destroyed her earthly body her soul will be free having been released from it. Soon afterwards the powers that he had promised her would then come into existence.
     “Now, so that Abellona’s vengeance could be carried out, Satan also grants her a two hundred year lease on her soul before he would come to collect.”
     “Wait! So, the Devil’s real then?” I asked, stopping Terra again and surely sounding astonished. And, while my mind was busy struggling to take everything in she answered, “Well, yes. You believe in God, don’t you, Cera?”
     “Well, yes but…”
     “Well, if you believe in God. Then why wouldn’t there be a Devil? The greatest trick the Devil ever played was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”
     I didn’t know what to think or if I even believed her. But, I
definitely
didn’t know what to say. So, I just kept quiet and let Terra go on with her story.
     “So, Abellona again agreed to his terms and the Devil—as deceitful as he may be—holds up his end of the bargain.
     “A short while later the villagers along with the vicar then came to gather Abellona and Emma from the shed. They then took them down to the river where they tied both girls into dunking chairs which they would then dip down into the cold waters of the Genesee until the girls confessed to their alleged crimes.
     “Abellona went kicking and screaming the whole way as she swore and cursed the villagers for what they were about to do. She also cursed, Emma for her betrayal in not having helped her find a way out of the shed during the night.