What Scares You the Most? Read Online Free PDF Page B

herself tightly, trying to stop the violent tremors of fear that shook her body.
    I don’t want to leave my mother, she thought as hot tears rolled down her cheeks.
    I don’t want to spend my whole life all alone. I am not a witch. I am innocent!
    I am a twelve-year-old girl with bad luck. Very bad luck, to be born in this wretched village.
    And then, as she gazed out the window, she saw them.
    She saw the orange flames of the torches dancing against the night sky. And then she saw the black outlines of the men carrying the torches.
    They are coming for me, she realized.
    They are coming to take me away.
    Deborah jumped to her feet. Her head spun with fear.
    â€œMother!” she called.
    Where was her mother? After dinner, Katherine had disappeared into the little room at the back of the house. Was she still back there?
    â€œMother—they are coming!” Deborah cried, her voice choked with panic. “Help me! Mother!”
    She could hear the men’s voices now. She could hear their boots thrashing heavily through the tall grass.
    â€œMother!”
    Deborah stumbled from her room and ran to the back of the cottage. The fire had burned low in the hearth. A few purple embers glowed at the bottom.
    â€œMother! Help me!”
    Deborah shoved open the door of the little room. She burst breathlessly inside. “Please—”
    It took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the candlelight.
    Then she saw her mother—and let out a scream of horror.

12
    Deborah found her mother, Katherine, huddled on all fours in the dark room. Katherine knelt inside a circle painted on the dirt floor.
    Black candles flickered around her, forming a six-pointed star.
    Katherine was spreading blue dye over the corpse of a headless chicken. The chicken’s head had been set on fire. It burned inside a smoke-filled jar.
    Katherine gazed up at her daughter slowly, with a cold, faraway look Deborah had never seen before.
    â€œN-no!” Deborah cried, trembling in the doorway. “YOU are the witch! YOU! How can this be? Mother—YOU have cast all the spells of evil!”
    Katherine continued to stare coldly at her daughter, but she didn’t reply. She gripped the jar of blue dye tightly in her hands.
    â€œ Why , Mother?” Deborah screamed, hands pressed to her cheeks. “Why did you let them blame me? Why did you let them blame your owndaughter—when it was YOU all along?”
    A loud crash from the front of the house made Deborah scream.
    Katherine jumped to her feet.
    â€œThey are here!” Deborah wailed. “They are here to take me away. Help me, Mother. Tell them the truth—please!”
    She could hear the heavy tromping of the men’s boots on the floor, coming closer.
    â€œI am sorry, daughter,” Katherine whispered. “But I have no choice.”
    And then she raised the jar—and splashed blue dye down the front of Deborah’s dress.
    Deborah uttered a startled cry. Katherine tossed the dye jar to her. Without thinking, Deborah caught it.
    Alderman Harrison burst into the room. Behind him stood a mob of men in black coats, carrying torches. “Deborah Andersen?” he boomed.
    â€œI have caught her!” Katherine shouted, pointing frantically at Deborah. “I have caught my evil daughter in the act of casting a spell!”
    â€œNoooooo!” Deborah wailed. “It isn’t true! Mother—tell them it isn’t true!”
    Harrison’s eyes moved from the headless chicken on the floor, to the jar in Deborah’s hand, to the blue dye covering her dress.
    â€œTake her to the ship,” he ordered.

13
    The wooden farm wagon bounced over the rutted dirt road. Deborah sat propped on a pile of hay, her head knocking against the side of the wagon with each hard jolt.
    Her arms were tied behind her back, underneath her blue cloak, and heavy iron chains bound her legs together.
    They are carting me away like an animal to the