August 11, 2018, Paris France

“This is stupid,” Kendall blurts out half way through the silent train ride. “We were perfectly fine being homeschooled.”

I don't respond and she says nothing else the rest of the trip.

We boarded a train to go all the way from France to England. We were born in England but moved because of papas job. It is me, Kehlani, my twin sister, Kendall, and our twin cousins, Abigail and Annalies. We are 14 years old, and traveling all the way to England on our own to go to boarding school. My dad says we need to become more social and be able to survive on our own. We have always been scared of letting people into our lives, we just know we'll get hurt. Both of our moms died when we were just 7 years old from a chemical explosion where they worked, our cousins never met their dad so they came to live with us. But we also don't let people in because we have a huge secret. Our ancestor was one of the only witches they couldn't burn in the salem witch trials, so the burden was passed down to us.

We say our goodbyes and board the train, it's cramped and smells, we didn't get good seats because we've wasted so much money on school already.

We arrive at the school and put all of our stuff in our room, we mainly throw it on our beds because it's already time for dinner. We walk down to the dining hall and sit at the table. As a boy about our age is walking to his table he trips over Kendalls foot.
“Hey, watch it!” Kendall shouts.

“Well maybe you should move your foot!” The boy replies.

“Well maybe you’re the one that was running. It's your fault.” I joined.

“I’ve been going here for 3 years. Who do you think you are?”

June 27th 1650, New England, America.

Running away is hard, especially when everyone knows your face, who you are, and why your wanted. Me and my sister Olivia have been running for three days and it feels like we are going in circles. We barely get to rest and when we do all we do is fear for our lives. We are pretty much wanted criminals, running from everyone. We used to live in a little house together now we live in the wood, hiding from all of humanity.

It's dawn and Olivia tells me to hurry up. The sun hasn't even started to rise yet and we are up, eating breakfast, and about to start running again. Suddenly we hear voices in the distance. Torches come into site. We run to hide, anywhere. I feel my life flash before my eyes. I just know we'll be found. I can already feel the burning heat from the fire on the skin, The ropes used to keep us still, the townspeople's cruel words sink deep into my heart from before we ran. Three days ago we were outed as witches forced to be burned. We knew exactly what would happen so we ran. We ran quick, packed only the essentials, and ran. They have been looking for us the whole time. We fleet to hide so the won't find us. I hear them come closer, closer, closer. They’re right around the tree. I try to be silent, I hear them talking, the lead man is telling to others to find us obviously bring us back alive, so they can burn us alive. I hear the stampede of horse hooves run into the distance, I wait about thirty seconds and come out from behind the tree.

“Where are we supposed to go now?” I ask.

“I don't know, we can’t go the way their going and we can’t go back to town.” Olivia replies

“Why don't we just go through the woods, they've passed us. We can try to find a new town, start new lives?” I think we would be fine, nobody would actually know it would take time for news to travel. We would be able to get food, a good night's sleep, by that I mean an actual bed. I don't see the problem we could be in and out within three days.

“NO,” Olivia nearly shouts. I’m taken back, shocked really. She’s all about us keeping quiet but shouts at me. She's such a hypocrite and I cant stand it. She gets on my nerves all the time. “I’m just saying that news travels fast with this stuff, we need to be carefull… No we need to go to England.” She says it so nonchalant. Im shocked.

“You want us to flee? We have grown up here all our life.”

“But we’re English citizens. Don't you understand, the consequences would be ten times worse if they found out we were immigrants. They would think the brititsh are trying to demolish their colonies, that they are jealous of the fact they've made it so far.”

“New England is a part of Britain, why would they care? Pretty much everyone here is an immigrant.”

“Trust me, they would care. Take my advice I’m older, I know better, and lets be honest, I’m smarter, more rationale, and have more experience.” As she said that I felt daggers cut into my heart. Everyone knew she was the smart one, it just hurts more hearing her actually say it. All I can do is nod. We start walking as we do start going faster and faster until we’re running.

It feels like it takes days, but it only takes a few hours. My legs hurt, I have blisters all over my feet, and I can't breathe. However soon enough I can smell the ocean and i can feel the cool breeze against my long blonde untidy hair. I started thinking about how we would get on the boat. We were two women, alone without a man or husband, we looked disgusting, and we had no tickets. There is no way in hell they would let us on a ship. Anyway, I used to go to these ports all the time with our father, the only ships that come through here are fancy ones. Me and father would be mesmerized for days after seeing just one, my mother and Olivia always said it was a waste of time and energy. I always wondered what it would be like to be on one of these ships. Be able to cruise over the ocean with the higher class. Now I may have that chance, even though more likely than not we would get caught, somebody would recognize us and we’d get burned at the stake. Just like that, that’s the cruel world we live in. We were always careful though, with our “special ability” that is. We only used it at night, indoors, when nobody, and I mean NOBODY was around. We knew this could get us killed. The thing is that I know for a fact nobody actually thought we were witches, it was only because we didn't have a husband and we had been educated, as i said, it's the cruel world we live in. People can't be who they are, women have to work as housemaids and don't have any rights, people of color are slaves to the rich, and people get killed for who they love. It’s just wrong.

A ship pulls through the harbor, Olivia’s shocked at the size, obviously.

“Okay, what's the plan?” Olivia says to me.

“What are you talking about, I thought you were the smart and rational one who has more experience.” I sass her, it may seem rude but she deserved it.

“Well, you’re the one who always came here with father, you know your way around, so, go, lead us.” I can see her roll her eyes as she turns around.

“Fine.” I know a way onto the boats that no one will see us from. It's weird but I only know because I thought that when I was eighteen I would sneak onto a ship and travel the world. Instead at eighteen I’m running from malevolent people who are trying to kill us, at least I do get to sneak onto the ship, but I’m only going back to England. Great.

I take her around back and lead her through the storage area, as we got onto the main deck we were bombarded by servers with food and drinks. We took a lot, but only a little from each person, we need to look classy. It’s a lot better than roasting our own food and picking our own berries and drinking dirty water from a river.

I start thinking about how we get a room. Everywhere is full.

“We need to kill two people.” Olivia says softly to me. I choke on my drink after she speaks.

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“No! That would surely get us caught.”

“Not if we’re careful.”

“What is even going through your head at the moment?”

“Look, I’m trying to help us survive. We would surely die if we don't do this.” Her words ring in my ears. I hate to admit it but she's right.

“Fine, but we have to be careful, and since it's almost night it's perfect timing.” I know what I’m saying is wrong, but I want to survive, I want to have a life.

We walk through the halls of the nicer rooms, it's dark and we know everybody's asleep. Olivia unlocks the door and we go in. We see them both. Our victims. Two girls, about our age they each are lying in their own bed, fast asleep. I take the one who seems younger, we look back at each other one last time. If this goes wrong it could be the last time we do see each other. We set our stares into the girls, I get a gut feeling, the feeling that your doing the wrong thing, but sometimes the wrong way is the only way. Our stares make us look kind of demonic, but the thing is we really are, we aren't normal people, this is a gene that was passed down through our grandmother. She used to say the devil talks to her at night. She was burned a week ago. We know exactly what we are doing, and that is the thing that really scares me. We kill them from the inside, torture them really. Let it build up, starts like they cant feel a thing, then gets worse and worse, until BAM. Just like that, they’re dead, It's that simple. I can feel the darkness taking over my body, I know the feeling, and I love the feeling. I hate that about myself. She starts to move, a little then a lot, suddenly she's awake, I panic she screams. I break her neck. Olivia does the same. We look at each other, realizing what happened.

Luckily nobody heard the scream. We take the two bodies and throw them into the ocean. Just like that, they’re gone. That's the cruel world we live in, it's either kill or be killed, and I’d prefer to stay alive. I can tell Olivia is shaken, neither of us have done anything like this before.

We walk back into the room find the key and their luggage, we shower and get a good night of sleep. In the morning we dress into something that can easily hide our facial features, we have to take extra precautions to make sure no one notices us. We don't go down till lunch, but only because we’re starving. As we walk down the stairs into the dining room we hear lots of peoples small talk. Lots and lots of small talk. I listen in on some conversations as we’re waiting for food. It’s an ability I have. Just like the rest of them, it's a special ability. That's what I say to myself, what I call them. I think of them as special abilities instead of powers. I don't like to think of myself as a witch, I’m not something the devil preys on. I’m a human, one of God's children, right?

Some woman comes up to us. I’ve never met or seen her in my life.

“Did you hear about the girls?” The woman says, I nearly spit out my tea.

“What girls?” Olivia responds. It's as if she didn’t even know.

“Two girls died last night, their necks were snapped. It's crazy, who would do something like that?”  The woman says with awe

“Uh umm,” I stutter. “Do they no who died, like what room they were in? Or who did it?”

“No, that's the thing they know nothing, Somebody heard one of them scream, then they disappeared. We don't know if their necks were actually snapped, that's just what we are suspecting. The captain is checking every cabin.”

No! This isn’t good what if they find out. How could they? Somehow they might.

As the woman leaves I turn to Olivia, a panicked look is spread across both our faces. We stay silent the rest of lunch. It was good but I felt sick to my stomach the whole time. When we finished we rushed up to the cabin, it's not like we even have anything, so what's there to be worried about?

We hear a loud knock on the door. As Olivia opened the door I saw him, the captain. I felt a pit in my stomach the size of a watermelon. I was terrified, but I couldn't show it.

“Are you Amanda and Elise St.Victon?” The captain said looking at us.

“Yes, yes we are,” Olivia clears her throat as I talk. “Is there a problem sir?” I have always been the better lyer. The mischievous one, I guess that's what you could call me.

“Well, it's just that another passenger thought that they heard scream from this room and when she came to see if you were here you werent. We checked for you two all over the ship, everyone thought you were dead.”

“Oh my goodness, I heard the talk I just didn't think it was about us,” I say as I sit down on the bed. “I woke up from a nightmare in the middle of the night and screamed. We went down to the deck to get some fresh air, i guess i thought no one heard. I am so sorry.”

“No, no don't be it's fine.” The captain says as he heads out the door.

The rest of the day time flies by pretty quickly. We don't have much to do and we don't want to leave the room.

“It's starting to stink in here. Come on, let's go play some games on the deck, no one suspects a thing anyway.” I have to agree with her anyway, it does stink and i’m getting bored.

We make our way down to the deck we didn't notice how long we had been in the room, the sun has begun to set on the eastern horizon, and it was gorgeous.

We watch the sunset as we eat dinner, everyone is on this deck. It’s not like it's crowded or anything, more peacefully reassuring. Reassuring that we will be okay, because we are in a place swarmed by people, and nobody know our little secret.

The captain goes up to the stage and motions for everyone to be quiet. He taps his knife on his champagne flute and waits. As soon as everyone quiets down he begins to speak. His voice a little raspy as though he had been yelling for a long while.

“I have heard the whispers, buzz, gossip, and comotion over what may have happened the first night aboard the ship,” he pauses, as though he's thinking of what to say. Then I notice something, he seems scared, and I can’t tell why. “I would just like to make it very clear that, in fact, nobody, and I mean nobody has died on this boat. And nobody will die on this boat, we have searched every cabin for weapons, or baggage that could, in any way, be used to hurt somebody. Thank you, please return to the feast.”

“Did you notice anything?” She pauses, looks down at her feet, and in a hushed voice says “Weird.” I did,  definitely did. It was just the matter of fact that she noticed it too.

“Yes.” I say, looking down at my feet. I look around the deck. I see nobody looking at us, no one seems suspicious. Then I see someone. He's tall, very tall. Blonde hair, blue eyes. He's looking right at me. And honestly, he's gorgeous. I flash a smile and look back to Olivia. The expression on her face was pure fright. Her mouth slightly opened, her eyes struck with fear, it was as if she’d seen a ghost, and i wouldn't be surprised if she had. I told her there was nothing to worry about, they thought we were someone we weren't. They didn't know. They were as clueless as baboons, didn't even know the crap that goes on on their ship. Two girls WERE killed, there ARE witches aboard, and I feel in my gut mayhem IS about to go down.

The night is gorgeous, The pastel colors of the sinking sun fill the sky. The blue water besiege us, the air is crisp and light. I feel the wind rushing through my hair as I stand on the docs. The boy I caught looking at me came up and says.

“Gorgeous night.”

“Very.” I agree.

“So, whats your name?” He asks. I start debating whether or not to give him my real name or the other girls name, then I remember I don't know her name.

“Isabelle.” I say, a small smile wiggles it's way onto my face.

“I’m happy to know your okay, Isabelle, it would be sad to have to be aboard a ship without a girl, as perfect as you.” As he says this I start to panic. I can’t have this happen, what if something slips, what if what happens last time happens this time. Then it hits me, something my dad always used to tell me when I’d get anxious ‘stop, take a breath. What happens is all up to you.’

“Oh, thank you. I’m flattered.”

“So, how about you dance with me? It’s one of my favorite songs they are playimg. Why let a moment so perfect go to waste?” As he talks I chuckle a bit. I look up at him, he has a jaw line so sharp it could cut something. His eyes matched perfectly with his shirt. They were as crystal blue as the seas of Greece. And his hair was positioned on his head perfectly. “What, why is that funny.” He said purely.

“I’m sorry, it's just I have someone waiting for me at home.” It's a lie. I don't like to lie. I feel the guilt tingle up my back. It goes up into my neck and settles in my stomach. Now I have a pit in my stomach as big as Africa.

I watch him give a slow defeated nod, and he walks back to his table. He sits down and I catch him looking at me again, I give an I’m sorry smile and turn around, And for the first time in a long time I feel like I am finally in control of my life. Everything is going perfectly as planned.

Suddenly I hear someone screaming. I look over, and the whole crew is on deck. They are crowded around one person, I can't tell who the person is but I know it won't end well for them. I look around for Olivia, I don't see her anywhere. I wonder where she is. I start to get a lump in my chest, it grows into my throat, suddenly I can't breathe.

I work my way around the pile of people, up to the front, where I can hopefully get a good look at everything. I hear shrieking, I start to get scarred, I know exactly what's happening I just don't want to believe it. Suddenly I see her, Olivia.

I feel a the lump in my throat dissolve into horror. A tear rolls down my cheek. I try to scream but I can't, I can't move, I can't talk, and suddenly I wish I couldn't feel. I see her motion toward me to stay quiet. I know what else she's telling me to do. Don't talk, say nothing. I get the sense there's one more, and I know exactly what it is. Leave her behind. I don't want to, but I have to. Once someone is accused of witchcraft it's over for them. I hear them yelling around her.

“Witch.” says one passenger.
“She's a witch.” says another. Then the captain comes up to talk.
“Excuse me, excuse me,” He clears his throat. “I am a firm believer that one is innocent until proven guilty, so, to put this to the test we must throw her overboard.” I hear the dreadful words come out of his mouth, but that's not what hurt the most. What hurt the most is what he said before. One is innocent until proven guilty. He believes she is innocent. Yet, he still wants to throw her overboard, I don't get it. I don't want to get, I don't want to think about it. I see them pick her up, I see her struggling to try to shake them. Then, I see them do it, throw her over the edge of the ship. I pray just for a few seconds she can hold herself under the water, not float, But my prayers aren't answered and I see her cold body floating above the surface. They throw over a net and get her back onto the ship. Before I can even catch I glimpse of her they carry her away. Probably into some cold, dark cellar that they only use to store dead mice they didn't know were there.

We board the dock early in the morning and everyone unloads onto the docs, hugging family and friends they haven't seen in a while, Or goggling their eyes at their new home or where they are staying for a while. I have a different mission. I need to find my sister. I know it's a dangerous idea but it can't be that hard, nothing a little witchcraft can't fix, right? A moment later I see the crew unloading a metal cage with her in it, The captain announces that there will be a burning at the stake soon, just across the hill. Everyone starts toward the hill, it's chaotic, it's madness. People think this is okay, just burning people, they think their actions are justifiable, but there not, and somebody needs to show them.

It's been about an hour in the bitter heat, the sun slowly roasting everyone who waits. They take her out of the box and tie her to the pole. I can sense her quivering. She looks dirty, even though it's only been a day. She is beaten, as if an elephant had decided to stomp on her. Dried blood sauteed her body, and I knew this was my only chance. I had to be discrete, nobody could know. Then Olivia caught my eye, she gave a look, saying stop. She knows me all to well, and I don't want the last thing she sees me do is getting myself burned too. I stop, and all  can do is stare as they pour the gasoline on her and strike the match. Olivia goes ablaze and I can't believe my eyes. I feel a sweltering tear roll down my face. My screams are muffled by everyone's cheers, and my heart is on the ground, shattered into a million pieces. The only thought going through my head is why, ‘why would they do this’. All I want is my sister back, is that too much to ask. I realise it's really not, I can bring her back. I will bring her back.

I feel a hand pull me out of the crowd. I have no idea what's happening, but I don't have the strength to fight back. My internal hope, feeling, and thought was god I hope they are taking me out of my misery now.

“You don't deserve to see that, It's your sister and you will be alright.” It's the guy from the ship. I still don't know his name, but I want to. I realising bringing her back isnt a good idea, it won't be the same, and now the only thought going through my head is ‘maybe I don't get a happy ending with Olivia but maybe I can get a happily ever after with him.’

August 11, 2018, London England

“So, answer me. Who do you think you are?” His words rang in my ears. I questioned myself. Who really am I? Then I knew exactly who I was. Who we were.

“We’re the granddaughters of the witches you couldn't burn.” And with that I got up and walked out.