Free Conversion by Katherine Howe Page B

what signs to watch out for? I mean, if it’s so common. What if more of us have it?”
    Another look passed between the dean and the nurse. Miss Hocking cleared her throat.
    “Well, first of all, I’d say that there’s nothing for any of you guys to worry about. If you feel slightly off in any way, you’re always welcome to come see me in the nurse’s office.”
    “But what, exactly? Not all of us were there,” the junior pressed, to supportive calls of “Yeah, tell us.”
    “You should feel free to come see me for anything at all, of course. But, let’s see. Definitely come by if you feel faint, if you pass out for any reason, if you experience any unusual discomfort in your limbs, like tingling or twitching, if you have any trouble controlling your mouth or your speech. You should definitely feel free to—”
    A scream rang out, and we all spun in our seats to see what was going on. A girl I didn’t know, a skinny little thing with thick glasses and a bob haircut, had slumped over on her friends with her arms and legs sticking out at right angles. She was perfectly still for an instant, and then her mouth opened and her tongue stuck out and her entire body started to vibrate.
    Cries of “Oh my God!” and “Has she got it, too?” burst from mouths all over the room, bouncing off the walls of the chapel, rising to a cacophony. Miss Hocking leapt out of the pulpit and sprinted down the aisle, wading through the sea of students’ legs to reach the spasming girl.
    “Everyone stay calm!” the upper school dean commanded into the microphone. “Girls! She’s going to be fine! I need you to stay calm!”
    Girls were standing up, elbowing each other to get a better look, and some of the little kids had started crying. The nurse held her hands on either side of the bobbed-hair girl’s head while the girl’s arms and legs shook with terrible force. Her heels beat on the floor, and her mouth issued gagging sounds that sounded primitive and animal-like.
    Another scream pierced the rising chaos in the chapel, and we all looked around in increasing frenzy to see where it had come from. A second girl, this one a junior, had collapsed onto her back, arms and legs bicycling in the air, her head thrashing, her mouth spewing nonsense as all her friends looked on in horror. The force of her kicks pushed a pew out of line with a groan of wood scraping over the flagstone floor.
    Everyone stood up, moving like bees in a hive. I realized that Emma and I were clutching each other, our fingers digging into each other’s upper arms, our shoulders pressed together, and she whispered, “Colleen, we’ve got to get out of here.”
    I nodded, struck dumb by what I was seeing. Anjali and Deena had been swallowed by the crowd, and I couldn’t see them.
    “EVERYONE. I want you to WALK. Single file. Down the aisle. And report to your advisories. NOW,” the upper school dean commanded from the lectern. “Teachers, let’s help our girls get organized. I want everyone to stay calm. Stay calm!”
    If the dean thought we would obey her, she was mistaken. The girls of St. Joan’s surged for the chapel doors, elbowing each other, screaming, some girls tripping and falling, teachers standing waist-deep in a tide of girls, pawing at our heads as we crested past them to keep us from bowling them over as we built up and then spewed in a torrent through the doors.
    Over all of us, her eyes turned beatifically to heaven, stood Saint Joan, her body licked in flames.

Part 2
    February
    CANDLEMAS

    Moreover, no operation of witchcraft has a permanent effect among us. And this is the proof thereof: For if it were so, it would be effected by the operation of demons. But to maintain that the devil has power to change human bodies or to do them permanent harm does not seem in accordance with the teaching of the Church. For in this way they could destroy the whole world, and bring it to utter confusion.
    MALLEUS MALEFICARUM , PART 1, QUESTION