Free Suffer a Witch by Claudia Hall Christian Page B

said.
    “Where?” Em asked.
    “Salem Village,” George said. He glanced at Sarah Wildes. She and Bridget nodded their heads. “They came for me in Maine. They dragged me from my dinner table and brought me back to Salem Village for trial. I remember being astonished how much Salem Village had changed. There was a cast over the town, a kind of grey fog or shadow. Returning to Salem Village, that’s the first time I felt this demon. That’s why I was so terrified for Em. The very same creature who’d descended Salem Village into madness has returned.”
    “What are we going to do?” Bridget asked.
    “No idea,” Em said. “But one thing’s for sure. This is definitely between me and him.”
    George went to her. He nodded, and she stood from her chair.
    “Sarah?” George said. He touched her shoulder. “Bridget?”
    “Well?” Em smiled.
    “Clear,” Sarah Wildes said. Bridget nodded.
    “You’re ‘clear,’” George said. “What does it mean?”
    “It means the demon is gone,” Em said.
    “For now,” Sarah Wildes said.
    “Gone is gone,” Em said.
    “And these kids?” Bridget asked.
    “We need to keep an eye on this John Parker,” George said. “He may be the entire scope of our problem or the tip of the iceberg. You saw him the day you had the vision, right?”
    “He was waiting outside the store for Shonelle,” Em said.
    “But not inside,” Sarah Wildes said.
    “He didn’t have an invitation to come inside until tonight,” Em said.
    The witches gave remarkably similar worried nods of their heads. Em smiled.
    “We had success tonight,” Em said. “We should feel good about that.”
    “We’re going to have to be careful,” Sarah Wildes said. “All of us.”
    “Protection,” George said. “We must keep up our psychic protection at all times.”
    “And stay connected to each other,” Em said. “Now is not the time to wander off to the island for fifty years.”
    Sarah Wildes and Bridget nodded.
    “I’ll tell the others,” Sarah Wildes said. With a nod, she left the office.
    “I’m going back up to see what else he says,” Bridget said.
    “Want to see the photo of your ghost?” Em smiled.
    Bridget blushed. She raised a hand in goodbye and darted out of the room.
    “Well?” Em asked George.
    “I think you’re incredibly brave,” he said.
    “But?” Em asked.
    “I don’t know what we’re up against,” George said.
    “I don’t, either,” Em said.
    “Why has he come?” George asked. “While I have an idea of how he took over Salem Village, I have no idea why . Or why he is here now .”
    Em looked at him, and their eyes held.
    “I’m wondering when we ever knew what we were up against — or why,” George said. “When I started my life, I never thought I’d be hanged as a witch. I was a man of God, after all. When I was hanged as a witch, I never thought I’d live three hundred more years. And I never thought I’d have all of this and all of you in my life.”
    Em blushed.
    “I guess I’m trying to say, ‘Situation normal.’” George grinned at Em. She nodded. “You want to go up?”
    Em shook her head.
    “I don’t, either,” George said.
    “What about . . .?” Em pointed up.
    “We’re going with them on their ghost hunt, right?” George asked.
    Em nodded.
    “We’ll end up having the séance here,” George said. “That is what you were thinking, right?”
    Em nodded.
    “Then there’s no reason to listen to the blowhard,” George said. “Let’s get Isaac and Asher and go to dinner.”
    Nodding, Em puckered her lips and blew a short burst of air to call them to her. Ten minutes later, Isaac and Asher came into the office.
    “We were thinking of getting dinner,” Isaac said. “Would you like to join us?”
    “Sounds fun,” Em said.
    “I know just the place,” George said with a smile.
    “Lead on, my friend,” Isaac said.

     
    Em peered out her bedroom windows at the pre-dawn fog. She went to the closet for a thick, wool