In Northampton, England a young woman in her early twenties awakes gasping for air her skin around her neck red and sore, her airways slowly clear and her breathing returns slowly to normal however her heart still races suddenly an older lady walks in and says with a big sweet smile “Angelina sweetheart did you not hear me calling you?” the young woman sits up on the bed she was just resting on and says bewildered “What?...When did you call Nan? Her grandmother rolls her eyes and says with a frown “Honestly Angel sometimes I wonder if you are even on this bloody plane of existence. I never see or hear you come home” Angel smirks knowing her grandmother is not mad at her as she is using her nickname. She says groggily “Yea.. um.. it’s late so I'm going to go back to sleep Nan, goodnight” with that she threw herself against her pillow and dramatically pulls her blankets over her head.

Her grandmother tuts and walks over to her bed, pulls the covers from her granddaughters face and throws open the curtains and says cheerfully “Angel sweetheart it’s twelve in the bloody afternoon get up or so help me god I'll…” Angel bolts upright shielding her eyes from the afternoon sun and says sarcastically “Or what Nan you’ll put a hex on me?” Angel giggles but her nan is now scrunching her face and nose at her granddaughter and says annoyed “I was going to say I will curse that handsome man in the spare room to run away with me” Angel sticks her tongue out and pretends to gag and says grumpily “Alright don’t threaten me woman”.

Angel throws on last night's clothes which consist of a white t-shirt, Red chequered lumberjack shirt unbuttoned over the top and some ripped blue baggy jeans, she walks downstairs and bumps into the young man her grandmother was talking about, he stood tall and had a confident posture but his face told a different story almost as if he was trying to overcompensate for something, she looks at him unfazed as she takes in his features he smiles and says “Hey so we met last night in town you were drunk and I offered you a lift, remember?, I Wanted to make sure you got home safe” Angel rolls her eyes at that last part and snarkily replies “Right and what are you still doing here then?” he replies “Your grandmother is an excellent judge of character she allowed me to stay the night as I was kind of out the way from home, especially for that time of night” Angel snorts and replies “Look buddy I'm sure most girls are charmed to be greeted by your peachy skin and rather emo style blonde hair and those big brown eyes but not me” she then turns around and heavily walks off towards the kitchen leaving him with nothing but her back to look at. As Angel enters the kitchen her grandmother's cat jumps confidently up onto the counter and lets out a small “meow” and bops her head on Angel’s left arm, she spins and looks at the black silky cat with his big blue eyes and little pink nose and says “Ugh stupid cat what do you want?” The gorgeous feline just stares, shakes its head and jumps from the counter onto Angel’s grandmother’s shoulder. Her nan smiles and reveals a treat from her knitware jacket, she fives it to the cat and says to Angel “You should be nicer to Odin, he keeps us safe in this house” Angel fakes a gasp and says mockingly “Oh Odin I'm so sorry I forget you keep us safe from mice” she lets out a giggle and walks away amused with herself but as she looks back at her nan and Odin over her shoulder she swears she can see Odin glaring with anger.

Back upstairs in her attic bedroom she is throwing her washing at the washing basket when she pulls a pamphlet out from under her pillow Angel gives it a quick glance and it reads “The Hanging of Agnes Waterhouse” suddenly a hot flush is all over her almost like she was back in her dream except it wasn’t a dream was it? No it couldn’t be she was there again this time in the crowd watching as poor old Agnes was hung by Barclay she watched as he pulled the lever and her body fell like a sack of potatoes, Angel screamed “No stop you’re killing her!” but no one seemed to notice her or they really did not care what she had to say, suddenly Barclay looks up from the flailing old woman and points at Angel, she feels his eyes piercing her soul, reading her with his dark eyes, and then he shouts

“Witch!” suddenly the townsfolk who at one time had no clue she was there were all staring angrily Barclay grinned rubbing his right hand on his chin of stubble Angel screams and some kind of energy was forced from her body as she was thrown through a vortex and landed with a thump on her bed! all she was thinking in that moment was “Did I seriously just witness a murder from years ago?” Puzzled and in need of help to answer her questions, she knew there was only one person she could go to…her Nan, the woman she had believed had to be crazy could be the only hope to find out what all this meant. Angel shouted for her Nan in angst, the old lady had never moved so fast in her life as she barged into Angel’s room, her nan shouted the word “Dìon!” suddenly a mysterious energy was blast into the room it was not able to be seen but it felt warm and comforting very much like her grandmothers love. and surrounded both women. Angel gasps and shouts in shock “Wait was that magic!” her nan smiles and says with a slight grin “Oh what that? No that’s just a basic protection chant nothing too hard my dear” Angel felt woozy all of a sudden the room was spinning but she manages to keep herself from passing out.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Angel’s nan went downstairs to make some tea for them both as Angel sat on her bed trying to work out what to ask and why she was only just finding out?. As her nan re-enters the bedroom a few minutes later and Angel asks impatiently “Wait so all this time, Witches do exist?” Her grandmother nods and hands her a cup and saucer which Angel takes shivering so the cup rattles against the saucer as she holds it, her grandmother says in a low comforting tone “Yes my dear witches do exist and all that witch hunt stuff is real that is why you were entrusted into my care as I could see from birth that which your mother couldn’t”, Angel replies “Wait mum never knew about witches?” The old lady let out a dramatic cough and laugh followed by an enraged “Oh your mother knew she was always so angry at the world for not letting her be one” Angel looked on in disbelief asking “Wait Mum wasn’t a witch how come?” Her nan let out a sigh and says wearily “Something to do with bloodlines my dear the more Witch grandparents you have the more likely you are to have the Witch gene” Angel says “And mum only had your mum and dad” her grandmother nods and says “bless your grandfather he was a believer in witches and humans being friendly or even just humans pretending we don’t exist a great man, a fool nonetheless when he took his ideals to the church they laughed and burned him in Abington Park for being a witch sympathiser” she air quotes “I of course got investigated but they came up empty. Your grandfather’s sister tried answering with violence and threats the poor girl was just as foolish as he was and so she joined him on that stake… the screams were awful, so I refused to re-marry as I could not bare to watch another idiot man die for me again” Angel notices a glimmer in her nan’s eyes and says “So all this time Mum was protecting me from Grandad’s fate” her mother snorts out a laugh “Don’t be silly your mother keeps only herself safe. The further from witches she is the better for her, that wretched bitch has no love for anyone but herself”. Angel smiles and tells her grandmother about her vision and dream. The old lady cracks a huge grin and says “You’re the one then” Angel asks quizzically and cocking her head slightly without realising it “Um.. I'm the one?” her grandmother returns to her usual demeanour and says “All in good time my dear for now rest using magic is draining on our bodies. If you use too much you risk overdoing it and possible death” Angel nods and gets up and leaves the house. Angel’s grandmother tuts and says to herself “honestly why do I even bother giving her advice? She never listens”, she sits on her chair frustrated.

Angel is walking past Abington Park when suddenly some men in all white Body armour covering their chest, shoulders, shins some were wearing their helmets others held it in their hands, they all had a golden religious cross emblazoned on the black arm band displayed on the right arm. under their armour they wore a plain white monks cloth, Angel instantly recognised these men as Witch hunters trained by the Church to hunt down and kill Witches, she also recognised the brand as the amulet that Barclay was wearing in her vision. One of the shorter men points at a man who is busking with a guitar and microphone the taller man in front of the squad nods and shouts “Witch burn him!” the busking man shouts “No I'm just trying to play and get recognised for my music please!” the men ignore his pleas and drag him away to a fancy black sedan with blacked out windows where they throw the busker in the back zip tie his hands behind his back and the taller one slams the door driving off Angel had seen this before hundreds of times over her life but this time it seemed so real and the thought of that man dying for trying to be famous was upsetting she wanted to stop the car but knew she had no idea what the spell was and even if she did she would be caught and also put to death. For once in Angel’s life she felt powerless which to her seemed ironic since witches were meant to be all powerful beings. Angel reached a familiar patch of grass between two overgrown trees she can’t figure out what was so familiar about this spot until she remembered her vision earlier this evening this was the spot she stood upon when she watched Agnes hang as she turned to her right she could see exactly what she saw in the vision some old gallows this time no one was hanging from them thankfully but the image kept replaying in her mind of Agnes flailing and Barclay smiling then shouting “witch!” at her as if he could see her that whole time and hear her.

Angel felt herself being pulled towards the gallows by some sort of energy; it was powerful she had no control over her own body. She had no choice but to walk towards it. She needed to know why they hung Agnes, what crime did she commit really and did her daughter Joan survive or did they hang her anyway. These unanswered questions were pushing her to discover the truth but not yet, not here she kept telling herself if she uses her magic she will be caught she snaps out of it just in time before she touches the gallows and as she looks around to make sure she was not seen she sees the figure of a man wearing a black hoody she can't see his face because his hood covers it but she shouts “Oi what you want?!” The figure runs away and she gives chase following him he rounds a corner and is gone within seconds, Angel out of breath and panicked about who or what this man was decides it is time to get answers from her Nan.