MaryBeth Walters, 1692 [ Completed ]

[Willow Rosenberg]

On a cold, wintery day in late February of 1692, MaryBeth felt the power course through her being. She had gotten up early to go to the store for her sick mother and on her way home she felt it.

There had been a man, he had come to her door years before and warned her of this. He had called himself a Watcher and thought her to be a potential slayer as it was called. The man had professed that vampires did exist. It was nonsense, she had thought, until this morning.

Immediately, MaryBeth began to panic. Those two wretched girls, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams had started a witchhunt in the formerly quiet town of Salem Massachusetts. It seemed that every woman who hadn't conformed to their strict, religious ways was currently being accused of Witchcraft.

"If there really are vampires, and I have been chosen to fight them, I've really made a target of myself", MaryBeth thought to herself.

She decided then and there to try to ignore the enormous strength that she felt within her body and to try to not make a spectacle of herself.

It would have been easy for MaryBeth, except word had spread of the witch hunt and the horror of the things that had been going on had attracted evils from all corners of the globe.

MaryBeth saw her first vampire in April of that same year. She had been outside in the garden late, and the sun had set. Before she could reach the back door of her small cottage, a strangely deformed man had intervened in her path. MaryBeth was taken aback, in shock at his features and the realization about the man who had come to her years before.

She remembered his warning:

"Believe what you will, but should you ever come across one of these vampires, you best be sure you know how to kill them..."

And then she remembered him speaking of stakes. Marybeth snapped a withering piece of wood off the fence around the garden and turned to face her assailant dead on. She ripped a slit up the side of her skirt and brought her hands close in to her chest, clutching her makeshift stake.

The vampire finally spoke. "Such a tiny town for such a large tragedy, isn't it? All those women accused and going to be put to death. The terror in this town is unbelievable. It causes such a rush of adrenaline in their bloods - which makes it such a tasty treat for me" He smiled at MaryBeth. "I can smell your fear and by the looks of things" motions to the stake in her hand, "I can see you've heard of my kind."

MaryBeth kept her stare directly in line with his. With her voice trembling, she finally said it outloud, "I'm what you would call the Slayer."

To Be Continued

 

[Willow Rosenberg]

The vampire charged at her and MaryBeth clumsily threw him off. She fiddled around with the stake in her hand and drove it right through the vampires chest. He looked at her and laughed.

"You haven't been in the game very long, have you?", he taunted.

MaryBeth punched him in the face so hard his head bounced back a second before settling him unconscious to the floor. She thought for a moment before removing the stake protruding from his chest and plunging it once more, right through the heart. The vampire turned to dust and MaryBeth jumped back, her eyes wide with the realization of what had just come to pass. She heard a snicker coming from the woods and looked back to see Abigail Williams emerging from the woods.

Abigail met MaryBeth's gaze and turned quickly toward the road that led her home, most likely to describe in detail the account she had just caught a glimpse of.

A feeling of dread and dismay sank over MaryBeth like a fog. Her identity would be her doom.

MaryBeth quickly ran inside and began to get herself ready for bed.

The next morning, Sunday morning, MaryBeth entered the church and took her seat on the pew. She looked around and what she saw scared her beyond belief. Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Parris were looking her way, pointing toward her and convulsing.

Across the church, MaryBeth heard bits and pieces of what the girls were saying, or better yet screaming. She heard the words "witch" and "devil" and "killer".

The entire congregation had begun to turn toward the direction the girls were pointing and soon MaryBeth felt all their eyes beating down on her.

To Be Continued

 

[Willow Rosenberg]

MaryBeth jumped out of her seat and ran for the backdoor. On her way out she had to shove many of her accusers out of the way, allowing each one to feel the strength she had inherited.

She ran home, her lungs felt as if they would burst, but she knew she couldn't stop. She ran threw her door and as soon as she was fully inside, she shut it and pushed her back up against it so she could catch her breath.

After a few minutes she walked into her living room and saw a strange man sitting with her mother. Her mother saw her drawing near and turned to her and smiled. MaryBeth was about to smile back when she noticed something different in her mother's eyes. As she drew closer, she began to notice a yellow tinge and that the sincerity that normally reflected back at her had been replaced by wickedness.

"MaryBeth, your mother and I were just discussing what the town will be buzzing about this fine morning", the man finally said to her. "I witnessed your display of bravery in the garden last night and had the privilege of putting some well placed ideas in the minds of those scatterbrained girls who saw you. I would have feasted on them, but the thought of seeing a slayer in distress just makes me full of glee."

The man who had normal features just a minute ago, now was staring back at her as a vampire.

MaryBeth backed up into the table behind her, holding her head back in disgust. She didn't dare look at her mother, something inside her told her not to, but she no longer had a choice. Her sick mother had risen from her chair, moving with such athleticism, that one would never have guessed she had been not long from her deathbed moments before.

The wickedness was now more than apparent in her mother's eyes, it had spread thoughout her face and had taken the form of a vampire facade.

"Mother...", MaryBeth stammered, "What has become of you?"

"I am well my child, and no longer bound to being waited on by yourself", the being who used to be her mother stated. "I am strong and I am free. Won't you come join me darling? It would make mother so happy." She smiled a truly evil smile at MaryBeth and in that moment MaryBeth knew what she had to do.

MaryBeth kicked out the leg of the table she had been pressed against and quickly grabbed the splintered wood.

She turned toward the vampire who had done this to her mother and with more hate than she'd ever felt in her young life, she charged.

To Be Continued

 

[Willow Rosenberg]

MaryBeth lunged at the vamp, grabbing at his throat and sending them both to the floor. She reached out on the floor and grabbed the leg of the dining room chair and easily snapped it off. She threw herself back up and sent out a side kick that knocked the vampire unconscious. She took her chance and plunged the makeshift stake through his heart.

The vamp vaporized into dust and MaryBeth looked up into the vampire eyes of the shell of what used to be her Mother. Deep down she knew what she had to do, but she wasn't quite convinced on the surface yet.

Her mother sneered at her. "Darling, I do wish you'd join me, but if not, I understand, I will have to kill you, but I understand."

With that affirmation, MaryBeth gripped the stake in her hand harder, zoning everything else out, and lunged at her mother. In her state of fury, she didn't hear the front door open and some of the townspeople start to file into her home. As MaryBeth held her Mother against the wall, with the stake held close to her Mother's heart, she could feel the eyes of all in the room boring a hole into her back.

She turned and looked at her audience, and knowing that saying anything wouldn't help her situation in the least, she drove the stake into her Mother's heart turning her to dust.

She faced the town and knowing that there were too many to fight, she submitted to them.

MaryBeth walters was hung as a witch a few months later in the center of Salem, Massachusetts.

 

[killerdwarf]

I finally got around to responding, although I read this just after you posted it (sorry). I like the delicious irony of burning the Slayer as a witch when she's actually fighting the bad guys. Her submission is in keeping with the way people acted in those times. The guilt and control of the Church was iron-clad, so it would be easy to believe that she might have felt herself to be a witch due to her slayer powers, and didn't fight for that reason too. One question: I thought they burned witches...but that may just be Monty Python peeking into my memory again...Did they really hang 'em? Dead is dead, though, so I guess it's a Hobson's Choice any way you cut it! Nice and sad, Cordy, thanks for the story!

 

[Lyri]

this was such an interesting idea, cordelia, having the slayer hang as a witch was an original concept, and you delivered well.
i loved Marybeth's character. i really liked the fact that she resigned herself to both of her destinies:
as the slayer, and to hang for witchcraft.
great work cordelia! can't wait to read some more of your work!!

 

[Willow Rosenberg]

Thanks Lyri!!

Hopefully I'll get inspired to write more in the future 🙂 (And finish my Epic story of Corma) 😉

 

[Allycat]

What a very sad story... very original content. Really makes you pity what happened to all those poor girls who died of the which hunts.

Good works, hopefully you'll do another story one day!