[short story] Rosemarie's Fate
Her dark clothes and the marks on her skin made others fear her, especially since they learned that she is a witch. What they did not notice, are the good fortune spells she cast on strangers under her breath, or how she dropped protection charms on street corners, or the stray cat she fed as if it were her own. Thirty-year-old Rosemarie Milton was born a happy soul. After her husband’s death in the war, she was the lone caretaker of her two children, whom she fed by working as an agricultural labourer in the nearby farms. She did not, however, complain. When Rosemarie’s mother had sat down her ten-year-old daughter and explained to her about their ancestral powers of witchcraft, she also made her promise to never use them unethically. But recently, Rosemarie was finding it difficult to keep up her promise. The villagers in her block, most of whom previously adored her for her grit and simplicity, now either feared her or bullied her. It all started with Bridget Bishop, the kind o...