1. No nightmare ever came close to this. The darkness. The smell. The clammy air that seeps through your skin. And the chains. YOU ARE IN JAIL...

2. Even while you’re in the town jail— wondering if hell could be much different— the girls claim your specter has been tormenting them back in the village. So the jailer has locked heavy irons around your legs. It makes no sense to you, and you wonder if it makes sense to anyone.

3. In your cell in prison, you look around, through the darkness you recognise Bridget Bishop. Your soul shivers as you look at this condemned witch. Just a few days ago, you watched her trial.

4. She’s a witch, all right, and her hanging will be God’s punishment. But nothing can make you believe that Martha Cory and Rebecca Nurse are witches. You’ve seen them; you know them. These are good women. Martha Cory bows her head and prays.

5. You are brought to the church. Now you are accused of being a witch.

6. You have listened to thousands of semons in this church. But now it is different. The CONSTABLE takes you and hauls you to the front of the room.

7. All you see are eyes. The icy eyes of the magistrates. The clouded eyes of the girls. The wide-open eyes of the audience. And the soft, sad eyes of a few old friends. Neighbor after neighbor accuses you. One saw your specter fly from the Parris household, then turn into a blood-red hawk. Another explains how your specter attacked her by night.

8. “I’ve been stabbed!” The white-hot cry fills the room. Your specter has plunged a knife into one of the girls, and she holds the blade before the magistrates. You gulp. This is evidence, the kind that gets people hanged. But then a boy comes forward. The blade is his. It broke yesterday from his knife, he says, and he gave it to one of the girls. The magistrates look angrily at the girls and warn them never to lie again.

9. Then come the questions— fierce, fast, furious

10. Are you a witch?

11. Why do you TORMENT these folks?

12. How do you know you are not a w i t c h ?

13. We know you are a w i t c h

14. How long have you been a w i t c h ?

15. Don’t deny that you are a witch Why won’t you confess?

16. How long have you been in the S N A R E of the DEVIL?

17. Why won’t you confess? Did you make a compact with the Devil?

18. C O N F E S S !