2. A small girl fell sick in 1692. Her symptoms— convulsions, contortions, and outbursts of gibberish— perplexed everyone. Other girls soon manifested the same symptoms. Their doctor could suggest but one cause: That diagnosis started a Puritan inquisition that took 25 lives, filled prisons with innocent people, and frightened the soul of a Massachusetts community called Salem. Witchcraft

3. Imagine that you are a woman who lives in Salem. All the villagers are convulsed with the AFFLICTED GIRLS. Satan is in your village, torturing young girls. Everybody knows it. Everybody is confussed and afraid.

4. You look at the hard, tired faces of your neighbours—people you’ve known all your life. Is she a witch? Is he? Once such questions might have seemed ridiculous, but everyone knows that Satan is loose in Salem. And the prince of darkness is a master of disguese.

5. You think of Tituba, the slave who kept house for the Reverend Samuel Parris. She confessed to being a witch. There were others, she said, and they all served Satan. Salem cannot rest until this evil has been eliminated.

6. You decide to go to the inn. There should be a few villagers. And maybe the afflicted girls will have more of their

7. Young Ann Putnam and Abigail Williams are sitting in the corner. So is Mary Warren. She accused the other girls of lying, but that was only because she was bewitched. It seems a few nights in jail helped clear her mind.

8. The girls are quiet, confident of everyone’s attention. Abigail and Mary begin screaming. Ann stays still a few more seconds. She moves her arms up and down and lets out a sound that no one has ever heard before. It’s sort of a squawk and sort of a bark and sort of a scream. “Who is it, Ann? Who is tormenting you?” Ann cries and runs. “Tell us, Ann. Tell us.” The girl pauses, turns, and names her torturer.

10. No nightmare ever came close to this. The darkness. The smell. The clammy air that seeps through your skin. And the chains.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

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