the wicked witch hunt

Submitted into Contest #277 in response to: Write a story with the word “wicked” in the title.... view prompt

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Fiction Fantasy American

         Wicked is what everyone in this town fears and even at times accuses some people of being. Perhaps in other places being wicked is seen as something bad but not nearly as horrible as it is in this isolated town where the people are pretty much forbidden from leaving. It is said that one or two wicked witches live in this town. No one knows what they look like but it is said that they can disguise themselves as people which is how they are able to live among them. They also have immense powers that make the entire town and all of its people tremble with fear. It is said that they are able to make the day much longer during the summer and the night much longer and colder during the winter. They also may cause a food shortage if the harvest isn't gathered by a certain time and everyone believes it might very well be the wicked witches. The only clue that they may have in finding these witches' true identities is the fact that they are very wicked. Because of this many people do accuse anyone who treats them unfairly as wicked but there was no way to ever find out who the witch is.

               Since it was an election year the mayor was desperate for any type of glory that he could use to prove that he was worthy of his position. It was then that two police officers a man named Salem and a woman named Regina came to the mayor and told him that the best way champion sure that he would be reelected was to catch the wicked witch. And to do that they would need hey police task force to catch this witch hunt and somebody to lead them. The mayor decided to do what they asked and knowing Salem and Regina’s records he decided to put them in charge of this task force. In desperation to capture this wicked witch, he told the newspapers and everyone looking for the wicked witch that to make sure the law system would catch them everyone was guilty until proven innocent.

               Before long several people were accusing each other of being wicked and the witch. It started with school teachers accusing their teachers of being the wicked witch because they hadn't made the homework that difficult and had sent them to detention. It was then that the police came in and arrested them. They also accused several school bullies of being wicked after they had started taking their lunch money. People started accusing clerks at the store for not packing their food right and even farmers for not making good food.

               Anyone who was accused of being the wicked witch was deemed guilty until proven innocent. The problem was how did they try to prove it. This is something that the mayor didn't really put much thought into so he tried to say that they should dunk the person in water several times until they confess or perhaps let them become covered in leeches until they actually do that. The problem was no one was confessing to all of this because the mayor said that the people who were found guilty of being a wicked witch would die a very slow and painful death. The mayor really could not understand why anyone would never really confess. The tortures piled on and several people even ended up dying from them but unable to confirm or deny that if there were a witch they just said that they needed to keep up the hunt.

               The mayor then realized that he could use the hunt to get rid of all his political opponents and anyone who basically disagreed with him. He then began to accuse people who were opposing him as the wicked witch and they were arrested, he accused the person who was going to run against him of being a wicked witch and he was arrested, then there were some people who were starting to think that this witch hunt was getting out of hand and he told them that they were the witch and they should be arrested.

               Soon everyone began to catch on to what the mayor was doing and felt that they could do the same thing. They began accusing people that they didn't like of being wicked and a witch and soon they were arrested. Soon even several other police began to arrest certain people they thought as wicked due to their wild accusations. Soon the jail cells were beginning to fill up extremely fast and they needed to create a new prison and were even starting to lock people at this huge, gigantic prison that they had suddenly made. Before long most of the town was in prison and the mayor was getting tired of the fact that no one had confessed to being the wicked witch. Angry with the police he began accusing them of being the wicked witch and sending several of them to jail it was then that the police all realized that they would be accused of being wicked and they then accused him of being the wicked witch and locked up in jail. He tried to fight this but everyone knew that if the mayor wasn't locked up he would just accuse them of being a wicked witch.

               Despite all of this people were still scared of the wicked witches so they kept this entire witch hunt going accusing each other of being a wicked witch despite the fact that most of the town was now in prison. Eventually, even some of the remaining police were accused of being wicked and we're locked in jail eventually, the entire town was all locked in jail except for the two people leading the task force who were doing it all from the comfort of the jail where no one could even accuse them Salem and Regina. Once the entire town was in prison they all went up to them and turn their skin green. Salem and Regina told everyone that they were the real wicked which is the whole time and left everyone in jail they took all the stuff they wanted and then left the town. But the ironic thing is they didn't even put all those people in jail or do any of those things they accused the wicked witch of doing. The real wicked thing was taking Advantage of it all. 

November 20, 2024 01:29

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