Allana’s Vengeance

It’s October 29^th, 1640, in East Lothian, Scotland, and 10 year old Allana is combing the forest looking for mushrooms by the light of the full moon. There’s extremely little to eat; the times are hard to say the least, but Allana is used to going hungry. She remembers the drought 3 years before and the famine that followed. Her eyes start to water as she remembers her father Gallagher, and how he had lost his life courageously defending his family from the raiders who came down from the Highlands.

As she’s stooping down to pick some mushrooms, a large hand grasps her long blond braids from behind her and the other hand smothers her mouth to muffle her. She bites the fingers hard and kicks behind her with her heels as her mother had told her to do, but the strong arms jerk her braids twisting her head violently to a loud snap. She drops in a heap like a rag doll.

Screams pierce the night as Allana’s 16-year-old sister Kyleigh and her mother Genaine come across her naked and dismembered body. Little time has passed since the horrific crime played out, so the wolves haven’t yet arrived, but ravens are already starting to feast on the poor girl, plucking out the eyes first. They scare away the ravens and gather the pieces of Allana’s body together. They notice that she had been sexually assaulted before being cut to pieces. Her mother takes off her black hooded cloak and wraps what’s left of her daughter in it to carry her home.

“I told her time after time not to go in the woods at night, but she was certain that Gallagher’s spirit watched over her and kept her safe.” Genaine tried to shake off her overwhelming feeling of guilt, and mother and daughter sobbed as they held each other tight. Genaine’s voice changed suddenly and cut though the still night like the shriek of a wild animal “The devil that did this shall pay! My poor little child shall be revenged!” Then her tone became hard and strong “Kyleigh, in two days’ time, and still under the full moon ‘tis the Feile na Marbh and the Sabbat of Samhain, and Allana’s spirit shall speak to us. She shall tell us who did this and we shall throw every evil spell in the book on the horrid creature. His soul shall never rest in peace.”

Not far away in Dirleton Castle Sir William Keary Gooch, a Church of Scotland Minister, Head of the Kirk, and witch hunter, calls out for a servant to bring him a bucket of warm water to wash the blood off of his hands and arms. He cleans his sword and takes off his blood-stained red-and-white Gooch plaid tartan, his belt and trews and then cleans and bandages his bloody fingers. “She bit like a she wolf she did that ‘lil hellcat! ‘at’s one less witch to worry about! Slaughter ‘em when they’re young and they can’t put up a fight! ‘ats a way to do it right, ain’t it! He goes on rattling off to himself as he dons a long yellow linen shirt and a long fringed black woolen mantle for the night. His bandaged hand doesn’t stop him from molesting his wife like he does every night, and she bears the pain as usual. She doesn’t even bother to ask him how he got hurt, and she doesn’t care; she wishes he were dead.

Genaine and Kyleigh are back at their little cottage in the woods, lighting candles in silence and placing them around a pentagram traced on the ground outside to do a ritual for Allana, whose torn up body is wrapped now in a white linen cloth in the center between the 5 points. They join hands and start an incantation in unison “Abundia, Bensozie, Nicneven, Satia, Herodiana, Zobiana, by all of your names we invoke you great goddess of the night, hear our prayer.” Genaine continues “Be with us and protect us from the evil of men and demons. Give us revenge on our oppressors. Let us speak with our dear Allana when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead are lifted in two nights’ time. Let her tell us who the monster is that we may cast him into the hellfire where he belongs. Take Allana’s spirit and protect it from evil.” With these words she throws a torch onto the little bundle of white linen and they weep as it is consumed, the sparks and smoke rising high above the trees.

It’s October 31st, the Samhain, the eve of the New Year, the Great Sabbat, and the Festival of the Dead “Feile na Marbh”. Genaine is the High Priestess of their small family coven, which includes Kyleigh, two paternal aunts Kellesha and Kherington, and two older cousins Endellion and Enide. Kyleigh is the youngest. As per the custom, they have made a bonfire in a glen in the middle of the woods and they are dancing ‘round it and singing sacred chants. They have all partaken in potions prepared with plants and mushrooms that will allow them to reach euphoria and to communicate with the spirits, flying high unhindered by their bodies. The spirits of the High Priest Gallagher and his daughter Allana appear together side by side. Allana is happy to be reunited with her father in the spirit world, where she doesn’t have to feel hunger pains anymore. No sooner has the veil been lifted, than Allana lets out a piercing cry, filled with anger and hatred…

Sir William Keary Gooch, followed by his entire Kirk in a horde, is coming at them with torches in the air. “Capture them! Don’t let them get away! Burn the witches! God is our commander! Death to all witches, the wives of the devil!”

“It’s him! See his bandaged hand? That’s where I bit him! It’s Sir Gooch! That’s his red and white tartan that I saw!” All the witches hear Allana speak, but the villagers only hear the crackling fire. They don’t perceive the spirits. They catch the women of the coven and start to tie them around trees. Only Kyleigh manages to flee, and the spirits of her father and sister stay close to her. Kyleigh has noticed that they can speak to each other without uttering a sound, as their communication is on a higher level. She’s frightened but her father encourages her.

“This is the moment to prove your worth my dear Kyleigh. We are here to helpeth thee, and all of our spirit friends shall helpeth thee. We can speak to all the other wild creatures of the earth and sky; it is only the ignorant humans who cannot perceive us.”

“But what can I do? He shall burn all of them!”

“That evil man is wont to take your mother, my sisters and nieces back to the castle. He could burn them here and now because they don’t need to have a trial. Everyone saw them dancing and chanting. But he wants to have his gruesome pleasure first. Gooch shall want to abuse every one of them before torturing them and burning them. We shall save them, by all the names of our great goddess; Abundia, Bensozie, Nicneven, Satia, Herodiana, and Zobiana, we shall triumph over this wretch.”

“Tell me what to do father.”

“Thou shalt have need of great care. Haste thou learned how to make a statue of a man?”

“I know the spell of the Cockatrice, and have yet to practice it.”

“Allana, I, and hundreds of other spirits here this night shall go and bring all of the wild beasts; the wolves, the boars, the bats, the ravens, the owls, the serpents and all other sort. They will listen and obey, and Gooch shall meet his end. We shall not hurt the people of the village, they are being wrongly led, so we shall only scare them away. You must be careful, Gooch is versed in demonic magic, and you must be stronger than him. While he has his back turned upon thee, cast upon him the spell and freeze him into stone. The villagers shall take fright and run away. The spell shall last only a moment, and in that short time thou must free the others, thy mother first, as her magic is stronger than yours. All of the beasts shall not be long in arriving.”

As the spirits of Gallagher and Allana fly off to summon the wild beasts for help, Kyleigh approaches the glen slipping silently from behind one tree to another. She has to circle the glen to position herself behind Sir Gooch, who is addressing the horde with a fiery sermon as usual. She musters up all of her courage and steps out where the people can see her facing them from behind Gooch. She points her wand and starts the incantation. “Oh thou Cockatrice, proud beast of prey, be thee with me now I pray, that this flesh may turn to stone cold and grey!” Gooch freezes like a statue and the congregation screams in fright, abandoning him on the spot and scampering for their lives. The glen is empty just as Gooch snaps out of the spell and turns around before Genaine has been freed by Kyleigh, who stands all alone to face him. Genaine watches helplessly as Gooch moves menacingly towards her last daughter.

“Come now my sweet little witch, I shall pierce thee though with my manhood before I burn thee at the stake, and thou shalt bleed!” As he lunges forward, Kyleigh’s foot lands between his legs, and her knee smashes into his face just as rapidly. She’s too close in for him to use his sword. All the anger she feels is let go in a burst of adrenaline and Gooch has no time to use any magic. She cannot hold herself back, and the strong man is pummeled to near death by a teen-age girl of half his size and weight. In fact, the spirit of her father, High Priest Gallagher is fighting with her and inside of her, and all of the wild beasts have come to the glen.

Sir William Keary Gooch is torn to pieces alive by the wolves and ravens, and all the other meat eating beasts come to feast until there is nothing left but bones.

Witch hunting is finished now in East Lothian, Scotland, at least for now.