Supernatural: One Year Gone by Rebecca Dessertine

man such as that can be dangerous,” Nathaniel warned his family. It was for that reason Nathaniel told the clergyman that they would worship at home on Sundays and Thursdays, the days when people gathered in the tavern to talk about the Bible. Though in fact, rather than worshipping, Nathaniel made his three children study.
    The Campbell children weren’t learning the Bible—they already knew it back to front—instead they were studying Latin, herbs, and texts about monsters that their ancestors had written. The family business was hunting and it was very important to Nathaniel that his two sons and daughter continue the Campbell tradition.
    Thomas looked at his brother.
    “You go tell Father and I’ll follow that man to town,” he said.
    “Why do you get to follow him? I want to follow him,” Caleb objected.
    “Because I’m older, and if I’m caught I’m better spoken,” Thomas responded.
    Caleb shook his head but started toward the family farm anyway, while his brother ran after the man and his cart.
    Thomas was fast and caught up with the man’s tired mare before it had reached Salem. In the village the visitor stopped and asked a local resident where to find the nearest doctor. He was directed toward the east end of town, and Thomas followed cautiously from a distance.
    When they reached the doctor’s, he waited a short way down the street, crouched down next to another cart, while the man stepped inside.
    A couple of minutes later the portly physician emerged from the house and approached the cart. He scooped up the body of the young girl and hurried back inside.
    Thomas ran to the window of the doctor’s house and peered through the tiny glass pane. The men were laying the young girl’s body on a table.
    Thomas grew anxious. He knew that his father would want to find out what had killed the girl, and he could only do that by examining the body.
    The ways Nathaniel could gain access to the bodies were many, but normally he would lie and dissemble. If they were in another town or county Nathaniel would dress up as a man of the church, or sometimes pose as a merchant or a judge. Nathaniel always kept a couple of changes of clothes in his sack for these exact occasions. He would insist that he needed to see the body before anyone else did. Once he had gained access, he was usually quick to identify the culprit.
    Thomas knew that his father was used to seeing strange animal bites or scratches. He knew what kind of mark a wendigo made—his Indian friends had helped him identify the first one he had ever come across. But such things would have induced panic in the common colonist. Even though the Bible played the primary cultural role in Puritan communities, Christianity couldn’t quash the inherent folk beliefs that people had brought over from Europe.
    Many of the colonists were superstitious: the English spoke of baby-stealing fairies, the French of loup-garou, and German merchants of Vampir. So Nathaniel often hid evidence of those creatures, for the safety of the colony. Sometimes he would patch the wounds up on the victim’s corpse before anyone else could see them—he carried a candle for just that purpose, to drip wax into the wounds to hide them.
    Before Thomas could come up with a plan to gain access alone, his father and Caleb arrived at the doctor’s in their rickety carriage. Thomas could make out the outline of the worn book of Latin spells inside his father’s coat. He always carried it with him just in case the victim was demonically possessed.
    Nathaniel jumped out of the carriage as Caleb tied the horse to a post. Nathaniel nodded to Thomas and entered the doctor’s house.
    Caleb left the horse and crossed the street toward his brother. The boys listened quietly at the window. They understood immediately that the men had identified the girl: Abigail Faulkner. She lived with her mother and two lame twin brothers just north of town on a small plot of land only big enough for a couple of