A story for Halloween: 'Innocence Burned'_美文

A story for Halloween: 'Innocence Burned'

And it stayed with them the rest of their lives. None of the six "untouched" survivors ever spoke again. The tragedy had struck them mute.

A few people had seen the bolt of lightning hit the chapel. But there was no storm, no thunder. The lightning came from out of a blue sky.

So people blamed the fire on a fifteen-year-old girl named Charlotte Reed. Two years earlier, her little village of Lenfer had accused her of witchery. Her parents disowned her. Her friends turned against her. The village expelled her in every way but physically. She began to walk through the streets, talking to herself in a language no one recognized. Her eyes always turned to the ground.

The eighteen villagers had gathered in the chapel for a community meeting that day. They had to decide how to deal with the Charlotte Reed. They had just voted in favor of executing the “little witch” by fire when the unexpected lightning struck.

Carrie turned to look back at the chapel. A shadow moved inside the ruins. Carrie slowly stepped forward for a better look. "No one goes in there," she thought.

Then she heard a quiet voice say, "We must attend to the condemned."

Carrie spun around on her heels. "Who's there?"

The sky opened suddenly and rain poured down. "What in the world? Where'd this storm come from?"

Suddenly, there was a flash of lightning. It made the hairs stand up on Carrie's arms. "Way too close, I could be killed out here. I gotta' get inside."