Lils hadn’t stopped moving since she’d dove into the tree line with Levi. Her lungs burned, and every snap of a branch made her jump.
Levi kept pace beside her, working double time to match her stride.
“We should go further,” he said. “They’ll search the edge first.”
Nodding, she glanced down at him, surprised. A nine-year-old boy navigating the 1692 wilderness. Which, she supposed, was kind of like his giant backyard.
“You know these woods well?”
“Aye Lils,” He ducked under a low branch, pulling it back for her to pass. “Goody Martin lets me go out far, says it keeps me from driving her mad.” He glanced up, grinning, which was especially comforting to Lils right now. “Follow me.”
They pushed deeper into the old Salem woods as Levi took the lead.
The nearly hollow oak tree was clearly Levi’s hideout.
Lils could tell by the stack of arranged rocks near the base of the massive oak, carefully placed. By the small cache of things tucked in a dry crook between roots and dirt: a tin cup, some rope, a few strips of dried meat wrapped up in a leather pouch, and a flint.
“So this is yours out here?” Lils said, looking around. The hollow tree was sheltered on three sides by a dense cluster of trees, the canopy above nearly blocking the sky.
“I come here when I need to,” Levi said, gathering fallen branches.
She didn’t ask more, she got it. Lils understood the need to find retreat away from everyone sometimes.
He built the small tinder bundle, dry bark shavings curled like tiny scrolls. The flint struck at the right angle twice before the first spark caught. He blew on it carefully, coaxing the flames.
They settled in close to the fire. Levi made sure Lils was okay and took off, foraging at the edges of the hollow and returning with a handful of berries. A root she didn’t recognize that he chomped on without hesitation was also part of his boon.
“Is that safe?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I’ve eaten it before. Nothin so much happened, and my belly was full for hours.”
Well shit, this is a gamble she thought. But she ate the gnarled, grubby root anyway.
When the dark had fallen all around and the cold settled in, Levi fell asleep with his head in Lil’s lap. One moment he was chewing a strip of dried meat and watching the fire pop and hiss; the next his head had tipped sideways his breathing had deepened, and he was snoring softly.
She shifted carefully so he wouldn’t fall, and sat staring into the fire. She needed a moment to just process everything.
The woods were noisy in 1692 in a way that had startled her when she first trekked through. No ambient traffic or distant hum of electricity. Just the wind in branches, creaking, and the screech of something further out. An owl, she hoped.
She touched the pentacle necklace under her shirt.
Stevon, you would *not* believe what's happening right now.
She’d gotten better at having conversations with him in her head, more comfortable with the fact that there wasn’t anyone on the other end to answer. Grief was weird like that. It started as a hole and slowly became more bearable. And then, just as abruptly, it became a hole again.
I really could use your help right about now.
Levi shifted in his sleep, murmuring. She put a hand gently on his shoulder, steadying him.
I’m stranded in 1692 because of some dumb spell. Which you would think is the craziest thing, except you knew me, so. Probably not entirely unexpected.
The fire snapped, burning a new log.
She knew what was coming, and that was the worst part. Lils had spent the past three months watching the hysteria spread through Salem like frost creep, whispers in the market, one household and then the next. She’d known the trials were coming.
And yet, Lils thought she had more time.
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But Samuel had taken that from her, and he didn't even know who she truly was. Had only seen what looked like his sister, and what appeared to be his mother’s locket—and that had been enough.
It’s not like she could show anyone Stevon’s pentacle, it would look like a witch talisman. Which... it kinda was. Either way, it would condemn her in a town of Puritans already paranoid about witchcraft.
The wind moved through the treetops, emitting a whipping, shuddering sound.
I’m really fucking scared. She let herself feel the terror, without the layer of armor she’d been building since October. I know what’s coming and I can’t stop it. I’ve been scared since I got here, and I’m so tired of feeling scared and helpless.
She’d been managing it, mostly. Breaking it down into days and tasks: learn their speech patterns, don’t draw attention, keep Goody Martin’s trust, watch the accusers. Take it day by day. Tasks kept her focused, and they meant action and forward motion and the feeling of doing something.
But at night, when there was nothing left to do but sleep, fear crept in and wouldn’t release its grip on her for a long while.
She looked down at Levi’s sleeping face, slack and tiny, the freckles across his nose and the cowlick that Goody Martin could never quite tame. A boy who had tripped Samuel Proctor in the frozen dirt. That brave, stupid boy.
He looked after me, she thought. He followed me into the woods and built me a fire and gave me his food and he didn’t even think twice about it.
Thank God for Levi and Goody Martin, she thought. She wouldn't have lasted nearly as long without them.
Lils pulled her cloak tighter and stared into the fire and tried to think about how in the future, Aunt Ivy was working on a fix. She had to believe that. Holly was probably reading every book in the house, and Lucy was definitely eavesdropping from the stairs.
And Eliza… who knows what Eliza was doing right now. Living her best life in 2025, safe in Lils' warm bed.
She tried to hold onto the thought of Stevon’s face, Aunt Ivy’s comforting hugs, the smell of banana bread, the way the Jetta rattled when Aunt Ivy took the turn onto their street too fast. Lucy sassing her. Always sassing her, Luce could be such a handful.
The fire burned lower and she shifted out from under Levi to feed it another few branches, careful not to wake him.
Lils knew she should sleep, that her body needed it. But sleep required release and relaxation, and she couldn’t seem to find the bottom of her thoughts. They kept circling the drain: the market, Samuel’s face, boots on the frozen ground, the tree line, and then it would start again.
She pressed her thumb against the pentacle necklace as she breathed through her nose the way her therapist had taught her—count four in, hold four, out four. Now repeat.
The woods settled around her as she settled back down and pulled Levi’s cloak a little higher around his shoulder.
◆◆◆◆
She didn’t know when she finally fell asleep. Only that she did, eventually, the fire burning down to embers. The cold was deep, and when sleep came, it hit her like dropping off a ledge.
It was mercifully dark all around, and Lils slept like a rock.
She did not hear the cold-stiffened leaves, hours later, being pressed down slowly, crunching under several pairs of boots.
◆◆◆◆
LEVI
Levi lay still at first, his breath coming in soft white puffs. Above, the patches of sky between branches showed deep gray, the color just before first light. The fire was ash and cold orange and Lils was asleep, curled up next to him.
Then he heard it again.
Stomping noises, more distinct this time. They were clearly attempting to. move quietly, but the cold, crunchy bundles of leaves betrayed them. He could tell they were approaching from the north, which meant they had trekked all the way from the village, likely tracking them through the night.
Levi could also tell that Lils was still deeply asleep, her arm folded under her head, her dark hair loose around her face. Her cloak had slipped.
Lils. He put his hand on her shoulder, shaking her.
"Lils, you must awaken!"
She didn’t budge.
He pressed harder, shaking her, looking back toward the sound. Closer now. He could hear a low voice, a rumble of a man’s voice with words he couldn’t quite make out yet.
“Lils,” he whispered, a fierce hissing sound, louder than he should have. He pulled on her arm. Still nothing. "Thou art impossible to awaken!"
He shook her again, desperate, and she made a sound and turned over and did not wake. The voice came again, and this time the wind shifted just enough so Levi could distinguish snippets.
“—there are the large hollow trees, make sure to check those—”
It was Samuel with his crew.
Levi stood and looked down at Lils, flooded with panic.
He could not carry her, for he was far too small. There were at least three of them coming through the trees and he had maybe a minute or two before they stumbled upon the hollow.
Levi grabbed the flint and the rope, shoving them into his pockets with shaking hands. He bent and pulled Lils's cloak up over her completely, concealing her. He pressed his palm flat against her arm for a moment.
I’m sorry Lils, he thought, though he couldn’t say it. I’m sorry I could not awaken thee. His only hope was that her cloak would hide her from sight.
Then he took off through the woods.
Levi had explored these woods since he was a small and knew all the secret trails, the places where the ground was solid and the places where it sank. He moved fast, the way deer scatter as soon as they sensed danger.
Levi heard the shout behind him… and then Lils’s voice, startled and frightened, and then more deep voices. A commotion now.
Levi ran again, finding the oak he was looking for, the one with the branch that started low, split at just the right height. He grabbed it and hauled himself up, pressing himself flat against the trunk where the light wouldn’t find him.
He finally dared to look back to see what had happened.
Through the misty light and bare branches, he could see the clearing below the rise. Two men he didn’t know from the village, along with Constable Herrick and Samuel Proctor.
Oh wow, four of them.
And there was Lils, being dragged upward to her feet, her cloak twisted, her hair loose and everywhere.
She was arguing, but he couldn’t make out any of her words from here. But even now, even being grabbed by those men, she was keeping herself upright.
One of the men had rope, and he saw Lils willingly let them bind her wrists. Samuel grabbed her by the arm, leading her forward, and they moved back toward the main path, toward the village. In a moment they would be out of sight entirely.
Lils glanced back once, back at the hollow, before Samuel shoved her forward.
Levi hid up in the tree until they were gone, frozen there for a long time after. When he finally climbed down, shaky and thirsty, a crow landed on the ground right in front of him and cawed.
It sent goosebumps up his arms.
He had to get back to Goody Martin, had to let her know what had happened to Lils.
Levi didn’t know what could be done, he only knew he had to help in any way he could. He started walking, crying as he walked, fat tears dripping down onto his dirty tunic. The crow followed.
He did not look back at the hollow oak again.