Travels

By Vincent Roberts

It all begins as a normal day at the Randolph Historical Museum. The museum attendant, Rose Crane, is the first one to arrive in the building that Monday morning and is barely ready to face the day. She never imagines that the new exhibit of The North Berwick Witch Trials will result in such horror and consequence for herself and the other museum visitors.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vincent Roberts
• Release date: May 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201994341

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TRAVELS

TRAVELS

That Monday began as just another typical gloomy autumn morning in the small New England village of Port Winston. The October air was cool and crisp and the skies were filled with ashen gray billowy clouds.

It was the opening day of the new North Berwick Witch Trials Exhibit showing at the local downtown museum, The Randolph Historical Museum. Even though the fall weather wasn’t conducive to sight-seeing, the museum’s director was still expecting an extra-large turnout that day because he’d been advertising the upcoming event for months in advance.

Rose Crane was the thirty-five-year-old museum attendant who was on duty to open the museum that morning. As usual, she was running late. Frantically, Rose raced to work and parked her car in the alley behind the museum. She entered the building through the back door.

Her required clothing looked like a dark blue stewardess’s uniform and her plain, brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She also wore dark round glasses to complete the look. Rose was who anyone would expect to see at the front desk of a museum.

She came into the break room, dropped her brown bag lunch on the table, stuck her energy drink in the mini fridge, passed by the office and then walked carefully through the east wing of the museum where the brand-new exhibit had been located. Rose hadn’t seen the North Berwick Witch Trials Exhibit yet since it was only delivered to the museum and set up the previous night.

Every room that she went through was dark until Rose found the power box and began to hit the many switches. Suddenly, all the cubicles and hallways, on both sides of the building, lit up at the same time. She hit another switch to turn the west wing lights back off again. She knew that the west wing of the building was off limits to all visitors due to even more new construction that would be taking place there. She fiddled with the lights for several more minutes until she believed that she finally had them just right.

She began down the hall but then turned around, knowing she’d forgotten to hit the last and most important switch. Once she’d returned to the power box, her finger pushed one more switch that turned the lights on at the admissions desk and in the main corridor.

She turned to walk out of the west wing and toward the exhibit room when she caught a whiff of something sour. She had no idea where the smell was coming from. She put her hand over her nose when the odor became almost rancid.

Soon, she felt a cool breeze on the back of her neck. She walked away from the exhibit area, toward the admissions desk, and noticed the reeking smell had quickly disappeared.

It’s not my problem. Mr. Magda can deal with it later, she commented to herself when she chose to ignore the strange smell. She shrugged her shoulders and proceeded to set up the tables at the entrance with colorful pamphlets of the exhibit and the museum, for the guests.

When Rose looked up from the admissions desk and out the front door, her eyes caught a glimpse of a middle-aged couple arguing next to the only car in the front parking lot. The infuriated woman’s hands were flapping in the air, as if she was trying to swat a bug, while she shouted at the man. The man lowered his head, stared at the pavement and nodded over and over. He looked like a schoolboy being reprimanded. Rose shook her head and rolled her eyes. If they were going to be the first customers of the day, she knew it was going to be a long one.

Rose glanced up and checked the clock on the wall near the front desk and saw that it was already eight. She looked around one more time to make sure she had done everything that she needed to and then whispered, Here we go again. Time to open up.

She unlocked the front door. As soon as she stepped away from the door to walk back to the admissions desk, a man on the other side of the door forcefully swung it open and entered. The man was tall and thin, with dark hair