The Chosen

Craig Conrad

Description

After helping the police solve the Lanark murders, Paul Rice thought he was finished with the supernatural for good and he and his girlfriend could forget about everything that happened and settle down to living a normal life. But it was not to be, his girlfriend decides to suddenly leave him and four attractive women come into his life as prearranged by someone pulling paranormal strings. There are more murders and Paul later finds that he and the four women knew each other during the Salem Witch Trials in another lifetime.

Sujets

• reincarnation
• Thrillers
• Black Magic
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 22 novembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781669852780
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

THE CHOSEN
BY CRAIG CONRAD

Copyright © 2022 by Craig Conrad.
 
Library of Congress Control Number:
2022919921
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-5280-3

Softcover
978-1-6698-5279-7

eBook
978-1-6698-5278-0
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 11/10/2022
 
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
811595
Contents
Prologue
Part One: Magik Selections
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Part Two: Night Callers
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Part Thre e: The Reckoning
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Epilogue
PROLOGUE

Some of mankind’s most terrible misdeeds have been committed under the spell of certain magic words or phrases.
 
J. B. Conant
 
 
 
 
For the soul of the body form doth take;
For soul is form, and doth the body make.
 
Edmund Spenser
 
 
 
 
You did not choose me, I have chosen you.
 
The Gospel of John

“To the Monday Afternoon Domino Gang.”

SALEM VILLAGE
MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY
1692

 

 
 
In the house of the sisters Hobb, Thomas Dane stood at the head of the heavy wooden table and observed the four young women seated there. Barely thirty, he was a tall, handsome man and one of the youngest ministers in the church.
“How saith you to the charges now,” he asked.
“I will not belie myself,” Rebecca said. She was the eldest by eight years of her youngest sister, and the prettiest. “I have never set my hand to the Devil’s book. Neither have I given a misbeholding word to anyone.”
Thomas nodded. “How saith your sisters?”
“We are healers of the sick and good tenders,” Susan said, her cheeks slightly flushed with anger. She was the youngest of the sisters Hobb, just seventeen years. “We love God’s natural wonders and use them to heal. What harm be in that?”
Thomas shook his head in disgust. “None that any sane man can see.”
Sarah looked up at him. “Then, why? Who testifieth other? Why have others undone themselves in their testimony? If we saith false that we have set our hands to the Devil’s book, they shall believe us. And, if we saith not, which is truth, they shall not believe us.”
Thomas met her eyes. Sarah had missed her older sister’s beauty by only a hair’s width and was Rebecca’s junior by three years.
“We have done nothing wrong,” Mary added. She was the second youngest of the sisters, just turning eighteen years. “Why should we confess to that which we did not do?”
“I know,” Thomas said, “but it may save your lives. These are accursed times. Have you not heard of the accused dog, branded as a witch and hanged by the same wise men who judge you now?”
“A dog? How could they have hanged a poor dog?” Susan said, giving Thomas a disturbing glance.
“Nevertheless, they have done so,” Thomas replied.
“Would you so testify, Thomas Dane?” Mary asked. “Would you confess to that which is false to save your own life?”
All the women’s eyes were on him, waiting for his reply. He looked away from their stares. “It is different with me. All of you have much life left.”
“Would you so testify?” Sarah persisted.
Thomas looked back at them, meeting their eyes. “No, I would not,” he said quietly.
“You have spoken on our behalf at the courthouse, Thomas,” Rebecca said, folding her hands on the table. “Do you not think your discourse has convinced the judges of our innocence?”
Thomas studied her face for a moment, then turned away and stepped to the fireplace without speaking.
A fire gave warmth from the hearth and danced shadows along the walls of the room where garlands of dried apples hung along with husks of drying corn. A single candle burned in a holder in the middle of the table, adding its feeble glow to the dimness.
“I do not,” Thomas said after a while. He clasped his hands behind his back and stared into the flames. “Logic of the times yields to superstition. The follies of present thinking are not conquered by reason alone. Witchcraft is the mad babble of the village. I fear I lack the talent and political influence to save you. Alas, I fear the worst.”
Rebecca watched the flames reflect off his face. She rose from the table and joined him at the fire. “Do not blame yourself. You spoke for us when no other would. You did your best.”
“It was not enough,” he said, turning to her. “It was not enough. They think me a renegade minister at heart, for I do not follow their mad beliefs. Methinks I have done you more harm than good.”
“It is enough for me to know that you believe in us,” Rebecca said, “and have witnessed the fact that we have kept covenant with our God and have prayed to no other.”
Thomas turned his back to the fire. “It is not enough, I tell you. I have failed.”
Rebecca could not find the words to comfort him. This thoughtful man whom she had grown to love, but had not confessed her feelings to him, nor had he to her, although she felt in her heart that he loved her also.
Susan stood up quickly. “Listen. Someone comes.”
They became quiet and waited as a horse rode up to the house and moments later, a rap at the door.
The women glanced at each other with frightened, apprehensive eyes. Thomas strode to the door and opened it.
“It is you, Samuel Baxter,” Thomas said. “What brings you here at this hour of night?”
Samuel Baxter was a merchant and a friend of Thomas’ deceased father and a second father to him. He stood there in wide-brimmed hat and greatcoat, his old, wrinkled face was grave. “To save your neck, I hope,” Samuel said. “Pray, let me enter. I have distressing news.”
Thomas closed the door and locked it with a board. “What is it, then?”
Samuel removed his hat and eyed the sisters briefly, then faced Thomas. “The judges have found the women guilty. And, unless they confess, I fear they will be hanged.”
Thomas clenched his hands. “What utter rubbish. Surely, you do not believe in this demented thinking? How can reasonable men hold fast to this superstition?”
“No, I do not believe as they,” Samuel said. “But there are others in high places that do not think as I do. And the events of the passing year do not bode favorably to anyone so accused. Look about you. The French are waging war, the Indians are on the warpath, taxes are intolerable, and pirates are attacking our commerce. And, if that were not enough, the weather has been very cruel.”
“What has all this to do with us?” Sarah asked.
“Work of the Devil, my child,” Samuel said, “and those of his agents.”
“That is nonsense,” Thomas said, raising his voice.
Samuel made a stopp