Witch Hunt 1730

The wigwam door crashes open and a panicked middle-aged man runs out in the moonlight, half-dressed. He stumbles and falls and stares at the swirling sky as a sheep recites a psalm, and a pig levitates over him. He gets up and runs through the woods to his home on the outskirts of town. The laughter of women is heard coming from the wigwam. Emmet travels to NJ on his first assignment for Ben Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazzette, chasing a story about a coming witch trial in Mount Holly. There he meets Sam, the proprietor of the Three Tuns Tavern and finds a town hostile and harboring a secret. As he zeroes in on the accused girls living in the wigwam, he is beaten and shot at with arrows from a Lenape Indian while investigating the altar on the mount in the woods. Emmet witnesses the young ladies outside their wigwam at night, dancing naked, laughing, and kissing in the moonlight. Back in his room at the tavern and inn, a note is passed under his door from someone who promises to have information he is looking for and asking to meet him the next day. On his way to his meeting, someone knocks him unconscious and he fails to make his rendezvous. Later that night, after drinking in the tavern, he returns to his room to find the Indian, Takonah, who had loosed arrows at him two days prior. Takonah tells him he must help the accused girls at the trial being held the next day. When the morning comes, the townspeople gather by the creek for the trial and he watches the girls he saw outside the wigwam walk down the street followed by angry women out for blood. After some tests in the water, Emmet, along with Sam, help defuse the situation and he walks them back to their home, outside of town. He learns they are half sisters, falls for Agatha and spends two nights with her and Winona drinking hallucinogenic mushroom tea. Deep in love, he promises to return for her in the spring. Five years later, Emmet is busy with his new career in Philadelphia working for Franklin. He returns to New Jersey on an assignment to dig up dirt on Sheriff Leeds, Franklin’s competitor in the almanac business and hears a strange story about Leeds’ sister-in-law giving birth to a demon that killed everyone in the home after being born except for the mother and an Indian girl. The story takes him back to Mount Holly and out to Popuessing on horseback to the Leeds house where he witnesses Winonah and Takonah leaving the house. As he chases them, he again finds himself the target of one of Takonah’s arrows. Sheriff Leeds sees him froths carriage while passing him on his way back to Mount Holly, where he is staying with his men at Sam’s tavern. Without a room at the tavern, Emmet walks to Agatha’s to see if she will forgive him him for not returning in the spring after they met. On the way, one of Leeds’s men assaults him and he is again in awful shape when he finally returns to Agatha. He finds her living alone in the wigwam and not happy to see him. After making up and telling her what he is doing there they travel by canoe up the creek to the Lenape village where Winona is living with Takonah. They learn of the demon’s attempt at killing Winonah and become involved in a plan to capture the beast and secure it inside the tomb of the altar on the Mount. Winonah successfully summons the demon to the altar and Takonah and a couple Indians, along with Emmet, Agatha, Sam and a couple of hired hands, attempt to kill it. The demon pierces Winona’s heart with its tail and they hit it with a few arrows and Sam shoots it with his blunderbuss. Takonah rushes Winona to his village, with Agatha following behind. Emmet and the others secure the creature in Lenape fishing nets and get it inside of the tomb. Emmet returns to the empty wigwam as a storm rolls in. He tries to wait it out but takes Agatha’s canoe the following morning through the rain up the creek to the Lenape village. There, he finds Agatha and witnesses the Lenape funeral of her sister.  They return together to Mount Holly and visit with Sam before going together to Philadelphia to begin anew. Back in Mount Holly, a young boy finishes his delivery to the tavern and walks through the woods past the altar. He freezes in place as he hears a sound and turns to see the lid of the tomb ajar. He runs down the path as a giant shadow covers him.