Spellbound in Salem – Excerpt

A road sign announced the city limits of Salem, Massachusetts as several vehicles sped toward the town’s skyline on the busy highway. A colorful billboard farther down displayed a classical fairy tale depiction of a pretty witch flying astride a broom and boldly extended an invitation—

“Welcome to Salem.

Come and Stay a Spell!”

Mollie lived in Salem, Massachusetts, the town renowned for its infamous 1692 Salem witch trials. It was now Halloween night in the the place where the most avid participants of the holiday and curious tourists hit the streets to dress up and haunt, scare, and terrify every neighborhood.

The splendor and blend of the multi-colored fall leaves adorned the city and countryside of Salem. It was October and the peak season for the town’s Halloween festivities, special events, and wiccan fun, which were about to explode in the town as the hordes of visitors steadily flowed into the area.

Fans of Nathaniel Hawthorne were drawn to the House of the Seven Gables, and crowds of tourists visited the Old Witch Jail, the Peabody Essex Museum, and the Salem Maritime National Historic Site. Many enjoyed the Witch City Walking Tours, while others preferred the hour ride provided by the Salem Trolley Tour. The 1692 Salem Witch Trials Memorial, always a magnetic draw, dealt out its macabre history to packed audiences and Count Orlock’s Nightmare Gallery and Wax Museum made onlookers feel as though they were in a Stephen King movie.

The Essex Street Pedestrian Mall in the heart of downtown, bustled with shops and theatrical street performers. The Salem Food Tour and the Haunted Pub Crawls never failed to satisfy hungry and thirsty visitors as an aura of pervasive spookiness was present everywhere.

If you retained a childlike love of Halloween, Salem, Massachusetts was the place to vividly relive it.

The All Hallow’s Eve decorating and costume preparation continued throughout the entire month until the big night on the thirty-first was a mere few hours away. The waning afternoon daylight still glowed on the brightly colored fall trees that had littered the lawns and street with their autumn leaves. Young trick-or-treaters kept regular vigils at their home’s windows to the outside and yearned for the sight of a single crucial phenomenon—darkness.