Salem's Finishers part one

Ever since the Dark Ages, people have been persecuted for “Witchcraft”. Some of those persecuted actually were users of dark magic, with intents to harm others. Others were users of magic, but only to learn what Religion and Science could not teach them about their world. But unfortunately, many others were simple victims of hysteria.

Salem is the best example of such persecution of Wizards. None of the people who hung in those dark times were witches at all. In fact, the Puritans of Salem were one of the few colonies that had no Wizards, Witches, or any other kind of magic users.

Of the people who migrated to America back in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, quite a few of them were wizards, escaping persecution from Europe and wanting to learn of what secrets the “New World” had to offer.

These wizards would often leave their colonies and head west, seeking the Native Americans and their wizards. It was mostly to exchange knowledge of the land, or to combine different styles of magic. Even when they were free from religious persecution in the Old World, Wizards were still feared by the colonists.

The only viewpoints towards mages that had changed along with America was that they did not exist and were a myth. Many people in America believe that Magic is just a fantasy element that can’t be found outside of storybooks. There were a few Stage Magicians who did not employ the clever use of mirrors, smoke, and wires, but no one could believe it was real magic.

Sure, there was the occasional happening that could not be explained by what had become accepted as “Traditional” methods. There were also sightings of creatures that had been dismissed as Mythological or extinct, but these stories never made it beyond the tabloids. In a society where very few believe in magic and of corporate news, who’d want to post an apparent sighting and report of something like Bigfoot when a story on Paris Hilton would sell more?

But still…A lot happens underground, or over the internet. FoxNews may have brought the antics of an anonymous-website to light, but compared to the vast world of the Underground and Internet, the “lulz” of *chan website aren’t even a scratch on the surface. Even news of Magic and Persecution haven’t become known to the public yet.



Laura had a wooden bowl on her desk, the kind that one would usually fill with Wax Fruit. She emptied a bottle of Aquafina into the wooden bowl, slowly. Amanda, her roommate would put her Laptop on the desk when Laura wasn’t using it.

Laura begun to gaze into the bowl. It took about ten minutes, and some visions appeared. This wasn’t hallucination, it was called Scrying. It would allow the person to see knowledge beyond their reach. Unfortunately, Laura wasn’t quite as skilled as the Wizard who taught her this method of Scrying was, so she couldn’t see exactly what she wanted too most of the time.

Laura almost gasped when she saw what was happening. Someone was typing on a computer. Laura could only really see the shape of the person typing on the computer and the computer screen. Everything else was obscured in shadows.

What made Laura gasp was what was what was being typed into the computer. She could make out that it was a list, but there was a description of the list. The list was, according to her sight, a report of strange mythological creatures appearing in and around the town, and some other suspicious activity. There was a list of suspected names, which she scanned for her own and that of another wizard. She sighed as they weren’t on there, but one name stood out.

It was the dorm where her friends and Patrick lived in for the year. It was the dorm where they had accidentally summoned a Tanuki with some board game and Tarot cards. There weren’t any specific names after that, but Laura at least had to give her friends and Patrick a heads-up that there may be people investigating them.

The light turned on as Amanda walked in. The vision vanished as the light hit the bowl.

“Oh,” Amanda said, closing the door and lowering her voice, “Did you see anything useful this time?”

Amanda knew Laura was a “mage”. It was alright to discuss magic issues with her, because Laura had had Amanda take a Vow not to tell anyone. A vow that could not be broken, but fortunately it wasn’t a Death Vow.

“Someone put a dorm on campus on some kind of list,” Laura said, looking up from the scrying bowl, “And I’m not sure it’s a very good list.”

“Could you make out who was writing that list?” Amanda asked.

“Nope, only what was on the list and what the list was about.”


The Paladin hit “Send”. If The Arch Bishop had gotten nearby a computer recently, they would be able to investigate the suspected names and locations.

“We’ll get whoever’s responsible for those,” The Paladin said out loud.

But behind him, The Cleric turned around.

“Why do you always describe what you did out loud?” She asked, “This isn’t a Children’s Animated Film.”


A few days later, Jason noticed a bunch of people standing outside the dorm. Most of them were students, but there were others wearing uniforms. Policemen.

“Fuck!” Jason thought, “My MacBook’s in there!”

Jason ran to the group, but a police officer barred his way.

“I need my MacBook in there!” Jason protested.

“We can’t,” The officer said, “We’re under orders not to let anyone inside the dorms until they’re done searching.”

“Do you even have a warrant?” Jason asked.

“Yes, we have a Search Warrant.”

“What’re they searching for?”

“Some tip, but it’s classified information. If anything they’re looking for is found in those dorms, you could be a potential suspect. I’m just giving you a heads-up, even if it’s not in your room, they’ll assume everyone’s related.”


“What did that tip say we’re looking for?” one officer asked.

“Any signs of Occult-ish stuff,” Another inspector said, looking around, “Apparently, the missing people reports are supposed to be linked to those ‘mythical creature’ sightings, and that the answer lies within ‘magic’ stuff.”

“Magic. Hmmph, It sounds a lot like it might be fake.”

“I think it might be a waste of time, but the tip came from a very reliable source, and that’s not the weirdest link to cases that they’ve tipped us with.”

“Who were they?”

“Supposedly they’re an order of the Church, probably religious investigators or something.”

“Great, before you know it, we’ll find Linda Blair projectile vomiting out of the
crowd.”

Digitalpotato’s note: Poor Linda Blair…

“Hey, what’s this?” another voice asked

A policeman pointed to a box labeled “Manga”

“Man-ga?”

The policeman opened up the box and found a bunch of comic books inside. Putting on gloves so not to obscure any fingerprints, all three carefully opened a few of the comic books.

“Ugh, Porn.” One of them said.

“No point looking there…Even if it’s comic-book porn, it’s perfectly normal for teenagers to look at that stuff…”


Laura scanned around the Crowd, searching for the RA of the dorm, a man named Patrick. She managed to find him, and then she opened up a telepathic channel.

“Hey Patrick,” Laura mentally said to him, “You hide that board game?”

“Yep,” Patrick responded, “I put it where people wouldn’t want to look. I put it underneath a bunch of Hentai manga.”

“Ugh, I hate that stuff.”

“You used to draw Furries…You probably saw a lot of Yaoi in your day. ”

Laura instantly shut the channel. One of the risks of opening a telepathic channel with as little experience as her was that your mind was just as vulnerable as the others. She had to find out how she could shield stuff like that from people like Patrick.


Unknown to Laura, The Zealot was inside the crowd. Disguised as a bystander, he had been hiding there in case any hiding wizards or mages tried to use magic to addle the investigation. That was only a cover-up.

And it worked. The Zealot had managed to detect someone opening a telepathic channel; fortunately it was a very inexperienced person to have made it so obvious. The Zealot could only detect it because of the fake contact lenses that would, to some extent, simulate “Magesight”.  

The Zealot smiled to himself. While he couldn’t tell exactly who was opening the telepathic channel in this crowd, he at least confirmed that there was a mage, and one who went to this college.

Nobody noticed the person who did not seem to belong there leave the crowd. Unnoticed, he walked by a building and took out a cell phone. After a few ringing sounds, the Cleric answered the phone.

“I’ve seen a witch, exactly like you said, but they’re very inexperienced. Send The Crusaders and The Paladin over here,” he said quietly into the phone.

There was a light talking from the other side.

“WHAT?” The Zealot gasped, “You want to send WHO over here to help?!”

There was a light talking, indistinguishable to all but the one on the phone.

“I can’t believe it…All that for just one little inexperienced witch? Especially one who may just be some liberal teenager lost on the path?!”