She swam as far as she could towards the bank, then stood, rising naked from the river right in front of where Molly stood, water pouring in rivulets from her slick, dark hair. She raised a hand and pointed a finger. Molly was silenced.

‘You dare to call me witch. You, who knows I see the truth of what you are,’ she said.

Molly whimpered and gathered her petticoats to her. Daniel, afraid to show himself to a person other than Sarah, stayed where he was and called for her to stop. She did not.

‘You took him,’ Molly shouted, words broken by sobs. ‘Used your sorcery and took him from me. If it had been him, all would be well. What am I to do?’

‘Swallow your foul words and never let them pass your lips again. Else your tongue shall blister and weep,’ Sarah said. ‘Each word shall transform into a bat, flying from your mouth and turning its teeth to you, filling you with the wickedness and pain you seek to inflict on me.’

Molly screwed her petticoats up in her hands, face crumpled like a little child’s, body bent like an old maid’s. ‘I am already filled with it,’ she screamed. ‘There is none to help me now.’

Sarah stepped forward, arm still outstretched, and Molly backed away, tears flooding, mouth gaping in fear.

‘Sarah,’ he shouted. ‘Stop.’

She took another step, standing but an arm’s length from Molly. ‘Blood shall seep from your poisoned flesh, pool at your feet, pour from your fingers.’

Her voice was lower, slower than he had ever heard it. As though another spoke through her. And the words, more vile than he had ever thought to hear from her, such foulness he could not believe she harboured within. Sunlight glinted upon the water until it was all he could see, each breath sharper, faster. He washed his face, blinked, forced himself to stay aware, that he might know what was happening.

‘Leave her,’ he called, his voice breaking. But she was unreachable. No longer the Sarah he knew, but a being unknowable and powerful. In this moment she was everything the villagers feared the family to be.

‘And all that you touch, all that you love, shall be infected,’ Sarah said.

Molly sobbed, made to run, but Sarah reached out and held her arm fast, spun her round. Standing tall over the cowering girl, she took Molly’s chin in her hand, tipped her face and brought her own close.

‘Heed. My. Words.’

She released her hold and Molly ran, tripping over a branch and falling, catching her head on a rock. He heard the crack from where he stood in the water. She lay unmoving for a moment and Daniel waded to the bank, scrambling into his breeches. He glanced at Sarah. She stood, watching. Where Molly lay a red stain spread slowly over the ground.