Prologue

Winter 1708
A few miles outside of Salem, Massachusetts

Hester Addams gathered up her long skirt and headed into the woods. The glow of the full moon gave ample light for her to see where she was going; even in the heavily fallen snow that had blanketed the land earlier that day, leaving nearly a foot of it behind. She headed deep into the woods before stopping to rest. She rubbed her somewhat swollen belly that carried her child. She wanted to cry at how she had came to be in this condition; barely twenty, unwed, and unwanted by both her father and the man that had gotten her this way. She leaned against a tree and began to cry uncontrollably.

"There. There," she heard and older woman's voice say. Looking around she saw her; covered in what looked to be a ragged blanket and very thin shoes. "Come child," she said. "You will need a warm place to stay and food to eat. I don't have much, but you are certainly welcome to it."

It was in the home of the middle aged woman, whom she learned was named Tala, that she lived. She found peace with Tala and soon was looking forward to the birth of her child. She noticed first hand that Tala was blind, but she went about her day as if she could see like any other person. Then one day, with the birth of her child very close, she asked Tala how see came to be blind.

Hester learned Tala had fallen in love with a man when she was young woman. The man had his way with her, and upon learning she was with child, beat her nearly to death and left her for dead. She lost both the child and her eyesight. A woman, who had fled Salem years before and had escaped the trials because she practiced the craft, nursed her back to health and helped her to "regain" her sight, thou her eyes would never saw again. She also learned that Tala had taken up the pratice and had cursed the man.

Tala's curse had been that the man, the now Reverend Jacob Samuels, would marry, but his wife be barren. Wanting a child, he would take a mistress. The man, with the intentions of he and his wife raising the child after it's birth, would never allow anyone to know about his mistress. But after taking a mistress, his wife would become with child and both wife and mistress would bare his children. Upon learning of his wife's child, he would dismiss the mistress as if she was nothing. The mistress leaves, bearing not one, but three daughters who would later bare one daughter each. They in turn, bare one daughter each until seven generations pass.

The wife, on the other hand, bares one son. Who, in turn like the three daughters, sires only one son. And so on and so on until seven generations of Samuels' men have been born. Then one day, the three women meet and become best of friends after learning of their connection to the other. Wanting to see where the curse all began, they would return. It is here that the sole male is, as if waiting for them. It is then that the cure will finally be broken.

Hester nearly fainted at hearing the confession. But then her shock turned to anger as she realized that she had been the mistress in the curse. Her father, not believing that it was Reverend Samuels who had gotten her with child, demanded to know the true idenity of the man. When she had continued to name the Reverend, he turned her out into the cold.

It was due to this woman, whom she had come to depend upon and love as if she was her own family, that had placed her in this condition. Hester didn't know what to do, or to think. She had to get away from the house and from Tala. But it was then that her three daughters decided to arrive. After helping to birth the three girls, Tala disappeared in a mist before her eyes. She never saw the witch again. But as if she had been learned in the craft that Tala had practiced herself. She cared for her daughters and taught them the craft before sending them out into the world to find husbands of their own.

Back in the small town that Hester had fled, Reverend Jacob Samuels paced outside of his home as his wife gave birth to his child. Thou he wouldn't admit it, in the back of his mind, he knew that Hester too would soon be giving birth to his child, if she hadn't already. He wrung his hands in as much of anticipation of the birth of the child his wife was now bareing, and the sudden horrored thought of Hester returning and bringing back his bastard child. He had appreciated the silence that Levan Samuels had taken after dimissing his daughter, and her claims that he had sired her child. But Jacob knew that Hester was right for she had been pure when he had laid with her. And he knew that he had been the only one to lay with her. He had believe Hester in that.

Later that night, as his wife and new born son lay sleeping, Jacob was awaken by a noise in the home. Making sure that he didn't wake his wife, he slipped from the bed and entered the large room that served as both kitchen and receiving room. It was there that he saw the filmy form of a woman. He recognized the woman as the one he had thought to have beaten to death years ago. She looked just as she had when she told him of the expecting child. "Tala," he whispered.

He felt an icy wind hit him as the form raised a long filmy hand and pointed at him. "You, Jacob Samuels, have not only a son, but three daughters bore by Hester Addams this very day. You will never know where any of them are, nor will you ever sire a child again." She then preceeded to tell him of how she had survived and the curse placed upon him and the children he had sired. Jacob fell into the chair behind him as the form disappeared into thin air. He cried uncontrollably until the dawns early light flooded the room. Barely pulling himself together before his wife woke, he went about his day and life as if nothing happened. That was until the day he died and he confessed his sins to his own son and asked him to pass along the story so that the seventh generation of sons would know what was coming.

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