Mr. Bernards

Levi asked the right question.

I couldn't give him an answer that he could possibly digest easily. Should I just blatantly say that I came from the 1600s to take revenge on the reincarnation of my past lover? And that reincarnation was his friend who owns the truck he drove?

What did happen between the two of us?

I came into a standstill. My world had become something that was full of questions and yet there was a scarcity for answers. My mind raced back to the years of my life in Shalem.

How it used to be for Will and I, the very night love started to turn into hatred.

===========

"Elizabeth, what do you see in the near future?" Will asked me as we lazed deep in the forest. We had laid down for a little picnic under the shade of a tall red maple. The sky was a beautiful azure and life couldn't be better.

I was in the arms of the man I love.

My head rested on Will's chest and I could feel the rise and fall when he breathed. It felt so good, the motion lulled me to a drowsy state. I had not paid attention to his question and he snaked his hand around my waist and pinched my sides playfully.

"William Simeon Bernards!" I squeaked. "I told you so many times, I do not fancy the pinches!"

As always, he laughed at my reaction and my anger slowly went away with his jovial laughter. His smile distracted me and I couldn't help but to join him. I sat straight and folded my long dress that had crumpled from the lazy position I had been.

"What were you saying again, William Simeon Bernards, before you attacked a poor defenseless sleepy damsel without mercy?" I asked him as I combed his hair.

Will's dark brow furrowed and I could see that he was deep in thought. Perhaps what he said was of great importance but I had not presented enough interest in? I touched his face and he turned his beautiful purple gaze towards me.

"What is it William?" I asked again. "Ask and I shall answer with all honesty, as I constantly do."

He smiled at me and his dimple winked handsomely. He cupped my cheeks into his big hands and guided my face to his lips for a swift kiss. A sweet kiss that sent butterflies in my stomach into a wild dance.

"Nothing, sweet love. It is nothing." He said afterward. His eyes trailed off towards the open, far away in the direction of the small town of Shalem.

Our home.

This was how we always seen each other. Far away from the evil eyes of the mob. From William's parents who wanted to marry their only son off to another businessman's lovely daughter.

We didn't give much thought about it back then. I didn't give it much thought. Everything I knew before William's betrayal was bliss. And yet one word from his father's mouth changed all that we ever had.

And would ever have.

"Witch!" William's father spat at me. He pointed his withered finger like I was something of an abomination. "You dare to put my son under your evil spells and plan to take over our riches. How dare you even dream of such things?"

"Mr. Bernards, I am only but a woman who loved. I deserved the love your son gave me and I do not have the powers of what you accuse me of, to that I swear by God." I reasoned out. My heart raced as I was cornered inside my own room.

William was nowhere to be seen as his father stormed into our house with 'evidence' of my evil deeds. He waved at me a measly kerchief that I painstakingly sewn myself. It had our initials embroidered with detailed roses of scarlet red.

It spelled "W & E", read as "WE". It was something Will and I used to fondly joke about, how our names actually fit together. The letters made for each other side by side.

W and E belonged together.

William and Elizabeth belonged together.

We.

Us.

"You gave this to my son, the scent of it laden with your poisons!" he charged. The things his father snarled at me were mere heresy. From where he got those ideas, I could only surmise to be from Katarina.

Katarina Felline Turner. The eldest daughter of the wealthiest family in Shalem. They owned various buildings that generate money through rent. She was the one Will's parents wanted to have as his lover.

Not a poor old man's daughter.

Katarina had long suspected Will and I were together ever since Will declined her invitation to go horseback riding in their estate. William politely refused the fine young lady and went on to go hunting instead with his servant, James.

Katarina did not believe Will for she saw James come out of the Bernard's house the same afternoon William told her they would be gone for a hunt.

"That is nothing but a normal piece of cloth, Mr. Bernards, made solely for one purpose as a gift." I cried out loud. He would not have any of my reasons. Mr. Bernards firmly believed that I had bewitched his son.

"Gentlemen, take this witch to the prosecutor. I believe she does not deserve any trial for I stand that she is guilty! But the law requires a trial to be held and so we shall abide by it."

Men forcefully pulled me out of my home as my family tried as much as they could to stop the injustice. Father attempted to fight them off only to be cornered and assaulted by locals with pitchforks.

My tears fell for my poor father. He hadn't been well lately and the injury was another blow to our meager earnings. We barely made enough for food and now the cut on his head would definitely need a doctor to stitch. Medicine was something only the wealthy could afford.

Jane tried her best to be brave and stood adamant to protect mother and the younger ones. Cory bawled his eyes out and Georgina screamed for her big sister.

"Be strong for everyone Jane! I promise to be back!" I instructed her as I was dragged out to the open in the middle of the night.

The townspeople had come out from their homes and women spat at my face as we passed by. The men grabbed onto every part of my body they could fondle and snickered.

"How dare she steal William's heart? Witch!"

"Poor girl, if only you had stayed where you were."

"Witch!"

"That's what you get for dreaming of riches not for you!"

I looked up and saw the pretty little face of Katarina smile wickedly. She held a torch and swung it near my face and I choked at the smoke that invaded my nose. The fire nearly nicked my cheeks and some of my hair burned.

"Look at you, this wouldn't have happened if you stayed where you belong." She hissed. "William couldn't have truly love you. You are a witch! Evil and cunning, you manipulated him to dance with you in sin."

Katarina continued on with her curses and my senses begun to numb.

===========

"Lizzie?"

I snapped back to reality and realized I had kept Levi waiting for too long. He tapped at the wheel as he drove and his eyes darted back and forth between me and the road ahead.

"Nothing Levi. I have no idea why Bash would do that." I said without much emotion to my voice.

Sebastian who is William.

William.

Why would William do that?