Microhorror Writing Contest

She once was a daughter, a sister, a niece. She probably was a wife, and maybe even a mother. The woman next door, who had a face you were used to seeing at the service on Sunday, and in the crowd on the market every other day. At least until something went terribly wrong.

This happened in 1738, in the German town of Gerresheim, when Agnes Olmann was first hanged and then burned at the age of 47 for having been a witch in bond with the devil. She had been blamed by a neighbour who claimed to have been seduced by her. Once this accusation was out there, a spiral of events began that would end with Agnes no longer being seen as a human being.

The image of the witch, in most cases imagined as female, abducting children and riding on a broomstick off into the mountains to make love to the devil and their demons, is an iconic image. It came to be at the very dawn of the modern age. Born in times of change caused by various catastrophes, it was used to either explain the shifting of the world around, as well as to have a focus for one’s fear. I am still haunted by the image of the witch.

In times of unstable climate, caused by a cold-period lasting from the 16th to the 18th century, as well as religious wars destabilizing the political system, while the black death was casting its waves at the people in Europe, dealing with witches became another dark feature of the early modern age. Historians once assumed that millions of people, mostly women, fell victim to the witch hunts of the period. Later the number was reduced to only several thousand, but recently, a few zeros have been added again, leaving us still with a few hundred thousand. What makes this number more reliable than the former ones is the connection to a general pattern that made these hunts occur. The witch hunts were usually preceded by extreme weather, looking for a guilty one when the crop had failed and the fear of starvation grew. With time, the narrative of witches conspiring against life became so well-known that between 1550 and 1750 waves of witch hunts happened regularly somewhere in Europe.

When Agnes Olmann was executed, she was not the only one, because witches rarely come alone. They were seen as a cult operating in secret, so suspected witches were tortured until they gave away names. In the case of Agnes, her accuser had also turned in herself: Her neighbour’s daughter was 14 years of age when she started rumors about herself and Agnes being visited by the devil. Both of them were executed together.

The thing about these cases that haunts me is the level of alienation these procedures required. The way people looked at their neighbour, family member, friend changed from an emotional bond to the search for terrible signs. Every little thing about a person could be used in such a search.

In the case of Agnes Olmann, for example, people remembered a miscarriage she had suffered more than 15 years ago. A usually personal tragedy suddenly is assigned a new meaning and is being used against her by the very same people who once made up the network supporting her through life. Helene Curtis was not in perfect health as well. Having suffered from all kinds of physical weaknesses before, she was reported to experience strange outburst during her two years in prison, which were eventually blamed on the devil. Bodily weirdness made people a vulnerable target for witch hunts. Taking a look into “Malleus Maleficarum”, a handbook an how to hunt down witches written by a 14-century monk, shows that the search for bodily features has been an important aspect of the fear of witches right from the start. Witches here are described as damaging the physical world in many various ways, while they themselves have a physical form that makes them more perceptive for changes in the stars as well as negative emotions in general. A witch can even be identified by their body having parts that do not feel pain as much as usual, what was often put to test with a needle and a patient torturer. Being a witch is tied to bodily weirdness.

Now think of someone close to you. Think of someone you love. Think of the arms they hug you with, how their smile looks, and how their voice sounds. Let’s think of the way it used to comfort you as a child knowing your mother or sister close to you. Let’s think of the way your wife laughs, your daughter sings. Think of the expression in their eyes when they see you.

Until something is terribly wrong with them.

Once someone was accused of witchcraft, the world around them felt estranged towards them. Suddenly, a voice well known was unbearable to listen to, because it was a bit too high and therefor probably used by the devil to seduce you. Also, the mole on the cheek suddenly looked suspicious, could easily be a mark the devil leaves behind on their servants, casting a dark shadow onto all the moments when the much-loved smile moved it around. The glowing in their eyes must have been a sign of possession! This person is not yours anymore, if it ever was. It is a vessel for demons to commit great damage to the living world. For years, you have been sleeping next to evil in person!

Love turns into fear.

Trust becomes terror.

No matter how much a person had once been loved, if accused of witchcraft, every little thing they loved ones know about is read as a terrible sign against them. Their body is no longer seen as that of a person needing care and protection. It is being dismembered, for the witch to never be able to haunt the city, to then eventually be burned, which in the Christian mindset of the time means denying them any chance of redemption for eternity.

The thing that haunts me most about witch hunts is the exclusion from being human.