October 27, 1628:

I never believed in it all. A fairy tale told among my brethren. Fools, one and all. But it was where I found myself. My family had brought me to this place which they called Salem. The first Salem, not that rubbish they call history.

Many towns came and vanished, and I’m sure that place vanished because those who lived there practiced evil. Who else commands evil but more evil? And so, the first hunts went about. Why? Jealousy amongst the women folk. Many died in the water test, and when the innocents were gone, my brethren tested those who came through the area. Those poor fools.

One day, a group of Asians of varied origins came through. They carried a box escribed with gold siding. Inside, a boy. This boy, nothing seemed particular to me, but the men of Salem saw him as evil. They said he had ensnared his attendants with magic. I said not, but again, I didn’t believe in their nonsense.

And that’s when I saw the men get up and ready. They armed themselves to the nail and set upon taking the boy. I followed behind them, not thinking their actions good, but you try disagreeing with men on a witch hunt.

They tied down the men, and as they took the boy, the men screamed in tongues we knew not. The boy screamed back as though the group shared in a love. The boy spoke our tongue. He said he used no magic. How he begged us return him!

After a quick trial, they decided him the worst type of witch. No normal death was good enough. Only fire would do.

He burned. I stayed inside through most of it.

My stomach is weak for such things. Though, I had the end watch. My turn was right before clean up.

It was a horrible thing we did. I looked on as he burnt to ash. And that’s when I first saw his ash. Cinders color black, but his colored as sand.

Then the sand started to move.

The fellows and I moved back, but running for safety was no good.

The sand started to ripple as though a pond, and then a giant appendage, as if a gigantic octopus, reached from the ashes and picked up one of us. Its tentacle gripped him until he burst blood and organs, his hat not even anywhere near the guts and remains.

I wish I knew more as I am a man of evidence, but I was the only one out. I heard a roar over the last of the hills, the only one left alive as far as I knew. I hid in a cave for days as the titan ravaged the lands. And faith was now of little consequence. I saw it.

Peeking out of the cave, I saw him. I swear it. He stood as a shadow colossus with limbs of undetermined length. His eyes burned green. His presence seemed to create skies clouded to darkness beyond that of night.

I knew not what Satan had wrought, but now I know he spoke the truth. He was no witch. Only God knows what that was.