It was not dark and stormy the night that came for her, but clear and cloudless. The full moon shinning bright over the land, making it almost as light as day. There was a knocking on the door. For all Essence knew it could've been her father, or her friend Christine. But it wasn't.
It was the Finders. She yelled, as they invaded her home, tearing through her belongings. Until one of them found the flower.
The man pulled the dried flower up, bellowing “What is the use for these.”
Essence said she used the flowers for scents in her shop. The man called her a liar, and a witch, and the other men followed along. They drug Essence through the town on her knees, all the way to the town prison. She left a bloody trail throughout the streets.
The next day the entire town gathered to watch the trial. They were to put her into the lake – if she were to float, she was a witch, if she was to sink, she was not. And so it went. They put her into the water, and Essence did not rise. She drowned there, at the bottom of the lake.
But to this very day its still said that Essence was a witch. That that's why she didn't go to heaven. That’s why her blood will never wash away from the towns roads. That, they say, is why she's still with us. Why she will never leave.