Prologue
Anathema Island
By Ty Welsheimer
Prologue
It was the early nineteen-hundreds and half a mile north of Mentor, Ohio, located on Lake Erie, was Clandry’s Island. The twenty acre, tree covered island was home to a dozen unmarried women, who the mainlanders knew to be godless witches. They knew this, only because when some of the more embolden townsfolk asked them why a group of women were living on the island alone, and without husbands or a family, they would answer truthfully, by claiming “Because we are witches. We don’t need any men, or family”. As one might think, this did not settle well with the locals.
During the warmer months, these black-clad, strangely dressed ladies would sail a large boat ashore, to gather supplies in Mentor. As if it were a special event, all twelve would dress in thick, formal dresses, looking like they were heading to a funeral. They would buy food, livestock, fabric, tools, and anything else that their island couldn’t provide.
The locals were both mystified, as well as a little bit frightened by these women. Although they weren’t outwardly menacing, they were curt, and to the point, while dealing with the town’s shopkeepers. It was because of this curtness, these aloof interactions, that the towns folk were essentially pushed towards wild speculation. Through tall tales and wild accusations, the legend of “Witch Island” grew, and not in a good way. “I heard they sacrifice goats, to appease their Gods”, eventually evolved into “I heard they sacrificed babies, to appease their Gods”. One time, while on one of their visits, one of the witches tried to barter with one of the shopkeepers. She attempted to trade a strand of pearls, in exchange for a sewing machine. This interaction became lore, as the shopkeeper claimed to have been cursed, after bulking and turning the woman away. “That’s how my sweet wife Hazel caught consumption”, he told everyone who would listen, and unsurprisingly, everyone who listened believed him.
In 1922, The Stanfield’s, a wealthy family from nearby Cleveland, caught wind of Clandry’s Island. Hollis Stanfield, the family patriarch, was in search of an isolated place where he could build his family a Summer home. Once finding out about an island run by witches, Hollis immediately looked into the legality of the women’s claim to the prime piece of real estate. Calling in favors from powerful people in the state of Ohio, such as congressmen, The Attorney General, and even the governor, Hollis started the process of trying to evict the witches.
The following year, when two of Stanfield’s attorneys boated out to the island, and attempted to present the witches with favorable terms for acquiring the island, the two simply disappeared. Positive that the counselors had come to some kind of harm, Hollis contacted the police. It had already been reported that the two men were missing, and Hollis demanded the matter be investigated. Two weeks after the lawyers vanished, twenty armed officers ferried over and stormed the island. To this day, the events that happened during this confrontation still remain shrouded in mystery. The one thing that can’t be disputed though, is the fact that one deputy, and eleven inhabitants of the island, were killed on that day, and the body of one witch, and both of the lawyers, were never found.
