Hour of the Witch

by Chris Bohjalian

women and men took consolation in the notion that there were explanations for a world that was so clearly inexplicable—and, usually, inexplicable in ways that were horrifying:

Never did they ask the question Why me? In truth, they never even asked the more reasonable question Why anyone?

How is it I am humiliated when I am alone? Does not humiliation demand an audience?

Cruelty may be defined as violence without provocation and discipline that is excessive.

a woman is not a serpent to be crushed under her husband’s foot,”

“Men call bright women dim whenever they are threatened. So, take no relief in the names that any man calls thee. There is no safe harbor there.”

“There comes a time when resistance is not zealotry, but sanity.”

“Thou hast become a brave girl. Less tamed than thy facade, thy countenance a cloak. I approve.”

He looked aghast, as if he were seeing an actual demon risen up from Hell, a monster with talons sharp as scythes. And so she became one. A winged Fury.

There were people in the world who were good and people who were evil, but most of them were some mixture of both and did what they did simply because they were mortal.