I know that there are going to be differences between the origins stated in The Betrayal and Fear Street Part 3: 1666. The main relationship isn't going to be between two women and there's probably going to be some major differences with the curse.
So let's continue with The Betrayal by R.L.Stine!
PART ONE
WICKHAM VILLAGE, MASSACHUSETTS COLONY 1692
Chapter 1
The prologue dealt with a fire and that's how this chapter starts. Not as impressive as the fire that took down the Fear Mansion, but it still involves flames. Instead of Nora Goode racing to her dead lover, it is Susannah Goode being slightly startled by a small fire that she is using to cook with.
So it isn't just Susannah and her mother in the house. There's also a baby and suddenly I'm afraid for its safety.
Martha Goode, aka the mother, reprimands Susannah for not wrapping George properly. Turns out the daughter wrapped him too tight. She argues that due to the blanket's small size, it's extremely hard to wrap the baby properly. And as all this is going on, she is cooking. The mother relents and brings up the fact that they are poor. As someone who isn't in a good financial situation, I can understand the need to choose worse items just because they're cheaper.
Susannah then complains that it's taking too long for the biscuits to cook. Wise old mom points out that the fire is the issue and tells her daughter to add more wood. The daughter's new quest is to get more firewood.
So Susannah isn't exactly ugly and Martha thinks that her daughter is too vain. Yet the younger Goode likes admiring her physical appearance. She is a teenager after all and hormones are coursing through her body for the very first time. Heck, she even has a guy she is seriously crushing on.
I thought that there wasn't going to be a father, but it turns out he is still in the picture. In this chapter he is out tending the cows. Martha doesn't seem to really care about the animals and remarks how confusing it is that the Goode family has survived thus far.
Susannah says that she will get more firewood as well as fetch her father. Her mother is concerned since she is a teenager and has probably only one thing on her mind. Okay, I was saying Susannah was pretty because that's what her description seemed to imply. But it's a little strange that Martha refers to her as her 'pretty daughter'. Just saying.
Oh, wait, Martha isn't worried about Susannah doing the nasty with some boy. Some people are being blamed of being witches and suffering the consequences. Benjamin Fier seems to be at the center of all the witch accusations.
Martha gives Susannah another warning about not causing trouble. Since if she draws attention to herself then...well...burn baby burn. Her daughter reassures her and is about to leave when Martha screams. Turns out Susannah wasn't wearing a required hat. And if she didn't wear it then possible suspicion could be drawn her way.
Benjamin Fier, the village magistrate, enters the meetinghouse looking troubled. Susannah doesn't feel comfortable seeing him as the news about Abigail Hopping being accused of witchcraft is still fresh on her mind. She has two conflicting feelings about Benjamin: he is a good man and he is scary.
Since he holds such a high position, he is the most powerful and wealthiest man in Wickham. The name Wickham is going to be so distracting for me as I live close by to a road by that same name.
Anyways...Susannah points out that Benjamin's house is the largest and the scent of food wafting from it just smells delicious. She's jealous of him and I can understand that. It's hard to be poor and see someone with good fortune without becoming a little envious.
So the Puritan belief is that only those most worthy are wealthy. That's not true but it's something Susannah believes in this point of the story. Which probably means she thinks there might be something wrong with her.
Since Benjamin became magistrate Susannah thinks he must be the wisest and purest man in the village. He insists that instead of being hanged, that the witches he sentences be burned instead. Another belief is that Matthew Fier is a prosperous farmer because he's also better than his fellow farmers.
Susannah is crushing on Edward Fier! Well...that isn't likely to cause problems or anything! He's a vampire stalker!
Um...wrong series...
As the teenager is so caught up in her hormones, she stumbles over a pig and comes crashing onto the ground. The pig, of course, is rightly insulted. It's not like it cares about any human problems. It just cares that it doesn't get eaten.
Susannah gets up and dusts herself off. She thinks she tripped over the pig because she was having 'improper thoughts' about Edward. That she had tripped because God actually takes teenage hormones super seriously. But then she thinks that no thoughts about her crush could ever be improper.
She then waves at her father who doesn't notice her due to doing something else. She starts walking.
As Susannah walks we're given descriptions about the village and its inhabitants. The blacksmith's apprentice is called Arthur Kent and now I'm just thinking about Superman. There's probably already a comic where he goes back to Puritan times. It wouldn't surprise me.
There's a communal woodpile for the village but Susannah is more focused on the woods. She is drawn to the woods and feels that a walk through them would do her good. Out in the woods she wouldn't have to focus on her poor home life or the darkness that is hovering over the only place she has ever known as home.
So because Susannah wants to take a walk in the woods, she does. When she hears a sound she is instantly frightened. But it turns out only to be a chipmunk doing chipmunk things.
As she begins to enjoy the woods she feels guilty as that isn't what she should be feeling. She should be feeling that the woods are evil. And, remember, if she does anything odd Benjamin could burn her for being a witch.
The woods must be psychic as suddenly its demeanor changes for Susannah. It's much easier for her to now imagine the 'Evil One' and his followers living in them. I'm assuming that the 'Evil One' is Satan. The teenager thinks that if she wanders too deeply into the woods that she will be dragged into Hell.
Just as Susannah is building up this horrific vision in her mind, someone or something grabs her which causes her to yell out: The Evil One!
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