Just a ditty...

For weeks now, since she had been accused, she had felt a presence. At night, as she lay awake pondering her shortened future, she knew someone-or something-was watching over her. She only had to wait a few days longer before she could see more than the small expanse of sky her tiny barred window would allow her, and during that time, it would be fleeting. She hoped she would see The Presence.

As the days lagged on, she started talking to it. It didn't matter whether anyone heard her. She was simply lonely. Wearing nothing but her ragged shift, she was cold, but talking about everything and nothing kept her mind off the chill. She would not die here.

Then the morning came when she would no longer have to wait. She wakened from the sound of the village gathered around the hole that was her prison. The door was opened, and a ladder was shoved in. The leader of the witch hunters barked at her to hurry up, they hadn't all day! She slowly crawled to the ladder and pulled herself up. Such large movement was difficult; living on naught but stale bread and dirty water for a month wasn't enough to sustain a fully-grown woman right after giving birth.

Slowly and shakily, she climbed the ladder. Rough hands grabbed at her, and she allowed them to pull her up. The sun was so bright compared to the dingy hole. It torched her eyes through her eyelids and seared her skin. 

They dragged her to the pillory located in the tiny town square, and tied her there, facing the sun. They didn't bother to cover her, and the shift she was in had been ripped and torn even more than before by the angry people. If she wasn't already naked, she felt like it.

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she heard the wail of a newborn, the high, cracking screech of a babe just from the womb. Hers? There were only three babies in the whole village, and the tiny village was so secluded that not even for the novelty of seeing the destruction of a purported witch would bring in more people.