A Coven in Essex County | Delilah

Below is Part 6 of 18 monthly installments for Visitant.

◄◄  Read the first installment / prologue
◄ Read the previous installment, BIRDIE

DELILAH

Delilah had remarried ten years ago, after being widowed by the hypothermic colds that occasionally took non-Innsmouth fishing folk. Clement had been a whaler from Boston who moved to New Bedford for work when the fleet was shut down. She met him outside the wharves in one of the bothies, temporary shelters that popped up in those days along the brick and wood rowhouses that otherwise stood empty. They had been married months after.

As a younger woman, Delilah had been desperate to get out of Essex County by any means. Somehow, getting a ride with the fishermen and whalers that stopped on their way to New Bedford or farther up the coast seemed a better option to simply fleeing over land. Arkham, Ipswich, and Newburyport were…