Casting Sin
"Casting Sin." Murky Depths May 2008: 64-67. Print.
A woman scapegoated by her community runs a magical gauntlet which ends in either freedom or death in the vignette "Casting Sin." Available in Issue #4 of the British magazine Murky Depths. Ed Norden's illustration for the story can be viewed here.
C.S. MacCarth’s “Casting Sin” is cast in the same vein as Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery.” Hedea’s town has turned against her, using her age as the reason to make her the target in a classic scapegoat ritual. If she can survive a walk through the length of the town while the people, who have taken everything from her—from her loom to her home—pelt her with objects that symbolize and mystically transfer their sins to her, they’ll let her live as an exile. But if she falls beneath their vicious attack, they will kill her, exterminating their own sins along with her body. A human tale depicting the worst side of humanity, it captures both the horror of superstition and the possible truth in it.
- The Fix
Published under the name C.S. MacCarth.