Title: John Proctor: Thoughts from a Prison Cell
Fandom: The Crucible (Arthur Miller)
Rating: PG
Length: 200
Summary: In prison John Proctor realises things were not as he once believed.

Once, John Proctor thought his enemy was nature; the land, which he fought to grow his crops, and illnesses which threatened to take livestock and family.  But that was last year, when making enough to feed his growing family was all that mattered.

Then, when they came to take Elizabeth from him, he thought his enemy was Abigail Williams, out to get her revenge, and the judges who listened to mere girls caught up in the throes of emotion, but who failed to see what was happening.  But that was last month, when he believed that truth and reason would still triumph.

And when he went to state his case and was accused of witchcraft in his turn, he thought his enemy was the system; when man’s arrogance and prejudice, his self-interest and fear took root in a community, blotting out all saner voices.  But that was last week, when he hoped for a future.

Now, alone is his cell, he is no longer sure.  The enemy is within, the enemy that caused him to fall, that by acknowledging he thought to save his wife, to no avail.  But one thing he knows, he will not let the enemy win.