Salem

Salem

“I’m innocent, I swear!” the woman wailed over crowd as two men bound her hands and legs with rough rope to a large, blacked stake that stood at the center of the town till it cut into her skin. A lanky man with parted brown hair walked up to the stake, a caring smile on his face as he opened his black leather book emblazoned with the symbol of the Lord and began to preach the Word, the wrinkles around his mouth moving like waves on a rough sea. His effort to enlighten lost on the crowd whose chant reached a new octave. He read on, his green eyes burning with passion as he condemned the woman in the name of God, his thin lips finishing with a prayer as the mayor walked up to read the woman’s crimes. In his hand was a torch, the fire casting sinister shadows on the town adding to shadows from the full moon on the dark forest. Having finished he raised the torch above his head, the chorus burn, burn, burn louder than ever, drowning out the desperate pleas and sobs of the woman. The mayor dropped the torch onto the pile of wood erupting it into flame. The woman bawled in horror as the flames licked her skin and cook her body. The crowd roared in approval till her screams turned into a demonic garble and her flesh popped, the aroma of roasted and burning flesh wafting in the air. As the woman’s flesh began to peel away and her screams die only those who hated and condemned her most remained, the rest returning home to pray and pretend nothing happened. In the back of the remaining crowd stood a hooded figure who watched with stony grey eyes that glowed softly in the moon and fire light. Beneath his hood agony and sadness marred his face as the woman turned to ash leaving new scars on the stake and burnt flesh in the air. As the crowd returned home the hooded man walked deep into the forest to a hidden cabin, taking a seat on his bed as a panther and white tiger laid by him, a raven and snow owl perching on the headboard.

“That innocent woman will be avenged. The town of Salem will rue the day it started butchering innocents in its futile pursuit to hunt us down.”