People came through the trees, and began filling the space. All the people from the town rubbed their eyes and yawned. The town crier had woken everyone and it was too good of a spectacle to let pass. Men, women, and children pushed in close behind John and his band of men. A low hum started as they all began to converse with one another about what was to come.
John cleared his throat loudly when he was sure that all who were coming were present.
“I promised all of you that you would see a witch burn on this morning and now you will have the great pleasure of seeing ten. God truly has blessed us with the opportunity to wipe their evil from this world. They will burn on the pyre until they are dead. The fire will purify their bodies and their ashes will scatter on the wind. With each of their deaths, you will be preventing them from making more like them. They will set an example to all those who would play host to the devil and his lies. This is what happens when you invite demons into your body, when you use the power they give you to sway others to do your bidding. This is what happens when you turn good men off the path of righteousness.”
John pointed to me, “This witch sought to control the man who dedicated his life to helping others. She tried to destroy him. But we got her first! The devil will not win here today.”
“What about those unfortunate people that have been bewitched by them?” a woman in the crowd asked. “What’s to become of the poor, Witch Hunter General?”
John looked at the woman and smiled, he placed his hands on her shoulders. “As long as those who have been affected have not perished, they will be free of the spell. They will go back to their lives without a smudge of evil on their souls. We will save the Witch Hunter General's life by killing these women. You should all be very proud of your endeavors here,” He preached evil, yet, the people looked at him like he was a man of God.
“He's lying to you!” I screamed. “None of us are witches! He is an evil man, he just wants to see us die! This is nothing but religious hysteria. How can you all believe what he says with no proof?” I threw my body forward trying desperately to loosen the ropes that bound me, but he did an excellent job on the knots and they held firm.
John clasped his hands before his body and smiled at me, “You lie, Whore! Witches will always proclaim their innocence, they will always try to sway people to believe they have done nothing, the devil always lies!”
“But we are not lying! How do you know who is guilty and who is innocent if they all proclaim to be innocent?” Elizabeth yelled over him.
Everyone looked at John for the answer. “Don’t listen to her. She is trying to confuse you. It’s a witch’s way to confuse and manipulate. Don’t fall prey to her!”
“You will go to Hell for this, John Stearne! The devil will seize your soul upon your death and you will burn for all eternity,” Elizabeth cried out above him. The wind picked up again. It was lashing me in the face like an icy whip. I shivered and my eyes watered. The cold would not bother me for much longer though because it seemed that I was about to become very warm.
“Are you ready to light the fires boys?” John asked.
Smiles spread from ear to ear on his band of devils. They took their torches and touched them to the tinder that protruded from beneath the platforms. Soon small flames were licking the wood beneath. Those small flames took no time at all to spread and soon the undersides of all the platforms were engulfed.
The flames began to come up over the sides, and the stairs were no longer accessible. This was it. There was no more chance of rescue. The fire crept towards my feet at a rapid pace.
I heard a horse whinny in the distance over the roaring flames. My eyes were burning from the smoke. The souls of my feet were almost blistering. I began coughing as the smoke filled my lungs and I could no longer take deep breaths. Elizabeth was coughing as well. The rest of the women were silent. They were too weak to withstand the smoke and were unconscious or already dead. I was happy for them. Their suffering had ended.
“Taryn!” It was Matthew, he had come. Even though it was too late, I smiled. He didn’t give up. Now John would pay for this.
“Stay where you are, Matthew! It’s too late to play the hero,” I heard John scream.
Elizabeth began to scream murderous screams. I turned my head and squinted through the smoke and fire. The flames had fully engulfed her body and were licking the top of the pole. Her eyes were wild and it wasn’t long before she went silent. Her flesh melted away like butter and her eyes deflated with the heat. She was dead and I knew I only had a few moments left.
“No! Taryn! John, what have you done? How could you do this?”
I wanted to scream that I was still alive, but my voice no longer worked. The last thing I remembered before the flames crawled up my legs and I lost consciousness was Matthew driving his dagger into John’s chest as he stood smiling, watching us burn. He had been so fixated on us that he hadn’t even noticed when Matthew pulled the blade. He searched Matthew’s face, clutching at his chest, as if to ask him why he had done it. The other men scattered into the crowd before Matthew could take his rage out on them. I found his eyes and tried to send him my love through them. He held my stare, his arms down at his sides. I hated seeing him so sad. I finally succumbed to the flames and let myself die.
“I love you, Matthew,” I whispered into the smoke as I took my last breath.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Matthew
I laid on the floor of the Thorn screaming into the silent night until my throat burned from my efforts. The ropes that bound me were so tight, I had lost feeling in my hands and feet. After making several attempts to roll around the room to find something to cut through the bindings, I gave up. There was simply nothing within reach that would do the job.
I cursed God. I screamed his name and demanded to know why he would do this to me now. Had I not seen the error in my ways? I felt a great heat in my body when I thought of John. My best friend of all these years, the person I confided in and trusted above all others, the man I considered to be closer to me than a brother, how could he do this to me?
The floor was damp with my tears, I cried like a woman, curled into the smallest ball I could force my body into. I lost faith that I would be able to free myself and go after them. Taryn's sweet face flickered behind my closed eyelids. I saw her smile at me and at tell me she loved me. Her love gave me a second wind, and I fought against the restraints with a renewed sense of fury. But they hadn’t gotten any looser during their respite from my struggles.
I laid still on the floor, listening for any indication that someone was about, but heard nothing.
Exhaustion claimed me and I drifted in and out of sleep, awakening each time there was a stir in the distance. It was several hours later when I heard someone whisper my name.
“Matthew? Matthew are you here? Please say something if you are alive.”
“Here! I’m here, I’m alive.”
A woman popped through the doorway. “Oh, thanks be to God. I feared they had killed you when the women were taken.” She rushed towards me and went to work trying to untie the knots. “Harold and I fled when they beat down your door and took Taryn and Elizabeth. Harold was afraid they would arrest me too, just for sport, but I snuck out when the old bugger finally fell asleep. I knew I had to help.”
It was Martha, Harold’s wife. “Thank you for coming back. Hurry, get these ropes off of me. I have to get to Taryn before John hurts her.”
She already had my feet free and went to work on my wrists. “I hope it’s not too late, Sir. The town crier came through only an hour ago, rousing everyone from their beds, with a proclamation to head to the castle grounds for a witch burning.”
“Oh, dear God, no. He wouldn’t dare.” My hands were free and I was on my feet in a second.
Martha stepped back, out of my way. “He would dare, Sir. He has been getting the men all worked up over your woman for days now. Talking about her being a witch and bewitching you. He told everyone
at the bar that the only way to save your soul was to kill the girl.”
I rushed out of the room in a frenzy, “Thank you, Martha. I shall never forget your kindness.”
“Take my horse Mr. Hopkins. She is tied up just outside. She is an old girl, but she will get you there faster than if you were on foot.”
“Thank you again. You’re a good woman.”
“Godspeed, Sir.”
I mounted the aged mare and she protested vocally. I dug my heels into her weathered sides and she took off at breakneck speed any young filly would have trouble keeping up with. The old girl still had some spunk.
The sky was beginning to lighten in the east. The storm that had plagued the night had vanished and the moon was setting. I was running out of time. John and I always put witches to death at dawn. It was, in our opinion, the best time to go about it, because their evil could be vanquished with the darkness. It made for a fitting end, and only served to cement the need for us to the town we were saving.
It was all bullshit. Burning and hanging women accused of witchcraft was the worst sin I had ever committed. Convincing others of their guilt when there was none was worse than the crimes they were being sentenced to death for. I once asked John if he was ok with being a murderer in God’s eyes. I had believed myself to be clean of sin when I uttered those words to him but how wrong I had been. I deserved to go to hell for the pain I had caused.
I could not let her die by his hand. If ever there was a chance to redeem myself, it would be in seeing her safe. I pushed through the remaining darkness until the castle loomed before me.
The guards had vacated. Superstition won out over them and they fled in terror. The tower was dark and devoid of any sign of life. I jumped from the horse's back and took the stairs two at a time, reaching the bottom swiftly, in record time. All the women were gone, including Taryn and Elizabeth.
“Oh, God, please let them live.”
I pivoted and returned to the horse. She took no coaxing to make haste down the dirt path beside the tower. There were many sets of fresh footprints in the mud. The rain had given me a path. All I had to do was follow the tracks.
The sun started to break the horizon. I kicked the horse harder and she gasped and snorted beneath me trying in vain to gallop faster. The trees began to clear. Martha had been telling the truth. Fifty or so people stood bearing witness to John's deceit, their eyes fixated on the ten pyres ahead of them. The fire had been lit. My Taryn was front and center, tied to the stake. Her beautiful brown hair billowed in the wind that had picked up blowing the smoke away from her, and allowing me to make out her eyes. She smiled at me.
John stood on the ground before her pyre. The women were twisting and screaming as the flames devoured them.
I was dizzy. My mouth went dry. “Oh, dear God, I am too late,” I said.
I jumped off my horse when I got close to John. I marched passed him and began looking for footing to get to my beloved.
“You’re too late, Matthew. No sense trying to play the hero now. In a moment she will cease to matter to you and the spell will break. I will forgive you; I will welcome you into my arms as if this whole episode never happened.”
“We don’t burn witches anymore, John. How could you do this? You know the Church looks upon burning as barbaric. You will go to Hell for this, I swear it.”
John turned to me. His eyes were crazed. I could see the fire dancing in his pupils. This was not my friend; this was a different man entirely. “I’m doing this for you, Matthew, for us!”
“There is no us.”
“I can’t take any more of this,” John said. “I’m ending this now.” He pulled his dagger from his pocket and started toward the platform. “I will slit her throat and bring you back to your senses.”
My muscles tensed and I leapt forward and slammed into Johns back. His men tackled me and held me away from him. “You would rather her slowly burn then?” he asked.
I kept very still and pretended to be calm. The men allowed me to stand on my own two feet once they were satisfied that I would not attack again. Looking down at the ground in mock defeat, I noticed John's dagger laying very close to my toes. I looked back at John curiously. No, his dagger was still in his hand. But this one on the ground was identical. I knelt down and picked the blade up.
The realization of what had occurred flooded through me. He had lied to me about everything. I pressed the sharp looking blade into my hand and the blade retracted into the hilt. I met eyes with John. He looked nervous; his game was up.
“John!” I yelled in a huge, booming voice. I held the blade out for him to see. “What is this?” I demanded.
“A final trick from your witch to drive us apart,” The foul lie spewed from John’s mouth.
The mob nodded in approval, believing John’s excuse.
I wasn’t stupid. I knew exactly what I was looking at and what its implications were. “She was right all along. Everything we have done has been a sick game for you, so a broken man could have his fun and come out looking like a hero. You disgust me.”
John stomped towards me. Tears were falling down his cheeks. “Why can’t you accept that everything I have done has been so that we can be together. Every witch we committed to the flames brought us closer and closer. Every town we saved brought you nearer to loving me, the way I love you.”
A collective gasp went through the people. John shrank back, he had forgotten that there was an audience. He seemed to collapse in on himself as people began to whisper and point in his direction, horrified expressions plastered on their faces. He had confessed his sinful desires to the world on accident.
I stepped up close to the shell that had been John. He was staring into the flames, watching it take the lives of the women one by one. I was glad Taryn was still alive to see what was about to happen. “I’m truly sorry that you cannot love who you want. I’m sorry I can’t give the love you desire back to you. You’re a sick fuck, but once, maybe long ago, I believe you deserved to feel true love. But not anymore. You forfeited that right.” With those words, I took the real dagger from his hand and slammed it home into his chest. He looked at me in disbelief. He believed until the very end that I would somehow love him. I looked to Taryn and saw her slump forward on the stake and the flames caught in her beautiful hair. I knew she was gone in that moment and I felt like my heart would cease to beat.
I turned to the villagers who were standing silent. This was not what they expected to see. No one knew quite what to do, so they looked to me for their answers. Me, the man who came to their town to save them from evil. I was the one who brought evil to their doorstep without being the wiser. I looked at the tear stained faces of the women and the children clinging to their aprons with their faces buried in the folds. The men had their arms wrapped around their families, trying to protect them from what they were seeing. A reason for what had occurred needed to be provided to them.
“Ladies, Gentlemen,” I started solemnly, holding back the torrent of my own tears. “The curse on this place has been lifted. The evil has been eliminated for good.”
Sighs of relief echoed from around the clearing. I knew I had to give them answers they could believe, even if it killed me to do so. I couldn’t save Taryn, Elizabeth, or the rest, but I could save these people from the nightmares that would follow them. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the final batch of lies that I would tell.
“The witches have been sent back to hell where they belong. I had indeed been clouded by the evil seduction of the most powerful witch in existence, but she herself has now been committed to the flames, as you all have witnessed. I lost my partner to her covens spells, and I shall ever miss him,” I gestured to John’s fallen body.
“None of you need ever worry about witchcraft returning to your humble village. The nightmare is over. Go home, love your wives, your husbands, and your children. Be kind to each other. As long as you do that, you will forever be free of evil and will be welcomed to God
’s kingdom upon your deaths.” I fought back my tears uttering words of love, when my love was gone.
“Go now, all of you. Let the men and I take care of the dead.” They each nodded their thanks to me as they turned and headed back down the rutted path to their homes. I hoped they would take my lesson to heart and stop accusing one another. I hoped they would show and compassion, understanding, and even love instead.
I watched my beloved as she burned. Her long beautiful hair was gone. Her body was no longer recognizable. I closed my eyes. I thought I heard her voice on the wind telling me she loved me. I wanted to believe that was her soul speaking to me as it departed.
I waited for the flames to die before I took her down. The men removed the bodies of the other women and they treated them delicately and with honor, knowing now that John had deceived them all and it was very likely that all of these women had been innocent to begin with.
The men had brought shovels along to bury the women after their deaths and I took one up now to commit my love to the ground. The other men followed my lead, silently. The last of the villagers dispersed, and John's men and I were the only ones left to deal with the bodies.
For the graves, we pillaged the woods around us for every large stone we could find and piled them above the ground where they lay. We constructed wood crosses from planks we ripped from the remains of the pyres that had not been touched by the flames and put them at each woman’s head and etched their names into them with our daggers. The bodies were so badly damaged, it was a challenge to know what body belonged with what name.
I took John’s lifeless body and put it on top of the ruins where he murdered the ten women. Fresh logs dragged from the woods surrounding us were placed around him.
“May God have mercy on your soul,” I lit the blaze anew. It was only fitting that he should go out in flames as well. It would prepare him for the fires of hell that awaited him below.
The Witch Hunter Page 29