Calm and Collapsed
Chapter 1
Fire burned the air with a thick haze as I struggled to breathe. This was a strangling heat, the kind that burnt your nostrils as you inhaled and shortened your breath as your exhaled. I just wanted to run far away, but the flickering flames kissed every touch of my skin as the burning flesh crackled with it. Pain was but a fleeting emotion, but tonight it was determined to stay.
Screams beside me were filled in horror while before me were faces filled with glee. All because of prejudice I was to die. My grandmother warned me that people are afraid of what they did not know. I was just willfully and naively certain that I could change the world. I closed my eyes, concentrating on the tree that held me in my place.
I could hear her whisperings, her fervent prayers, and her pleadings for mercy upon our souls. Letting my eyes fly open, I stared her down as the smoke lulled me into sleep. She was the betrayer. She was the only one of my people left and she escaped the pyre. Yet she had the gall to show up, mocking me where I stood.
“Traitor,” I hissed. The screams stopped except the roars of the townspeople, with eyes meeting her terrified ones. “Traitor.”
The chant continued and swelled in volume, until the priest was left to petition God to hold our villainous tongues. We ignored him and his call for authority- I was her daughter, left to burn while she continued her life with the man who turned us all in. My little sister was in horror, her eyes fixated on mine.
“Traitor,” Elizabeth hissed on my left.
“Traitor,” spat Savannah on my right.
I just continued to glare. She could not die yet. My revenge would come when she did not expect it. Eying her child, I began to speak quickly.
“The witch is trying to curse my child!” She quickly screamed, shielding Rebecca from my eyes. I howled soon enough as I was struck with a fierce hand. As I glared at my attacker, I felt my anger swell. Savannah and Hannah quickly finished my speech coughing and fighting against the urge to sleep.
It was finished. I was ensured my time now. As she glanced in horror to her ten year old, I knew that she knew it too. Slipping into eternal slumber, my head laid down and I breathed deep. Ashes and the flickering flame were the last my senses knew. Bitterness and hatred were the last I tasted.
Screams beside me were filled in horror while before me were faces filled with glee. All because of prejudice I was to die. My grandmother warned me that people are afraid of what they did not know. I was just willfully and naively certain that I could change the world. I closed my eyes, concentrating on the tree that held me in my place.
I could hear her whisperings, her fervent prayers, and her pleadings for mercy upon our souls. Letting my eyes fly open, I stared her down as the smoke lulled me into sleep. She was the betrayer. She was the only one of my people left and she escaped the pyre. Yet she had the gall to show up, mocking me where I stood.
“Traitor,” I hissed. The screams stopped except the roars of the townspeople, with eyes meeting her terrified ones. “Traitor.”
The chant continued and swelled in volume, until the priest was left to petition God to hold our villainous tongues. We ignored him and his call for authority- I was her daughter, left to burn while she continued her life with the man who turned us all in. My little sister was in horror, her eyes fixated on mine.
“Traitor,” Elizabeth hissed on my left.
“Traitor,” spat Savannah on my right.
I just continued to glare. She could not die yet. My revenge would come when she did not expect it. Eying her child, I began to speak quickly.
“The witch is trying to curse my child!” She quickly screamed, shielding Rebecca from my eyes. I howled soon enough as I was struck with a fierce hand. As I glared at my attacker, I felt my anger swell. Savannah and Hannah quickly finished my speech coughing and fighting against the urge to sleep.
It was finished. I was ensured my time now. As she glanced in horror to her ten year old, I knew that she knew it too. Slipping into eternal slumber, my head laid down and I breathed deep. Ashes and the flickering flame were the last my senses knew. Bitterness and hatred were the last I tasted.