Evil Be Thy Master

My eyes scanned the crystal water, partially ignoring the people around me, as I tried to figure out exactly what I was supposed to say. For the first time since I’d met Matthew, I didn’t know what I was supposed to say to him. I didn’t know what was going on with him, not positively anyway. I had my assumptions, and while I prayed to God they were wrong, I really don’t see how they could have been. I’d never felt so awkward around my fiancé.

I pulled my eyes from the water and began looking over my friends. Our whole group was awkward around each other, no one seemed willing to speak. Instead we were all watching each other, looking for any indication as to what we were thinking.

“Taylor, Darling, why are you not talking?” Matthew asked me quietly. My eyes flicked to his, our hazel orbs seemingly challenging each other to speak what was on our minds instead of hiding behind pleasantries. I knew that Matthew didn’t seem happy with me, he didn’t seem to trust me, but he wouldn’t tell me why.

Though deep down, I think I know why. I think that he knows that I know. Only just like me, he doesn’t want to admit it.

“Sorry, I just got lost in my thoughts,” I whispered with a slight blush to my cheeks. Matthew smiled slightly and lifted up my hand, pressing a light kiss to my fingertips.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t be thinking about such big things,” Zachary’s voice cut through the silence, causing all eyes to turn to him. “Maybe you should stick to thinking of household chores and how to be a proper wife to my friend instead of meddling. You know Taylor, be a good woman, it doesn’t involve a lot of thinking.”

Matthew glared at him, shocked that he would speak that way to me. But I wasn’t going to depend on him to fight my battles, I never had and I wasn’t starting today. “Because Zachary, thinking is invigorating. You should try it sometime. That is, if it’s not too much work for you,” I said with a sickly sweet smile. Zachary snarled at me, but didn’t speak. He didn’t dare say anything to that, because Matthew would surely step in then.

“Sanders, maybe you should learn to control your woman before she causes even more trouble,” Jonathon said venomously as he sent an angry glare in my direction.

“Zachary, Jonathon, why don’t you two go ahead and get everything set up for our meeting later and while we walk the girls home,” James suggested as he sensed the angry tension that was beginning to build up. I’d never had a problem with Zachary and Jonathon before, and they’d never lead me to believe that they had a problem with me, but something seemed to have changed the past few days. We were at each others’ necks constantly.

“What, you’re leaving us for another meeting about your precious horses?” Nicole spat bitterly. Brian raised a brow as he stared at her with a cautious eye.

“No, we have a meeting regarding any last minute changes to Matthew and Taylor’s wedding. It is in two days Nicole. We told you about that yesterday,” he said slowly, watching as her face turned from one of irritation to one of shame. All of the men seemed to give her a look similar to the one that I had previously gotten. They know, they have to. Otherwise they wouldn’t be treating us like this.

“Oh, my apologies then,” she said quietly, not even looking Brian, her own fiancé, in the eye.

“Are you escorting us home then, or not?” Rhian asked timidly. James stood silently and held out a hand for her. She got up and followed him wordlessly, like Nicole and I unsure of how to act around them at this point in time. It seemed as if we had reached a point where none of us knew where to draw the line. None of us trusted each other. Brian and Nicole left next, not even speaking a word.

That left me alone with Matthew, and at the moment, I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Matthew sighed and laced our fingers together, making me look up at him. “Taylor…” he trailed off.

“Yes?” I asked quietly.

He chewed on his lips, as if he were debating on asking me something, something that could have hellacious consequences. “Do you trust me?” he finally asked, sheepishly looking me in the eyes. I stared at him, unblinking, knowing that trust wasn’t the only thing he was really asking me about. I nodded slowly, thinking of how to word my answer.

“With all of my heart,” I said slowly. “I trust you will always make the right decision for the both of us. And I will follow you and support you in whatever decision you make. Silly or foolish as I may think it be.”

He swallowed and nodded, still looking somewhat nervous. “And you love me? No matter what?”

“Until the end of time,” I answered without a beat.

“Even if I’m a monster?” he asked sadly. I sighed and cupped his cheek in my hand.

“Even if you’re a monster, you’re my monster,” I told him sternly. “But you’re not a monster Matthew. I know you’re not. There is good in you. Making a mistake does not make one a monster.”

He smiled at me as he leaned in, softly pressing our lips together. “I love you Taylor. And I can’t wait to spend eternity with you.”

…

“Taylor, those flowers will look so beautiful with your dress tomorrow,” Rhian gushed, smiling as we walked through town. The sun had just set, casting an eerie dark shadow over the village. The entire day had been spent with us preparing for my wedding tomorrow. I couldn’t be any happier. Tomorrow nothing could separate me from the love of my life. We would be bound together in any and every way. I bit my lip to contain the large smile that wanted to break out across my face. I could barely contain myself.

“Thank you. And thank you for coming with me today, both of you. I really appreciate it,” I told my best friends quietly.

“You’re very welcome Taylor,” Nicole laughed. “Besides, you get to help us with this stuff for our weddings too, so it is only fair.”

“Tomorrow you’ll be Taylor Sanders,” Rhian giggled. “How odd does that sound?”

“It does sound quite odd,” Nicole agreed. “I’ve always known her to be Taylor Lawrence, and I guess I always assumed that’s how she’d stay. Silly me for forgetting about marriage.”

“I can’t wait,” I whispered, sheepishly looking up at my friends, thinking they would laugh at me. They didn’t though, instead they had understanding smiles. I suppose it slipped my mind that these two were also hopelessly in love. “I shan’t sleep a wink tonight, I know it.”

“Well just think, sleeping will pass the time faster,” Rhian pointed out to me. “The more sleep you get, the less time you’ll spend anticipating the wedding.”

“You have a very valid poi-” I stopped mid-word, watching as a large crowd of people ran by us, screaming and cheering like maniacs. Someone must be off to the stocks then. I swear some of the people in this village are so barbaric.

“What are those fools running at now?” Nicole asked in a bored tone. It wasn’t uncommon to see them get riled up for people receiving punishments, but rarely were they this excited.

“Who knows,” Rhian groaned. “Shall we go before it gets any darker?”

Both Nicole and I nodded, and we turned on our heels to finish our small journey back to my family’s manor. But as we got farther into the village, the screams and hysteria became louder, and stronger. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a large brown piece of wood sticking out of the ground, making my blood literally turn to ice.

It was a stake.

One of five.

“Oh no,” I whimpered, stopping to get a better look. It couldn’t be, it was some mistake. No, not now, not them.

“Taylor, what are you stopping fo…” Rhian’s voice faded off when a familiar voice, Brian’s voice screamed out in pain. Our eyes immediately went to Nicole, who had a look of sheer terror on her face.

“N-no,” she said weakly. “No, not Brian. That wasn’t Brian,” she mumbled to herself. My fears were only reconfirmed when Zachary let out a feral growl, causing the people that were trying to contain them to jump back in fear.

“Now don’t you go cursing us you demon,” one of the village people warned him, spitting in his face. James followed Zachary, looking positively beaten down. Then Jonathon was after him, looking worse for wear. But my heart stopped when I saw Matthew. He looked so pained, so worn down. He barely lifted his head, just enough to stare into my eyes. My lower lip trembled at the thought of what was going to happen. I love you I mouthed to him. He sent me a sad smile before mouthing I love you too. Forever. Back to me. The head priest of the village came out last, a grave look on his face. He looked out into the crowd, connecting his eyes with mine, before he began to shake his head slowly.

“Taylor, why does your uncle have them?” Rhian asked me in a wavering voice. I swallowed and closed my eyes, hoping this all was just a bad dream that would go away.

“Tonight, we are here to spread the law of our Lord, the almighty father that hath brought us this glory of life,” the priest, my uncle, began. “We have had blasphemers among us! We have had the men of Satan in front of our eyes! They have tried to corrupt us, bring us down from what our Father wishes us to do! But no more! These men shall walk our streets no more!”

“No,” I mumbled, shaking my head as tears began to slide out of my eyes. “No, no, no!”

My screams went unheard as the crowd began to cheer enthusiastically. This wasn’t happening. This was some sick joke. It couldn’t be happening, not now. Not the day before our wedding.

“These men will burn in the fiery pits of hell for their crimes! We will punish them for trying to corrupt our lives and the lives of our families!” he continued, making me feel physically sick. “Luckily there were some among us that were brave enough to come forward with information that led us to capturing these creatures before they could do any further damage to our loved ones,” he said in a stern voice, staring straight at Nicole, Rhian, and I. He knew we were supposed to marry them, but I’m not sure if he knew that we knew. He couldn’t do this to me, he couldn’t take Matthew from me. He was the most important thing in my life.

Zachary followed my uncle's gaze and met with our eyes. His eyes seemed to light up a fire inside of him and he began struggling to get free.

"IT WAS THEM!! THOSE HARLOTS!! THEY BETRAYED US!!" Zachary screamed, absolutely livid, but I didn't understand. We didn't do anything.

I glanced at Nicole to see her shaking her head as Brian glared at her with hatred in his dark eyes. James was doing the same exact thing to Rhian. I connected mine with Matthews only to find him starring at me with so much hatred, so much disgust. I couldn't even stare into those eyes that I could spend forever gazing into. But I was still confused. Did they think we were the ones to turn them in? Did they really think we'd betray them after we saw them making deal with devil himself? I don't care what Matthew or the others do. I love him.

“Taylor you can’t let him do this,” Rhian said frantically, shaking my arm and making me snap out of my thoughts. “Stop him!”

“What can I do Rhian?” I cried out. “I have no way to stop this! I’m only a woman! I have no power here!”

“He’s your uncle, isn’t there something you can do?” Nicole begged. “That’s our lives up there!”

I licked my lips and pushed through the crowd, hearing Nicole and Rhian behind me. My uncle saw us moving, and glared at us before turning to look at the men that had just tied up our men. “Start the fires,” he ordered, “Now. And make sure no one gets too close to the flame.”

They nodded and brought a torch to the straw that surrounded the stakes, making Rhian and Nicole scream. By this time, I was incapable of making noise. I didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t die. Matthew couldn’t die.

I needed him.

Screams filled the air as the fire slowly began to build up, licking at their bodies. The smell of burning flesh hit my nose, and a new wave of nausea washed over me. They were going to die. I’d never see them again. I’d never see him again.

“Let us go!!” Jonathon screamed in pain, trying to fight the ropes that bound him to the stake. He thrashed and pulled, but it did nothing to help. In fact, if anything, it only built the fire up more. Their skin began to blacken and peel away as it became charred, and slowly but surely, their screams began to die out. They were dying. They were dying because of us, because we had to follow them.

My stupid, idiotic, no good idea cost them their lives. Why was I so stupid?

I sobbed as I looked at Matthew, slowly letting the life leave his body. He stared at me, never moving his eyes, until finally, slowly, they closed.

I fell to the ground, bawling like a little girl, something I never do, at the loss of my love. He was gone, dead, never coming back. And I was left here, in this hell, to go one without him. I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to. I prayed that God would smite me right now, surely a life of eternal damnation would be better than the rest of this life without Matthew.

The crowd slowly began to dissipate when they realized the entertainment was gone. The victims were dead. They didn’t even notice Nicole, Rhian, or I on the ground sobbing at our losses. They just stepped around us, the occasional person grumbling about ‘silly, weak stomached girls’.

“No,” Rhian sobbed. “He’s not dead.”

“Of course he’s dead!” Nicole snapped as she tried to sniff back tears. “They’re all dead. All that’s left of them is ash! They killed them. They killed my Brian.”

I stared ahead, straight at the middle stake, wishing that Matthew could just rise from his ashes like a phoenix.

Of course then I had to curse myself for being so ridiculous. Phoenixes aren’t real, and people can’t come back from the dead. I had lost him, forever. They had taken him from me.

“I’ll kill them,” I said quietly, feeling fury and hate for anything and everything in this world build up. “I’ll kill each and every one of them for what they did to him.”

Rhian and Nicole looked up at me, astonished by my words. Nicole began shaking her head. “No, no you won’t. Not without me. I want to make them suffer. I want to make them feel every ounce of pain we have, every bit of misery they forced them to go through. And it still won’t be enough. Not for what they took from us.”

I expected Rhian to tell us to hush, to not think such evil things. But she didn’t. Something in her must have changed when she lost James, because words that I never expected to come from her were spoken. “I want them all to burn in hell. And that’s exactly where I plan on sending them.”

We weren’t the same as we were three hours ago. We had lost part of our hearts, our souls. We were dead inside, and nothing could fix that. Ever.

“Noooo!!!” I screamed, darting up into a sitting position. My body shook with sobs as I thought of the nightmare. Except it wasn’t a nightmare, it had happened. They had died. I’d watched them. I’d seen Matt die.

“Darling are you alright?” Matt asked as he sat next to me, clad in only boxers. He must have been sleeping and heard me scream. I shook my head frantically as I hiccupped, not having the ability at the moment to form real words. I simply threw myself at Matt, not even noticing the ripping and tearing of healing flesh under my bandages. They didn’t matter now. That pain was nothing, absolutely nothing compared to the pain that I had just relived. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into him tightly as he slowly began to rock me back and forth, much like he did after I was told that Niki and Rhian had died.

“Y-y-y-y,” I tried to get out, but I failed miserably. I just couldn’t bring myself to say it. I gave up and shook my head, burying my face in his chest. He was here now, I don’t know how and I don’t know why, but he was.

“Taylor, what’s wrong?” he asked gently as he rubbed my back. I sniffed and forced myself to look up at him through my tears.

“Y-you died Matt,” I whimpered, clutching onto him tightly. “I watched you die. They burnt you alive.”

He was silent for a moment as he froze beneath me. Maybe he didn’t think I’d know? Maybe he didn’t think I could know? But his response alone was enough to let me know that it had happened. “Yea, they did,” he said quietly, sounding like he was flashing back himself.

“It hurt so much,” I sobbed. “I didn’t want you to die. I wanted to stop it, but I didn’t know how. You were my life. But I don’t understand.”

“Don’t understand what?” he asked carefully, resifting me in his lap so that I was closer to his body, leaning my head on his shoulder.

“How can you be here. That was so long ago. And they killed you Matt. You died. How can you come back?” I whispered, noticing the shiver that ran through his body as my breath hit his neck. He turned to look at me, sweeping my hair out of my face with a small smile.

“Same reason you are. I told you that I’d make sure we were together for all eternity,” he said softly, looking between my eyes and my lips with a nervous stare. When I realized what he was thinking, I leaned up, softly pressing our lips together, kissing the man I loved for the first time in centuries.

“Matt!” Jimmy yelled as he barged in the door, causing Matt and I to jump apart rather reluctantly. “It’s Niki.”