SEVEN

~EVE POV~

1573—the year of the witch hunt.

“Burn the witch to the stake!” The crowd who had come to watch both my mother’s and my persecution yelled heartlessly. I saw the fright in my mother’s eyes as we were both separated from each other.

“Close your eyes, my child; all of this will soon be over.” My mother consoled me, and I nodded, agreeing with each word she said, but I had no fear in me; I had already accepted the reality of it all.

These cold-hearted humans have chased my mother since she had me and have never made her rest. I saw her tears each night as we moved from village to village; she never felt comfortable sleeping as she was worried I would be taken advantage of by her. I was always the target.

The crowd cheered as a mighty man walked to the execution ground with a flare. He turned to my mother and smacked her in the face. “Wench!” he blatantly called her. He turned to the crowd of supporters and asked them, “What else should I do to her?”

“Spit on her!” An old woman said, and the crowd supported her, “Spit on her! Spit on her!!” they chanted continuously.

The hefty man cleared his throat, generating a lot of snorts, before holding my mother’s battered face by the jaw and splattering the snort on her face, the green slob slowly gliding down her face as her mother looked on at the crowd with tears trickling down her eyes.

“This is what you get for giving birth to a witch.” He slaps my mother on the face, making red markings appear on her face from all five fingers. He left her alone and came to me. “You child,” the man said as he poured the beer in his hand on me, from my head to my feet. “I need more.”

Another soldier ran to get more along with a match to light up the flare. The hefty man brought his face close to mine, and his horrible stench of breath oozed out of his mouth as it spread across my face. I tried to turn away but held my face tightly.

“You would have been worth a lot of gold if we were to sell you off to the gold miners.” The man said I held my breath, still finding difficulty not to smell the odor from his mouth. As he left me, he went up to the soldier who had gone to bring the beer and matchstick for him and said, “Give that to me.” He roughly grabbed it away and poured the beer over my mother.

He lit up the flare and placed it on my mother, immediately setting her ablaze. The crowd jeered again as they praised the sky god for saving them from this misery. That day, I cried.

“Your turn.” The hefty man did the same to me as I went up in flames.

Unlike my mother, who screamed in pain and agony at the infliction on her, I felt nothing. I was just there untouched, but the blaze that surrounded me made it seem like I was burning, but I wasn’t. I was unharmed; the flames were there, but something unusual kept pushing them away.

I watched with my senses as a purple mist I had never seen before shielded me. Slowly, my nose began to glow in the furnace, igniting a purple atmosphere only I could see. I was bewildered and didn’t know what to do. “Ahhh...” I screamed out of my lungs, and I heard the crowd laughing. They must have thought I was battling with the pains of the blaze, but it was solely the snake-like birthmark on my shoulder.

Again, the tattoo had burned me, and I screamed out. My eyes shut open as my translucent eyes showed another side of the world. The fire surrounding me shot up to the sky and then fell like coal. I was free.

My eyelashes were like a watery diamond as I looked over at my mother. She was gone, but her body was still fighting. I stood there at the execution with hateful glares of spite watching me, gearing up to attack.

“Get her!” The old woman, who had requested for my mother to be spat on, urged the crowd, and they all began to charge at me. I ran with my little feet, trying to run away, but a hefty man caught me quickly. I was relentless as I fought back.

My hand slightly touched his cheeks as we battled, and instantly his body changed into a rock-like statue, and I fell to the ground from his hold. I was scared. I scrambled my way out of there as I was thrown stones at and called a monster.

Anyone who chased and touched me was all changed into a stone statues.

Though I managed to survive, I was having a hard living a life out here in the cold, harsh world alone. I spent nights on the streets, ate leftovers from rich people's houses, and that is if I was lucky, I was able to steal some. Because I turned people into stones, nobody tried to get close to me, so living life was hard.

“Sir, can you please spare me some change?” I sat on a cardboard where homeless people like me had no place to go and tried to fend for myself by begging. I shook my bowl, asking for money each time a merchant, royal, or soldier walked past. I never got anything from locals who knew me, and my story only got lucky with some travelers visiting the city.

Today my plates were empty because I had to pay my taxes. We all pay our taxes, whether we have them or not. With the new rule in place, things weren’t easy for the poorest people.

My stomach grumbled as I saw the fruit man place his goods on the shelves. It has been several days since I haven’t been able to eat anything.

“Are you hungry, child?” A mysterious man asked me as he was about to place a couple of coins in the bowl of another beggar next to me. The man was tanned as if he were glazed by the sun; his eyes read an expression of pity that was directed at me.

I nodded my head. He smiled and went on to get lots of fruits for me, and as he tried to hand them over to him, I refused because I realized this perfect heaven-sent man would also change into stones.

The man grabbed my hand either way, and I was shocked to see nothing happen. “You are the one I am looking for,” he said to me.

I trusted him immediately, as he was the first human contact I have ever had apart from my mother, so indeed, he must be God-sent. He took me in as his child and promised to cater for me in exchange for my amulet. I never saw any good use of it, so I handed it over to him.

I never knew his name because he never told me; regardless, I called him father as he was the only parental figure I knew. He took me away from that village and took me to a side where I was more welcomed, and since he took away the amulet from me, I could now speak and hold people more freely.

I watched as he aged by my side, and soon he disappeared with no trace of ever coming back, leaving me with all of his rich possessions. I was in my mid-twenties then, and ever since he vanished, I stopped growing, my white long hair returned, my eyes went from dark brown back to translucent, and I ended up using gloves since I could now turn people to stone again.