The Burning

Leonard

In a nameless town, witch hunters kept the 'evils' at bay. So that's what everyone thought, lived a child. Many of the people said he was no good, wicked, only because he did not have a father as they did. The boy never lost faith, though he knew he would never see his father. He had his mother, Dahlia Gillespie, a kind gentlewoman. But even the kindest of hearts had dark secrets: Dahlia was her sister. The leader of 'The Order' a treacherous group of witch hunters that had burned many, for they thought they were erasing the town of evil.

Every day, his classmates and children harassed the boy in the hall. Either verbally calling him 'bad seed' or chasing him around the large school, forcing him to take shelter away from the maddening chaos on the other end of the locked wooded door.

Their pounds and chants heard even as his classmates dispersed into various locations of the school, leaving him to the salvation of his temporary shelter until the class bell rang. Tears wailing up in small, thick, lashed eyes. He would run to the stalls crying.

The click-clacking of heels would fill the young boys' ears until the dark stall was filled with a bright light. Seeing the mess of curls that he knew was his mother rushing into her open arm. Never would he tell of his day leading him into the boys' bathroom.

"Your son, even the children. Know it. Why you won't just reveal the father," moving the strand of curls from her sister's face, "You're weak, my dear sister you always were, we, are brought forward to purify this filth." Christabella stated, looking down at the black-haired, brown-eyed youth in her sister's embrace.

"What does she mean, mommy?" The child looked at his mother, who looked deep in thought at her questioning son, then at her brown-haired sister.

"Trust us, Dahlia, have faith in our virtue," Christabella stated before leaving her sister and nephew in the boy's bathroom.

-Many days later-

Christabella led Dahlia and her son to a hotel known as the Grand Hotel, room 111. "You can leave Dahlia; we fight the sin, not the sinner."

"Mommy!" the pleas rung through the redheaded woman's ears as she realized the mistake that she had made as she ran from the hotel.

"Praise the innocence for their sacrifice." Christabella ranted as to the burning rocks below the metallic ring that the child was lying on, slowly taking off his skin, and blackening it. His cries echoed in the room. Until a loud crack sent the large charcoal black bowl spilling its contents soon, the hotel, then the town became surrounded by flames.