Witch Hunt
My hands were smeared with blood as I crawled towards the corpse that now lay in place of what had been my beautiful twin sister. I reached the body and pushed myself off the floor with my tired arms into a kneeling position so I could gather her- the corpse into my arms. This was no longer my sister. It was nothing but a shell. The tears, that I had not realized had started to fall, dropped onto the forehead. I would never see her face bright and laughing. I rocked back and forth overwhelmed with emotion and pain. Selene, my sister, had been the only person left on this earth that loved me unconditionally. The cheerful dreamy light that seemed to forever radiate from her that complemented perfectly my forever dull rationality was gone.
I was completely alone now. I don’t want to be alone. The sobs in my chest made it hard to breathe, and my entire body shook as I trembled. I tried to calm myself enough to look around, but there was nothing and no one there anymore. They had left as fast as they arrived.
The villagers had always shunned our family and when our parents passed away from an illness a few years ago, it only got worse. However, it seems the bad luck of the past months has been a tipping point for them. It had been a particularly cold winter and many people died and then the spring came and brought storm after storm. The crops were affected and a lot of people had little to ration till the summer crops were harvested, but now the last few weeks have brought a summer heatwave causing even those crops to start wilting. It had been dire even for me and my sister.
Strange things happened, sure, like some of our crops would suddenly grow only to wilt again a few days later or like back when it was cold a fire would start without even touching the wood in the fireplace. We were special, given a gift from God, at least that is what our parents had said. The witch trials had ended long ago, but the beliefs were still particularly strong in this area. The whispers had gotten louder and the people had gotten more threatening. We had never even thought this would happen though.
The gaping hole from a farmer's hatchet that pierced my sister's stomach was something I wouldn’t ever forget. She had saved me, shoved me in a chest that held old clothes and closed it tight. I only had bruises and bumps from them pushing me around with the other furniture while looting our house. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do now. I had to leave. I couldn't stay here, but I also couldn’t take her body with me. Should I bury her in an unmarked grave? Should I leave her here to escape suspicion?
The pool of blood that lay around her was still growing and she was getting colder. The feeling in my chest that made it feel like my heart was ripped out was starting to turn cold too. I already knew I would never forget the voices and screams of my sister as she was murdered by the villagers or the sound of axes and pitchforks breaking all the things that had once belonged to my parents, the only things left of them. I didn’t know how long I had sat with her body. Had it been ten minutes? An hour or more? I had to make a choice. I had to move before they came back to look for me when they realized I wasn’t elsewhere in the village.
I eventually managed to push myself to my feet. I found a sack and shoved whatever clothes that were left into it and any items that were left that could fetch money if I sold them. It wouldn’t be a lot but it was a start. Hopefully, it would get me to the closest town and I could stay at an inn or even the orphanage. I had to survive. I refused to let my sister's death mean nothing.