“Quick, come with me!”
A woman's familiar voice cried out amidst the chaos. Mizuki turned, but before registering what had just been said, her hand was grabbed. The two ran down the halls, the smashing of glass and angry shouts echoing throughout the manor. Her heart raced, struggling to process anything at the moment. Mizuki’s eyes kept darting behind her, the yells of angry pilgrims and villagers fading slightly. As she turned to look at the woman, a shift in her balance sent pain shooting through her ankle, and then up her leg. Mizuki inhaled sharply, dropping to her knees. The woman in front of her suddenly let go, turning around to face her. Mizuki looked up, her expression unreadable. Then, she smiled. Despite the pain, it was a genuine smile. Mizuki’s vision blurred, and before she knew it, tears escaped her eyes. Emotions swirled in her head. She shakily placed her hands on either side of the woman's cheeks.
“Ena. You came back,” she breathed.
Ena looked at her, appalled, unsure how to react. Mizuki saw this and smiled again, trying to mask her pain. Ena opened her mouth to say something, but before a word escaped, they heard the manor's gates being knocked down with brutal force. The chanting from outside grew louder. Mizuki looked at Ena, whose face was filled with horror, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“It’s too late, Ena. Go. Flee from here, before they get you too,” Mizuki said, slowly letting go of her face. Ena locked eyes with her, desperation filling her expression.
“No! I can’t let it end like this!” Ena said, gripping Mizuki’s hands.
Ena hoisted Mizuki’s arm across her shoulder, her free hand taking the other as she slowly dragged her toward a vacant room. Mizuki could tell Ena was shaking; it was hard for her to do this. Ena pushed open the doors, ushering Mizuki onto a carpeted area and hurriedly attempting to block the door with scattered furniture. Mizuki watched her, then glanced down at her swollen ankle. She knew that if she tried to escape with Ena, they'd both die. Mizuki’s eyes softened, and she leaned back on the seat behind her. Ena rushed over to her, taking Mizuki’s hands into her shaky ones, fighting back a sob.
“I’m sorry. I’m so, so, so sorry,” she said, clutching Mizuki’s hands and putting her forehead to them. She let out a shaky breath.
“Sorry for what? Don’t say that.”
“What…?”
“If you say sorry, that means you regret everything we did together. And I certainly didn’t.”
Mizuki chuckled, trying to distract herself from her tears. She let go of one of Ena’s hands, bringing her now free hand to Ena’s cheek. Ena gritted her teeth, raising her voice.
“I shouldn’t have! It was wrong for me to love you back! I knew it was dangerous, I knew–”
Before Ena could finish, Mizuki clung to her hand.
“Wrong? To love? After everything we’ve been through, and out of all the things you choose to fear, why should it be love?”
“Well, maybe I should. I had my place in the church, and if I followed that instead of listening to my urges, you wouldn’t be sentenced to burn at the stake.”
Ena slowly started to let go, looking down.
“But I can’t let you die, I won’t,” she murmured. Mizuki chuckled slowly, sighing.
“Don’t blame yourself, Ena,” she whispered, reaching out to touch her lover’s face.
“Love is not a sin.”
Ena gripped the hem of her gown, refusing to meet Mizuki’s eyes.
“It is! It’s my fault. They’ll condemn you to hell, Mizuki!”
Her voice broke, choking back a sob.
Suddenly, the manor shook. They had reached the final doors. The two looked towards the door and then to the windows. Outside, roars of fire and barbaric yelling filled the night. They were starting to torch parts of the manor. Ena let out a shaky gasp, suddenly attempting to pick Mizuki up again, but before she did, Mizuki pulled her down, cupping Ena’s face to look into her eyes.
“They’ll condemn me to an eternity in hell— but at least I know I held heaven in my arms before I perished. It’s already too late, Ena. Just go.”
Mizuki said, masking her urges to cry and smiling. Ena’s eyes widened at Mizuki’s declaration. She stared at the woman in front of her, her mouth falling slightly agape. The situation was dire, but Ena refused to leave Mizuki’s side. The silence between them was disrupted by the noise outside. Footsteps echoed through the hall, and the light from the torches and their shadows seeped through the cracks of their chamber door. The men began slamming doors open one by one, the sounds getting dreadfully closer. Mizuki turned to Ena, cupping her face.
“If this is the last time we’ll see each other, I want to say this.”
She hurriedly spoke in a whisper, looking into her lover’s face with the utmost sincerity.
“I love you so, so much. I’m sorry we couldn’t be together in this life—”
The door began to shake as they heard the men on the other side attempting to break it down. Ena tried to look away, but Mizuki held her there.
“So promise me you’ll find me in my next one. Okay? I’ll marry you in that lifetime. And the next, and the next, and the next.”
Mizuki began to hold back the urge to sob, but before Ena could respond, the door’s wood began to chip, the smell of burning wood filling the room. Ena opened her mouth, but the words died in her throat. She gritted her teeth as her sobs came to a halt, cupping Mizuki’s face as well. Ena closed the gap between them. It was a slow, sorrowful kiss—soft and lingering, but filled with an undercurrent of despair. It was a kiss that spoke of countless moments they had shared and dreams that would remain unfulfilled. Ena’s lips trembled as she kissed her back, her heart breaking with each gentle press of her lips. The kiss was tender, yet it carried the weight of all the unspoken goodbyes. They both knew this was a final moment of connection, a last vestige of the love that had once burned so brightly but was now fading away. As the room filled with smoke, Mizuki reluctantly pulled away. The tears she had held back finally began to fall.
“I wish we had more time,” she whispered, pulling Ena into a close hug.
She closed her eyes as the chamber doors swung open with a bang, and angry voices began to invade the room. The last moments were a blur for the two. A blur of fire, the halls of the manor, the people surrounding them, dragging them, the chants, the pain of being beaten, and hands shoving them outside the manor was excruciatingly painful and overwhelming. Mizuki kept blacking out, the pain from rolling her ankle earlier adding to everything as they were hauled to the center of the town. Chants grew louder as both Mizuki and Ena were shoved onto the gravel beneath them. Suddenly, three pairs of hands came from behind and hoisted Mizuki up, the feeling of a rope scraping her waist and wrists as she was tied to a post. Mizuki’s vision returned moments later, and in front of her stood a priest, surrounded by countless villagers with torches. However, the only thing she focused on was finding Ena.
Her eyes frantically darted, eventually finding Ena still on the ground, tied up and looking at Mizuki with blood, bruises, dirt, and tears running down her face as she looked up at her with desperation. The priest began chanting prayers and passages from his bible, but the chanting of the crowd overpowered them. Mizuki gritted her teeth, looking over at Ena, who was pleading. She could barely hear her over the chaos, but Ena was on her knees, looking up at the sky, pleading with the Lord to help them. The priest chuckled coldly. He raised his hand as a signal. One villager stepped up from the crowd, tossing the torch at the base of the wood. As Mizuki prepared for what was to come, her skin felt as though it was being seared by invisible flames. The heat was not just a sensation but an almost tangible force, gnawing at her endurance.
Mizuki’s face flushed, lips cracked from the arid air, she could feel every pore struggling to release the overwhelming pressure of heat. It was a relentless, blistering burn that seeped into her bones, a steady, unyielding pressure that seemed to pulse with every heartbeat. Her hands gripped the edges of the stake tightly, knuckles white from the effort. Her fingers, now slick with sweat, struggled to maintain their grip. The wood beneath her felt both oppressive and insistent, as if it too was a living entity, feeding off the heat that suffused the air. Every movement, every shift of Mizuki’s body, was accompanied by a burst of heat. Even the slightest motion seemed to stir up waves of scorching air, making standing still an act of willpower. Her breath came in short, ragged gasps, each inhalation filled with the parched, almost acrid scent of ashes and burning wood. Time felt like it had slowed to a crawl, each second stretching into eternity as she battled the relentless, oppressive heat. Mizuki’s mind, though focused, was slowly being overtaken by the burning sensation, a constant reminder of the moment's intensity.
Ena screamed in horror as she saw this unfold before her eyes, the fear and agony taking over her. Ena pathetically attempted to crawl over to Mizuki, tears rolling down her cheeks endlessly. Cruel laughs filled her ears as she sobbed onto the ground. The scream seemed to stretch endlessly, vibrating through the air with a guttural intensity. It was as if every muscle in her body convulsed with the force of the scream, her voice cracking and breaking amid her shrieks. The sound was so visceral and haunting that it seemed to rip through the night, echoing with the urgency of a soul in torment. Ena’s scream lasted for a painfully long time, eventually halting as she felt as though her vocal cords would tear if she did. She shut her eyes tight, not wanting to look at the sight. Ena knew Mizuki could no longer hear her, the thought breaking her. She felt as though she couldn't breathe, the light from the flames taunting her.
“I don’t regret a single thing I did with you, Mizuki! Ever since we met, I’ve envied you so much for being able to accept who you are. I’ve hidden from my true feelings for all my life—”
As Ena started her proclamation, she was interrupted by a squelch and a sharp pain in her abdomen. Ena choked, coughing up blood, leaving a metallic aftertaste. She summoned her last remaining strength, inhaling once more.
“A–And you’re the one who got to help me discover that. I felt like a prisoner in my own mind, but you– you freed me!”
Ena let out a sharp inhale as she felt the metal weapon forcefully pulled from her abdomen, and then ruthlessly stabbed once again.
“Thank you, for everything! I promise, I’ll find you in the next life, even if I have to get through God!” she proclaimed with the last of her strength, as one last stab from a sword made her collapse, a pool of blood starting to seep from her wound. As she took her final breaths, she looked into the blurred flame, her dying words escaping her lips:
“I love you, Mizuki.”