Chapter 125 - Burn The Witch!

Music Recommendation: Kein DeLorean- Ben Frost

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Natalie couldn't believe what she just saw in the reflection of the bucket of water. It had been more than a year since she had been turned into a vampire, and she had lived her life sumptuously. Compelling the humans, who were beneath her where most of them did her bidding. 

Life had been nothing less than living in a paradise to the girl, but now that she saw her fangs missing and the colour of her eyes not changing, she started to panic. 

"This can't be happening," murmured Natalie under her breath in horror. "No," she whispered to herself.. 

Once a human was turned into a vampire, there was no way to reverse the situation. Then did this mean this was her afterlife? She questioned herself. But she felt no pain, thought Natalie to herself, and she looked at the front side of her shirt, which was spotless except for some smudge of the smoke that the vampire had used some sort of magic on her.. 

The newly turned human from vampire turned extremely anxious, noticing more people staring at her as if she was some kind of alien in here. The women started gossiping, murmuring amongst themselves. 

"What a strange girl, to wear clothes like men and in such a way," commented one of the women with disgust in her eyes. 

Natalie, who heard this, her eyebrows furrowed and not used to others looking down at her, she demanded, "What are you looking at? There's nothing to see here, go do what you were doing." 

But Natalie seemed to be forgetting that she was not a vampire anymore, and she didn't have the ability to compel. A nearby man who stood not too far from where she was, said, "What a rude woman. Not only does she wear clothes that are probably worn by men, but she's shrill."

Natalie turned angry, her hands clenched into fists, and she gritted her teeth. Where the fuck was this place, and what was going on?!

"How long is the nearest city from here?" questioned Natalie, and more people stepped out of their house to see what the little commotion was about. "Is someone going to tell me?" 

"What's going on here?" Someone's voice came through. 

Natalie saw a man who had a round belly with a belt tied around his waist to keep his loose pants from falling. He made his way through the crowd that had gathered around her. The men and women were quick to give way for him, and Natalie wondered who this cartoon character was, who had a thin moustache above his upper lips and with slightly narrowed eyes."Who is this intruder?" asked the man, who held a slight shrill in his voice. "Causing commotion at this hour of the night." 

Natalie looked at the man from head to toe, and she said, "I was asking where the nearest city is. And actually where is this damn place?" 

Hearing the girl's curse, the people around her gasped in shock, and Natalie wondered why people in here were being so overdramatic as if they had never heard anyone curse until now. 

"City? What city? This is a town and the next ones you will find is one more town and then villages that are far," replied the man, while he looked at her. "This is the town of Willow Creek. Where do you come from?" He looked at her with suspicion in his eyes. 

Willow Creek? Natalie asked herself, who had never heard the name before. Her eyes widened, and she quickly asked, "Is this place near Queenstorm?" 

"Queenstorm? Where is that? I don't think anyone has heard about it," commented the man. 

Natalie felt like she was losing her mind, and she said, "Who is the authorized person of this place? I would like to talk to that person." 

"You are looking at that person. I am the magistrate of Willow Creek. My name is Alberto Shephard. What is your name miss?" the magistrate asked her, and Natalie stared at him.

Magistrate? The place where she came from, there were no magistrates. But as seconds started to pass by, she slowly started to realize, and she went into a sudden denial. It was not possible, not nature wise, as it was impossible for something like this to happen!

Natalie's lips parted, and with difficulty, she tried to move her lips while trying to say, "D-do you know what year this is?"

"You are a rude woman, aren't you. We are in the year of sixteen hundred and seventy four," huffed the magistrate, staring down at her. 

Natalie's face turned pale. She had heard from some of the vampires that the older vampires had unique abilities, but she doubted anyone could wield time. It was impossible to do something like this, to send someone into a period they didn't belong to!

While she was trying to cope up with the reality that she had been thrown into, the townsfolk who had gathered themselves around still looking at her, wondering if she was a witch. 

"Do you think she is one of them? Which is why she is behaving like this?"

"She's probably wearing those clothes to receive attention. Only cheap women try things like that," whispered another woman to the one who stood next to her.  "Look at that tight thing hugging her legs, even men don't wear them," she said, staring at Natalie's jeans. 

She was screwed, Natalie thought in her mind. 

"Why don't you come to the magistrate's office and we can speak about it. Or would you rather prefer I take you to the physician, as you seem to not be in your sound mind right now," proposed the magistrate. 

"No, I am good," replied Natalie, and when the man stared harder, she added, "Thank you."

"Hmph," came the magistrate's reaction, and he walked away from there. When he was joined by one of the guards of the town, he ordered the guard, "Keep an eye on that woman. She is acting in a very suspicious manner."

"Would you like me to check her feet, tongue for any evidence? The townsfolk were thinking that she might be a witch, shall I prepare her to be burnt?" asked the town's guard. 

"Do it, make sure to check properly before you put her up in a wooden pyre," replied the magistrate. By turning back, he took a look at the townspeople before he headed to his luxurious house. 

Natalie, who had been standing next to the well of the town, was suddenly hounded by the guard, who said, 

"Remove your shoes, miss."

"What? Why?" 

"Do it, else I will have to do it myself," threatened the guard in a rough tone, and Natalie glared at him as if she was ready to push him into the well. 

Seeing how the townsfolk anticipated her action, where she had nowhere else to go tonight, she slowly complied. She removed her shoes and showed her straight feet, where her toes were painted in red nail polish.

"What's that? Blood?" questioned the guard. 

Natalie rolled her eyes. When she didn't answer right away, the guard caught her by holding the back of her hair, dragging her away from where she had been standing. 

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Natalie screamed at the guard, where she felt her scalp hurt as her hair was roughly being pulled. She tried to get rid of his hand from her hair. "That's nail paint! Let go of me you asshole!"

"It looks like you are a witch with blood. Get the logs and the fire ready!" The man shouted to someone, and some of the people there were quick to help, wanting to watch the witch burn alive as it had been a long time since they had burned one of those vile creatures. 

"I am not a witch! Stop it!" screamed Natalie. She started to panic because this was not how she had expected herself to die! She couldn't die. The guardsman painfully held her hair, and it reminded her of the time when she had done something similar to one of her classmates. "I am a human! It is just a colour paint!" 

"We'll see that when you burn in the fire," stated the guardsman and Natalie's eyes turned wide in shock, and she gave a pleading look at the people. Her hands flailed for help so that they could help her. 

But karma was handing it back to her twofold when it came to eliciting fear in her. 

The fear that she had instilled in others, by reigning through the school's corridors by compelling most of the students and teachers, and people near her house, came back to her, making her feel worse than that. She wanted to bring out her fangs, to rip off this guardsman's head from his shoulder, but since she had arrived at this place, she had lost it. As if her body had reset back to its original self without a trace of her being a vampire. 

She was dragged to the centre of the town, where a pole stood on the ground and logs of wood placed around it. 

"W-what are you thinking of doing?!" asked Natalie, being scared for her life. 

"Just how the witches are supposed to be treated. To burn them alive so that we don't have any witches to cause more death," said the guardsman to her, where the magistrate had told him to handle her. Natalie"s eyes widened, and she started to scream. 

"Please, help me! I didn't do anything! I am not a witch!" screamed Natalie, while two men started to make arrangements so that they could burn her. 

It was often said that when a person's death is near, he or she experiences the things that they had done so far in their life. The good and the worse, and right now, Natalie saw flashes of images, like the pages of a book being flipped continuously in front of her eyes.

When she saw a torch of fire being brought forward that burned brightly, that had turned parts of the ground bright, Natalie tried to pull her hand away from the guardsman's hold. She realized how weak and helpless she had turned in a span of a few hours. 

"What proof do you have that she's a witch? Only her clothes look strange," came someone's voice from behind. The guardsman turned, and so did Natalie, feeling a spec of hope return to her that she wouldn't die. 

It was a man who appeared to be in his early thirties. 

"Do you know this woman, Sullivan?" questioned the guardsman, his hold on Natalie's arm tight. 

The man nodded his head and said, "I think I saw her in the other town two weeks ago. I doubt she's a witch. Painting the nails isn't uncommon if you check with the women and men of the theatre." 

"This red? It's blood!" the guardsman clicked his tongue and raised his eyebrows in question. 

"May I check her before you burn her?" asked the man named Sullivan, and he came to stand in front of Natalie, who looked like she was about to burst into tears. He knelt and picked up the girl's feet while the other people of the town craned their necks to the side to see what was going on. The man scratched Natalie's toenail. Removing the nail paint, he showed it to the guardsman. "It's a coated color for the nails."

But the guardsman was still not satisfied. Having the girl turn, he caught hold of Natalie's jaw, taking a look at her teeth and then into her eyes before pushing her away from him. Natalie fell to the ground, and she ended up scraping the palms of her hand, but at the same time, she was thankful for not being burnt in here. 

The guardsman warned her, "I am going to keep an eye on you. And don't think we are fools here."

Once the guardsman left the scene, along with the other men, slowly, the people of the town started to return to their houses with murmurs of disappointment, as they had been deprived of watching a possible witch. 

Natalie let out a sigh of relief, grateful for being saved and for the very first time, she understood what fear meant. Her lips barely moved as she was still in shock, realizing people were going to burn her just because they 'thought' she was a witch. 

"T-thank you," Natalie thanked the man. 

The man was a handsome looking person, with blonde hair and his sharp features, where he looked at her now. 

The man responded, "You shouldn't thank me. Follow me, someone is waiting for you." 

Natalie turned startled, as she didn't know which person was waiting for her or if she was being mistaken to be someone else. 

"W-ho is it?" questioned Natalie. 

The man didn't respond to her, and instead, he started to walk. She quickly got up from the ground and followed the person, not wanting to be left behind and attacked again. Once when they reached a house, the girl turned to look behind her, where silence mostly filled around, and the light chirp of the crickets that surrounded them. 

The person walked through the door and stepped inside the house, and even though Natalie looked apprehensive, she followed him inside the house. She was greeted with the candles that were lit around the room.

She saw a woman sitting in the living room on a chair with her hand placed on her stomach, a large baby bump. The woman was speaking to a small girl, who asked,

"Mama, tomorrow can we go out near the bank of the river?" 

"Of course. Your sister must be on the way and once she's here, she'll take you there," the woman fondly said. The girl giggled before dashing out of the living room. The woman's eyes then fell on Natalie, who had stepped into the living room. Her eyes fell on the girl's clothes, taking in her appearance before she said, "You stand out with what you are wearing. Sullivan," she said the man's name. 

And the man didn't have to explain with more details, as he bowed his head and went inside the little corridor of the house. Natalie could hear the voices of people talking further inside the house. She asked, "T-thank you for helping me."

"It looks like you aren't from around here. Outsiders aren't usually welcomed to Willow Creek," said the woman, using her hand to support her while standing up. One hand was placed on her back, and the other placed on her baby bump. "What is your name, girl?" she asked the scared young girl in front of her. 

"Natalie," replied Natalie, staring at the woman who had dark brown eyes. 

The woman appeared to be in her thirties, and she looked beautiful in the glowing light from the fireplace and the light from the lantern that was placed on the side of the table. 

"Natalie," repeated the woman, her eyes staring at the girl, and she finally said, "You don't belong to this time. How did you come here?" 

Natalie wondered if this woman knew anything, but it looked like she was a human-like herself. She said, "I don't know. I was in a barn with some people, and then the next second, I woke up and saw that I was surrounded by trees. Please, I want to go back to my home."

"I don't think I can help you in that matter," said the woman, her expression calm. But her eyes looked wiser and calm that barely wavered. "Natalie. I don't know how to do that, but maybe in time we can figure out something. But until then, it would be better for you, if you don't speak or wander around."

"Y-you can do that?" questioned Natalie, hope rising in her chest. 

"Try. This is my house, and you have a shelter here," the woman assured her, and Natalie nodded her head. At the same time, the man named Sullivan returned to the living room, holding clothes in his hands. "Wear these clothes so that you don't stand out like a sore thumb. You must be hungry. Sullivan will guide you."

Natalie was thankful that this woman was keeping an open mind in this place, but something told her that the woman knew that something was up. She asked the woman, "May I know your name?" 

The woman smiled, "I am Opaline La Fay. This is my home and family. Sullivan."

"Please," said the man to Natalie, who nodded her head, and she quickly followed the man inside the house. 

As hours passed by, Natalie met the other people of the family, who were mostly females, with just two males in the house, one of them included the servant named Sullivan. After having a meal that she was not used to having, she was taken to a room that was shared by two little girls, and she fell asleep. 

More than an hour passed, where everyone had gone to sleep except for the woman named Opaline, who sat at the table with a lantern burning next to her. She was sewing a sweater for one of her children. Though she looked young, as if there wasn't much gap in age with respect to her elder daughter, the woman was older, making people believe as if they were sisters.

The flame flickered, and the house servant of La Fay arrived at the room, and he came to stand at her side without speaking a word. Once the woman was done finishing one piece of the woollen sweater, she finally spoke, 

"How is our guest?" 

"Asleep, milady," replied Sullivan. "Why do you think she's here?"

"We'll know only when the time comes, Sullivan. Truth and fate doesn't reveal itself beforehand and we need to wait patiently. Something grave is coming and we need to be careful," stated Opaline, her eyes staring at the flame that danced, and it flickered.

The woman then said, "Keep an eye on her and also on the magistrate. We don't want him getting suspicious. Did you hear anything about the visitor who was supposed to be coming to meet the magistrate?"

"I overheard one of the magistrate's men say that it has been set up for next week," replied Sullivan, and the woman gave him a small nod. 

"I see. Make sure we know when it happens, so that we avoid coming across any of the outsiders. Let them believe that we are just like any other normal humans," said Opaline with a grim-looking expression on her face. 

The woman then placed her hand on her stomach, running her hand over the baby bump, gently caressing it as if she was caressing the baby that was growing inside her. Something didn't feel right to Opaline. 

"I wonder if everything will go well," whispered Opaline, looking at her stomach. 

Back in the present time of Veteris university, in one of the buildings where the infirmary was, Roman and Donovan didn't break their gaze, staring at each other as if one of their gaze would overpower another and the person would submit. But it didn't happen. 

"Isolde told me that you were throwing up blood, similar to when you were turning from human state to a vampire. That the silver with other elements like holywater's component has colluded in your bloodstream," stated Donovan, his eyes falling on Roman's bandaged chest. "Do you feel as good as I see you to be?"

"Yes."

A few seconds ago, his vision had turned dark, and then he saw the light, which was Julie's doing.

The Elder vampire nodded his head, "That's good to hear. How did she fall asleep in such an unusual place like here?" his bright red eyes fell on Julie, who still rested on Roman's chest. 

"She was tired. It was a long day, thanks to you," remarked Roman, and he tore his gaze away from the Elder vampire, placing Julie on the bed in a comfortable position while letting her head rest on the pillow. 

Donovan's lips threatened to pull up, and he said, "Looks like you're annoyed that I went to your old room to see her. Don't worry, I did give you my word that I won't harm her."

"Is that why you decided to play mind games on her and threaten her by mentioning about her relatives?" Roman turned to look at Donovan, who held a subtle hint of amusement in his eyes. 

"I believe it is always good to have many options. We still haven't come to the part of you fulfilling the deal, which I am eagerly looking forward to. Also, Luciano and Castiel have come to believe that the path for the Willow Creek had been opened for possibly the briefest seconds before it closed," said Donovan, in an even and calm tone. His hand slipped into the pocket, and he said, "They found this feather," he raised his hand. 

Roman's eyes fell on the black feather that belonged to a raven. "What about it?" he questioned. 

Donovan brought the feather near his nose, taking a sniff from it. He said, "If I am not wrong, it holds the same smell that I smelt earlier in the girl's room." Roman knew Donovan was way too perceptive, and there was something he had caught on to, which was why he was here.

Roman then said, "Okay, let us talk."