AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t get it,” Talia said. “The Ferryman made it sound like all these places came with lessons. What does torturing one another do for us?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” I asked. “Here in the Abyss, witches are persecuting one another. It’s a literal witch hunt. If they stopped accusing each other, and the community worked together, no one would be tortured. All they have to do is come together and agree on something. But here, people can’t do that. That’s why they’re stuck.”
Chloe scoffed. “They can’t do that back home, either. We’ve created our own Abyss in Octavia Falls. Come on, let’s keep moving.”
More screams came from up ahead, and I turned my face away as we passed by others in the forest torturing each other. I couldn’t look away fast enough, and I saw a man drop a spoked wooden wheel on top of a woman tied to a stage. I heard the snap of her bones and shuddered, while the crowd forming around her cheered.
The closer we got to town, the more and more torture devices we witnessed. A man sat on a chair while a woman tightened some sort of spiked device over his knee, effectively shattering his knee cap. His cries echoed throughout the whole forest. A similar—but smaller—device was used on another woman to crush the bones in her fingers.
I saw a pair of pincers with teeth on the sides. It glowed red from the heat of sitting upon coals. I didn’t want to think about what those were used for.
Chloe sucked a breath between her teeth. “Crocodile shears. Ouch.”
Grant shuddered. “Don’t tell me that’s used to rip off a guy’s penis.”
“I’d rather not know,” Talia insisted.
The trees cleared up ahead, giving way to a small village with cabins reminiscent of the 1600s.
Grant spun around to take it all in. “This looks like Octavia Falls when it was first settled.”
Lucas’s voice came out hollow. “That’s because it is.”
Screams filled the town, though they sounded more like screams of protest rather than those of torture. I saw the cages first. High above our heads and hanging from the trees were what looked like large bird cages. Witches with sunken eyes and skin that seemed to suction to their bones sat in the cages, begging for food. The townspeople ignored them.
A crowd had gathered in a central square, shouting obscenities over one another. As we got closer, I got a better look at what was going on.
A woman stood hunched over, locked between wooden boards with holes cut out for her head and wrists. A putrid scent filled the air, and I realized people were throwing feces and rotten eggs at her.
Not far from the pillory, another crowd had formed. They sat on benches facing a long podium. It looked like a courtroom that had been set up outside. A woman in a red hooded cloak read a list of crimes off a long sheet of paper, and another in a black cloak stood at a pulpit, judging the trial.
A man on the witness stand shouted over the woman in the red cloak. “I didn’t do it! I swear it!”
The crowd yelled back. “He’s guilty! Take him to the pyre!”
The man didn’t have a chance to plead his case before a crowd of people swarmed him and dragged him off into the woods. We heard the crackle of flames, then the sound of his screams growing louder as the fire burned him.
My stomach clenched. “It’s the witch trials all over again.”
Eyes began to turn in our direction as people noticed our arrival. “You there!” a man called, pointing at us. “It seems like you’re new here. Do you want a turn?”
Lucas stepped aside as the crowd began closing in on us. “No, we’re just here for a visit.”
“That’s too bad,” a voice cackled from behind me. “You’re here just like the rest of us, and that means you deserve to be punished!”
Hands landed on my friends and me all at once, and my heart leapt into my throat. All around us, townspeople laughed mockingly as they dragged us toward the witness stand.
“Get off us!” Lucas shouted.
“Don’t touch me!” I screamed. I formed a battle orb in my hands, but it barely flickered before someone slapped shackles onto my wrists. They had to be magical, because I suddenly couldn’t access my powers.
“You can’t do this!” Talia cried. “We’re not even dead—we don’t belong here.”
Grant struggled against the townspeople, while Chloe whispered beneath her breath, “Just go with it. We get to choose our fate, right?”
The townspeople shoved us into chairs behind the podium. They plopped me down between Lucas and Chloe.
A stack of papers magically appeared in front of the woman in the red cloak. When she turned, her long red hair beneath her hood became apparent, and I realized I recognized her.
