Why Women Burn

Prologue

It was a sight that few people would ever get to see. And if they did it wouldn't have been at this time, at this place. A monumental moment only marked through bloodsoaked sand. The witnesses were female, naked. One of them laying on the scorching earth.

"Please stop crying."

She didn't though, kept bawling her eyes out, crumpled up like a used tissue. The other three women surrounded her, their bodies shielding her from the menace of the desert sun.

"We should get going."

The short brunette was scratching her neck nervously, her beedy eyes darting around. Hot, sandy air was slapping her face though there was a very low possibility of anyone being out here at this time of day. The sun didn't show any mercy, her feet were burning but she barely felt it. Still, one could never be careful enough.

"There will be questions. Staying together would be foolish."

It was the tallest of them. Long black hair was covering her back. Standing proud as if she wasn't sweating buckets and feeling a bit sick. Her pale skin started turning a hurtful shade of red. The brunette didn't want to crane her neck up to look her in the eye and risk making contact with the burning light. Instead she decided it was best to stare straight at her chest.

"I think there will be questions either way..."

The tall one refused to bow her head to that woman so she ended up staring intently at the top of her scalp. Before she could reply, the last woman, blonde with a face that could have been mistaken for an angel, decided to open her mouth for the first time.

"Either way, what do you suggest? As far as I know there is only one freaking city in this goddamned wasteland. Which, by the way, definitely witnessed us leaving together. So how do you suppose we split up? Because I am not planning on walking all the way to Constantinople!"

The sentence ended in a roar that carried through the emptiness. Even the crying woman stopped and stared. It was silent for a moment. The black haired one broke it first.

"We will all go to the city. Get some clothes, something to eat. And then we go our separate ways."

Her eyes were an unwavering command when she looked straight at the blonde woman. She waved an elegant hand towards the shaking body on the bloody sand.

"Carry her."

A blink.

"What? Why me?"

The protest sounded dull, like something asked out of habit, not necessity.

"Because you are the strongest. And because of what resides between your legs. We can argue that you are our brother or other relative thereby hopefully avoiding getting burned on the stake for walking around naked in the desert."

The blonde rolled her eyes.

"They are never going to believe that we are related. Any of us."

"Married than."

"Yuck."

The black haired one ignored the protests and started walking. The brunette stumbling behind her, suddenly feeling the blisters on her feet. It felt as if someone was trying to scrub her clean with a sponge made out of knives.

"How long until we reach the city?"

The short woman squinted her eyes, now finally looking up at the black haired beauty towering over her. The way she asked her questions was...disconcerting. Detached. It made alarm bells scream in her head. That's one of the reasons why her answer came out in a tumble.

"Approximately two and a half hours if we keep walking this quickly, which we won't. Probably more like three."

The black haired woman turned around, saw the blonde carrying the crying body over her shoulder. Her face was pinched in the effort, transforming her usually large blue eyes into slits.

"Are we walking or not?"

None of them felt the need to move. The sun was burning their bodies, wringing them out, making them cower. Engulfed them in a blanket of heat impossible to escape. The black haired woman wanted to curl up into a ball and sleep. Forget the last few days, forget the grave they had dug.

"Yes. We will arrive in two hours."

So they walked. At a painfully quick paste, pulsing and frying, feet rotting away on the bone. The black haired one kept them going. Kicking them up when they fell, dragging them behind her when they stopped. The short woman had started crying, the blonde one babbling under her breath,

"Please God show mercy, please just take me away from this wretched place, I just want to find peace in your arms, peace, peace, peace."

The black haired woman walked head high like the princess she was, refusing to stand down, facing the sun like it was her worst enemy. Her eyes were burning up. She was sure she would forever see the flimmer of the sun behind her eyelids.

The blonde fell. The crying woman had lost consciousness and landed head first in the sand.

"I cant...I just can't."

The black haired woman ignored the begging of the slender figure digging her nails in the sand hoping to dig her way out of this.

"Listen to me...."

She was losing it. The sun had burned away the controlled calmness which the blackhaired woman had been talking with until now.

"This. Is nothing. This is heaven compared to what we just did. So stand up before I make you."

The blonde looked up through oily hair.

"Go crawl back into the cow innards of which you came from you wench."

A delicate hand sank itself into matted blonde locks and pulled.

"Listen to me. You don't get to just give up now. You don't get to just sit here and die while we continue to live with what we just did. I am not going to let you."

She bent down, mercilessly grabbing the blonde's arm and dragging her aching body through the coarse sand. She ignored the screaming and cursing directed towards her and kept dragging.

"I hate you."

The words ended in a sob. The black haired woman gave her a look so cool she almost welcomed it.

"I don't want to die. So you will have to suffer with me."

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