A Deal with the Devil

Chapter 5

When the father went back home, everybody sat around the table, still shaken from the recent event. Mara didn't stop crying; and wasn't able to make a sentence without sobbing, Branwen was playing with his finger, feeling guilty, the mother was trying to comfort her second daughter, hiding her own pain. Suddenly, the father who so far didn't pronounce a single word, took the floor:

- We can't leak what she did. It'll be a dishonour for our family, we can't take the risk. Willow will be buried this night, in the forest behind the manor.

- Father! Mara exclaimed. You're a monster! Willow deserves a decent funeral... She said, spasmodic by tears.

- Nonsense! I beg you to stay quiet! Your sister had acted without thinking twice! Committed suicide is a sin. She's no longer a member of this family. You'll do as everyone in this room: you'll forgot her. There's no point in arguing as I won't change my mind.

- Monster! Crook! I wish you go to hell! She shouted before leaving.

- Mara! Spoke for the first time her mother, too late.

- We'll spread the rumour that Willow left the town to study music at her uncle's home on the Leicestershire.

When the night came, it was surprisingly cold for the season. As cold as the reason why we're here thought Mara. In a burlap sack, Branwen and his father were carrying Willow's corpse, followed by Mara and her mother, each one a burning candle in the hand piercing the darkness of the gloomy night. Near a church, unused for a few times, the group stopped. While the two boys were digging, Mara recited a prayer for her sister, catching hold of her tears. At the end, she collapsed into the makeshift grave and renounced to come back home with the rest of her family. "What an irony, she thought, my family... Family means nothing to me now.... I'll avenge you Willow; you can be certain".