I've Been Waiting For You

Chapter 3

  With his hands bind, he was blindfolded so he couldn't see anything, but he could still hear everything. The wind blew heavily through the trees as he was dragged like a rag doll through the forest away from his home.

  Usually the dream would end there and he'd wake up but this time it continued. He didn't know how long or far he was taken until they suddenly stopped and removed the blindfold. 

  Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked around cautiously to find hooded figures surrounding him, holding torches. One by one the hoods were removed revealing the faces of the villagers he had been raised among.

  The same villagers he grew up around, but was quick to cast him aside after his mom died mysteriously. Even though he had told them repeatedly that she had been sick for a while and hid it from them, they still blamed him.

"The villagers found you guilty of sorcery and murder." 

  The distorted voice came from the lone figure holding a torch and a book in his hand. When the figure finally removed his hood, Malachi gasped in shock.

  The face staring at him was his Uncle Thomas, filled with unveiled hatred. 

  He always knew his uncle never liked him. ever since his brother Henry died two months after his mom gave birth to him. Ever since then he had been on the receiving end of his physical abuse.

  He couldn't bring himself to tell her the truth about the torture he suffered daily from his uncle. 

  The villagers knew, maybe not everyone but still no one had deemed it fit to help him.

"I'm not a sorcerer. I didn't kill anyone."

  He glanced around uneasily at the others, hoping that some upright person would see the injustice being done here. The minutes ticked by slowly as he watched helplessly as his uncle turned to the silent crowd, anticipation clear on their faces. 

  Swallowing in dread, he felt his heart start to palpitate erratically, since he already knew he was being wrongfully accused regardless of his innocence. 

"We've been watching you from the moment you were born. Since the day you were born, unfortunate things kept happening. My brother died, then your mother died. Nothing but bad omens has plagued us, so we took it upon ourselves to solve this problem."

  Thomas gave a nod of his head to two burly men that grabbed him roughly by his arms, and pushed him to the ground. He felt his back hit a hard surface but before he could see what it was, his hands and feet were fastened to it, so that he couldn't move at all. 

  They slowly pull it upright until he could see the villagers, still holding their torches. 

  His uncle stared at him for a minute then walked towards him, torch still in his hand. 

"Malachi, this has to be done. We find you guilty and sentence you to die by fire."

  His heart still plummeted at his words, but a part of him wasn't surprised that his uncle and the villagers plotted together to finally get rid of him. He slowly let his eyes scan every face and expression before they rested on his uncle who stood staring at him with a smile on his face.

  Thomas gave a slight nod and one of the burly men from earlier came closer and took the torch from his uncle.

  He watched as the man walked towards him and lit the straws aflame. Watched as the flames drew closer and closer to his body. 

  Then his mind went blank and with an empty expression he opened his mouth. 

"From this night onwards this village and those whom participated in my death will never know peace and your generation will suffer because of this."

  Screams echoed around the woods, as the flames engulfed his body. The pain of being burnt alive was completely unbearable.