Between Heaven and Earth

Burn Away the Shadow

Chapter 7

Burn Away the Shadows

The snow had begun to gather then, and along with it so did the wood. A boy watched with trepidation from the sole window of his prison as the other people of the small village worked, gathering branches and kindling from the surrounding wood and stacking it all under a tree. The wood was wet from the frozen flakes, bark dark and cores visible from where the tree had been messily chopped. Straw and small twigs were gathered and placed strategically for kindling, ensuring that the fire would catch even in the wet cold. Upon the boys arms rested metal bands, sealed with intricately drawn designs that circled all the way around and left burn marks seeping out onto the unexposed flesh of his hands a wrists.

His nails dug into the wood of the sill and he slid down the wall, hiding his eyes from the sight of the future fire. From his future.

All he could do was wait, shaking, while the shadows around his jerked at unnatural ways. At last the door opened, sending light spilling into the small space and revealing the boy, his clothes too thin for the weather, his fingers pitched black from frost bite and his lips blue. The man at the door stood tall, chin lifted and a glare fixed on the boy.

The boy's mouth was open before the fist caught his jaw, sending him crashing to the ground. The man, his father, stood above him and grabbed his arm, yanking the boy up to his feet and throwing him hap hazardously through the opening. The boy hit the ground, tumbling into the snow several feet before he was brought to a stop by a sharp kick in the ribs. A cry broke past chapped lips and the boy, who was really closer to being a man, was dragged to his feet by two more men. His father lead the way as he was pulled, kicking and struggling, to the tree.

From where he was he could see that someone had looped a rope around the lowest hanging branches. The boy trashed harder but he was thin, gaunt cheeks and visible bones in his wrists. The men had him easily over powered and he was taken to the tree, the rope lowered to his level. His father tied it tight around the young man's wrists, which opened and bled as the burned blisters and weak skin finally gave way.

The shadows stretched out as the boy was lifted into the air by his limbs, his legs kicking out until they were caught and tied together, a sack filled with rocks attached to them and forcing them to hang still as his joints were stretched to the point of dislocation.

Bellow his hanging feet the kindling had begun to smoke until the glow of embers spread to flames on the larger branches. Smoke lifted, filling his lungs and the tree he was suspended from caught on to the rest of the wood. His vocal cords were raw by the time the flames touched his skin, his lungs filled with billows of ash yet he did not die. The metal on his wrists heated and blood dripped over them, the designs beginning to melt. The shadows lifted from the ground, brown eyes shot open crimson red and the people that had been watching stumbled away.

In the night of the full moon a fire went out and roar of rage rang out.