Skin Crawl

Salvation

That morning, Neema's son began coughing blood. Two other people developed high fevers. Just past midday, the river overflowed its banks. Neema lamented to village elders through the door of her quarantined home that the outsider woman had cast a flame after Saphia's death, referring to the glow from Dr. Cory's device. Her daughter's spirit must have escaped her body before the pyre and now the whole village was threatened because of it. The elders needed no further excuse, but with three more ill, they had excuses in plenitude: the outsiders must be dealt with, but first, there was the matter of that cursed woman who had brought them here.

Vianca cried softly in the corner as she leaned against Cho. "I was walking with Tamasha when they grabbed us." She held her hand up to her face and continued talking through it. "They pulled my arms, tore at my hair, called me a Death Spirit."

I grabbed onto Vianca. "What did they do with my mother?"

She recoiled. "I—I don't know. I ran, I got away. But they said they'd be back for me. I don't even know what a Death Spirit is!"

"It's exactly what it sounds like. Cho..." I let go of Vianca, whose terror had rendered her useless. "What happened to my mother?"

Tenderly, Cho pried Vianca off of him, transferring her into Dr. Cory's markedly less reassuring hold. He placed his hands on my shoulders. "They're taking her to the pyre."

Shrugging him off, I sprinted to the door.

"Hestia," my brother's tiny voice called out. "Don't go!"

My siblings pleaded with me to stay. I could hardly blame them. Tamasha was a despicable woman who left her children to starve and only came back to them because she was being paid to do so. Why should I risk my life for hers? What did it matter to me if the village found her accountable, for that matter. I'd judged her guilt years ago. But she wasn't being murdered for child abandonment, she was being condemned for events which she'd had no control over. The absurdity of a situation in which a woman could be burned to death because it rained too much was unbearable.

"I'm sorry," I whispered to them. "Hold each other close."

My siblings' embrace surrounded me as I fled the house. Not bothering with a plyu leaf, I let the rain wash over me, a soggy shield against the inevitable flames.

"Hestia, wait!" I turned to see a drenched Cho slicking black hair away from his forehead as he jogged up to me.

"You should stay with them." The pounding rain forced us both to yell, despite the fact that we were almost touching. "Better yet, you should take them back where you came from. My sister and brother too." Out of fear, villagers normally stayed away from the Witness house, but there was no guarantee they wouldn't make an exception today. My siblings, Cho and the others—none of them were safe as long as they stayed here.