Long before the inquisition in Spain and the trials in Salem, the Romans were burning their own witches in a desperate attempt to control religion, women and the state. To the European world the whole province was a barbaric frontier inhabited by a sect of fanatics but witches were well hidden from the world. Some may have been caught out and been burnt to the stack, but witchcraft grew stronger with such powerful magic that not even the priest could ever overcome their power.
One witch ruled Tivoli Villa d’Este; just a little town outside of Rome, killing young women to keep her youth strong and beautiful. Her name was F.E.A.R, meaning For Every and All Religion. She only wanted just one religion and that was to the devil. But there was just one woman, a child who she couldn’t kill because love was a weakness to all evil and strength to all good civil people; even if love wasn’t meant to be.
***
At the back of the jail cell is a high barred window and near it was a great heavy door that flew open and she walked in. Among the prisoners, she walks the crowd will part like the sea for Israel and headed towards me with a cynical smile upon her lips she reaching out for me.
I sat there on the cold harden marble, not looking up to her, keeping my head bowed to the ground as she seized for my hair and pulling me up to my feet. The others just watched, too weak and to frighten to fight back. She was F.E.A.R we all feared of; the prisoners and I are knows to be the Wild Ones or as in her eyes, The Rebels.
We both walked through her marble castle gripping my hair hard and pulling me close to her side. She stopped and let me go. We were in a strange room the ceilings were high and arched. The rooms light were very gloomy by the only light from the fire lanterns. F.E.A.R roamed around me as I lay on the cold hard marble floor. It was more of a circular form and had columns high with the ceiling where she disappeared watching me maleficently. I stumbled upon my feet as I weakly stood up. F.E.A.R clasped her hands on my face and roared with tone
“You, Rebels have claimed your brave new war is upon me,” F.E.A.R let me go,
“Don’t be fool by the chicanery in which laid your claim”
Her eyes met mine. I’ve seen what she can do with just her eyes. When they look at her in the eyes for a long time they will chock with such power and evil spirits. She continued talking, changing the tone softly evilly.
“It is false and your uprising would not succeed.
She came closer to me touching my hair and brushing it away from my face, tucking it behind my ear.
“You will place your trust in me, F.E.A.R.”
She walked away from me turning her back onto me.
Her hair was white snow and long with layers at the end. Her dress reviled her curves and showed a bit of cleavage, and like that she can bewitch men to their death, but yet, not a pretty little girl’s soul keep her young youth, but young love can forever. Her dress was red as blood with real gold embroidery around the edges. But, her skin was starting to show wrinkles.
I was dirty, filthy. I wore a dress that was once so beautiful and was once a baby blue and now it’s ripped ruined and covered with blood stains.
A moment of silence as I stood still she disappeared between the giant columns. It was like deaths in the air. Just then F.E.A.R. came out of nowhere and showed me the night outside. The night sky beaming with the moonlight seeping through the clouds, but it seemed empty without the stars. The marble castle was like death’s twilight kingdom with the moonlight appearing sightless as a perpetual star.
Within the distance, a dim light of what seemed to be a fire touch. It was him, The Prophet and his army coming to rescue me and the other Wild Ones.
“A fire, a fire is burning! Oh this is black mischief.” F.E.A.R murmured furiously and was hanging out of the window shouting ordering her guards to fight back among the war.
“Round up these Rebels, these deviants, these so called Wild Ones. We will litter the streets with their bones.”
F.E.A.R furiously rosed up fiercely and in her eyes they were once grassy green and now blood red, evil.
“And annihilate the dangerous and obtuse ideas poisoning our minds and endangering our freedom, giving rise to the destruction of the benevolent future we have prepared for you!”
She turned to me as I still positioned myself on my feet being still. She rushed to me grabbing hold to my arm and pulling me to her side as we stride to greet the Prophet and his army.
***
Her guards stood still like statues waiting for their orders from F.E.A.R. The guards had no identification, just black cloaks with hoods and skull faces. F.E.A.R threw my in front of him and looked down at me suffering with heartache as he powerlessly couldn’t protect me and the other prisoners. F.E.A.R smiled with competency and evil in her soul.
“You belong to the shadows, and the shadows are where you remain safe.”
Undemonstrative, The Prophet exclaimed,
“For the marvellous and supernatural murder, the Devil may own a woman’s soul, you hear the boot of Lucifer and see his filth face. And so in Hell you will burn with him!”
And that was when F.E.A.R and her guards disappeared into the shadows and a gust of wind blew out the burning fires. It was silence and the prisons screams and cries where the only sounds in the distance, and the chirping annoyance of crickets closed by. I sat up slowly from the dusty sand petrified of not having a clue what is happening.
Just then the fires lit up again and I was being lifted up from my feet into the air with hands grasping for air, but just than a cold sharp dagger stabbed me into my right hip and her face, F.E.A.R’s face came into view. Eyes as a red blooming rose, younger skin. The pain tormented me hip and she pulled it out making me fall lifeless to the ground. My vision blurred, my hearing was fading, but yet I can still hear every detail that was being said. The Prophet yelled out FIGHT and many screams of young brave men began the war.
I then heard a woman’s screamed and a sizzling sound of fire burning and turning something to ash. But before the sizzling the voice of a woman spoke,
“Love was never meant to be in this life time but to keep my young and beautiful.” And the voice of F.E.A.R cried off slowly fading out and dying from the burns.
Within a few minutes I felt my body going cold, only knowing I could stay alive for a few more minutes.
The Prophet picked me up from the wreckage, holding me close to his body keeping me warm. We were both alone and he mends my wound, but he also knows that I won’t last a while. His eyes began to water and a tear drop escaped his eye and travelled down his cheek defining his jaw line and sat on his chin for a second and fell onto my cheek. He whipped the tear away knowing there is nothing he can do. He held my hand and whispered,
“I will search for you though 100 worlds and 1000 lifetimes until I find you.”
I whispered back weakly with death by my side,
“And I will wait for in all of them.”
My grip grew loose and my eye lids felt heavy. My soul was being lifted to the heavens while my body stayed behind.
Have goodness now. God forbid her to take your soul to the depths of Hell. Rest well in heaven and wait for me. Tonight, your innocence was murdered and my body, my past, my life died with you. Yet like a phoenix, I have risen up from the ashes of pain and despair and heartbreak.
I soar.
Words of The Prophet.
