THIRST IN HELL

CHAPTER 1

I had come to understand that defending myself in a situation like this yields nothing, so I chose to remain silent. How could I possibly convince the angry council that it was an accident and that I regret it as much as they do, if not more?

"Brethren and saints," a feeble old man clinging on to his walking stick spoke, " We all know the old rule from our forefathers; that if you take away a person's life, your own life must escort it."

On hearing that, I sighed.

"The evil that tastes a butchered human's blood cries for more and more blood. So, once a killer, always a killer. My advice is that you remove this evil one from our holy land before he kills more of our saints." 

There was a brief murmuring from the crowd. Some daring villagers even nodded their heads in my direction, as if encouraging me to just embrace the death sentence easily like it is cold Sprite in a summer.

The accusations were partly true. I had actually killed her. Killed my dear wife..... but that was when the knife I was holding slipped against her jugular in our sudden tight embrace.

The worst of it is that we were all alone, in the exception of an old dumb woman who was observing our reunion silently. That made me a murder convict as well as the only eye witness who could fully explain the incident, but who can trust  such a witness anyway?

I reported the incident to the council. The council dismissed it and did a sudden investigation, as you can guess, the report pointed to it that I am a murderer and a terrible lier.

Everyone was eager to eliminate the murderer from the society. The final verdict was made and then I was dragged along the way by merciless villagers who had previously been my friends and my neighbours... for a long time. They all seemed to enjoy the drama judging by the way they were voluntarily taking turns to pull my bruised body nonstop towards the darkpit.

The darkpit was a sealed vent through which offenders were thrown to fall along a deep slippery vertical tunnel into the underworld.

The darkpit was opened as mocking dirge songs filled the air. At that time, the old dumb woman forced her way through the crowd with tearly eyes. She placed something into my blood filled palm and forced my fingers to grab it. It felt like a hard stone but I was not given a chance to look at it well.

I was cast into the dark pit from which no one has ever returned. As I fell, I heard the seal being replaced quickly. A loud click meant that it had been tightly secured again.