Basil Stopped longing for other kids' company when he was eight and noticed they were all stupid.

'I'm telling you, men are like pigs inside. I saw it!' he tried to explain one more time, standing in the cobbled road leading from the town. This is where all the village kids were gathering. He slightly preferred their company from the town kids. Slightly.

"You're a liar!" the boys from the village shouted. Jehan, the biggest of them, was the loudest. The girls were just looking at him with disgust.

"Come to my house next time. I'll show you. Just don't tell my parents, they don't like me cutting them up."

"Your parents are stupid. I've been cutting pigs up since I was three."

"Haha, now you are a liar! You couldn't do it when you were three. Adults don't let kids hold big knives." Basil replied angrily to Jehan's boasting. Besides, he hated being called a liar, which was happening quite often. Now was his time for revenge. If he could catch Jehan lying... And then he would prove he was telling the truth. Those stupid boys and girls will see and will respect him. They will see him doing it, cutting a dead pig and taking out its heart and lungs and those long things that are at the rear. Inte- somethings. And then nobody will call him or his family names.

"Anyways," he said aloud, "I was not talking about pigs. I was talking about men. I've seen, they are the same. And women too!" he finished with a sinister whisper.

"You... you can't cut men open!!!"

"Oh, but I diiid! And I saw a man's heart and his black soul left with a hiss when I poked that heart."

The kids were shocked and Basil could almost hear them thinking "Could it be true?"

"No! The soul is invisible!" one of the girls protested in a high and slightly squeaky voice. Basil regretted going too far. Then he decided he would turn this for his profit.

"That was a lie alright. I didn't see any soul. I just wanted to scare you. See? I confess when I tell a lie and the rest I said was true. I did see a heart and it was red. Like blood."

The kids looked at him terror-struck. They realised he was not kidding, he did see a human heart, he did see a man cut open or maybe even he did it?

"But... It's forbidden," said little boy with a chubby face. "It's against God's law!"

"Who said that!?" Basil asked boldly even though he already knew the answer: the priest.

"The priest" answered the chorus of children's voices.

The priest said so was a statement that could end all the disputes. You don't act against God so you don't act against the priest. The kids would use this final solution - the priest said so - even if the said statement was not true.

"If you tell lies you will go to hell, the priest said so" "Dogs don't have souls, the priest said so" "Eating raw chicken is forbidden, the priest said so" "God watches you all the time, the priest said so".

Some of them were indeed things priest Lucifer, the local vicar, said, some were totally made up. Basil, of course, used the "the priest said so" as often as other kids.

The said priest had no idea his words had such unquestionable power in the world of hiding places behind the barns, in the shacks of the woods and on the smelly narrow streets of the town. Everywhere kids would gather and play "the priest said so" was echoing with a final and unconquered reign. He was thinking day and night how to teach obedience to men and women of his parish, completely unaware that he already had all the little souls on his command.

But there was an urgent discussion Basil needed to be taken care of.

"No, he didn't say it's forbidden!" he said defiantly.

(Or did he? What if that was true, the priest said it and now he will have to repent for everything and promise not to do it again? But no, Basil never heard anything like that so it didn't matter what the kids were saying. They could be lying, you know).

"It's not forbidden," he reassured himself aloud. The other started doubting too. Is it allowed to cut corpses of the damned?

But then when Basil thought the kids would believe his side the big, thirteen-year-old Tom stepped from nowhere, with his already mature face and blank, bored eyes looking at the rest of the kids from above, with his nostrils moving in a constant smirk. He said with his mutating, husky voice, slowly and almost casually:

"How would you know anyway, Basil? You are a criminal... anyway."

Basil felt fury rising inside his stomach.

"What did you say!!!!???"

"You are... you..." Tom started but lost his courage looking into Basil's eyes. The honour of the gang, however, required that he finish the sentence. Later on, they could start a fight and everything will be over in a few blows. He had to finish now what he was saying. Iovita was here watching, so...

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"You are a criminal!" he burst quickly and prayed Basil just rushes at him with his small fists. But it was far from over, Basil was really, really furious and that meant he would breathe heavily and say things before the argument ended the usual way.

"I. Am. Not. You are a liar!!!"

Everybody was waiting and Tom, who did not expect things to go this way (actually didn't think anything when he decided to call Basil a criminal), had to reply in his defence.

"Alright, but your father is."

Iovita covered her mouth and her big eyes became bigger with excitement. Everybody held their breath. This was the moment they had been waiting for. A final defeat or triumph of dark-haired Basil.

"What did you say?! My father a criminal?! How dare you!!!"

"If not, then why is he an executioner?"

"Yes, why?" other kids joined Tom. They wanted the answer their parents were not giving them. Is Cyril, Basil's father, a criminal or he's not? And what about Anne, his wife?

Basil thought about it for the first time in his eight years of life. Why do they live a life unlike anybody else? Unlike folk from the town, unlike folk from the villages. His family has this small house far away from everywhere, they have this small garden where they plant swede, carrots, and turnip; they have some chickens and when Basil was little, a very, very long time ago, they had an old gander they ate for Saturnalia. They are poorer than others too. That's why dad has to ride around the county and take jobs nobody wants to take, like clearing the roads and farms from carcasses. When he comes back mum always washes his clothes that smell like rotten flesh.

"He is an executioner... because he wants to be!" he shouted to barrack his insecurity. "The money is good and he's good at this job."

"Maybe the money is good but he doesn't get to kill people often does he?" another girl asked sheepishly.

"His father is a criminal, that's it. He would be dead if he didn't agree to be the next executioner."

"All lies!" Basil felt betraying tears gathering underneath his eyelids. "All lies! My dad is a warrior! A knight!"

His scream was met with laughter from all the kids' throats but Tom's.

"He killed a man and he was spared 'cause he agreed to break his sword, marry your mother and become the executioner."

Basil didn't know which one said these awful words. However, he would not tolerate such an insult to his mum.

"My dad married my mum because he loved her!"

This time even Tom could not stop laughing. The children found it the most hilarious thing that happened that day. Cyril loving Anne? Was Basil blind?

That was enough for Basil. Tears started rolling down his cheeks, so before anyone would notice he just cowardly turned away and started running with his head down. He ran and ran through the village, the woods and the fields until he could not catch his breath. He was far away, in the pastures. There he sat down and let the cry burst off his chest and he didn't try to stop it. When finally he stood up the sun had already crossed the zenith, and the hunger rumbling inside his stomach made him walk back home, to this small house with a small garden.

"Hey, Basil" the voice starlet him. It was Tom, twenty paces away.

"What!"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. Will you talk to me?"

"No!"

"But I'm sorry! Come on, let's fight. You can have a stick, I will use bare hands. Come on."

"Go away!"

"But... Basil! You're still my friend! I would..."

"You're not a friend of mine!"

"Oh come on! Let's fight!"

"No," Basil said for the last time and walked away. He wanted to check if Tom was following him but his pride made him not look back. He wanted to fight with him, to hit him, do it like they always do. But not now, not when Tom might see he's been crying. Tomorrow.

At home dad was busy chopping the firewood, mum was washing clothes in the yard and Agnes was playing nearby with her toy animals mum had made from snips. They didn't notice him so he snicked inside the house and found baked turnip in the oven. He grabbed some bread and quickly ate his meal.

"What happened, sunshine?" The voice did not surprise Basil. Mum would always know he's back home.

"Oh... that's why you tried to snick inside? You've been crying?"

"I wasn't crying!"

"Come here sunshine. Come. It's alright to cry from time to time. It helps sorrows to leave. Will you tell me what happened?"

Basil looked at his mum's beloved face. Only very recently did he start noticing that she was different. Her very small and receding chin made it look like there was just one straight line joining her lips with her neck. Protruding, crooked, bad teeth gave her a rabbit-like look and skin covered with smallpox scars seemed misshaped. She had small eyes of a dull hazel colour but those eyes were looking at him or his little sister with such extraordinary, almost unrealistic passion! Ever since Basil remembered he could not avert his eyes from hers, there were so many unspoken emotions and silent adoration. He once heard in church the priest saying that nobody can look at God for the light coming from His face would instantly turn you into an incorporeal shadow. Basil has always imagined such brightest of all lights would be his mum's loving eyes turned into a flame.

The words came from his mouth without him wanting to say them. Or maybe they were the exact words to say? He wanted to hear the truth.

"Mum... Tom said dad was a criminal. Is it true?"

"Yes and no. He did kill a man a long time ago, but it was not intentional. The trial was unjust. A bad man wanted to take your dad's money and land. So your dad was about to be executed but was offered a pardon if he took the job he's doing now."

"Mum... is it true that he didn't love you?"

Anne had to think of an answer suitable for a little boy.

"He loved me enough at the right time. And I believe he still does. Nothing else is important, my darling."

"But dad is a knight, isn't he?"

"He used to be. Now he is not."

"But you are a knight forever! That's what I heard. Really."

"I don't know about that, but to me, your dad will always be a nobleman."

Basil sat tucked in his mum's arms for a while. He didn't really listen to what she was saying. Just being there calmed him down. Finally, he stood up and wiped his face.

"I have to go".

"Again? But you just came back. Where are you going now?"

"To fight with Tom. I'm sure he's waiting".