“Oi! What are you doing with me?!” Touji screamed. “Why can’t you just listen to me? It’s not true! Please believe me! I didn’t do it!”

“Hmph. I don’t know why you insist on lying through your teeth even after you’ve been proven guilty. But I guess it doesn’t matter. Same ending either way.”

They began to drag Touji away all the while struggling to no avail. The guard whose build was that of a wrestler, threw him over his shoulder and carried him outside to the courtyard where the villagers gathered expectedly.

“Odja! Why? Why?!” The man countered his words with a sharp glare. “You can’t possibly think I killed that girl!”

Touji was roughly tossed onto the ground and pinned down by several men.

“I swear, I didn’t. I would never do such a thing.” As Touji recovered from being thrown his eyes began to distinguish what stood above him. An erect pole had been dug into the earth and piles of wood were being placed around its base.

“Oi! What is that?!”

The men removed the pipe from between his arms, they then hoisted him up onto the platform by his waist and tied his wrists behind the wooden steak.

“That’s right son. We’re going to burn you alive!”

-Why is this happening to me? Why?!

His cries for help went unanswered as a crowd began to surround the podium, some even cheering for the spectacle to begin. A metal mask with a hole was strapped around Touji’s mouth and a long hollow pipe made from the same material was attached to it like a respirator. A guard held the other end outside of the podium and away from the flames.

“What the hell is this for?!” Touji demanded.

“Well, son. It’s to give you fresh air while the fire tickles your feet. We wouldn’t want you to go unconscious halfway, now would we?”

Touji’s thoughts encroached on his mind with horrifying images of the pain he was about to endure. He never once thought that this would be the way he would die. The worst he could have imagined was a car crash or a terminal disease but this? This was far from reality to have been considered an option and yet here he was. It seemed that his purpose was becoming more and more meaningless as time had gone on in this world and now realizing that his life would soon come to an end without accomplishing anything. It wasn’t the thought of losing everything that scared him, but the thought of losing nothing. The idea of leaving nothing behind was what made this even harder to endure.

His internal reflections were at once interrupted by a sudden puff of wind. He felt a sharp pain in his feet from the freshly lit flame.

“Uuughghhhhh!” He screamed as he writhed in agony.

“Stop it! Stop it! I’m begging you.”

The smoke and sparks tainted his eyes, causing his vision to well up into a confusing mess. He could hear the roaring fire as he twisted and thrashed about on the burning wooden platform.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!”

As the pain intensified Touji suddenly locked glances with a singular person in the crowd. The woman known to him as Derra stood near the back of the gathering weeping. No words could describe what Touji felt. The one who for a month had almost seemed like a mother to him shed tears, not of sadness, but full of happiness as she mouthed the words “burn in hell”. This was the final draw for Touji’s sanity as the pain had finally reached a level he couldn’t bear. He could feel his soul being wrenched from his body as his skin melted off his face and his hair crisped.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Then it all stopped. The pain was gone.

It all felt so quiet. So peaceful. Like he was floating along a river with just the sound of the ripples in the water.

Then as if he’d been thrown onto a concrete floor, Touji felt his consciousness thrust into his body. He woke up throwing his head back and gasping for air.

“I-ehyahi!” His words became unintelligible as his mind came to grips with the reality around him.

He looked down at his own body and discovered that it was completely intact. Not even his clothes showed the slightest hint of being singed. Now utterly confused he glanced at his surroundings once again. He was in a garden. He knew this garden quite well, in fact only until a day ago it was where he frequently ate his lunch.

The ground was red.

“I died. I died. I died. I died . . .”

As the vivid memories rushed these words kept pouring out from his mouth. Everything was beginning to make even less sense. As he touched the blood-covered ground a picture of Claria, smiling and cheerful, flashed across his imagination.

“Claria… oi! Why did you die?!! Oi!!!”

He started to tear up as he let his hands go limp. He heard a noise. The soft sound of footsteps approaching.

“Is anyone there?” The voice asked.

Touji’s muscles suddenly tightened and began to move on their own, his legs throwing him to his feet. He started to run. He barely knew where. He ran and ran, his heart pounded a million times a second.

His movements were frantic, without any semblance of posture as his arms flailed about as if they had lost their use. Any sight of a villager made him immediately change course.

When Touji finally thought he would collapse, his feet stumbled upon a paved road. From the previous day, he knew that it led to the city of Shizma. His steps slowed as he made sure that no one could be seen wandering down the path.

He stopped, panting heavily.

“Oi! What now! What the hell now!”

The air felt colder and the sky grew ever darker.

He couldn’t go back. A morbid fear of returning to that village had taken root. He placed his hands over his arms and began to rub them in a consoling fashion. The pain from the flames was so etched in his mind that the burning sensation continued even though no flames were present.

The only choice left was to advance towards the city or wander into nowhere. He didn’t know how far he had gotten or for how long but it was already sunset and the forest around him was shrouded in a cloud of darkness.

He started to walk forward cautiously as he noticed the accumulating arclight slowly rolling in as if someone had been smoking nearby. He continued as his mind shot pulses of pain through his body.

About an hour later, as the sun had fully disappeared behind the horizon and the temperature had significantly decreased the sound of wagon wheels and hooves crawling across the gravel path echoed through the empty road ahead of him. He froze.

-What should I do? Should I hide? No wait! It’s coming from ahead, so they are from the city. They probably won’t kill me. At least I hope they don’t. Or maybe they will. Aaaaaaah!

He hesitated for a moment before finally making his decision. Slowly he began to edge forward. The wagon came suddenly into view from around the bend. It carried a single person, a merchant most likely from what Touji had guessed. As it approached him the horse let out a loud neigh and slowed down to a stop in front of him. He was about to turn around and make a break for it but he saw the figure called out to him.

“Hey there boy! If you don’t mind me asking, where are you heading?”

“Oh…” Touji let out a small gasp.

“I’m sorry, this may be none of my business but are you perhaps heading towards the Shizma?”

“Y-yes. Why?” Touji asked cautiously, shaking quite profusely though the man failed to notice this in the dim light.

“You should head back. You don’t want to arrive in the city around the night hours. I can take you back to the village if you need a ride.”

“No. I can’t go back. I must make it to the city.”

“But it’s so late. You really shouldn’t-“

“I SAID IT’S ALL RIGHT!”

“Alright alright, man. Just offering to help.”

“…”

“Well, then I’ll just let you go. Best of luck to you young man.”

The merchant whipped the horse and drove off. Touji took a deep breath and continued down the lonely and now silent road.

He started to wonder why people were so uptight about staying in the city at night. Even Odja said something similar. But it wasn’t that bad when he had been there. Sure he hadn’t been there at night, but it’s not like it’d be that much worse than the daytime. Besides how else would the hotels or inns stay in business?

As his thoughts drifted Touji had an internal strike of fear. His muscles stiffened as he realized what it signified. Two blue eyes appeared from within the dark depths of the forest ahead of him.

His legs shook in fear and his body refused to cooperate.

“No… not a fenrir.”