The Dancing Flame
We stopped as we arrived at the clearing. Behind the mist, I could see a pile of wood lying on the wet ground. I couldn't help but sniffed a little, we were going to die very soon, we were going to be burnt.
Burnt alive.
'Hey! Move it!' Someone pushed me and Alec forward. Alec managed to balance himself after the push but I fell with half of my face made contact with the cold mud. I struggled to stand up, trying to suppress a sob but the stubborn tears started falling again.
'Shh… Don't cry.' Alec held my hand and pulled me up as gently as he could. When I was on my own feet again, he used his thumb to wipe my tears away. Then I held his arm tightly and we moved forward.
Our hands were soon separated as the villagers tied us to a long stick with thick ropes, but we linked them together again once they were done. The other villagers started walking to this clearing and as they looked at us, there was nothing but hatred and anger that filled their eyes.
Seeing the faces which I used to love made me sobbed uncontrollably, I can only do that much as I feel the tears streaming down my face and fell from my chin. I looked at the people, scanning for faces that might showed any sign of sympathy or sadness. But all I could see was the same face that had shown hatred and happiness, happy to see us burnt, to see us suffer so they could let go of their pointless suspicion.
I stared at them though my blurry eyes, a different feeling beside despair engulfed me. I felt anger rising in my body. All those suspicions, all the suffering we have experienced, every humiliation and every wound we had were because of them. Because of them, nothing but them.
I found myself yelling, 'you guys are stupid for believing in those old rumours and legends, we are not witches and we will never be. But mark my words, real demons will haunt you for you have killed many innocent lives, and are going to kill more!' Apparently my words had caused quite a chaos as people were now whispering something along the line of 'ungraceful child'.
A man came and slapped me two times. The tingling feeling lingered on where his filthy cold hand had its touch and I felt my cheek burning. I felt some thick liquid coming out from the corner of my mouth and I used my tongue to lick it. It was blood, the bitter saltiness could never be mistaken.
Anger, after my outburst was no longer bugging me. I felt so small, so tiny, so powerless that I could never be free and I could never do things against their will. I could only be slapped, be burnt and I could do nothing to defend myself. Fear started making its way back and the tears came out more vigorously.
Our uncle was delivering a speech, I could hear words like 'to protect ourselves', 'burn' and 'demons'. During his speech, Alec's and my hands never loosened, we were still holding each other's hand together just to make each other not to feel so lonely.
A man, whom I thought was the religious leader of our village lighted a torch and walked to us with his stoic face. I felt like struggling, I felt like running away or try my best to loosen the knot on the rope. But I was frozen, I didn't do anything to escape, to seek for the hope that didn't exist. I just stood there, on the pile of wood, waiting. Waiting for my death.
Everything felt like it was happening in slow motion, the man was moving towards us, with his torch where fire was burning brightly on its end, orange red flames were dancing swiftly, smoke were rising to the sky. I stood, still frozen as the beautiful flame moving towards me. Like a ghost that will never give up haunting its prey, it kept coming closer and closer.
'I'll see you in Heaven, Jane.' Alec's voice was shaky as he squeezed my hand tighter. I nodded and moved my head to left, trying to remember his face for one last time, the face of the only person whom I could recognize as my family, the only one I could trust. Even though his voice was shaky, he looked calm and collected. I felt the tears left a new stain on the wake on my face as I thought of the pain he would feel.
The torch was tossed to the pile of dried wood, and the orange red flame made its way up. Before long, we were surrounded by nothing more but flames that were dancing around us crazily. An exotic dance that had only meant death for me and my twin brother. I looked at Alec again, and saw his face that reflected the colour of the flame was now looking at the fire, bewildered. I felt the warmth of the fire and I looked at my dress. It was burning and I could picture the fire moving along the hem of my dress, making its way to my feet. I closed my eyes and squeezed Alec's hand tighter, if we were going to die, we would die together.
Suddenly, something unexpected happened. I felt the rope on our body loosened before I fell into someone's waiting arms. I opened my eyes with shock and I saw Alec, being carried by another pair of hands. Before we knew it, we were running, or flying, I didn't know. All that I could feel was the crisp wind brushing my face and the tree and the evergreen grass all becoming a blur.
I wanted to know who was taking us, and where we were going to but the speedy run was giving me a headache and I felt my brain swirling. After some minutes, we abruptly came to a stop. Before I could even utter a word, I felt someone bit me and I screamed when the wound made contact with the cool air. It felt like pouring acid to my skin, I had never felt that bad before, the wound must have been very deep.
It was later when another wave of pain hit me. It wasn't the same feeling anymore. This time, the feeling was worse as what I thought felt like fire coursing through my body, making their way through every single vascular. I screamed, suddenly realized the pain the wound gave me wasn't that unbearable anymore. Indeed, it was ironic to call it a 'pain'. I rolled on the ground, trying to stop the burning but it didn't help.
I didn't know how long the fire kept on burning, but when it came to an end, it disappeared as suddenly as it appeared. I immediately stood up and was stunned to find that it took me less effort to move than before. I looked around, found myself in some unknown forest, with two figures covered in black cloaks and Alec, who was still lying on the floor.
'Don't worry. He is ok.' One of the black figure said, before I could even ask my question or walk over to my only family. I looked at him, shocked and worried. If they could run that fast, would I be able to carry Alec and escape from them without any aid? The main point was, do they mean us any harm?
'Who are you?' I asked, trying to make my voice firm and sounded more adult. I decided to figure out who were they and what was their intention of taking us away.
'We are the Volturi. Welcome to the world of vampires.' The black figure answered, proud and authority coloured his tone.
'Vampires?' I was taken aback by his answer. Then, I found out that I was sitting beside a lake and I looked into it. In the lake, there was an angelic girl with white skin, red eyes looking back at me. She had the almost same features as me, only more refined. I couldn't help but thinking the girl in the lake was me, perhaps it is me. The new me.
The powerful new me.