I Dream of a Witch with Long Red Hair
Chapter 6 – I Should'a Worn Fire-Proof Underwear
By Crystalquirt
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The dust cloud made by the witch-hunter's cars and trucks settled quickly. Gwen and Kevin saw Father Macurdy and the others getting out, watching their prey closely.
Gwen and Kevin watched them closely too. To meet the threat, Kevin stood up slowly and stepped away from Ship-car's wreckage. Kevin nearly had the car seat loose, but wasn't able to take it out yet. Julie and Ben were still in the back seat of the overturned alien shape-shifter. Their accusers were staying behind their cars, hiding like they thought Kevin was armed. They were the ones with the weapons; rifles and handguns.
Kevin guided Gwen by her arm to make her get behind him. Julie rolled Ben off and rose up on her elbow so she could see a little more of what was going on. All she could see over Ben's body and under Ship's crumpled car door, were their friend's legs and the trucks parked a short distance away. She could also see legs that had to belong to Father Macurdy, near the line of cars and trucks. She saw enough to know that they were in major trouble.
The pickup truck drivers and the Sheriff stayed crouched down behind their vehicles with their guns and rifles pointed at Kevin. Father Macurdy stood bravely in front, out in the open. Julie hugged Ben tightly again when she heard Father Macurdy's voice for the first time, "Alright witches – you can't escape - surrender yourselves to God."
Kevin yelled back, "Hey - when I see God, I'll surrender to him."
"Don't antagonize them," Gwen whispered.
"Who's antagonizing? I'm serious."
"Step forward and surrender peacefully so you can receive God's judgment and following punishment."
Gwen stepped up to stand beside Kevin. "Don't be ridiculous. It's not God who's judging us - only you and your followers are judging us, and you've already decided we are guilty and ordered our 'punishment' . . . or executions – if you were to speak the truth."
"Now who's antagonizing them, Gwen?" Kevin smirked. Gwen quickly glanced up at him, but didn't take her eyes away from Father Macurdy for very long.
"Whatever witch. I'm doing God's work either way; protecting our town and it's citizens from evil. Make no move against us, or the Sheriff and the others will blow your heads off. Taking your heads off will do the job, but it's not God's will. Do not deprive us of seeing you burn at the stake for you're crimes."
"Don't deprive you? Your statement proves that you're doing this for yourselves! We've committed no crimes!"
Kevin smiled confidently. "Well no serious crimes at least . . . forget it Gwen, they won't hear you . . . like you said, they already made up their minds." Kevin lowered his voice, "Gwen, I can't protect you from all of their guns, even if I had iron armor."
"I know Kevin. My energy won't last long protecting all of us against them either."
"We have no way out of here anyway, and Ben being hurt makes him pretty worthless."
"Ben's not worthless Kevin. Anyway, I agree that we have no way out right now, but we'll get our chance, right?"
Kevin stared at the Sheriff. He wasn't ignoring Gwen, really – he just had no answer for her right then.
Gwen stepped forward first with her hands up. Kevin took a deep breath and put his hands up too. From inside the smashed Ship-car, Julie could still only see their legs, but knew what was happening when the Sheriff and three other men started walking toward them. "Ben, please wake up!" she begged and shook him gently again.
"Hands behind your backs." the Sheriff ordered. Kevin and Gwen reluctantly did as they were told. "Witch, you know if you make any move against us, he will suffer."
"Yeah girly, he's a big boy, but he'd go down with a bullet in his knee." Kevin gritted his teeth angrily. Gwen promised, "I'll make no move against you," in her thoughts she added a 'yet' to that statement. When Kevin felt the handcuffs snap closed around his wrists he tensed angrily. He heard cuffs close around Gwen's wrists next and that made him even angrier.
"Where are you taking us?" Gwen asked
"To church, heathens."
The men walked Kevin and Gwen to the back of the truck with the caged bed. Gwen smiled at Kevin, knowing either of them could twist the cuffs and the cage into pretzels if they just got a chance.
They saw Albedo sitting in the back of one of the other trucks. Just as Kevin was about to step up into the caged truck, Albedo gave a hand signal and one of the men hit him in the back of the head with the butt-end of a riffle. Gwen screamed his name and her eyes glowed pink for an instant before someone hit her too.
Knocked out, she started to fall, but someone caught her and put her in the cage. It took two of the men to pick Kevin up and roll him inside. Both lying unconscious, making a pretzel out of the cage would have to wait.
Julie saw what was happening and would have run for it, but she refused to leave Ben. She had no where to run anyway. The first man who got to Ship-car leaned down and grabbed Ben's bare foot to pull him out. "No! Please - be careful – he's already injured!"
"He'll be worse than injured in a few hours." The man roughly pulled Ben out through the broken window. Someone reached in from the other side and caught Julie before she knew they were behind her. They pulled her out by her arms.
"No! Let us go!"
"We already have it on good authority that you're not much of a threat by yourself, girly, so you better just cooperate – with 'anything' we ask of you."
Julie totally didn't like the way he said 'anything' and was horrified at the same time by the way they treated Ben even though he was obviously no threat to them. One of the hunters handcuffed him with his hands behind his back and put him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes to carry over to the cage. Very upset, Julie cried, "Ben! Don't . . ." She blacked out after the blunt handle on a hunting knife struck her in the temple.
"Hey guys, she may not have been much of a threat, but she sure was annoying." They all laughed and joked like they were cleaning up after a party as they went about their gruesome chores. They handcuffed and threw Julie in the cage as well and locked the gate with a padlock. The four teens laid in the bed of the truck like sardines in a can.
They left Ship alone, thinking he was just another muscle car. Although the Sheriff planned on calling a tow-truck to have it towed back to his house so he could take parts off and sell them to fund the annual picnic. As soon as the last pick-up truck left the scene, there began a soft grinding sound as the door that had been ripped off of Ship-car started dragging itself slowly over to the rest of the car. Ships green stripes glowed very dimly and flickered as his diagnostics and self repair systems started to run.
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Albedo rode in the back of the pick-up with two of the Father's closest assistants. As if he were leading a meeting of the planning commission using 'Robert's Rules of Order', he instructed the men on how to handle the witches to be sure they wouldn't escape. Albedo didn't want to have to go alien himself to destroy them either. Ben had beat him before, and he would rather have someone else do the dirty work anyway.
The caged truck rolled through the church gates first, followed by the other trucks, the Father's Cadillac and the Sheriff's car. It was just like a parade. People they passed cheered and clapped. As Gwen started to wake up, she could hear voices chanting, "Witch! Witch! Kill the Witch!" over and over. Gwen's head pounded from being knocked out. She tried to use her powers, but her vision wasn't even clear. Her eyes glowed and flickered briefly, but went out. She scooted closer to Kevin and rested her head on his chest, comforted a little by the sound of his regular heart beat.
A small crowd of people ran out of the church when they saw the parade going by. Someone shouted, "They caught them - they caught the witches!" The children ran along-side the truck trying to see into the bed until it got to the back of the church property.
Behind the main church there was a smaller building, and directly behind it was a fenced lot with farm equipment stored in rows. Large trees lined the property and made it seem even more secluded. Behind everything else, as far away from the road as you could get and still be on church property, there was another huge building. Or part of what was left of a building at least. It had been huge at one time, perhaps the main church when the area was first settled.
The line of vehicles went through the nearest wall, where large doors had once been hinged and stopped just inside. All that remained of the building was most of the four outer walls and half of the roof toward the front where the trucks stopped. The walls were as tall as if it had been a three-story building once. Now just an empty shell. There were even two shade-trees growing inside the walls, near the back where sunshine came in through the missing part of the roof. The floor was gone, or covered over with dirt, and a nice mowed lawn grew. The afternoon sun, low in the sky, caste an eerie light in the indoor, but also outdoor area.
Several church members had already been there for a while, preparing the area for what Father Macurdy had planned. They had two large piles of firewood ready. Most of the wood was piled around the bottom of a steel pole, near the back wall under open sky. The pole and wall behind it had been blackened by a previous fire. This pole even had holes drilled through it for tying, so the victim couldn't slide up or down it. There was a large pile of ashes and human bones in the corner, near the 'stake.'
Gwen was sitting up looking around, her head throbbed still. "Did this building burn down?" she asked. The man named Ed was standing near the truck and answered her, "No, it just fell down over time, but we have still found a use for it. No one except select church members are allowed back here, Father Macurdy's orders."
"We aren't members of the church."
"You are the exceptions to the rule. The missing roof allows the smoke from the burning witches to escape."
There were already several other people, who weren't working, sitting on blankets or folding chairs and eating cold fried chicken like there was going to be an outdoor concert. There were children there too. Parents had actually insisted that their children come to the burning, just like little David said when he first met Ben.
The two men who handcuffed and knocked out Kevin and Gwen were also the ones who unlocked the cage and climbed inside to take them out. They teamed up to lift Kevin, just like they had done when they put him in, but Albedo interrupted, "Take the red-haired witch first. This one will accompany me back to my, um . . . back to my lair where I will question him, but chain him to the bars using this before he wakes up." Albedo threw a large, rolled rubber mat that the had in the other truck in the cage; it landed on Ben, Albedo smiled and continued, "Be sure no part of that human male can touch metal or there will be trouble."
While the first two tended to Kevin, two other men jumped in to get Gwen. She pretended to be very weak and almost unconscious, but once she was out of the truck, she came to life - even with her hands behind her back. Kicking one of the men in the groin and smashing the others nose with her forehead, she landed with her eyes lit up. Pink mana broke the handcuffs and she held her hands up, ready for a fight.
"Stop it girl! We can still shoot one of you're friends and make this whole procedure much more painful for them." Ed said, sounding a little bored with her futile attempt to fight them. He reached into the truck and pressed his gun's barrel against Kevin's thigh. Gwen reluctantly stopped fighting and surrendered.
Father Macurdy was getting impatient. They still had the formality of a trial to go through before the witches were burned and the sun was going down. "Lets get this show started men! Chain her to the stake – restrain him like Gary Jane said and get the boy wearing his only his underwear secure too, just in case he wakes up. Who else, but an agent of Satan would wear such immodest clothing in public?"
Gwen defended Ben's attire, "He wasn't expecting to be going to church today. He was supposed to be resting, recovering from his injuries so he could kick you're ass! But don't worry, it'll still happen!"
"Him, kick my ass - as you say? Don't be ridiculous girl! Take her!" Two guys dragged Gwen to the stake.
Kevin remained unconscious while he was wrapped up in the rubber mat and stood up against the bars to be chained to them. One of the men called Frank, used a lever from outside the cage to make sure the chain around his middle was tight enough. Kevin woke up thinking he was being cut in half and struggled. "Hey – ow- that's tight enough you jerks!"
"Yeah, like we're gonna to go by what you say." Frank angrily tightened the chain one more click. "Argnnnnnnn!" Kevin groaned as he looked down at Julie and Ben. He frantically looked for Gwen when he saw she was missing. Gwen was being dragged over to the metal stake. With her hair covering face, he couldn't tell for sure if she was even conscious. "Don't hurt her!" he cried, even though he knew it wouldn't help.
Frank laughed at him, "Burning won't hurt a witch. It'll just send her back to hell where she belongs. You should know that since you're a witch too." Ed spoke up, "Yeah Frank, but there will be screaming. Thems' witches hate fire."
Ed tightened another length of chain around Kevin's knees and around the bar. Fortunately, he didn't tighten the chain around Kevin's legs so tightly or he would have broken the bones. Kevin's hands were still cuffed together behind his back with steel handcuffs, inside the rubber mat. Realizing that, made him smile. Frank rolled Ben over preparing to take him out of the cage next. Ed went to help with Gwen.
Two little girls about eight-years-old screamed when they saw Gwen being chained to the pole. A third older, blond, Barbie-like brat cried, "The witch hurts me!" and held her stomach.
"Stop hurting the children witch!" Ed grabbed Gwen's hair and pulled her head back. "I'm not hurting the little brat." Gwen cried through clenched teeth.
The girl screamed again and Ed punched Gwen in the stomach. Gwen cried out and sucked in her breath. Her hands were already secured behind the pole, but she leaned forward as far as she could. The girl stopped screaming and grinned. She skipped happily over to the other kids to tell them how she got the witch punished.
Down inside the rubber mat, Kevin absorbed the stainless steel from the hand-cuffs. It was barely enough to cover his hands and forearms, but he knew he could make it work. Even though his hands were still stuck down under the rubber and chained behind his back, the handcuffs snapped between his fingers like frozen chewing gum.
Seeing Gwen being tied to the stake and not fighting back scared the crap out of him. The only reason she wasn't fighting was because they had threatened to hurt him. He hurried to poke his fingers through the rubber so he could grab the iron bars he was chained to. They started to bend, but even better, he was absorbing iron from them.
Albedo was standing nearby with the Sheriff's taser weapon, watching Kevin. He jumped up in the cage, stuck the hot end of the taser against Kevin's neck and zapped him at the highest setting. He screamed; his muscles jerked involuntarily against the chains. Albedo held the weapon against Kevin's neck zapping him unmercifully, until he passed out again. The stainless steel and iron on his hands dissolved.
Before he jumped down out of the truck, Albedo, or 'Gary Jane' stopped to look down at Ben. "My enemy – how did you ever beat me? You inferior copy!" Albedo leaned down and slapped Ben across the face. "Wake up – you'll miss all the fun – I want to hear you scream when you burn!" Ben didn't respond, but Julie moaned and opened her eyes in time to hear Albedo threaten, "Don't you dare die on me before we kill you, Ben Tennyson!"
Julie pulled at the hand-cuffs, but realized she was stuck with them. She stopped trying to get them off and scooted closer to Ben. Albedo ignored her. He jumped out of the truck and looked around to see if his 'witch-hunting' expertise was needed with Gwen.
Gwen had heard Kevin scream while Albedo was zapping him and looked up. "Kevin?" she whispered and tried to see through her own hair that was still flipped in front of her face. How she wished she had put it in a pony tail that morning. With her hands being tied together behind her back and the metal stake, she tried to flip her hair back just by moving her head quickly back, but the fast movement hurt like a brain freeze and made her dizzy.
Whoever was standing behind her threatened, "Stop struggling Witch. You can't get away." She felt chain tighten against her chest, just under her shoulders. The chain pulled her up, tight against the pole. More chain went around her legs and waist.
The Barbie-blond girl, a couple of years older than David and the same girl who pretended that the witch hurt her before, had returned, watching them chain Gwen. Suddenly she announced, "I saw the witch bite the head off of a bat!"
Gwen was surprised when she heard that and argued, "I did not!" then Gwen closed her eyes to try and focus again. She was trying to gather as much mana as she could from the living things around her, including her would-be executioners to get strong enough to get everyone free.
Next, they pulled Ben out of the truck. Julie screamed for him and threatened them, but they just pushed her back. On Albedo's orders, they tied him up on his back with his hands spread eagle on a board. Albedo warned them. "Watch him - make sure he can't touch that talisman on his wrist. It will amplify his powers and let him become a demon right before you're eyes."
They put another lash of cord in a figure eight around his chest and behind the board to hold him even more securely, but they didn't bother to tie Ben's legs. Unconscious and only wearing only his boxers and a tank top, Ed saw the dirty bandages around his thighs and pulled them off. Had he been conscious it really would have hurt. They could all see his wounds clearly. Obviously injured, he wouldn't be running anywhere even if he did wake up.
Holding the ends of the board his arms were tied to, two of the clergy dragged him over close to Gwen and dropped him on his back in the pile of ashes that had been raked away from the stake. Human bones, amongst the ashes, rattled when they dropped the board with him attached to it and a skull was crushed under his back.
There was only one stake and only enough wood for one bonfire stacked around it. Father Macurdy was pacing wishing they could get on with it. With all the burnings they had scheduled for the evening he was afraid the fires would still be burning after midnight. There was only one older guy, wearing overalls in the far corner, chopping wood with a little ax as fast as he could go. He had another pile chopped up, but no one was stacking. Father Macurdy went to find Ed.
"Ed, get a few guys to help and stack that wood over here. When the woodpile is deep enough, just throw the boy on top of it. He won't need to be tied to a stake – he won't be going anywhere. We'll do them both at once. I don't want to be here after midnight. There are early services tomorrow about compassion that I have to give."
"Yes Father, but I wonder – I think we have enough wood, couldn't we throw the second girl on top of him and burn them both at once?"
"Ed! What a fine idea. You will be in God's good graces for sure. Bless you!"
"Thank you Father." he went to go find someone to help. Soon, he and another man, Earl started piling wood into wheelbarrows to take it to build the woodpile for Ben. They stacked it loosely, so it would burn hot and fast.
Julie watched all the preparations going on around her. She knew Albedo had been the one behind what they did to Kevin to restrain him with the rubber mat and what they were doing to Gwen was just awful, she had trouble even watching. She saw them strike her while she was tied up. Julie could see through the bars that Gwen was roughly and uncomfortably tied to the stake, standing on top of at least three feet of stacked firewood and Ben was tied on the ground near Gwen with someone leaning over him like they were studying him. The bandages were gone from his legs, his wound's dirty with ashes and seeping bodily fluids.
"Oh no, even if we survive this, Ben may not survive the infection he's gonna get being treated like that!" Hoping to find a way out, she got up slowly so no one would notice. First she wanted to check on Kevin to see if she could tell how badly he was hurt. She found she needed her hands, so with a quick jump into the air, she brought her hands under her legs and landed with her hands in front. But even with her hands, couldn't get her fingers under the tight chains, or reach where they had been secured to be of help. He didn't respond at all when she tried to wake him. She turned away, gazing at Ben. "I hope Ship can repair himself. I don't know if he's even been damaged before or designed to repair himself – but why not? I don't think anything that could ever happen would surprise me anymore."
Ben woke up coughing from the ash that had gotten up his nose when they dropped him. He panicked, not knowing what was going on, and being unable to move his arms, he frantically looked from one of his bound hands to the other, lingering as he gazed at the Omnitrix. He opened and closed his fists, wishing he could loosen the cords that bound him, just enough to activate the watch. It wouldn't even matter who he turned into – he thought being any alien at this point would be better than being human.
He quickly fantasized about going Humongousaur and what he would do to Father Macurdy as he looked around. When he saw Gwen, his breath caught in his throat. Why isn't she fighting back? He wondered, out loud he cried, "Gwen?"
"Shut up you!" Not realizing Ben had awakened until then, Father Macurdy hurried to him and covered his mouth with his hand. Ben bit him.
"Ow! You foul Demon! Without God's protection, you would have infected me with you're evil - I'm sure." He took his nasty handkerchief out of his pocket and stuffed it in Ben's mouth. "We don't want you chanting any spells to use against us." Ben glared angrily at him and curled his fingers into tight fists; the muscles in his arms strained against the cords.
As Father Macurdy gazed down at him, he ordered, "Better gag the female witch too, until time to hear her scream."
Ed went over to take care of gagging Gwen. He lifted her head with a finger under her chin and brushed the hair out of her face. "Too bad you're a witch, you're so pretty." Ed was almost gentle as he stuffed a rag in her mouth and tied it loosely behind her head. Gwen glared at him with nothing but contempt, until he went back to getting wood.
Gwen spat the foul gag out of her mouth. The rag used to tied it in, fell down around her neck.
"We aren't witches, how can you all be so ignorant?"
"Look! She got the gag off – she must have used magic!" a woman screamed.
"It wasn't tied in very well." Gwen shouted back, struggling a little. She realized that they had tied her very securely. In fact, one length of heavy tow chain had been wrapped from around her shoulders, stomach legs and back up again before they padlocked it behind the pole.
The younger girls had gathered in a small group in front of Gwen when they heard her. The three in front, started screaming, one fell over holding her stomach "The witch hurts me!"
Copying her friend, the second girl fell down. "The witch hurts me too!"
Gwen watched them, horrified by their behavior, she knew they were just trying to get her hurt again. "This is ridiculous – You can't be buying these brats crying!"
Another voice belonging to someone Gwen couldn't see spoke up. "See how the witch attacks the innocent! She is too weak now to do anything else."
The littlest girl grabbed her stomach and screamed, "The witch kills me!" the corners of her mouth turned up and she giggled. No one seemed to notice that the little girl wasn't much of an actress. Earl threatened Gwen, "Stop it witch! Stop!"
"I'm not doing anything to them!" Gwen yelled, and then mumbled, "I'll show you just how weak I am in just a little while." Earl slapped her across the cheek. The girls all ran away giggling.
Albedo watched from the shadows laughing at how well his plan was unfolding. "That's right! Good little humans. Instead of God's work, you're ignorance and fear are making you do my work for me!" Albedo laughed a most maniacal laugh. Demonix was near too, hiding in the shadows to keep an eye on his prize.
After hitting Gwen, Earl didn't go back to stacking wood. He was staring at Ben's Omnitrix. "Why don't we just take that talisman off of his wrist so he can't use it against us? If its so powerful, I'd like to have it."
Ed shushed his friend and looked around for the Father. "Shhhhh- Don't let father Macurdy hear you say that – the thing's evil . . . why would you want it in your possession?"
"Better I have it, than the witch! I'll even give it to Father Macurdy or that witch hunter."
Ed continued loading wood by himself when Earl left to go examine the Omnitrix. Ben had closed his eyes. The nasty handkerchief in his mouth and the pain he was experiencing from his injuries, old and new, made him nauseous. He was trying to think of something to do to save everyone. His eyes opened wide suddenly when he felt someone's hands trying to get the Omnitrix off of his wrist.
Earl look all the way around the Omnitrix' band for a clasp or fastener of some kind, but saw nothing. He walked away and Ben though he would leave him alone, but Earl only went to the closest truck and got bolt cutters. The bolt cutters came unhinged when he tired to use them on the band.
"Confounded thing, you must have enchanted it to keep me from taking it off of you." With a short fuse, Earl was embarrassed and already furious. He pulled his foot back and kicked Ben in the leg as hard as he could, twice.
Ben put his head back, screaming through the gag. He brought his knees up and twisted his hips trying to get farther away. He lie with his back arched, his arms stretched as far as they would go, panting when Father Macurdy ran over. "Earl – what did he do to you?"
"He tried to make me release him using some kind of mind control! They are very dangerous!"
"That's it – there's enough wood. Throw him on top, bind the other girl tightly and throw her on too."
Gwen saw what happened to Ben, and tried to concentrate even harder to draw energy. The Father's men did as they were instructed. Three of them picked Ben up. One on each end of the board by his hands and the third carried his legs to toss him up on top of the pile of wood. Ben groaned when he landed on the woodpile. The pile was at least four feet deep of cut wood stacked crossways, just like the pile around the pole that Gwen was tied to. Gwen watched what they were doing to Ben, until she heard Albedo and someone else fighting over Kevin.
"He should be burned with the others!" the stranger yelled.
"No – I've spent my life hunting him – I will take him with me!"
"Your life? How long can that be? You're a teenager!"
Gwen could hear chains rattling and hoped one of them had untied Kevin. The sun had set and it was dark enough, Gwen couldn't see what was happening. Julie was dragged by her arm over by Ben. Their frightened eyes met and they gazed at each other while they un-cuffed Julie only long enough to put her hands back behind her back.
They tied her ankles this time too and two of them picked her up by her arms and literally threw her up on top of Ben like they were still stacking wood. Flying through the air, Julie screamed. Ben uttered an "Ooof" through the gag when she landed across his stomach.
"Sorry Ben." she felt bad for causing him discomfort, even though it wasn't her choice to have landed on him.
Ed had a gas can soaking the woodpile around the edges, close to their feet and hands. Earl had a gas can too and was doing the same thing around Gwen while they listened to the Father begin the trial. Father Macurdy's voice rang out in the warm night air.
"Are they guilty of witchcraft?"
Most of the crowd yelled, "Ye!"
David bravely, said "Nay," but everyone ignored his small voice.
Father Macurdy continued, "Trials over, you have been found guilty of witchcraft and are to be burned at the stake . . . or 'on the pile' for those two . . . LIGHT THE FIRES!"
Three men on each pile started lighting the gasoline. They ignited the gas in different locations around the edges so each would burn to the center evenly. Flames fueled by gas, grew tall very quickly and Ben could feel the heat on his bare feet right away.
"No!" he cried into the gag and started struggling. Panicked, he strained to move his legs trying to get a foot hold on the wood to push himself and Julie off the side over his head, and away from the crowd, but all he succeeded in doing was to knock some of the wood down and sparks flew up into the night air. Julie started coughing right away from the burning gas fumes and smoke that she was lying face down over. Knowing she was holding Ben down, Julie tried to roll off of him, but Earl reached through the flames using a long board and prevented her from rolling anywhere.
Gwen watched the flames around her growing taller and looked at what they were doing to Ben and Julie too. Just then, the little girls started screaming again, "The witch wants free – she's trying to kill us!" They held each other and their stomachs with big tears running down their faces, caught up in the drama of it all. Most of the people in the crowd eagerly watched the flames, but a few covered their eyes or looked away, including David.
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Ben gritted his teeth and with all the strength he had left, fueled by adrenaline and fear for Julie, he lifted his legs. Julie slid toward his chest. Using the weight of the board his arms were tied to and Julie's weight, he kicked into a backwards somersault. His legs kept Julie across his middle as they rolled backward off the burning woodpile.
Gwen saw that Ben and Julie were out of the flames, but the crowd or Father Macurdy couldn't see much through the smoke anymore. Gwen forced herself to endure the discomfort for just a little while longer, knowing she would have only one chance to make this good. Gwen closed her eyes, focusing on the life energy around her.
Ben landed face down, with Julie under his stomach. The board's weight with the weight of his arms pressed down across his shoulders and his head was head still uncomfortably close to the flames. He shut his eyes to rest for a moment, thinking at least Julie was safe.
Julie started squirming, she rolled over while Ben was still on top of her and that movement pulled him back a little farther from the flames. She hurried to try it again, and she pulled him back some more before she wiggled out from under him. Julie stayed low behind the pile of burning wood, realizing that no one had seen that they were gone yet. She tried to stifle her coughing so no one would hear that she wasn't still in the fire while she worked to untie Ben.
Gwen finally lifted her head, slowly and opened her glowing eyes. "Morons. You will be sorry you didn't listen to reason!"
"Finish burning - Witch! You're in no position to threaten us." Father Macurdy stated boldly.
"Oh aren't I? I am more powerful than you will EVER realize!" Gwen shouted. A hush fell over the crowd. The only sound now came from the crackling fires.
Just then, Kevin came running at Gwen out of the darkness. While Albedo argued with Frank, he had gotten away. Unfortunately, Gwen had no way to share her plan with Kevin and he might just be about to ruin it.
She yelled, "No Kevin!" Even though she had a plan, she was still scared – and really uncomfortably hot. She saw through the smoke and flames that Kevin was still running toward her, covered in stone that he hoped would be fireproof. He jumped up on the burning woodpile, right through the flames and hugged Gwen while he tried to break the chains. The second he touched her, stone covered her too.
"No! Foolish human!" Albedo yelled at him. He stood next to the Father, worried that Demonix' prize was about to kill himself.
Kevin's stone armor started to crumble and dissolve while he tried to break the chains and he knew he was about to pass out again, "I'm sorry Gwen." he whispered. She barely heard him over the roar of the flames. "Kevin, run – get away! Please – I've got this!" Gwen begged, but Kevin could no longer make the decision. As he passed out, he fell away from her and rolled down the pile of burning wood. As his armor disappeared, the flames touched his skin and clothes and his pants-legs caught on fire.
On Albedo's orders, Ed and Frank ran in quickly and pulled Kevin farther away from the flames. Albedo ran over and put the flames out, only trying to save his partner's 'money maker'.
Gwen screamed an eerie, horrible scream as the armor Kevin had shared with her dissolved and she had no protection at all from the increasing heat. The flames, pole and burning wood all flashed a bright white light and then glowed purple around Gwen. Frank fell backwards and landed on his butt. Ed and Earl backed away. Father Macurdy crossed himself, dropped to his knees and started praying.
Gwen rose up, the chains falling away like they were made of paper. Her hair-gone-white, blew around her head like gravity was no longer an issue for her. Her dark, violet body of energy was hard for the crowd to see at first, but as she rose her body glowed intensely. She had no visible clothing, but yet she was not naked, her form was a lean, feminine shape almost like a glowing shadow.
Gwen's brightly glowing eyes surveyed the crowd sending chills up everyone's spines. The little girls screamed and tried to run, but Gwen dealt with them by trapping them in a bubble of her pink mana without even a wave of her hand. She prevented anyone from running away by placing a shield across the entrance.
Gwen ignored most of the crowd. She really only wanted Father Macurdy to be her special project. The good Father didn't even remember to try to run. He fell backwards, still muttering prayers while a large, wet stain appeared on the front of his pants. Gwen floated horizontally in front of him and down low enough, she looked straight into his face.
"I was sent here by God to test you and you failed miserably!" Using a mana lash, Gwen picked Father Macurdy up. Frozen with fear, he hovered just off the ground, pee running into his shoes.
"You have murdered innocent people and other angels who were working for God, just like myself. Being one of God's most powerful, He sent me to deal with you. It is you're turn to stand and receive God's judgment for your crimes!"
Father Macurdy finally stammered, "I'm sorry! I thought I was doing what He wanted – please don't hurt me."
"No! You were doing what you wanted, fulled by your own ignorance and fear! GOD IS NOT AMUSED!"
"No! Please – you can't be an angel! You are dark and scary and we saw you do magic!"
"Do you think any of God's angels are not powerful enough that they couldn't do what you call, magic? And a vengeful angel can appear dark and very scary to sinners. How dare you judge others by their appearance, or even what you think they are doing when you see them? You ignorant little man! You're thoughts are wrong, what you think you know is wrong – and you are a sinner!"
"I'm no sinner – I'm sorry! But it says in the bible . . ."
"Now, you dare to quote scripture to me? Scripture that you have totally misunderstood! From here on, you really will do only His work. You will be humble and learn love everyone unconditionally! Your first experience where you will have a lot of practice practicing compassion, will happen very soon - in prison. You will show compassion and help each person you encounter no matter what they do to you. If you show anyone the slightest bit of malice or even judge them – you will be the one who spends an eternity in Hell, beginning right that moment!"
Father Macurdy scooted away a few feet before he rolled over. Crawling, it still took him a while to get up and run. She took down the shield and let anyone still trying to get out, leave, including the 'Barbie' brats in the force shield.
She stood on her own feet, her hair turned back to its beautiful red and even her clothes came back as she kneeled to touch Kevin's face. "Can you hear me?" Gwen took just a moment to look at Kevin's burns before she rose to go check on Julie and Ben. When she turned, she saw one person was still standing near, watching with big eyes.
[[[[[[[[[[Ben10AF]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
To be continued . . .