The servant boy had gone to keep the gunny bag in the back of the carriage, going ahead of them. They had walked halfway back when Belle heard a scream coming from behind them. Turning around, her curious eyes searched for the person when it finally fell on a woman who was being dragged from her house.
"NO! GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!" the woman screamed loudly as two men dragged her across the street, "Let me go!" she kicked and thrashed but the men didn't let her go and continued to drag her across the muddy path.
"What's going on?" Belle asked with her eyebrows that furrowed in question and she went to take a step to be held by Lucas.
"Where do you think you are going, Miss Belle?" the butler questioned her as if he had not seen the woman being dragged.
"The woman appears to be in trouble. We need to help her," Belle said to have the butler stare at her. She tried to pull her arm away from him but his grip on her was strong before she said, "You don't want to help her?"
"You and I both are not going to do it. We need to go home and we are running late," Lucas said to her but Belle was stubborn with it. She resisted him tugging her along.
"She needs our help...Why not?" Belle demanded an answer. She knew her butler was a cold-hearted man but the woman genuinely appeared to be in trouble where no one was stepping forward to come to help her. People instead stood back and watched the scene standing mum while some screamed and yelled at how they wanted to burn the woman.
"People here are not worth helping."
Belle frowned, her eyes looking into his which was looking back at her with a pa.s.sive expression on his face. In the background, she could hear the noise and the woman screaming, "She can be an innocent woman…"
"Nothing that decided to live here is innocent, Miss Belle. This village is one that is hidden and a place that is untouched by the council members because the vampires who live here have no cla.s.s nor do they look up to the council. They do what they please which makes it a home for humans as well as witches who come to take shelter."
"It doesn't justify why you wouldn't help a woman who is screaming for help," Belle who had been grown with love who had been sheltered, it was the first time to come upon a scene like this.
"She is a black witch and her death is certain. Come let me take you there so that you can witness it with your very own eyes," and he pulled her along with him where the woman and other men and village folks had gathered themselves. Belle saw how the woman looked human without a hint of being a black witch. She was crying tears that Belle only felt worse for not able to aid the pitiful woman, "Remember, little Belle, to not be deceived by cries and tears."
The woman was tied to a pole that was already fixed on the ground. Her hands and legs along with her entire body were tied to it and one of the men stepped forward to pour oil on her body.
"I am a human!" the woman screamed over and over again whilst not a single soul came to step forward to help her, "Untie me, please!" she cried, pleading at the people.
"We have a witch in our village! Who has been aiding her?!" asked the man who had poured the oil on the woman. The woman struggled to unbind herself from the ropes but they were too tight.
"We have a traitor we need to find!" said another man.
"Burn the woman!"
"Burn her! Send her to h.e.l.l!" came a bunch of voices around them.
After a while of torturing the woman, her skin started to turn from being human to a scaly appearance. Her skin transformed to scales and her face turned like the droughted land that was broken and uneven. Her eyes that were round had turned to slits along with her tongue that hissed at them.
"Untie me, right now! I did nothing!" said the woman, her voice though hoa.r.s.e with a slur because of her tongue, Belle still found the woman to be innocent. She knew black witches were one of the creatures that were sought out to be killed the most because of how they wrecked the peace of the other creatures by abducting and killing them for sacrificial purposes. But the way this black witch was pleading, something told her that she just wanted to live by herself without causing any trouble to anyone.
Belle again tried to take a step ahead when she felt Lucas' grip on her tighten, "Don't even think about it."
Before Belle could argue anymore, the black witch was lit on fire and she started to scream loudly as she was set ablaze to burn. The woman screamed and screamed until her voice finally died down and her body turned to nothing but ash. Her eyes reflected the fire in which the black witch was burning down.
Belle pulled her hand away from Lucas' grip and she headed straight back to the carriage to be followed by the butler. Getting inside the carriage which was held by the coachman, she took her seat and crossed her hands against her chest. Even though Lucas carried the big bag on his shoulders he had been walking right behind her and he handed the gunny bag to the coachman.
On their way back, Belle didn't utter a word and faced the other side of the window of the carriage so that she wouldn't have to talk to the butler. Not that he would because it was usually her who poked him to talk.
She couldn't believe they killed the woman without any interrogation. Just like that, without a question or hearing out what she had to say. Belle knew about the black witches but she also believed that there were some good people.
Reaching the mansion, she got down without the help of the coachman and closed the door with a loud thud that had the servant boy ask,
"Is Miss Belle alright?"
"She will be fine," the butler answered going to the gunny bags and having them down on the ground before they were taken into the mansion.
Belle could feel the screams of the woman ringing in her ears that took a while for it to stop. Falling back on her bed, she picked up Mr. Fluffs and hugged the rabbit. People really didn't care. The issue wasn't about killing black witches and she was with everyone but there would be so many of them who were born into being what they were without any control. There would be some who wanted to live like the rest of them. If one looked out at the world, misfortunes were many.
There were times when Belle attended the tea parties, there were groups of people in there. Some who were rich, some who were like here and apart from that, groups were formed by the woman pureblooded vampires and the humans who belonged to the high-cla.s.s society where Belle was stuck in the middle, not here nor there.
Was it so hard to let a person live their life how they wanted? She had heard how the white witches were given the opportunity to gain trust then why not the black witches? She didn't understand the whole system of this world on how it was run. According to Belle, it was messed up with no proper logic in it.
After an hour pa.s.sed with Belle spending her time in the room, the door finally opened and her mother entered the room. Coming to sit next to Belle, the young vampiress scooted closer and placed her head on her mother's lap.
"I heard what happened from Lucas," her mother said. Not hearing a word from Belle the older vampiress said, "You do know black witches are bad. They are the cause of many problems that have been taking place in ours and the other three lands."
"I know," Belle answered, staring at the wall.
"Did you know the black witches were the ones who planned and killed the ma.s.sacre that took place in one of the pureblooded vampire families here in Bonelake?" how could Belle forget that. There had been quite an uproar about it both in the land as well as the council with what she had heard.
It was one of the Duke's family, Carmichael's who had been killed in a b.l.o.o.d.y gore murder after they had been infected with corruption of heart. Though the blame had fallen on the servant of the house, there was plenty of speculation that went around on how the servant was persuaded by the black witches without any solid reason.
"They have looted, abducted innocent people, and have killed ours as well as their own kind with any lack of mercy. They are born with evil intent and it is only right to kill them. People have lost families, Belle," her mother gently moved her hand across her daughter's head.
If one went back to look at the history of the four lands, it once used to be one single empire that was later divided to- Valeria, Bonelake, Wovile, and Mythweald according to the creatures who resided on those parts of the lands. It had taken years to have humans and vampires walk and breath in the same s.p.a.ce without attacking each other.
"When will the world turn peaceful, mama?" she asked in a whisper for her mother to smile.
"Someday. Some day which we all hope for."
