Forsaken
The jury had come to their final decision and were filing back through the doors of the courtroom. The defendant stiffened in response to the verdict – guilty of witchcraft. The judge announced that she would be sent into exile, not to set foot within 3 kilometres of the edge of the country town, effective in one hour.
Security ushered her out of the courthouse, spitting on the pavement before shutting the huge double doors. Kalan wasn’t even allowed to say goodbye to her friends, nor get her things from her house. She stood, blinded by the sudden sunlight, and began to make her way out of town.
It was a long, solemn walk to a small inn a fair way from her hometown. She had decided to spend the night there to rest and plan her next move. It wasn’t going to be easy starting from scratch.
***
The case had finally been resolved, and Detective Inspector Grant was very pleased as he sat in his armchair with a good book and a cuppa. He and his team had worked tirelessly ever since the strange markings had been discovered around town three months ago. Whenever they thought they were getting close with a lead, the trail went cold again. There was no telling how long the markings had been there before they were discovered, but the DI was glad the perpetrator had been caught. No need to cause national unrest with news of a long-forgotten sorcerer wandering about causing mischief.
After the trial had ended, DI Grant had gathered his team to destroy every last remnant of the illegal magic off the streets, which had taken the entire afternoon even with 11 officers. He had only returned home just after dusk, when he picked his favourite book off the shelf to relax.
Just as the detective reached the part where the lawyer begins to suspect two people as being one and the same, there is a loud knock on his door. Grumbling as he marks and places the book on the table, he makes his way to the door. The inspector opens it to find a dark, shadowy figure standing just past the doormat. As he reaches for his badge, he tries to speak to them and find out what they want. No answer. Reaching for his gun this time, he tries to make out any defining feature, but it is as though the person standing there is nothing more than an illusion, drifting in and out of vision.
Worried now, he continues to speak to the figure, informing it that he is a police officer and will have him arrested if it does not speak. As soon as Grant points the gun at the figure, it disappears. Just like that. Gone. Concerned he must be hallucinating after a long day at work, he decides to head to sleep. He turns around, and standing there is the figure.
The DI didn’t even have a chance to draw his gun again before blacking out.
***
There were screams and church bells ringing. The town was in a state of utter chaos. Blood spatter lined the sidewalks and people ran from beings they no longer recognised. On a wall scribed in blood read ‘with concord of sweet sounds’. The remaining sane townspeople wonder alike of the cause of such pandemonium.
***
Kalan knew what was coming for them. But she had not anticipated it to be so soon after her departure.
It was just after 3 o’ clock in the morning. The sorcerer had arrived back in town under the cover of darkness. She walked down the deserted, ravaged streets of the town she had once called home. Sorrow and regret weighed her down like a thousand suns. She turned down another street, and another, and another, witnessing the remains of what had transpired here. She turned down another street and came face to face with the bloody writing on the wall. It was too much.
Kalan fell to her knees, placing her head in her hands. If they had only given her a second chance, she would have hidden the magic better so that they would never be found again. If they had only allowed her to explain what those wards were doing. No one would have had to die then. If only they had made an effort to understand. No one would be possessed beyond saving. If only…
But they hadn’t. No one had. Not even her closest friends, who were meant to stick up for her, even when they didn’t have a clue about the magic either. No one knew that the town was a hotspot for demons.
Kalan had been protecting them for the last 480 years. And now, all 63,109 people were either dead or possessed.