Come Back Witch

Without a word, they all stopped at once. None of them dared to speak. Even the silence felt deafening, as though time itself had frozen.

Vinces could feel David shaking so hard he felt like he was to fall off his shoulder, staring towards Lysandra, who stood to his left; even she seemed to be paralyzed as a single tear ran down her face.

''I have failed, Father. I have failed to protect them." She fell to her knees in utter quietness and only spoke after a few more seconds. ''I am a liar, I have broken my promise; it's all my fault.''

Vinces felt like he should walk over to comfort her, but he couldn't move. His gaze always returned towards a new impaled skull just to find another right next to it.

He could hear Ami breaking down to his right as muffled screams of terror pierced the silence. Finley stood next to her, not even glancing down; he was pale as snow, as if he had become one of the silent skulls too.

But against all odds, Vinces could feel David take a step forward, followed by another one, he couldn't understand where this old man was getting his power from.

It felt like eternity until they reached the first one, but they still did, staring at the white skull on top of burnt wood. Vinces couldn't feel anything, not because he had become empty, but rather his mind wasn't allowing him to process what was in front of him.

But David didn't seem to be satisfied with the first one he found and instead continued towards the second skull, once again inspecting it.

Vinces didn't want to stay on his friend's back anymore, he felt like falling to the ground and hitting his fists against it until he would fall unconscious from pain.

He could hear David's tears falling to the ground. He had been from the village, whatever Vinces was feeling must've been a hundred times worse for this old man.

As they moved towards the next spear, Vinces noticed David's eyes scanning each skull with something more desperate than grief, and the realization hit him, he most likely had a family here.

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Having found a goal, his body seemed to finally allow him to move again, as he tapped David on the shoulder, signaling him to let him down.

Tumbling onto the ground, he could feel his legs giving up towards his weight. "Spear, please.'' He spoke, his voice weak but determined. After David handed over the spear he had been carrying, Vinces used it to hold himself up.

''Who are we searching for?'' He asked, trying to sound as optimistic as possible, but probably rather sounded like he was about to cry.

"A woman in her forties... and a little girl...'' David answered, his voice shaking as he searched another skull. Vinces didn't know how he should identify the age of an elderly woman from a skull, but he was sure to identify that of a child.

Slowly walking ahead, he too started to inspect the skulls, below some of them were still the belongings of the person, as if they had been killed while standing and their body and rest of the head had just disappeared.

Each one of them seemed to stare at him, hollow sockets fixed right on his face, it made him shudder. He didn't know these people, but he still couldn't stop shaking.

After checking only a dozen, which felt like hundreds, he realized not all of them were lined up. Between the still in perfect condition standing houses were sometimes singled out impalings.

Before another thought could form, something hissed through the air.

Instinct took over.

His body moved before his mind did.

An arrow buried itself in the ground where he'd been standing.

He kept walking until he found an irregularity: there were two people impaled just next to each other. He didn't know what was worse: the pain still lingering in his body as he walked or the possibility of finding what they were searching for.

There were two skulls not even a meter apart, as if they had stayed together just before death. Taking another step closer, Lysandra appeared directly in front of him.

''Stay back Vinces, you should get David here first..." Her voice sounded broken, as if she too didn't want to be first to see it.

But he ignored her words, they didn't mean anything to him. Stepping right through her, he could feel her fall to the ground behind him with his sixth sense.

Opening his eyes, he stood in front of the two skull, one of them was much smaller than the other. But staring down at the belongings lying on the ground, there was a wallet.

As he picked it up, his hand froze; hanging out its side was a picture. The man in the middle was David, but before he could even inspect the rest, his hand started to shake so hard he dropped it onto the ground.

Bending down to pick it up once again, there was a strand of dark hair lying just below it.

''Vinces...'' The weak voice of the elderly man called out behind him. David had caught up to him, his body reacted on its own, grabbing the wallet and hiding it in his pants.

''Nothing over here.'' He spoke, his voice feeling way too fast as the lie sprouted out of his mouth. He felt like everyone would've found his lie immediately, but David still moved on.

Closing his eyes, he could feel David's light slowly wandering away. He didn't want to lie, but what other choice did he have? They had to survive even if it meant their life was built on a lie.

Slowly standing up, he opened his eyes, watching Lysandra shake her head in utter disappointment. Gripping the wallet tightly, he walked towards the main street again, not sparing Lysandra another gaze.

David had moved on, inspecting another skull again. Looking back, even Finley and Ami seemed to have started moving again, slowly walking past each skull, their gazes empty.

He was going to kill the person responsible for this no matter what.

Before another thought could form, something hissed through the air.

Instinct took over.

His body moved before his mind did.

An arrow buried itself in the ground where he'd been standing.

An arrow? Somebody was attacking him?

Closing his eyes, he could feel three new bright white lights approaching fast.

They were attacking them...