Come Back Witch

''Shut up, what do you even know?'' Vinces answered as he turned around on his pillow, looking away from her. Trying to fall asleep waiting for an answer that never came.

As sleep finally claimed his exhausted body, he felt like nightmares should fill his dreams tonight, but not a single one arrived.

Opening his eyes, a thin beam of morning light fell across his face. It was early morning, to his surprise. Yesterday he felt like he could sleep for an entire week straight.

He still didn't feel relaxed, and the pain was still lingering in his body, just not to an impossible level anymore. Slowly sitting up in his bed, he found Lysandra lying inside a chair on the other side of the room, still sleeping.

Even with their current problem, he wasn't going to wake her for no reason. Instead, he stood up, checking on his own body.

His student uniform was wrecked beyond recognition, and the rest that remained of it was tainted red from his own blood. Slowly lifting up his shirt, he inspected the giant burn mark on the left side of his stomach.

There was a round dark spot roughly the size of his fist, as the burnt skin had been melted together. As he quietly searched around the room for anything suitable to wear for the day.

The room itself wasn't big, just a few square meters and modestly furnished, but there were still a few drawers he had to check. Most of them were filled with personal belongings he didn't even dare to touch.

The room seemed to have been owned by a young man not older than 30; he opened a drawer filled with clothes. To his surprise, there was only a military uniform inside.

Instead of picking it up, he opened the one next to it only to find it completely empty. Checking the one below, there were, to his amazement, some plain shirts.

He picked up some military pants and a grey shirt. ''Who even owns so few clothes?" he whispers to himself.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Looking around in the room, Lysandra was still sleeping deeply on the chair, so Vinces simply hurried and changed his clothes.

He didn't know why she had stayed in his room the whole time but wasn't going to question it.

The new outfit was a bit to small for him, but at least better than wearing wrecks.

Walking towards the door, he opened it to see a small corridor. Entering it, there were two closed doors on the left and one open to the right.

Only glancing inside the open one for a moment, it was empty with no person inside. Moving forward, there was another door slightly opened at the end of the corridor.

Walking through it, he found himself at the entrance of the house, which was situated close to the main street.

Looking around, he started to be confused; there wasn't a single impaled skull close by.

Wandering his gaze around, he found somebody sitting on top of a house; Dr. Cloves seemed to be already awake and had positioned himself up there, his bow lying next to him.

Walking below him and staring up Vinces asked. ''What happened to the skulls?... And how long have you been up there?''

"All night, couldn't sleep," Cloves answered, not sounding tired at all. ''And about the skulls...'' He simply pointed down the main street. Vinces followed the direction and could see somebody far away in the distance walking around.

''He's been here even longer than me.'' Cloves spoke once more, his voice filled with something deeper than Vinces could understand.

Staying in the silence for a few moments, Vinces started to go down the road towards the figure ahead, already knowing who it was.

His broken leg could barely carry him, but the weight of the wallet in his pockets seemed to be much worse than any pain.

As he slowly walked closer, he could see David standing next to an impalement, removing it from the ground and carrying it somewhere; Vinces only followed him quietly.

They walked around a few streets until they finally arrived at the village church. David moved slowly but steadily through the church, standing in front of the altar for a single moment, bowing down.

Then he walked past it through the back exit inside the graveyard lying behind the church. Vinces followed him, still inspecting the insides of the church.

Exiting the church, Vin stopped in the graveyard, where dozens, no, hundreds, of skulls were lying on the ground. Each one carefully placed close to the next one.

He watched as David carefully removed the skull from the spear he was carrying and set it down next to the next one, his body shaking so hard Vince thought the old man was about to collapse.

But he didn't; instead, he simply turned around towards the exit, not even sparing a gaze at Vinces. As David walked past him in the small doorframe, Vin grabbed the shoulder of the old man, stopping him for a moment.

"They will be fine," Vince whispered, having lied once more as he let David go, who continued his way away, but Vin could hear a drop of water hitting the ground, most likely a tear of the old man.

After David had disappeared, Vinces walked onto the graveyard, staring at the skulls; they all seemed to stare back at him.

Sitting down on a bench at the church wall, he remained idle, only staring at what was in front of him, his mind completely empty.

He watched David appear a few more times, each time bringing a new skull with him and placing it on the ground.

And each time after David left, Vinces walked over, adjusting the position of the skulls, hoping to carry at least a bit of his burden.

Until somebody else entered just after David left, Ami stood there in the entrance too, inspecting the graveyard. Vinces slowly stood up and walked towards her.

He didn't say a single thing and instead grabbed inside his pockets, pulling out the wallet he had found.

When he showed her the wallet.

Ami stepped back in shock.

But then simply nodded at him.

But Vinces didn't see it as he walked past her, leaving the graveyard behind.