BANISHED
1220 Words
ELIRA
They always needed someone to blame, and I was that person,the only person who always has fault in any way,good or bad.
In my youth, I thought there was a point at which a person could be overwhelmed by pain. I imagined that after enduring enough violence, insults, and lonely nights, it would become tolerable that perhaps the world would exhaust its means of breaking me, but it never stopped.
I was mistaken.
As I matured, my anguish and suffering only became intensified. It coiled around me like heavy, cold chains, pulling me deeper into despair. I ceased to be merely the unwanted child or the pariah of the village. I was now the cursed one, the scapegoat, the girl everyone pointed to when troubles arose.
And troubles were constant,like everyday is trouble upon trouble, beating upon beating,so many and too many accusations on my neck.
When I turned fifteen, the anticipated rains never fell. The fields split open under the sun's relentless heat, and the crops turned to dust. Hunger invaded the village like a stealthy thief, draining every home of its hope. The elders offered prayers, the farmers cursed the skies, and when no relief appeared, they came for me.
“As always.”
“It’s her,” they murmured. “Elira has cursed us. She’s poisoned the land.”
One morning, while I was near the well, hoping to exchange a basket of berries I had collected, a stone hit the back of my head. Pain burst through my skull, propelling me forward and causing me to drop the basket. The berries scattered into the dirt.
“Witch!” a voice yelled from behind.
“Moon Curse!”
As I turned, disoriented, another stone flew toward me. I ducked just in time, but it brushed my arm, ripping my dress.
“I didn’t do anything,” I pleaded, my voice trembling with fear,I didn't really know what was coming for me.
But they didn’t hear me.They never did.
A crowd had gathered men, women, and even children all looking at me with an intensity that stole my breath. Their eyes were wild with fear and desperation, searching for someone to hold responsible someone to punish and relieve their helplessness.
I was that someone.
“You cursed our crops, Elira,” an elderly man snarled, stepping forward. “You wander the fields at night, whispering to the earth. You’ve brought destruction upon us you bastard.”
“No, I”
A sharp slap silenced me, my head whipping to the side. I staggered, tears clouding my vision,I couldn't even see clearly again, my vision is now blurry.
“Liar,” the woman who slapped me hissed. “My baby is sick because of you. Your cursed eyes have made her suffer. She cries all night!”
Other voices chimed in with a flurry of accusations, each one slicing through the air.
“It’s your fault my well dried up.”
“My cow miscarried the day you walked by.”
“My husband broke his leg after speaking your name."
I tried to run, but rough hands seized me and dragged me toward the village square. I screamed, begging them to stop, but no one listened. Their minds were closed, overtaken by fear and fury.
“We’ll take her to the Seer,” someone declared. “Let her decide what to do.”
The crowd erupted in agreement.I was pulled through the village, my feet brushing against the dirt, my arms aching from their strong and fierce grip. My heart raced in dread. The Seer was a figure of fear. Her decree would be final; if she deemed me cursed, no one would doubt it.
*******
The Seer’s hut sat at the village's edge, covered in dead trees and silence. They pushed me inside, and I fell to my knees, shaking.
The Seer stood in the shadows, her face tricked by a dark hood. Her voice was cold and dry, reminiscent of withered leaves.
“What do you want?”
“This girl,” a man asserted, pushing me forward. “She curses the land and brings ruin upon us. We seek your wisdom.”
The Seer rose and approached. Her pale, empty eyes locked onto mine, seeming to see right through me. She extended a hand, her fingers brushing my arm, and a cold chill ran into my very bones.
Her voice barely drifted above a whisper: “Her aura… it disrupts the natural order.”
Gasps ran through the room. My heart broke.
“No, please,” I sobbed, tears streaming down my cheeks. “I’m not cursed. I swear!”
The Seer turned away. “She must be marked…..”
The following hours dissolved into a haze of pain and humiliation.They dragged me back to the square, bound me to a post, and heated a metal rod over a fire. I screamed, struggling, begging them to stop, but they disregarded my cries.
The iron tore my skin, pain exploding like wildfire. I screamed until my voice shattered,until there was no power left in me to scream, leaving nothing but agony and the scent of burning flesh, something more brutal than pain.
When they finished, I crumpled to the dirt, trembling and sobbing, the scar on my arm etched into my very soul.
A mark of exile.A brand that would ensure no one would ever come to my aid again.
They cast me out to the forest's edge, a place where no one dared to venture. I constructed a shelter from sticks and leaves, sleeping on the cold ground, my wounds festering in the damp night air. I cried myself to sleep, yearning for death.
But I didn’t die.I learned to endure.I gathered berries, trapped small animals with vines, and drank from muddy streams. I grew thinner and weaker, but my spirit though battered with wounds clung to life.
The animals became my only friends. Birds perched on my shoulders; foxes approached at night. They weren’t afraid of me. Perhaps they recognized me for who I truly was a girl with nothing left to lose.
But peace never lasted.One evening, as the sun sank red in the sky, the village bell ranged frantically.
A child was missing.The villagers searched, torches shining and voices clamoring through the night. When they discovered footprints near my forest, they wasted no time.
They came for me.I had no chance to escape.
They pulled me from my shelter, striking me with sticks and fists, accusing me of taking the child, cursing him, and sacrificing him to the wolves. Blood poured from my mouth, my eyes swelled shut, my body battered with beating and assault.
“I didn’t,” I managed to whisper, barely able to speak. “I didn’t take him.”
But they were unmoved by my word's.They left me there, bleeding in the dirt, convinced I would die.
I didn’t.I crawled back to the forest, pain running through me, and collapsed beneath an old tree, the rough bark brushing against my torn skin.
As night fell, I looked at the stars through blurred vision, tears hot and thick on my cheeks.
“I wish I had never been born,” I whispered. “I wish I were nothing.”
The forest remained silent.Even the animals did not come….
- Writer
