There was a metallic taste to the air the day the three criminals were hanged in the town square. The young girl watched the men struggle for air, clawing at their throats as they grew more desperate. However one man remained still; like a skeleton with hair a dark brown. His head hung, lifeless, against his rope necklace. Edith closed her eyes, the image of the man seared into her memories. He looked almost peaceful against that tree, almost inhuman. 685Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Lny4CNtRM
The criminals were cut down an hour after their executions and promptly buried in unmarked graves just outside of town. No one spoke about them, even though it was common for the town to gossip about criminals being executed. No, all was silent in town for the rest of the day. 685Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMynXdmRa7b
Edith sat in a rocking chair in her apartment just above the drug store. Her father was working beneath, the voices of him and his customers echoing up through the paper-thin floor. She was only a child, barely over thirteen, yet she had seen more than any grown man might see in his lifetime. Her father was a traveling doctor, a rarity in their time. She would often pick up everything and go with him out into the desolate wastelands, searching for towns and people in need. So few still practiced his art and so many depended on him. 685Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAR6m9mb7AS
Suddenly the creaking of floorboards up the stairs broke her thoughts and quickly prompted her to her feet. The door opened to reveal her father dressed in a black jacket and pants with a white dress shirt stained from the hot summer day. "Closed shop early?" Edith asked and walked up to him, wrapping her arms around his torso and burying her face into his shirt. 685Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4eMlICNpLk
"It's a slow day today." He replied and stroked her dirty blond hair with a gentle touch. She finally let go and looked up to him. 685Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡObtL0WoqfE
"I made lunch. It's on the table." He nodded and they both made their way to the kitchen where they ate lunch. A few moments into their meal, a loud banging on the door shattered their peace. Edith jumped while her father looked to the door with his bushy eyebrows furrowed. 685Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPmvGzG0ouD
"Wait here." He said and made his way over to the dark wood door. When he opened it, a man stood behind it. Dirt covering his tanned face and sweating through his black suit while he held his bleeding side and gasped for air. Like a switch on a machine, her father quickly became the doctor that he had devoted his life to and led the man to the kitchen table. Edith had simply sat there watching the scene, eyebrows furrowed. "Edith," Her father said in a smooth voice, trying not to frighten their patient more, "get me the bag." 685Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzHjXPgTGhl
Her feet had stuck into a fly's trap. She couldn't move them. The room was spinning. Things had happened to them, things like this, but it was never so dramatic. They had helped mothers heal their sick children, offer medicine to the elderly, and defended themselves from bandits. But this... something wasn't right. It was only when her father said her name again, his voice stern, that she managed to move her feet. 685Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm6Es3Cdh1t
She disappeared into the bedroom and could hear the groans of the man holding his side. Her wide eyes searched for the white medical bag, tattered from years of use. Minutes slipped past her in her search. She was wasting precious time. Then came a crack and a howl. This stirred her from her search and she ran out of the room to see a scene only found in her nightmares. 685Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSOErUnuS51
The injured man was hunched beside the table, his movements like a wild animal, quick and abrupt. A moan came from his lips, his skin as white as the bodies of the Blombury children in their caskets. Then Edith's eyes fell to the thing he was hunched over. A scream bubbled in her throat, but it was halted just behind her tongue. She wanted to scream, wanted to do something, but instead she was frozen in place, left to watch the man bite onto her father's neck. Left to watch Father's blood drip onto the floor in a puddle. Left to watch him die. 685Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcIJOkN0EgF
His pure blue eyes watched her the entire time. Betrayal was the last thing he felt, because she felt it as well. The cold knife of reality finally cut in only after the light from his eyes faded, and Edith finally couldn't hold herself up anymore. She was on the floor, her heart seizing her lungs and her vision blurring. No tears came, shock held them at bay for the moment. Instead, her shaking breath was all that comforted her. 685Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi6cwccbHEF
Footsteps neared the girl, but she didn't dare look up to see the man, the monster. Suddenly her chin was lifted up by the cold claw of the man, his fingernails digging into her skin and threatened to draw blood. His eyes looked straight into hers, a bitter silver that cut into her memory. 685Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOk0xalVH1W
"You will forget what happened here. You will forget your father and lead a long life with no worries." His voice had lost its shaking fear of death and instead gained a solemn viciousness to it. Blood dripped from his hairy chin like a wolf just after devouring its prey. He wiped it away and let go of her, dropping her to the floor. Her muscles failed her, and she stayed like that until he left. And continued laying on the floor, silent with only the consolation of her life being the shaking, unsteady breaths that halted past her lips. 685Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtZSUdlB4XD
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She didn't forget what had happened. No, she could never forget what he had done.
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