Runner

TW: Death, fire, knives, suicide, blood

Elisabeth's knees hit the ground with a soft thud, and she leans back to sit on her dirt covered feet. She stares up at the full moon, her only source of light in the thick forest, and lets out a loud, guttural scream. 

She can no longer run. She can no longer fight. She has no clue where she is, and with just the moonlight to guide her, there was no way she would be able to find her way out. He was close behind her. She knows his dog has her scent as she can hear that stupid mutt barking from a distance. 

"You can't hide from me, little girl!" The man yells in the distance. 

He was right. She can’t hide. She’s been running for hours. She looks down at her knees in the dirt and tries to lean herself back enough to stand up. She can't muster the strength. Her legs are screaming from the simple movement.

           She put her hands on the ground and tries to push herself up. Her arms can do the lifting, but her legs protest. "C'mon." She whispers to herself. 

Her arms continue to push, trying to put as much weight as she can on her legs. Her legs start to wobble as she forces herself to stand then looks around, trying to see if she could see movement from any direction. 

Nothing.

"I can smell your fear, little girl!" The man's voice cut through the night like a knife. 

Fear overtakes pain, and she begins to run again. The moon above her has become one of her enemies in this fight, and she curses the lack of light.

In the distance, she sees a small light flickering. She jumps behind a tree and watches the flame intently.  The flame doesn't move from its spot. It's one of the torches at the edge of the village.

Shit.

Elisabeth had gotten so far, her body completely exhausted, only to find herself standing at the gate of hell once more. She exhales sharply, catching her breath, her tongue dry and sticking to the roof of her mouth every time she closes it.

"You know, most girls at least bring a compass when they escape." 

Elisabeth's breath catches in her throat. The voice is within feet of her. The dog starts to growl softly at her, adding to her fear. Slowly, she turns around to face the man chasing her.

He has a large farmer's hat on, making the details of his face hard to make out. He holds a fire in his hand and lifts it up to illuminate the space between them,

illuminating part of his face and revealing himself as the monster she knew him to be. The dog next to him was ready to pounce, waiting for the simple command to tear her to shreds. 

"Please, let me go. I can't go back." Elisabeth drops again, her knees hitting the dirt with a soft thud. 

This dirt is rougher, and Elisabeth's knee hits a rock as she falls. She flinches and shifts her knee, causing her to fall the rest of the way over, her muscles too weak to catch her. Her face hits the same dirt, smearing the left side of her face. It doesn’t matter to Elisabeth anymore. 

She is caught. She has nothing left to give. She sits back up, blinking away the dirt near her eye, the tears now rushing down her face pushing little granules in a stream down her cheek.

"I have to take you back, little girl. You know the rules." 

He snaps his finger twice, and the dog next to him sits, his eyes still laser focused on the prey his master was hunting. 

            Elisabeth does know the rules. Growing up, she had seen first hand more times than she can count in her 21 years what happens to the girls who run. Every time a runner is brought back, all the women in the village are summoned to the ritual house to see what happens to the runner.

Elisabeth promised herself when she hatched this plan that she would never stand up on that stage. She would never scream the way she heard those women scream as one of the elders inflicted their cruel punishment on them. 

"Please. I'll stay. I won't run again." 

The man lets out a chuckle and starts walking towards Elisabeth. "If I had a gold coin for every little girl that told me she would be good, I'd be king of the bloody village." He moves to stand directly above Elisabeth, staring down at her. She doesn’t dare look up at him. But he doesn’t care. 

He grabs her arm, and violently yanks her up to a standing position. Her legs protest again, and between the feeling of defeat overwhelming her and her muscles screaming for rest yet again; she can't stand. 

"Let's go, little girl. Luckily you made my job easy by coming back. Maybe they'll cut you some slack, not slice you near as deep." 

The man let out another laugh and starts walking to the light of the torch, his dog walking behind him. 

"Just kill me. Right here. I'd rather be dead." Elisabeth tries to plead with the man. She digs her heels into the dirt as he drags her along, both in protest and simply because her legs can’t move this fast anymore.

"No, no, little girl. All actions have consequences. And yours isn't death." 

They walk past the torch, and out of the forest. She can feel the grass under her feet, wet from morning dew starting to form, and starting to loosen the dried mud on her feet, pushing some of it into all the cuts her feet have sustained from her excursion. 

She looks up at the village, the small houses lined up neatly in two rows. There is no light coming from inside any of them, but the torches burn bright in front of each house, lighting the path. In the center of that path was another man that Elisabeth was well acquainted with; the leader of the village, Wulfstan Ashleye. 

"My dear Elisabeth, we were so worried about you." He steps forward and looks Elisabeth up and down.

Elisabeth knows he’s lying. The only interest in her that he has was the same interest he has for every woman in the village; to control them. To ensure that his village will continue to live on. To make sure there will continue to be little boys in the fields, with the promise that when they're old enough, they too would make little boys to take over the fields, and continue the cycle. 

Nobody is allowed to leave, and Wulfstan makes every effort to ensure that the village is secluded from any outsiders. Elisabeth doesn’t even know if there are outsiders to be scared of. Nobody has ever come to the village, and she's never heard of anyone getting out alive. The rumor is the forest is 100 acres around in every direction and impossible to navigate. Elisabeth has been practicing running for almost a year to prepare for this, and now she knows that every rumor is true.

"Take her to the prison. Clean her up, and give her the sinner's corset so we can get this over tomorrow morning,” he says to the man holding Elisabeth tightly by the arm. The man starts to walk, yanking her arm to follow, and Wulfstan adds one more comment. "Be nice, she's Burle's daughter." 

Elisabeth cranes her neck to turn back and look at Wulfstan, then back to the man in the farmer's hat. She glances down to his belt and back up at him before unsheathing the knife at his side. The man drops his arm off Elisabeth to try to get the knife back, allowing Elisabeth to back away from him. 

"You're going to let me go. You're going to let me walk back into that forest and pretend you never found me. Or I will slice you the way I slice the skin off a deer." She holds the knife firmly in her hands, moving it back and forth, pointing it at both men. 

Wulfstan gives her a small smile, and takes a step toward Elisabeth, his hands extended from his waist to show he is not armed. "Darling Elisabeth. The forest isn't safe. I would be irresponsible to let you die out there," he says in a soft, sweet voice, like a father talking to his small child.

Elisabeth turns the focus of the blade directly on Wulfstan. He takes another step towards her, and she takes a step towards him. "Don't come any closer to me, Wulfstan." Her voice is shaky but commanding.

Wulfstand stands in his place, arms still out. "Elisabeth..." 

Before he says another word, the man in the hat grabs Elisabeth from behind, holding her small biceps to her body, rendering her arms useless. She holds onto that knife with everything she has, her knuckles turning white from her grip.

Wulfstan takes another step towards her, and effortlessly plucks the knife from her palm. "Go quietly and we can all pretend you didn't threaten an elder's life,” he whispers to her as the knife hits the grass. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Elisabeth feels naked, numb and cold in the cell she is confined to; the thick, wooden bars closing in on her. She looks down at the sinner's corset, staring intently at the dried blood stains of past sinners painting the left half of the corset. She has never let so much of her skin be shown, especially not in public. But this morning, she has no choice.

 By now, she can hear the women gathering in the ritual house, whispers drifting in through the window of what transpired last night as the women of the town pass the prison on their way to the ritual house. 

Wulfstan approaches the wooden bars of the cell with a thick piece of rope in his hand. "Your father was heartbroken to hear what you did last night." 

Elisabeth looks up at him, and back down at the floor, not giving him the satisfaction of a response. 

"The hour grows near. It's time to face your consequences." He unties the door to the cell, and opens it, then walks in. "Turn around and let me tie you." 

Elisabeth stares at him for an extended moment, and turns around, fists clenched tightly behind her back and presented to Wulfstan. Wuflstan wraps each hand twice, and ties a knot in the center of her wrists, leaving a small piece of rope hanging from the knot. Elisabeth turns around, staring at the ground.

Wulfstan walks her out of the cell and into the sunlight outside. Elisabeth stops walking and stares at the clear sky, taking in the bright blue and the warm sunlight on her bare shoulders and face. She inhales deeply. 

"I am ready." 

Wulfstan gives her a nod and they approach the steps of the ritual house. Elisabeth can hear the voices of all the women in the house through the doors. Another man stands at the base of the stairs. Wulfstan gives the man a nod, and the man returns it. When Wulfstan walks in with the sinner, the doors will be locked behind him so the women will be forced to watch the punishment Wulfstand intends to inflict. 

She walks up the stairs of the ritual house, Wulfstand walking behind her with his hand tight around her bicep. He opens the large wooden door, and leads Elisabeth into the ritual house. 

The ritual house goes quiet as they see Elisabeth and Wulfstand, every eye watching Elisabeth as she is walked down the center aisle. She glances at some of the women in the back; the women who had already been taken to the stage, their dresses altered from the normal attire to show their scars:

R for Runner,

A for Adultery, 

W for Witchcraft, 

I for Infertile. 

In front of those women are the women who have never sinned, her mother sobbing in the front row of that group. Sitting in the very front rows and on the floor in front of the stage were the small girls, some of them their first time at the ritual house. Elisabeth looks back at the floor, and climbs the stairs in the center of the stage. 

Wulfstan throws her to her knees in the center of the stage, then drags her by her hair, turning her to face the crowd that has gathered for her. She looks up, and around the ritual house. 

The entire ritual house is made of wood, as every building in the village is. There were no windows as there were in the normal village homes and other public buildings in the village, as the rituals performed here were meant to be secret to those not invited. There is only one door to discourage anyone from sneaking into restricted rituals or out of the penance ritual. Torches grace the side walls and the front of the stage, illuminating the ritual house and crackling around Elisabeth as she kneels before the crowd. 

Wulfstan stands in front of her with his back to Elisabeth and begins to address the women. "This woman before you, Elisabeth Birde, has been caught sinning. She has disrespected our village and the Lord’s laws by running. As penance for this sin, her heart shall be inscribed to remind her, and everyone else of the sin she has committed." 

As Wulfstan addresses the crowd, Elisabeth releases her hands from their tightly clenched fist, which loosens her rope enough to slip her hand out of the restraint. She gets both hands free, but keeps them behind her back as Wulfstan speaks.

As he turns around to face Elisabeth to start the ritual, she lunges up at him, and tackles him down the stairs. A unison gasp rises from the women. 

Elisabeth grabs a torch from the stage and runs down the stairs, over Wulfstan to the door at the back of the ritual house.

"Stop her!" Wulfstan yells as he tries to stand. He screams out in pain as he tries to put weight on his right leg and falls back to the ground.

Elisabeth whips around to face the crowd again, forcing the other women to back away from her as she shoves the torch out in front of her. She is grinning from ear to ear.

"Wulfstan Ashleye, I damn you to Hell,” She yells loud enough for everyone in the ritual house to hear. "And I damn your whole bloody village!" 

Elisabeth throws the torch behind her at the base of the wooden door. Women start to scream as the only exit becomes quickly engulfed in flames. 

Mothers rush to the front of the room, and take their crying children into their arms, frantically trying to find another exit. Wulfstan kneels on the ground, watching the flames rise and spread around him, and every woman in the village, powerless to help.

Elisabeth begins to laugh, her skirt catching fire from the floor around her and quickly engulfing her. She looks down at the sinner’s corset, and watches as the brown patches turn orange before finally falling to the ground, succumbing to the fire.