Sage's questions on what the commotion was when she was on her way to the wood was answered when she peeked out from the alley across from the Larks residence and other wealthy homes around it. She saw 4 women all with their eyes covered with dirty looking rags and hands tied with rope behind their backs, as well as 5 men in black robes.
She realized she needed to leave a few seconds ago, but she wanted to help. Before she could take a step forward to intervene she realized one of the people in a robe was gone and felt like someone was behind her. As she was about to turn around, the man behind her suddenly punched her in the side, leaving her winded. While she tried to catch her breath on the dirty ground he once again grabbed her and suddenly she felt a hand over her eyes, unable to see as she was carried to a wagon, the some crying and some silent girls she saw just moments before not far behind.
All while this happened she heard the words "Are you sure she's a witch?" Oh! So that's what this is about! Not like they're wrong or anything.. followed by a simple "Yes". She thought about however she ended up like this, how a Saturday morning could go so wrong.
**
After a few minutes on bumpy dirt roads, she felt the cart come to a stop and the rag that someone put over her eyes removed. She looked around at the other girls, as the rags on their eyes were removed. The girl across from her was looking at the ground with red and puffy eyes like she was crying before, and a freckled face with long, thin red hair. The girl to her left was thin and had light brown hair but she held her head high. The other girl across from her was a blonde, staring out the window at the muddy road and trees. Sage couldn't really see the girl beside the thin girl with light brown hair but she could see that she was tanned, but not as dark as Sage and had black hair but unlike Sage's, it was straight instead of curly.
While the 5 of them sat there, Sage thought she should make a little small talk to brighten the mood because if "the mood" was a number, it'd be pretty far down in the negatives.
"Uh, so you're all a chatty bunch" Sage started, while now staring at the ground.
"There's no use trying to make friends, we're all going to die anyways!" Someone said with a squeaky voice as if she was about to cry. Sage looked up and saw the redhead girl staring back at her with a trembling lip.
Sage stayed quiet as she didn't want to upset anyone further, but the thin girl beside her decided to restart the conversation by saying "So.. how'd you all get here?". Followed by the blonde's "I don't think I recognize her from earlier" while nodding towards Sage. The redhead girl finally broke back in to tears. "Sophie, they're gonna hear you crying again!" The blonde girl warned in a whisper.
Sage saw the tanned girl's mouth open like she was about to say something but suddenly the door of the cart swung open and one of the men in robes grabbed Sophie by the wrists and threw her to the ground and also did the same to Sage. The rest of the men also grabbed the other girls and dragged them to the little building at the end of the road.
"No, no! This can't be happening!" The tanned girl screamed, for the first time. Very shortly after that, Sage lift her head up and saw the blonde girl being dragged by her hair while begging them to spare their lives. Quickly, they were all thrown in to a room near the back of the building.
The room smelled of burning flesh and it made Sage want to gag. The thin, light brown haired girl quickly settled in to a corner and brought her knees to her chest so she could be free to sob. Once again, the tanned girl opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. Soon, after wiping her eyes with her sleeve, she said to no one in particular because she was looking at the ground "...I- I'm Eve, by the way."
"You have a pretty name, I'm Mary" the blonde girl said quietly.
Soon, all of the girls had introduced themselves except for Sage. The redhead girl said her name was Sophie, and the girl with the light brown hair said she was Kamryn. Once they all introduced themselves, they all looked at Sage so she told them her name. Sage felt happy because she saw Eve have a little smile on her face.
***
When they all woke up after somehow falling asleep on the cold hard ground, nobody smiled and Mary was crying after remembering why she was here. Even Sage wished this was all just a bad dream, because she had bad dreams like this all the time.. but this was real.
After the girls sat there in silence for a awhile, waiting for Mary to wake up, the door finally opened by a man without a robe that she didn't recognize but he put down a nearly empty plate except for some bread. While the girls ate, Sage thought of a plan. The next time the door opened she could take the pin in her pocket as a weapon, and run out of the room and hopefully the building faster than she could be caught.
Later on in the day, Sage very quietly explained her plan to Sophie and Mary, who were sitting together. Mary liked the idea but Sophie wasn't very optimistic, she thought they'd die a less painful death if they went along with everything. After looking at the wall she noticed a torch which lit the room, and she joked to them that they could burn the place down which Sophie didn't find very funny.
That evening Sage worked with the pin in her pocket to take the torch off the wall, and Kamryn who overheard her plan helped her not burn herself. The moment the door opened, Sophie and Eve pushed the man down and Sage ran with the torch, through the door stepping on the man's face with Mary and Kamryn just a few footsteps behind. When Sage got out, she opened the front door while the other girls ran through it, then throwing the torch back in, on the wooden floor while the men in robes stood there baffled and trying to catch them but the fire was blocking their exit.
As the girls walked further by each footstep, Sage looked back at the building but all she saw was flames and smoke, and all she heard was those awful men's screams.