Vibrant reds, blush pinks with soft purple undertones and calm light blues. All gathered together to bask in the sun's golden glory. The sheer beauty of it brought tears to my eyes, it was the most beautiful sun rise I'd ever seen. The glorious dawn that chased away the night's shadows.
This was the sun rise of June 21, 1874. The morning of my execution.
The glorious dawn of the beginning of my end!
The Night Before
526!
That's the distance between my cell and the gallows. Though gallows would be too grand a word, it was but a single tree on the edge of our small settlement no more than 10'f from the river. A weeping willow, so named by the peculiar young daughter of our town sheriff... me!
Well, at least there'd be weeping at my execution I doubt I'd be able to muster the emotion to do so myself. Be it self-pity or pride or maybe even the lack of either but I could not, would not cry, not me and most certainly not for them.
But the thought of those steps... 526, steps between my life and death made rather morbid food for thought. When was it I began counting? Was it the day of the trail? Or the many times I'd stopped in front of that tree to admire its uniqueness, its towering grace, that empty spot where hanging leaves should have been and walked to this building, down the rickety old stairs through the dim corridor to this cell, was it then?
Who knows, who even cares! The silly musings of a girl commended to death.
I'd come here many times in my short life to pray with my father, for the soul of the criminal who ended up in this very cell, third from the entrance... death row. The night before their inevitable death he always prayed for the soul of whoever ended up here, in this dark place on this lonely path to deaths embrace. Ironic, he was nowhere to be found tonight, when his own daughter sat waiting to die. Maybe, he had no prays offer. Maybe his shame had somehow made praying for my soul unnecessary. Question is when I was gone who'd pray his.
I'd had hope when I was first brought here. Hope, that someone would come and save me regardless of my crimes. That at least one person would take my side, because I'm sure I wasn't the only one that he'd done this to. I'd assumed the people who I grown up with and lived with. The people I'd spoken to everyday of my life, shared precious moments with, would stand by me once they knew the truth. But in the end no one cared about my side of the story, there was only one thing that mattered them.
Scarlet Grey daughter of the town Sheriff had killed her best friends' brother, the end!
At the trial Beth Jones, the baker's daughter was the only one to lower her head in shame when everything went to hell as I tried to speak my truth. Tried and failed, silenced by men who claimed to uphold justice. Justice for who?
The whole town was up in arms about how unjust it was that an innocent young man's life had been taken far too soon. They called me horrible things, spat at me, and threw rotten vegetables. I was condemned while that bastard was praised as a saint. They turned on me, all of them, even my parents!
My mother cared a lot about her image, I suppose it was understandable she'd come from nothing and by chance and her modest good looks she married well. My father was the former Mayor's second son so while he didn't inherit the family title, he did receive a lot of money when his father died.
He's older brother, my uncle James, didn't last long as Mayor though, two years into his service he was replaced by a wealthy landowner name Michael Redford with his wealth and connections he'd held the title for more than 10 years now.
The people here worshiped the ground he walked on, Mayor Redford had big plans for our little settlement and God help anyone who got in the way.
The Mayor was a man who always got what he wanted, he was ruthless in any endeavour, and he taught he's children to be the same way. Michael Redford had raised the monster that was Michael Gael Redford Junior, the beast whose death had led to my own.
Alone, I allowed myself to feel nothing but a searing hatred for those who'd wronged me.
How dare they ignore my suffering! How dare they smile at me, praise me for being a wonderful young lady then turn their back on me, laugh at my pain, spit on me, condemn me for defending myself against a predator! And my parents were the worst of them all, spineless, selfish creatures!
"How could you do this to me, I'll never be able to show my face again. You've brought shame upon our family. You! You useless girl! Why didn't you think about us? Michael Redford will never let this go, my life here is over. Stupid girl!" My mother's words rang in my mind clear as the church bell during Sunday mass.
But more horrible than her words were the look of sheer contempt in her eyes when she said them, I would have preferred it if she'd slapped me instead. I've never had a warm relationship with my mother and not for lack of trying on my part. It's just everything about me seemed to rub her the wrong way and no matter what I did to gain her approval, earn her love, it was never enough. I understood then that not once in the woman's life did, she view me as her child. I was just an object, to be polished and used for the betterment of her life. I was a failure to her, and this was the final nail in the coffin. When it became clear that she would finally be free of me, Marie Alice Grey seemed almost happy, her reputation would be ruined but I don't think that really matter to her. It was me she'd had the real problem with, I'd found out only moments before my trial that the woman who gave birth to me couldn't care less whether I lived or died.
From the very beginning, my life held no meaning to her, and cruel woman she was, she made sure I knew it. While she screamed her head off about her reputation and how father was so disappointed in me, she told me with her eyes that she was glad to finally be rid of me. Just the thought of those cold eyes drove me mad. So mad in fact that the emotion caused me to lose my breath and compelled me to violence as such I threw my only cup of water against the bars of this infernal cage.
"Careful," A voice, smooth as silk spoke from within the shadows. There was no light down here, the light provided by candles burning above only illuminated these damned stairs, that come sun raise would take me to my death.
Which begged the question as to how someone got in here without me or the guard upstairs noticing them. "You could take somebody's eye out." I glared at into the darkness in front me trying to see the owner of the voice.
"Scarlet, was it?" Male, the voice was male, yet even as I gained that information my eyes could still not penetrate the darkness that he had somehow moulded himself into.
"Who are you? How did you get in here?" I bit out. Had the mayor grown impatient? Had he sent someone to finish me off earlier than expected? Is that why my father had not come to pray for me?
Because no one was to be around while I was tortured to death, alone in dark by some strange man, whose face I could not even see.
"Ha. Relax, I'm not here to hurt to you." Amused he stepped forward, right up to the bars of my cell. As if to force me to appreciate him in all his unnatural glory.
And glorious he was!
The most beautiful person I had ever seen, almost 7'f tall with shoulder length dark brown hair, pale skin and glowing green eyes yet what drew me to them was not the vibrance of their colour but the golden ring around the iris. I lowered my gaze to his full pink lips and strong jaw line. He was gorgeous, unnaturally so and even in the absence of light I knew irrational as it may seem that he was not human.
"As much as I like being admired by a beautiful lady, you and I have matters to discuss." He said snapping me of my trance and I could feel a small blush creep up my neck to my cheeks from shyness or fear, I know not. But if he wanted to talk to me, maybe the major didn't send him, whatever he was. I nodded numbly giving him my full attention, he accents screamed English even if it was light, covered by years spent in the America. His voice was also strangely familiar like I've heard it somewhere before, though I'm sure I've never met him before. It was that voice and gentle tone that soothed my racing heart, calming the rage enough for me actually listen to what he'd come to say.
Slowly tracing the old bars of the cell with one long elegant finger, he spoke softly. "I have a proposition for you, sweet Scarlet?"
Blinding anger and disgust flared inside me at that sickening pet name. "Don't call me that!" I all but scream at him. Michael called me that, he'd called me that as long as I'd known him, even as he lay dying, coking on his own blood, he'd call me 'sweet Scarlet.'
The creature before me did not react to my outburst, he didn't even glance in the direction of the stairs to check if the noise had summoned the guard upstairs but even then, those glowing animal eyes told me I should not yell at him again.
"Do not interrupt me again!" He spoke softly and with no emotion but the warning and its unspoken promise of a swift and painful punishment, did not go unnoticed. Instinct told me, screamed for me to back away. To flee, put distance between myself and the strange creature that had come to visit me, on my journey to the gallows. I ignored those instinct that would have kept me alive in any other situation and I forced myself to remain still.
"May I continue?" His tone had returned to normal, calm and very polite. As if he had not just threatened me. Threated me with what, I did not know, and I was not inclined to find out. As if the moment before had be nothing but dream I nod taking a deep breath to trying to ease my racing heart.
"Do you wish to die Scarlet?" He asked looking entirely serious as if he had not just asked me the most moronic question in the world. Who wishes to die?
If I met such a person, I wondered if they would be willing to take my place. But I was not so lucky as to even dream of such things. I almost screamed at him again, for asking such a stupid question but I was still locked in placed from his last reaction to one of my outbursts.
"Of course, I don't want to die! What kind of question is that?" I spoke slowly and softly taking care with my tone. Lest he reaches through the bars and kills me early.
Do I want to die? Is he crazy? The frustration almost caused me to scream again, to do something, anything with all this rage burning inside me. I resisted the urge, taking slow deep breaths before I spoke again.
"I never planned this, I don't want this, but it is the card fate dealt me. It was my pain and suffering or his death. I chose me! I will always choose me." His eyes held no pity or sympathy not for me and not for my would-be rapist. Good, I didn't need or want that.
"Yes, you don't seem the type. I apologise for my crude question." He slowly placed his forearms through the bars, leaning into them he knotted he's long slender fingers.
"How would you feel if I offered you, way to cheat death?" What??
"A way for you to live and exact your revenge? A deal of a lifetime. Would you be open to something like that, Scarlet?"
A deal of a lifetime? A way to cheat death. What the hell was he on about now?
This is crazy I must be hallucinating or something. Had my terror manifested into this; a beautiful creature willing to give me everything I wanted, everything I needed. I continued to stare at him confused and afraid, tilting my head this way and that to confirm whether or not he was real or a trick of the dark. What would you do when a handsome stranger offers you everything you want?
"What do you get out of this deal?" I edged closer to the bars that kept me captive. Closer to him!
"I will give you the power to destroy this pathetic little town and all its inhabitants!" His beautiful eyes burned with anger, while the rest of his face was expressionless the contrast was shocking. If he could give me the power, why did he need me? I watched him trying to see if this was all a sick joke, some lunatic playing on me but if he was lying then he very good at. Because he gave nothing away.
"The choice is yours, minimus." He then handed me a small glass vile filled with a thick red liquid. "Drink this before the guards come to take you. Before sun rise. Do you understand?" I could not respond; I was so unsure. Could I trust this strange who was clearly not human. Could I just take the vile and ignore everything he hadn't said? He'd given me no real answers at all. Not to why he was here or why he couldn't use this power himself. Why he'd chosen me as the method to vent his anger on the town.
"Do you understand Scarlet? Answer me!" He demanded, grabbing hold of my arm and pulling me towards him. He smelled of earth and cold and strangely enough, the sea. "Yes." The words spilled from my lips in midst of my confusion. What did I just agree too?
Faster than I could blink he slide his grip from my upper arm to my left hand never taking his eyes off mind. "Know, that once you do this, there's no going back!" he stated. Glanced down at our joined hands, his clean and strong while mine were covered in dirt and filth. Small and fragile human hands. "The choice is yours; will you die for them and their twisted view of what is right and just? Or will you live?" Uncoupling our hands, I stare down at the vile he'd tucked into my palm.
"Before morning!" his smooth voice echoed inside my head and when looked up he was gone, as he had ridden the shadows to entry, so he used them to leave. Certain I was alone, I sat down on the straw matter against the wall of my cell and stared at the red swirling liquid in the vile thinking about everything he said.
How was this tiny glass vile no bigger than a finger going to save me from death's embrace? So many questions, so many thoughts past through my mind as I sat alone in the dark, trying to decide whether or not to trust this creature.
I searched my memory over and over again, but I was sure I had never seen him before. This was but a town in the middle of almost nowhere, a stranger appearing in a town like this would have stirred up quite the commotion among the town's gossipmongers.
Another otherworldly traveller perhaps? No, that's much too close to my grandmother's tales of fairies and magic. He was no fairy! That man was a creature of the night. He moved in the shadows and like the devil, offered you everything you could ever desire!
He'd come to me, in my moment of weakness and offered my salvation. It was then that I realized I believed him, I believed that within this tiny vile lies my salvation. Life instead of death, and it was not an opportunity I would pass up.
They would not kill me, these people I'd called friend and neighbour would not commend me and praise that bastard the major called son. No! I'd kill them. I'd claim justice for myself.
My decision had been made; I drank the red liquid. It was extremely bitter and metalic, like I'd had spent the day sucking on a copper coin. Once I'd emptied the vile, I waited for whatever unnatural occurrence was supposed to save my life. I waited and waited for hours but nothing happened.
Then, I caught fire, everything inside of me was burned. My blood boiled, organs scorched, and my brain turned to mush. I'd never experienced anything like it, I wanted to cry out, scream for help. But I knew, even as I cooked from within, no one up there would come and help me! I was alone in my suffering as I had always been.
Silently I struggled, allowing whatever magic or power that strange infernal liquid had to fully run its course. To burn me, inside out! I gave myself entirely to the fire and the heat overcame my senses and when the only thing I felt was pain, I blacked out. The next time I woke, it had been to banging of my cell door, it was time. They'd come to take me!
Barely managing to open my eye's, I glanced up at the men entering the cell. Thankfully the pain had gone, leaving me cold and completely numb, so numb I could not move or speak. The prefect rag doll for the Mayor's men to drag to the hangman's rope, or at least I think it will be rope. Death by hanging or death by the executioner's axe, the method itself mattered little to me. But now that I thought about it, death by axe would be quicker if not messier but as long as the weapon was not blunt, I would at least have a quick death.
Death! What a dreary concept. Truth is, I felt so empty inside, it was like I was already dead. Whatever that liquid had done to me, it hollowed me out changing me into something new. But the process felt incomplete, there was a final step I seemed to missing. How did I know that?
"Move, murderer!" The tallest of the two yelled in my ear, yanking my limp body off the cold floor and slamming me into the corner wall bang the side of my head against the bars. I was so numb, so empty that I could be bothered to even glare him. It was also due to this numbness that I could not feel any pain even as I watched my bright red blood make its journey down the dirty metal bars. Totally transfixed by its colour, how it seemed to glow in the dark, how I could see it with the utmost clarity even though it was about an inch from my face. Strange!
"Let's go!" The tall man shouted again pulling me from the bars he'd slammed me into, the sudden movement making my head spin.
It was only when world stopped turning that I noticed that they'd bound my hands.
They marched me out of the cell, veered us to the left and then proceeded to push me up the stairs into the blinding morning light and the bastard did not forget to slam me into every sharp corner and piece of furnishing he could find.
Again, I felt nothing, not the pain from the bruises I'm sure were developing, not the blood trickling down my face not the cold ground beneath my bare feet. Nothing at all!
Nothing except the light or at least I think I could feel the light. It stung my eyes, burned them even but caused no pain.
And there they were, the town's people, all gather around that tree. As soon as they saw me, the idle crowd turned rabid. "Whore." They screamed, turning around to leer and stare at me, pushing each other to get a word in. "Let justice has prevail!" Someone yelled, as I was pushed further and further into the sea of people.
Not 30 steps from where I stood in the middle of this crowd traitors and silent victims of the same predator. I could see it, swaying softly in the earlier morning breeze... a rope, perfectly twisted together and hooped at the end. Death by hanging, it seemed!
The mayor was a cruel man, he wanted me to suffer before I died. The old bastard wanted to watch me struggle, watch me crawl at my throat like an animal if I even had that option. He wanted to watch and enjoy my execution to the fullest and he would enjoy it. Seeing me struggle to breath then be crushed by my own weight helpless and terrified.
"Murderer!" They shouted, pushing and clawing at my arms and face. These were the real faces of my neighbours, these ugly, smug smiling faces. Leering and laughing at me as I moved between them.
20 steps now. Passed my so-called friends, passed my supposedly distraught mother whose cold eyes conveyed her genuine happiness at my demise. We moved beyond her, then towards the mayor who stood proud in front of the crowd. 13 steps left, just that 13 steps left in my life. My whole body stared to tremble in fear, in rage I did not know. Just beyond him was my father, he stood behind that horrible man with tears swimming in his eyes. Tears he would not allow to fall. This would be the Mayor's cruellest trick of all... in my father hands was the other end of that god forsaken rope.
My own father was to be my executioner!
I would have laughed if I were able maybe even cried if I could form the necessary emotion, if I could truly experience the feelings running through me. But even as that single tear rolled down my cheek, all I felt was numb. "Bring her! Every moment she draws breath, is an insult to my son's memory!" The mayor bellowed silencing the crowd.
It would have been a nice sort of peace if it weren't for those steps.
12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!
Standing on the raised platform as they placed the noose around my neck, I could think of nothing but my revenge...
Looking at the crowd through the strands of my light brown hair with the mayor read his verdict once again. I looked them all dead in the eye and promised them individually, silently, how painfully their deaths would be, how alone and terrified they'd be when they saw me again.
Some had the good sense to flinch or look away. Most did not! In the shade of the jail house shadow stood the strange creature who'd visited me last night. He stood perfectly still, arms crossed, and face half hidden in shadow. But his eyes, bright as emeralds sparkling in the light spoke of the great and terrible things we'd do together!
"Do you have any last words?" My father asked. Father? Was he even worth of the name, the coward who'd come to kill his only child, I could not say, Mother certainly wasn't!
They were my parents the people who gave me life, my own flesh and blood and here they are taking that life away.
The mayor smirked as if expecting me to beg for my life, but his opinion did not matter. He'd get his just like the rest of them. Do I have something to say? I think I do.
My mouth was dry, and my throat wasn't any better, but I would say my piece. I'd tried explaining once before, that didn't help. So, I would not explain, nor would I beg.
Instead, I loosened my jaw stared the mayor dead in the eye with all the fury I never realized I was capable of and told him, "Wait!"
Genuine fear passed through his eyes. In that moment logic escaped him, he'd forgotten I was bound and ready to be executed. He foresaw his death at my hand, and it terrified him. Gasps echoed around us.
"How dare you." The tall man behind me struck me with the back of his hand and still I did not feel the pain of the slap.
Having regained himself, an evil smile spread across his face, and I smiled right back.
"Kill her." He told his executioner. Someone kick the platform out beneath me, and I was pulled into the air. Free for second and suffocating the next, I was right, I struggled. Fought with everything in me for the air my father now denied me. I crawled at the rope with bound my hands, fought against the burning in chest and when the black spots started to appear in my vision, I knew I had no more fight left.
Vibrant reds, blush pinks with soft purple undertones and calm light blues all gathered together to bask in the sun's golden glory. The sheer beauty of it brought tears to my eyes, it was the most beautiful sun rise I'd ever seen. The glorious dawn that chased away the night's shadows. The last sunrise of my life. Not a bad view at all!