Jump!

Lyra was standing on the cliff. Her bare foot was an inch from falling into the sea. She was not afraid. She had made the right decision. Yet she was bothered by something, concerned about something. She wanted to live a happy life. Her blue eyes wandered around, looking at the men behind her. Soldiers surrounded her with bo staffs. Women were blocked from entering the area, standing at the far end to witness the jump. Doros, the son of the cult leader, stood facing her back with a loathsome expression and gritted teeth. His fist was clenched, waiting for her to jump to quench his satisfaction.

The ground was covered in wet mud and grass; a slip and she was dead. There were large rocks behind her, and a bloodgood tree stood nearby. She looked nervously beneath the sea. She breathed in the air, which smelled like salt and earth. She was wrapped in white cloth, and her red hair waved in the wind. Her blue eyes mirrored the sky behind her. She touched her belly, which was fully grown. She whimpered. If it were for the baby, she would have lived a hundred times, crossing hell. But she didn't want the baby to go through anything bad. The men in the crowd began shouting words like "slut," "mad woman," and so on. She didn't care what they called her. What she wanted was peace. And the only thing she could do to get that was jump. In her culture, it was a sin to commit suicide. Punishments were given to people who went against the rules. They normally entered fire, but her punishment was rare because Doros hated her and wanted everything bad to happen to her.

A stone building stood behind her, resembling an ancient temple. Fire was lit inside it. A group of men stood around it with bo staffs. She had no place to run back. She took a step closer to jump, holding her belly.

"Jump!" Doros yelled. He was young like her, well-built, with black eyes, and wearing a black cloth wrapped around his body, which had red at the ends. He wore black star-shaped earrings and metal necklaces and bangles. His intense look felt like it would burn the whole world. He wore a black bindi, a symbol of death in his culture.

Behind him, a large group of people stood holding bo staffs and wood lit with fire. Several women dressed in black were crying, and a woman with gray hair was on her knees, screaming loudly while two men blocked her from doing anything. She was wearing the black bindi like everyone else, but it had been forced upon her. She was Lyra's mother.

Lyra had no choice but to jump. She gave one last look at her mother, summoned all her courage, and jumped to embrace the sea.

"Nooooo!" her mother screamed loudly. She ran to the edge of the hill. This time, the men let her go. Some women gasped but didn't show worry on their faces. They didn't protest; they supported the punishment of the girl. They heard a splash as she hit the water. The gray woman looked. Nothing was there—just the blue of the sea and the reflection of the sky in it. She started to cry deeply, touching her chest. Doros joined her to watch the calm sea and smirked. He turned to the crowd and laughed malevolently. His evil laugh echoed across the hill.

"This is your fate when you go against the rules. You should be ashamed of what she did. She is an abomination to our family. Whatever she learned, she learned from her precious mother, and these types of people belong in whorehouses. Pamela…" He touched her mother's hand. There was a lustful tone in his voice when he said her name. "You can either join me in my bed or jump into the fire." He looked at the fire lit inside the stone building and turned his gaze back to her. He was only half her age. With that question, the crowd looked down in shame. Some women muttered "death before dignity" under their breath. Men looked at her as a piece of meat. Pamela, however, didn't step back from him. She stared into his eyes, accepting his advances. He laughed cruelly and looked at the crowd. Everyone looked down. Some women had expressions of shame and anger at Pamela for accepting to sleep with him rather than die.

Doros craved more women, even though he was married. Nobody reported him. The women he punished were given a choice like this. He was pleased when women accepted to sleep with him. His father, the leader, didn't know anything about this ritual; he believed all those women were punished by stepping into the fire. Nobody dared go against him when he was surrounded by soldiers.

Doros didn't consider age or respect. No woman broke the rules because they were afraid of him and his hands on them. Lyra chose to die rather than sleep with him. One thing that bothered him was that she was extraordinarily beautiful. But she had chosen to die. He didn't like it. His ego was bruised. He had offered to let her go if she would just kiss him, but she hadn't. Other women who accepted to sleep with him were forever kept in the castle as servants, without any contact with the outside world.

So, he wanted to kill her in a different way, not by fire. He believed fire would forgive sins and take them to the afterlife. He wanted to punish her. He wanted to punish her for rejecting him twice.

"Lord…" one of his men whimpered, looking at the sea. Doros returned to reality from his thoughts.

"What?" He saw the terror on his soldier's face and looked at the sea where the soldier was staring. He saw bubbles. Bubbles rising to the surface, followed by a hand.

"Devil's crown! What the—" His face grew pale at the sight. Slowly, the remaining part of the hand emerged from the water.

He saw Lyra, her clothes and hair now wet, swimming in the sea, escaping from there. The sea was vast, but she had survived a fifty-foot jump. She was not a normal woman, he understood. Lyra didn't look back. She swam with all her strength.

"Jump!" Doros ordered the soldiers, but they hesitated. Seeing the anger on his face, they jumped. He saw them fall into the sea, but they didn't rise. Lyra's mother stood there, looking at the sea in disbelief. Doros's angry eyes landed on her. He approached Pamela with a threatening demeanor.

"How did she survive the fall?" he asked rudely, though fear crept into his voice.

"I—I don't know, my lord. I have nothing to do with that," she pleaded on her knees. "Please… Believe me!" she begged.

"Lock her in the prison," he ordered, and several of his remaining men took her. She protested, begged, and cried. He ignored Pamela because he couldn't focus on anything but Lyra. "Hey!" he yelled to the remaining soldiers. "Take the boat! I don't want her to escape. Fast!"

The soldiers ran to the wave-cut platform beneath the cliff, which was wet. There were already boats there, and an enormous number of men got into each boat, eager to fulfill their master's orders. It took some time, giving Lyra a head start.

"I want her ALIVE!" Doros yelled from the cliff. He was afraid. If his father found out, he was dead.

Lyra swam, embracing the cold waves around her, not knowing where to escape.

(to be continued)