(Warning: domestic violence and gore, also it is very long)

_“This can’t be happening, not today anyway._” Dom thinks as she walks into the city square. She tightly grips her younger brother's hand, as they walk into the town square. The town square isn’t normal, one with markets, where festivals take place, it is a place of death; it is where witches get burned. 

The square stings of smoke, even if it has been months since the last burning. Smoke has stained the brink pathway, and the stage where the burnings happen looks like it is about to collapse—the square wrecks of death, with the scent of burned hair and flesh.

Dom can sense who will be burned, it is her mother. Her mind is fogged with all the memories of her mother, all of which only feel like a dream now. She has never thought of her mom as a witch, as she walks up to the stake, she doesn’t even think of the implications. This is her mom, and her mom is going to die.

Her younger brother, Unis, will never remember this, nor does he know who the woman, who stands tied to a stake is, She was taken away from him when he was a toddler, he is now nine years old.  Only Dom lives with the burden of remembering the day, their mother was taken from them.

~~~

_Dom was only fourteen, hiding in her bedroom with Unis. She held onto Unis as she heard the clashing of glasses, screams, and yells from her father.  Her father finally learned the truth about her mother. _

_ She was a witch, a true witch, not the made-up kind._

_ Dom had always thought witches were fake, but finally, it all made sense. The way flowers, which were practically extinct in the kingdom of Avalon, grew only on our land. The way they had been rich from it. This was when Dom was introduced to the real world. This was the moment she became an adult._

_ She had tried not to listen to the words her father was spewing, but it was hard to ignore your father disowning you, all because you're a witch's child.  At that moment, she put her crying brother back into the crib and opened the door.  _

_She was so confident in protecting her mother, thinking that maybe she could talk sense into her father even if it was only for a second, but when, she looked out into the hallway where her father and mother stood, her father suddenly wasn’t her father, he was just a person, an awful person. It was the way he stood with a tall and powerful stance. A broken bottle held in his hand with blood dripping from it._

_Her father was once a kind and loving man, she loved him, and he loved her, but her view of the man who played with her, read her stories, and took her places had changed. He was now just a man who was hurting her mother, a man with hot, angry tears running down his face._

_“Stop!” Dom heard from the entrance of her house. The sound of the door being knocked down echoed through the house. It was her neighbor, who luckily heard the commotion and alerted the guards. Now the guards were restraining the man as he yelled, “She’s a witch, she is a witch, she is evil, and her children are evil as well! Kill her!”  The guards didn’t react to his words. They probably didn’t hear him over the guards yelling._

_Dom gently closed the door and ran back into her room, she pulled Unis out of his crib and hid in the closet, convinced that guards would kill her because she was a witch's child. Her brother cried loudly._

_“Shhh, Unis, Shhh, I love you unis, shhh.”  She panicked as the crying continued. “Be quiet, just shut up!” she whispered and yelled. She was immediately filled with regret, how could she be mad at the little tiny child when there was a man who beat her mother within an inch of her life? _

_She cries into her little brother, using him to cover the sound of her tears. He finally went quiet. At the perfect time too, when their bedroom door started to open, the sounds from outside her room stopped, “It’s okay to come out,” Her mother called. Dom emerged from the closet and she examined her mother, who had blood flowing from her temple and nose.  _

_Her mother kisses little Unis on the cheek and leans into Dom’s ear, “I’m being taken away, please take care of Unis.” _

_“Mum please-” tears stream down Dom’s face, unable to believe what she is hearing. _

_“I have to go, just please take care of Unis. I love you.”  She hugs Dom, silently crying into her, trying to be strong for her last moment with her kids.  A guard enters the room and pulls Dom’s mother away from her. Dom stares blankly as her mom is ripped away from her.  Her heart racing but her body still. _

_Through the window, she can hear the man, who she once called her father, yelling again.  Dom stood crying Unis in her arms, still, her mother was gone. Her father was gone. All in one day. The whole event repeated in her mind. The bloody bottle in her father’s hand, her mom with the blood dripping from her face. All of it repeated and repeated, spinning in her mind like a carousel._

~~~

Dom's mother stands tied to the burning stake, Dom stands close, thinking that she would want to see her mom up close for one last time. If only she knew how wrong she would be. She didn’t even think about how six years in prison had treated her mom. Her cheeks look sunken in, and her ribs and spine are shown even with the ratty clothing covering them. Her eyes were closed as if she was dead already.

Her vision of her Mom crumbled, when she had last seen her she had a full figure, not a ghost of one.  But she could still tell who she was by the distinct light patches over her dark skin,  just like Dom had. She thinks of her light patches as what she has left of her mom.

A big lump in her throat has formed, this is the last day her mom has in this world, and she wouldn’t even get a goodbye from her daughter. Only one thing remains in her mind, the betrayal her mother must be feeling, not even a goodbye, maybe she thinks  Dom forgot about her.  And how does she believe  Unis is doing, what if she feels that she gave Unis away?  A few tears stream down her face.

She steps closer to the stage, tempted to say one last thing. “Mom..” she whimpered quietly, her hand covering her mouth, “I-”

“What’s going on?” Dom feels a small tug on her shirt. Unis stood tears streaming down his face.

A major rule of the burning was to stay still and quiet. People have been beaten for crying. Dom can imagine herself being one of those people. As her mom is burned she is sure to shed a few tears. She is more scared for Unis than she is herself. Would he be able to handle being beaten by a guard? He’s so young and sensitive, that even without the knowledge that this woman is his mom, he is sure to be choking on tears by the end, especially if he’s already upset.

She kneels to his level, “ I need you to be quiet, don’t cry, just hold my hand, or hug me, just stay quiet okay.”

“Okay.” He pauses, “Why?” 

“You’ll be in trouble, big trouble.” Dom realizes that her brother's definition of trouble is much different from the guard's version.  “The guards aren’t as nice as me.” 

“Why?”  He looks up at Dom, his childish eyes staring up at her, she can’t possibly tell the truth to him;

Dom purses her lips, “Some people just aren’t nice,” 

“I’m nice,”  He smiles, so proud of himself.

“Ya, you're _really _nice.”  A secret fear she had was him becoming like everyone else: bitter, cruel, and hopeless.  She wished for him always to have the same childhood innocence that would shelter him.

“We gather here today to celebrate, relieving the world of evil!” Lord Avalon, the emperor of Avalonia, yelled into the crowd. He stood on the stage inches away from Dom’s face. Unis leans closer to Dom and clutches her hand tighter. His eyes are closed, 

Lord Avalon stands in a powerful stance, His head hangs high, looking straight into the crowd. He wears a mask over his face, that only shows his mouth to be seen. The mask was giant with horns that points towards the sky. And his smile, made Dom’s skin crawl, same with the way he acted like it was a celebration to kill a person. 

He backs up, showing  Dom’s mother he holds a lit torch in his hand. Dom covers Unis’ already closed eyes. 

When her other goes up in flames, she looks down at her brother, trying to stay strong for him. He should learn from her to be strong, he _has_ to learn that to survive. But even so, Dom hates the idea of her brother learning how the world works; her brother is the embodiment of innocence she wished she didn’t have to give up so early. 

“Please!” She hears her mother cry from within the flames. Dom looks up, it has been so long since she had heard her mother’s voice.  She chokes back tears.

“_Don’t cry, Don’t cry,” _She pleas to herself.

“Mom…?” She pats Unis’ head trying to signal for him to be quiet, “Mom, I want to go home.”  She broke down hearing Unis call her Mom, when his real Mom stood at the burning stake. Dom had almost forgotten about the lie she had kept up for years, she was to him, his mom. She wants to keep it that way.

“Shh Unis, Shh, “ She pulls him into a hug, as tears ran down her cheeks, mixed with guilt and sadness.  Then nothing, it’s like the world slowed down, the tears stopped pouring, and her heart stopped racing. She stared at the fire, her mother has been engulfed and couldn’t be seen. In other words, she is finally dead, no longer feeling the burning pain. Dom knew her mom was dead, somehow.  She could just feel it.

Once the fire calms down, Lord Avalon stands before the flames. “Use this witch as a lesson, to avoid the evils in this world. For if you choose evil this shall be your fate, a fire, with you in the center, where you get stared at as the flames engulf you.”  

“Magic destroys families, relationships, everything, you wouldn’t want that to happen to you, would you?  This witch, _it_ had a family, two kids, and a good home, all of which were lost.”

Dom tries to hide herself, even if no one knows she is the witch’s family. But maybe Lord Avalon knows she is here. Dom starts to spiral going through all the possibilities, she had never heard Lord Avalon describe the witch before they were arrested, so there must be a reason, doesn’t there? 

“Those two kids are orphans now, do you want that for your kids?”

 “_Maybe this is just a way to guilt people,_”  Dom thinks.  “_Or it’s a warning.”_

“Imagine the kids, parents ripped away from them, while they are only young, forced to grow up too fast.” Dom felt her ears and cheeks turning red. 

Lord Avalon was wrong about one thing, Unis wasn’t forced to grow up. Dom was, he wasn’t. How could he? He is only nine, and in his world, he has a Mom, a home, and friends. But Dom is twenty and has lied about her age since she was sixteen.  It worked because she looked older from the stress. She used to consider it a compliment, but now it feels awful. She is older than her years, much older. 

“Leave this place, and remember the dangers, magic holds.”

How could she forget the dangers magic holds, when magic killed her mom?

Liar