Bonfire of the Soul

Trey's eyes go wide in terror. Lea covers her mouth with her hands, tears streaming down her face as she falls to her knees in utter defeat. For the town they both grew up in, the same town with everyone and everything they love, is burning to the ground right before their eyes.

Trey: "Lea...w, we need to make sure everyone's okay!" He tries to help lift her to her feet but he is shaking far to violently to get a grip on her at all, "Come on...we need to."

Lea doesn't respond.

His breath catches in his throat as he walks forward into town. Past the church he never went to because 'it was boring', past his uncle Tom's house, who is Lea's father. While not actually his uncle, he was always called uncle Tom by everyone, and now, he may be gone. He pressed forward. Not a single house remains that is not engulfed by the flames. However, almost all the villagers are gathered in the square with Bethal in the center of them.

Bethal: "Do you all see why we mustn't trust outsiders?" His voice rang out over the square with deafening volume. "Look at what they have done to us. How much more must we lose? Our very lives? Nay, I say! We shall end the one responsible for this and close our gates for good!"

A woman's voice cuts through Bethal's.

Mina: "Trey! It was him. He's the only one who wasn't here! Burned his own house down with his own mother inside, he did!"

All the villagers start to move towards Trey, like the angry mob they have become. Missing from the group was his aunt Anri, who is probably the only person who could calm them down. Without missing a step, Trey runs back towards Lea and the mountain. The mob follows close behind. Trey leaps across some burning stairs to meet back with Lea, who hasn't moved an inch from where she last was.

Trey: "Lea! Come on, we gotta go." He tries to pull her along, but she wont budge, like she's a statue.

The mob closes the distance.

Tom: "Look, he's trying to take my daughter hostage! Is there no end to your treachery?"

The mob roars in pure bloodlust. Trey leaves Lea to run as they are after him and him alone. He runs up to the mountain and crawls up the incline that took him so long before, in a minute flat. As he scales the rest of the mountain he has only a second to think; but he only has one thought, and that of course is, someone set him up. Could it be that someone in the village hates him so much they'd burn the village down just to blame him? "It can't be," he thought to himself. But there's no other explanation. Towns don't start on fire for no reason. As he ran past the small campsite he barely notices that the fire pit is smoldering. Someone had been here but when he was just here less than a half hour ago. It was cold. He doesn't have the time to dwell on such things. There is an angry village mob after him. He runs past all the greenery to reach the summit. But he goes past the tower to the cliff edge where the mob catches up. Bethal comes forward.

Bethal: "Explain yourself!" His voice booms across the cliffside, "We are all wanting to hear!"

Tom rushes past Bethal and kicks Trey off the cliffside.

Tom: "I've done it! By Jove, I've got that devil!"

Bethal rips him away from the edge.

Trey misses the small bit of rock sticking out of the mountainside and barely catches himself on the even smaller bit below. He plucks himself up and hits against the wall. Bethal peers over the edge and sees his orange poncho sticking out in the dark and turns to face the mob.

Bethal: "He has fallen to the ground. Let us all go back to begin to rebuild what was destroyed, and accost the dead no further." He waves the mob backdown the mountain. He follows behind them, leaving Trey alone.

Trey waits until he's sure that they're all gone before climbing back up. He's still in shock. Everything has fallen apart in a day. His town? Gone. His friend? Gone. His mother and his Aunt? Gone and gone. He can't even bring himself to yell, the world is loud enough right now. It begins to rain, hard and relentless rain from the start. It soaks everything making it even harder to move. Trey sits on his knees and begins to cry. Though, if you were to point that out, he'd tell you it was just the rain rolling down his face. All he does is sit there for a few hours. Unsure of anything he can do. Before sunrise however, he suddenly gets up to his feet and beginning his travel down the mountain with the faintest hope of sneaking around the town to freedom. "But what's the point of freedom if you have no one to care for or anyone who cares for you?" He thinks to himself as he makes his way back to the campsite to go around the trail long way to not have to enter town at all at best. At worst however it's only a brief moment hopping through a pig's pen so it's not terrible regardless. But then he notices the sun rising. So he's got to be quick and nimble like Lea. So he runs down the mountain at a blistering pace like he knows this thing like the back of his hand. Because he does, going up and down something three times in one day will build muscle memory of that area. At the bottom of the incline he goes left and not straight to avoid the village. After a short hop through the pigs pen, he's out and freedom is his.