Final Chapter: Burning Hazard

The wall in front of me closed with a soft thud. My eyes went wide when I realized that I was now alone with the High-Priest without any chance of escape.

He had grabbed me by my biceps and even through the fabric of my shirt, I felt the cold of his hands. Well, okay, it could be that fear changed my perception of things a bit. But fear didn’t stop me from calling out to my friends, to Donghae. “DONGHAE!!”

Surprisingly the High-Priest didn’t stop me, he just began to drag me up the stairs. I didn’t struggle, I was busy focusing on hearing Donghae’s voice through the wall. “Don’t worry, Hyukjae. I’ll save you! I’ll get you out of there!” Donghae’s voice sounded far away and it made me tear up.

“Keep up!” I heard the High-Priest hiss in my ear. He pulled on my biceps which made my arms turn in a hurtful position. I cried out but the High-Priest paid no attention to it. He continued to tug on my arms without fail.

I was forced to walk up the stairs with him. Until I realized that maybe I could fight him to get away from him. It was a bit risky to try that on the staircase but I was willing to risk it all. But first I needed to make the High-Priest think that I had stopped struggling, that I had given up on getting back to my friends.

I pretended to fight him for a couple of seconds more but my movements were not as frantic to get away from him anymore. Slowly I stopped struggling and walked up the stairs with a rather defeated composure in order to make him think that I had given up.

And just as I thought, the grip that the High-Priest hand on me loosened ever so slightly. Most likely he hadn’t even really noticed that his grip had loosened, it was possible that it had happened unconsciously.

And I decided to immediately make use of the fact before the High-Priest noticed it by himself.

I suddenly turned around with a jerk and I managed to free myself from the High-Priest’s grip. I turned around and gave him a shove on the chest.

I didn’t stand to watch to see the High-Priest fall on the stairs and I immediately made my way back down. I couldn’t help but smile a little. I had regained my freedom completely on my own! I didn’t need anyone to take care of me, I could take care of myself!

I was a little bit proud and I continued to make my way down until I finally saw the wall that separated this staircase from the main part of the church on the other side.

“Donghae?!” I yelled, in the hope that Donghae could hear me on the other side and that he hadn’t gone somewhere else to find another entrance. But to my relief, I heard an almost immediate answer: “Hyukjae, is that you? Are you alright?” Donghae’s voice was damped by the wall.

“I’m alright, I managed to get away!” I proudly yelled through the wall while my hands blindly searched for the stone that would open the secret door.

“That’s a relief, Hyukjae. Now we’ll just need to find the opening to this door so that we can free you. Are you looking too on the other side?”

“Yes, I-” My sentence was cut off when I felt something cold slash my neck. It wasn’t deep, it was more like the knife was pressed on my skin but it was so sharp that it drew blood. I didn’t think about my actions and the first reaction I gave was a loud scream in pain. That wasn’t smart for two reasons: One, I made the others worry on the other side but they couldn’t help me and more importantly, yelling made me move my neck which made the wound on my neck hurt more.

I felt two tears rolling down my cheek because of the pain as I listened to an angry voice though it had an undertone that I couldn’t completely place. “You filthy heretic! I will teach you your place! And don’t you dare make a sound because you’ll pay for it with your dead.” He pressed the knife even deeper into the wound and I bit my lip to keep myself from crying out. I couldn’t alert the others on the other side even more. But I wanted to keep it in a bit too much because I drew blood from my bottom lip.

“Hyukjae, Hyukjae?! What’s happening?” I heard everyone scream through the wall but Donghae’s voice was the loudest as he yelled: “Hyukjae? Are you alright? Has he hurt you?” Soft thumps were heard on the wall but I decided not to respond to that because of the knife on my neck.

And strangely enough, this moment I thought of a normal Saturday on which I would just lazy around at home while desperately avoiding my mom so that she wouldn’t give me any chores. I wondered if I would ever see such a Saturday again or if this was the last day that I would live.

And as I was dragged up the staircase again by the High-Priest. I wondered what would happen if I lost my life in this painting. Would I go back to Donghae’s attic or would I be dead for real? I wondered if Tiffany could be in the attic.

I was reminded of the situation at hand the moment I felt a cold breeze going through the staircase. We walked higher and higher and eventually we reached the top of the staircase. It reminded me off the battlements of a castle, just with a fence on it and a roof over it.

The wind was blew hard through the top of the tower. I became cold but didn’t pay attention to it. I could look over the city and the image that I saw there was truly frightening.

The whole city was on fire. I heard screams constantly, people were crying out for help but nobody would be coming. Nobody could save an entire city.

“Wha- what is this?” I mumbled stiffly – I tried not to move too much because of the knife.

“We’re going to burn out all of the heretics!” The High-Priest answered, his voice slightly crazed.

“But- but there are innocent people out there?!”

 “All heretics.” The High-Priest mumbled. I knew right at that moment that the man was out of his mind. He had gone completely crazy. But then why hadn’t he killed me yet?

“I’m going to save them!” The High-Priest mumbled a bit louder right then.

“How?” I asked him and immediately afterwards I wanted to kick myself in the head. I shouldn’t ask why! I should think of a way to get out of here.

“By sacrificing you!” His voice went a few octaves higher and my heart almost bounced out of my ribcage. I felt the knife dig deeper in my neck and I tried to muffle a cry but it didn’t manage to do that completely. In my head, I begged my friends to come and save me, I begged Donghae to free me from this lunatic.

But Donghae was nowhere to be seen nor were my friends. And on top of that, the city was burning so they couldn’t get any help from anyone.

I was completely doomed.

“Tut… tut…. tut…” I suddenly heard someone from the staircase. It was not a voice that I had ever heard before but it sounded an awful lot familiar. The High-Priest made me turn around to face the stranger. There was a man with a black cloak on. His face was partly hidden by his hood but I could see a grin.

“I’m not sure that’s going to save them…” The stranger told the High-Priest.

The High-Priest ignored the comment and instead he screamed: “Who are you?!”

The grin of stranger became larger and it seemed to be mocking the High-Priest. “Don’t you remember me? You’ve been hunting me for a long time now…”

“I’ve been hunting many heretics but I wouldn’t know them by name! They’re not worth it!” The High-Priest screamed at the stranger while he dug his knife deeper into my neck. It hurt so much and it bled so much that I was afraid that he was going to hit an artery if he went even a bit deeper.

The stranger noticed it too because his grin vanished when he saw my pain. “I’m hurt that you don’t remember your own nemesis.”

The grip on the knife loosened ever so slightly. The High-Priest spit out in surprise: “Macavity?!”

“Ah, so you do remember me?”

“Of course, I remember you!” The High-Priest called out. The he pushed me away from him. I fell on the ground. I hissed loudly in pain, my knee had landed wrongly but I couldn’t be bothered with that. I looked up and saw that the High-Priest had attacked Macavity. They were fighting but Macavity seemed to easily overpower the High-Priest. While they were struggling, they came closer and closer to the battlements. Macavity’s back was suddenly pressed to the battlements. I saw him look back for a second while the High-Priest took one step back. And with the knife held in his hand, the High-Priest went for the kill. He stormed to Macavity who took a split-second decision and moved to the right.

The High-Priest saw it and wanted to make an adjustment to his attack but it was too late. He had so much speed that he crashed with his upper body to the fence on the battlements. Suddenly there was a big gust of wind. The High-Priest’s body toppled over the fence because it couldn’t withstand the wind.

The High-Priest let out a large howl and fell into the burning hazard. He was gone for good, the fall down the tower was at least 90 meters.