The bakery is empty when she arrives. The lantern light from inside casts a warm glow against the cobblestone and Sola tiptoes to the side of the shop, plastering her back to the brick before starting to rummage through the trash.

Never in her life has she dreamed of stealing, but the thought had started to cross her mind as the famine grows worse with each passing day. With her money now gone at the cost of her own stupidity, Sola is now desperate.

She stuffs stale rolls and day-old bread into her skirts when the door suddenly latches open. A scrawny woman with gnarled fingers and a pinched face, a flour covered apron around her hips emerges from the doorway with a cloth sack in her arms.

The vulture-like woman squawks in alarm and drops the sack altogether. Sola's blood runs cold.

"You! Come here you filthy little rat!" she descends the stone steps with frightening speed and is upon the girl in an instant, bony hands locked around her wrists.

"You honestly have the nerve to try and steal from my family when we're starving?!"

A hand snakes around Sola's throat and she let's out a gurgled moan as the baker's wife applies crushing pressure.

A sickening crack splits through the air as her skull connects to the wall and color explodes behind her eyelids. Warmth blooms around her temple, trickling down her brow and nausea starts to roll in her stomach.

"I should just kill you now. Thieves like you deserve to die," the woman's small frame is shaking with rage as she yanks her back by the hair, "by the looks of it, you have no family. I'd be doing you a favor. No one would miss you,"

Despite her impaired state, Sola does her best to try and throw the woman off of her at the mention of being an orphan as new strength floods her body. She sure as hell has family, and she is waiting in front of the fountain now.

"Rot in hell," Sola swears through gritted teeth and tears brim her eyes. The Contagion's effect had not only been death and terror but had twisted the hearts of the living. This woman was trying to end her life out of the same human instinct that Sola herself acted upon in order to get here. Raw intuition.

"How in God's name would you know starvation when you're throwing away food in the streets?" Sola does her best to keep a steady tone despite the fury burning her lungs, "look at my ribs and tell me when was the last time I ate a proper meal, when you're here too selfish to even spare a crumb. Tell me now who the real rat is." she works up a bit of bloody saliva and spits at the woman's feet. The baker's wife growls and tries to force her head into the wall once more. Sola resists with all her willpower and the pair continue to struggle before the soft sound of falling fabric stops the woman.

Her eyes are glued to the purple drawstring bag now lying in the dirt. She releases Sola's throat like her skin is suddenly white hot and retreats several steps back, her gaze never leaving the pouch.

"You..you really are something," she scoffs, her voice full of disbelief, "a thief and a witch."

Pain shoots through Sola's scalp as she frantically gets to her feet, cupping the oozing wound around her temple.

The accusation of witchcraft is something that she had almost forgotten, or rather, her mind had been preoccupied with keeping her and Ria alive to worry about such an incrimination.

After the aftermath of the Contagion, a widespread panic had exploded over the entire country, blaming the cosmos and supernatural as the source of the epidemic. Hysteria for black arts and necromancy reached such a boiling point that countless young women and girls were sentenced to death out of pure suspicion.

Sola fears she is next with the way this woman is studying her.

"No," she struggles to say as she tries to catch her breath, "no, I received that from a Doctor. I am no sorcerer."

"You came here to steal and cast a curse on my family!" the woman points an accusing finger at her, though she still remains at a distance from Sola.

"You'll surely hang for this," she continues in that breathless whisper. The corner of pulls up into a satisfied smirk, sending shivers running up and down the girl's spine. This time, the baker's wife advances towards her and it's her turn to stumble back, "or if not that, they'll throw you to the vampires."

Sola's mind is reeling and a cold sweat breaks on the nape of her neck, her hands clenched into shaking fists at her sides.

She has heard stories of the vampires. In fact, everyone in the entire country has; how else would The High Family be able to keep control over the surrounding kingdom without such an effective asset as them?

They've been told countless times, woven into snippets of daily conversation to eventually becoming old wives' tales used to discipline children, each account riddled with more horrifying and vivid details than the last. Now, they had manifested into dark and grand legends of the savage beings that reside within the castle dungeons.

It was said that the vampires were once a peaceful clan, and had coexisted with humans without quarrel. Up until the Contagion, persay.

With the combination of sickness ravaging through the empire and panic seeping into the minds of the people, the vampires were branded a scapegoat and were found at fault for causing this epidemic, similar to that of witchcraft. This followed up with their eventual enslavement by humans in order to enforce a sense of dominance and power in this time of unrest, and to take advantage of their celestial strengths and abilities. By honing in on the insane bloodlust that all vampires possess, their main purpose is to smite those who question the aristocrats' unfair rule and criminals who defy the law. And so, it was decreed by The High Family that all belonging to the vampire race be captured and made identifiable with a collar wrapping tight around the throat, rigged with a silver stake so that if removed, the individual would be killed instantly; a threat to keep the creatures under their control.

The woman continues to move toward her with that insane smile and snatches her quickly around the wrist, dragging Sola after her.

"Let me go!"

"Quiet, you little brat!" she spits.

She takes her back to the town square, where more people have gathered underneath the moonlight. Sola suddenly realizes the reason for everyone assembling in the area when she sees the gallows set up crudely at the front of the fountain.

A hanging.

Several men and women have their hands bound behind their backs, a necklace of rope lining their throats. Pale, grave faces stare out over the audience in a silent cry for help. But no one moves.

A man dressed in brightly colored noble attire steps out onto the wooden platform and unrolls a piece of parchment, and clears his throat, his voice sounding bored and emotionless.

"By the orders of The High Family, the individuals standing before you are hereby sentenced to death due to their engagement in the black arts and to prevent their corruption from spreading to the rest of the kingdom. May God show mercy on your souls."

With that, the messenger exits and the crowd tenses up. Public executions weren't exactly a rare occurrence after the Contagion, but forced to watch your fellow peers die in front of you never failed to rattle the kingdom out of their wits of an uprising.

Sola's tongue feels like sandpaper in as she tries to swallow the lump in . She whimpers, struggling against the woman's arms and twists to try and turn away from the scene unfolding before her.

The baker's wife snarls a hand into her hair and yanks her head back, forcing her to watch. She squeezes her eyes shut just as the platform falls away with the pull of a lever and she can hear the audible whump of bodies falling through the air. Gasps and cries of disbelief echo from around her and she hears someone cry out somewhere to her left. She shuts her eyes tighter as waves of nausea roll through her stomach.

She's suddenly pushed forward as the crowd starts to panic and she stumbles into a young girl with amber eyes and tossled brown hair.

"Sola!"

It's Ria. Her face is riddled with concern, drained of color as she helps Sola to her feet, her grip on her forearms so tight like she's afraid she'll disappear. No doubt nerves from the execution.

"I looked for you everywhere. God, I was so worried, I thought something happened, I was so close to-"

"Ria, you need to leave. Now," she demands in a low voice, "it's not safe. Go home, I'll come back for you,"

Ria's brows furrow in confusion, her gaze flickering around them and she grips onto her tighter.

"Why? Is everything alright?"

Sola bites her lip and quickly shakes her head, hating herself for the fearful look that shoots through the younger girl. Ria senses her sudden urgency and tenses up, her voice trembling with raw anxiety.

"I'm scared," she whimpers, "I don't want to go home alone, let me stay with you. Sola, please,"

She finds herself echoing the sob as she reluctantly peels off Ria's fingers and cups her shoulders, looking her dead in the eyes. Time is running out and she's terrified that this will be their last goodbye.

"I'm being framed for witchcraft, which is why you need to get out of here so the same thing doesn't happen to you, especially if she sees the two of us together,"

Ria starts shaking her head and she can see tears b her eyes, her lips twisted into a frown.

"Who is 'she'? W-what's going on? What happened?"

"There's no time to explain, Ria. I'm so sorry, please, just trust me like you always do, okay? You're always so good at that, and I need you to do that for me now more than ever, do you understand?"

She nods and moisture slips down her dirt-streaked face. Sola tended to forgot how beautiful the girl she considered her younger sister was. If only she could have given them a better life.

"Okay," Ria breathes, "I trust you,"

"And why is that?" she brings a hand to brush away a stray tear with her thumb. Ria sighs and leans into the touch, a ghost of a smile playing at her lips.

"because everything works when we're together,"

Sola smiles thinly and nods in affirmation.

"That's right. Now, go. Lock the doors and turn off the lights, don't open up for anyone except for me,"

"Right," she says with a far away look in her eyes and disappears into the crowd. The grip around Sola’s arms suddenly tighten.

“I have one more for you, sire!” The woman’s shrill voice resonates through the square. Deafening silence. She's roughly pushed forward again, earning a gasp from Sola. Curious eyes flicker in their direction.

“I have a witch for hanging!”

Murmurs explode through the crowd. The messenger from before steps back up onto gallows and eyes the baker’s wife with a piercing look.

“Step forward,” he commands in a crisp voice. Civilians part and make way as the two women continue to struggle against each other.

“Stay still!” She hisses before they reach the nobleman and slams her elbow into the base of her neck, hard. Sola lets out a whimper as a shock of pain jolts up her spine. She stops resisting and complies.

They reach the base of the gallows. She can feel the stare of hundreds of eyes on her, prickling her skin. The messenger is a portly man with an unkind face, a heavyset stomach and a fat chin, showing that this noble has never known the struggles of starvation. She immediately hates him.

“A witch, you say?”

Even his voice is ugly.

“Yes, sire. She tried to curse my family and I found this,” she emphasizes by producing the little velvet pouch filled with herbs.

“That's not true,” Sola fires back as calmly as she can muster as the murmurs to her back become deafening, “a Contagion Doctor planted it on me, I did not craft it myself!”

But her pleas are unheard as the roar of the crowd drowns out her voice and her blood starts to boil in panic. She's jostled violently as a ripple of panic surges through the people around her.

The bodies of the convicted still sway before her in the wind, necks grotesquely stretched and faces pale grey. She feels bile rise in the back of .

“We have no room on the gallows. We’ll throw her to the vampires,” says the messenger in the most even tone she’s ever heard. Chills spider up and down her body.

“No,” she chokes. Ria flashes through her mind. Her only means of staying alive; to keep her only family safe and healthy. Hands wrap around her wrists and she's thrown forward.

“No!”