"Do you not see her? Does she look anything like the rest of us? That is the first confirmation we need to tell that she is a demon herself! Everyday she made new demons she tormented us with! She made us creep under our beds! She made us worship and bow down to her as the only demon executioner we had left. Does it not sound odd? That the other demon executioners all left and we had a woman demon executioner. The first in history. Did it not bother you all how it happened?"
Libertha De Hayes gazed at the wizard as he went on and on with his rants trying to pull the public opinion against her.
Pulling? She scuffed to herself.
The people had already been divided against her a long time ago,but she had been too blind to notice it.
Perhaps if she hadn't been kind and empathetic towards them all,she would have been able to save her little family from malice and capricious attacks of the demons she had fought for years, but now her efforts proving useless as the people she did it all for didn't even appreciate her efforts.
"She is a demon! Kill her! Kill her! Sacrifice her child and cleanse the land!"
" Sacrifice her child and cleanse the land"
" Sacrifice her child and cleanse the land" the voices continued to echo in unison.
Libertha couldn't get herself as she kept on hearing them screaming for her child to be sacrificed.
How dare they betray her this way? How dare they do this to her? And how dare her father, the mastermind of it all repay all her sacrifices for his kingdom through such a cruel betrayal.
"For years I have served you all! For years!!! Eleven good fucking years of my life I have saved you all from the demons that ravaged your kingdom. I lost my childhood in my attempt to protect you all. Yet none of you could help me when I needed you the most! And now that my son is all I have left,are you all going to be blinded to chant for him to be sacrificed?"
She screamed at them at the top of her lungs, trying her last desperate attempt towards savaging the situation she currently was in.
"Joxxx!!!" She screamed the name of the man in the front row down the podium of the platform she was on.
The middle aged man with a massive drunkard pot belly shuddered in bewilderment as he found her staring at him.
"How could she see him from such a long distance? How could she have been able to tell that he is the one at the front despite how cramped her head is at the moment" one woman whispered amongst the group and her observations were followed by a loud murmur.
"That confirms that she is actually a demon too. I heard from the old storyteller at the national library that demons have heightened senses and can see and hear things more than normal humans do" another lady interjected the crowd with her knowledge.
"I always wondered how she was able to notice that there were demons attacking. This explains it.She is a demon herself and has been using us the entire time to gather power to herself"
Libertha's lips were agape as she continued to stare at the shattering betrayal that was still unfolding before her. None of the people even hid their lips and spoke freely, insulting her for the things they had always praised her for,before.
"I am a demon? So now I am a demon? But when your daughter was lost in the vast ocean down the cliff,you called unto me to save her because none of the villagers were willing to go with you because of the fear. Now your daughter is alive and there by your side and then suddenly you're admitting that I am a demon" she screamed loudly at lady standing at the front with her little daughter arm in arm with her.
She immediately nudged her daughter to stand behind her, fearful that she might do something to harm her because she was against her.
"I was only fearful then because I believed demons existed. Now that they do not there is nothing you can say or do to convince me otherwise. You can't create illusions to scare people like us all in your bid to gather power. Demons don't exist and so we do not need people like you who pretend to be demons executioners for their own good" the women said with a venomous tone, spitting towards Libertha's direction the moment she was done with her words.
Libertha stood still with her bound hands and legs, shaking with rage and disbelief. The words of the villagers whom she once saw as allies and people she had sworn to protect, stung like a thousand sharp needles.
How could they turn on her so quickly? She still couldn't grasp her hands at the concept of it all.
How could they forget all the lives she had saved, all the demons she had slaughtered for them? The memories of her sacrifices—the years of battling the nightmarish creatures, of feeling isolated and distant, of pouring her heart into a world that was never grateful— all flashed before her eyes like a cruel slideshow.
She turned her gaze back to Joxxx, the man who had been her trusted advisor, now standing there, looking as if he had never known her at all. His face was cold, the same face that had once praised her every victory now twisted with disdain.
"How could you?" She managed to mutter, her voice trembling with disbelief.
Joxxx didn't respond. It was not as if he could even hear her faint mutter from all he noises coming from the crowd. His eyes were fixed on the ground, avoiding her gaze and nor staring in her direction in its totality.
"And you," Libertha's voice rose again, fury mixing with the pain she felt, "How can you say there are no demons when I saw them? When I fought them for you? For you all? How could I fight what I made that way if you say that I am a demon. How could I destroy them that way?"
It was true that she was a demon like she was being accused of, but not in the entirety of how she was being labelled as one. She might have been born as one,but for years she never considered herself one and had always fought against the demon who were her own people,for the humans. Yet,she still was facing this sad end.
The woman who had spoken out earlier, the one who had once called her a savior, sneered, "You fought for yourself, Libertha. And now, you'll face the consequences. You were never one of us. You were always different. From your height to the colour of your eyes"
Libertha looked to the ground trying to hide her eyes that she turned red from the rage and fury she felt. There was little and nothing she could do to protect her son. The only option she had was to reason with the people, and if she was successful, she would have a living son.
The crowd around her murmured in agreement as their fear of the unknown taking root and sprouting into hatred. Many were scared of what Libertha might do as they and seen her fighting demons countless times. But they were comforted somehow by the fact that she was chained and had a wizard preceding the entire process of trying to cleanse the land of all her demonic hold.
Libertha felt a cold and empty void settle in her chest. The demons she had fought were right in her presence.The very things she had been trying to protect them from all these years. The confusion and misinformation. The ignorance.
But now they had all turned on her. And the one thing that had once bound them all together—the fight for survival against the demons—had dissolved into the air, leaving only the bitter stench of resentment in its place. With them all clamouring for her life to be ended.
She raised her head and opened her mouth to speak again but the words got stuck. What was she to say to convince them? She was larger than her mates who had frail bodies due to hunger, she was stronger. Even stronger than a hundred men combined together. That was too much for a woman. When he'd make counterparts left, she had remained behind and had trained and became a demon executioner at twelve years. Everything in her life had been far from normal.
The cries of "Sacrifice her child!" echoed in her ears, louder than anything she could say. The people she had protected were now condemning her, urging for her son's life to be taken. Her heart twisted in agony. She had fought so hard for them and now they wanted to take everything from her. Everything and he last thing that she held dear to her heart.