chapter ten, burning away the sins
" We, we don't have to worry bout nothing
'Cause we got the fire, and we're burning one hell of a something
They, they gonna see us from outer space, outer space
Light it up, like we're the stars of the human race, human race "
BURN ━━
ellie goulding
THE SMELL IF THE DEAD AND ALREADY DECAYED BODIES MADE JULIET GRIMACE. The smell was awful. Not only that, they were forced to post away flies that came from the rotting flesh. Nan, Zoe and herself had been ordered by Fiona to clean up and burn the remaining limbs when Fiona finally returned with the news Cordelia had been blinded. But told to focus on hiding any evidence of what had happened last night. They were still in their clothes covered in blood and guts, Juliet and Zoe looking worse than Nan.
Fiona was overseeing their work, which Juliet thought was bullshit seeing as she was supposed to be the one protecting them but wasn't there. Of course, her daughter had been in the hospital, but Juliet didn't give a damn. She could help with something, but she wasn't about to admit it out loud. She didn't like their leader and how she acted, but she was sure she'd be targeted if she were to question her.
"Fire purges and purifies, scatters our enemies to the wind. What blows away need not be explained." The Supreme stated as Juliet threw a severed leg into their burning bonfire of bodies, wrinkling her nose at the smell.
Zoe came back, a wheelbarrow of body parts inside it as she wheeled it towards them. "Okay, I think that's the last of them." Zoe informed, trying to wave some of the buzzing flies away but the small creatures remained persistent.
"I can't believe I'm going to have to throw my favorite shirt out," Juliet muttered, glancing to the stained tank top she'd worn at the time of the attack. She picked up one of the limbs Zoe had brought, nearly throwing up at the smell as she threw a head into the fire. It rolled before coming to a stop, facing her, it's dead eyes staring at her. Making a face, she moved quickly, kicking the head away from her without burning her herself so it was no longer facing her.
"This is nasty." Nan commented, throwing in her own limb.
"Maybe we should get more cedar chips to mask the smell." Zoe suggested, and there areas a few seconds of silence as they worked, before Zoe glanced up noticing their Supreme a short distance away. "How's Luke?" She whispered quietly to Nan.
"Still asleep in my bed." Nan informed.
"I'm guessing he's still in bad shape and you guys didn't take each others virginity." Juliet muttered, throwing another head like a basketball into the fire, watching it go up in flames in satisfaction.
Both Zoe and Nan shot her a look of disapproval, before Zoe insisted, "We have to get him out of the house."
"He's not well enough yet." Nan argued.
"Well, he can't stay here."
Unlike they had thought their Supreme could clearly hear them and she spoke up, saying, "He can and he will." All of them paused in their work to send looks of shock to their supreme. "No sense rushing him back to his Holy Roller mother till he recovers. She'd only call the cops anyhow."
Nan looks absolutely delighted, dropping her shovel and running towards the house to most likely see Luke, leaving them behind saying, "Thank you."
"I like a witch who knows how to fight. You've done this coven a great service, Zoe, I won't forget it. Go on." Fiona says, before nodding towards the house, letting her free. She went silently, and Juliet was left to stare at the woman who turned towards her. "Sounds as though you're the only one smart enough to fight with magic. You too have done a great job. Now, Nan and Zoe mentioned a boy with you."
Juliet just shrugged. "He's a friend I met at a coffee shop." She lied. "He knows witches so he stopped to help."
Fiona eyed her, clearly not fully believing her. "A friend would have to be very close to help with killing dead people." Juliet glanced down, having thought the sane thing but not wanting to admit it. "Secrets aren't kept long in this house, Juliet. Now, run along."
Juliet didn't say anything, only left, passing by Delphine who wandered past her to face Fiona.
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The burning of Myrtle Snow would talk place at precisely eight a.m. the next day after being gathered to judge Fiona, who had only proved Myrtle Snow guilty of the disfigurement of Cordelia Foxx. The sun beat down on them as they walked past the city limits, hear bearing down on them in their black clothes, Myrtle the only one to be wearing something other than black, looking out of character in a white dress that didn't fit her well and could be described as a trash sack. Her hands were tied to prevent her from escaping. Despite being on the council, Myrtle wasn't powerful enough to have anything up her sleeve to get away. She was one of the few lower level witches who was smart and had a good memory but not powerful to preform major spells.
Juliet watched Fiona from the back, seeing the way her back slumped slightly. She had no fondness for Myrtle, but she knew how burning would go, how it had gone for her and she wished there was some other, less painful way. One day she may feel differently, but the thought of watching someone else suffer by fire made her stomach queasy.
Juliet wore a short dress that reached her knees, her boots sinking into the gravel on the path to the honorary burning site. Her raven black hair was let loose, and she fixed her black cardigan which reached her ankles to make sure it stopped sliding off her bony arms. She was definitely dressed more formally, her black stockings hiding the skin on her legs and looked as though she were going to a fancy funeral. The weird part was that she didn't mind it.
"This is just a joke, right?" Zoe whispered the Queenie, hearing the sound of Juliet popping her bubbling gum next to her. "We're not actually burning her."
Queenie looked nervous, lips pressed into a line and almost looking guilty off Juliet noticed correctly. "You don't mess with a Supreme."
"Especially when she's a bitch."
Juliet focused on a rock, kicking it as she walked to take her mind off the memories crawling with her own burning, echoing in her head.
"Please, don't!"
"If you want to go back to the house Fiona said you could, Jul." Nan called, probably having read her mind and from the sympathetic look Juliet caught, she had assumed right.
"Dont called me Jul. It's sound like you're saying Juul." Juliet said, not wanting to acknoledhe what Nan knew.
"You're a witch! You must burn!"
"One day you'll burn with me! May hell rain upon you all."
A blazing fire was lit, and Juliet screamed as it touched and burned her skin, the fire eating at her hungrily and leaving nothing but a burnt corpse behind.
And then a face.
"Hey, Juliet, you good?" Zoe whispered to her, snapping her from her thoughts and she realized that Myrtle had mounted the mound of gravel, allowing herself to be tied up, ready for her execution. Her death.
"Fine."
Two men came forward, soaking her in gasoline, getting her normally fluffy red hair wet and for her clothes to stick to her. She shook her head, trying to get the drop out of her eyes as it was poured directly on her face as the can was emptied onto her. Her face screwed up in disgust, but other than that she did nothing in attempt to get away from her fate, but Juliet could see the fear in her eyes.
When they were done they walked away, going to a safe enough distance to watch without being touched by the flame of the coming fire. Fiona lit a cigarette, preparing it to end Myrtle Snow's life. Fiona seemed to be enjoying seeing her sister witch tied up like that, savoring the moment before stepping closer.
"Any last words?" She asked.
"You're all a bunch of little toads in a pot that Fiona is slowly bringing to a boil." Myrtle declared, and Juliet's eyes flickered to her Supreme who showed no emotion on her face.You won't even feel it until it's too late." She added, and as she finished her last words she stated, "I'd rather burn than boil."
With that, Fiona threw her lit cigarette into the gas on the ground, Myrtle Snow erupting into flames, her body burning in the fire that would end her life. Juliet could feel her heart pounding, and for the first time in forever she felt horror at the sight before her, not because it was unthinkable but all she could think about was her own painful and gory ending as Myrtle screamed in pain, her shrieks echoing around in their place in the middle of nowhere, the youngest witches of the coven staring in horror, while others stared reveled on her painful death.
That was the end of Myrtle Snow.
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"It was you, wasn't it?"
Juliet had stormed into the apartment that the "mystery" text had given to her. She didn't know exactly why she was angry, but if she was being honest she never knew why she was angry half the time. Ever since she died she had two emotions, anger and fear, unless you counted being detached or or disinterested to be emotions, but she was pretty sure that described emotionless people. Maybe she did count as that at this point.
"You know are the most amazing greeter I've ever met." Beckham sighs, spinning around in his chair in the rather empty room to face the angered girl. "Not thanking me, asking me a question when I have no idea what you're talking about. Classy, dove."
Juliet ignored him, still glaring at him. "Think real hard, I think you'll figure it out."
". . .Nope nothing coming to mind." He said, looking as though he had been thinking really hard about it.
"At the party. That wasn't first time we met. Was it? You were there when I was burned." She accused, "You watched me die!" Without thinking she held her hand up, flinging him across the room into a wall.
Her hand stayed up defensively, but she allowed him to pull himself up, sighing and dusting himself off letting her fix him with a piercing stare. "That's telekinesis. Four of the seven." He stated, and she frowned, not knowing how he could just dismiss the fact she'd thrown him across the room. He walked over to a self, not minding that her hand was still trained on him. He picked up a glass bottle of scotch, pouring it into an equally expensive glass before downing it in one go, swallowing it and turning to look back at her. "You're right. I was there when you died."
"You know this isn't helping the fact that you deny being a fucking stalker you creep." Juliet snapped. "What the hell do you want?"
"You do realize I brought you back to life, dove, right? Perhaps you should be nicer."
"I think I'm being nice enough to a person I don't know who magically popped into my life and has literally been the most annoying son of a bitch I've ever met!"
"We both know that isn't true. What about the priest? He was pretty annoying." Juliet's face drops at his words, settling into a softer glare but equally as frightening glare. "If you ask me, he had it coming. Cordelia should have done more. To the people that hurt you."
He'd gotten closer to her, and was now standing directly in front of her, looking down at her. She didn't move fro. Her spot, crossing her hands across her chest as she sized him up. "What do you care?" She hissed at him.
"I don't know." He said smoothly, turning around and walking back towards the shelf, this time grabbing a stack of papers from it and walking back to her with it, taking another sip of the drink. "I just do."
Juliet looked down to the newspaper she'd been handed, jaw clenching as she recognized where it was from. The main page read in bold letters: EIGHTEEN DEAD IN EXPLOSION. Underneath it listed the names, the very names of he ones who had burned her. Her eyes scanned it, reading it over and over again to double check that her eyes were seeing what she was actually seeing. That included in the names were her foster parents.
Slowly, she looked up from the paper, gripping it tightly, "Who the fuck are you?" She asked slowly, spacing out each syllable as she started at him, her icy blue eyes meeting his cold dark ones.
"I'm here to help you, Juliet. I know that your powerful. With a little push you've been able to accomplish three more of the seven wonders already in barely a week!"
"Oh, so you're one of those groomers or some shit!"
"No!" He denied quickly, "I'm just preparing you for the seven wonders!"
"Bitch! I'm not even going to be able to take the seven wonders. We don't need a new supreme yet and Cordelia and Fiona—"
"—Will realize that you could be the next Supreme with your rapidly growing abilities." He interrupted loudly, trying to get her to focus on the big picture.
"The last person thought to be the next Supreme was murdered!" Juliet snapped.
"If you did I'll just bring you back to life. I'll protect you."
In a quieter, but none the less firm voice than previously spoken, Juliet replied, "I don't need protecting. And certainly not from you."
Beckham stepped forward once again, reaching out his hands and saying, "Let me teach. Help you expand your abilities. Do more than you ever thought you could. Dove, I taught you how to transmutate, didn't I?" She didn't answer, simply staring at him and he went on, "I can teach you to go beyond. Far what you have ever thought of. And I promise Dove, I will ask nothing in return. I won't use this to my advantage. I won't ask for things or favors. You can go against me. Come on, Dove. What's the harm?"