Screams outside her house became louder than before. Like lava spontaneously bursting out of a volcano, no longer dripping gently as it did earlier. Lily peeked outside her window, observing the screams becoming savage and distraught.

Several screamers were starting to lose their voices as their screams turned hoarse and pitiful. They screamed as though they were being burned at a stake by Satan's pawns, desperate to escape. Except, they weren't going to be the ones who were to be burned at a stake.

A mob of women were gathered around with random weapons in their hands as they circled a man tied up on a stake. The man looked not himself, as if he was intoxicated, as if he was under the influence of something. He sluggishly raised his head to inspect the crowd with his puffy, dark circle ridden eyes only to be met with a flying stone straight to his forehead.

His head flung back at the impact before dropping. The man was seemingly knocked out. For now at least. Just as the mob was becoming increasingly violent, an experienced looking woman in her forties commanded silence upon the crowd.

Shortly after, the crowd quieted down. Once the shouting was reduced to almost inaudible murmurings, the woman continued her words, "Sisters, we have gathered here to punish the man who has committed atrocious crimes against us. The man who tried to tie us sisters down."

The woman's voice, though powerful and fitting of a true leader, was emotional and stirred the souls of the women present there. She paused and took in a deep breadth as though she stopping a tear from escaping. She lifted a part of her apron and rubbed her eyes with it.

Lily's view was blocked by the window's frame but she could feel the emotion in the woman's voice. Disgust and resent filled her mind and tingled all around her body as she watched the man.

Though just ten, Lily was exposed to all the horrible deeds this man did. She was more exposed to them than her peers.

She spaced out as she observed the scene outside. Chaos was one thing the scene could be described as. But as she observed it more, subconsciously picking up little details of the scene that lay before her, a certain thought persisted on her mind saying that it was beautiful.

The woman ceased wiping her eyes as she pulled out an unlit torch ready to be set afire. A meek lady behind her gave the woman a matchstick.

The woman displayed the matchstick to the crowd as she announced, "Sisters, these men have been doing this to us for centuries. For centuries sisters! All in the name of their pseudo knowledge on witchcraft. Shall we do this to them too sisters?"

Her voice held power, emotion, passion, previous heartbreaks and betrayals. Betrayals that she got from the place she called her own. A perfect voice to gain the pity and the loyalty of others. A perfect voice to convince others. A perfect voice to manipulate others.

The torch was lit up with an orange flare merging with the orange-purple hue of the evening sky. The man tied up at the stake raised his head, searching for the source of heat in the chilly evening. His demeanor changed the moment his eyes set on the lit torch. He knew what was coming after this. He knew too well.

Before he could find a chance to scream, petrol was poured all over his body and face as he twisted left and right trying to escape the liquid. Thought he wasn't met with much success. Quite a bit of petrol found its way into his nostrils, causing him to cough and snort violently.

By the time the petrol's assault on him was over, a bright flame was brought before him. His fear filled eyes reflected the flame as he struggled as though he was abruptly awaken from his sleep only to see a person attempting to tighten up the knot. It was to help them burn the bug without it escaping. After she finished the act, she let the woman with the flame edge nearer. So near that it was uncomfortable to watch.

His struggles and screams intermingled with the affirmative chants of the crowd prompting the one holding the torch to burn the man. His screams were drowned out as the chants of the crowd reached greater heights.

The torch reached the man's body and lit it up in an instant. The scream that came upon the contact momentarily rose above the chants causing few of the chanters to flinch back along with the girl who was quietly watching from above.

Being a young girl exposed to such a sight, her natural reaction was to flinch away from the window. But curiosity got the best of her as she hesitantly slid back to her original position only to see a man burning. A man burning quite graphically.

Though her vision was partially blocked, she could clearly hear the pain and agony in the man's screams. A scream so desperate that one would feel the despair creeping up on oneself if one heard it for too long.

More women started to recoil and ceased their chanting only to gasp in horror at the burning man.

The leading woman noticed this and tried to calm the women down by saying, "Sisters, no need to be scared at this sight. We have experienced worse in our time under these men. We must stand strong and not cower under them ever again."

Her persuasive speech replenished their fortitude and pulled them out of their shell. They felt stronger than ever. They were stronger than ever. Energy was brimming through their body. The energy was so great that it reached the girl above and gently pried out her youthful vigor.

Lily found herself silently cheering at the people below. Cheering with the people below. She felt connected with the people below through an invisible thread. Even if she was not below with them, she felt like one of them. And one day, she would become one of them.

She struggled to sort out these complex emotions that she never experienced before but she somehow knew that those emotions were not bad.

The man burned and burned as Lily kept on watching the scene. The screams of the crowd didn't die out but kept on getting louder. Lily silently screamed along with the crowd and supported the women from behind her shades.

Our of seemingly nowhere, she felt guilt creep up her back. She had disobeyed her father.

Her father had forbidden her from seeing what she had just seen but she did anyways. Her father was a lean man of age thirty four. He looked pretty meek besides her mother who exuded confidence wherever she went. His gentle aura contrasted her mother's who would some describe as anger in a humanoid form.

Nevertheless, Lily feared her father more than her mother. His bursts of anger, though unusual, shook her more than her mother's constant nagging.

The nagging which had turned increasingly exhausted and strained in the past few months. Seeing her mother's bright face, Lily felt the rock of guilt leave her heart. She was much more relaxed now as her eyes danced to the scene below, never leaving her mother's now fierce face.

Though she hated her mother when she launched an assault of scoldings whenever Lily made a mistake, she never wanted her mother to lose her original fervor and become subservient to anyone. Like the burning man wanted her to be.

But now, the man was getting what he deserved.

The lady who gave the woman the torch crept up the woman's back and whispered something into her ear. The woman lit up and she silenced the crowd once more. Though she couldn't quite silence the screaming man, her booming voice was loud enough to reach the people surrounding her, even reaching the girl above.

"Sisters! The other sisters have been successful in their acts as well!"

A wave of cheer went through the mob and several woman formed into a crowd and hugged each other. The commanding woman too hugged the lady behind her. Lily also felt satisfied with this development and she smiled at the crowd. With all the mental capacity she had, she could make out that more bad guys had been defeated. She smiled brightly at the scene of her mother hugging a lady she recognized as aunt Marylin. Her mother's face was stained with fresh tears but she had a certain spark about her face that made it obvious that she was happy. And that made Lily happy.

'Everything is going to be normal now,' Lily thought.

Wiping away the tears in her eyes, Lily's mother suddenly looked up straight towards where Lily was seated. Lily's eyes widened as she scurried away from her spot and rushed to her room in a hurry.

'Did she see me?' was a the only thought in her mind as she scoured her backpack, opened her exercise book and started doing math problems like she was supposed to be doing at that moment.

Fear was coursing through her veins for her mother was the one who left her in her room, commanding her to stay like this till she had come back from "work". Her father merely added on to the command saying that she should not, at any cost, go and look at the upheaval that was about to ensue right outside their house.

But Lily didn't feel particularly scared of her father that day. Looking back on it, she should've never towards that window because that incident would come to haunt her in her deepest sleep. Except the one haunting her would come to be her younger self.

Sensitive to every sound that she was hearing, she tried to navigate the part where she left off in a state of disarray. The previously organized table turned messy as it became an obvious evidence of the girl's falsehood. Nevertheless, Lily tried her best to concentrate on what was laid before her.

Alas, her guilty conscience made her unable to do things she would otherwise do with ease. She began subtracting where was the questions needed to be multiplied, adding where division was supposed to take place and generally messing up her whole copy. Lily would come to have to do it again under the angry glare of her mother.

Presently though, as she was fretting over her work, her mother Mrs. Livia, quietly slipped over inside her room. Lily looked up with a jolt as her eraser dropped over the table.

Absolutely nothing and no one moved for a good seven seconds. Everything was engulfed in silence during those moments.

Mrs. Livia's stern gaze held Lily right on her seat rendering her unable to move even a finger.

Finally, her mother's gaze left her as her mother messaged the spot between her eyes while sighing.

"You saw everything right?"

Lily's breath caught as she fumbled a bit more with her stationary. Things started falling yet again. A pencil there, an eraser here. Seeing her things fall, Lily panicked again and tried to pick up her writing tools only to see other things fall down.

Amidst this Mrs. Livia was shaking her head in the background and when the table was about to turn over, she commanded, "Stop it. Don't move."

Lily stayed still as her exercise book smoothly slid down the slanted table and hit the floor with a thud. At this, Mrs. Livia managed to slip in yet another sigh as she went towards Lily and started tidying her desk.

Being dumbfounded, Lily slumped back on her seat and watched her mother in awe. The efficient Mrs. Livia finished putting everything back in what seemed like no time at all. May that account to the fact that nothing was too messed up in the first place.

After she finished tidying up Lily, she squatted before her, holding on to her shoulder. Brushing apart the still dumbfounded Lily's hair, she muttered, "You weren't supposed see that..."

Lily, who had expected a violent session of reprimanding was puzzled to have received such a gentle treatment. Just as she mused over the situation, her mother spoke up again.

"Nobody can stop a curious little critter anyways so I'll let it go this time."

Lily tried to come up with a good answer to that statement but before she could even open her mouth, her mother spoke up again, "You want to go to the after ceremony?"

Despite all of the questions that Lily wanted to ask at that moment, she chose to raise a dumb question and ask, "After ceremony?"

"Yes, after ceremony," Livia answered amused by the innocence of her daughter.

"Will aunt Sarah punish more bad guys there?"

"No Lily, aunt Sarah wouldn't do that anymore. And you probably shouldn't get too used to that thing."

"Aw man. But will there be yummy food?"

"Well... yes! But you need to finish all the food and not leave any okay?"

"Sure mom!"

"Now let's go then."

And thus they went went out of the house with Lily holding on to her mother's index finger while talking excitedly about the food items she wanted to see in the after party as she seemingly forgot about the whole incident in a feat of charming child-like ability to move on without putting much psychological weight one oneself.

But when she recalled these memories, she felt nothing but disgust.