Click here to read Part 1.
Suddenly there
was a flash of very bright red light. A globe of blood-red light engulfed Hema
in the fire, making a strange wheezing sound. There was a collective gasp from
the crowd, several soldiers dropped their weapons out of shock and the king
stopped smiling. Everyone except the king took steps backwards from the burning
wooden pedestal.
Click here to read Part 2.
Click here to read Part 3.
[CONTD.]
As the crowd
watched eagerly, the flames of fire slowly rose up and began teasing Hema as
she screamed. The crowd began a collective cry of cheer:
“BURN, WITCH!
BURN!”
The king and
his soldiers watched with elation as Hema burnt. But their confident smiles
slowly faded as the witch’s scream slowly transformed into laughter:
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH...
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!”
It was no
longer agony, it was ecstasy.
“What the
hell? She’s laughing?” cried a soldier, puzzled.
Suddenly there
was a flash of very bright red light. A globe of blood-red light engulfed Hema
in the fire, making a strange wheezing sound. There was a collective gasp from
the crowd, several soldiers dropped their weapons out of shock and the king
stopped smiling. Everyone except the king took steps backwards from the burning
wooden pedestal.
As the red
globe of light suddenly burst into nothing after several moments of curious and
anxious wait, the wooden pedestal came apart and burning logs flew everywhere
hitting everybody standing on the ground. The people screamed in fear and
started running away from the pedestal.
“Oh, my God!
The witch... She’s gone!” screamed the soldier who had handed over the fire to
the king. He stood staring wide-eyed at the bundle of half-burnt logs and the empty
scarred wooden block to which Hema was tied.
“She’s a real
witch,” mumbled the king, but everybody else was too taken aback to hear him.
*
Hema
reappeared in the middle of a deserted forest in the same gush of red light.
Unable to keep balance, she fell down as soon as her feet touched ground. She
stood upright with effort, groaning in pain. She looked down at her hands and
saw burn marks on her forearms. She extended her arms in front and screamed. As
she screamed, the wounds began healing themselves. In a few moments, her hands
were normal again.
She sat down
and took several deep breaths. Then she stood up again, looked around, shut her
eyes and began chanting a spell. She extended both her hands in front as though
trying to reach out to something. She chanted the spell for some time and then
opened her eyes.
A mirror-like
portal had materialised in front of her through which she looked curiously:
She saw very
clean pathways and strange looking contraptions moving around. The contraptions
looked like giant beasts with eyes that blinked. There were several beasts
which surprisingly moved in somewhat order.
“The future!”
cried Hema.
She continued
looking through the portal till she fixed her gaze upon one particular beast
which moved along a narrow and deserted unnaturally clean pathway. Suddenly the
beast stopped and a part of it split open and two human beings came out of it:
Devika and Siddharth.
“Oh!” cried
Hema as if in thrill. “These are not beasts. They look like some kind of
lifeless meat suits used as vehicles.”
She looked as Devika,
a thousand years in the future, kissed Siddharth, said “Goodbye!” and he went
back inside the car. Hema’s gaze fixed upon Devika and she smiled cunningly.
She was the one!
[TO BE CONTINUED...]
Upon seeing Devika, a thousand years into the future, what does the witch do? Read the final part of 'Beauty is the Beast'.
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