ℙ𝕝𝕒𝕟𝕖𝕥 : 𝔼𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕙 
𝕃𝕠𝕔𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 : ℍ𝕠𝕞𝕖
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"How co... could the...they?" Sevyn hiccuped while wiping her tears.

Lennox never cried, Sevyn never let herself cry in front of her and Evangeline never had a chance to befriend someone else. It's safe to say she never saw her loved ones cry, nor she ever cried. Thus, witnessing someone crying or grieving was a completely new experience. She found herself tongue tied for words. She understood that it’s easy to celebrate someone’s joy, but what about when someone is hurting? She found herself caught in the situation where Sevyn broke into tears and she didn't know what to say, or what to do. But she knew that she wanted to ease Sevyn’s burden and suffering by helping to lighten her load. She wanted to let her know that she cared about her and Aislinn, or to let her know that she loves them. But what words could she use to comfort her?

Her planet and official priests were such lowlifes, that she couldn't have ever expected. Forced to have sex? How could they play with someone like that? Rape is a crime, whether the person committing it is a stranger, a date, an acquaintance, or a family member or even a priest. No matter how it happened, rape is upsetting. People who have been raped need care, comfort, and a way to heal.

And Aislinn completely lacked the environment. Lennox was already deeply tortured. They had starved him completely, only giving meals once every three days. He was just hanging on his life when Tanith came for her son. If it weren't for Tanith, who received God's prophecy in her coma like state, Lennox would still be locked away. She unlocked him and asked him rush for Aislinn' help. And that was when she decided to contact them. Knowing full well, where the higher priests could possibly lock her, Evangeline guided Lennox to her cave and helped him in unlocking the gates. Both of them needed comfort for each were gravely hurt both physically and mentally.

And seeing her friend in that state had made Sevyn vulnerable too. Evangeline knew that she somehow still blamed her for what happened. If it weren't for her, Aislinn wouldn't have been stabbed and, maybe she would still be safe here. Evangeline  didn't know if she was in a position to comfort Sevyn or not. After all, it was her planet and somewhere, she was feeling responsible for their sorrow.

"Are you blaming yourself?" Sevyn realized when she saw Evangeline sitting in the same position for so long.

"I... I..." She struggled to formulate words. Being sheltered all her life had made Evangeline pretty sensitive. She had problem in even speaking fluently if her loved ones weren't around. Sevyn knew that.

"Shh... It's okay. It's not your fault. If anyone, it's those horrible people or maybe myself who are to blame." She mentally cursed herself for allowing Evangeline to witness her in such a dirty state.

"No... You're not to blame. But... What do we do? I want to help her..."

"Do you know a way to help her? You can ask your God for help?" Sevyn suddenly enquired.

"I don't know how to directly talk... But I can try. Can you please take me to the place where your friend got stabbed? I can try finding clues to get back by following the tracks from there to the hospital where you found me." Evangeline tried to explain. They had tried to figure the way back to her planet even before, but it failed due to lack of clues. But, now, she had God's blessings as well as her blessed relic.

"Alright. Let's try it once again."

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The place in front of the cafe was very messy, posters and flyers to lift the ban on LGBT love was sprawled everywhere, just like that day. The protesters have already left for it was almost 3 AM (Yes, their protest was still ongoing till this date, even after three years). The atmosphere of that place was strangely similar to that day. Sevyn felt an uneasiness take over her. It was way to coincidental.

Evangeline stopped at a spot on road. It was that same point where Aislinn started loosing her presence. She could feel it. The relic shone a little and she got the clue that she was going right. Maybe there was a chance to get back to her place and help Lennox as well as Aislinn.

Suddenly, four masked people rushed towards her. Two of them left to grab Sevyn and others captured Evangeline. It was immensely dark, but as Sevyn kept moving, her retinas slowly started gaining vision and what she saw next shook her to the core of her soul. The two completely restricted Evangeline' movement and their hands muffled her mouth. She wasn't able to move. Her already pale skin developed bruises just by their mere touch.

"So you are the filthy beings who believe in that so called LGBT love? What did you think? We'll let you convince the government and our innocent public that your 'type of love' exist? Never. Now get ready for punishment." The guy muffling Evangeline spat with hatred.

It was clear who they were. The opposition who were opposing the protesters... They had mistook them as the protesters who came early to ready everything for next day's protest. At this point, her trying to free herself and explain them of their innocence would be impossible.

"We'll teach those a lesson they'll never forget. We must set an example." Another spat.

"We must." Another said and started making weird noises from his mouth. Some people rushed there with a large bull shaped tanker. Sevyn visibly paled... She knew what that was.

"𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒓𝒂𝒛𝒆𝒏 𝑩𝒖𝒍𝒍 𝑻𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝑻𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒏𝒊𝒒𝒖𝒆"

It's an ancient method of execution. People who were convicted of the high crimes would be stripped of their clothes, and put into a life sized replica of a bronze bull. They would then light a fire bellow the bull, and people inside it would be burned to death. There was this flute like object put into the mouth of the bull, which was attatched to the persons mouth who was inside. As they were screaming, you would hear flute music play from the bulls mouth on the outside, and people would dance and cheer to the sounds.

It was one of the worse possible techniques in ancient civilizations. It was awful, and really disturbing how humanity had fallen so low once again. The opposition wanted to set a clear and cruel example of what would happen if the protesters continue the protest, or the government if they they allowed their agenda.

Sevyn' heart ached for Aislinn, who was raped; for Lennox, who himself was tortured but still had to see his mother and lover break in front of him; for Evangeline... who didn't even do anything and was being subjected to this cruelty. Her screams turned into flute sounds. For these people it was music but for her it was plain torture. Her screams pierced her heart and soul. From denial and anger, to sadness and eventual hope, there were many emotions Sevyn had when she saw Evangeline loose her life like that. At the end even she couldn't take it and the sudden depression caused her body to freeze in numbness. Seeing her state, the people released their grip on her and her body fell on the ground, absolutely numb and hollow. She just stared at the slowly burning structure. The music of flute had started to fade... And so had both their lives.
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The next day, it became a drastic headline how the opposing people burned someone with such cruelty just for having a different 'type of love'. The news said that a girl was found completely numb and paranoid near that bunker. Sevyn' parents rushed after seeing her on news. Their child was hurting and they could do nothing than to blame themselves. But by the time they reached the hospital, it was already too late. Sevyn had lost herself in herself.

𝓣𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝔀𝓪𝓼 𝓷𝓸 𝓢𝓮𝓿𝔂𝓷 𝓸𝓻 𝓔𝓿𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓮 𝓷𝓸𝔀... 𝓣𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓳𝓾𝓼𝓽 𝓽𝔀𝓸 𝓼𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓼, 𝓽𝔀𝓸 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓮 𝓼𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓼... 𝓐𝓵𝓵 𝓫𝓮𝓬𝓪𝓾𝓼𝓮 𝓽𝔀𝓸 𝓹𝓮𝓸𝓹𝓵𝓮 𝓯𝓮𝓵𝓵 𝓲𝓷 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮...

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ℙ𝕝𝕒𝕟𝕖𝕥 : 𝕂𝕖𝕡𝕝𝕖𝕣- 𝟚𝟚𝕓
𝕃𝕠𝕔𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 : 𝕋𝕖𝕞𝕡𝕝𝕖
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Being told that someone has been assaulted can be an extremely emotional, scary, confusing, and possibly shocking experience. One of the best things that one can do is to listen. Often we want to ask questions, show outrage, or offer advice. Though we may have the best intentions, any or all of these could come across to the victim as judgment (e.g., that the assault was their fault, that they did something wrong, etc.). In addition, these shift the focus away from the person who is telling us about their assault. And Lennox understood this. He wanted to comfort her. Hug her and tell her that everything will be okay... But who he would be fooling? Her or himself?

What would be okay now? Her mother who, God only knows, is even alive or not? Or Aislinn, who was robbed of her chastity just because the temple priests wanted to tie her here? Or he himself, who was starved for months alongside being constantly tortured and who didn't even know if they could make it out or not? What was going to be okay he himself didn't know...

Also, he understood that Aislinn was touched without permission thus, it'd be rude to touch her without her consent now. She may find it repulsive. He wanted to save her but how? He didn't know... But there was one thing he knew for sure. Even if they're surrounded with all types of adverse conditions, they had each other. It wasn't enough but it wasn't less assuring.

Obviously, just like everything, their short lived peace came to an abrupt end as soon as a mass of people holding candles in their hand rushed to them. The higher ups were already there. It was no rocket science that they had come to take Lennox away as they couldn't harm the 'child of prophecy'.

Seeing them approach him made her scared. She rushed and held Lennox' leg as if silently asking them to leave him. If he's gone, she didn't know what she'd do. She was scared of everything...

"Seeing how desperate you are, we don't have any choice than to remove him from here for forever. If that happens, maybe you'll understand that your 'type of love' doesn't exist. A man CANNOT and WILL NOT love a woman." One of them said.

They dragged away Lennox and forcefully took Aislinn with them too. They reached a different area which was reeking of death. The scenario and moving people immediately gave away what they were going to do with Lennox.

"No! No! Please... Let me go. Let him go... I'd do anything and everything. Please leave him." Aislinn fell on her knees and begged them to leave him from this cruelty.

"You should've been sooner in doing this child. Now it's late." One of them closed the gates to the ground and chanted a magic spell, which covered the whole area in a barrier.

Everything here screamed that they're going to perform one if the cruelest torture method on Lennox.

"𝑺𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒎"

For sheer, delirious, nauseating horror, scaphism may be one of the worst execution methods ever devised. Practiced by the Ancient Persians, starting around 500 B.C., it saw the victim placed inside a hollowed-out log or narrow boat, their hands and feet tied to each end.

The victim was then forced to ingest a mixture of milk and honey until they uncontrollably voided their bowels, at which point their skin was smeared with more milk and honey before they were left exposed in the sun and surrounded by their own feces and vomit.

It was at this point that the insects would descend. Stinging and biting insects like wasps and ants would torture the victim, but worse, others would crawl inside the unprotected orifices of the subject and lay eggs, eating them alive from the inside out.

With the ration of milk and honey — and sometimes water — repeated at daily intervals, the victim had little chance of dying of thirst or hunger.

Instead, they succumbed to tortured madness, experiencing the agonizing, nightmare crawl of thousands of insects on their skin, burrowing into their eyes and ears and nose, filling their mouths, while worms and parasites bred in the filth at the bottom of the boat or log and squirmed up into their bowels.

Death would eventually be caused by a combination of exposure and the massive infections caused by both the insects, and the fecal matter smeared into the wounds. It was believed that it took the victim 17 whole days to die.

That's what Aislinn had known and the same thing was happening here with none other than Nox. Someone she loved...

"He kind of deserved it. Like didn't you see how he thought he 'loved' a girl! Like who does that! He should just rot in hell." Someone from the crowd whispered with great distaste.

"What do you know about love and him? Huh? Nothing! You hear me? You all know nothing!" Aislinn shouted at the crowd and rushed towards the gate trying to open it with force, but, to no avail.

The crowd left after some time and she just stood there watching his screaming figure. She couldn't even hear his voice due to the magic barrier. But his pain was reaching her and her heart couldn't take it after watching the scene unfold for full three days...

On the other side Lennox was holding on his life by just watching Aislinn on the other side of the fence. After third day, he didn't see her struggling with the doors and he got the idea...

She was no more. Then what was the meaning of his life? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. His mother is no more. His lover is no more. His friend and her lover was somewhere far away and there was no knowing how they were. Of course, living his life for eleven more days would be a stupid decision, he thought. And God most probably listened to his prayers... His soul left his body the next day and his lifeless body hung itself towards the ground.

Now, there was no Lennox nor was Aislinn. There were only two souls... Two free souls who wandered around wondering what is 'type of love'? Isn't love just love? Simply an emotion... They may think so but the world didn't.

𝓣𝓱𝓮𝔂 𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓬𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓮𝓭, 𝓽𝓸𝓻𝓷 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓫𝓵𝓮𝓭... 𝓙𝓾𝓼𝓽 𝓫𝓮𝓬𝓪𝓾𝓼𝓮 𝓽𝔀𝓸 𝓹𝓮𝓸𝓹𝓵𝓮 𝓯𝓮𝓵𝓵 𝓲𝓷 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮...
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Number of words : 2443
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Author's Note :-

I don't have any words to say today. All because two people fell in love...

Did it all really happen just because of that?

Let's ask ourselves this question and continue seeking for answers.

Till then, take care.