Erica stared at the greasy, strained faces around her. Each one of them contained hate, and their hate was drowning her, smothering her. She couldn't breathe. Her legs became paper and everything disappeared.

Erica woke up to darkness. There was only a tiny strip of daylight coming from what seemed to be a door a couple feet away. Erica explored her environment with her fingers. She seemed to be in some sort of wooden shed. There was straw covering the floor. She thought she could smell urine but she wasn't sure.

Erica wondered how long she'd be in there. Most likely her trial would be in the morning. What if she was found guilty? There was no proof, that she was aware of, to show that she had ever carried out any witchcraft, but they always found something to blame on the accused.

Death would come with the next morning, most likely. In what way, shape, or form, Erica could only imagine. They could throw her in the lake. And, if she survived that, they could burn her. They could put her in a sack and bury her alive. They could chop off her feet. They could starve her. They could shoot her at dawn. They could inject a lethal drug into her. They could electrocute her. They could do any number of things.

Erica thought about death. It was supposed to be the biggest unknown. There might be a tunnel with a light at the end of it. There might be a Golden Gate in the clouds, where she would receive a pair of wings. There might be a fiery, descending staircase, leading to never ending torture, far worse that anything the people in life could do to her. Or then again, there could be nothing.

Erica wondered. Why was everyone so afraid of death? If she had been walking through the city, and suddenly someone pointed a gun at her head, her first thought would automatically be "I don't want to die." This is the same for the majority of people. But why?

Is it because people are afraid of what they don't know and there is almost nothing certain known about death? Is it because, when you are about to die, you realize all the things you've never had a chance to do and you know that you won't ever get to do any of them? Is it because you think you'll miss all the people in your life?

Erica shook her head, no. For her, the reason was that her death would bring sadness to so many people. It may be true that there were many people that wanted her dead, but there were also many people who did not. Her death would mean, never hearing her voice again, never watching her be active again, never talking to her, never laughing with her, never embracing with her, all of these things, and more. All of the things that make us sad when a person passes away would be weighted on the shoulders of her friends and family.

A lock jiggled and clunked against the wooden door, and then clicked. The door creaked open, and Erica was blinded by sunlight. She squinted and saw a blurry figure holding some sort of tray. When her vision cleared, she could see it was her friend, Katherine.

"I brought you some food," Katherine said quietly.

"Katherine, how did you?- Why did they let you see me? Didn't they think you would try to rescue me or something?" Erica hissed, taking the tray. Katherine sat down quietly, her eyes averting Erica's gaze. She seemed to draw into herself.

"They did think so at first. But I… Well, I begged and… I guess eventually they just decided to trust me?"

"That suddenly? That is odd! How did you get them to-"

"Eat your breakfast. You'll need your strength."

Erica looked down at the bowl of discolored lumps that was on the tray.

"It's a bit old I'm afraid," Katherine said.

"It's alright, I won't live long enough to get food poisoning." Erica smiled as she stuffed a messy spoonful into her mouth.

"Oh, Erica, don't say that. I hate it when you say things like that. I just hate to think of you…" Katherine trailed off, whisking a handkerchief out of her breast pocket, and bursting into tears. Erica put down her bowl of mush and touched Katherine's shoulder.

"Don't worry about me! I will be, well, I won't be fine, but I'm not afraid. And you should be afraid either. You have to keep going. Life has to go on without me."

"Oh, no, I couldn't," Katherine sobbed. " I'm trying so hard, and I'm doing everything I can but I just can't-"

"Yes you can. Now, stop crying, and go take this tray back to the kitchens."

"But, you've hardly touched it. You hardly eaten anything at all"

"Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself."

Katherine's watery eyes looked at Erica as she picked up the tray. She quivered, her eyes flicking across Erica's face as if she knew something Erica didn't. Swiftly, she turned, and ran out of the shed, sobbing.

From behind her billowing skirts emerged the figure of a tall man. His skin looked like wrinkled leather from all the time he had spent in the sun. His head wore a hat. His face wore a frown.

"Come," he said. Erica lifted herself from the shed floor. She felt slightly dizzy. That one bite of mush had been her only nourishment for several days.

Erica, hands bound behind her back, was led to a clearing, into the center of a ring of people. She was told to stay standing there.

"Erica Truly, you are hereby accused of witchcraft."

As if this were the cue, the circle of people began jeering, yelling taunting, and screaming at her, all at once. They yelled insults; they accused her of the strangest things. Many of these people she had never seen in her life. She felt a flash of pain at her head. She fell to her knees, where she saw the rock that had been thrown at her. She gasped but she did not cry out. The people began yelling at her even louder. Some of them walked into the ring to get closer to her. One person walked right up to her, grabbed her face with his hand, twisted it towards him, and told her what he thought of her. Erica did not hear a word they said.

"That's enough!" called a man's voice, eventually. It rung clear and sound over all the ugly taunting.

"She's too strong!" someone growled. "Captivity and scolding isn't enough for her. Give her somethin' else!" he called, and his audience roared in agreement.

"Boys!" The clear voice called. All fell silent. "Take her to the trees." There was another roar, and a group of young men hoisted Erica and began carrying her to a cluster of trees. There, each and everyone one of them had their way with her. When they were done, and she still didn't cry, they beat her with a wooden club. They threw stones at her. And still she did not cry. As punishment, she was sentenced to a second night in the shed.

There she stayed until morning came.

In the middle of the night, a clunking sound woke her up. It sounded like someone undoing the lock. She heard a whisper, but her mind was so filled with sleep that she could not understand it. She tried to get up but hunger had weakened her. She blinked her eyes trying to understand what was happening. Then there was a yell; the sharp sound of wings flapping, and then silence. Erica went back to sleep.

When she was lead to another clearing, there was no need to bind her hands again, as they had never been unbound. This second clearing had a large wooden structure built on it. A thick loop of rope hung from arm of the structure.

Erica stopped crying.

"What about my trial?" she said calmly. The man standing next to her cleared his throat.

"Your trial was yesterday. You said nothing in your defense. We assumed your plea was guilty."

A wave of pain and fury went through Erica. And then it passed. She resumed walking.

Without needing to be pushed, Erica walked across the clearing, up the wooden steps, and behind the rope loop. She held her head high. The loop was at the perfect height.

Erica glanced across the crowd. Only one face was not soaked in hate and anger, and it was Katherine. She somehow had managed to be allowed in the audience of this fatal event. Her lips were moving frantically, with tears streaming down her face. Erica couldn't hear anything she was saying.

The crowd was wild with excitement and a constant roar. Then suddenly, all went silent.

A large man with a black mask walked over to Erica and lifted the loop over her head. Erica continued to look at Katherine. Her lips moved even faster, and she thought she could hear her saying something.

The man in the mask tightened the loop firmly around Erica's neck.

Erica could hear Katherine's words now, but she could not understand them. Several people near Katherine began staring at the quiet girl, wondering what had gotten into her.

The large man walked slowly over to his position, by a large lever that would apparently cause the floor beneath Erica's feet to disappear.

Katherine began shouting her words out loud. Each one was a string of gibberish. The people around her edged away from her.

Erica stared, breathing hard, looking at Katherine.

The large man's shoulders heaved to push down the lever.

Katherine screamed.

"I'M SORRY! I TRIED!"

Erica's face had about half a second to look utterly confused and bewildered, before the lever was pushed, the floor beneath her was taken away, and her neck was snapped in two. Her body hung, loosely, like a puppet with just one string.

There was silence.

And then there was yelling.

All eyes turned on Katherine.

"You've killed her! You've killed her! You've killed my friend!" she was sobbing, kneeling on the ground. But then her posture changed. Everything about her changed. The meek little shy girl became someone else.

Her back stiffened. Her eyes blazed. Her voice was raspy and shrill. She pointed sharply at the people around her.

"But you have killed the wrong person. You have killed a human being and not a witch at all. You will all pay! You will all be sorry!"

In a blink of an eye, the crazed girl folded in half, grew wings, shrunk in size, and her head turned into a beak. The newly formed raven flew away.