To Take Flight

A Story by Meijun

She had to get the chains broken fast.

Dawn was fast approaching. Myria had to escape from the dungeon before the guards came back. Myria was not a witch like those ignorant villagers accused her of. She knows no witchcraft. She only knew how to mix the herbs and prescribe medication for the sick.

Fresh bruises peppered her bony arms, as hot tears plopped onto them. Her stepfather was a monster in her eyes. After her mother left with yet another man, Myria was left alone with her stepfather. The kind and gentle guy her mother had married with Myria in tow had turned into an abusive drunkard. To Myria, he had been her only father, for her own biological father had died in an accident. However, he now saw her as the replica of the woman who had left him for another man - the one who had left him an empty shell. He hated her with fervor. Which was why it came as no surprise when Myria suddenly found her stepfather proclaiming to the whole village in his drunken stupor, that she was a witch, and that the ‘medicine’ she prescribed were actually potions.

Crying would not help. Neither would self-despair. Myria struggled once more, against the chains. Pretty soon, the guards would be here to bring her out to the village square, where she would be burnt on a stake. The recent rage about supposed ‘witchcraft’ in neighboring villages did not help matters.

The time for her death would be right after the third toll from the bell at the ancient clock tower at the center of the village. It is rumored to have been there since the beginning of time - older than anyone in the area. Some said that a rich businessman had bypassed the village once and was so impressed by the beautiful architecture that he decided to built a clock tower to add to the backdrop. Another myth has it that the clock tower was a gift from the brother of the first village head. The said brother was from another village and presented it as a form of goodwill.

However, now was not the time to appreciate the otherwise magnificent clock tower from the tiny opening from her cell. Myria was going to die, and she knows it. Maybe it was time for her to meet her biological father, the father she never got a chance to know. Would he be as loving and kind as her stepfather once was a long time ago?

A severe line suddenly appeared on the face of the clock, as if to reprimand her for her foolish yet wistful thoughts. The tower was falling! Myria could not stop the gasp which leaped out of her mouth. Within the cell, half of the ceiling collapsed onto the long chains which bound her to the walls of her cell. Whether it was pure luck or heaven’s mercy she did not know. Myria barely escaped being crushed by the debris. However, that quake had opened up a gaping hole for her to escape. Myria hurried to push herself through the hole, managing to maneuver through despite the trailing chains weighing down on her four limbs.

Another series of tremor told her that something was wrong. Crawling and wriggling up the series of steps from the dungeons, no one seemed to care as everyone ran past her, screaming in the chaos. It was only till when she left the prison with the rest, did someone shout that a witch was amongst them.

Myria knew she was outnumbered. She did the only thing she could do. Run.

This was definitely not her escape plan. There was nothing else she could do however. Burdened by the heavy chains that trailed the ground, she yelped as one of them yanked her head back by her hair. Myria struggled with all her might, managing to break free in the last second. She wondered why the person let go of her suddenly. She looked down.

She ran with no direction. How she came to stop at the cliff now, she did not know. The earthquake had caused the cliff to collapse and the person let go of her hair, before he could fall together with her, managing to jump to safe ground.

Myria sailed down with her arms spread, like an eagle soaring with the gust of the howling wind. Time finally came to a standstill for her, just like the hands of the clock.