Witch Craft: The Tale of Giacomo – Epilogue

Witch Craft: The Tale of Giacomo

Epilogue

The drums beat like an angry heart. Sebastian was escorted between two guards onto the scaffold, over the trap door. The rope was place around his neck. The crowd was silent, hundreds of eyes locked onto him, seeing him, confirming his existence for all of time. It didn’t matter that his name would be said with hatred, because his name would still be said.

Inspector Jantree stood before the magistrate doors and read out loud the crimes that Sebastian was going to die for.

Sebastian smiled a child-like smile of wonder.

The trap door fell open.

~oOo~

Giacomo sat on the bed by the small window of the room that was now his, staring out into the gray world. The tears had dried on his face, but his eyes continued to burn.

“Are you not watching the colors today?” Alastair asked from the doorway.

Giacomo wiped away the remaining moisture from his face. “No.”

Alastair sighed. “Giacomo, my boy. You did what you needed to.”

They had already talked of this. Alastair had asked him, “Did you make this young man follow? Did you force him to go? Did you make him walk into the magistrate’s?”

“I led him to his death,” Giacomo said now as he had said when Alastair had asked him those questions.

Giacomo heard the floorboards creak as Alastair entered the room, and felt his weathered hand on his bare shoulder. They had been making potions today, and old habits were hard to shed, skin still easier to clean than cloth.

“You guided him to justice, and he went willingly,” Alastair said. Now it was the bed that creaked as Alastair sat down next to Giacomo. “But… I suppose it is good you feel as you do. I would be most disturbed if you found enjoyment in what had occurred. That you do not, that you can pity even those who do not deserve your pity, it is a good thing. But in giving him your pity, do not also give him your guilt. That he does not deserve. He would have killed others had you not brought him to justice.”

Alastair patted Giacomo’s shoulder. “Come. Help me make deliveries. The fresh air will do you good.”

Giacomo shivered. “I don’t… want to go out,” he said. “I don’t want to see… to see…”

“The colors?” Alastair finished.

Giacomo nodded. “What if I see someone with no colors again?”

“Then we will find this person with no colors and try to help them if we can. Come, Giacomo. Please?”

Giacomo acquiesced, knowing that Alastair would be quite persistent until he did. They each took a basket full of bottles and bags, and left the shop for the narrow streets of the city.

Giacomo tried to keep his eyes cast downward away from the people they passed by. But he couldn’t, not if he wanted to see where he was going and avoid running into anyone. It wasn’t long before the colors pulsed and rippled like rainbow mist, filling the space around Giacomo with vibrancy and life.

Giacomo exhaled a breath he had not realized he’d been holding, and when he inhaled he was filled with a sudden and profound sense of relief and contentment.

Of belonging.

“You are seeing them,” Alastair said with a smile.

Giacomo smiled back with a nod.

“What are they like?” Alastair said.

“Like happiness,” Giacomo said.

The End

Witch Craft: The Tale of Giacomo – Ch. 5

Witch Craft: the Tale of Giacomo

Ch. 5

Jantree didn’t believe Giacomo, and in fact seemed quite adamant about not believing him. It was as though for Jantree to believe Giacomo would mean inviting something wicked into the room, and to dismiss it as beyond preposterous would keep that from happening.

“Spirits possess. Beings with no physical form possess. But a living person cannot possess!”

“But it does not change what Giacomo has seen,” Alastair said. “A man stepped from the body just as Tallune fell.”

“A man? Not a spirit? Not something else? He is certain it was a flesh and blood man? Did he see these colors he’s always talking about?” Jantree said.

Neither Alastair nor Giacomo could answer this. There may have been colors, but Giacomo had been so focused on maintaining the image in the bowl that he had not thought to focus on the man’s colors.

Witch Craft: The Tale of Giacomo – Ch. 4

Witch Craft: the Tale of Giacomo

Ch. 4

Giacomo sat on the steps of the Apothecary with his arms on his knees and his hands clasped so tightly together the skin had turned white. The day was aging, the clouds going from snow gray to gray blue, and no one paid any mind to the man huddling in front of the shop, which was as it should be.

Giacomo had come to this place not knowing where else to go or what to do, his face and side throbbing so fiercely that he hadn’t been able to think, so he had to let his feet take him where they would.

Witch Craft: The Tale of Giacomo

Witch Craft: The Tale of Giacomo

All living things have souls, and all souls have colors that only Giacomo can see. But what does it mean when something living has no colors? Giacomo intends to find out, but fears where the answer may take him.