The town was alive with the usual morning bustle of vendors shouting prices, children looking in the streets, and men gathering in corners discussing politics, gossip, and rumors.
Their eyes were hollow and sunken. Most of them were hungry, malnourished, and deprived while trembling in the cold winter but despite that they came out unlike previously.
Because it wasn't just another day.
The town square was packed with people, men, women, children, old and young, all crammed together under the cold, grey sky.
The air was heavy with tension, clouds thick like smoke blanketing the sun. Snowflakes danced in the breeze, but no one noticed. All eyes were locked on the raised wooden platform at the center.
There, kneeling and tied with thick rope, was Cedric—his body bruised, his lips swollen, eyes darting wildly in panic. A filthy rag stuffed in his mouth muffled his desperate whimpers. The rope that bound him cut into his skin, blood trickling from where he'd struggled too much.
