I tried to pull my hand from his grasp, but my strength was nothing compared to his.

“Don’t anger me. I can burn you too,” I warned again, but my words seemingly fell on deaf ears.

Only after getting inside a quiet alley, far away from the place of the incident, did the red-eyed man finally stop.

He cornered me against the tall stone wall of the alley, and as he faced me, he stared into my eyes which were covered by the transparent cloth from my hat.

He smirked. “My anger can burn this entire place. Do you want to see?”

The way he looked at me and the smirk dancing on his lips seemed intimidating. He didn’t look like he was joking. Moreover, he didn’t feel scared upon knowing that I’m a witch and had just burned a few people. From the looks of it, he didn’t seem like an ordinary person.

“W-What do you want?” I asked.

He removed my hat and looked deeply into my eyes, observing them. It looked like he confirmed something before he asked, “Who are you?”

Instead of my name, I told him my identity, thinking my words would scare him.

“A witch.”

However, he only chuckled lightly in response.

“Interesting.”

As I studied this curious stranger, my gaze wandered to the tattoo on his neck. My eyes widened as familiarity hit me. It was similar, if not exactly, the same tattoo from that guy I have seen in my visions before!.

“This tattoo…?” I said with a puzzled tone, hoping he would say something about it.

The mocking smirk on the man’s lips disappeared as he turned silent, studying me with narrowed eyes. Shock briefly flashed across his red eyes before they turned scary, their colors darkening as if they had flames burning inside them.

“Who are you?”

Although he asked the same question, the tone this time was different from how he had asked before. He sounded cold and threatening.

The dangerous tension between us broke when we heard voices coming closer.

“Search for her… We need to find her….”

“Oh, no. I need to run,” I mumbled and pushed him away.

My strength couldn’t move him even an inch, but surprisingly, this man took a step back and didn’t stop me from escaping. I ran away with all my might and entered a random alley, calculating which way would lead me back to the market’s main street.

“Martha, where are you?” I mumbled helplessly.

Deep inside, I knew Martha could always find me wherever I go, showing up to rescue me at the nick of time just like before, but this time, I was worried and scared because she didn’t come.

I could only gather the courage to run away because I trust that she would come after me and that if I fell into trouble, she would come to save me.

Where was she?

I heard loud noises again, the voices coming from the other side of the tall alley wall where I was standing.

“We will find that witch and burn her in front of everyone!”

“Those ugly creatures deserve to die!”

“Today, flowers bloomed, so we should have been prepared for the witch to show up and capture her.”

I heard those voices coming closer, and I was sure they would find me in no time. From either end of the alley, I could see men roaming here and there, carrying all kinds of weapons, in search of the witch.

I was trapped.

As I could not possibly outrun these men, I could only hide. Looking around, I saw that the wall was broken on one side, leaving enough space to fit my body. I hid inside as my last resort to save myself and prayed that Martha would show up soon before anyone discovered me.

Just as I was steadying my breaths, I heard a man’s voice from the end of the valley.

“Go back!” warned the man coldly.

‘Is it him again?’ I wondered as the voice sounded similar to that man who dragged me away from the drunk man and his minions.

Risking to take a peek, indeed, I saw the same red-eyed man blocking the entrance of the alley all by himself.

“Who are you?” one man from the angry mob asked.

“You don’t need to know. Just go back if you don’t want to die,” the red-eyed man warned coldly.

“We are here to capture a witch. Don’t meddle in this if you don’t want to die.”

“There is no witch here.”

One man observed the red-eyed man and said, “You don’t look like you’re from here. Are you with the witch?”

“What if I am?”

‘Is he crazy? Does he want to die?’ I frowned at his boldness. ‘Seems like he doesn’t know how much people hated witches here.’

“Then we have no other option,” said the angered man as he stepped ahead, intending to hurt the red-eyed man.

Swash!

Shling!

The next moment, that man’s head was on the ground, rolling away from his body, while the blood dripped along the sharp edge of the red-eyed man’s sword.

It scared the rest of the angry mob and they stepped back from the bloody scene.

“Didn’t I warn you before? Anyone else wants to try again?” asked the red-eyed man as he held his sword to one side, pointing towards the ground.

I couldn’t see his face as I could only see his back from where I was hiding, but I was sure he must have that same evil smirk on his lips and his red eyes must have had those flames dancing within them.

By this time, everyone had run away in horror. He turned to look where I was, and I immediately shrunk into a ball, trying to bury myself into that small space.

Although I could not see him, I could sense someone walking towards me from the end of the valley. I closed my eyes in fear that I would be captured by him again. ‘What does he want from me?’

“My lady!”

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally heard the familiar voice that I’ve long waited for. When I opened my eyes, Martha was standing in front of me and I nearly did something childish, like jumping on her and hugging her. But I stopped myself and first looked around to search for that red-eyed man but no one else was there.

Martha and I were by ourselves.

‘Where did he go?’