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They came for her in the dead of the night. With a sudden breaking sound, her door was forcefully opened, rousing her from a restless sleep. There was the sound of breaking glass, and that made Lisa shoot up in her bed. They couldn’t destroy it. Not her work. Hurrying out of bed, she met the intruders in the hall of the great house. She hadn’t been prepared to find members of the church in her house, however. Lisa had thought that she had to deal with thugs trying to destroy her work out of spite or fear, but not the church itself intervening.“Lisa of Lupu, I place you under arrest for witchcraft and a pact with the dark lord himself.” The voice of the bishop sent a chill right through Lisa’s heart. She didn’t struggle when the supposed priests seized her. Their grip was too strong for someone supposed to serve God all day long. “There is reason to believe that you seek to disrupt the order of the church, and thus bring civil unrest and dark creatures into this world.”The accusation baffled Lisa so much that she couldn’t speak. That, the bishop interpreted as her being too stunned by him seeing through her guise to protest. She looked around briefly in anguish, worried for her son, but she saw him nowhere. Alucard must have headed out, and hopefully be safe. She hoped with all of her heart that he would not try to pursue her captors, and not try to interfere now. The church knew no mercy when they encountered what they considered part of a heathen world that they sought to illuminate with the light that was God.“Bring her to the dungeons. I shall question her later. But first…”Lisa bit her lower lip when the torches were lit. She tried to protest, but no sooner had she lifted her voice as one of the priests delivered a brutal blow to her head, leaving her dazed and unable to stand on her own feet. She could only try to keep it together while she watched her house being burned to ashes, two priests remaining behind to ensure that there would be no one attempting to put out the fire that was raging through the wooden home.She was dragged to the dungeons, without anyone heeding her discomfort. She was deliberately handled roughly and mistreated the whole way. Abuse was spewed into her direction whenever she tried to speak up and explain that they were about to make a terrible mistake. There was worse to follow, and Lisa knew that. She knew that this was only the beginning. The howling of those blood-thirsty wolves that called themselves the servants of God and mankind alike. *** She was left for hours to cower in a cold, damp cell, with barely any light around her. Lisa pulled the only blanket she had found, a torn, filthy piece of fabric, tightly around herself. It was a cold night, despite the warm summer’s day that had preceded it. She cowered for the time being, not trying to communicate with the guards. They had been placed under strict order to ignore anything coming from her. After all, she was accused of witchcraft, and her voice could just be a try to beguile them to do her bidding. Lisa swallowed down the fear that was rising in her chest. She knew far too well that, once the church had set its mind upon it, she would burn.And the bishop was not known for being merciful.It took a felt eternity before the bishop, accompanied by two brawny men, came into her cell. She was pulled to her feet and dragged into another chamber. Already, she could smell blood and other, unspeakable things. She knew what was awaiting her. He thoughts went to her husband and her son, who both were out there, and unaware of what had happened. Alucard would find out, but her husband was far away, travelling. He had promised to come home in three days’ time. She could only hope to hold out for that long.For the beginning, nothing too brutal was happening. She was stripped down, and the bishop instructed the men to look for any blemishes that would look like a witch’s mark on her skin. Anything could have been such a thing. A birthmark, oddly shaped, a wart that was painless to the witch, or any blemish of the skin considered unnatural. Needles were prodded into her skin, and every time, Lisa flinched and let out a small sound of pain. But the bishop heeded none of it. Every time it happened, he just declared that it was an act to make them think that she was actually human.They didn’t bother with her for a long time. Lisa repeatedly refused to admit that she was a witch, even as the bishop tried to ask tricky and supposedly misleading questions, to make her slip up and confess. He would not have any such luck with her. She was brought back to her cell, already well aware that the apparatuses in the chamber served a very specific, torturous purpose. But what tortured her far more was that sheer honesty and a rational mind could come through the fanatic blindness of the bishop. Men like him made progress tough in Wallachia, which already was plagued by the supernatural and countless old beliefs that still held up strong and fast. *** She was left to hunger and thirst for a whole day, before the torture began. Beating her with sticks, a lashing with a thick leather belt, and finally cutting across her skin. Then she was attached to the rack, and at one point, she believed she would be torn apart by the force. Lisa whimpered and cried, but would not confess to witchcraft. She remained steadfast. She was a woman of science and knowledge, not an old hag that had bonded with the Satan himself, to gain supernatural powers and curse everyone in her reach. The bishop remained just as adamant. Either repent, or die in the purging flames of the stake.The night was the worst thing yet. Lisa had a fever, and the pain still was prominent. But she also knew that it was over. The bishop had set his mind before he even had seen her in person. She was a witch, and she was to burn at the stake, whether she repented or not. She hoped that Alucard was safe, and that he had gone into hiding, before anyone would try and find him. With his sharpened senses, it should have been an easy task, but she also knew that he could be brash and thoughtless.“Please… be safe. Don’t think about me, think about your safety. Hide away. You and your father must stay strong.”Her feverish muttering, again, was seen as her talking to that accursed power that she had bonded with. What the men didn’t know was that she was already making her peace. Lisa knew she had done nothing wrong. She had tried her best to help the people of Wallachia. If no one was to come to her aid, then it was a testament to the brutality with which the church ruled. Fear was its grand resource, not an all-powerful, vengeful god. If she had to die for the people to eventually wake up, then so be it. *** Her last thoughts were with her family. She hoped that one day, Dracula would be able to forgive them. And that her son would stand by his father’s side in times of grief. As long as they had each other, everything would be alright…