"Aish!" Ella hissed in pain.

"Oh, I'm sorry but this will hurt a little." Gode reassured and continued dabbing her wounds with the medicine. There was nothing that Ella wanted right at that moment than to give up on her life and pray that her next life spare her with a decent living.

"They think your evil existence is the cause of all the atrocities taking place in the town." Gode put in suddenly, while cleaning up Ella's wounds and gauging for her reaction.

"They think that man was murdered because of me?" Ella's silent murmur was not a question to Gode but to herself.

"No, they think your pessimistic presence around the locality is enough to kill a person for no good reason." Gode was burning in rage at the idiotic minds of the people. How can people be so downright senseless and heartless to someone so good? She cried and sympathized her friend a lot for the way she turned out to be.

Ella was fed up of everything. Everything in the universe seems to be going against her. She couldn't take a breath of fresh air without concerning about the consequences. And now the thought of her name being the reason of a murder is not making any good to Ella.

"You should leave." Ella didn't get what Gode meant. She was surprised of Gode's statement.

"Leave?" She was confused what Gode meant. What does she mean leave from her own cabin?

"I think you should leave from here and go somewhere far away where people do not know about you, where people do not care who you are and where you are from." Ella knew what Gode was trying to tell. She knew that her friend was getting more anxious for her day after day. She could understand her friend's concern for her but will the town allow her to go?

They were keeping her there, in the outskirts of the town, so that she would be available for their selfish use whenever they needed. The courtesy of giving her a place and land for her living was not for her goodwill but to make sure I was available for another sacrifice if any drought or floods should come in future. Yet they make sure to kill all the confidence and hope she has to make sure she would succumb to the darkness and wouldn't dare anything against them.

She was just kept there as an available in hand at any turn of the time.

"They wouldn't allow me. All this accusations and abuse was to kill any little hope I had on my life. They want me to be a puppet in their hands ready to be their scapegoat at any turn of event. They make sure to have an eye on me." Ella wanted to escape from there. Heaven know how desperate she was to get out from there and start a new life but she knew that the villagers always made sure she couldn't go anywhere outside the boundaries they set for her.

One of the reason they buried her husband's dead body beside her cabin was to emotionally bind here there. They knew Ella was a fool enough to respect a dead person and they gladly took advantage of that.

"Ella... I will help you. Let's get you out of here when the whole town will be sleeping. Three days from now, on the night of lunar eclipse, the belief says that it is dangerous to witness the eclipse so town will lock themselves inside their houses. It will be a good time to escape. I will have a coach ready for you at the other side of the lake. Get all your important things and start preparing for your escape."

Gode had enough with the cruelty and madness of the people. She has watched her friend suffer from years and every time she noticed her cry, she use to assure herself that some day she will get the happiness she deserve but the town is going beyond irrationality with their acts.

She has enough of waiting someone to come and save Ella from her despair. She has been thinking to send her best friend away from the northern region from many days and she decided to do it now. She will have the sky bow down if it had to for Ella to escape from that hell.

Ella did not argue with her friend about the whole escape plan because somewhere in her heart, she wanted to try her best to get out from there. She gathered few rag gowns she had and tied them in a huge cloth.

She would be getting away from there in two days and she prayed that she escape successfully.

'Would I ever get away from here? I wish I could' Ella thought to herself while walking through the lighter part of the woods.

It was a quiet evening and the cool breeze touching her skin is soothing her wounds and also her heart. The trees are moving lightly along the breeze giving the scent of very addicting rainy wet soil and fresh blossomed flowers. It was refreshing to walk in the woods after having a tough day. Days like this were always an invisible cure to Ella's pain.

It was a short walk from her cabin to the lake in the woods. The lake was used only by Ella as the other people are prohibited to use it for their own good. How very irony, they can use her without any hesitation for their greed but wouldn't dare use the water she uses.

How irony!

Squatting down at the edge of the muddy ground, Ella dipped her hands and splashed some cool water on her face. Her hip length long and rich copper hair was left untied into natural waves. She felt good to be in nature alone far away from evil prying eyes. She loved the feel of cool water on her skin.

Ella bent a little trying to pluck lotus flower and leaves to make good tea as lotus leaves are good at curing swelling, pain and redness of rashes.

She bend a little more over the clear water to pluck the flower and notices her once bright eyes were dull with sadness. Her hair was no doubt healthy and bright that gave her face a beautiful frame but the bruises overshadowed any beautiful cell she had. She was not a beauty but her copper hair sure is her attracting spot.

She touches her hair looking at her reflection in the clear water and run a delicate hand over it. She cups her face with both her hands and meets her eyes in the reflection.

Will anyone ever find her beautiful?

Can she have a man in her life who appreciates her?

What if her husband was alive? Then would he like her? Would he love her?

The more she lived alone with no family, the more Ella craved for love. At the age when she should be embraced in the arms of her love and growing her family, she was alone and widowed.

Her eyes wept with tears when she thought of her husband. She wished her husband to be alive and to be with her but she also knew that it was a foolish wish.

Her husband was not alive. There's no one who could love her. People treat her like untouchable then there is no second chance in her life.

No chance to find love.

No chance to find family.

Tears rolled down her eyes, grief striking inside her with high tides. She pitied the reflection in the water. Heaving slowly, she wiped her tears and bent forward to wash her face again but her hands stopped mid air when she saw two red sparks in the reflection of the water.

Ella cleared her eyes and tried to see what exactly it is. 'What might it be', she wondered. She moved a little forward to have a clear view and was shocked to see what the sparks actually are.

They were eyes.

At first she thought they were eyes of a crocodile but there are no crocodiles there nor crocodiles sport red eyes. Ella narrowed her eyes in concentration and looked closely towards the red sparkling eyes and framed out the black thick eyebrows arched above the eyes.

That was when she realized that it was a person, a man to be precise.

Red eyes were gazing at her intensely observing her every move. She could only see the eyes and eyebrows and the rest of the face are hidden in the reflection of trees.

Red Eyes?

How come a person has red eyes?

Ella looked back towards the trees to find the person with pounding heart. There was no one behind her or on the trees. She looked back at the water and the red sparking eyes were no there. It was gone.

Her heart started pounding loudly inside, eerie feeling overtaking her previously relaxed mind.

Those eyes looked so devilish.

Was that even a person?