Character Interaction

Chapter One

He'd never heard a bell with such a funereal toll.

Its tone settled over the small town like a shroud. Amelia pulled a little closer to his arm. This wasn't just an impoverished town like all the other ones they'd been through. There was something wrong about this... something deadly.

A crowd had gathered in the square around a tall bell tower, and he could see that approaching them was a group of policemen dragging a struggling man. He looked middle aged, his kind eyes screwed up in fear. The policemen beat the man as they carried him towards the tower, and the people crowded around the commotion looked as if they felt sympathy towards the man. It was strange...surely the man had done wrong? But if he had, these people wouldn't be looking so sad.

"Josh..." Amelia glanced at him, her eyes wide.

Joshua rested a hand on her arm, dread settling over him. He leant over to one of the onlookers, "What's happening?"

"It's a misery that we all must deal with in this town," they replied sorrowfully. "Every now and then the bell tower will chime, and someone from this town will be selected to be tortured for a few days, and then they will be hanged over the side of the tower as punishment for the uprising."

Joshua's eyebrows rose. "But what if they weren't one of the conspirators?"

"The world is a harsh place," the onlooker bowed their head. "All must suffer the consequences of the select few that challenged the government."

"How has that been allowed?" Joshua glanced from the onlooker to the victim, feeling Amelia's fingers digging into his arm. "This is Britain, a free country, you can't just -"

The man was suddenly thrown onto the ground and one of the policemen kicked him. "Get up that tower!!" he barked, kicking him again. A quiet whimper came out of the innocent man's mouth, and his eyes glistened with tears. As much as he tried to stand up, however, he was too weak and immediately fell back down.

"Now!!" the policeman growled.

Joshua pried Amelia's hand from his arm and marched over to the man on the ground, righteous indignation overtaking his common sense. He pushed past the officer standing beside the man on the ground and offered him his hand.

The beaten townsperson shakily reached out and grabbed Joshua's hand, and slowly pulled himself up. The policeman turned to face this man who had intervened. "What is the meaning of this?" he asked sternly.

"The meaning of it, sir," Joshua said, quietly, "Is that I can't bear to see an innocent man punished for the crime of someone else."

"Listen boy," he spat, walking closer to Joshua. He was much taller up close. "This town has all been involved in the uprising towards the government. Only a few decided to do something about poverty, but everyone encouraged that blasphemy. This man was suffering the consequence of that, just like many before him. We had one escape, it won't happen again. Unless you would like to take his place...?"

"How can you call this justice in any form?" Joshua dug his fingernails into his palms, trying to remain collected. He'd nearly been pronounced guilty in the place of someone else, many years ago, and he knew the despair, the utter unfairness of it.

"It's not justice," the officer scoffed. "It's a well deserved punishment."

"But is it well deserved, or is it a way for you to exert power over these people?"

The policeman looked as if he was about to attack Joshua, but he composed himself before he could lash out. "It is both."

"What's going on?" came a voice from up ahead. The officer suddenly looked apprehensive.