Witches (The Order)

Merianna

"Run!!!"

My mother's scream of terror reverberated through the small wood and stone house. The house that was now splattered with my father's blood. Scratched inside and out by inhuman talons.

I watched from underneath the dining table, staring in horror through the thin tablecloth as my father had been ripped off of his feet by the big, black monstrous figure.

It had hit me into a wall when it first barged in with inhuman speed and ferociousness. From there I had fallen and then crawled underneath the table where I am now frozen in horrified terror.

Warm almost scorching hot blood had sprayed everywhere... the walls, floor, wooden furniture, my face and hands... as my mother had screamed with her sword in hand while my father howled in agony when he was ripped apart.

Thump. Thump. My father's body hit the floorboards, first his legs, then his upper body as the creature opened its inhuman maw in a satisfied snarl. My father's eyes were open, glassy and staring straight at me, blood dribbling out of his still screaming mouth.

"RUN!!!" My mother screamed again. Her eyes wide with terror, pleading for me to escape. Her face was splattered with blood too, her black hair escaping from her lengthy braid, sweat beading on her face, mingling with the blood. My ribs burned with agony, agony that at first, I couldn't place.

A screech rang through the house, so loud that I was sure that it could have been heard all the way to the mountains in the east. A screech unlike any bear's, unlike any beast's, had seared itself into my ears, reverberating in my bones. It's inky black skin glistened sickly in the twilight, it's jagged teeth were exposed in a groaning hiss of bloodlust, it's eyes only saw my mother as a source of more blood to take, a source of more screaming and fear. This creature was only here for sport, there was no other reason as to why it was here. It was just in the mood to shed some blood, and we were the first victims that were in its path.

As the creature advanced, playing with my mother, a gleeful light shone in its sickly eyes. Its jagged jaws stretched in a terrifying joke of a grin that mocked my Mother’s attempts at killing it.

She tried to fight as best she could, she parried, dodged, slashed, but once the creature got tired of playing, it raised its grotesque claws, and with one vicious swipe from the beast, it broke right through her weapon, and…

I ran.

I didn't have my slippers or coat as I ran. The roar of the creature followed me through the tall trees and thick underbrush making my bare feet fly along the dry earth in a mad rush to get away. The setting evening sun's rays were playing through the leaves in an array of colours against the vibrant greens of the forest making everything explode with life.

If this were any other day, or any other time, if the shrieks of the monster weren't ringing around in my head, my father's dead screaming face fried into my brain, and my mother's tortured screams clawing in my eardrums pressing me onward into the deepest recesses of the forest. I would have enjoyed watching the light play along in the last dregs of the day as I usually did with my father close to the river's edge.

My bare feet got cut on stones, roots and thorns, my hands were scraped and bleeding along with my elbows and knees from all the times I fell, tripped and had to scramble up again just to go even deeper into parts of the forest that I had never been to. My arms and face were scratched by high brambles that I had to tumble through to get even farther. The left side of my chest burned with agony, rattled with every shuddering breath I took.

Even after my legs didn't want to run anymore and felt like stones, I still kept on moving in a daze. All that I could still see in front of me was the image of my parents being picked off one by one, their blood decorating the floor and walls of the home I was born in, the shrieks and roars of the creature, it's breath searing my nose with the smell of rotting flesh in the sun, always running a continuous loop in the back of my mind.

I walked, and kept on walking and stumbling. I had no idea how much time had passed since I ran away, the mottled light and darkness that filtered through the forest all just blurred together. I didn't know where I was going, I didn't really care about where I was going. Only that I was going forward, but once the light was coming out again my legs were wobbling and aching so much that it felt like they were being stabbed by millions of needles. My stomach felt like it was eating itself from the inside out. The cuts and scrapes I got were burning, hot, red and swelling, my ribs were unbearably tender to the touch, almost ripping screams out of me with every step I took now.

I stumbled along until I saw a boulder, almost looking like a table or chair in the middle of a small clearing, the morning sun shining down on it like a beam of light through the open treetops. I went over to it and sat down. Suddenly everything came crashing down at once, and I started crying, ignoring all my aches and pains I cried.

I cried for my mother and father, I cried for them so hard that I was sure that they would hear me and come to find me and take me home where everything was fine again. I was certain that all of this was one great big nightmare. A nightmare that I had trouble waking up from...

I was so tired and crying so hard that I hadn’t noticed that someone was close by until I heard something behind me. A rustling of bushes in the forest.

I whipped around so fast I almost fell off of the boulder. At first a shot of fear ran through me, thinking that the creature was back, that somehow it followed me through the woods until I was too tired and drained to do anything else other than wait for death.

I didn't see inky black skin, or smell the stench of rotting breath, instead a young man came through the bushes and looked at me, his face a mask of laughing relief. He was a human, not an animal or a monster. I was so relieved that I sank down to my knees on the damp ground and fell onto my side. I was spent. I didn't even have enough energy left to take a deep breath.

His hair was long and dark, he had a slight beard which made him look dishevelled, but yet his eyes were grey and sparkling with intelligence and curiosity. I suddenly had the urge to warn him as best I could, that my mumma and phupa were gone, that something ate them up and it might be close by. That it might be tracking me.

But nothing would come out of my mouth, it didn't even want to do anything other than open and close my lips.

Right then, I finally felt somewhat safe again, my eyes were slits as he slowly moved closer. The heat of the morning sun was gently beating down on me with a comforting heat. Someone had found me, that's all that mattered.

That was all that mattered right?

It should have been, but something was nagging at my foggy mind. Trying to pull me back from unconsciousness, but in the end, my body won the battle and darkness enveloped my vision.