Undying

My mother sits next to my bed in a beautiful ornate chair.

“And with the final blow to the dragon’s heart the sword saint was victorious and put himself to rest” she looks up from the time book. I see her long black hair, which she shares with me and my sister, glimmer in the moonlight shining into my room. She continues “and with that the story comes to an end now get some sleep your betrothal ceremony is in the morning.”

She kisses me goodnight brushing my hair back and walks out the door. After she left I lay in my bed, the darkness creeping in as I thought about the story, slowly falling asleep. Soon after, however, I awoke to the smell of smoke and screams in the nearby forest. I turned to look out my window. I saw a great flame engulf the forest. My mind panicked, and I ran as fast as possible to find my mother, father, sister, a guard, and anyone who could explain what was happening. As I ran, however, the flames grew closer and soon made contact with the manor.

“Is this magic?” I thought. “The flames are moving too fast for it to be natural.”

However, I kept running through the long corridors of the manor as the fire spread, but then my legs froze in horror; a guard was on the floor, bleeding from his abdomen, where a sword had impaled him and was held by a foreign soldier. The soldier pulled the sword out and crept over to me. In a panic, I grabbed the sword that belonged to the guard and plunged the blade into one of the joints of his armor. As he fell to the ground, I pulled the sword out and ran it through his neck, killing him.

His blood shoots out and drenches me. I stagger backward, realizing what I had just done: “I killed him! I killed someone!” I cried out and fell with the sword in hand and his blood covering my nightgown. “I have to leave,” I thought to myself as I pulled myself together and decided to continue running.

After running for a while I finally make it out of the manor, I see my father, sister, and mother holding my baby brother and a few guards who stood by as we watched in horror as our home burned.

My mother, who finally noticed me, looked at me in shock and asked, “Where have you been? I went to your room to look for you, but you were not there.”

She then paused and looked at my nightgown covered in blood and continued speaking, “Why are you covered in blood? Are you alright, my god? What is happening?”

Her eyes were in pain and crying; my father tried to comfort her, but he was in just as much shock.

“Sorry,” I responded. “I left early, and as for the blood, I was attacked by a soldier.”

She goes to respond but is interrupted by the crackling of the fire. It erupted, engulfing the manor and surrounding forest. Then they appeared from the fire: the king’s men. They carried chains, swords, spears, and bows; their armor was covered in blood from head to toe, and the corpses of guards could be seen from behind. My family and I watched in horror as the archers shot down the last of the guards. In an instant, they grabbed my mother, sister, and me, put us in chains, and made us watch as they slit the throats of my baby brother and father; our screams grew louder as time passed. The captain then looked our way and toyed with us as if we were animals to him. He grabbed my hair, ripped off my bloodied dress and made me pleasure him. The other men grabbed my sister and mother and did the same. Using us, using me as if I’m some kind of whore.

However soon enough he finished and when he had his fun, he made me and my sister watch as they butchered our mother: cut in half as she lay on the ground naked and in filth. After my mother, they made me watch as they did the same to my sister.

Numb; I could no longer cry or scream; I could no longer feel anything. When they came for my life, I accepted death with open arms. Within a second, the sword dove into my chest. Finally, darkness came once more.

The rain came down as if heaven itself were crying, sharing in my pain. However, my pain had stopped; heaven may weep, but I will not anymore. As I lay lifeless, my blood crept into my body, and the wound healed over in an instant. The men, shocked and scared, backed away, but they knew I could not fight back. My mind was torn, and they took advantage of the situation, putting me in shackles and dragging me away. I felt the mud on my cheek and the rain on my face.

As I blacked out, I saw my family’s home along with the forest leaving only the river-which stretches from the Kingdom of Grandeur to the storm plain which hosts Riverfront as the heart and center- burn away in the magical fire, resistant to the rain. And thus within these flames, my pain had begun with a final curtain of darkness once more.