The Exile

Dark clouds ruled the sky.

Our struggle to leave the village had gone from days to months. I bit my lips to endure my angry stomach as my mother tugged at me, telling me to walk faster. I looked at her, somehow addressing to her my condition. She shrugged and touched her pocket. I wasn’t the only child in our village. Few days ago, there were babies crying out loud but now, they are silent. Silent as they sleep with their eyes open, bulging, and white with red cracks. There were no babies crying but their parents were still wailing, cursing the cause of our banishment from the land.

The rain slowly poured but still, we walked forward. My mother gave me an apple. I grabbed it and took a bite. It tastes rotten but I’m used to it. We walked from trails to trails, slept with bugs and worms, and ate roasted raw wild boar or deer. Rotten is no longer the issue, survival is. My mother smiled at me with her face hidden behind scars and dust.

“AHHHH!”

There was a loud groan from behind followed by loud wails and scary noises. The adults are now running forward, sideways, and almost anywhere, bumping anybody who is blocking their way. Mother wrapped her hands around me, rubbing my shoulders and back. My father hushed my Mother from talking and turned away. Mother grabbed his hand and pleaded to stay out but he held mother’s callous hands and kissed them, holding it very tight. “Listen to me. When I say go, do what I say. Don’t even turn back.” He then smiled at my Mother and transferred his look to me. His eyes looked both satisfied and sad. He patted my head and pinched my cheeks. To my surprise, it felt like he pinched my heart and not my cheeks. As he ran away, I tried to follow him in sight but there was a roaring sound followed by the bellowing of my Father,“RUN!” My mother, without any sound nor expression, grabbed my hand and carried me on her chest. She ran without blinking her eyes. She ran without looking back. She ran through the misty woods, crackling twigs and squishing mud, hiding behind boulders of rock and fallen logs, crawling from one to another.

Alas, the strong tears of the sky softened the heart of the earth. She tried to run some more but every step that my mother makes becomes heavier than the previous she took. I clutched closer to my mother, thinking somehow it would lessen the weight she carries but I realized it wasn’t me who was making her heavier. I heard her. She was crying all along. She cried, ‘Oh, God’. Discreetly, she cried. She knelt and put me down. She kissed my forehead and whispered words I can’t distinctly understand besides ‘I love you’ and the last was ‘Run’. What am I supposed to do? I stood frozen from where she had placed me, unable to react to that sweet aching low voice of my mother. Again, she signaled me to run. Distinct was the word that came out of her chapped lips, she wanted me to run. I know, Mother! You want me to run but where? My knees trembled in fear, especially when I saw a light seemingly growing and growing from behind us. What is that?

“RUN!”

I shook my head hearing her scream. The lights came nearer, faster this time with eerie noises that seemed to be cries or what. I didn’t know what to do. Where will I go? I ran without direction. Here. There. The trees seemed the same. Voices screaming, scary noises, they were echoing in my head as I ran through the misty, dark forest. I’m nearing the top of the mountain and the distance between trees is seemingly wider than the previous ones. There was nothing much to hide besides big boulders of rock.

Suddenly, there was an electrifying strike of light followed by a loud rumbling beneath the clouds while it’s tears washed the face of the earth. I hid behind a rock, sobbing, wishing everything would be finished. I don’t know what to do. Should I stay here? Am I safe here? I wanted to scream but a voice at the back of my head was telling me I mustn’t. I squeezed myself more between the cracks while trembling in fear of nothingness and monsters hiding behind the shadows. I got more scared. What am I supposed to do? I tucked my feet as I saw a glimpse of a shadow approaching. I can sense the shadow is grinning, grinding its teeth for his hunger for blood is yet to be satisfied and the only one that dissatisfies him is the foul smell of an exile’s young blood. I closed my eyes and prayed. I prayed for the last time and prepared myself to be one with the others. Mother once said in her stories that there is a village beyond ours where all who were exiled are happy and at peace. She pictured it better than the village we left. Yes, soon I will be there with Mother and Father. They surely are waiting for me there right now.

Again, lightning struck and thunder shuddered the earth while there was a strange loud thud. I opened my eyes to my surprise that I was still seeing darkness in front of the rock but it was finally silent. I slowly stood up and turned around. There I saw my father, limping on one leg, with eyes filled with neither pain nor anger. Emotionless eyes staring at the beast lying beside his feet, cold and lifeless. The same beast who took and ruined dreams and lives in our small happy village. He walked slowly, dragging his limp foot, towards me and I ran as fast as I could to meet him halfway. With his bloodied arms, he welcomed me and embraced me. I know I’m safe. I’m finally safe. The rain has stopped. We walked forward and together, we faced the peeking sun, catching its light hidden behind the biding dark clouds. No more running. No more.