And The Heavens Fell Silent, Maria Louise [children's books read aloud txt] 📗

only what she wanted to. My hood obscuring my devilish features.

        “Now, be a darling li’l girl and come to Mama.” said the insane lady motioning her grubby hands towards me.

    I prepared myself to run but then I met the big brown eyes of a girl with beautiful midnight skin. She looked to be the oldest of the group and the most severely abused with a swollen eye and discoloration of bruises around her body. It looked as though she had been beaten repeatedly for God knows how long. Despite all that, I saw a small glimpse of hope, shining definitely in her crazed eyes.

        Just run. Do it. Run! My instinct urged me. But, oh!I could not leave all the enslaved girls! I considered running away and hiding and then coming back for them, but the thought was quickly diminished. The wolves would hunt me down. Though, if we all ran at the same time then there would be a better chance of survival.

        Survival? That was what my life had come to. Trying to stay alive.

        Two huge ash covered men came at me and roughly grabbed me by the arms. I whimpered and my legs collapse underneath me.

     “Oh! Oh, p-please let me gooo! Do not hurt m-meee!” I sobbed.

        “That's a good girl.” said a toothless man behind me as he tied my wrists.“Ya just cry now and don't fight back and we won't hurt ya, sweets.” I could feel his decaying breath on the back of my neck and I shuddered. He ran a meaty hand down my arm and told me greedily, “I'm gunna’ have fun with ya.” I suppressed the urge to smash the back of my head into his fat nose. It would have given away my week appearance, but most of all, violence went against everything I believed in. I was shocked at the urge to hurt him. I had never been violent before. But then, these were desperate times.

        “No ya' ain’t.” the big woman who seemed to be the leader told the man. “This girl is gunna' fetch us a great trade and I don't want ya to put a single grubby hand on 'er.”

    

   I could have hugged the ghastly woman at that moment.

        “But Mama...” whined the disgusting man.

        The lady slapped her son across his face. That shut Toothless up.

         The dark skinned girl looked at me with her hope diminished. She believed the act that I was weak and afraid. Though I was afraid, I was anything but weak. A smile pulled at the corner of my lips and I winked at the girl through the shadow of my hood. Once again hope flamed in her charcoal eyes and a smile formed upon her lips. Her smile was corrupted and awkward as if she wasn't use to making that motion but it was still a smile and that was beautiful in itself.

   

                                                                     

       The night was cold. I had only read about the cold in books and was not use to the sheer bitterness of it. I was not the only one fazed by the cold though. My captors were spooned together with me and the captives were in a clump across from us. Though I did not like my smelly captures, they were very warm and seemed to have taken a special liking to me. Never the less I was still was watching and waiting. My heart pounding in my ears and adrenaline coursing through my veins as the booze my captors had been drinking and the long days walk slowly started to drag them into the much anticipated sleep.

        When finally their gravely snoring rung out among the trees like multiple growls of a bear, I decided it was time to act upon my plan of escape.

        Since Toothless thought I was weak and obedient he hadn't bothered to tie my wrists or ankle bondage’s very tight .

     The skin on my hands ripped and bunched up awkwardly as I tugged them through my restraints. The hard part was not the getting out of my restraints, however, but trying not to wake anyone up as I wiggled free of my bonds, especially the wolves.

        I was relieved when we had found a small almost dried up water whole or else I knew I could not have the endurance to even contemplate escaping.

        Silent as a fox, I snaked my way around the drunken people and stepped over the sleeping wolves.

        I found what I was looking for sticking out of Toothless's pocket. I held my breath and  reached for the knife.

       “ARRG! Get away!” bellowed the smelly man. I froze with my hand still in his pocket clasped around the cold metal knife.

        I was as good as dead.

        Relief flooded through me as I realized he was sleep talking. I suppressed the urge to let out a sigh of gratitude.

     Thank you, God!

        If there was one thing I liked about the ash it was the fact that it silenced my footsteps as I walked toward the tied up girls.

       All the prisoners were awake watching me with wide eyed awe. I walked to the young girl closest to me and started to cut her bonds. She looked no older than ten. As soon as I cut the last string of rope she took off running without a second glance back. As I came upon the second girl, a blue eyed blond haired beauty, I heard a low warning growl behind me. Dread

sunk into the pit of my stomach like a rock in water.

        I swung around to see the white wolf so close to me I could smell blood on his breath. I wanted to run away, but my conscience nor my heart would allow it.        

        Grasping the last ounce of courage I had,  I bared my teeth back at the wolf and tried to imitate his growl. The wolf seemed confused at the noise I made, as if he was deciding how to respond to a human speaking in his own tongue. I growled again and this time he made a “humph” noise and laid his head back down to sleep.

        Its was as if I had bad and good luck at the same time. I kept getting myself into trouble but I also kept getting out of it... At least that's what I was telling myself. I can get out of this!

       After the third girl took off as fast as her weak legs could take her, I stepped, almost doing the splits, over the large lead lady and walked towards the midnight girl. In my village I had never seen someone with such dark skin, it was beautiful.

        “What the hell?!” roared my captor. I tried not to be afraid. She was only sleep talking.

       That's when I noticed the captive girls eyes were wide with urgency. They were the only feature of her I could see in the dark but still I knew I was in for trouble.

        “Lucifer! Attack!” demanded the lady behind me. I could have ran just then and maybe would have made it out alive, but I did not. I wasn't going to leave this girl in the presence of the wicked people.

        I ran to the girl and frantically slashed the rope off of her legs.

        “Run!” I shrieked at her as I felt someone's meaty hands wrap around my waist. She looked at me helplessly as I was being dragged backwards, her arm was outstretched towards me as if she wanted to grab me and take me away with her, but we both knew there was nothing she nor I could do. There was nothing.

       She ran. As fast as lightning strikes, through the woods. The last thing I saw before toothless clubbed me over the head, was the white of her eyes peeking out from behind a large dead tree. I wanted to tell her to leave me, but then unconsciousness took its dark hold on me and I slumped down into open arms of the enemy.

Phoenix

 

“All say, ‘how hard it is that we have to die’- a strange complaint coming from the mouths of people who had to live”-Mark Twain

  I saw everything from my little niche in the trees. The attack, the struggle, the retaliation, and the eventual capture of the girl. I’m not quite sure what happened while it was happening but, in retrospect everything made about as much sense as bumblebees. When the wolves came, they darted out from the trees around me, but they did not notice me. Even their loathsome owners didn’t notice me, they must have been a thick as a wall of bricks. After they left the clearing the only signs of alteration were seen in the ash. It floated lazily in the air, completely ignoring the mood of what had just happened. After a few minutes the floating ash either landed on my shoulders, came to rest in the trees, or

was blown away by the warm, southerly winds.

  It only took a few seconds, but my mind was made up; I would try to follow her. The sudden surge of power that had happened in this clearing scared me, but then again everything scared me... I took a few tentative steps into the clearing, small clouds of ash appearing around my feet with each step. I took a slow breath in, releasing it with the knowledge of the start of my epic quest.

  One thing that I realized quickly; the forest was quite large. It stretched on, footstep after footstep. I had started counting a little after I left the clearing, as I drew farther and farther away it felt as though a great weight were lifting off my chest. I turned and looked back, my footprints had disappeared, insignificant, and gone all too soon. A little like life, I suppose. I released a sigh, knowing that this was no time to philosophise. A path lay before me and behind, and the only thing I knew was that one of them led to the strange girl.

Yram

The sacrifice of personal existence is necessary to secure the preservation of the species- Adolph, Hitler

       

         A sack of meat. That was how they treated me. Toothless had stripped away my last ounce of dignity when he through me over his shoulder as if I weighed no more than a small child. I refused to degrade myself