The flash of steel, a river of red. The blink of an eye, the end of my world.
The leader gave his orders, and I finally woke up.
One by one I watched as the humans ripped and kicked doors from their hinges. Dragging out screaming children. Mothers clamouring for them and being beaten to the floor, trod on like the floor.
If not that, they just killed them. Their flesh squelching at the blades. Shock peeling their eyes open until they died watching the innocence drain from their sons and daughters.
My gut squirmed as I gagged. I grew dizzy. The walls melting and tilting. Clarity torn away. Sense murdered. I couldn't see or hear. My slow descent into fear morphing into a plummet. A plummet into darkness, and my heart was first to sink.
I recoiled from the window.
"W-we need to leave..."
Damian and Mickey were just confused. Mom already understood.
"They're taking all the kids, killing... beating the rest. We need to leave..."
Mom stood in place. Her mind was probably overwhelmed by memories. All the different ways we could die this day. Fearing the worst. But we didn't have the time. We needed her. I believe she knew it.
"Okay, I need you all to stay right here, I'll only be a moment!"
No. Still not thinking straight.
"W-what? You can't go out there! It's suicide!" I yelled, thrusting my hand over the door as she opened it.
"You said we need to leave, how do you plan on it?!" she said. "We'll be in the wild, we won't last a day without supplies!"
My blocking arm softened. She was right. Right as she was about most things and it made me want to scream. At the world. At humans. At first I didn't know what to think of either of them. How kind of them both to have taught me.
"I won't be long, boys. This isn't my first time dealing with humans, remember?"
I hoped she would be right again.
I unhanded the door and it breezed past me. Rattling shut behind her back with finality. We stood in silence. I knew why I did. I knew why they did. They reared their heads to me and I braced the outlash.
"How could you let her go?!" Damian yelled. Mickey just sobbed for her.
"Quiet! Get in her bedroom! It's at the back, they won't see us!" I snapped.
Damian wasn't done with me and Mickey wasn't done wailing. I dragged them both by the collar and flung them into mom's bedroom. Slamming the door closed so hard the dust rattled from the ceiling. I sat on the floor, barring it with my back. It enraged them both even more.
"You're just gonna let her die?!" Damian snarled. "You know, just because you don't care about us doesn't mean we shouldn't care about each other!"
"Shut up!" I hissed.
I only wished I didn't care. Or that everyone could think as clearly as I. I didn't say it. I needed them both to shut up.
I was trying to protect them. But to normal people, 'caring' doesn't mean protection, but also passion. Blinding, raging passion. And I had never felt that for anyone. Not them, not our mom. If that was love, then perhaps I didn't love them. So why did I bother to protect them?
The sounds of slaughter filled the silence. I gathered myself. My thoughts. And spoke again.
"Look. Mom said it herself. She'll be back. Us going out there will force her to protect us. It'll just make it even harder."
Damian scoffed.
He knew I was right and didn't care. Explaining myself had never earned me forgiveness. Why bother with that either?
*****
We waited. Waiting and waiting. Waiting for waiting to end. The word waiting lost all meaning. Instead we trembled. Instead we feared.
We didn't know how long had passed. Just that mom had not come back.
Higa Village was small. The adrenaline alone could have carried her across it in a few minutes, Any supplies she may have aimed for only lay half-way that far.
Dead, or faced with death. Those were the options, and they haunted us like spectres.
Yet even if she were safe, we would not have been excised. For we had long drowned in blood. Choked by the sound of bloodshed until we couldn't breathe.
I had taken one look out the window, and wretched so loud it may have compromised us. I forbade my brothers from doing the same.
Farmers charging blindly, wielding rakes and hoes. Dispassionately sliced into ribbons.
Flung and thrown like their own hay-bales.
I saw a man split in twain from his temple to his stomach.
Then I saw what I feared most.
The human powers.
Lightning tearing through buildings, wind swinging lifeless bloody corpses through the air like leaves.
Rage with no cause. Violence with no meaning.
I saw humanity.
And it made me sick.
My brothers didn't need to look. They didn't need to ask. And I didn't need to guard the door. They now knew as I did. Going out there would mean certain death.
So we thought of mother again.
I had hoped for change all my life. For a break from my own boredom. I should have expected my wish would be granted in the darkest manner possible. I asked for new, I was granted suffering.
THUD THUD THUD.
My head shot from the floor. Damian froze. Mickey paused his red-faced cries.
THUD THUD THUD. THUD THUD THUD. A forth time. A fifth.
Knocking, desperate knocking on our front door. If it were desperate, surely it was a Gimen. Surely it was mother.
"Is it mommy?" Mickey asked, hope gleaming in his eye.
I lifted from the ground. Silent. Listening.
"I- I don't know. I'm gonna check. You two stay here."
They made no objection this time.
Creaking open the bedroom door. I crept through. Damian inched it closed behind me. I trod like there were spikes on the floor. Each creak hurt like one as I tried to stay quiet.
I arrived at the door. The banging growing heavier, with no voice alongside it.
As I reached for the doorknob, I froze.
'This could be mother, but what if it's a human? I could be inviting our own deaths.'
I had no time to hesitate, I did it anyway.
'No. Humans aren't ones to knock. If they want to get in, they will. It's mom... it's mom' I thought.
I ripped the barricade from the door. Swinging it open faster than I could stop myself.
Once again I wished it had. Hope had betrayed me.
For what stood in front of me was not my mother, but a human. The one they called 'Pandora.' Pointing a bejewelled knife to my neck. Tears welling in her eyes. I crept back, trying not to crumble in defeat.
She followed me inside, and with her free hand, closed the door behind her. It clicked shut as she sobbed.
I didn't know why she cried, and I didn't care. This wasn't mother. That fact had practically marked her grave. And my reward? A human. Barging in, steel primed for my blood. My brothers'. She could have cried me a river and not matched me. My fist rippled with the strength of a thousand storm-struck oceans.
Just then, Pandora's voice quivered into words.
"I am The Lady Pandora of Stratoshire. N-neighbours of the heavens.... guardian angels of the earth... and I have come to capture you... as is my duty to humanity..."
My face simply burned.
"Good for you. I dare you to try."