It was a torturous night. Never in her life had she experienced something this horrific.
Delilah found herself hiding in the basement of the house, near the secret door of the room, opposite to the main one.
The door was safely shut with many heavy trunks against it, while, under the midnight moon, the heavily armed mercenaries trained by the enemy soldiers from the neighbourhood kingdom Panasa violated the ceasefire and attacked Brimlyn.
"I am scared, Deli." she heard a soft, scared voice beside her.
Clutching the merely five-year-old Timothy close to her heart, she whispered, "We will be alright."
"What about mum?"
This made her heart clench in pain, knowing that the chances of her mother being alive were thin. Though, for the sake of her innocent brother, she assured him that she must be completely fine; trying to gulp the lump formed in her throat.
Shrieks and shouts of men and women outside almost deafened them as the enemies showed no mercy. They killed the men at once and took the women and children with themselves.
Heavy banging on the door instinctively made her press her palms against her brother's mouth to make sure he does not scream.
"This room is not opening!" yelled a voice just outside the door.
"Leave it, moron, see it's locked from outside. Nobody's in. We still have a half of village to kill."
Delilah closed her eyes and tears rolled down her cheeks when she heard them walking away. Hugging the trembling body of Timothy, she simply prayed for the blood-drenched night to end.
The next morning, Delilah stepped out of the basement with Timothy behind her and climbed up, entering the main area of the house.
A gasp left her lips when she saw the horrendous condition of the room.
The beautiful blue curtains were torn into pieces, the wooden walls of the house had splatters of blood on them.
Delilah hastily turned around and ushered Timothy out of the house from the back door.
A painful silence prevailed the surroundings when they stepped out of the house. Their once lively village now was rendered merely a shadow of past, ashened by the soul tearing events that took place last night.
Homes were burnt, dried blood covered the ground sinfully. Dead bodies were scattered here and there; some on the ground, some hanging on the trees upside down.
Soldiers worked quietly, helping the civilians in need, along with the other civillians who were in a better position.
Delilah sucked in a sharp breath and quickly approached one of the middle-aged soldiers near the banyan tree who had just made an old man sit there.
"Sir." she spoke softly, yet an undertone of desperation was easy to detect in her voice, "Could you please tell me where the injured civilians have been kept?"
"They all are in the community hall of the village," he replied.
Thanking him, she turned around but the soldier stopped her, "I hope whoever you are searching isn't too young or, worse, a female, child. The young and the women faced the worst."
Delilah tensed and could almost feel the questions bubbling up in Timothy's innocent mind about the words of the soldier. So she simply nodded her head at the soldier and started walking with Timothy towards the community hall.
"What was he sp-"
"No questions, Tim."
They soon entered the community hall, surprised to find very fewer people. Her village, Neerongi, was a small village with merely some two hundred people living in it, so she knew many of the people by their names and most of them by their faces.
Bile rose up in her mouth as she looked around to find many familiar faces, but her mother was nowhere to be seen.
"Where-where is mum?" she heard Timothy choking beside her.
"She -she must be somewhere, here. I-I don't know- let's look out for her." she gave Timothy's shoulder a light squeeze and then led him as they searched for their mother.
"Delilah..." a weak voice from behind made her stop.
She turned out to see Mrs Xavier lying on a bed, her head wrapped in bandages.
"Mrs Bean!" Timothy squealed upon seeing her, sticking with the name he had given her as a small child.
"How are you, my sweet?" Mrs Xavier smiled, though her pain was visible through her kind smile.
Walking towards them, Delilah heard Timothy sob, "We cannot find mum. I am scared. Papa is also not here."
Mrs Xavier looked at Delilah with a sad look, before she spoke to Timothy while wiping his tears, "Tim, my son, would mind going over there to that sofa and sit there for a while like a good boy. I have something to talk to Deli in private."
Timothy frowned but complied nonetheless.
"Delilah-" Mrs Xavier started, her injuries making her look more aged than her grey hair and wrinkled face, "-your mother, darling-" she stopped mid-sentence, a sob erupting from her mouth.
Alarmed, Delilah took a hold of her hand, "What happened to her? Where is she?"
"They-" Mrs Xavier stopped before letting a single tear slip from her eye, "they took her away."
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It had been exactly six months since the attack. The whole village was still mourning over the loss of their people. Officials from the Royal court of Brimlyn had arrived the place several times and they were sure that this time again the tribal slaves living near the border had helped the attackers to get into the kingdom.
Delilah, along with her father had tried searching for her mother. King Konrade himself had taken the matter in his hands and tried to negotiate with King Valdez, but the latter won't simply budge.
It had started to seem pointless now. With her father not getting back to business, financial problems had started surfacing. They had to move on and Lorland seemed to be the perfect safe haven.
"Tim, go upstairs. It's past your bedtime." Delilah asked Timothy, who was playing near the kitchen, as she packed their bags because tomorrow they had to leave for Lorland. Her father had left for the prestigious kingdom some one month ago to arrange someplace to live in and now that everything was settled there, time of the departure had come.
She belonged to a lower-middle-class family. Her father was a dry fruit vendor who often went to different kingdoms to sell his commodity to earn money. They had a small piece of land where her mother and she grew dry fruits and some vegetables to sell.
Lorland was an exceptional place for business. The clever monarch, King Adeben never really showed off much from what she had heard from her father, unlike the other two prosperous kingdoms Xeangheghezha and Rhonequire. But its economy was just as good as these two.
But earning came with a price for in Lorland, first of all, it was difficult to get in because of security purposes as well as, to get some out of the humongous economy, the foreign traders had to abide by the rule made by King Adeben to reside in the kingdom for at least five years.
"Deli! See!" she heard Timothy exclaim from near the window.
"You still haven't gone to bed." Delilah sighed. Coming near the window, which gave a perfect view of the street outside.
"Tim, baby, go inside. I will be back," she whispered as she saw the scene unravel in front of her.
Stepping outside the house, she saw soldiers dragging around ten men behind themselves. However, this was not what intrigued her. This was a regular sight, in fact, after the attack. What sparked her curiosity was the mob which followed the handcuffed individuals.
There were many soldiers, who were forcing the mob back, trying to reason with the mindless mob but they argued back, some looking violent even.
"Madam, it's not safe outside. Please go back."
She turned around to see a tensed soldier behind her. Complying with his words, she quickly started walking towards her home, when a sudden loud outburst from the crowd made her stop.
"Hail the mercenaries!"