"I didn't want to have to do this, but the king gave us orders to not left anyone alive." The man kneeled to grab Max's shoulder.
When I heard those words, all blood left my face, my heart was beating fast. I wanted to do something, but I was just a child at the time. What if they reached my house? Was my family ok? I didn't know what to do. But I had to help Max, who was standing in front of the armed man.
He said he was following direct orders from the king. Could it be? Was the Northern Kingdom making a move on the Empire? Why now?
"You southern Gleighmournians." The man spoke again. "After what your people did to our queen, did you expect us to stay put?" His tone was really relaxed for someone trying to murder a couple of children.
What was he talking about, did something happen to the Northern Queen? What did we do to deserve this punishment?
Max just stood there silent, between him and Alice, I could see tears dripping from his face. Alice was equally scared. I tried to approach him, but my body didn't respond.
The three of us who kept playing games by pretending to infiltrate Naldel couldn't do nothing against a single guard.
"So you are not gonna do anything? I expected something else." He let out a small laugh while grabbing a small dagger from his belt. The moment I saw the small blade I knew it was over. I closed my eyes and just waited for the inevitable. I heard a quick slash and it was over.
"MAX!" I finally cried out.
The man turned towards me, I was crying my eyes out. I couldn't forgive him, I couldn't forgive myself. I instinctively covered my mouth, this man had noticed me.
His gaze was focused on me, at least he had left Alice alone, at least she was now able to flee. But she wasn't moving.
Come on Alice, run. Leave. I wanted to tell her that, but neither could do anything. We were just too shocked to move.
Finally, the soldier was in front of me, and I just closed my eyes. My body wasn't responding anyway, I couldn't do anything. My family was probably also dead, I just wanted to join them. Then I felt someone grab my left arm and pulled me away from the man.
It was Alice who grabbed me.
"Where are we going?" I asked. But she didn't hear me, we just kept running. We were heading towards my house.
"Wait, Alice. What about your family?"
"They are dead I saw my house burning down after that soldier approached you." She just said those words.
When we were nearing the road that led to my house, I could see smoke coming from the fields. The sight of the fields that I had worked on since I could remember broke something in me. If the fire had reached my house, there was a good chance my family was dead.
As I was contemplating that possibility I saw three silhouettes coming in our direction. We panicked and hid by the nearby bushes. Fortunately, it was just Kate and the twins. But my parents were nowhere to be seen. I ran towards them and pulled them towards the bushes.
Kate was pretty startled but the twins were happy to see me. I noticed tears coming from Kate's eyes
I didn't have to talk to Kate to know what had happened. My parents died in that fire.