Sounds of pain-filled moans and groans could be heard in the room; it was from someone twitching on the bed. He seemed to be having a nightmare, murmuring 'Mom, Dad' and some other names. He slowly calmed down as green light spread throughout his body, originating from a fair and delicate hand. The boy was about to wake up.
Ango could feel a stinging pain in his head like his head was being cracked open.
'Damn it. My head feels like it's bursting and I feel sore all over Aghhh'
'… wait I feel … pain ..Why do I feel pain? What happened to me??!'
He slowly opened his eyes only to see a pair of green eyes staring at his eyes and he could feel the breath that was blowing on his skin. He suddenly got up out of surprise and their heads slammed against each other.
"Ouch what are you doing?" the other one said while massaging her head.
He looked at her and asked her a train of questions with a husky and strained voice "Who are you? Where am I? how did I get here? Why am I ali…" she interrupted him "oh quiet down. You just woke up and are already asking so many questions? I just healed your wounds, don't open them.
Seated beside the bed was an elf, one of the guards that was there when he was whipped by Lambert, the one who had healed him, Gloria. Ango pointed at Gloria's familiar face and exclaimed
"You..you are one of the guards. The guards?" saying the words brought about some flashbacks for Ango.
"THE GUARDS!!!" He screamed and broke down crying; reliving the memories.
…..
A few hours ago
Ango had just arrived near the city, noon had yet to arrive. He had run for about Three days, barely sleeping or eating. The guards had seen a figure dressed in torn rags getting close and thought of him as a traveler that had gotten attacked but when he got closer and they found out he was human, they were very curious. A human outside of the settlement and the city without his master.
They thought of him as a runaway and two of them prepared to capture him but he started yelling, seeing them coming with weapons drawn.
"I HAVE TO GET TO THE PALACE, I NEED TO SEE LORD FOLIUM" and he held the royal insignia high while still running towards them.
The guards seeing the insignia were astonished, they were quite far away but could see the insignia clearly due to the elves' great eyesight. It was less than a week ago that a carriage with the royal guest had left the city but now a human slave was here with the royal insignia.
'This doesn't bode well' the guards thought.
"WHAT HAPPENED" they were now close and there was no need to yell but they did it anyway.
Ango stopped to catch his breath but still answered amidst the pants.
"We … were attacked …by dwarves"
The guards wore shocked expressions on their faces; dwarves past the border? Ridiculous but in front of them was a human with the royal insignia she carried.
"I need… to inform … the lord about the events" then with eyes half closed due to exhaustion and a body soaked with sweat he added "please .. take me to the palace"
…
A few minutes later they were riding fast through the street that was filled with people. It was forbidden to do this but the news had to reach the lord. Using the horse it would take Ango and the guard about a quarter of an hour to reach there. Ango was riding behind the guard, something that he knew none of the humans around here had experienced.
While he was enjoying the feeling of the wind hitting his face, Ango heard screams and so did the guard.
'Screams? In the city? And ... I smell smoke' the guard seemed unbothered by the screams which were strange since he was a guard and had to at least investigate these things, maybe the city was under attack.
He was confused at first but a horrible thought dawned upon him. The heart-wrenching chorus of screams had not stopped, and it was the only thing Ango could hear now.
'They are doing it today, they are doing it right now' he remembered that before they left, lady Talia had told lord Folium to do it quickly and it was happening now and what was worse was that the closest human settlement to where they were was the one Ango and his parents lived.
'No no I have to find mom and dad, I might be able to save them after I tell Folium the news'
He knew he couldn't tell the guard to go there, he wouldn't.
'I know these streets and alleys' he thought and he quickly jumped off the horse.
The guard felt him jumping off the horse since he could no longer feel his hands on himself.
"Hey WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" he called out and tried to stop the horse but before he could turn the horse around, Ango had disappeared into an alley.
"Please be safe please be safe please be safe" he was repeating this … almost like a mantra.
…..
Almost ten minutes later
Ango was running, passing the dead bodies on the ground, sometimes jumping over them and sometimes stepping on them. He was in their settlement; it didn't have a gate and there was no guard there so getting inside wasn't difficult.
Bodies littered the ground, some headless, some mangled, some with disgusting overgrown flesh all over their bodies. He didn't wait to see them since most of the bodies were lined up in front of the houses, it was obvious they were killing them house by house; Each body he saw added to Ango's sense of urgency.
Their house was relatively close and he was doing his bed, and even more, to reach there.
And so he did, he arrived fast enough to see John's head get split open.
"JOOOOHN"
There were screams but not from John, he couldn't scream anymore and just gurgling noises escaped his mutilated mouth. He fell to the ground, his body twitching and spewing blood, and Ango was rooted to the spot.
'Dead….he is dead…my dad is dead ….dead' his expression wasn't sad but shocked; he knew John was dead but he couldn't process the thought.
John was in front of him but he couldn't see his son, and if he had, he couldn't do anything either.
A Woman's screams and sobs could be heard. Ango recognized the voice to be Ria, his mother. She had thrown herself next to John, clutching his still living body, trying to help him somehow but there was nothing she could do but weep beside him as he died in anguish.
"Noisy bitch, I'm so sick of your voice just die" the dreadfully familiar voice told Ria. It was lambert who had used his whip just now to kill John.
'no' Ango wanted to voice it out but he couldn't, his throat was closed up. He was trying to move forward but his feet felt like lead and he was barely able to take a step forward.
Lambert raised his hand which was wielding a whip with long bloody thorns.
*CRAAACK
The whip coiled around Ria's throat, the thorns digging deep into her flesh and veins. She went silent, her face red and purple and her eyes were bulging out of their sockets.
'no' he was now taking step after step forward, his mind in a hurry but his body carrying a mountain of weight upon it.
She was trying to use her hands to loosen the whip but to no avail. Her hands were now bleeding and shades of black were creeping to her face.
'NO' Ango was now running and quite close, only three meters away but-
Lambert used his strength to suddenly jerk the whip back, and like a saw ripping wood apart, Ria's head was torn away were her body.
"NOOOOO" Ango screamed out loud
John was still alive but what his eyes could see made him want to rip them out. He died a few seconds later with a clenched fist without noticing his son's scream.
There were a few other guards around, Gloria was also among them, but they had not seen him arrive because of the direction he was coming from but Ango who was running, was so close to Lambert that his whip when he jerked it back, dug deep into his flesh and ripped it apart.
"AGHHHHHHH"
Blood was raining down on Ango from Ria's neck and his chest and stomach were torn open and he was forced to kneel on the ground. He was drenched in blood, unable to distinguish between his own and his mother's. He was tired; he had been running for days without proper rest or sleep and now this. Fatigue and blood loss were turning his eyes heavy and his body felt numbed but his mind snapped.
Lambert and the guards had just noticed Ango and were wandering why he was there. Lambert knew him and said out loud
"Didn't this one go with the royal lady? Why was he here" he asked no one in particular, just out loud.
Ango was breathing heavily, his body was fatigued but rage and sadness were burning inside him; he was going to die and he could do nothing against it.
'Why??! How can it end like this???' memories were flashing inside his mind, memories of his life, his friends, his struggles and his parents.
Tears were streaming down his eyes but fire was raging inside them, he yelled toward the sky "WHAT DID WE DO TO DESERVE THIS?"
"IS THIS OUR FATE? OH YOU FUCKING GODS TELL MEEE"
"WHICH OF YOU CRUEL GODS MADE US HUMANS???"
His strength was dying out and his voice turned softer. The guards were taken by surprise, they could see the royal insignia hanging around his neck so their minds were trying to understand the reason behind it.
"Fragile, without strength, weak. If that's how our life was meant to be"
"Then WHY did you give us the heart to feel these sufferings …." He was sobbing now and it was difficult to understand his words.
"Why?...why?...WHY???..." his voice rose in intensity with each word he spoke.
His eyes turned blurry from his tears and weakness. He could only see a shadowy silhouette …and then he could see no more …
…..
Ango was now sitting on the bed, holding his head while he cried his heart out, his voice was barely audible at this point and he was rocking back and forth.