The fall
"Run, mom, run!"
I screamed, voice going raw as I tried to make myself heard over the absolute chaos of fire and death exploding all around us.
I whipped my head back, to see my mom struggling to hold my screaming baby sister as we all ran for our lives.
A short distance away, someone let out a wet scream that abruptly ended with the slice of a blade.
"We have to hide! In there!" My younger brother, Cyan, yelled back at us.
His eyes were wide, and I could see the reflection of the burning village in them as he pointed to a rackety stable that was miraculously standing, even if it looked like it could fall over any second.
At least it wasn't burning.
Panting, I slowed down till my mom ran past me then I followed, whipping my head around to check for any enemy soldiers.
If they found us, there was not much we could do against them.
Finally, we stumbled into the stable, coughing and swallowing mouthfuls of the clean air that had somehow remained untouched by the black clouds of smoke outside.
"Oh, great goddess, what do we do? What do we do?" Mom was sobbing, backing away into a lump of hay, trying to quiet my baby sister.
Tears ran down her soot-blackened face. Her nightdress was as torn and disheveled as mine, singed at the edges, with ashes dotting her red hair that looked so much like mine.
We were all thinking the same thing.
Death was waiting outside.
Cyan pushed his spindly body against the stable door and got it shut as tightly as its rusted hinges could allow, trying hard to keep his voice from shaking.
"We'll survive this. I'll make sure of it, mom."
I looked at him sadly. He was just an eleven-year old boy trying to become the protector of our family ever since our father died.
I was his big sister, I was the protector of this family, but he wouldn't let me do it alone. It tore at my soul to watch him lose his childhood so prematurely, but right now, we had to stay alive.
All of us.
"Get away from the door, Cyan. Let's stay back here. Hopefully, the soldiers will go right past." I motioned to him, and he gave a light nod, lowering himself into the hay, but kept his eyes on the door.
I swallowed the sand, ash and grit in my mouth and crouched close to mom, heart pounding as we listened to the sounds of women screaming, blades slicing and explosions tearing through the night air.
Tonight was just like any other night when the villagers all retired for bed.
Only for the sounds of explosions and death to ravage the peace in the dead of the night. No one knew what was going on for sure, but as we ran out of our burning cabin, I heard people screaming that we were being attacked by rogues.
Rogues.
A shudder tore through me.
Not just one rogue werewolf, but a whole battalion of them. There was nothing a village of humans could do against troops of bloodthirsty beasts, so we ran. Those who couldn't run, died, or burned. The elderly… The young…
My baby sister let out a wail again, and my mother covered her mouth, quietly trying to calm her down.
"How are these rogues working together?" Cyan asked, staring at me. "Is it even possible to have these many rogues?"
"It is." Mom whispered shakily. "Only one monster can behind this madness."
I frowned. "Don't tell me you think this is… I thought he wasn't real, and that was just some tale the villagers spun around?"
"He is real, Scarlett." Mother gave me a grim look. "The Malefic. A demon cursed on this earth. Word has been spreading through the packs, about him assembling thousands of the vilest, darkest rogues from every corner of the world to form his army. We are mere humans, but we are under the protection of the werewolves.
"If our village is under attack… then that means there is a great war in all the werewolf packs, and the chaos there is probably worse than what we are facing now."
A cold silence settled in my bones as the magnitude of our situation dawned on me. This wasn't just an attack.
It was a massacre—
My thoughts were cut off when Cyan suddenly screeched my name,
"Scarlett!"
The door suddenly burst open, scattering into splinters of wood and it crashed straight towards me.
I jolted away, narrowly escaping being impaled in the head by a piece of wood. Dust rose up all around me, and a stinging pain shot up my scratched elbows.
"I'm sick of these despicable humans hiding like pathetic little rats!" A guttural growl bombed from the door. "You will pay for wasting my fucking time!!"
I felt my mother pulling me from the floor, as we all coughed out the burning smoke that was rapidly filling the stable.
I whipped my head up to the gaping hole where the door once stood, and I could see the faint outline of the huge male body in the smoke.
Terror seized me so hard, because I knew he was here to kill us all.
"Please!" My mother screamed. "Spare us! There's an infant in here! We'll stay out of your way, please!"
The rogue stepped out of the smoke, wearing black leathers over his monstrous body, with a manic grin on his face, with a network of scars all over his face.
It was surprising how his eyes could still function. There was a gigantic meat cleaver in his fist, dripping with human blood. He was not even in his wolf form, because it was unnecessary.
Humans were weak.
"An infant?" He flicked a tongue across his sharp teeth. "Sounds like breakfast."
Horror made me step in front of Mom and my sister, shielding them away, even if this monster could cut me into pieces in a split second.
He let out a horrendous laugh at my defensive stance.
"Oh? Finally, a human that doesn't cower. Maybe I'll have some fun with you—"
He had not even finished the words when Cyan let out an enraged yell and slammed into him, pushing him through the wooden wall and into the billowing smoke.
I never knew my little brother could have that much strength.
"Cyan!" I heard my mother shriek.
"Run, Scarlett! Take mom and run! Hurry!!" I heard his voice yell from the smoke, strained and young. So young.
So brave.
Tears streamed down my cheeks as I snapped into motion and dragged my mom out of the stable, which was already catching fire. She was still screaming his name.
Back outside, things were worse. We were surrounded by fire on all corners, and the screams were never ending. But I pushed Mom towards a relatively clear path,
"Go! Get Lilac somewhere safe! I'm going back to Cyan!" My voice broke, and without waiting to see her reaction, I turned back the way we came.
"Scarlett!" She screamed after me.
I must have stepped on burning ash, because the pain in my bare feet only got worse as I charged deeper into the black smoke.
I was praying to the great goddess, to any other beings of the heavens, to keep Cyan safe.
My little brother had to be.
"Cyan!" I yelled, circling the stable we had just run out of. It was alight with fire, but I could not find him anywhere. "Cyan! Cyan!! Cyan—"
I came to an abrupt halt when I stepped on fresh blood.
Despite the fire around me, a different kind of cold chilled my skin. This was exactly where my brother and the rogue had fallen.
I shakily crouched down to touch the large pool of blood. It was human blood, and there was too much of it… too much… too much…
Mixed with the blood, my fingers touched a small bead necklace.
The exact necklace I had made for my brother, and he had always worn it ever since.
"No…" I whispered, red hot tears blinding me. "No… No… No!!! Cyan!!!"
Wails tore out of my throat as I desperately looked around, ignoring the blood and hoping I would see him standing there, telling me he was alright. But I found nothing.
That rogue killed him and took his body?! Or his body could be among the different burning objects all around me?
"No!!!" I screamed with all my might, trembling violently.
"Scarlett!" I felt my mother collapse beside me, and I didn't even have the strength to realize she had followed me back.
She saw the bloodied necklace in my hand, and her sobs soon followed mine.
Even in my grief, I heard a thunderous crack beside me, and I looked to see that the burning stable was crashing down towards us.
I froze, staring death in the face.
But then, a figure suddenly burst out of the smoke in front of us and knocked me into the air.
I gasped in shock, feeling a strong male arm around me, but it lasted for seconds before I crashed into the dust a few meters away, watching the stable thunderously crash down on the spot we were seconds ago.
"Be careless, and get yourself killed." A male voice said from above me, and I looked up in shock.
I had never heard such a cool, dark timbre, that sounded like secrets and darkness. And the owner of that magnificent voice, looked even more dangerous than the rogues.
There was a black hood over his face and body, but tendrils of straight black hair blew in the smoky wind, and dark bands of tattoo peeked from the black gloves covering his hands.
Danger.
This person felt like danger, and his presence alone made the burning village feel like child's play.
But he had saved us.
"Take your mother and sister to the cave behind the waterfall deep in the woods. There are other humans there." He said coldly, and strode away from us, into the black smoke again.