A head's conviction (EN)

The day the world stopped turning (3/4)

It was as if someone pressed pause on the world, for everything but the room in which they were. From the moment the men had come into the room until now the time had seemed to pass differently than normal. It was as if the minutes crawled by, as if everything was slowed like a bad movie.

Britt had the feeling as if she couldn't breath, like someone had bluntly hit her in the chest to take her breath away. Her feet were nailed to the ground even though she didn't want that. It was as if she was frozen and wouldn't be able to move until someone defrosted her. At that moment she wished she could run away from the situation and bring her brother and sister in safety. Or fight against these monsters that had put the life of the three upside down. But she could only watch. Watch how these men had come into their house and killed their mother. How they dropped their mom on the ground and left her laying in her own blood as if she had no worth at all. How these men taunted Zephyr, Ivy and her and how she couldn't protect her brother and sister even though she was the oldest now. She felt so helpless and alone with no one that could save them from this situation but her. Everything rested on her shoulders and it was the heaviest thing she had to carry in her life.

All of the sudden she felt how something warm rolled down her cheeks. Were this her cheeks? It couldn't be, she couldn't cry, not in front of these men, these monsters. She had to be stronger than this, she had to save her brother and sister. And when everything was over, everyone was safe and these men were gone. Only then she could feel all the emotions that she would allow herself to feel, then she could collapse. Then she would cry, yell and would the world around her break down. Then she would feel the loss of her mother and was the fear for the future allowed to choke her up. But not now, not here, not while Zephyr and Ivy were still in danger.

Britt looked up from her mothers body at the men. While she had been lost in her thoughts they had come closer. They were now threatening close and made the tension that Britt felt only bigger.

'Come on sweetheart, we only want to play.' the man with the black hair said with a wide grin on his face that made shivers run down her spine.

Instead of doing what they asked of her she pushed Zephyr behind her so she would be in between the men and the little ones. She would serve as a wall that they had to break through to get to the two youngest. 'Zephyr you have to protect Ivy.' she muttered under her breath. Her brother and sister had to survive whatever it took, they were the youngest and had so much more to live for than what she had.

'I won't leave you behind!' Zephyr screamed out as an answer to the order Britt had given him. His little voice breaking from frustration that had been building up in his throat. He perhaps was smaller than these men, but he would give what he could to make them pay for their deeds.

'You can come back when Ivy is safe.'

Ivy took Zephyr's hand and their small fingers intertwined for a better grip. On her face it was clearly visible that she was afraid and didn't know what to do. Her big grey-blue eyes were filled with tears that made their way down her cheeks. Her little face seemed paler than that it normally was, what seemed almost impossible with her skin color. It seemed like she had gotten lost inside her own head with everything she had just witnessed. She needed Zephyr now more than ever, he had to lead her to safety and tell her that everything would be alright.

When Britt turned back to the men, the one with the crowbeak for a nose was right in front of her. He grabbed her by her orange curls and pulled her up so her feet didn't touch the ground anymore. A loud scream in pain left her lips and she moved her hands up in an attempt to set herself free from it. But soon the fear won from the power she had felt just before that moment. The fear for what the men would do to her. But what would they do? Would they kill her just like her mother and drop her in her own blood, letting her lay there until someone would find it? Or was this just a game to them and would she stay alive? She tried to fight the man but the pain was too much and caused her body to feel weak. There she was hanging, like a puppet made for the game of these monsters. What would be her role in this play?